The Dale Jr. Download - 537 - Earnhardt's Flying Aces With Chocolate Myers & Kirk Shelmerdine

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with Chocolate Myers and Kirk Shelmerdine, both of whom were members of Dale Earnhardt’s legendary pit crew ‘The Flying Aces,’ to swap stories and discuss the current state of NASCAR. The group reflects on the early years working on Dale Earnhardt’s team. They share stories of Chocolate’s persona on the team, the time the pit crew saved a stranded #3 car stuck on the race track, and why you had to let Dale Earnhardt win in a game of cards. The group then discusses the current state of the sport and provides insight into what is in store for Richard Childress Racing's future. Chocolate also opens up about his recent health struggles and shares his perspective on staying positive through difficult days. Plus, Chocolate gives Dale Jr. a legendary gift that once belonged to his father.  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.

Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. We got kind of a unique situation here. Kirk Shelmerding called me several months ago and asked me if I ever had Chocolate Myers back on the show. He'd like to come in and be a part of that conversation. So they're both here today. Let's get Chocolate Myers and Kirk Shelmerdine in the studio and get started. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Everybody is Dale Jr.

Dale Jr., Dale Jr. back again. Hey everybody's Dougher back, back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. Bo Gengel's Studio. Hey, everybody. Chocolate Myers and Kirk Shalmardine. Whatever it is, you've got to be positive. And I think the positivity and the prayer and all the friends and family is what got me to where I'm at today. All right, we're here in the Bojangal studio, getting ready to bring in our guests.

And just want to remind you two bird dogs free with the promo. code Dale Jr., D-A-L-E-J-R from Bojangles. Go to Bojangles.com, or you can order on the app, and you'll get two free bird dogs using the promo code Dale Jr. Get them while they're hot. I want to thank Ally for bringing the guest segment to us every single week, and we have two allies here today, Chocolate Myers and Kirk Shelmerdine. Chocolate was on the show in 2020 during the pandemic on Zoom, so it'll be nice to get him

in the studio and be able to talk about kind of what he's been doing. He's been dealing with some health issues and we want to talk about that, see where he is. I think he's doing all right. We want to hear what any updates he might have for that. And then, you know, Kirk will be able to kind of bridge some of these stories together that we may tell today. You know, we've done some homework to bring some notes together and got some interesting things. You know, we had the, we had Ricky Rudd coming here and talk about his experience of racing for Richard Chalderas and how frustrated he was over how that resolved and dad coming in and sort of rooting him out of that ride. And, man, we'll get these guys' opinions about what they think about Ricky's emotions on that and everything else we want to talk about.

So let's go and get him in the studio. I was joking when you came in here. I was like, just follow the sound of my voice over this way. I turned 50 this year. We're getting fucking old, man. I got clothes that old. So chocolate, I got a text from Kurt several months ago, and he said, hey, man, if you have chocolate back on,

I'd like to come when you do that. He wanted to be here. And I, first off, wanted to know about y'all's relationship. You and Kurt. So when did y'all first meet? Well, I'll get this started because so I, to be honest with you, I go to Junior Johnson, right? And I say, Junior, I want to get back in racing, right? I've been away for a while and Junior says, well, I don't need any help right now.

He said, why don't you go down and talk to children? So I go down and see Childress and that day. And I said, look, I want to get back in race. And Richard said, well, I don't have anything I need you to do. But would you be willing to do something away from the race shop? of the race shop. I said, sure. So Richard had bought a bunch of old machinery that had burn up, and he gives me a job cleaning it up. So I'm away from the race shop, but I'm cleaning up this stuff. But when I'd get through in the afternoon, I'd run over to the race shop to get

things, and I'd see those guys. And they didn't have enough help, and I'd help them do a few things. And one thing led to another, and I met Kurt there, and Will and David. And next thing you know, we're getting ready to start a new year. And Kurt said, hey, he goes to Richard, and he says, we need some help he's going to be good help so i think that's the way it happened from my perspective that deal was he started showing up now and then like he said and one day it was well i'm working here now and we didn't really know him that well history wise i mean his family had been in racing since it started pretty much and but all we knew was this big old giant mean looking and we figured he was a biker or something, you know.

He says, well, I'm working here now. And we, okay, no, everybody was, nobody's going to question him. Is that the way it was? It was like, he's here and we better not piss him off. Look at him. Well, it goes back a little bit because, you know, I helped Richard back when Richard got started. You know, we were buddies at Bowman Gray Stadium, right? So, peanuts and programs in the grandstands.

and I went to Daytona with Richard in 1969. Yeah. So the story is, I tell people I say, how long have you been working for Richard? I started in 1969. I started getting paid in 1983. But the good news is he's still paying me, so it's all good. Yeah.

Where do you live now, Charlie? Well, we're back and forth, mostly, most of the time now, is down to North Carolina Coast. I love it down there, got a lot of friends. A lot of racing people down there. My gosh. Really? Oh, my gosh.

Yeah. Look, they all went to Myrtle Beach, right? They love to talk about racing. Still a lot of them down there, a lot of them involved. And, yeah, I like it. But I still go back and forth there to Richard Childers Racing Museum, spend quite a bit of time up there when we have an opportunity to do that. You helped a lot with the museum over the past, you know,

decade or so or even more trying to kind of curate all the content in there and helping them create what is a pretty awesome experience. I've been there, and it's very well done. and you still have an influence on that? Well, I do a little bit, right? And once again, I go up there. Look, it's kind of easy to have a beautiful place like that when you've got the history that we've got there.

And I tell everybody, you know, there's over 50 years of NASCAR history in that building. It's three different parts of it, right? It's the part that talks about your dad with the three car. There's the 50-year-plus history. There's the wildlife and conservation area. And you can go to the race shop. I tell everybody, you can see it all when you come to the Richard Children's Rice Museum. We got it all.

It's really, it's really a very, very special place. Yeah. So getting back to the origins of y'all's relationship and how it all started, I remember being, I remember having that same thought about chocolate when I saw him. I was like, I bet that's the meanest guy on pit road. He's certainly the meanest guy on this pit crew. And there was some pretty serious faces among that group between you and Will and even David. Everybody was pretty dang serious.

We cultivated the little edginess of the whole team. And your dad was fit right into that as well. And especially chocolate's persona, you know, as far as the other teams, anybody outside goes, it's like, you better not miss him. I mean, we don't even know what he's going to do. Right. They all played it up a little bit. Yeah.

And he's a high profile personality. You know, he's outgoing. And we all knew as time went on learned it. His heart's as big as the rest of him. You know, he wouldn't hurt a fly. I don't think. He even throws a fish back. He catches one.

But of course we didn't let anybody else know that and it was fun. In the notes here, it was mentioned that you ended up befriending Jack Rausch. And there was, you know, there's competition among teams, right? And there was some time, there was some years where Dad

and Mark was really tough, come close to beating Dad a couple times in some championship battles. But nobody, but Mark was kind of, or not Mark, but Jack was kind of, tough to get to know, right? Well, I'll say this. Jack was strictly business, right, when it came to the racetrack.

Yeah. And Jack had something that nobody else had. And when I say that, we all had, you know, the transporters were coming in and everybody had a lounge and Jack Roush had a machine shop in his lounge. He didn't have a lounge at all. So we'd need to build something or do something at the racetrack, bend a piece of metal or whatever. So we'd have to go over to Jack's hauler.

and I just kind of hit it off with him. Look, he was an old Ford guy, and he loved to bring those old cars, especially when we went to Michigan. And during that time, I was a crank phonograph guy, Victrola, if you will, right? What do you mean? The old crankup record player, right? Yeah, he was into that. And I was into that, and I collected them. I had a guy locally here that helped me out a little bit, and I would try to find those,

and I would talk to Jack about those old fords, and he would talk to me about those old Vic. trolle. So we had a really good relationship, but one of the things, one of the things, I met Jack, I think it was at Daytona one time, and your dad had done something on the racetrack, and, and, and, and, and, and I come into the garage area, your dad comes into the garage area. I'm right there with him, making sure that things are going to be okay. And Jack Rouse is standing there, and he is mad, he is fit to be tied, and he says, a tilt, I'd love to. have him driving for me. It was mad, but he got over it real quick.

Oh, yeah. That's hilarious. What are, I mean, did y'all ever have a situation where the, you know, the persona became reality in the garage with other teams, any kind of mix-ups or dust-ups where chocolate really did have to kind of be the guy that settle things down or tamper down the tempers or the angers? Actually, he'd calm us down a little bit. Really?

Not so much everybody else. He was enough of a deterrent, deterrent, just kind of to look at him. Nobody wanted to come in our pits and start anything, that's for sure. Yeah. During a race or during the heat of something. But Dad was always given plenty of opportunities for that to happen. You know, Dad was very physical. I love that about Dad and.

Everybody would cuss him, but they sure would make a seat for him if it would. We had a guy to jump in the truck one day. and I won't mention any names, jumped in that truck because Dale had moved. I think it was Harry Gann out of the way, right? And he jumped in the truck and he said a few things.

I said, hey, you've got something to say to him or about him. You need to tell him. You don't need to come in here and tell us, right? Now, of course, we were going to back him up. It didn't matter. And I think Cecil Gordon said it best one day. He said, I don't care if Dale puts it in reverse

and backs into you, it's still going to be your fault. So we were 110% behind him, no matter what decision he made, no matter what he had to do. And all of each other too, right? That's what we went there for. Yeah. Chocolate, were you around at all when Ricky Rudd drove for Richard? Yeah.

And so, you know, I had Ricky come in a couple years ago. I saw it. Golly. So I remember when Ricky came to the lakehouse and dad and him were friendly, right? And this was when I think Ricky was driving y'all's car. And then so all these years later, like, you know, 25 years later, Ricky Rudd, I mean, heck, almost 40 years later, Ricky Rudd is still, you know, he's still, that's his real, and that frustration over feeling like Dale took that from. him right right um you guys were you guys live that out where um so rick ricky i want to say to the

listeners like rickie feels like that he you know he kind of helped you guys get that team off the ground when when richard decided to finally be an owner full time and not drive the car and you had a couple great years of building with with piedmont and rickie rudd and dad decides he wants to come back right and him and richard maintain that friendship and rickie rudd's going to to go drive Bud Morris car, which ended up being a pretty good deal for Ricky, but I think Ricky, even today, still feels like that he

wonders what would have happened if he'd have been to stick that out. And then they go, you know, we know years later they go to North Willsborough and then, you know, Ricky and Daddy get together in turn one, and that was kind of one of the moments that cost Daddy the championship that year. That sure did, yeah. Right?

Y'all's, what's y'all's memory and feelings about, I guess, your time with Ricky and then how him and dad developed that sort of animosity. I'm sure he did feel a little put out

and he's got a right to do that. I mean, he was, he did, one of the things Richard wanted to do early in that time when it started 83 and so was built an entire car

chassis and everything in-house. Welding up all the frame and roll cage and everything. We just felt we could control things better and tailor everything towards what we wanted. We didn't know what we wanted at the time. So we went through a lot of experimentation and changed different designs around. And Ricky really was a big help during that. I try to give him credit every time we talk about it because it was true. He loved development and he loved to go test.

And he was very precise about how he drove the car and how he approached things. And it made him a really good qualifier, you know, because the qualifying is kind of one of those laps where you just tried to do everything as perfect as you can. But, I mean, we'd go testing and we'd cut different row bars, different ways, and different bracing in the front end and different kinds of things that we were just wanting to try. out and he loved it and he was good at it. We got really good feedback from him over the course of those two years. We won our first pole positions. We won our first race with him out there at Riverside and he was one heck of a road race driver, that's for sure. But he was the progress

that we made over those first two, three years from being a kind of an independent racer like Richard had been for all those years, the transition from that to actually being able to contend with the big teams, we always called everybody else the big teams because we just weren't there yet. And Ricky, it wouldn't have gone the same had we had a different driver the whole time, I don't think, because we made a lot of progress in those years and now. You've got to give him credit for that. Yeah, for me, I feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world because I told you about going to junior Johnson, he sends me to children. I come in about two weeks after they won their first race.

So I only spent a short amount of time there in 83 with Ricky there. But like in two weeks after I come to work there, I'm standing in Victory Lane at Martinsville, and I've thought about that. So many people never have that opportunity. But that was pretty darn cool. But then again, I remember going to Riverside, the last race of the year, I remember your dad coming over hanging out with us because they'd already done the deal. Everybody knew what was going to happen next year.

And look, I'm a North Carolina guy. I'm an old school guy. I'd heard all the stories. I've listened to all the things about your dad. And I was absolutely pumped up because, you know, he had a reputation. Yeah. And his reputation and my reputation were pretty close to the same. And I was pumped up about it.

Do you remember how Ricky was acting? about all of that? Well, I remember going to Riverside for the last race of the year with Ricky. And once again, they already knew what was getting ready to happen. And I forgot what somebody did, but we left a rag under the hood and it caught on fire. And we had been out having a good time the night before. And Ricky wasn't too happy about that. So that's all I can remember.

But we had, I think the guy that actually did it was the only guy in the group that wouldn't have been out party, and that was David Smith. You know, David was, he was our, well, he was our guy that tried to keep us in line, even though he had a hard time doing it. Yeah. And so, years later when Dad and Ricky had a couple run-ins was there, yeah, I mean, did y'all ever have any conversations with Ricky about, hey man, you know, we're your friends. We were together. You know, we don't need to bounce off each other. No.

Nothing. No. No, they were all enemies, even if they were best friends there. We were there to beat them and get their money. We always went, you know, I remember children when we were getting ready to go. Those other guys there to take your paycheck, boys, they're there to take your paycheck. So, you know, we got along okay with some of the guys in the garage area, maybe not in the garage area, but maybe away from the Roger a little bit.

But no, man, we went, we went there and it was, it was sometimes a little bit awkward when you had to walk in the racetrack the next day, you know, or the next week when, when your dad moved somebody out of the way. Yeah. You know, but, but listen, the other thing is the people now that talk about your dad talk about him in the wrong way because they think that every time that he went to the racetrack, that he wrecked somebody or moved somebody, and that wasn't the case. But, but when he did it.

It brought a lot of attention. Yeah. Why do you think, why do you think 86 and 87 were the most, I guess, for lack of a better way to describe it, you brought it up? Why do you think, I feel like when I think about its career, like he was going through something in 86 or 87, and it was not, it was basically like,

I'm here to prove I'm the best, right? And it was get to hell out of my way. You know, he never really, really, I think, you know, he didn't race that way in the years before that, even then, like, you know, in 79, 80, he was, you know, I did this, I studied him for a piece or project that I had in 79. And he was young trying not to screw it up, you know, and listening to Richard Petty and Kell Yarborough and all these guys tell him what to do right. And then, but something flipped, even after 84, 85, in 86 and 87, man, he was.

aggressive as hell. You know, and then it kind of tailored back off and he became more measured. You know, he still would put the bumper to you with the black car, but he was a little bit smarter about it, but it was like those two years, 86 and 87, are two of my favorite years because y'all dominated.

They're my favorites too. But damn, he was rough and didn't give a crap what you thought about it. I think we finally had something for him. Yeah. Dale had already won a championship, and then that team pretty much got sold right out from money there, and he sort of felt not great about that, I'm sure.

And the first year, so he was with us for a few races there one year, and then he took that break. And by the time he came back, we were getting a little stronger, but we still had some problems to work through in 84 and 85, and by the time 86 came, we had something for him. Yeah. I mean, we had her stuff ironed out pretty well, and we had some pretty good setups for a lot of the tracks,

and probably not coincidentally, it happened to be some of your dad's favorite tracks, too, where we were always the strongest. And he knew this was his time to say, I deserve that first championship, and I deserve some more of them, and now I have the, you know, our pick crew was getting to be pretty doggone good by then, too.

Everything was going our way, and he saw that we can't squander this time. You never know how long it's going to last. Don't you agree, chocolate? I think that was... Well, look, go back and look at those numbers. They were all our races to win, and if somebody else won it's because we screwed something up.

11 wins out of 28 races, right? And you go back and look at it. I'm just telling you, and I go back and use the what-if. If we didn't have a few things to go wrong, we'd have them all. I'm sorry, I'm just telling you, because we barely missed out of Daytona. We come out of Daytona, we win four in a row. Then we go to Atlanta, had a two-lap lead in Atlanta, had an alternator go out,

and then come back and win, what, three more in a row, and then have a racer, then come back and win three more. It was unbelievable. Six out of the first eight races in the 87. And could have won them all. Could have won them all. Richard Petty and Dale Inman both tell you, we're talking about 200 wins and all that. they say we gave away more of them than we won.

Yeah. You know, just little things that could have gone different or should have been done better. It happens. Yeah. I just remember him sort of, there was a lot of moments. But I think, you know, the deal with DW at Richmond where they crashed into the wall at turn three sort of set on a set you guys on a course. And dad, I think in that experience, You know, there are things that had happened before them,

but I think going through that experience sort of made him say, okay, that's who you want me to be, if that's who you think I am. And it just seemed like he raced with real aggression, and, you know, he had a really great race car. You talked about the awkwardness at times going into the garage the next day or the next week. there was the many run-ins with Jeppadine during that time that got pretty, you know, pretty colorful. Was there ever a time, I guess, when you thought

dad might have stepped over the line? Did y'all ever have a moment where he came to you and said, all, guys, that one's on me, you know, because you all had to back him up, no matter, like you say. It didn't matter. If he backed into somebody, it didn't matter. I remember a couple things. Did he ever come to you and go,

guys, I got to send some shit. I shouldn't have got to sit too. I remember him stepping into the trailer one time and going like, and this is your practice. Boys, I just spun Bowdine out and he don't even know it. Right? I remember that. But I wanted to go back here real quick

because this is important story goes back to what we were talking about earlier. When they have the deal at Richmond, right? Yeah. And Darrell tried to wreck Dale. no, excuse me, wait a minute, Dale Ray. Anyway, we can look at that a lot of different ways. They were beating them and banging pretty good before the crash. Oh, yeah.

But I was standing there beside the car to make sure nobody got to him, and the only person that got to him was Stevie, and she was pretty mad. Really? Oh, my gosh. What did you say? She was pointing at, well, the only thing I remember her saying, she was pointing, and she was going, you, you. But anyway, we had all driven.

up there together in the company van, right? And Kurt will remember this. I remember leaving that place, and we were out there on the highway in the van, stopped in traffic. Stopped in traffic. And we see on the other side of the fence, we see some guys coming, and they've got the hood off of Darrell's car, right? Yeah.

And they're walking across there, and we stopped that van and slid that side door open and waved at them with our wrangler. Yes. on, oh my gosh. They were trying to climb that fence and we were just laughing. That's hilarious. You know what?

I have that car, Darrell's car. Oh, yeah. It's in the woods. Oh, yeah. Yes, my graveyard. Somebody still had it. Wow.

And it's been outside. You ever put a magnet to it? I should. Yeah. I'm sure he dropped all the lead out of the rail. That was one of those things that probably wasn't necessary to happen, but it had to happen, and it was an inflection point, like you said.

Daryl was in Junior's car and a lot of tracks, but the short tracks especially, he pretty much owned them. And when you're competing for dominance, I mean, you got to take out the biggest, baddest guy. Yeah. Even if it may be in the best situation for the points or for the whole general thing,

but you got to establish, yourself as the number one guy. Yeah. Sort of at whatever cost. And that was one of those times that just showed up. Yeah. There was another time at Richmond where he wrecks the car and practice, and you guys took it back to Bugsy hair.

The throttle hung. Oh, the throttle hung. That wasn't his part, yeah. So the car got crashed to practice. Y'all took it back and rebuilt it at a late model, I forget the guy's names. Somewhere they had one of those Kansas Jack things. They had a late model shop down in Richmond. Framed machine.

Late Mall Stock guy, local guy, and straightened it out and took it back over the next day and ended up winning the race that weekend. I'll say this. A lot of people thought, and even that was a great example, that we went back and we did something to it other than fix it, right? Cheated it up. I'll bet you any amount of money that we had the most legal race cars at the racetrack. And talking about Daryl and those guys, I'm going to tell you right now, if your dad was racing the stuff that they were racing, he would have won them all, right?

And here's what you had. You had Richard Childress, a guy that's finally made it to the big time. You got Dale Earnhardt that those two guys come together. Richard would not let you do anything crazy to those race cars because he didn't want to screw up a good thing and he had a good thing. and he had a good thing. There were a few cardinal rules. Oh, yeah. Really?

Yeah, we cannot get involved with this. And because we, like, killed him so many times, our car was probably under more scrutiny than others. He's right. I remember once Dick Beatty came on the garage PA. At Daytona. Is that where it was? He was there, Talley.

He says, anybody wants to see the three car go through the templates come to the scale? Really? Oh, yeah. They announced it? Well, what had happened was so many people. Because everybody's complaining, you know. Yeah, they're complaining to NASCAR. You're letting these guys do this.

These guys are doing that. You're letting them get by with this and that. And Dick Beatty, by the way, Dick Beatty, a guy that I absolutely loved and a tough guy. A tough guy. Motorcycle razor from back in the day gets on that PA and says at whatever time it is, the three cars coming through inspection. If you want to see it, be there. So it was funny.

That's hilarious. The 1987 Winston is one of my favorite moments from that era. I feel like that if you watch that race, you obviously can tell that Bill had the faster car. Dad was maybe second, third best. I think even Richmond might have had a little bit better car at times. But dad would not give up the idea of winning that race. And I don't know, I think if we were talking about the crescendo of aggression, right?

and his willingness to do whatever it takes, that was like the peak moment of y'all's time together where I don't know how he does it, but in those 10 laps, he blocked, cut off, defended, took every swipe and jab that he could to win that race in a car that didn't deserve to win. It was a good race car. No doubt, but damn Bill was fast.

And blamed it all on Bill. Yeah. And blamed it all on Bill. Yeah. And listen. And we were hitting right next to him. Oh, yeah. I'm standing next to earnings.

I know it. That was one of the things that I thought about. So they get the restart for the last 10 laps. They go down into turn one and Bill and Jeff spin out, right? And dad kind of clips Jeff and Jeff and Bill Wreck. And dad goes, hell, damn. Jeff wrecked the hell out of bill going down. And I'm like, wait a minute, Dad, you know you did that.

But he was like so, you know, he was so convinced. He was not going to admit to anything. Yeah. You know, once again, when that race was over, Childress is going, go with him. Go, go, stay with him. So I remember we walk across the racetrack. The gates open.

We got to go up to the press box. And we're walking up to the press box, right? And I'm just kind of staying behind. And you got people that are chair. and you got people that are booing. Which was unnecessary. I mean, unusual because you wouldn't go to the, you know, you wouldn't go dad to the press box after a win. No, no.

But you were bodyguard. But I remember going up there and turning around and looking back and seeing those tracks in the grass. Because, you know, in the pits, you don't know. You know he went into the dirt. You don't know how far. And I remember looking back and I'm going like, dude, he had four wheel. He wasn't just two wheels off in the dirt, man. He was in that grass and, you know, I mean, the list goes on and on and on of the great moves and the things he was able to do.

Yeah. I wonder if how close y'all got to being in a confrontation that day. Close. Yeah. So, like, what was the situation and scenario? Because I remember, you remember the, we were up in the suite in term one and they had these giant big, faces on these giant banners of all the drivers down the back pit road. And I'm trying to pay attention to who's walking where because I'm thinking that,

you know, y'all are going to, there's going to be a physical confrontation somehow, some way. So I'm trying to watch. I'm just, you know, I don't know how old I am, I guess 13 or so. And I'm watching, where's dad? Where's he going? Who's with him? Who's trying to get to him?

Make sure nobody has a baseball bat or something. All right, you had, you had Bill that's mad at Dale, you had Ernie that's mad at Childress, and you had Butch Stevens, who, by the way, ran the parts store, right, brought the parts truck to the racetrack. And was the jackman for Bill Elliott. And he comes with a flat tire and comes running up there and throws that flat tire into our pits. Yeah. It almost went then, right? But it didn't.

And I think the reason. why is and once again those guys from Dawsonville all of them that worked on that car, we were all buddies away from the race. We might have been closer to them than any of the other crews because we always partnered with each other for

several years. One more thing I wanted to tell you. You mentioned that big billboard that R.J. Reynolds had done with all the guys. After the race was over, somebody went down and just like absolutely destroyed the one of Dale. Really? He had Reynolds to make him a

other one because if I'm not mistaken, he got it headed over at the race shop. That's hilarious. Do you remember it? I'm sure that he got it and carried it and it might have been over at the old barn or somewhere. Oh, yeah. That's funny. I remember in the All-Star race, somehow dad ended up on the apron and turn one with flats. And y'all, y'all ran down there.

This was one of the coolest moments. No, wasn't flats. The tires came off. What else came off? Yeah. Right. Some miscue and took off with no lug nuts and got about 100 yards. I think what had happened is somehow Dad got a tire rub or something.

They were coming to the end of the first stage, right front tire blue, and he hit the wall into turn one after they crossed the finish line. And so he kind of barely grazed the wall. And then something had happened where y'all would come down pit road and y'all were in a hurry. And there was some miscommunication. Try not to get lapped. Yep. Yeah. I remember, again, being in the suite, we're looking right over the top of Dad's car.

Now, this is a sucky moment, right? Dad's sitting on apron, tires off race car. But these are also some of the coolest moments. Y'all come running down Pet Road with Jacks and Tires. No one else does this. And only the flying Aces. And he's first. Yeah, I got the shirt on because you guys were,

y'all were a y'all had celebrity y'all were to the fans were popular y'all were there weren't other teams like this and here y'all come to save the day place goes nuts place starts cheering two things and and i'm going to back up a little bit to get to this point we were at bristol one time and forgot what happened dale spun out anyway on the front stretch car don't start and we're waiting, right? We're behind the wall. Car don't start. And he's trying, you know, they're on the radio, get her started, it won't start, it won't start, it won't start, it won't start. And Dale's screaming, push me, come push me. Y'all come push me.

Nobody's moving. He said, boys, we're talking about a championship here. And when he said that, every man on that team jumped over the wall, out onto the racetrack to push that. Now, the NASCAR inspector is trying to get us back away from that, right? But we pushed the car. Now I want to fast forward to the Charlotte deal. Bobby Moody, which Bobby was the body man and the catch-can man or whatever.

So Bobby was down there too, so they get the record down there to pick this car up to drag it off. Guy's got his big wrecker hooks out there and he's trying to hook them up and Bobby's unhooking them and he hooks them again. Bobby finally, I think, takes those record hooks and tosses them over the fence. So the record guy don't have a way to hook to the car. Then we get it, Jack. Now, once again, for the people out there that did not like those things, both of those incidents resulted in a penalty, right? Wasn't much of a penalty, but it was a penalty.

Who was the NASCAR inspector, always down there at the end of Pit Road, a tall guy with almost white hair, nice old guy. He commanded a stop sign, and he was kind of in control of pit road. and they'd been telling NASCAR was telling him on the radio don't let them get down there to that car I forget the guy's name

Jimmy Cox or before Jimmy Cox he was kind of the cowboy from down in Alabama but it was another guy before that but anyway and he was telling us later he said they're yelling at me to stop y'all

and chocolate's running full speed at me with a tire in each hand what am I going to do? And the rest of them right behind me and to back him up, you know, we did what we needed to do. Yeah. That was one of the coolest things about being a fan of dads.

And this really didn't happen with anyone else in a sport. But when there was a bad race or a moment like that or dad would have to go behind the wall for whatever reason, when that car came back out from behind the wall, the place would cheer. Not because just, not just because it was dad, but it was because of y'all, the team and y'all's notoriety and that,

and the reputation y'all had for never giving up, right? And getting every, gonna get every point. Right. Going to get every freaking point. One time, y'all broke an engine at Charlotte, broke a cam. not allowed to change motors, but y'all changed the cam in the motor. That was a Dover. That was a Dover.

But it started at Charlotte. We broke a cam at Charlotte. All right. And we couldn't fix it. And Richard Childers said the next time that we have a problem like that, you better have everything on that truck to fix that problem. And sure enough, we go to Dover. I don't know, two or three weeks later, break a cam in that thing and come down.

I still think to this day it's one of the most incredible things we did. You've got to be a little bit of a gearhead to understand. It's destroyed the engine. They've got a rat tail file up there filing out the lifter holes to get the lifters back in it. Your shit, listen, and you know this.

I did that. If you wrecked a car or you needed to work on a car, he's out of the car and you better stay out of his way because he knows how to weld it. He knows how to fix it. He knows how to straighten it. He knows how to build that engine. And he's right in the middle of it.

When we crank that thing up, Dale, it's the craziest thing. When we cranked it up after we fix it, it's barely running. It's spitting and sputtering until the lifters got where they would actually go up and down and went out there. And Richard tells him, Dale, let's just try to finish this thing out. And he goes out there once again, running with the leaders. And we end up blowing it up again, but probably picked up 10 or 15 spots back then. Richard goes, don't turn it over 7,000.

I know how connecting rods are all bend it up. They're not going to stand it. About maybe midway through the second lap, he's already passed that rule. And I think he passed leaders made up like two or three laps. Yeah. And it only ran another 50 laps or something maybe, but it was just the coolness factor was worth it. Even though it probably didn't do a lot for us. It did a lot for us as far as everybody's,

perception of we're going to be tough, it don't matter what happens. That's right. I think that y'all were different in that aspect. Every other team would have loaded it up. And, you know, you'd wreck at Michigan and pull out on pit road, all the fenders and hood and everything gone, cut off, and go out there and run laps, knowing most teams would have packed it up, right? And I don't know.

I just remember many, many times. that car coming out of the garage after being behind the wall for whatever reason and the place just going wild because they knew that if it could be done, y'all were going to still do it. One of the things, and you just mentioned, that I love to tell everybody, and one of the things I'm personally proud of, and I know everybody on the team is proud of, I don't think we ever left one single point at the racetrack.

No. I mean, we didn't win them all, but we got them all that we could. Yeah. And it was the little things, and I'm going to tell you, Richard made us be prepared. Get anything and everything that you need to fix this car if it breaks. And I think we did a really good job with that. And look, it wanted some championships.

Yeah, for sure. You know, talk about, I guess, you know, we get to a point where this guy right here is starting to drive race cars. and I remember my I remember even as a kid being like I like this but I don't like this you know because I knew that the more he did it the more he was going to love it the more he's going to want to do it which eventually right he ends up you know becoming a driver himself I guess I want to hear chocolate your your perspective of that transition right Kurt

has an opportunity to realize a dream of his it's going to mean that this thing y'all been doing for over 10 years is going to come to an end what were your emotions in that throughout that process well a couple of things when Kurt started driving

we were excited about it as well but I think one of the most surprising things that that that that ever happened uh is when richard called everybody in the race shop said y'all gather around kurt's got something that he wants to tell you and kurt got up there and said hey guys at the end of the year i'm going to be done and and we didn't have a hint of it didn't have a clue that's that's his nature uh you know he he he holds those cords close to his vest but uh that surprised all of us in a great way but but him driving uh i never thought that his driving career was going to end up doing what he did.

Remember that. They started those sportsmen cars down in Charlotte, and we went down in the best time. I can remember, we pitted the car for him for a couple of times. Richard was like, you guys just help him as much as you can not to get killed. Right, not to get hurt. Well, let me, let me, I'm glad you mentioned that. Richard even spotted one time and he wasn't very good at.

I'm glad you mentioned that because I'm going to tell a little story here. Going to and from the racetrack, Kurt always thought he was a race car driver. and he would do some things going to and from the racetrack that you'd be going like, I can't believe he did that. So Children's told us one day, he said, one day somebody's going to pull him out of the car and hurt him. He said, we need him too bad for him to kill him. He says, if they start beating him, let him stay on him for a while,

then get him off of him. Let him get his nose busted, but don't get it much further. I never knew that, by the way. I don't know what you're talking about. so you know that was that how did how did you feel about having to you know adjust to that something in your life changing like that without you having any control over it I know he's sitting at the table here but this is this is something that I've experienced in my own life where man you get to doing something and you just think that's going to be the way it is it's going to last forever

and one day you have to move on without it and it's not your choice right and you have to figure out a way to come to terms of that you've been working with Kurt and he's been the leader of the team for all these years what was the what was I guess did you and Will and David and those guys get together did y'all have conversations about how to how y'all felt about it yeah and I think that we were all stunned and surprised. And it wasn't one of those deals were things were going bad or we're having bad. I mean, everything was normal. And then Kurt, he makes that choice.

But look, I think in this business that things sometimes happen for a reason, right? Maybe that happened for a reason. Don't know. But, you know, then you've got to think about what do we do now. what's next? Who's going to fill those shoes, right? And, well, we had to make some adjustments and do some things, but Kurt was a guy that, that, look, I had an opportunity not long ago to, before he was into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, remind everybody that he had four of those championships with his name on him, and he was very deserving and no telling what would have happened,

could have happened, we'll never know. Yeah, no for sure. And rightfully so, was inducted into that Hall of Fame and which you gave a hell of a speech I got to add. It was fun. Yeah. I was kind of frozen. I thought, you know, I'd never been a big stand up in front of everybody, but you get older and you just kind of don't worry about it anymore. But it was fun and I wrote the whole thing and it was twice that long to start with.

Yeah. Yeah. But talking about quitting. And 92, actually, that year was a horrible year. We didn't run good anywhere. I think the only race we won was a World 600, and it was just because it was that long a race. And about 150 miles ago, Dale got really pissed off.

And just, he ran the heck out of that car and just outlasted everybody the last 100 miles, I think. Because we didn't have a winning car that day either. sort of ended up that way because attrition and some things and the worst it would run the hard, he would flog it, the car and I guess we finally got it where it would kind of go okay. But I was at a loss for, we weren't fast enough anywhere. You know, that was part of it.

But the guys had to, yeah, it's good to ask them what they thought about it. and they were surprised for sure, I think, but it kind of made sense on some level, too. Yeah. And they were able to do better after that year. Well, they won two championships the next two years. So whatever it took, things got better than certainly didn't they were that year.

We were talking about dad and working on the car and getting out of his way and all that stuff. There's a story about Kurt drilling a hole and dad's finger. How'd that happen? Yeah, well, that was a Charlotte test, the best I could remember.

And once again, him out of the car, going to help Kurt. When he helps you, you know, pretty much watch out for his elbows. Kirk's drilling a hole

for a pop rivet. Your dad's on the other side of the fender the best I can remember. And it, but it don't stop him, right? He drills a hole in his hand and he cusses him a little bit,

and then we finished the job. Oh, yeah, He was like that day. I'm just telling you. He's, the drill bit came loose. So he's grabbed a hold of the chuck. He's tightening up the thing. And it's one of those drills at the 90-degree thing

where the whole handle of it's the trigger. And he goes, hold that thing. And he's tightening the screws. And don't hold it. Don't hit the trigger. And about that time it did. And it just lays all his fingers up. I was telling the story on this show last week.

I think, where he climbed up in a tree to cut the tree down. He was at Joe Whitlock's house cutting a tree down out of Joe's backyard to make away for a big deck that Joe was going to build. And Dad climbed up in the tree, tied himself up in there. It was up in the tree for about 20 minutes. Clean this thing down, right? And got all the big limbs out, and he's come down, he's going to saw the tree at the stump. And he comes walking over, and he's got them tan leather farm gloves on. and it's tore across the back side tore up really bad and there's like all this little white foam

coming out of the glove you know that was inside the material of the glove it pulls it off and his hand is sliced from from pinky to pointer finger all across his top of his and it was jagged and ripped and the I said damn daddy I mean I didn't say that I was only seven or eight years old but I was like dad when did that happen he goes I just got up there I was like How did you not freak out, just climb right back down and want to go to the hospital? He just stayed up there and sawed all his limbs and didn't even look at it. You know, we got into the debate over the last few years. He's been about drivers doing things when they're racing for a championship or whatever.

Chase gets hurt, right, going skiing. And, you know, we got the guys in the sprint cars, this, that, the other. But I'm going to tell you, Dale never did do any of that. But when you were getting down towards the end of the year racing for a championship, and he would send you, somebody would take a picture of him hunting in the very tip top of a tree. You're just going to like, oh my gosh, what if something happens? But, you know, the only incident was the wrist incident that we had to finish up a year with. Where he punched that fella?

Yeah. Yeah, he broke his hand. Deer hunter, deer hunter. He turned a bulldozer over. He showed up to his shop one time. He's talking kind of like this, because he's got a bunch of ribs. Dude, so I didn't even know he broke the ribs. I was telling that story too.

Yeah, he, so I come home from school. I'm driving my little S-10 pickup truck. I'm 16 years old. I pull down there and I see him moving dirt. He's, he built that log home on Highway 3 next to D.I and he's down there moving dirt in the front, what's going to be the front yard of this place. And he's cleaning it out. And I'm sitting, and he pushed this big tree over and the roots come out of the ground.

and flip that DC-9 over whatever bulldozer was. Flip giant bulldozer flips it over on its side. I think that he's really badly hurt. And I take off out of my truck, come jumping, running over, jumping over all kinds of debris and twigs and broken limbs and all kinds of stuff he's been riding running over. And he comes crawling out of that thing. He goes, hey, let's get your truck, hurry.

He jumps, we run, get my truck. And he has me run him to the back of the property. gets on another tractor, runs that damn tractor over and flips his tractor back up on its tracks to start it. So he's like, we got to get this thing flipped back over. All the gas is going to run out of it. He ain't going to fire up.

He gets it fired up, bumb bum, gets it cleaned up, gets the engine clear it out, and keeps going. Oh, yeah. I didn't know he hurt his ribs. He probably didn't know that at that time.

Yeah, look, he never gave up. He never gave up on anything. And, And you were talking a few minutes ago. We went to a lot of races where it was just his desired determination, all those things that got us to where we were at. You know, the great examples, cleaning the windshield there at Richmond.

We went to Charlotte one year. End of the race, probably had a 10th or 12th place car. Comes to the end of the race. And he says, Richard said, stay out. We'll get the best we can. He says, hey, I'm coming down, put me some tires on here. I think we finished second that day. You know, he never, ever, ever gave up.

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X, Instagram, and TikTok. I want to talk to your chocolate about what you've been going through. Yeah. You know, a lot of people be glad to hear you talking on this episode, and you look great physically. But you've had some challenges in your life. What was the first, I guess, what was the first sign that, you know, you needed to take something serious?

what was what was going on so I had a stomach ache right and I'd had a stomachache for a few days and and maybe a few weeks right and I finally go to the doctor to actually go to the emergency room and they look me over and they go well it looks like you got a um maybe just an infection want you to do this that and the other but we also want you to go to the doctor um get a check up right and so I go to the next doctor is this a so when you said you had a pain in your stomach. What was the, was it a dull pain, sharp pain? Oh, just, it's a little bit of both, sometimes sharper. But, but that had nothing to do with it. That, that was an ulcer. So I go do the, the, did you ever had ulcers before?

Never. So I go to the doctor and then they do the check, you know, they do the colonoscopy and the industry. Yeah, anyway, they do the check, right? Yeah. The doctor comes back. He says, man, he said, we, we, we got on an ulcer. We're going to give you something for that, but everything else looked really, really good. But we are going to send a little something off to the lab, right? Okay, biopsy. Do the biopsy? But he said, man, you're good.

Don't worry about anything. So about two weeks later, I get a phone call and it says, hey, we've got you an appointment with an oncologist. I'm going to like, I know what that means, right? So I go to the oncologist and they sit there and they say, look, you've got stage four mantle cell lymphoma. And here's what we're going to be able to do for you to try to help you out a little bit. And what they told me wasn't good.

And so my wife. Well, they told me that might get you a few more years, right? And that's not what you want to hear. And then my wife, Karen, she starts, she gets involved. And the next thing we know, we've got us appointment at Duke, right? And I go to Duke and the doctor there says, hey, we're about a thing. We got medicines now. We're going to be able to do some things.

So I do six months of intense chemo. And when I say intense, that's four days a month for six months in a row. And I'm going there. And that was pretty tough, right? That was pretty tough. I remember going back to the race shop and somebody said, what's that like for you? And I said, well, it would be like that you went over and got you a gallon lacquer thinner and then went over there and got you some gasoline and maybe some more of these

chemicals and put a funnel in your mouth and let somebody pour it down your throat. But I go through, I get my six months done, then I got a couple of months off, and then I go back and they've got me in remission. I still go now once every two months. Got a little poured up here. They still give me a little chemo once every two months. I take an oral chemo, but the folks at Duke University, the Duke Hospital down there, it's been fantastic. So like I said, I'm in remission. I feel good.

I have no issues. They're going to try to keep me in remission. and so far so good. So for all the fans out there and the people, thoughts and prayers from everybody, thank you so much. The main thing, and I'll tell us to anybody out there

that's going through anything, I was positive the whole time. Somebody come up to tell me a bad story. I said, I don't even want to hear. If you don't have something good to say, I don't want to hear it. Because I think that whatever it is, you've got to be positive.

And I think the positive, and the prayer and all the friends and family is what got me to where I met today. The four days a week. Yeah. Four days a month. Four days a month. Sorry. How much weight did you lose through that process?

Oh, yeah. Right? Well, I think I ended up losing about 40 pounds, right? And it didn't take long to lose that, but it hadn't taken long to get it back. But I went to the doctor the other day and they said, you're going through it. I said, I'm feeling a little bit. tired the afternoon. I don't know whether it's I'm getting fatter, I'm getting older, or it's the medicine, and he said it's probably all three. When you got the information that you had this

going on, I could imagine there's a moment where you're thinking that this can't be happening to me, right? I'm pretty sure that you, I know you're tough and I know that you, I know that you've been through a lot in racing and you're pretty you know pretty confident about who you are but in that moment when you get this bad news you know there's there's got to be a a minute where you're sitting there thinking this can't be my fate i know you said you wanted to be positive but i'm certain that there was a moment when you thought certainly not this isn't you know certainly this isn't what's going to happen to me. How do you manage?

And then you know, you got, you know, you talked about your wife. She's going to, she's going to hear this news. She's got to process this news. Certainly after like a couple of weeks, you gain some confidence. You put together a plan. You do start to try to forge some positivity. I'm going to, we're going to figure this out. We're going to try.

We're going to, we're going to go to Duke. We're going to, you start accessing connections and channels to get in front of the right people but those first few moments those first couple of nights laying into bed thinking about how this is going to go i mean where did you have a hard time with that my family had a whole lot harder time with it than i did how come and and i don't know look once again i go back to i think uh doing what we've done so long uh being a part of of the never give up thing and and and i never did give up. And, you know, I thought about it. And then I thought about how many things that I had been able to do in my life and how cool that had been. And to be honest with you, I always thought

that I was going to beat this thing. I never at one time thought that, hey, going to be five years or three years or two years. I just stayed positive. And it, I'm going to tell you, my family was a lot more upset than I was and a lot of friends concerned and I appreciate that but but I tell anybody and everybody out there that uh the positivity is a thing you know I got to ring that bell there at Duke and and Karen said well you don't know yet whether you've beat this or not and I said but if I ring that bell everybody will know that they've got a chance right that they can do this and and that's the reason that that that I did that and like I said Right now, I'm in remission.

I go every two months. Last time I went, I had a cat scan or some kind of scan. I don't remember exactly which one it was, but they said it all looked good. Do they, will they biopsy you over, you know, every six months or so? Well, the last one I had will probably last me at least six months. Yeah. Maybe a year. Like I said, every two months I go. And what I'm doing now is nothing compared to what I'm doing now.

I did do. So I'm okay with all this. I drive up to Duke, the greatest people in the world, I think. So it's all good. And you're, um, when you're at home and you're enjoying yourself on the coast, it's out of sight, it's out of mind. Yeah. Yeah. Just living your life. Just living a good life. Living and, and, and enjoying every day, every day. And that's, that's the good thing. I have a friend of mine that he's an older fella. I'm known him for a really, really long time and he's going through some health issues that are that that are serious and I saw him the other day and he said to me the first thing he said to me was it's a great day it's a beautiful day just so happy to be you know and I thought to myself man that that that is not what

I think I would have heard him say that's not what I thought his disposition would be and I wonder what it is about people that are faced with how fragile life is, right? And they're faced with the reality of having to understand that there is an end of this, right? We all just don't even think about it. You know, we just go about our day and don't think about how long we got. But some people don't get to choose that. Some people are faced with the reality. of it. And I was like, damn, I hope that putting that same scenario that I can come out of the,

you know, get out of the house that morning and go, what a damn good day this is, knowing that I'm in, I'm in a tough spot. Sometimes it's how you're wired, right? I mean, I think so. Race car drivers deal with that kind of possibility all the time. I mean, you've got to accept it. You know, I might be the guy that wins this, gets the short straw this time. Yeah. You know, any day could be a really bad day. And I guess you're able to keep all that kind of stuff in perspective. But I look at that stuff like, I'm a lucky man.

If things go bad tomorrow, it's probably just some balance, you know. Yeah. I felt that way too. I felt I was, dude, when I was racing and I wasn't married, didn't have kids, I was like, hey, this is it. if it's the end of tomorrow, I had a damn good time, man, this is awesome. But then I got married and then I had kids and I'm like, well, hold up. Got more to lose you. I don't really want to, I ain't really too damn excited about going anywhere, you know.

I want to last, I want to stick around. But, and I've really frustrated with myself for having kids so late in my life and that, you know, and that being, you know, thinking about that. Damn, you know, when I was 18, I'll be 60, 62 years old and like that. I feel like I didn't do that right. You know, I should have had kids when I was younger, but I wasn't ready. Hold on a other story.

My daughter graduates from high school. I'll be in my 70s. So, you know, I'm all right. You did it right. I don't think a 20-year-old's like wired to be a dad yet anyway. I wasn't. I was not even wired to do it at 30.

Chocolate, in his case, a pretty good person had his back the whole time no matter what, too, you know, with Karen, you mentioned her. Talk about that. I know that was a lot of support. Not every man has. Yeah, well, look, she had been through this before, right, with family.

And then for her to be my support, to be there for me, and still is, guys, it still is. Putting up with me, helping me through this, taking me back and forth, making sure I do the right thing. Yeah, that support has been absolutely phenomenal. But I wanted to go back real quick, because you mentioned. your friend. And I've been doing this for a long time, even before, you know, when people say, how are you doing? Every day is a holiday, right? Every day is a holiday. And I've tried to live my life like that. Now, sometimes it turns out to be not that day is a big holiday. But I try to make it that way. Yeah. Pretty cool. Well, we're thankful that, you know, you're doing so well.

Yeah. I know that's, that's taking a lot of effort and a lot of concentration and focus. A lot of prayer. A lot of prayer. What about your lifestyle? Have you had to, you know, have you adjusted things in terms of how you eat and all those things? Oh, no, no, no. No, no. No, no.

I enjoy life, right? I enjoy doing different things. I enjoy spending time with family. I enjoy going back and forth to the Richard Children's Racing Museum. Still enjoy doing the radio right there on Sirius, so we still do that on Thursdays and Sundays. I enjoy, my friend. I enjoy this. sport. And I spend a tremendous amount of my time debating, sounds better than arguing,

with some of my friends about the sport today compared to the way that it used to be. And I explain it to them this way. Guys, the playing field, whether you like it or not, is more level than it's ever been, ever been. When you got a guy that can come into this sport and he's got the same parts and pieces for the guy that's been in here for 20 years. It's not perfect, but I think it's a good place to be. I was going to ask you about the current state of the sport, so since she took us there, we talked to Denny Hamlin about his situation as an owner and the charter negotiations. There was a big article that came out in the athletic with Jordan, Bianchi, and Jeff Gluck,

where they basically lay out how both sides feel about the current state of the conversation in charters. It's really fascinating to me. I don't know how it's going to end up. I mean, I imagine they'll come to some sort of agreement. Everybody will move on down the road. But, you know, you're very much involved in modern-day NASCAR. You know everything that's happening to your point as a host or a co-host on Series XM. So how do you feel like this all ends up for NASCAR, for the owners?

Yeah. Where do you think they end up? I hope they get it resolved because, listen, I'm a sports guy. I'm not a business guy. I hate it when we get the business and the sports kind of mixed up. And I hate it when I look on social media or whatever it is, and we're not talking about the great race we had, but we're talking about who's not getting enough and who's getting too much.

I want that to be the backstory, not the story. And look, I know how tough it's been for some of these owners, right? You an owner, you know what this cost to do. It is expensive to do. I hope that, and I think the new car may get it under control on the Cupside. I don't think it did exactly what they wanted to do. I thought it was, everybody thought, in theory, we're going to introduce this new car and it's going to cut these costs.

these owners are going, but they've had to spend a tremendous amount of money. I know it's been very, very expensive for the owners. I look at the grandstands. I looked at the grandstands this week. A lot of people in the grandstands. Looks like people enjoying coming back to the racetrack. But the car itself, I hope that we continue this and we don't make great changes to this. Get me the racing a little bit better.

Look, I'm the excitement and drama guy. I think the tire deal that they're going to do in the All-Star race, hopefully that does what we need it to do and hopefully we can do more of that. I think that sometimes we, instead of doing something simple, we try to do something complicated. And these race cars today, and for the last, I don't know, 30, 40 years, there's not one little thing that you do on that race car

that don't affect every other thing on that race car. You can't make a small change. So if we can just throw tires on these cars or something like that, I think we get this short track package. In theory, this was going to be the greatest short track and road course car that we've ever had. It's not done that. And everybody knows that. Let's fix that.

What about the future of RCR? So I personally privately debate this with all the owners. You know, Richard has given a lot to the sport, as has Roger Penske and Rick Hendrick as well. all of them, you know, Joe Gibbs, they all have an idea in their mind of what the plan is long-term for their business, right? You guys having worked at RCR might have a better idea than anyone on what, you know, what ends up happening over there in the next 20 years, right? Who ends up responsible for the day-to-day operations when Richard decides, enough is enough. I'm done doing this.

I mean, I don't think he ever does. I think Richard will run that deal until his last day. But then is it Austin Dillon? Is it a combination of Austin and his dad? Who ends up, you think, leading RCR into the future? Well, I want to say this. And listen, there's nobody in this world that's been a better friend to me than Richard Childress. We grew up together as kids.

We've raced together. I want to say the difference between Richard Childress and all these other guys. All those other guys were businessmen that became racers. Richard Childress is a racer that became a businessman. Now, he's done a great job there with, well, over the last 50 years of making. in this race team what it is today. I've never had the opportunity, and I don't think I would want to be in those meetings

when you decide what you're going to do when you no longer can do this. I agree with you because I've asked Richard before, when are you going to go enjoy yourself? And he says this. This is how I enjoy myself, right? Yeah. It's got to be, it's been tough here this year for those guys.

They've got some issues. They've got to straighten out. On the Xfinity side, he's got to be your worst nightmare. Oh, yeah. They've got that thing figured out on the Cupside, not so much. How much longer does Austin Dillon drive, does Mike Dillon, or is there another plan? I don't know. I don't know.

I'm sure. I'm sure. And I'm going to say this here. And I'm sure there's a plan now because at one time there was no plan. And we went to Daytona and we lost your dad and we came back and nobody knew what anything was going to be. So I think that day for a lot of race teams, a lot of people in this business, they said we've got to figure this out. Nothing's forever, right? And I think they've got it figured out.

Just don't know what it is. Man. Well, I've certainly enjoyed this conversation, man. And is there any stories we've left out? Probably. Well, I've got a little something, and I say a little something. Okay. And part of this is my mistake.

And I don't know what you've got and what you don't have. I've told before that, you know, my dad lost his life at Darlington, 1957, and heard stories about my dad like we've talked about your dad today are special to me. And every once in a while I find something, somebody gives me an article or something like that about my dad, it means a lot to me. I got ready to come down here and I looked around and I'm going like, I'm, like, I've got a couple of things, right? And remember, I was the guy that when we came back to the racetrack, went out, put the

car on the lift, started to get it clean. And your dad would always take these off and leave them hanging on the mirror. Yeah. And I would always reach in and grab them. So I didn't know whether you had any of these, but these are a little bit different. Now, you've got to forgive me because the, the, the election. elastic cord has has stretched and worn out but these are a pair of your dad's goggles but I wrote on the on the strap when I took them out of the car winter Daytona 125 now

unfortunately when I wrote that on there didn't put a year I didn't put what year so these could be these number years could have been because we wanted 10 years straight man and nobody's ever going to do that so I wanted you to give you those to hang on the wall. And the other thing that I wanted to say, the other thing I wanted to say, when we started this with Richard Childress and your dad, it was a time in the sport where things were starting to get pretty good, and we kind of had an opportunity to step out of the van, and we had one airplane.

And we all met at the old Lexington airport. And Will, David, Kurt, myself, your dad. Ed, Teresa, and Richard and the pilot, David Smith, we got on that airplane and we went to the racetrack and back from the racetrack. And we absolutely spent some of the most quality time that you can imagine on that airplane talking and talking about the future and talking about racing.

And it was unbelievable to spend that much time. We didn't need Monday morning meetings or anything. We had our stuff done by the time we landed, Whatever we need to talk about that day, what we got to do next week, whatever, you know. Yeah. And but it was, it made everybody tighter too. I mean, for sure.

On the good days, on the bad days, didn't matter. Yeah. Somebody screwed up. Yeah. It was we did it together, you know. But, but the only bad part was if you were playing cards with your dad, you had to lose.

He wasn't getting off the plane until he won the card game. No matter. If you finally won some of his money, you weren't going to keep it because he was going to get it back before they opened the door, get off the air. You could cut the deck with him 10 times, and he'd win eight of them. It didn't matter. Man, I appreciate y'all. I was so lucky to have been around for all of those years or majority of the years as a kid

and growing up around y'all. I've had, I felt, I feel very lucky to still be able to sit with y'all and talk to y'all today. I've had some good opportunities to spend time with Kurt, Kirk over the past couple of years, especially with his induction into the Hall of Fame. And chocolate, you know, you're always around and always so available and easy to access for all of our fans and such a great asset to the industry and to the sport. so thank you for giving me some time today. I love y'all.

I'm thankful for y'all, and good to see you. Well, I'll tell you something, we're awful proud of you as well. Yeah, that's for sure. And we know that it's always not been easy for you. It's been tough. But, man, what you've been able to do for this sport is absolutely unbelievable. Man, I appreciate you saying to that. Well, I really am motivated by making people like you proud.

Thank you. I have a lot of people in my life that motivate me, and y'all are two of them. So thank you very much. In terms of how many people you reach and the stuff you do for the sport and a lot of things you don't have to do, you know, but a lot of ways you're bigger than your dad ever was.

And, you know, talk about filling shoes and stuff. A lot of stuff you've done with this and other things you've worked on, he wouldn't have been able to do it as well, I don't think. Yeah. And, you know, the new technology, all the things you do are really admirable. Man, I appreciate it. We're proud of you too, man.

Yeah, thank you, buddy. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for coming today. Hi, buddy. All right, Chocolate Myers, Kirk Shemberdeen on the Dell Jr. Download. All right, so great conversation with Chocolate and Kirk. It's great to have both of them here and listening to them just sitting. here and remember the old times was a lot of fun.

Wanted to talk to Chocolate about his you know, his recent challenges with his health and all that and just sort of make sure people got to hear how he was doing and where he was at with that and I know that a lot of people, he shared that information publicly but

I felt like that that was an important topic for us to discuss but just always great to catch up with those guys and here's some of the stories and you know same reason you might throw on an old race you know going to the NASCAR classics and watch you know a 1986-or-87 race from Richman Fairgrounds that old blue and yellow Wrangler car

you want to be reminded about you know just how special those times were and you know I get that same sort of emotion and enjoyment out of having them here in the studio and talking about it and it's so fascinating to me I guess that they felt the way they did about dad and about their dominance about their success of the track and they were so different they're so different than I am and I would have handled that deal and they're just kind of their throwbacks. They're very unique individuals that really made up a very cool group that had a nice, strong, you know, tough run at the highest level of stock car racing.

And thankful that they're still here to be able to share that with us. So, enjoy it. and appreciate Kirk coming up with that idea. They bring them two in together. As always, we want to thank Ally for bringing this guest segment to us every single week. Allies been a great partner of ours, and again, they brought some great allies into the studio. No matter what you're saving for, whether it's race tickets or a new car or even a new home, we're all better off with an ally. Let's get to the white flag.

Dropping every Sunday night to tear down with Jeff Gluck and George Mianke, you want to listen to that. out from this past week at Dover. They give you instant feedback and reaction to what they saw witnessed at the racetrack. And I love their passion for the sport and the effort they put into their work. Dropping Monday, actions detrimental with Denny Hamlin and doorbup or clear in another episode. Classic podcasts that you'll listen to from Dirty Mode Media, two of the best. And then dropping yesterday, Dirty Air is out with winter Denny Hamlin calling in. Will Denny go to Victory Lane at Kansas and make it back-to-back appearances on Dirty Air?

We'll find out. Dropping today, Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden, and their guest is Scott McLaughlin, so you want to tune into that. And tomorrow, Dirty Mo Doe with Steve LaTart and the team. They're going to preview Kansas. And DJD reloaded out as well tomorrow. about Carl and the team, who knows what they'll be talking about. So anyways, it's been a fun week here.

Looking forward to Kansas this weekend. I hope everybody's having a great week and we'll see you. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.