The Dale Jr. Download - 434 - Tony Furr - Slightly, Politely, All Nightly

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

Fans of Earnhardt family folklore are in for a treat today as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis sit down with longtime NASCAR garage fixture Tony Furr. While Furr worked as crew chief in the NASCAR ranks for several years and has a couple of wins to his credit, his roots rest in the Carolina red clay’s competitive short track ranks. They chat at length about Tony’s father Henry, who had a long legacy as an influential race promoter at both Concord Speedways and Metrolina. As Tony grew up helping out in his father’s endeavors, he eventually took over his fleet of Ford and Dodge late models and went on to field entries for some of the best racers in the Carolinas, including none other than Dale Earnhardt Sr.Tony provides listeners with a unique look at the humble beginnings of Dale Sr.’s legendary race career and the struggles they faced as a team. After finding his way into the NASCAR Cup garage through stints at Hendrick Motorsports and Cale Yarborough Motorsports, Tony became known for his “innovation” on cars, and faced a few hefty penalties throughout the years. The interview digs deep into some of the “developments” that landed Tony in hot water, and a few that may have slipped under the radar. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's a production of Dirty Mo Media. There he is. Come on in here, buddy. Have a seat. Hey, everybody. Glad you tuned in. It's time for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. Mike Davis, Delenhardt Jr.

The Bojangl Studio. We've got a great guest today. Tony Fur has no idea what he's about to walk into. This is every week, okay? Welcome to. live. Slightly, politely, all nightly. I think one time removed

means you married your cousin. Well, okay. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. And I'm back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download in the Bojangles studio with my co-host, Mike Davis. Hey, Mike, don't look, all right. I can't help it.

How many number eight die casts are on this table? Don't look. I'm going to guess two. Five. How many number three die casts are on this table? Two. Three.

Thank you for that little game by, I presented to you by Lionel, and I am the winner. He just wanted to win. I am the winner. I can understand it. You are the winner. I'm the winner. You lost, you were incorrect, so it leaves me as the winner of the game. I was distracted.

Yep. You're eating this candy cigarette stuff that fans have sent in this week. You're two-pack habit. You're two facts a day. I can't help it. Thank you, Lionel. We had a great show yesterday, Ash Jr. and Dirty Air, and we mentioned on that show that we got Tony Fur coming in today.

Tony Fur is an ally. Listen, I have never, this is going to blow your mind, man. I have never sat down and had a conversation with Tony Fur. But Tony Fur, people are like, who the hell is Tony Fur? All right, so Henry Fur, Henry Fur used to, on Concord dirt track and Metro Lina Motor Speedway. He owned the asphalt dirt track Concord out on 601 that I got my start at. And he was a prolific short track promoter in this area where we live today.

Tony is his son. Tony would own dirt cars that my dad would drive in 77, 78. Tony would become a mechanic and then eventually a crew chief in the cup and Xfinian truck level won a couple cup races. What he's probably best known for is getting suspended by NASCAR, fined by NASCAR on multiple occasions as crew chief for Hendricks Motorsports. And so, you know, knowing this sort of connection that I have to him really surprises me that we've never set down. and had a talk. Did you know that he's also my sixth cousin one time removed? I did not know that.

Yeah. That's amazing. So I was doing my genealogy and I had been working on that for a couple, you know, almost two decades now. And so Henry Furr came up in my family tree as a fifth cousin two times removed. Tony, his son is my sixth cousin. And I don't know that he knows that. I was going to ask. Yeah.

Wow, this is going to be something. Yeah. And so. Family reunion today. Right. He is also, so Tony is also Robert G's brother-in-law. All right? No, wait a second.

I would, if he's related to you, it has to be somehow, I would assume, through the maternal side. Right. And the maternal side would be the G's. Yeah. So, oh, he's Robert G's brother-in-law. Right. Uh-oh.

Yeah. What does that mean? I don't know. That's hard. It just hit me. Yeah. What do you think about that? I think we got a new question to ask him.

We got to dig into this a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is it possible that he's a sixth cousin one-time's removed? When somebody's one-time's removed in your family tree, what does that even mean? I don't know. I was hoping you. That is something to do with marriage.

I'm looking at up. Or a marriage or, yeah, figure that out. What does it mean when I don't have the app on my phone? I got it on my iPad. I think one time removed means you married your cousin. Is that what that means out? No, it says once removed is like a generation above or below you. For example, your dad's first cousin, as we mentioned above, is your first cousin, but she is once removed.

Well, okay. So, well, then just, I guess that's just something that's probably not even added to the, you know, hey, he's my 15th cousin six times removed. You just say 15th cousin. Yeah, yeah. So Henry Furr is a fifth cousin and Tony's a sixth. And he married my uncle's wife. Yeah. I don't know.

Listen, I mean, hate on that. I mean, you know, sometimes if they're hot enough, a family picnic sometimes gives you more than just potato salad. Come out with a wife. This is awful. Oh, wow. All right. Tony Fur has no idea what he's about to walk into, right?

So let me get this straight. All right. Am I going to tell him that he's my sixth cousin? Yes. If you don't, I will. Let's do it. Is he Robert G's brother-in-law because maybe Robert G. married his sister?

Could be. I mean, I think that's a fair question. Whistle? Let's see what he knows. I wonder if it's Robert G., Robert G. Jr. I don't know. It couldn't be Robert G. Could be.

Man. No, he's too old to be his brother-in-law. My grandfather, Robert G., probably isn't his brother-in-law. We'll ask him. Yeah. All right. Thanks, Ally. Thanks, Ally.

So, anyways, I forget all what I've revealed about Tony Furr, but... He cheated, remember? So this is one of those ones. This is one of those rare occasions where they go, could you just focus on the cheating, please? Yeah. So anyways, I'm excited to sit down and talk to him. Plus, we've got to figure this all out. How the trees connected in some strange way.

But let's get started, man. Let's get Tony Fur in the room. Yes, so, pal. Hey, how you doing? All right. Welcome. All right, thank you. Get that mic close to you and throw them headphones on.

It's Tony Fur, man. How are you? Oh, not too bad. What's you been doing? Little as possible. Yeah. Liding motorcycles and stuff like that there. You know, that's about all I want to do nowadays.

Is that right? You're done working on race cars? Pretty much. Dan Part of stopped by my shop yesterday and asked me about going to Sears Point and all with his son. So I may do that. I'm just not positive yet. Yeah. You've been helping them out the Partis family a little bit who's trying to race in Xfinity Series.

You know? Yes. And so, so yeah, you still got the bug. they itch you a little bit well you know it's one of them things it's like a drug uh racing is and yeah uh never leaves you i don't yeah no it don't i don't know so i've always kind of been in all of that like guys like rud when they retire disappear and don't do nothing you know don't drive nothing yeah i don't know how they quit a light you know something that's been in their life and been part of their life yeah and but some of them guys can just leave it well i had

withdrawals to start with. I will say that, you know. I bet. Yeah, I mean, because like I said, it's all I ever done all my life and don't know nothing else. I couldn't do a whole other job ahead today. So your dad was one of the most influential, prolific promoters and short track owners in this area. And I believe influenced a lot of people, a lot of tracks and a lot of things in the short track community beyond this, you know, the Mecklenburg County area and all that. But he promoted an own Concord dirt track.

He saved, you know, some say, well, he saved Metrolina in 77 from closing down a little prematurely. And he built the Concord Speedway that was out on 601 that I ended up getting my start at. And my – he was a strict, tough – He had a plan and it was his plan. He ran the show how he wanted to run it. But he had a hell of a reputation. You grew up in that household. What kind of father was Henry?

He was like you just said, by the book, you know what I'm saying? And everything had to be right. You know, I mean, when I worked with him and I first started growing up, working on the bulldozer. He had a grading company. Yeah, grading company, right. built a lot of houses developments and stuff around the Cabarras County and all, and probably 80% of them at the time.

But anyhow, when you took lunch, you took two or three bites out of your hamburger and maybe one or two swigs out of your Coke, and he expected you to be back on the bulldozer. Yeah. You know, it's one of those deals. Still hungry, though. Still thirsty. What happens?

Got to take it with you? You didn't eat enough. He quick a bit. Yeah. Yeah. So you ended up working with him in the grading company for a while. And when did he get into racing? What was his deal?

Well, he got into racing in the early 60s. Actually, I don't know if you remember Twin City Speedway up here in Canapolis. He built that. Oh. And the guy couldn't really pay him. And so he'd done some yard work for another guy down in Mount Pleasant. And this guy's name was Dave Alman. And he was working on race cars and had just built one.

And I think, I'm not exactly positive, but I think that guy could not pay him for the race car. So, and Dave wanted the yard work done, so my dad done it for the race car. Yeah. It was like a 52 Chevrolet or something like it there, six-cylinder, and Baby Blue, number 17. And they took it to Twin City because that guy couldn't pay him, so he let him come up there and race free and the family in free and stuff like right there. And my dad never raced anything like that there, but he got up there and he got to racing and Haywood plowling. Boobie Harrington,

man, Harold Dunaway, that's all there, you know what I'm saying? I mean, it's a big show. Yeah. At that time, you know,

those people were just, you know, average people, but their names, you know, now is synonymous. Exactly. With dirt track racing around.

Exactly. Where was Twin City? Twin City was in Canapolis. Where? In Canapolis? I'd be honest, would you? It was a little bit,

I don't really know. It's somewhere in Canapolis. You need to research that there, but it was a dirt track. It was a, it might have been a quarter to three-eighth mile track. It was a small track.

In High Bank, red, I mean, some of the most beautiful red dirt you ever seen. I got to find that.

That's interesting. Yeah. It called it Goatown. A lot of people called it Goatown. But it was Twin Cities

named it Speedway. Why did they call it Goatown? Now, you have to ask some of the old times. We got a bunch of questions here.

I know what the point of it. Yeah, I don't know. Like I said, I was in the mid-60s so I was probably like, you know, eight or nine years old at times.

So he raced a little bit, but then he decided to be a car owner or let someone else drive to car? Yeah, well, he had a wreck and we're sitting there in the grandstand, you know, my mother and my brother and all, we're all sitting there in a grandstand and he wrecks, I think it was Haywood Pliler,

put him up the bank, and he's turned over and there's gas going everywhere. There's no fuel sales back then, you know what I'm saying? There's gas running everywhere. You could smell the gas, you can see it, and running across the track, and he's trying to get out of the car. You know what I'm saying? And he ends up crawling out, the pastor side standing up. And right there

in front of, you know, of us and we're all probably screaming and hollering, I'm sure, and he seemed that and it scared him, and that was his last race, and then he hired drivers. Okay. And stuff, and just started racing, you know, after that.

How did he get into owning racetracks? I think it was 71 or 72. I can't remember exactly. He had a Ford Mustang, and he was a Ford van, and everybody runs Chevrovales around here, and they said if you could bring a Ford out, here and win at run these guys that we'll pay you a bonus money and everything so they actually

give them a little bit of money to come out there start with but uh he went out there and they run good and i think they won a race or two and they get never did paying the bonus plans he got all sort of ticked off about it and allow us buy the damn thing yeah so and this is con this is original concord this is the old concord where the most of acres here is right now yeah and uh out on 73 yes yeah and so that's where ralph earnhardt raised dad got his start Yep. And eventually, you know, so he owned that racetrack and ran it for a while and it then sold it, sold the property. Well, he didn't actually, he leased it.

He leased it. He leased it. Someone else owned the property. Yes, he did do that. And that guy went way up on his lease because my dad started making it really go good. And so Metro Liner become available, but it was asphalt. Yep. And Dad didn't like asphalt.

Right. So the guy that had the original Concord Speedway, he he had an offer on the land that he couldn't refuse or what? No, it sat there for a year or two no one guy.

No one messing with it. And Vic Irvin come in there and got it and rented it for maybe a year? He promoted it for a year? I think he did promote it for a year. Oh, yeah, sure did. But eventually that track closed

that was it. And damn, that's interesting. I was wondering the history of the original Concord Speedway and how that all switched up because the new Concord, it's now gone too, but the one out on 601

didn't get built till 80. 1980. Actually, we started December 11th at 8 o'clock in the morning on the New Concord Speedway. He bought that thing at 7 o'clock in the morning at 8 o'clock we're moving equipment on the grounds.

Yeah. And didn't stop until March the 18th to have the first race. Yeah. And it was an oval. eventually build a trial over in the back stretch. But Metrolina. So, you know, he ran Concord for a while, but then Metroline becomes available.

He moves away from Concord. Right. And he walks away from the original Concord Speedway and goes over to Metrolina and digs up the asphalt. Right. You know, I know that you took race cars out there that you owned. So what do you remember about him redeveloping? Metroline. Well, let's back up here at Concord first, because I run it first.

You ran there? I ran there. Did you drive? No, I did not drive. But I had different drivers. I had Larry Wallace, Dick Elliott, and those two drove for me at that track. Good drivers. Good drivers.

One races. I mean, actually, the first four races I run, I won. I thought, man, this is really easy. You know what I'm saying? What did you know about race cars? Well, Gary Hargett. I know you know him. Yes, sir.

He just went to his shop yesterday. Yep, that's what your sister's told me. And Tom Pistone, they, Tom come over to my dad's house, and he had this Ford he'd built. It was brand new. And he knew Dad was a Ford guy, and he knew that Dad would probably bite and get this car to put on the show out there.

And so Dad did, and I'm sitting over a mowing grass. And he says, that boy over there knows what to do on a race car. He said, you just need to take him and show him some ins and outs. That was like 15 years old, I think, 14 years. 15 around there. Anyhow, that's what happened. I went over there and worked for a year. You went to Tompestones and worked. What was that like? It was awesome. It was a zoo, but it was awesome. Yeah. What do you mean? There's more to it. I can tell. Well, I mean, you know, it was always something going on. It was never a dull moment. I don't know if y'all, you know, tagger. I'm sure y'all do. But any of him. Yeah. He's a character. Yeah, he's a character. A very smart person. I know, very smart racing stuff. And he and Gary, you know, we're racing.

with your dad and Harry Gann and a couple other ones. But anyhow, they took me under their wing and every Friday night we raced or Saturday we raced. The car come home, just like a cup car,

took that car down to the bone. No shit. Every dirt track race. Wow. Took her to the bone. That was unheard of. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

But he said, that's the way you got to learn and teach you. Yeah. And so, that's the way it was. I mean, it went on from there and he, you know,

showed me how to, was running leaf springs back then. We made a thing on the back of our truck where we could beat the arch and the leaf springs between the races

and stuff. We needed more bite or whatever. Yeah. Because it wasn't like it was today, you know, I mean, you didn't have all them jack bolts and stuff like it right there.

You know, you had to do it by hand. Yeah. And so you worked there for a year and that really gave you an education on cars. Right. And then after you left,

why did you leave Tigers? Well, dad said, are you ready to do it on your own? So we had a shop there at our house And so we bought it over at our shop And I did it on my own Yeah

And now you're doing it yourself Taking your car to the racetrack Yes What did people think about you racing Your car at your dad's racetrack That was a conflict I bet Oh it was a big conflict

I mean like say I They wanted to tear you down every week Dad ended up protesting But like I said we want to say Your dad protested Oh yeah Oh yeah Wait a minute

So your dad protested you yeah to show them yes to show the other competitors look at this come look yeah and so they could come look at all your stuff while they're turning it down and see that you're right right how many times did you have to do that

do you think you got everybody on I think it was about three times he did that there the first two times a week in a row you know each back to back and then he did it you know during the season there just to keep just to let the competitors know yeah and that worked well yeah you know it's satisfied them that night

Right. You know what I'm saying? But not the next week. You know what I'm saying? What to do with the relationship with you and your dad? It was pretty hard. It gets tense? It gets tense.

Yep. I mean, the breakfast table was pretty silent a lot of times. You're still a teenager, aren't you? Oh, yeah. At that point. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, specifically, are you like 16, 17?

What are you at this point? Yeah, I was around 16, 17. And so your dad is protesting you. Yep. And I've worked by guts out. You're living with your dad. Oh, yeah. You're in the house.

Oh, yeah. I've never even heard of this dynamic, actually. I mean, this is interesting. It was tough. It was very tough. But he wanted to prove to the people, you know, that he wasn't going to show in the paper. Which he didn't.

I mean, actually, he took several races away from me. What? Oh, yeah. I won several of those big races down there and got taken away. Why? Actually, me and Rodney Collins lapped the field down there when it was asphalt. At the Metrolina? No.

Concord? Okay. We left the field down there. and he paid me for a second. Why? Because he said that we stunk to show up, and he thought that guy that I won. Damn.

So that's all I had to, you know, he made. You can't argue. What are you going to do? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Damn. That's harsh, man. Oh, he was very difficult on me.

So. That was okay, though. So, wait, wait, wait. So you have, you do have a reputation of being real creative, right? Innovator. Innovator going outside the box, reading between the lines and the rule book. but taking advantage of those opportunities, right? And so is that something that was,

is that something that was part of you way back then? Well, I mean. I mean, because when I started racing, I built the car by the, I built the car, I looked at the rules to build the car. Right. I didn't start thinking about bending any of them rules until I got older, right?

Well, if you... So it's 16 years older, are you creative? Right. If you go back to where I started that. Exactly. And around the people I was around. They was creative. Yeah. Tiger Tom was creative.

Very. An innovator. What are some of the things, what are the some of the things that, you know, that Tiger did on, did the cars that you were, you know, you were like, damn, that's smart. Well, I mean, you know, nitrous was big at the time. Yeah. Everybody ran nitrous. I didn't even know that.

So I'd heard about, you know, somebody wrecked at Darlington and the, you know, the frame broke and they saw the nitrous bottle and the, in the, you know, the. You know, there was those stories, like one here, one there. But then as you dig more deep into it, and Darrell was on here, and he's like, damn, everybody had a bottle in their car. Everybody, even the guys in the back, you know, that weren't going to, they knew they were just going to go out there and run the laps in the race. Right.

But they had to have the bottle to get in the race. Right. We found that your dad even did. Dad even had a bottle. If you didn't have a bottle, you didn't race. Right. It's a simple. I mean, I still got three or four of the small ones that, you know, still.

left. No shto. No, mementos. Yeah. I used to, I used to fill bottles for people, so I knew who was running. You know what I'm saying? No kidding. So.

Because there were several different grades of nitrous that was good and bad. Oh, really? Yeah, we. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's a medical and there's an industrial. Yeah. I know. So there was the nitrous and how to, how to hide that.

And, I mean, what's the best way to, what's a smart way to put that in your car back then in the 60s and 70s to, to be able to hide it. Well, it just depends. I mean, you know, we, a lot of time we just, you know, fogged it. That was probably the quickest. What does that mean? I mean, you sprayed it towards the air cleaner.

From the firewall or in the air, you know, up in the air cleaner all. You just fogged it. If you fogged it, you didn't really have to worry about the jets and stuff like it right there as much. But if you run it into the jets underneath the carburetor, you had to go up on the jets too. So that meant it was going to probably run rich the whole race because you didn't use the nitrous the whole race. So I just usually bogged it. That was 100, 150 horsepower. Yeah.

And so where's the bottle? Well, that just depends. You know, where you want to put it at. You know, sometimes you put it in a driver's suit. You put it under the dash. How big is it? What does it look? I've never seen it.

I had some that was the same size of roll bar. Yeah. Inch and a three-quarter roll bar. Look just like a roll bar. And they'd have it in their suit and just tie into a line somewhere. Yeah. You could make it and fold it however you want it to. I mean, you know what I'm saying?

It's depending on how big you want it. Normally you didn't want to run that stuff But one or two laps And that's why I said That's really wanted to fog get It was much better How much is in a How much do you need?

You say you don't run it the whole race obviously So Is it? Like an ounce? No, you run it by the pounds About a pound? Yeah, most of the time I run a one to two pound bottle

Yeah And I had some five pound bottles You know if it's going to run A big race, you know what I said I need it dirty into you know what I'm saying? And bring out the old five-pounder And you take that, you know Like the size of that bottle right there

Yeah was a pretty popular size. I'm fascinated by that. I am too. DW and them guys. I forget who qualified on the front road. Daytona 500. I think it was Floyd and Daryl,

and they threw them both out because they both had it. They probably had it in a radiator. A lot of people running the radiator back then. What do you mean? They put it, you know, the tanks of the radiator. They put the bottle in the tank. Yes.

And then there would be a line out of the radiator. It looked like a typical overflow line or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bleed off or something like it right there. Right.

Yeah. That's pretty smart. Oh, you know. headed on your road cage. You had them bars that run across the thing. Yeah. One of them bars would be a bottle. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Spray back towards the air cleaner. Yeah. I don't know how you would ever find that. Oh, the bar across. So there was a bar that tied in to the snout, right, that run across the top of the front of the motor. Yeah.

That's perfect. Oh, yeah. You would never find that. Well, not, you didn't know what you're looking at unless you knew what she's looking at. Right. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. That's amazing.

Ever's got it. Have a clean, you know. And I imagine not all the, You know, there was always like one or two guys in the garage that officiated that knew that much about cars. But most of them were just like, hey, man, here's your template. This is your job today. Do this template. You know, most of them didn't know the true nuts and bolts.

Right. You could get through there. All right. So you're messing with race cars. You're winning races. Your daddy ends up getting Metrolina. Right. Right.

Ned Jarrett had Metrolina in the mid-70s put payment on it, tried his hardest. He'd had success at Hickory as a promoter, comes over to Metrolina thinking that he can recreate what he wants to. And I mean, tried his guts out. I've read the books. I've studied that. But for whatever reason, it didn't hook up. And he ended up having to walk away from that.

So you guys, your dad realizes that Metraline is available. I mean, what's he thinking? Take the equipment over here and rip the asphalt off. Yeah. And I'll do it. So that's what happened. That's what happened. And so was it successful out of the gate?

Was it a struggle? It was. No, it was successful out of the gate. I mean, like I say, you know, he promoted it really. Dave was a good promoter. He was. I will say that. And he knew about advertisement and stuff.

And so he got some TV stations and things like that involved in Channel 9 and Channel 3 at the time, you know. and which we had a couple of race cars and they, you know, got on the race cars. I mean, that's right. Yeah. Your dad drove them. Yeah. Dad drove a car. That was your car, wasn't it?

Yeah, it was. WBTV. Yeah. So, damn, that's smart. I didn't even, you know, I've looked at pictures of these cars with those damn news channels sitting on the door of them. And I never would have thought that y'all, your dad was actively creating those relationships in turn that that would automatically ensure.

you know local promotion right well it was on TV right damn smart it's very smart and Charlotte was you know a growing town at the time and it had a lot of nightlife stuff and also it was that's why the asphalt didn't go because it wasn't as exciting as dirt I mean you're racing side by side on dirt you know what I'm saying and that asphalt was sort of followed a leader type of deal but anyhow by him getting it on TV and getting it you know those TV stations getting behind him like that right there and uh and they put on a good show I And it started doing really good. Yeah.

So you take your cars over there and who's driving for you? Your dad drove quite a bit over for me. I mean, we run for about two and a half years together over there. So tell me about that. How did you hook up with dad? How did y'all know each other? Well, we knew each other from the old Concord Speedway. You know what I'm saying?

And because you know, I reached against you. Your grandpa and your dad out there. Your dad was running, I think, for the Russell brothers at their time. Yep, Tommy Russell. Yep. But anyhow, when you come over there, he was driving for Tim Gordon at the time, and him and Tim must have fell out or something happened. Anyhow, Darrell Cruz, you remember Darrell Cruz? Big Darrell Cruz. And Darrell and I was working together. He was helping me on the car. And so he introduced me to your dad as far as trying to get something going, because your dad was like me. He was broke,

and all we knew was racing. And so I had a race car, and he could drive, and he didn't have a ride. So we got hooked up and run good. We had to run first or second, or we didn't eat the next week. Yeah. As simple as that. And so then your dad was smart enough, and the things I had and things I could do, we could work on our own car that had to have anybody else to do anything. We built the motors, we'd done the cars, everything.

Where's this car at? Still at your place? It's still at my place. We come to your dad's because your grandpa had a meal and a lay up there in a little shop. So you went up there some? And then I'd see you and Kelly outside, you know, y'all were kids and run around in diapers at the time. Really? Oh, yeah.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So what's some of your memories about going to the racetrack with Dad? Oh, every one of them was exciting. And your dad, he was like me. He was a racer. And racing was first.

And everything else was second. And so we went there with a race face on. Take no prisoners. You know what I'm saying? first or second, like I said. We was going to have one to two, but we couldn't go to the next week. Yeah.

There's a couple times where you had to run out of there. He did. A matter of fact, it was really the first big race that Dad had run at Metrolina, I think it was 10,000 to win and 6,000 for second, 200-lap race. And it was toward the end of the year there.

And that was going to get us through the winner. That money right there. That's right there. That's what Dale said. You guys are racing, race to race, right? Oh, yeah. That's worth. Yeah, we live day to day on what we had.

That was that it. But anyhow, he couldn't buy your co-caller, neither could I. You know what I'm saying? If you asked it for one. So we got a Dodge. We're running a Dodge then. Bush Dodge, called Bush. Bush.

Bush Beer was on the sponsor. And number one. And we qualified, I think we qualified third. And Haywood, I think, was on the pole. Haywood's driving Robert G's car. He's driving Robert G's car. He was very tough. Yeah.

a big of a race car. Oh, he was the one to beat, I know, between him and you dead. But anyhow, this Dickie Anderson guy, he comes up, and he's a hot shoe from wherever Florida or wherever it's from. Anyhow, he's, uh, something happens to him, he ends up in the rear. But anyhow, your dad, uh, we lead like 140-some laps of that race, and all. It's a 200-lap race and like lap 85, 80, 80, 85 to go, I mean, 15 to go, left 185, right along in there.

We got a hole knocked in the radiator. Damn. And I said, oh, shit. I see it steaming coming out and stuff like right there. And I see your dad slowing up and Haywood's catching him. This Dickie Anderson

done worked his way up. I mean, he's coming quick. Oh, my God. What's going to happen here? We can go have no money. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I know your dad's thinking the same thing.

We don't have the radio back then, but I know what he's thinking because he and I were alike there. And here comes Haywood by him. He passes him. He runs at him. nudges him, but he don't get Haywood out of shape like he needs to be. Here comes to Dickie Anderson car by him.

He gets him right. He plants him and there's three guardrails there and he's the third middle guardrail. Damn. When it's all done. Send him in the fence. All you seen was the back bumper. He was that deep. Damn.

Oh yeah. He was deep. But he didn't have no choice. He had to do that to get the money. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. wasn't calling for no rain and I mean the fence is coming over

the people I mean the red flag to raise because he's stuck in the gate you know yeah and so here comes all the people I mean it's fixing to be a hell of a right

you know what I'm saying I mean they're gonna kill us the simple as that who his team the fans are mad yeah the fans we were the bad guys

yeah one because that was my dad and Dale was rough yeah you know he didn't he was a take no prisoner type of guy you know at the time

They didn't really like us, none of us. But anyhow, here everybody comes, and all of a sudden, like I tell you, I'm telling you, there was not a cloud in the sky. There wasn't no rain in the forecast, and the bottom falls out. Yeah. Your dad gets out the car and comes running over to us. He's driving my 73 to Reno that I give him. He's got no license. He's got no license?

Oh, no, your dad didn't have no license. Well, on time. What happened? We'll take it out. It ain't live. Yeah. I would say that he has a couple of DUI and stuff like it right there. No shit.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Damn. Yeah, he didn't have no license. He had had a little license. He held about 31 years old probably. No, shit.

What the hell? Yeah. Damn, that's crazy. Good heavens. Yeah. I would say it's at least 31. He's a wild man. Yeah.

Yeah. Wait a second. Are you saying that the race ended early because of rain? It was red flagged because Dale planted that guy in the Dickie Anderson. Yes. Was Dale in second? Dale was in second. So Haywood passed him for the lead.

Yes. And so. So Dale got his hole in the radiator as the leader. As the leader. And then so he must have just, you know, got it, you know, with a lap car, somebody he was trying to race just to get by, gets into him, gets a hole in the radiator. Something like that. It's hard.

It's hard to say. That's right. And then Haywood gets by him. Dickie comes by. He wrecks Dickie. That causes a red flag. Then an act of God, the rain comes. And that's how the race ends.

He gets second place money. Yes. And now you guys are running for your life. Yes, well, Dale jumped out of the car and they start running for him to kill him and they're running over to my truck

where they're going to get me too and Robert G. He's parked right beside us and he's standing there and he pulls out of a little pistol and he's put it to the side like it right there and says don't come over here

boys don't come over here here comes Dale running my car is part where there's a fence six, eight foot fence there and it's got like a slope with barbed wire on it

Dale runs towards my truck, jumps up on the hood with one foot, the next foot's on that bobwire, and the next foot's on the ground. Wow. He and Teresa are in my 73 Torino and gone. The original American Ninja Warrior right there. Exactly. I'm telling you, Spider-Man doesn't do that. I'm telling you, he was like a deer.

He was like a deer. I didn't know he could run that fast. Oh, my heaven. God's honest truth. Damn. I want to ask you, so when's the next time you see you? dad? That night.

Yeah, I guess. We're at? He was over, they had a house over on Sugar Creek, the right along in that area there. I can't remember. Teresa had a house over there, and he was staying over there, and we went over there after the race.

He was laughing about it. Teresa, what year was this, or about what year was this? 77, 78? Yeah, right. I think it was 77. All right. The end of 77.

Yeah. Mom and dad got divorced in 78. They've probably split up for the year before that. Yeah. You know, it might have been 78 because the reason I say that there because he was driving my Trino and I just bought a 78 Thunderbird so it was 78. There you go.

So you got the money? Oh, yeah. I got the money. Y'all split it up? Oh, yeah. How much he did you get it? He got $2,200. Damn, that's nice.

You gave him a good chunk. Oh, I did. And I'll tell you this here. That time and he said he said he had never won no kind of money even close to that. And I hadn't either. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

So it would be, you know, $800, $1,000, $1,500 at the most. Yeah. Did you see that new, did you see that book that guy wrote on the Metrolina Speedway with all the, yeah, it's like, damn, I got to get you a copy of that. But this fella made a documented week by week book about Metrolina Speedway from the minute it opened all the way to the last race. Right. You're all the races you and dad ran together and probably all the races you ever had a car there are in that book. Right. It tells you a little blurb about the week.

weekend a little right up about each finish and all that and then it gives you like the top five of each division right for each night right it's pretty incredible there's a little right up about each season champion and what you know the season's starting and the season ending it's really really cool right and your dad's in there a bunch a lot of photos right of him a lot of pictures of that bush car and a lot of pictures of the car with WSOC on the side of it and y'all did run a handful of together. I was surprised. I didn't know y'all ran so much. Yeah, we run, like I said, we was together about two and a half years. Yeah. And all. Like I said, he didn't have no money. I didn't have no money. And he didn't have a job. And I didn't have a job. That was our job.

Yeah. You know, I remember, so I didn't know anything about, I didn't know anything about the performance that dad had at Metrolana. Right. And I didn't know whether he won a lot or didn't went a lot. I was kind of surprised to look at now he got him when Ralph, when Ralph was still alive in 73, dad drove a little modified

car or a little six cylinder in the class below the sportsman cars. And he won a lot of races with that car in 72 and 73 but after that when he got, when Ralph passed and dad got the sportsman stuff, he ran some of Ralph's cars. He bought a car from

Harry Gant. He run your car. He run your car He run Robert's car, Robert G's. And didn't win all the time. No. Like I say, we didn't, we could run top three. You know what I'm saying? And that would make us, you know, get through to. Yeah.

Robert G, he had all the best of everything. His car was the winning car. He was the winning car. He would. One week after week after week driving at 17. Haywood was bad to the ball. He was. He was.

And like I said, and Dale was, they were allowed to say mole, basically. and all, I mean, winter take on. There was a time when dad left Metrolina Speedway mad at Robert. Yeah. And Mama and him

were together back then because mama's one had to stop him. But do you remember anything about that? Was he driving your car? Oh, yeah. Well, actually, I didn't know that there was an issue

at the time and loves junkyards right there on 29. Your dad and I raced out of that junkyard. That's where you got your parts. That's where we've got a part. And I needed a motor. So I went out there and got a motor at the junkyard, and it was all greasy. And so I didn't think nothing about it.

So I said, well, let's just stop over here at Roberts because he got a pressure washer and we'll wash the grease off of it. Who's with you? He dead. Okay. Y'all went in the junkyard and pulled the motor out. Oh, we was in the junkyard every Tuesday. Damn. But anyhow.

My uncle Jimmy, my uncle Jimmy G says that dad was in that junkyard in midnight sometimes. He'd sneak in there. Oh, yeah. Like I said, that was my uncle's junkyard. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay.

But, yeah, we was in the junkyard every Monday or Tuesday. Yeah. Mainly Tuesday, because Monday, we tore apart. Tuesday, go out there to junkyard and here stuff. Anyhow, we took that block. It was laid on the back. I had an old ramp trip. And it was, I had it, you know, changed out on the back of the ramp truck and all.

And we pulled in the Roberts out there right beside the whale house, right in front of the shop there. Yep. And Dale sat in the car there. I get out, I said, Robert, I says, I need to use your pressure washer. And Dale gets out and walks toward the back of the thing. Here comes Robert out with a fan belt about that long. I'm going to whoop Dale. Why?

He ran him around. Well, he and his mother got into it about something. I don't know exactly what details was there and Denver did ask. But anyhow, Dale's running around the well house right there. And he says, we've got to go. We got to go. And he jumped back in the truck, and I jumped in the truck. We left.

Didn't get to watch the motor. No. So we don't know why he was so mad at him? Because him and mom was fighting. Yeah, him and his mother was fighting about something. Dale Jr.'s' mom. I got you. I see what you're saying.

And so, yeah, Robert G's got to stick up for his daughter, I guess. He's got a fan bill, I'm telling him. He's a long one. He's going to whoop him. That's going to hoop him. Oh, yeah. Damn. I mean, it's just crazy hearing stories about it back then when dad wasn't,

dad wasn't, had no notoriety, no fame, not a whole lot of money. and was just trying to survive. But making so many terrible decisions, right? I mean, good, they were bad decisions. You know, fight with my mom and all that. In her dad's house. Yeah, yeah. If you go fight with her, don't go to drive to Jesus house.

Losing his license, driving around with that license. How in the hell he made it? I don't know. Right. Right. Your dad was fearless. He was. He was fearless.

I'm telling you right now, there's only one. one of them and he was the only one he wasn't scared of I mean anything and you could not dare him to do nothing because I mean yeah we we would lead the racetrack and he'd grab a handful of lug duts

throw them on the dash and somebody you know passed us or run us off a ramp or you know there's nothing wrong picture a couple lugduts in their windshield. Damn good heavens oh yeah what a wild man animal he was he was he was he'd always get lugdut

He'd always have, you know, eight or ten of lug. Somebody messed up. Because I guess pulling that car around the open trailer, you might get run off the tram road by some of the competition. Well, I know another time that, and Tony, Tony Yere would probably tell you this year or two. He'd come home and, you know, the trailer didn't have the offenders on it. And there would be cars run up down the road there that had wheel marks on the side of them.

Oh, Lord. He put the damn tire. He put the trailer to the damn parked cars on the street. Well, I mean, they come off that ramp. If he didn't like the way that's coming off that ramp and it was going to be at the same time.

Timing was everything. God, dang. He's crazy. Oh, yeah. And then throw a lug nut over. Oh, my gosh. I think we've got to ask you. I mean, listen, he's talking about Robert G.

Dale Earnhardt, all this stuff. I think we've got to ask him the question. Did you know that we're related? Oh, yeah. Somehow another. Yeah. So, Robert G. Is your brother-in-law?

Yes. My wife and his wife are sisters. just as we expect it. Yeah. So your wife and his wife are sisters. The same way that the Uri's... I'm related to the Uri's. Yeah.

Same way, yeah. It's one big family, really. Hey, so I've been doing my genealogy for about 15 years a long time, right? Your dad popped up in my family tree. Oh, really? Yeah, he's a fifth cousin. Oh, wow. And so you're a sixth cousin.

Right. And it's a long, long, you know, way to get there. Yeah. But, I mean, I got thousands and thousands of people in this family tree on this, on genealogy.com, but which, I mean, everybody, everybody in that area in one way or another is kind of connected somehow, some way. Very much. I found that pretty fascinating. Right. But not only are we cousins, but by, you know, by marriage, you know, your brother-in-law to my uncle.

Right. everybody that went to the racetrack you know that's how mom and dad got together you know they met at the racetrack gee yep Tony Sr. and his wife all that you know it all kind of right so as you and Dale are running around and terrorizing the towns for two and a half years

even your own family you are aware that somewhere down the line you guys are related somehow right or is it not even not even I guess y'all would have been there fourth cousins or something We wasn't thinking about it. Oh, we was thinking about it. You wasn't necessarily like the Duke Boys or anything, you know. You was, man, you wouldn't know your fourth cousin.

I wouldn't. I know. I walked in the door right. You're right. We were thinking about how we could win the next race or make money so that we could. Y'all were fourth cousins or something like that. You didn't even know it. No, we didn't.

So I remember going over to the New Concord and racing and my grandfather, Robert G, would always come in there and hang out and sit with Henry. Yeah. Didn't they hang together? Oh, yeah, they were tight. They were like, you know, two bees in a pod. Yeah, every Saturday, every Friday, Saturday night. Yep, yep.

Henry ended up running what would be called the Big Ten series. Yep. Was one of the biggest things ever happened to short track racing, super late model racing in the southeast. That was the largest thing that was the very first of big paying races and stuff like it right there on, you know, a monthly deal. Televised on TV. Yep.

That was a huge deal. I just wanted to celebrate Henry a little bit. You know, he had his, he had, you know, you loved him or you hated him depending on the weekend or whatever happened. Whatever happened on the racetrack. But he really had a lot of influence on what, you know, what we know short track racing as in the southeast, especially in North Carolina, back in the 70s and 80s. And I think his influence has still felt today for our super late model and late model stock racers around this area. you end up you know you end up continuing to work on your own race cars

for how long I mean I want to know how you end up in into the I want to know I guess how much longer you're still working at the local rank how did you end up getting into cup shops and working on big race cars well your grandpa Robert took me to Daytona and I think it was 79 or 78 or 78 with Haywood We won, there was nine races down there at the Belusa County Dirt Track. Myself, Jimmy Maycar, and Robert Jr.

We took the dirt car over there. Jimmy Maycar, who just retired from GM's GM roll at Gibbs. That was his first rodeo. No shit. It was. It was Jimmy's first rodeo. Yep, down there with us and all. Him starting to race now.

And like I said, we went down there and we won eight-eyed-to-nine races. With Haywood. With Haywood. and they run us off with a one the ninth race. Why did they run you off? They said, we was rough riding. And your grandpa said, let me tell you something, boy. He said, we're here for a reason and not the season.

And here comes the flagman, you know, off the grandstand or flag stand, and he's, you know, black flagging Haywood, standing out there in front of him, and Haywood puts that thing in first gear and nails it. this guy jumps this barely misses him the Florida cops they got right gear on

you ask Robert Jr., he'll tell you we're sitting over putting wraps down because we know what they said get out of here and get out of here now the right gears on these guys and me and you Robert is getting the ramps down so we get the truck get the car up on there and get out there before we get killed

yeah could have it. Yeah, good happen. He was fine and he taught me how to drink. Yeah. And I was on the way down. I was really, you know, I was sort of this one. It's green.

It's green. There you go. I was 18, 19 years old, you know what I'm saying? Driving down the road down 95 here. And your grandpa's sitting over here with a crown royal and Jack Daniels and four or five other was, I don't know what it was. And a damn big old thing of peanuts, eating peanuts while I was doing this. Well, I'm going to teach you, you've been in the closet.

I'm going to teach you how to do this thing. I said, okay, but I'm going to drive now. I think I need to be doing this right now. He said, no, you're right. He said, but here's the way you do it. Slightly, politely, all nightly. Man. If he told me that one.

If he told me that one time, he told me at least four times on the way down 95. I mean, there's nobody that lives a lifestyle that you guys used to live. I mean, it's a miracle you're still here, frankly. I mean, you guys. Really? Yeah. I mean, listen, I'm hearing about riots, fights. Oh, yeah.

You know, just. It sounds amazing, but I bet. It does sound amazing. It's why I think Tony sits here and tells you stories with a grin on his face the whole time. Even the ones that don't end well. I mean, you got to be proud of this. At the time, you know, it was nerve-wracking. Yeah.

And then when you look back, you know, 20 years. It sounds amazing, but walking around with nothing but $20 in your pocket, if that. Didn't have $20. Yeah, that didn't make it easy. I'm telling you, your dad or me couldn't buy your Coca-Cola. Yeah. It was just that simple. Oh, yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Talking to mom, you know, he would, you know, when he made, when he got any money from his job or whatever, it was, it was gone. And whatever was left, you know, would be balona and bread on the table. Right. Maybe. Right. Yeah.

So you go to Daytona, but like going back to Dale, I mean, how do you get the cup? Like, how do you get into the? Well, like I said, we run that race there, and that was my first deal down at Daytona. And then I go back, Robert calls me, and we go back, I can't remember the guy's name, but Kyle Petty's driving a car, so it's a Bush car then. Is that, so I remember this. Did you go to Martinsville with Kyle with this car? No, we went to Daytona.

Daytona? Yeah. Because I remember going over to Granddaddies in mid-80s, right? Right, right. there was a member of the race hill farms colors the 47 yellow and white yeah Kyle drove that car at the Xfinity race in Martinsville and uh I just remember walking up to Robert's shop and that car sitting out front and I said I was when you when I was reading the notes about you saying you was helping Kyle Petty with a car

connected to Robert G I was thinking I was wondering if it was this race hill farms car I'm pretty sure it was the same car yeah uh Randy Hope out of uh Columbia I think South Carolina owned a car. He owned the insurance company. And he owned a car. He had Robert keeping it there. And the car stayed there. It didn't run many races.

And Kyle drove it. And I think we run fourth, fifth at Daytona with Kyle. And so that was my, you know. That was you getting into the big ranks. Getting in there, yep. That was it. Yeah. Me and Robert Jr.

Yep. So when do you end up getting your first full-time job? Well, I worked with Derek, you know, for a couple of, years there. Yeah. And he only wanted to run four or five races. And that wasn't that, that wasn't that type of guy. Yeah.

And, but he didn't want to run no more than that because he, he was doing other things, had other irons in the fire. And he wanted to be there. So, you know, me, I'm hardheaded and sort of stupid at the time, I reckon. And I go to work at Hendricks. Right. With Ricky Rudd and Gary DeHart. What are you doing?

Right at the time, I'm just a. Just a mechanic. Just a mechanic. Whatever they want done, you know. Yep. Because everybody was there on a two-week notice to start with. No shit. Oh, yeah.

He hired five people every week. And sometimes five people would make it two weeks and sometimes one person would make it two weeks. And he's going through them. Yep. I was going to ask why it was this hard-headed and stupid, but I think you just answered it, right? Like there was nothing beyond two-week security is what you're saying. Right. Right.

Right. And so I go out there and I've been there for about a month. It looks like I'm going to make it. He comes up to me one day, I'm on the band's sausage. He kicks me on the foot and says, you're going to be okay. Oh, shit. Yeah. So that was, you know, so then, you know, he under, it was his first crew chiefing job.

And he was a hell of a fabricator. I probably weren't the best it was at the time. It probably still is. Well, it all. And his mechanical background and knowing about suspension stuff wasn't where it need to be. And I didn't realize that. until we got to working together, and then we started building cars and stuff.

And back then, you know, to get a drag link, it was just a piece of raw metal, and you had to figure out where to put the holes at that stuff. Right. And so one Sunday, we worked seven days a week. He had that drag link, he said, I've got to figure out where to put these holes. And I said, that ain't a problem.

And he said, how do you know? I said, hell, that's all I done on my life is suspension of shit, you know? Yeah. And we'll show me And so I got it up there Measureed him what to do and everything And next thing you know

We're doing the bump steer on it Got all that man, that's pretty good You know? So now he's got confidence in me You know what I'm saying? And do what I can do and help him And that's what I wanted to do You know And so that's pretty much what happened there

And I sort of worked as a shop foreman Car Chief type of guy Because there's only like six of us And we all actually done everything and shared everything. In 93, you end up over at Stavola Brothers with Sterling Marlin. You're a crew chief for Greg Sacks at U.S. Motorsports, which was Old Rich's team in 94. So you're finally getting a crew chief job.

Right. You're running a deal. That car had some good runs. It did. Well, you know the Hoosier tires come out then. Yep. I've done 27 Hoosier tire test that year. Damn.

And seven of our own test. damn yeah I was running a lot oh man I was gone I mean I was lucky to be home one day a week yeah DK you know it's funny how DK's whole career as an owner went because man he ran awful for decades right with his cars yeah well you know they just ran what they ran and he I don't think he put no more effort in it than that but toward the end it was like he whole he completely changed his whole approach Well, when he hired me, he didn't realize about 30 to 45 days into the deal. He said, you're a game changer.

And I said, what are you mean? He said, because you ain't scared to do nothing. He ain't scared to change things. He says, you're a game changer. So we go to Daytona and test. And, you know, he's never really made Daytona that got lucky to make it. So I take this car, a brand new car, brand new team basically at the time. And we go down there and we're the fastest thing down there.

and he comes up and after the second day I think it was he said I'm reading the paper here well we're really fast he said are you doing anything I said I'm working what do you want are you doing anything I said what do you mean cheating I said well I don't know it don't caught cheating unless you get caught he said well can you back up all that stuff

and it's staying I said I can do anything I told you I can do That's all I can tell. Well, let's see it, do it. So we go out there and that car made it haul his ass, you know what I'm saying? And what I had done is I figured out while I was down there that you get the back of, everybody was running anywhere from 400 to 600 pounds springs in the rear. And I go down there with 400s, and I kept going lower, lower, and lower. I got down to a pair of 150s with a rubber in the back, both rears.

and a couple of the guys on the thing said you're going to kill him I said well that's what the car says it wants I said goes faster every time I put it's soft spring let's go softer you know that's what we kept doing and I ended up at 150s in a rubber and each spring and the car I mean it would haul ass I mean like bam you know yeah and he said is that legal I said I don't know I said there's no rules saying you want spring to run that time you know

as long as it clears heights exactly and it would come back up the whole deal and but you know like say everybody else stayed up like it right there and you know what I'm saying. Oh yeah. Getting the back down and getting the spoiler out of there. Oh yeah. And it was just fast.

I mean, we go down there and we don't have the best motor. We got a decent motor and we qualify a third or four somewhere along in there and run third or fourth in the race. And he's all happy because he's never done it. Never done there. Yeah. So then I built him a car to go to the All-Star race at Charlotte. And I mean, I built this car. I mean, it was wild.

It was bad to the bone. We were the first car to every. running 29 second bracket. I got through building it because we're supposed to go to Sears Point the next morning, you know, for a road course race. And I got through that car because they're testing over that night before. And I unload that car over there. I got there about 6, 7 o'clock that night.

And that car right off the truck ran like a 2980. Everybody else is like in the 30-30s, you know, like that right there. And Andy Petrie and Ray Everham look at it. And then Felix Sabalas is there. and they're all standing. I mean, this car's got an exotic front-in on it, and, you know, it's all jacked up and everything. Me, myself and Bob Newland built the car.

Yeah. And both of us put our minds to it and just done everything we could think of, make it look like a late model, but still fit the templates. And that's what it did. I mean, that thing was glued to the earth. Yeah. I know.

We just didn't have the motors that we needed at the time. You know what I'm saying? Our motors were like $100 off. Damn. Oh, yeah. That's a lot. Yeah. I sit on the pole to Atlanta with a hundred off motor.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, Doug Yates comes up to me before the race. He says, well, I know them motors. He said, they're 100 horsepower off. I said, well, maybe not. He said, what do you mean?

I said, well, I said, you see that corner over there? I said, did your guy lift? He said, yeah. I said, my guy didn't. I think it didn't go well in the race. Well, we're leading a race. Yeah. We're actually running out of pitcher.

and Jeff O'Dine's got Hoosiers on. And Bob Newton comes, the only really, your dad, I think it's third at the time. And Jeff O'Dine's second, and we run off to hell probably over a half, three-quarter lap lead on the field. And Bob Newton comes down there,

Jeff's running for the points. And he says, how about slowing up and letting Jeff lead a lap to get to five points at the time? And that was hard for me to do. I said, you know, he's still yanking on my leg. He said, you got to let him.

lead got to have them points and so we do i told sacks back off let jeff lead jeff broke a shock and the shock went through my right front wheel oh and stuff stuffed us in the wall yeah i said i'll never do that again yeah i don't care who you are what you are that'll never happen again and bob apologized everything but it's too late then yeah yeah um you started working for joe nimich uh in 95 started the year out you end up leaving um Because it was just not a good environment, or I guess you just didn't fit right in there. I can't see you fitting into that. Yeah.

Or I mean, they were very tight-knit family-run team. That was, I mean, Joe had talent, no doubt about that. But, you know, he had a lot of family right there. Yeah. And his mother and father were great. His mother cooked dinner and cooked brunch and everything else for us. But the guys, they wanted to sit over here and eat and do all this here. Uh-uh, not with me.

like I say you had to be focused your mind had to be on one thing and one thing only I just couldn't put myself in that like you just said environment and all and so I left you got a call from Cali Yarborough to come crew chief his team

with Jeremy Mayfield as a driver for the rest of the season in 95 yeah I was landing to bed I was asleep actually about 11 o'clock that night and the phone rings I said I wonder who the hell this is because I thought it was an emergency I picked the phone up

and the first thing the man says, boy, I need you to come work for me I said, who is this? Kel Yarborough, I thought it was a joke,

you know what I'm saying? He said, Kail Yarborough. I said, really? You know, one thing leads to another we talk a little bit and I now

finally realize it's him. You know, I said, okay, I'll come over tomorrow and talk to you. So I go over to his shop you couldn't walk in his shop. It was a mess.

I mean, total wreck. Oh, it was shitware. He said, he says, I'm going to give you $60,000. Come work for you. I said, well, I'll be taking a pay cut. What you mean, boy? Like it right there?

And everybody was boy, you know. And I says, I'll be honest with you. I don't know that I'll even want to do this job. I said, but my minimum's 150. Damn. He said, boy, I can't pay you like it right there. I said, well, you need to get to talk to somebody else. I said, because I ain't even going to.

think about your job for less than that. I said, I really want more than that. He says, all right, all right. So I get home. I'm home about 30 minutes. My phone rings. It's Keil. Boy, can you start tomorrow?

I said, I don't really want to, Keel. I said, but you're going to have to pay me what I ask you. He said, I got to have you. He said, come over here. I said, well, I said, here's the deal. All you got is junk. I said, I'm not working on the job. I said, you let me take everything.

I'll go through your shop, and I'll take everything out and sit it outside, and you can sell it, do whatever you want to with it. And I'll pick out enough stuff for us to keep starting. I can build a couple cars and keep going. I said, if I can't do that right there, I don't even want to talk to you. He says, you do whatever you take, what it takes to do the job. And so the first thing I do is go over there and make me a path to where I can get through the stuff. and I'm telling you right now, 90% of it was junk.

Yeah. And while I went outside. And he said, well, what we're going to do? I said, well, we're going to, first of all, we're going to build a Daytona car. And so, we bought a new chassis from Loughlin, and I brought it in there, and I set it down on the plate with no suspicion on it. I said, we've got to mount a motor, mind everything, just like the car is going to run, and put it together like there. Well, the motor guys are in there, and they got this oil pan that looks like a 55-gallon barrel, you know, because five horsepower. a big oil pan.

And he came back and he said, that ain't going to work. I said, oh yeah, it's going to work because you're going to fix your oil pan. Oh, we got to have that five horsepower. I said, you're going to fix your oil pan. I said, in the end of the deal, I said, because I didn't mention the window on seeing

if I get the car down, how much horsepower it got arrowwise. I said, if I give you 50 horsepower, will you take that oil pan off and fix the plant oil pan? If you give it 50 horsepower, how are you going to do that? I said, arrow horsepower. and that's what we did.

And so I built the car like it right there and got everything down. So then we had to work on the bellhousing and the clutches and stuff like it right there and starter ring.

Got all that there smaller and then they outlawed all that shit you remember. Yeah. But that was cause of all of us and that's what I did.

I got the car down. I was running 100 pound springs in the rear of that car. If you'll go back and look that's the only car on the first lap at Talladega

that sat on the pole. I didn't mean to set on the pole and beat everybody by probably three, three and a half tens. Yeah. You didn't mean to set on the pole. No, because if you set on the pole, they search you too much, you know what I'm saying? What were you worried about?

Well, it was, you know, I had a lot of little things. You know, you had about 10 or 15 little things and I didn't want to get, you know, you didn't want none of that to get gone. No, no. Because you did it at all. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

You needed it all. Oh, yeah. I wanted to be as low as a snake belly and a wagon rat, and that's where I was at. I mean, that car was down. Yeah. Nobody was running a thousand pound springs in the front. I had bump stops and 1,000-pound springs in the front of time. I mean, that was unheard of, you know.

So they did the swap, the John Andretti Mayfield swap. Right. I guess after the Southern 500 in 1996. What was your feeling about that? I mean, you'd been working with Mayfield for about a year. Right. And how'd you hear about the swap this going to happen where Mayfield's going to go to Cranfus Haas? Well, the deal was Jeremy and I were very good friends.

Yeah. And it really got along good and really clicked good. and we were both going to go to Cranfus. Both of you? Both of us. And Craniface wanted us to both come there. But I seemed to want too much money. You know what I'm saying?

And I said, well, I'm not going to, I'm not the type of person that's going to just leave here, just, you know, unless you want to pay me. Right. You know what I'm saying? He said, well, if I pay you this, this is the guys I've got to keep here. And all. He said, and you'll probably want to get rid of them. I said, well, if they do the job, I won't get rid of them. but they don't do the job, they got to go,

except what they're there. Well, I can't have all that. I said, well, that's fine. I said, I'll stay here. So, Kel, you know, Kail and Jeremy sort of, you know, have a few words about it and all. Like what?

They can't get it matched out to where, you know, Jeremy stays. Because he's talking to Ford, too, and trying to get forward to heaven, but Ford won't give him enough to get him to where he can keep Jeremy. So, and Kranfell is Mr. Ford at the time, you know. Yeah.

And so he gets him, and I stay there. And, uh, we go to Indy, testing. With with Jeremy. With Jeremy.

We go to Indy testing with Jeremy and John Andretti's error and I knew that he was at Cranfuss and I said, I told Keil, I said,

what about John Andretty? Won't you go talk to him? I said, so I walked over in this truck. I never spoke a word to John Andretti never laid eyes on him. I said, you John Andretty?

He said, yep. I said, I'm Tony Fur. I said, I said, follow me. I said, I'm going to show you a car that you can win in. like it right there.

He looks at me like I got nine heads or something other and they walks outside. He said, what are you talking about? I said, I'm the crew chief over 98 and representing Kail right now. I said, Jeremy's leaving coming over your deal. I said, and I'd like for you to drive our car. Well, how do you know we can win?

I said, I can win if you want to drive our car. So that's all I can tell you. And so he and Kail got together and made it happen. out. It worked it out. And you ended up

doing just that the Pepsi 400 and 97. Y'all won that race. Yes. And I imagine

that everything about that car is things you've learned over the last several years. You know, getting the car

down, getting the car lower. And this is around the time when, I mean, you've said it

enough, like you when you guys show up and beat everybody at Daytona with Kells team. Everybody knew Kells team and his cars weren't

RCR cars. They weren't Hendrick cars. And you talk about the motors and all that. I know you got the car down and low, but by this point, other people are starting to sort of figure out some of the things you're doing. But at that time, a $250, 300 was as low as anybody would

go. Yeah, and you're still 100 pounds lower, not more. Yeah. Well, you did you did like to kill John Andretti in the 125 that same year. We're leading to 125 and your dad is driving. I mean, John said, he said,

man, he said, get him off of me. He's driving me. I'm not driving this car. They're coming through the trial. We're sideways and your dad's still pushing him. You know what I'm saying? He says, get him off up. I said, he ain't getting off of you. I hate to tell you. He ain't getting off of you. I said, best thing to do, I said, because we're in the race.

I said, pull up and let him go. So he pulled up and let him go. because you know your dad know how to your dad was the best it was at Daytona Bar and I didn't say it because you're sitting here I just know how he was he was the best and he could

drive your car for you you know what I'm saying and put you in the positions that you didn't need to be in or didn't want to be in and that's what he did and that's how he won races down there I think that's how he got the name Intimidator I would say you know but anyhow so

and that's when we had the flat tire and I think we could have won that race but I don't know because you're dead would have probably drove us. Yeah. We probably wouldn't want it anyhow, but we had fast enough car. Yeah, well, you go down there in July and you win. So you take the same car back, I'm assuming.

I build a car that's more like an intermediate car, but it's down. To get a little bit of... To keep more stability in the car. And so it qualifies third. And we lead, I mean, as soon as they dropped the rag, you know, he takes off and leads. We live 144 laps of it, I think it had 160 or something like that there. But anyhow, we're leading, and we come in, and I think it was like 30 laps to go, we pit, or tires. Your dad's pits right here behind me, and we leave together.

And now we come out, we're like 12th. And your dad's right there with us. And so I go over and I tell Larry, I say, I said, listen, I'm going to win this race today. And you tell Earnhardt, if he wants to run second to help the 98 car. I'm sure that's all it takes to get the intimidator to help you, right? Them eyes on Larry got about that big, and I can see Richard look over at him, like what did he say? You know?

And so apparently he told you, Dad, because you did after the race, we won the race, and your dad come up to me, you know, how he gave me about a caller and pop you in the back of the head and said, boy, don't you ever tell me to run second to you no more. I said, well, you did, didn't you? I did. He started laughing. He did he just picking and kidding. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. It was all good. When that car goes into the shed to get checked, what are you thinking? You're nervous? You got to, you know. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know. They ain't a car in the field that ain't got a dozen things going on.

You've been there, been there, done that. I mean, they ain't a car that's ever one Daytona that was straight up. That's right. I don't care who you are and what you sit there and say. It's as simple as that. I didn't know, but I had that thing camouflaged so that you was going to have to be a sign to figure everything out. Yeah. And so.

What do you mean you didn't know? You knew. That's not an accident to camouflage all of the stuff. stuff. Well, you know, what I'm saying? You let them find stuff that they knew, like, a long fuel line. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

20 foot extra fuel line. It don't make a difference. You know what I'm saying? You let them find that stuff. So that was the way I always thought the best guys in the garage would do obvious things. Right. And so if you had one very, very important piece on the car that you did not want them to discover, you would have something obvious over here

that would get their attention that you were more than happy for them to take. Oh, yeah. And not something so egregious they were going to create, it was going to create a failure or a penalty or a fine or a disqualification. You're just like, oh, you got me.

You know, my fuel lines long. Yeah. If you're a die cast fan like me, you know that Lionel Racing, they are the official diecast of NASCAR. Right now, our friends at Lionel are busy working on the 2020 diecast replicas of our favorite cup,

Exfinity and Truck Series drivers, along with some of Lionel's most popular diecast, Raced Wins. To create a Raced Wins diecast, Linell artist hand-draw all the damage, all the scuffs, all those seen on the winning car in Victory Lane, on Linal's die-cast template. They even had all the little pieces of confetti.

These raced wins, diacast capture a moment in time like no other collectible can. They're the next best thing to owning the actual race-winning car. Order a raced wins diecast now at lionelracing.com and get free domestic shipping if you use promo code download 23. That's promo code download 23 at lionelracing.com. Let's talk about some of the things, some of the creative things you did,

reading between the lines of the rulebook. I mean, getting the car low is not illegal, long as the car comes back up. Right. But, I mean, you did get penalized and fined by NASCAR a few times. So, I mean, I know that you tried a few things that they didn't think were illegal. Well, the first time when I was too low in the rear, they made a rule right then and there. Because, like I said, the rule was on the roof. And they started measuring the quarter panels.

They measured. Gary comes back here. What happened was I had these deals, these jackboats made. It was a jack bolt And it was hollowed out inside and split in the side there And they would Different heights made different tints And so I knew what height I needed To run what speed I needed You know what I'm saying?

So anyhow You split the screw jack So it would bow and bend Blow out Blow out. Blow out. But that wouldn't come back. No, that wouldn't come up But there wasn't no quarter-pound heights

So it's fine if it came back low And then they made quarter-pound height So you had to change your screw jacks. Well, he, what happened, what got me caught is it wasn't the quarter pound height so much, but the quarter pounds was low, but they made the rule after that. But what got me caught was the piece didn't break. You know them little orange balls that used to, the radio announcer used to sit up in Daytona? 76.

Yeah, 76. Yeah. Well, he goes out on the track and, you know, changes the gears and everything. And normally they broke right there. Well, this one didn't break to it got up on the banking, and it popped out. out right there in front of the guy with the orange ball. He saw it. And he saw it roll down the track.

NASCAR goes out there, gets it, comes back, and it's full of anisease. Because you take the jackbolts out at the time and have them in their hands. And the old boy, the official's got anisease. I mean, down his face, down his face where he rubbed his face and all this here, shit, you know. I'm sitting there laughing. Anyhow, they come back and Gary's got this rag and it's full of anisee and that little piece in it. and he walks over to me, he says, you ever seen this for?

I said, no, I don't know what it is, you know? He holds it over again. He says, how long did it take you to make that? I said, man, I just told you, I don't know what it is. I ain't never seen nothing like it. He said, this is anisease off of your car. He said, this popped out under your car. He said, because I just seen all the anisease,

the same kind of anisease, and this come out under your car because the guy ever seen it. I said, I don't know what happened then. I said, look over and let's see. So my jackbowl's in place like it's supposed to be, but that piece there's missing, but you could put two and two together, you know. And I'm going to take it to my grave with as far as he goes. I never admitted to it.

And so he says, well, we'll figure out something. And so they actually, it was for qualifying, so that puts me in the 125 in the rear. So now I have to start in the rear and 125, and I ended up second to Sterling in the 125 because I'm still down, you know, and all. But I had this spring lander made me for the front to where it would collapse too.

And now my damn front end. It's too low. So that put me back. And that's how they actually got me was on that. And is this when you're working at Hendrick with the 25? Yeah. Well, what happened? So listen, I was there, or I was watching it on TV.

I remember when 25 goes. out to qualify and ran like three quarters of a second faster in the field. And everybody knew right then that something was up. Well, if you'll remember, that was the first year of Dodge.

You know, you got Dodge at the first year there, and Ray and Rick really wasn't getting along that great because of all the things that happened. But anyhow, we were 39th in practice. You know what I'm saying? I come down in a raceboat. And

Now, Rick comes up to the top of the truck, and he says, a little buddy, he says, we're going to get embarrassed today. I said, yeah, I said, don't look good of qualifying. I said, we're going to be all right in the race. I promise you. He said, well, I need to qualify better. He said, and you're the only one I know. Rick said this? Yeah, he said, you're the only one I know.

That thing goes out there and hits the ground. It sparks is flying all out of thunder. I'm going to tell you what happened, because I already knew exactly what everything would pick you Yeah. And Dascar gives you a plate. You run your plate in practice. They restrict your plate. Yeah.

They give you their plate for qualifying. Well, what happened is their plate was two and a half horsepower better than my plate. And I didn't account on that. And that's what put me to where I was at. Too good. Too good. If you take that two and a half tenths and figure out where I'm out now, I'm filled for sixth. Patting on the back, your hero.

You ran too good. Run too good. Yeah. And so they threw you out for that qualifying lap, and then you went out and got low in the front. Yeah. So the piece you made on the front springs, I'd always thought it was like some sort of a,

not soap, but some sort of material that once loaded into the banking would be crushed. That's what happened. By the spring. That's what happened. What was it? What was the material? I don't know exactly what it was called Landrum out of Georgia,

they made the springs for me. And I told him what I wanted to do and how much I needed, you know. But I sort of miscalculated a little bit and got this a little bit too late. Too much. That's how that happens, by the way. You tell the manufacturer of the spring, like, I want to be able to do this. I mean, you don't care how it's done. You're just saying, I want a spring to be able to do this, and then you put it in your car?

Well, this guy, Landrum was a dirt racer from way back, and I knew him from the dirt days. Okay. He wasn't somebody, everybody was using it. No, no, nobody. Actually, nobody used it. Right. That's the kind of guy you need. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I had several of those guys, you know, during my career. They're building parts for nobody, but you... Exactly. That's amazing finds. I mean, I had a transmission that would pick you up three-tenths. You remember them fallout transmissions? Yeah.

All the gears would fall out and nothing would run, just a straight shave. And they outlawed that. That was three-tenths. I mean, bam, they outlawed that. But anyhow, and this guy was out of Missouri. I met with him. The transmission guy? Transmission guy.

God. And that's the first one to run the Bimbro brakes and all that stuff and all the air ducts and stuff. That was all made there with D.K. Alder's with my deal because we run second to Rusty for like 200 and seven laps and sacks run out of breaks and I called on fire during the pit stop. And so I vowed to never go back to Martinsville and never run out of breaks again.

So we built this deal up there. I had, I think it was six, electric wind leaf blowers. Yeah. And we built a piece of plywood, four piece of plywood, and built it into a tunnel and stuck it up to the front of the car and put a pito to over here and see how many CFMs would come through to the brakes. And man, it broke a brake caliber off.

It was so good. Yeah. I never had no work problems. And that was the rule after that. Everybody ran that after that. Right. And all. But anyhow, you know, going back to Daytona and stuff like right there.

I mean, that guy, he was, I knew him from my dirt days and stuff. And who was the driver of that car? Was it Neidu? Neh, okay, Jerry Neidu. And so you get popped then. Yeah. So you got a four-race suspension? Actually, I got a 12-week suspension to start with.

Dad sat down at the driver's meeting beside of me. And he'd come up to me and he says, boy, you're in trouble, ain't you? I said, it looks like it. And now, I said, can you do anything for me? He said, I'm going out on the boat Tuesday. I'll see what I can do. He's going out on the boat with Mr. France. Yeah, he says, I don't know.

He says, I don't know that I can get you completely out of it. Captain Jack. Yeah, he said, but I'm pretty sure I can get everything reduced and get where you'll be okay. Well, that's the day he gets killed. Oh, man. Yes, it's a sad day. And actually, he was, you know, Jim Kelly was there

and a couple other quarterback stuff. And my wife and I was sitting on the wall there because we were right behind him, and he'd come over and sit between me and my wife, Scooted me over, you know, got between my wife, started hugging on her and messing with her, and said, I'm going to make him jealous. You know, Dale's picking it on me, yeah. And we just got to talk and everything.

He said, I'll take care of you Tuesday. I get right there. And so he walks everywhere and gets in his car. I don't know if I was the last person to talk to him out of the car, not but I think I was, you know. And he says, I'll take care of you Tuesday, don't worry. I said, all right, you better. I hit right there. You know, I said, have a good one.

He's you too. And we, you know. Went on about it. Went on about it. and all. You had a fuel cell violation? What was a fuel cell violation? There was a fuel cell violation

and combined with the penalty from Daytona that puts you on probation for the entire year. Oh, I had a fuel cell inside of a fuel cell. As one does. So like a reserve tank. Yeah. Which is something that we ended up, I mean, everybody had them in the last 10 years.

Yeah. Flip it to switch, flip it to number two. That's like going to give you the last couple of last. I had a deal too that were, I could tell I could run one lap at Michigan and a fuel, like a fuel gauge, had a little light on the dash. I made it out of a frown fuel filter with a float in a proximity switch in it. Yeah. And I'd do that.

I could do that. And all kinds of little things. So you could run until you sputtered, then that would get you your lap back to the road. When you did splutter, when you light come on, that meant all the fuel you had was what was in the line. And that would get you time to come. You better get to ask the pit road. You had to come. And that was an innovation that, you know, nobody had.

Nobody else was just hoping their calculations on the pit box was correct. Exactly. But your driver got an idea. Exactly. You got fined after Daytona 2002 for a height violation. Yeah. Yeah. And in April of 2002, you resigned from Hendrick?

I did. Why did you do that? Well, I love Rick and John Henry to death. And that place everywhere was awesome. Rick Hendrick was super to me. Just Nadu and I didn't get along, as simple as that. And we're okay today. But at that time, I mean, I had a lot of hard feelings because he cost me and him a career, I thought, that could have been very promising.

Well, how so? Well, we was at Martinsville, and I think it was the first year Jimmy Johnson was there, and I give them my setup. Jeff Gordon had my set up. Terry LeBoney had my set up, and we got our own. Same thing. We're all right there, all top six. Jeff and Jerry are fighting for top of the board each time to go out. Well, Jerry goes out there, all those guys qualify top six, except us.

Jerry goes out there and goes down in turn one, hits the curve. Well, you hit the curve, you lose three tens. It don't matter. And he shot up the track, and he come in, he threw the steering wheel at the side of the car, and then kicked the door and says it's a piece of shit. Good heavens. I mean, that was it. Yeah.

I went off. Pretty much the rest is history. I mean, I went down there to the truck and jacked him up. You got a hold of him? Oh, I was wanting to kill him. Here's Ken Howells. He's over there. you know bird dog

and everything and uh, Ken's a good guy. Yeah, that's all done said with him. I'm over all that stuff. But anyhow, at the time I wasn't

because I'm a racer. You know what I'm saying? And I jacked him up, told him to get the hell out of my garage that, you know, the bird dog's shit don't, don't flush around me. And also,

you told that to Ken Howes? Yeah. He was who probably is, I think Ken's probably GM at the time. He was a competition director. Pretty much. Yeah. So that was probably not a good thing.

Not a career. No, it was. I mean, but, you know, I can understand your frustration. Yeah, and they call me to the meeting Tuesday that week. Rick's out of the country at the time. He's over in Italy, I think it was.

But anyhow, they called me to the meeting and want me to apologize. I said, well, here's the way it is. To apologize to Ken and everybody. I said, if I tell you, I'm sorry, that's the same as telling you a lie. I said, I've never lied to y'all, and I'm not going to start today. you know what I'm saying and so I don't know if I got fired or quit

but that was it I got it and walked out Ray Everham recruited you to come over to Ray Evanham Ultra Motorsports after that you helped Casey Atwood

Jason Leffler you worked for Morgan McClure Haas CNC kind of bounced around over the next several years working with different people you went to the truck series

won some races in the truck series in the truck series. Work with Todd Bodine and Chad Chaffin, Jack Sprague. Jack, you won three races with him in 0-607. Got back into the Cup stuff, helping different teams. Helped Jeremy Mayfield when he tried to come back in 2009. Ended up over at Robinson, motor sports and extreme motorsports.

Help Morgan Shepherd, Rick Ware. You know, you just kind of kept on going. I'll tell you, after the hind. deal, it really, it really hurt me. Yeah. And all, because now I see that politics is the whole deal. And I wasn't a politician at all.

And, and I couldn't back up on my words, you know what I'm saying? And I couldn't bullshit you. And, I mean, my people, I think I did, but I couldn't. And that sort of bothered me. So I sort of got sire on racing to be on the Swedish. So that's when I jumped around trying to find this stuff. And then I got in a motorcycle rack. right there left Haas.

You got hurt real bad. I broke both legs. Sure did. What happened? Well, it was sort of odd. I was pulling in this driveway, and there was a lot of loose gravel right there, and I laid my leg down, and the bike was real low, and it caught my left leg first, and drug it back, and I couldn't get it.

The bike was so low, I couldn't get back up on it. And so I give it gas and spring it, pull it back up, and when I do, I throw my right leg off, and pop it the same way. So now I'm dragging both legs up this heel I'm running about 60 mile hour trying to stop going to run into a building and I finally get the kill switch There's four or five guys standing over here

I said hey hey hey hey come and get me come and get me You know because the bike's low enough But my legs is just keeping me balance Just enough I ain't tilled it yet And so they run over right quick And put my kickstand down and I said listen Somebody get on each shoulder And pick me up I said I'm not sure

I said but I feel like both legs are broke Where did you break right there at my knees, an inch and a half down from both knees. Damn. It popped both of them the same. And I said, pick me up, and let me see. They pick me up, ease me down. Oh, God, I said, pick me up and lay me down.

So they laid me down and took me to the hospital, sure enough, that's what happened. So you needed to take time off? Yeah, I need to take time off because I knew, I know what racing takes, the dedication racing takes and the focus on. I knew that I wasn't able to do that. So I said, well, I'm trying to get myself. well here and so I'm going to go truck racing because the series was a lot shorter. Yeah, they had like 18 races or something. Yeah, something like that there.

And I said, then I'll work my way back to cut maybe if I want to. Man, well, recently you got a call from Dan Partis to help his son Preston in the Xfinity Series. You've been going with them off and on or? Well, Dan run, I think it was four races to start with. I think it was 20. He ran four races. He bought a car for Cadassi when they abandoned their Bush deal

or Exfinity deal over there. And he called me and said that he knows what he wanted to do. And the kid had never been in that but a Mazda, 90 horse power, you know, five-inch wide tires. Good little road race. Oh man, I'll tell you what.

I didn't know what to expect. And I said, well, I said, we need to go test somewhere. I said, where is he really got a lot of time in testing or driving? that. He said, road America. You know, that's a day away, basically. He said, but I'll go up there

if that's what you want to do. I said, well, I won't be honest with you. If you don't want to go to win or go to really run good, I'm not interested. I said, so we've got to go test. And he bought a children's motor and brought a really good car. I said, so we fixed it. Brought it to my shop, and I fixed it.

We go up there and we test. And the fifth lap on the race, the kids running, talked 10 times. Damn, I thought this was going to be a long day. you know, but he's doing really good. I make a couple changes, and he responds to those changes and understands the changes. This is going to be really good, you know.

And so we go back up there to race, and we qualify, I think, 12, 14, so long in there. And he's running fifth, and the tire rod broke, running fifth. And so that put aside the race. So then we go to the next race, and we run top ten, every race I run with them, unless we either wrecked or something happened, you know, who I'm saying? I think we run top 10 four or five times with it. We had a shot at winning. We was leading on the last lap of Indy and Road America that one year.

I can't remember what year exactly was. But I was leading, but I knew, and I told him, I said, listen, there's a bunch of wolves behind you. Yeah. And you're a rookie. So you're dead meat. You ain't careful. I said, I don't know where to tell you driving the mirror, driving your foot on the brake or what. I said, but you got to do what you got to do.

And they took him to school. He ended up, I think, you know, 7th, 8, around there. We're top 10. Yeah. So they're recently asking you to go over to Sonoma with them this year, so you still ain't out of the business altogether. No, I mean, like I told him, he had talked to me at the first year about doing some things, and I saw him really wasn't interested.

I said, I'll be honest with you. I love riding my motorcycle my time all right now. You're just hanging out riding motorcycle? That's it. That's it. I've taken care of my mother, too. She's got dementia right now, and all, so I'm trying to take care of her. So that's a full-time job, to be honest, would you?

Yeah. So the last couple things I wanted to ask you about is you, my grandfather, Robert G, one of the most famous things I think that he's connected to is 77 K&K Dodge. Right. The K&K Insurance Superbird. Right. You stayed over there and helped him build that car back when you were younger in the early 70s. Right.

You know, when you think about it, like, I mean, I guess when all this was happening, you probably didn't realize what you were part of. But, man, when you look back on that time now, being around such an iconic car and the craftsm ship that went into that car and the bodywork and everything, I mean, it's got to be a fond memory. Oh, really? It was. I mean, that car, you know, Harry Hyde, he was probably top of the line at that time.

Harry was a cruci. Oh, yeah. And he'd come over and he'd give us a little history on the car. They had deals inside where they could adjust the wedge. I mean, some of the innovations, things they'd done. and you could look over at the right front tire. I mean, there's all kinds of little knick-knack things that you can do, you know. But anyhow, we restored all that stuff.

That's like I say myself and Jimmy, Jimmy Maycar and Robert Jr. We all stayed right there at the house. Everybody lived at Robert G's house at one point in time. Oh, yeah. It didn't matter if you lived here or out of state. Everybody lived, that was anybody lived at Robert G's house. Eating steaks? Eating steaks, yeah, with a T-bone.

Teabone. And sucked a bone. Yeah, sucked a bone. and watch Fred Samford, first thing in the movie. Yeah. You didn't go to work until you watched Fred Sanford. Now, boy, we've got to watch Fred Sanford first. Yeah, he was a big fan.

Oh, yeah. What about Dad calling over Concord Speedway and checking on Kelly and me? Yeah, you know, your dad, I don't know if you knew it or not, but he was always checking on you guys. Never knew it. He'd call either my mother or my father, whoever he could get a hold of at the time. Oh, yeah. He'd call, you know, when you got there to make sure you'd call. to make sure you got there.

Pull the shit. Oh yeah. And he would check, you know, after the heat race and stuff on you. And then after the race, he'd check on you again. And he always told them and said, listen, I don't know if they got any money or they can afford what they got, but just go ahead and give it to them. It don't matter if it's a Coca-Cola, a hamburger, a tires or whatever. Let me know what I owe you.

Me and Carrie had this open trailer that Daddy owned, this orange open trailer with a box on the front. And when we had the big 10 races, Henry would charge you 20 bucks on Friday and 20 bucks on Saturday. And me and Kerry, one of us would get in the box about a mile from the track and pull in, sign in, drive in, park. And then Carrie, I usually climbed in the box. And then Carrie would get out, open the door, and I'd start handing him tools, you know, like I, you know, just trying to. Hopefully, people think I'd just climb in here to get the tools out. I mean, you got it honest. We did what we could.

earned it. That was 40 bucks. Oh, I know. But you know the thing about it is, I know you didn't know it, but your dad was going to take care of him. But it didn't matter. I mean, one way or the other. I mean, you know what?

It's good that you did that. Yeah. Because that's something you talk about. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. That's the way I look at it. Well, man, I've known you a really long time. Yeah.

Known who you were. I did not know that we had so many, you know, connections. I didn't know that, I mean, I only recently learned by reading about the Metrolina Speedway that Dad had driven for you. your own car. The most I really knew about you was your family history, your dad's history, your cup career,

but didn't know the connection to Robert G., the connection to my dad, and how well you knew them and how much time you'd spent with them. And so this has been a real treat for me to have you come over here today and tell some of these stories and share some of these stories, man. It's amazing how small the world was back then. Everybody knew everybody. Well, you know, the land right across from my house where I live at now was my grandmother's land. And it was, I think it was like 17 acres.

Your grandfather bought that, the old home place. Robert? Or Robert, big Robert. Where do you live right now? Lake Shore Estate's in Concord. Okay, in Concord. Yeah. And he bought the old home place that's right there in front of my deal.

He was going to be my neighbor. You know what I'm saying? And my dad went down and cleaned it all off for him and really dressed the pond up and all that stuff. And him and Tom Darlin used to bring a truckload of rocks. and lay them out in the spillway there and make it all pretty nice. It was pretty nice. I kind of vaguely remember that.

Tom Darling used to drive my grandfather's super late model or late model over at Concord, the 601 Concord. Granddaddy had a race car that run over there for years. Your dad's car was always the best. I mean, if something didn't break,

you probably won. I mean, he was hard to beat. I mean, he knocked. me I have a lot of money. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know? Well, man, we appreciate it, Tony.

Yeah. Thank you for coming over here today and sharing with us. No problem. I enjoyed it. Yeah, yeah. Come back and see us again. I'll do it. Tony Furr on the Dale Jr. Download.

Man, I'm really excited to have Ally help us bring the guest segment every week. It's one of my favorite parts of the download. We get to talk to so many different people in racing, outside of racing. But everybody that comes in here, I want them to have had a good time. I want them to want to come back. I want them to feel like an ally to Dirty Mo Media. Thank you, Ally, for your continued support of the download and the entire Dirtymo Media team.

Check out Dirtymo Media. Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.