The Dale Jr. Download - 560 - Winston Kelley: Intimidator Stories From The One Who Interviewed Him Last

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with NASCAR Hall of Fame executive director and former MRN Pit Reporter Winston Kelley to share over 30 years of stories from behind the microphone.Winston's career is rooted in his passion for the sport of NASCAR, dating back to his first job working on road for free. From there, Kelley has practically seen it all. He recalls working iconic races in the sport's history, including Cale Yarbrough, Richard Petty, and Jeff Gordon's final races. Winston was also Dale Earnhardt's final interview at the 2001 Daytona 500, and recalls Earnhardt's mood on the grid before the race. With a career behind a microphone comes difficult moments. Kelley remembers interviews with Dale Earnhardt after his multiple heartbreak losses in the Daytona 500, and the moment he was caught in the middle of the feud between Rusty Wallace and Earnhardt. As the Executive Director of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Winston is living out his own childhood dream working with his heroes and building the legacy of the Hall. Kelley has been with the Hall since they broke ground to build the museum in 2006, and describes what it's like to watch inductees go through the process of entering NASCAR's most prestigious club. They close the interview discussing the best and worst interviews of his career. Between cutting it up with Tony Stewart after the race, to the poorly worded question that cost him big, Winston has no shortage of great stories to share. 21+ and present in North Carolina. Opt in req. Wager requirements apply. Bonuses awarded as nonwithdrawable bonus bets or profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply including bonus expiration. See terms and conditions at fanduel.com/sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 877-718-5543 or visit morethanagame.nc.gov 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. And today on the Allied guest segment, we're going to have Winston Kelly. Winston Kelly was a lead pit reporter for M.R.N. for over a decade. And he now is the executive director at the Hall of Fame for NASCAR. Great stories. They're coming up. Let's get started. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Back again. For another episode of the Dale Jr. Download.

The ally guest segment. today. Winston Kelly was a long time broadcaster for MRN and been talking about trying to get him here for a long time. Who were some of the best interviews? Tony could be funny. Tony Stewart. Tony Stewart.

Yeah. One, he was sitting in his car. So I pointed a microphone. I said, Tony, you want to talk? No, I don't want to talk. And then he looked back and grin real big. He said, you know it ain't personal. All right.

We're back again in the Dirty Mo Media Studio. for the guest segment today. I want to thank Ally for bringing us the guest segment every single week. They brought us another ally today. Winston Kelly is coming in. I wanted to get Winston here for a while, and it's just not really worked out, but we finally have made it work,

and he is coming into the studio to tell us about his life as a broadcaster, how he got into his job as a lead pit reporter in MRN. And, man, I have done a lot of work with that guy over the years and interviews, and we'll talk about some of his most memorable interviews. some of the things that stand out in his own career, but he also took a role at the Hall of Fame many, many years ago, and is the executive director there, and kind of the guy in charge or the guy that ushered the Hall of Fame into existence,

I can't think of a better person to have hired for that position. And so, you know, the Hall of Fame and success is very important to the sport and the legacy of the sport. There's so many stories enshrined into that building, and so many inductees in the Hall of Fame and future inductees coming down the line, and we need it to be successful. And I think Winston Kelly was a great decision to be a part of that team to lead that team. So we'll bring him in the room.

We'll get started and see what Winston's got to tell us today. So Winston Kelly on the Dale Jr. Download, we've been talking about trying to get you in here. I know you've been busy, and we've finally been able to find time where it works for everybody, and I'm so thankful that you're here today. It's an honor. When I look at the names that have come in here, And I listen all the time, as you know. So it's an honor to be here.

Yeah. Well, we appreciate him. I'm looking forward to this conversation. I have a massive amount of respect for MRN, for all of our radio personalities. I feel like that, you know, the broadcast, whether it's the television broadcast or the radio broadcast, has a massive responsibility to make sure the fans realize and know how good. good this race is on any given day. And the MRN broadcaster or the television broadcaster has to work to make that happen, right? It just doesn't just doesn't come easy or naturally. It's an effort. The other thing that's great about a broadcaster, particularly with MRN, is a

recognizable voice, which you have. Like when you speak, I know it. I know it's you. Barney Hall also had a recognizable voice, just velvet smooth, and his delivery was so perfect. Squire, there's a lot of, you know, you hear the voice, you know who it is, and you have that same sort of quality. I was reading through the notes, I was really surprised that your career started when it did, because I feel like you had been around so much longer,

And as a broadcaster or even a pit reporter for MRN, I feel like that you had been around longer than you had. But so, but let's dive back into your early life. You worked at Duke Energy doing what? I did. Well, actually, I had, I was in my fifth different career, literally. What all were the careers? Graduated in 1979, and I worked in the financial field.

budget and accounting and financial management for a number of years. Then I went into an administrative management role. Then I went into a human resources role. Then I went into government and community relations and then I was moving into economic development when it ended up leaving. And the thing that was great about Duke is, you know, the company was large. And if you put in the effort and you put in the interest and you wanted to learn and do different things, then those doors would open up if you put that effort in. And as a fabulous company to worked for and it paid the bills and never worked for but one race fan you know when I started doing this never worked for but one race fan but they all realized everybody had things outside of the

company and I didn't have kids so chasing race cars and race tracks was what I did but had a great 27 year career there yeah wow um it's pretty uh I hadn't I mean I had no idea but is it rather common, at least in those days, for your MRN team to have other jobs and other, other careers, even. Absolutely. Very few MRN folks, if any, maybe Barney was, were full-time. You know, it doesn't matter whether it was Joe Moore who had his own television show or, you know, Doc Punch when he was on back in the day. You know, he did his work over at the Halifax Hospital and, you know, everybody.

that's there, and many of them still do have another occupation. Now, there's more opportunities for radio people like to do serious X-HM and MRN now, but none of that existed. And, you know, when I talked to my father about getting involved, he said, you know, you can't make a living broadcasting races now, so you need to get an education and go to work, and then you can try to do that. So, yeah, absolutely. Everybody had something else, and in some cases it was racing-related, and in some cases it wasn't.

your dad was in broadcasting. So you were entertained and curious about that. Knowing that it wasn't something that you might be able to make a career out of, you still wanted to pursue it due to watching your dad and being entertained by his experiences? Just like you, you know, if your dad hunts and fishes, you hunt and fish is a general rule. And dad was the first public relations director at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. when he went into business, he and mom bought an auto parts store, he started working for Hank Schoolfield and the Universal Racing Network.

Dad had done a lot of PA work over the years, you know, around racing and football and other things. So Hank hired him and he did turns and pits quite a bit. And we'd tag along, and I would every chance I could get, you know, go to Bristol, go to Atlanta, Rockingham, Darlington with him, and, you know, just love the sport and the people. So that universal racing network was, I did a, I did sort of a bit of a series called Becoming Earnhardt last year about the 1979 season. And that URN. Network was the one that prominently covered a lot of the races around the southeast.

And they did cover the 1979 Bristol race that my dad won his first race. So some, I believe, we don't know where, but I believe that that, race on that UREN broadcast exists somewhere hidden in some room in some box, some archive, because we were able to find a lot of those races from back then and use some of that stuff on that Becoming Our Heart series, but we're not able to discover the 1979 Bristol race, but it's out there somewhere. Yeah, Appalachian State University got,

that's where Hank donated all of his stuff. Hank Schoolfield, who ran URN, actually had a printing company in Winston-Salem, which was his primary business. He was the track general manager at North Wilkesboro, and UR.N. was just kind of a side deal for him. And as he was getting older in life before he passed away, he gave all what he had left back in the mid-2000s to Appalachian State. You also, so when you wanted to get into PA work, so as you're a public announcer, basically, you started working for the Concord football team. So that's the Spiders. That's the Concord Spiders.

Dad had done the PA from when it was at the old field before they built the new, and that was kind of part of his community service work owning Kelly Auto parts and had announced, you know, didn't get paid a nickel, just did it every Friday. and when I talked to him about wanting to do radio, he said, well, you know, get some announcing experience. I'd do the second and fourth quarters. He'd do the first and third, and we'd spot for each other. So started doing that in the late 70s.

Yeah. My dad, we're big A.O. Brown. That was a big rivalry. A.O. Brown versus Concord. I don't know if it is still today. I think it kind of is. But a lot of my family went to A.A.L. Brown, or some of them did. And so that's where if you had you had to have allegiance for one or the other in Canapolis.

Yeah. In football, it was more that way. I played baseball and played American Legion baseball. And we played with the folks from Canapolis, Central Cabarice, Mount Pleasant, Northwest. We were big buddies. Yeah. You know, it wasn't the same rivalry as it was in football. Yeah.

So you would even continue to do that, though. Once you even sort of established yourself somewhat, you continued into the He's doing the broadcasting for Concord. I did it as long as I could till the travel got to where I was leaving to go to a lot of races on Friday. But it wasn't unusual even once I'd gotten on the air with MRN that, you know, I'd do a high school football game on Friday night and drive to Rockingham, you know, for that race. So as long as I could do it, I did. Yeah.

Your first racing gig, you were working for U.R.N. as a statistician. Yeah. So I called Hank. You know, I knew he at least take my call because he knew my dad. Dad said, you know, here's his number. I'm not going to call him for you. So I called Hank and said, you know, I'm trying to get my, just like your dad. You know, you can relate to that.

Oh, yeah. You know, and said, I'd like to get involved and, you know, eventually broadcast. Do you have anything? He said, well, I need a statistician to sit in the booth and provide rundowns. We didn't have electronic scoring to provide rundowns to the announcers in the booth. and you would talk to somebody in the scoring stand. And said, okay, I'm in. He said it pays $50 a race.

You know, if it's a place like Richmond or Atlanta, we'll get your hotel room, but, you know, no travel expenses or anything. I was just thrilled to death to get my foot in the door. Right. You started working at North Wiltsboro a little bit as well. So as you are in, you are in's last two years of broadcasting was 1981 and 1982.

We did 11 races in 81, and then we were down to this two tracks of which North Wilkesboro was one, and I believe Darlington was the other, or Rockingham in 82. So when Hank folded up shop and MRN picked up a lot of those broadcasts, because candidly, it wasn't Hank's full-time deal, and he didn't want to invest in the equipment, the remote equipment. So Barney Hall was one of the two PA announcers at North Wilkesboro, and I helped Hank in the media Center and those things in addition to the U.R.N. work at North Wilkesboro. He was a PA guy, and I talked him into letting me be the assistant public address announcer, and then the guy that was the main

PA guy left a couple of years later. So, you know, in a moment of weakness, he let me do it in 83, and I did it until it closed down in 96. Really? So what's the responsibilities as doing PA you had a racetrack? Well, when you show up on Friday, and a lot of it just has to do. with telling people what the schedule is going to be. You do promote the concession stand and things like that. At that track, you could actually hear the announcer call qualifying and to talk about who's coming out. You don't just talk incessantly, but you're just kind of a filler,

remind people here's what's coming up schedule-wise, and then you do all the pre-race activities. You know, you do the driver introductions and those type of things. and then, you know, the post-race interview where the trophy is presented and those type of things. Yeah. Did you enjoy doing all that? Absolutely. I loved it.

Could not wait for the Thursday night before Wilkesburg. We actually had four weekends when I first started. It was the two cup weekends. And then there were two triple header weekends that they had with late models, modified, street stocks, those two races, two weekends. So I was doing four weekends a year and loved it as a blast. Wow. You did a lot of PA work at Wilkesboro, but Bristol and Darlington? Yeah, just doing the North Wilkesboro stuff, opened some doors through people that I knew, got to know.

Barney helped open some doors and got to do Bristol and did that for the longest time. I did that until 2000 or 2002. and then, because MRN wasn't doing, when MRN wasn't doing Bristol, you know, I would do that. And there's times I did both. I did MRN and the PA and then got to do Darlington and a few others. Yeah. So has the PA job at racetracks changed much since you were doing it? Yes and no.

I guess it hasn't changed in that you're still kind of a traffic cop. That's your role. You're just letting people know what's going on. What has changed is now they pipe in the radio broadcast because the technology is so much better and they're so good. So you're still just a traffic cop. You might be the one that got a call that somebody said, you know, we've got an emergency page. Delaware and Art Jr. needs to go and make a telephone call. But trying to do that during the race is a little bit difficult, but it hadn't changed all that much.

You went to Carolina School of Broadcasting. Again, just trying to get... Wait, what did you not think you did well enough? Well, I've got a Southern dialect, and that's, you know, they want more neutral dialects. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, most broadcast outlets don't want, you know, the Southern drawl, even in racing. They don't want that.

And it helped me articulate and enunciate things better, but also think about, you know, sometimes you ask me what time it is. I'll tell you how to be able to watch, but how to, you know, keep things more, concise and you know it's just more repetition and learning from people who had done it a guy that had worked at wbt v ran it in charlotte and did they i'm just curious as a broadcaster myself so when you go into a school of broadcasting is it um applicable because i'm sure they're uh to racing because i'm sure they're teaching people that want to be broadcasters in anything but a naskar race um and so Was the, you know, was, did you walk out of there feel like it should make some gains?

I think so. And again, it was more how you pronounce things and stuff like that. More of the people that went there were looking to be kind of on-air talent that are working a news at a TV station. Gotcha. Or working at a radio station. So the play-by-play stuff is not, but the preparation and the enunciation and all that was similar. You went to a speech pathologist. I did.

What is that? Again, what do they even do? They help you, they record you, and they help you with how in the South especially, we can be lazy with our enunciation, you know, in I and G, you drop the G off. Yeah. And they help you notice things like that that, you know, knowing that I was trying to get into, you know, national broadcasting, anything I could do to teach myself how to be better presented.

Because I wasn't a journalism major like a lot of people are. that go through or try to get on to a national broadcast. So did you notice that as you, did you trained yourself to really, like, do better at pronunciation, and did you notice that habit, you know, did you just a claim, you know, did you claim that habit 24-7 and everything you did,

even when you weren't working? No. You could switch it on and off? Well, you just try to, be conscious about what the professional speech pathologist had pointed out that, you know, you could do better. So when you're behind a microphone, you're just more thoughtful about the things that you can be lazy and in casual conversation. But, you know, you don't want to be Ronnie radio and over-hype it. That's one of the things I learned from Barney is, you know,

you've got to be yourself. Yeah. Barney could get away with just being himself because he was Barney Hall. Yeah. And it was like he was sitting beside you on the couch. Yeah. Talking. But, here I didn't have, you know, near the background that he did. And, you know, I'm trying to convince a guy named John McMullen that, you know, who had hired people like Mike Joy and folks like that to, you know, give me a chance. I'll show you I'll work hard. Yeah. Um, you finally got a job with the MRN in 1987. You were a gopher and helping, you know, tear down equipment and things like that. You ran information for pit reporters, um, spotting in terms for reporters there as well. No pay. No. Right. That type of mentality as far as people will tell

you, people will tell you that that type of mentality doesn't exist anymore today. Can't imagine. I mean, there are a few eager kids that I know that have done some spotting and some work similar to that to try to get their foot in the door. But, man, just I can't imagine traveling and doing all of that and doing all that work and not getting any kind of monetary payment. Well, I had a good, I had a job that paid the bill, so I was able to do it. Right. So, but why would you not choose to spend your weekend doing other things?

Passion. Yeah, passion. I love it. You know, and, you know, I'd played a whole lot of softball, you know, and played some golf and stuff like that, but there's nothing that I had passion for like NASCAR racing. And, you know, I didn't look at it. I wasn't getting paid. I looked at it that I was making an effort to be a small part of a sport that I loved and people that I loved being around. And, you know, I was going to give myself a few years to see if I could finally get on the air. but I just love the people and the sport. And again, and I couldn't wait until Friday came, get in the car and drive to, you know,

whether it was Atlanta or Rockingham or wherever, I'd go to all the races I could drive to. Do you remember the first on-air opportunity you got? Without question. Let's hear about it. Without question. So I was scheduled, you know, after almost a year and a little over a year and a half. So I started in early 87 at Rockingham was my first race.

Yeah. You know, and went to, you know, 12, 14 races a year that were all in this area because, you know, we had Rockingham, Bristol, all those you could drive to, and I'd either find somewhere to stay or, you know, they did occasionally get me a hotel room at places. So, you know, and I was doing PA and just tagging along and learning how things were done. And John McMullen was the president at that time. And he said, you know, I'm going to give you a chance to be on the air at the Martinsville

double header, which would have been the end of October. and it was going to be the modified and the Bush Series race. So you will be one of the Pitt reporters there. So the cup race weekend was in the middle of September, so I was going to go to that anyway. And the Saturday Bush race was not being broadcast on MRN. So they were trying out a couple announcers in the turn, and John said, well, why don't you go down on Pitt Road,

and while they're practicing with these other announcers, you know, they'll pitch it to you a couple of times to make some reports. porch, just let you get your foot wet, you know, and just see what you learn. So the next day, he came to me a couple of hours before the race, and I had been making my notes to be a pit runner, and he said, you think you're ready to do this. And I said, yes, sir, that's why I've been here. He said, you're going on the air today. Mike Joy was fogged in in Rowanoke, Virginia, and was not going to be able to get there. And Jim Phillips was supposed to work the back straight away and Mike the front straight away. So they put Jim on the...

the front straightaway and gave me a chance on the back straightaway and I guess I did okay because they invited me back. Yeah. But I remember it like it was yesterday. Do you remember your first report? The first person I talked to and I remember in a production meeting, they said, you know, they were talking about who you to talk to. And I've told him this story before. They said, let Winston talk to Brett Bodine. He runs well here. You know, he's in Budmore's car and he said he's one other races here. And Brett's nice to everybody. Even the new guy. you know, he'll be nice to him. Brett, but I was the first person I interviewed,

and Ricky Rudd was one of the ones that ran good on the back straightaway, and Larry McRennels was his crew chief, and I probably pestered him to death-asking information also. Those are two things I remember about that. Yeah. What is it like in the middle of the race when you need information? And we'll talk about some interviews that you might have dreaded doing later in the show, but I want to know like what's the, I'm curious, I guess, as to what's that kind of pressure like

to interrupt a crew chief mid-race. Well, one of the best things that John McMullen did for me is not put me on the air before I think, well, he knew I was ready and tagging along with the other pit road reporters, whether it was Jim Phillips, Dick Brooks, you know, Doc Punch, you know, the different people. people that worked on MRN observed how respectful they were and you know when to go into the pits and not. You know, we didn't have radios then that we could hear what they were talking about. But you also got to know the crew members, not just the crew chiefs.

And, you know, they got to trust you when you were asking, you know, if the car goes, was going backwards or forwards or, you know, what's going on if, you know, what's happening with the car. So it's mostly just watching them and knowing when it's a good time. and making sure you don't go into the pit or you don't interrupt the crew chief at the wrong time that you realize that's their office, they're working and they're allowing us to go in.

And NASCAR has more access than any other sport, in my opinion. And it's just being respectful of them and their workspace. And the way I look at it is we're a conduit of information to the race fan. On the radio side, it's the person riding down in the truck, this person that's sitting on their boat that's, you know, out mowing the yard that can't see it so you're painting a picture. And they, the crew members and the crew chiefs realize, we're a conduit of information. Nobody tunes into the radio broadcast because who's on the air. Yeah. They might turn it off because they don't like who's on the air. But if you're respectful

of their space and are fair with them, they will be accessible and fair with you. some of your some of your favorite first and lasts during your during your career you were working the Atlanta race

for Kale Yarborough's final race I don't think we appreciated kale as much as we should have you know his you know we made a big deal out of a lot of people's final events but I don't remember there being a ton of

fanfare for Kale comparable to like a Jeff Gordon under the Dale Earnhardt or obviously the king, but what do you recall? I remember doing the pre-race interview. I think he started Midpack in the Hardy's car. And Cahill was a lot like David Pearson. He didn't, he wasn't ever rude to the media. He didn't embrace it or he didn't embellish it or he didn't need it. But he was always, you know, once you talk to him, you know, you'd get an answer. but he also wasn't the reflective type of, you know, kind of here's my career.

You know, it was, I just remember it was a little bit like another broadcast, but I think you're right. You know, especially back in that day, a big deal was not made out of people's last race. It probably the first one that a big deal was was Richard. Yes. In 1992. But, you know, with guys, you know, whether it was a Buddy Baker or even Pearson, because Pearson would stick his toe in the water and get back out.

You didn't know when his last race was going to be. That's true. And Kale was one of the first ones that said, you know, this is it back in 88. Yeah. Jeff Gordon's first pre-race interview and his last MRN interview in 2015, you were there for those. Yeah, so 1990 when he started outside of the first row at Rockingham in the Bush Series race. Yes, that 67 car. I just happened to be, you know, so Jim Phillips would generally do the pole sitter and I'd do the outside pole sitter.

So it's just kind of luck of the drawl. Yeah. if you would, and being able to talk to him. And then, you know, by the time I'd been around a while, I was lucky enough to get, you know, guys' last interviews yours, Tony Stewart's, Jimmy Johnson's, and Jeff's. And, you know, I didn't play the seniority card much, but I really wanted to do those.

So I was able to do, you know, Jeff's last interview before the race and after he got out of the car. But the thing that I always tell people about Jeff is he was no different to me or anybody else from that 1990 interview to he stepped out of the car as a four-time champion. He may have been busier, but he was the same accessible guy. And I fididly remember interviewing the Richard King, the Richard Petty after his crash at Atlanta in 92? I do. I do. He was standing there watching him work on the car. And, you know, he was the same just kind of matter of fact, you know, it's just, you know, he always tells the story. He always tells the

story. You know, I was on fire and I saw a fire truck, so I drove toward it. But, you know, he just could not have been nicer. Barney Hall rightfully did the very last interview with MRI and when they drove him around the track. Barney came out of the booth and rode around with him and interviewed him, as it should have been. But, you know, the only reason I got to interview him then is that he did fall out of the race for a while before. He went back out and it's like, you know, you know, this is the king and, you know, the guy that won the first race I went to. It's And I'm like everybody else. I was heartbroken.

They didn't get to finish the race. But remember that well. You remember Dad's last MR. interview? Pre-race interview before the 2001 race. And you guys had raced in the Rolex race. And I'd actually worked the Rolex race a couple of weekends before.

And the thing I remember, and I think it was Andy Pilgrim that he was with, he was going around introducing Andy to all these people and was in such a relaxed. mood. That's the one thing I remember and just how excited he was to introduce Andy to his people, like I guess Andy did with you guys, to Andy's people. So I just remember that that's how he was. He was just relaxed, but more excited, you know, how he'd walk up with people and, you know, he'd say, let me introduce you. I was just watching that and that's fascinating. Yeah. Did you interview him?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was, you know, I interviewed your dad a lot, before Daytona, a lot of different times, because he started first or second the whole 1990s. And if he won the qualifying race that I was interviewing the second place car, and one of the things I learned about your dad, or at least I perceived about your dad, one year, we could still interview him getting in the car when they were sitting in the car. And I interviewed him sitting in the car at one year at Daytona,

and when we went to commercial break, I think it was Eli Gold that said, man, that sounds like one tight round-up race car driver. I said, no, O'Contraire, he has been so relaxed. And he was even, he would walk in front of other people's car and he'd kind of slide his foot under there to see where their spoiler was, you know, while he was talking to him. He was so relaxed before that race,

and it hit me then that all you race car drivers, your button turns at different times. You know, Davy coming to the green flag would be cutting up with his crew. But your dad, when he got in the race car, that's when his focus was there. I didn't get a bad answer. It just was shorter outside of the race car. He was totally different. Yeah.

Have I right about that? Yeah. I mean, is that your perception of you? Yeah, I think so. I know he would walk around and stick his foot under the front valence of the cars to see where it was on the laces of his shoe. and to be able to tell who had their car, higher, or lower, out on the grid. He may have taught somebody that. Yeah.

He was smart. You had, you know, worked a lot of different other events outside of NASCAR. You were asked to deliver the eulogy at Bob Labani's funeral. That must have been quite, you know, quite a tough request, but a heavy responsibility. It was such an honor. And when Bobby called me, you know, Bobby's a jokester. So Bobby and Terry were together. He called me and I was in a meeting.

I texted him and call him back. And he called him and he said, you know, you may have heard we lost dad. And, you know, we're going through some of his stuff. And we found something that he said that he wanted you to do his eulogy. I said, you're kidding me. He laughed. He said, yeah, you're right. I'm kidding you.

But we would like you to do it. And where it came from is. we had this ongoing joke with Bobby and Terry because, you know, how quiet they are. You know, you were around Bob Labani. Bob could be pretty high-strung, and he could get pretty wound up. And, you know, there's times we interviewed him, and he just go off on a NASCAR official. So somewhere Jim Phillips and I got to picking with Terry and Bobby that, you know, you slip us a little money for the race, we won't talk to Bob.

Yeah, we just walk up to them, put our hand out, and they, laugh about it and gotten to know Bob real well and Bobby and Terry and you know neither one of them are big talkers and you know that when they asked me to do it it's like you know that it was really an honor because I love that family to death yeah you um wrote you know you've been in a cop of charity ride as well that's something I've never done um I'm not a motorcycle guy but uh I do in the the fun it looks like you guys have um one particular trip to catch up with the ride, you and Richard Petty and Jim France rode out together. This was just a couple years ago. And you've had some memorable experiences like interviewing Richard and David Pearson together and

things like that during the ride as well. Yeah. So the thing with Jim and Richard and Lance Brown who worked for him, so we were at Sonoma and Lance and I got to talking about it. I was doing the NASCAR this morning show, which was a TV show. So the ride's going to leave at 8 o'clock in the morning or whatever and you know i'm going to get off the air later than that and and trying to figure out how it's going to work the logistics out and it worked out sending my bike out with them and the lance said well richard's got something so we're going to also catch up with the ride so this was you know a month or so prior to the to to the ride so then you know the the weekend i think of the the ride lance says well jim france is going with us too

So, man, this is great. This is something pretty special. So what made that so unique is, you know, as we're going to catch up with them, we went the same route, but we didn't stop as frequently as they did. So a very long story short as we were going, there's this road in Nevada called the World's Lonely Highway, US 50. So between Fallon and Austin, Nevada is about 110 miles. So they stopped in Fallon, and then we're going to stop in Austin. which was about where some of the bikes could go. We had stopped about 30 or 40 miles earlier,

go through Fowland, don't think anything about it. And I realized about 10 or 15 miles outside, there ain't nothing out here. I didn't know it was that desolate. And I was the only one that had a CB. So I saw a trucker go by, and we had only passed about two or three cars at the time. And I said, is there any gas stations between here and Austin?

Because two of the bikes could make it all the way, and I wasn't sure about the other two, and I'm thinking, I'm going to get blamed for running Richard Petty and Jim France out of gas. I just, I need to stay out here in Nevada. So this trucker says, yeah, there's a little gas station with a bar and all that, about 30 miles down the road. So I'm watching an odometer. And, you know, if we'd have gotten 35 miles down the road,

I was going to pull over and we were going to go back because I knew we could get back to Fallon. So right in the middle of nowhere, a place I found out later. later called Middlegate Nevada. We saw this little building, had an above-ground gas pump pulled in there and got some fuel. And the funny part of it is I went in to pay for the gas and Lance was getting water and Richard went to the restroom. And Lance saw these two guys playing pool arguing about, was that Richard Petty?

And we had nothing on racing related. And they were arguing about it. and they looked over at Lance and kind of shrugged their shoulders and Lance said, yeah, that was Richard. I told you, I told you. I knew it. So Richard comes out of the restroom. Didn't know this. So asked for pictures and autographs.

And there were five or six more people that came out from the woodworks. And we later found out that that place had a population of about 18 in that little section. Half of them. And so it's just a, you know. But when I look back on it, got this picture, you know, in my office of the four of us at the end of catching up to the ride at the hotel. It's like, that's a heck of a memorable experience. I bet. Just being on a bike and out in the middle of nowhere and just nothing but your thoughts. That sounds like a lot of fun

to me. I loved it. What's the rest of the ride like? I've never really had a chance to sit down and ask Kyle about that. I mean, Kyle's experience on the ride is a little bit different than everybody else's because he's kind of the orchestrator of everything. He's at the front of the band, if you will. But what if they'd like to be in that ride? And what would you, what's your experience? What would you tell you the experience is like for somebody who's never done it? Well, there's the people part of the experience and there's a ride part. The people part of the experience is year after year and I went five or six years and then go for a while and went a few years ago. It's like you pick up where you left off the year before. I mean, it's like, it's like,

going to Daytona, you know, and you hadn't seen anybody for three or four months, you just pick up your conversation where it was, and they're just the nicest down-to-earth people. The ride itself, the logistics are absolutely incredible. So you start out in the morning, you leave your luggage at, they've got a luggage truck. They've got a ton of volunteers, some firefighters do the luggage truck. And you leave your luggage, and then each stop is very well choreographed. You might ride a couple of hours, and then they've got a gas stop. and, you know, some years I was on the fuel team that you go ahead,

and you basically are shutting down a big gas station, you know, a QT or something like that, and you got eight or ten people that are there, and every rider comes through, they take their gas tank off, and you just, so you're filling up 125, 130 motorcycles at one time. Yeah. You know, you got lunch planned for you at different places, and then, you know, when you get there at the end of the day, you know, you don't check in at the regular check-in place.

There is a table that you go and, you know, Dale Jr., you're in room 202, your luggage is already in there. Damn. So all that stuff is taken care of. And then they've gone to where you have a day off that you just kind of are on your own. But it's just incredibly well orchestrated. There's a lot of fun activities at dinner or afterwards. The one you were talking about where Richard and David, we ate.

We had a barbica. I think it was at a Georgia Pacific plant, which was one of Kyle's sponsors at the time. And the plant workers, you know, participated in it, the riders participated. So that's not unusual that you might have some local folks involved or providing a meal or whatnot. And so they decided they wanted to do a Q&A with the folks. And there were seven or eight drivers on the ride. I remember Jeff Green, who you've had on, was driving for the petties at the time.

Matt, Kansas went on it several times, Terry Labani. And, you know, there's probably about five or six of them. still there and this guy raised his hand and said so of just the drivers that are here who's the best so I look over at Richard I said Richard what do you think he said Pearson I said David what do you think he said I ain't to argue with him yeah okay and I remember telling Leonard Wood that story and he said you know the thing about it is David believed that he was didn't have an arrogant bone in his body, but he was incredibly confident, a lot like your dad, that if you got him close, he had confidence in himself. For sure. Summer is finally here, and when I'm thinking of

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You had a lot of opportunities to interview him, as we mentioned, but she had some tough ones interviewing him after Daytona in 1990, 91, 93. One particular, I mean, you were dreading the interview in 1990. Talk about, you know, talk about that particular interview, but also as a, that's your job. you got a job to do and I've seen it in broadcasting as you know watching our pit reporters work we've got you know working at NBC we had some amazing opportunities to work with some incredible people and there's some new talent coming on you know Kim Coon's been doing it quite a few years now but Dylan Welch and they they all are put in these positions sometimes where

you're going to interview somebody who's not happy and there's a question that you have to ask this person that they don't want to answer. And now this person's Dale Earnhardt in front of you. Well, if you think about it, you know, we're the only sport that you get to talk to somebody immediately after they have lost. Either they're coming out of the care center. And, you know, when I first started, I was interviewing, you know, people that finished second, third, fourth, fifth.

And some of them were happy. Some of them were not, obviously. So 1990, you know, everybody knows the story. He led, I think, 155 out of the first 199 laps. And I'm standing there thinking, I'm going to interview Derek Cope. He is going to be thrilled to death. And they bring them to the gas pump at that time. And I knew Derek fairly well.

We had actually dated roommates at one time. And, you know, he was a catcher playing in baseball. And I was. So, you know, we weren't tight, but we knew each other. Man, Derek's going to be so excited. And then Alan Bestwick loses his mind when your dad, you know, runs over the house. I think it was and blows the tire and it's like, oh my God, he's going to want to bite the microphone off. So he comes into the garage area, you know, and the older garage area, and I'm standing there

beside the car as he pulls in and takes his, the wind of net down, and it may have already been down. And the person, you know, that worked with the team at the time comes running up while I'm standing there waiting. Back up, back up, give him some room. Give him some room. And your dad, you know, how he sits in the car. He looked out there. And remember, this is 1990. I'd done my first broadcast. He was only a couple of years in.

In 1980, I'll show you a picture of interviewing your dad when Taylor couldn't have been more than a year old. Got one of those. And he leans, looks out and he said, tell Winston I'll talk to him whenever he's ready. And so it's a minute before we come down there. He goes ahead. He gets out of the car. and about this time some more media is coming up around him

and we're standing toward the back of the car and he looks at the media he says guys and gals if y'all go sit on the bench you remember those wooden benches that were in the garage here he said you guys go over there on the bench NASCAR needs to get to the car you go over there and I'll talk to you as soon as I'm done with Winston then he looks at me and you know how he can kind of pick at you and he said y'all gonna you're ready to do this

and I said well they just went to victory lane and talked to Derek. He says, Derek, heck, I'm the story. Y'all need to be talking to me. And then he gives me that grin

from under the mustache. It's like, so, okay. So I'm okay. And then talked to, it could not have been a better interview. And then, you know,

I don't remember which order TV was in that whole deal. And then he went to talk to everybody else. It's like, wow. I mean,

that just, just, you know, blew me away. And in 91, Dale and Davy got into, an accident late in the race. It may have even been the last lap. And when I got to the garage

area and they had driven in there and they were out and they were just comparing notes, you know, doing a hand gesture and here was what happened. And again, could not have been nicer or more accommodating. 93 was a little different. 93 is when he had led a lot of the race and Dale Jarrett passed him. And I don't think it helped matters. And Jeff Bodine was one of the ones that gave Dale Jared a push and it's been well documented. There was not a love loss there. And I talked to your dad at the gas pump and I ask him two questions and I got four words. Both answers were got beat.

I was like, okay, I know we're done here. And that's fine. Whatever I ask him, he said got beat. And left me with the perception is your dad wasn't a bad loser. Nobody likes to lose and nobody hated to lose more. him but when he felt like it was totally out of his control it was very different than whether it was somebody else helped beat him or he could have done something different that was the perception i was left with it when he was shorter is when he thought he could

have done something different versus nothing i could do about it yeah the um there was another opportunity in 93 when you were interviewing dad when Rusty throws the water bottle J.R. Rhodes and a couple other people were in the middle of that scrum. What do you remember about that? So I remember that Rusty or your dad ran into Rusty

early in a race. I went back and looked at it because I thought it was earlier than it was, but it was somewhere around that 45 or 50. Rusty and dad had been talking. Rusty came on the show and Rusty had been talking with dad at the start of the race, they were both recognizing that Jeff Gordon was going to be something they were going to have to deal with and long term.

And so they felt like that, you know, at Bristol, between the two of them, they would decide not to, you know, give each other a hard time. And they were both going to team, you know, team up and give everything they could to Jeff Gordon. And so race gets going and as soon as dad, you know, dad pops Rusty in the back end, sends Rusty in the wall. And Russie's like, what the hell? We were, you know, we were not going to do that.

We were going to, you know, try to, try to, you know, run Gordon as hard as we could. And here you are. It's almost like Rusty felt like dad lied to him, you know, and then took advantage of it. And so it seemed like he showed his frustration after race. What was that like being down there? I did not know that part of the story. I just knew doing the radio that Rusty had, you know, 450 laps to be mad, and he was mad. And they took the cars, the second place, finished in third place.

And I think your dad finished second to the gas pump. And we're just standing there beside the window of the car where he'd gotten out, just talking about the race matter of fact. And all of a sudden, I felt something that felt, you know, like it started to rain a little bit. and like something bounced off the hood of the car. I didn't hear anything because I had headsets on. And then, you know, it either whizzed by or bounced off your dad's shoulder, you know, and we're both kind of stuttered.

And then he looks over and on the right front of the car is Rusty, who was expressing his displeasure. And we're in the middle of the interview and, you know, I went back and listened to it. And I kind of stuttered and stammered trying to explain what was happening. But it's frustrated, you know, it frustrated. scared me, not scare scare, but it's like startled me. What am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to do? And your dad is he's first responding to Rusty and trying to explain what happened. And Rusty was having

none of it. So then Dale's going to walk over there and talk to him and try to explain what happened. And, you know, people are trying to stand between them thinking it might be, you know, a little bit, you could get physical. But, you know, I don't think the two of them would have gotten physical. They just weren't that way. But I remember Rusty saying, I hadn't forgotten Talladega because it was the same year that he had gotten into. That's the one thing I remember, but I just remember how it startled both of us. And then it was, you know, a normal, heated on Rusty's side and trying to explain on your dad's side. But, you know, being in the middle of the interview and, you know, had only been doing this three or four years, I had never experienced anything. And that's one

that gets brought up to me a lot, you know, what's the most unusual one you've ever had? And that's probably, you know, at the top of the list. Is it? Yeah. I can't think of any that just were just totally different out of context. Yeah. Barney Hall had an unfortunate accident where he got hit by a motorhome leaving Richmond in 1990. There's a little note here about Dad giving Barney a call at the hospital.

Barney was an amazing guy, and I think that for you, he kind of was a mentor. He was an incredible mentor. I mean, he told me, he taught me so many things. You know, we could do a whole story, a whole section on Barney Hall and how, you know, he's one of the two or three most trusted people that's ever been in the garage area that carries a microphone or typed on a typewriter. You know, he's just that way. It was true that he was.

a bit of an agent before they were agents. He would be the guy, so, you know, if Sterling Marlin wanted to talk to Jr. Johnson or vice versa, you know, we didn't have agents. And, you know, Sterlin wouldn't want, I'm using that one as an example because of all the deals Barney did, he took them all to his grave, as close of friends as we became. And I never asked him, but, you know, he just would not go into that because he was that trustworthy to them. And that's just one that kind of comes to mind because, you know, Sterling went to work

for junior that if Sterling was interested in talking to junior or vice versa, you know, they tell Barney, you know, just talk to him, see what his contract is if he's interested in talking or not. So if he went up into Sterling's hauler or junior's hauler, nobody thought anything about it. Yeah. But, you know, back then, or even now, but especially back then, if they walked into each other, they, you know, people would see him talking. So he would be the one that the driver or the car owner would go talk to to see, are you even interested in talking? So he would do that. And, you know,

your dad and Barney, you know, we're very close. Yeah. Very good friends and, you know, incredible trust for Barney and for each other. And so we're leaving the racetrack at Richmond. I think it's 1990 if memory serves me. It's really cold race. And you know how LaBernham Avenue is. out front of the racetrack. So there's two lanes going one way, two lanes going the other. And we parked across the street so we could go the other direction to go to the airport. And there's a median there. Still do it that way.

Yeah. So there's a median there. And a bunch of us had walked to the median and some of us had gone on. And Barney and Jim Phillips were a little bit behind us. And what happened is that a counterflow lane. So there's two lanes that would normally come this way. the one closest to them that would normally be coming right to left, they looked right and didn't see anything.

They didn't think to look left. And as soon as they walked out, they walked into the side of a motorhome. If it had been a little bit earlier, they may have been under it, but they literally walked into the side of the motorhome, and we're standing there at the car, and we didn't hear it, but we look around,

where'd Barney and Jim go? And looked and people were starting to gather around. They're laying in the road. So, you know, they got taken to the hospital. Both of them had a couple of broken ribs and one of them had a collapsed lung. And, you know, I rode in one ambulance and I think it was Eli rode in the other just to go there with them. So what Barney tells the story is, and he, you know, told us this several weeks later, said the nurse came in that night and I said, Mr. Hall, there is a gentleman on the phone that is just bound and determined to talk to you. and will not take no for an answer.

And I've tried to tell him several times that, you know, you're under anesthesia and all that. He said, will you answer, you know, will you try to take his call? And Barney, he says, you know, he's kind of groggy and said, yeah. And he said, he picked up the phone. And the first thing he heard is somebody say, how in the hell do you call 400 laps of racing

and you can't see a GD motorhome? And he said, I'm, you know, a little bit stuttered and, I don't, uh, and he said he repeated it. How in the hell do you call 400 laps of racing for all over the world and you can't see a damn motorhome? What's wrong with you? And he said, you know, he's still a little bit, you know, kind of stuttering and stammering and foggy.

So the next thing he said, hey, it's Earnhardt. I think he called him something else. He said, hey, idiot, it's Earnhardt. How are you? And, you know, he kind of was coming around and told him, He said, do I need to send my plane to go get your mama and Karen, Karen's his girlfriend, do I need to send my plane to come take care of you? Classic Dale Sr.

Yeah. You'll give you a hard time, but he will do anything for you, but he didn't want anybody to know about it. You know, you've probably heard thousands of those stories. But, you know, when Barney told that story, I mean, no way he'd make it up. Yeah. But Dale wanted to send his plane if he needed. I know they were close. Yeah, I know they were close.

I know Dad thought the world of Barney, and, you know, everybody thought the world of Barney, but Dad was really a big fan of his. It says that, and I'd never heard this, but Kelly might have mentioned it. I can't remember, but Kelly's name, her spelling, K-E-L-E-Y, is the same spelling as obviously your family name, Was there some connection there? I found that story out when I was here and we were in the green room, which was your apartment up above where we're sitting right now for the announcement of you going to Hendrick Motorsports.

Never heard that story, but we were up there. I don't know if you were in the room yet or not, but I know Kelly was. I'm pretty sure your mom was standing there. And we were just chatting. And I have no recollection of how it came up, but Kelly said, told me that one of the names, that your mom and dad agreed on for her.

And I don't know if they knew it was a girl or not back then if you knew that information in advance, but she said one of the names they agreed on was Kelly and that your dad said he wanted it spelled like the store in Concord, not because it was dad, but because he liked the spelling and it was different, you know, most Kelly's, you know, or K-E-L-L-Y. And he said he liked that, and he said if we go with that,

he'd like for it to be spelled out. And I'd never heard that story until we were making that announcement. So, you know, that's something your sister Kelly and I've talked about from time to time, which, you know, just a neat family connection. We had no idea existed. But that ain't the only connection. You used to deliver parts for your dad's store, and you delivered to Robert G's, and my dad apparently had a line of credit over at the store.

Yeah, my dad loved your dad and knew Ralph pretty well, too. You know, dad was a little bit younger than Ralph, but he knew Ralph real well from that, you know, him promoting, that dad promoted a few races, but he did a lot of PA work and, you know, just knew Ralph and thought the world of him as a driver and as a person. And same thing with your dad and your dad, you know, would buy parts for his late model car. And, you know, dad said, you know, it might take a while, but he said, I wasn't worried about it. And if he never paid me, I didn't care. But he said, you know, he eventually got paid for everything. and what I remember delivering to Robert G's store more than anything, so, you know, we would, you know, in the summers run the delivery truck. And even before I was 16, he let us ride along with them some just to get some work experience and I guess get us out of the house from mom standpoint.

When your grandfather had the shop that was on the Speedway property up on 29. And I think the stuff I remember delivering to him were paint supplies as much as anything, the strainers and the different colors and things like. like that. And, you know, I didn't realize what it was at the time, but, you know, Robert G had the best-looking race cars that showed up at the racetrack and to look back and say, hey, some of Dad's paint might have been on there, but, you know, I remember that. I think it's a little two bay, wasn't it, two bays for that garage? Yeah. And just, you know, delivering paint and, you know, he'd sign for it and all that. So, yeah, small world. You had a couple opportunities to do some stuff with me.

You were at the MC, as you mentioned, for the announcement here to go drive for Hendrick Motorsports. You were also a big part of our announcements and even the Victory Lane interview around the number three, Wrangler car that we raced in the Xfinity series at Daytona in 2010. Obviously, a big part of helping me get inducted in. to the Hall of Fame and we've done a dozen interviews or more than a couple hundred interviews maybe in the on pit road and after races

what are some of the most I guess memorable moments that made me and you shared well one them was that that one in 2010 so we did the announcement out in the circle out there with you know the partnership with Hendrick and DEI and Childress and all that and then you know you had

It was in honor, among the things, it was in honor your dad's induction in a NASCAR Hall of Fame in the inaugural class in 2010. And, you know, the car looked exactly like Wrangler, had, you know, one of the Hall of Fame stickers on there that was just for your dad that was different than our sticker that, you know, was something that we had worked to have on there. And I remember the Victory Lane interview because when you got out of the car, you look more relieved than excited. Yeah.

Because it's like you were expected to. win because you're Dale Earnhardt Jr. You had won so many Speedway races in Cup and in what was in the nationwide series. So first you look more relieved than anything. So we always go to commercial right after the race. You know, we weren't doing Victory Lane interviews out on the racetrack then. And, you know, TV goes first and then radio. And then during the commercial break, Barney Hall says, be sure to tell him his dad would be proud.

I will never forget, you know, so I ask you two questions. about the race, whatever it was, who you had to hold off. Because I think you had to come back a little bit up through the field. You had a dominant car, but you had to make some passes, as I recall. And then the last thing I said, Barney Hall said to be sure tell you, your dad would be proud. And you started to get emotional and change the subject. You said something about Barney Hall and then something about me and all that.

I didn't mean it for you to get you emotional, but for Barney Hall to say that about your dad, it's like, I can't not say that. Sure. So I remember that one well. We, you know, we had the opportunity to work together several times at the hall, and I wanted to talk to you about your decision to go there. you got encouraged to apply as executive director of the Hall of Fame. Who encouraged you? Well, so if I back up just a little bit,

so I was a very, very small part of the team from the Charlotte area that was making the pitch for the Hall of Fame to come here. You know, I was not one of the leaders, didn't come up with a business plan or all the finance, and I worked on the marketing and communication team and, you know, kind of my role was to make sure that things were accurate and realistic related to NASCAR and whatever perspectives I could share about the NASCAR industry. You know, MC, the announcement that we were going to go after the hall at Hendrick Motorsport,

MC, the announcement in 2006 that it was coming here. And somewhere in that process, somebody mentioned to me in passing, you know, what I ever think about working there would interest me? And I said, never thought about it, never crossed my mind. I have a great job at Duke. I had just started that economic development job that I had at Duke as part of a merger with another company. And so I got moved into another role. And it's like, okay, here's another good opportunity.

And so I got encouraged by the person that was running. Our parent company is called the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. So the guy over that encouraged me and reached out, you know, if I was interested in, Mark Dyer from NASCAR was one of the lead people from NASCAR that did the process. And Mark ran the Charlotte office and just said, you know, we'd be interested in talking to you. And I thought, well, I got a job I like, so it's not as hard to interview for the job. But I'd never done a resume, even when I got to college. I had to call somebody I used to work with.

I didn't want to call anybody in HR and Duke to help me a resume. So I called somebody I had worked with to help put a resume together. you know, put in an application. And I also remember we interviewed right the week after the Coke 600 and I was leaving the driver's meeting. I was there. M.R.N. wasn't doing the race, but I was there just going to see the race. And I think I may have been helping WSOC radio.

I can't remember that. So I'm leaving the driver's meeting and Humpey pulls me off to the side and he says, don't F this up. We talked me. He said, don't F this interview up. we need someone who knows NASCAR in this job. So they offered me the job after, you know, the series of interviews. They, you know, obviously interviewed some other folks.

And it took me a while to accept it, not because I knew nothing about museums, knew nothing about building museums, running museums, building, operating. And I had such a good job at Duke. And, you know, I'd been offered other jobs full time in NASCAR and, you know, did not leave. What other jobs? I'd been offered a job at NASCAR to work as a part of a team that would, so I had an HR background and it was to help work with the officials on what I was told that you've got. And it was a verbal offer. I never got an official offer, but somebody said, if I offered you this job, would you take it? And I was really on the precipice of getting

promoted to a vice president, Duke, which is a big deal at a company like that. But they were, they had part-time people, full-time people, and contract people. So to work on policies that help with that. And, you know, so, you know, I decided where I was. And if I'd have taken that job, I just started doing the TV show, NASCAR this morning, and was still doing MRI, and we couldn't work for NASCAR and do that. Yeah. So just, you know, put everything together.

But going back to the haul job, you know, the things that I have, you know, the things that had not done, you know, kind of intimidated me. But also, yeah, I took a pretty decent pay cut, you know, base pay it wasn't as huge cut, but I had a lot of incentives, you know, short-term, long-term, and stock options. But the more I thought about it is how many little boys grow up and not just work with their childhood heroes, but get to know their childhood heroes and be a part of building a facility that honors their childhood heroes and their favorite sport and their adopted home city. It's like, I knew I would look back and regret it.

Yeah. Atlanta, Charlotte, Daytona, Beach, Kansas City, and Richmond all responded to partnering to bring the Hall of Fame to those cities. Who was the toughest competition? Well, they narrowed it down after they did the initial interviews and looked at, you know, everything from location to different, you know, different business. business parts. And I always got asked during the process, why would it go anywhere else? There is a very legitimate reason it could have gone to any one of those five cities, whether it's geographically. You know, Sprint was based in Kansas cities in the middle of the country.

Yeah. You know, Richmond is near more of the population than all five cities if you look at how the northeast is. But they got narrowed down to Atlanta, Daytona Beach, and Charlotte. And then that was in the fall time frame. And then, uh, NASCAR made the decision. They did what was called a lockdown. I was not a part of all this where the NASCAR folks and the city folks talk through what would the business parts of the deal did in February and ultimately made the announcement in March of 2006.

So it was announced in 2006. You began working there in August of 2006. The hall was built and designed from 2006 to 2010. All right. So you're working for the hall. while it's being built. It takes a long time for that to happen. Literally, I mean, one of the things that I thought was interesting

is the timeline of you starting your job at MRN. You're the lead pit reporter starting in 03, right? It feels like you'd been around forever, which I mean you had. You'd started in 87, 88, but it just seems like you'd always been in our pits. you'd always been on every broadcast for all these years. And but the lead pit reporter role was finally yours in 03.

You get hired just a few years later in 06 to take over the Hall of Fame, which is a hell of a responsibility. You're the shepherd of our history, right? And so that's got to, which I know you understand the responsibility, but that's a lot to take on. outside of pit reporting, had you aspired to

to be anything more at MRI No. Why not? I loved what I was doing. You know, there were, I just did not want to go into that part of the business. It wasn't anything against it. You know, it was in, you know, David Hyatt and I

who ran MRN for a while, we started as gophers about the same time and he was interested in on-air stuff. and he moved to Daytona on the business side and still did some announcing and decided he'd go that route. I didn't want to leave this region. I had a great job. Yeah, but did you ever want to go in the booth? Off pit road?

No. And the reason is I had done some turn reporting. How was that? I liked it, but I wasn't good at it like the other guys. There is a cadence. You know, you've- Passing the baton, man. You know, you've been up there with, you know, Bagley and Dave Moody and those guys.

You know, I did a half dozen races or so on and off. I did some booth work on some of the Xfinity broadcast when they would rotate people into that. Is that, do you feel like is a, so the MRN broadcast is completely different than a television broadcast. Me and you, I mean, you've worked the pits, you've worked the broadcast, you know as well as anybody. but is the individual for the people listening is the individuals in the booth they're part of they're basically just another turn reporter they're just in a different location because there is a little bit of traffic cop you know where they've got to bring you back and and and two commercial and so forth but as the car circle the track it's just like a baton passed from one guy to the next and then

it eventually gets back around to the to the booth and then back to the to the to the turns. And so you found that to be just not in your wheelhouse. I was the play by play and the cadence and I listened to it. I had to be honest with myself that, you know, I felt like I did pretty well on pit road. I love the strategy. I love talking to the crew chiefs, crew members, drivers and all that stuff. But when I did the play by play and then I listened to the other guys, you know, whether it was a Joe Moore or Barney Hall or Dave Moody, Mike Bagley, you just go down through the list. I didn't have that. cadence. I felt like I was the weak link if I did the third turn at Pocono. I did the third turn or 11th turn

at Watkins Glen, some of those. And the traffic cop part, I felt like I picked up reasonably well in the interviewing of people that came into the booth. But I did not feel like I was a strong suit there and I liked what I did. So I didn't feel like it was something I should push somebody. I haven't been in management for years and years. You got to get the right people in the right job. And I was not the right person for the booth. I find that interesting because, I mean, Barney was the best, but he never had Bagley energy. You know, the turn workers, Bagley is an excellent, excellent broadcaster. And his energy is exactly where you want to be as you're passing that baton around the racetrack. But every time it came back to Barney, Barney had his style.

And it was a slower pace. It was a little less energy, but it worked. You don't believe that if you wanted to, you could have adapted and found your lane. I think you could have. I think you're too hard on yourself. I appreciate that. But again, I look at it in comparison. Yeah.

Because, you know, many of the jobs that I'm responsible for hiring for over the years at Duke. And here, you know, you get to have, you have two or three candidates and you're looking for very small differences because you have excellent candidates at this level. And when you're talking about putting somebody in the booth, you have people that are excellent at something that I would have to work hard at. If I were responsible for making the decision to put who I put in a booth, I wouldn't put me in the booth and I wasn't going to put them in that position to just because I've been around a long time. Yeah. Let me try to do it. Yeah. So I never had that desire. Just I liked what I was doing. What takes up all your time today?

Meetings. Yeah, but where is your sole focus? There's not one sole focus. And I've gotten that question before, and it's a harder one to answer. But I don't know the specifics of what Kelly does, but my perception is the types of things we do are very similar. that it's our job to help provide the resources to the people on our teams. And there's a lot of corporate stuff that I work on in support of our team. Employee development is a big thing.

Early on, it was getting people to understand the NASCAR industry and how it worked. But we've got a lot of people on the staff that know the industry. And I never forget, I got asked by one of the first of the business. our announcers once. Yeah. When we were having breakfast and one of my Hall of Fame team members was with me, said, who runs a Hall of Fame when you're not there? I said the same people that run it when I am there.

Because they're the ones that open the gates and all that. So I see myself as a person to help provide resources, to be an encourager or a cheerleader and see what they need and how I can help support them. And, you know, I get involved in some of the detail stuff of, you know, like when we worked with you on our glory road. Yeah. You know, that exhibit is one I'm very interested in. But, you know, so many of the exhibits like we're getting ready to unveil one on Hendrix's 40th anniversary and did one on Harvick and his career. You know, I connected the dots between our folks and Harvick.

Yeah. You know, Jesse and I talked to get it going, but I don't do the detail one. No, sure. that's exactly what I see you is that you're the trusted person that's going to reach out that I say we but like the drivers and owners and all of these people that are celebrated in the Hall of Fame are you know comfortable to discuss anything with you you've already built this reputation and relationship through your work at MRN and all the all the interviews we've did together that anytime you and anytime you you know you know

know you want to talk to me or you want to speak with me, I know that I can have a conversation, a comfortable trusting conversation with you. I think you're perfect for that role as sort of the custodian of the Hall of Fame. At least that's how I see you. But do you see yourself doing this for a really long time? How long do you want to be in this position? God, that's a great question. You know, I enjoy it a lot. We've got a couple of We're working on now that are very important to me that got put on Pallas because of COVID. We've got a new CEO in our parent company who I really enjoy working with and being able to, you know, helping that transition.

You know, he doesn't need me, but, you know, I want to help where I can. And our education program, our events program are, you know, growing and growing, and we don't have enough space for that. So we're just hiring an architect to help us with how we're. we can modify some of the space. But, you know, so I really don't know. I don't, you know, be 67 next month. I'm not a young man.

Yeah. But, and, you know, the thing I would say is we have a great team. If, you know, I hate to say it this way, if I won a lottery tomorrow, I wouldn't leave. But if I get hit by bus, we've got a great team. So I want to work on some of these projects and transitions, but I don't have a time frame. Yeah. But at some time, you know, you got little kids, we got grandkids.

I want to spend some more time with them. Did you have a plan or a game plan for how you would wind down your broadcasting career? I just, I knew it would have, it would be the right time. And I started thinking about it in the, you know, in the 2015, 16, 17, time frame. And, you know, there were, there are a lot of you guys that I wanted to be there as you went out. I said, very lucky to get to grow up and work with my childhood heroes. But then this generation of people that came through this sport with me, you know, folks like yourself and Jeff and Jimmy and folks like that, it's like, God, I don't want to leave. And, you know, there's still some out there

when I left, you know, Martin, I think the world of. He's not a big talker, but I love talking to Martin and people like that. But so, you know, I started thinking about it. And then, you know, I started thinking about it. And then in that 2016-17 timeframe. And then when Alex Hayden moved to the booth, which I thought was a great move for MRN, you know, I wanted to give it another couple of years as people, you know, Steve Post was on pit road, but there were some others coming in to get experience. Kim was one of them who's come along and done a great job. So I started figuring about 18 or 19, but that's also when, you know, my wife had her first granddaughter,

and they treat me just like, you know, I'm their grandfather. So that it just felt right that it was the time to not travel as much. Yeah. I wanted to ask you what were a couple of your more memorable interviews. You mentioned that the water bottle incident with Dad and Rusty was one that you'd never forget. But I kind of wonder if I even think that way, maybe you don't, I don't look back on my broadcasts and go, man, there's, here's me three memorable. moments, but I do know that I was very proud of a few days, a few days work that stand out. So, you know, what is some of the moments in your career that are memorable to you?

Well, I always enjoyed either first wins or a win that had not happened in a long time or a win that seemed appropriate or excitement in them. And, you know, if I sat down, I could probably list 30 or 40 of those, but some that that jump out. One was when Terry Labani won the 2003, it was then the last Southern 500. You know, I'd gone on Terry's motorcycle ride and like we talked about with Bob,

and we had had jokes back and forth with him. But for him to be, you know, one of the old school guys to win the last one, and he wasn't one of the favorites. And, you know, he didn't get out exuberant. You know, Terry, that one I remember. You know, I remember that the 2003, Rewin at Ricky Craven, you know, his exuberance and Kurt coming and talking to him.

I remember your 2004, I think it was Phoenix, and I don't know why you were so excited. You'd have to tell me, and I think it was the second Phoenix race, didn't he went in 2004. You just seemed a different level exuberance. We had just gotten our teeth kicked in at Martinsville. We were kind of in the points battle, and we broke a yoke on the rear end. or we just had some mechanical issues at Martinsville that cost us a chunk of points. And it was really one of them things where it was kind of, it sucked, but it was out of our control to a point to have a part failure.

And we went to Rich, we went to Phoenix and dominated and just had a really great car. And I think it was a, I think we were just, I was just happy to say to the industry, we are a contender and we're championship material right we're not going to win it this year but even while we're not really necessarily a factor anymore we um you know we're we're going to you know win in one of those races when you kind of lose that you know numerically you're kind of out of it um winning one of those final races is a great sort of not an f you to the series but it's a bit of a, you know, we're not going to let the contenders win these races. We're going to win them. Plus, I think it put us at six victories for the season, which in my mind, you know,

I thought, you know, winning one race or trying to win at least a race a year was what I hoped to do during my career. But man, not many people could go in and win a half a dozen races in one season. There's not a long list of drivers that will do those things. And I was having a hard time measuring up to dad on paper statistically. So it was cool to be able to do things that I thought he was capable of doing. I knew I wasn't dreaming, but that helped. I appreciate that context because it's that type of win

that I remember. You know, you're 14 Martinsville win. Yeah. You know, you wanted the clock so bad. And you were so excited. Jeff's win in his last season at 15 to go to the, championship and you know Jeff if I remember correct you were holding Jeff

off who could have gone to Miami and race for a championship and teammate or not you were going to get that clock and then same thing with Jeff the next year so those type interviews where somebody just are enthusiastic and or you know your dad

besides you I did a bunch of championships you know I did yours in the Bush series because Jim would do the Cup series and I remember you your dad just being so proud and, you know, some of those championship interviews when, you know, just the euphoria of a Martin Truex Jr., Tony Stewart in 2011 with that battle, there were so many of those. And, you know, it's not personal for me. You know, there's some of you guys I've gotten

to know better than others, but I look for, you know, a good race, good exciting race. And when that euphoria and even emotion comes out in victory lane or it's something special, you know, tied to that win or the ones that, it's like, that was cool that I was able to be here and hopefully I ask a question that the guy that's sitting on the boat would want to know the answer to, you know, you tell me about the race, that's great. But if I can come up with something that, you know, that brings out that what made this special is, you know, again, we're the conduit of information. I know you won't publicly shame anybody, but I do want to know who might have been the tougher interviews.

Who was consistently difficult or hard to crack? Kowicki could be difficult. Really? Yeah. Alan could be difficult if, you know, I think Paul Andrews, I haven't heard his whole episode. I think, you know, he would tell you, Alan wasn't easy. He's got to work with. And I had two guys I went to high school with that worked with him that, you know, so.

And I didn't ever interview him in Victory Lane. So I was always talking to him. He didn't win or he fell out of the race or something like that. So, you know, he could be a little bit that way. And, you know, there were times that Kyle Bush, you know, was, you know, want to walk off or whatever. And, you know, one of the things I learned from Barney, you know, if they don't want to talk, they don't want to talk.

That's fine. You know, I'm not going to force the issue. Sure. So I guess those are a couple that, you know, and there are times though, not with Alan, because I never did him in, interviewed him in Victory Lane, but one of the things that I try to pay attention to even before I was at the hall is where does this victory stack up? So, you know, one of the things I would mention with Kyle, you know, who he had just passed, you know, whether he's Leap Eddy or whomever.

And, you know, when I would mention it or it would come up, he kind of had that look like, you that's what you're supposed to do. And like he kind of enjoyed it of knowing kind of where he's stacked up that, you know, you just passed this Hall of Fame or whatever. So, but, you know, when he, when he didn't win or thought he should have won, sometimes he could be a little bit short. Who are some of the best interviews? Oh, man.

Golly, that's like saying, you got six grandkids or 15 grandkids and who's the best one. And the access, and this is not a patronizing, the access that we get is by far in a way more than anything we could ever imagine. You know, think about, you know, Jeff and Jimmy were just so consistent no matter what happened. They were always good. You were always incredibly open, incredibly accessible, no matter what happened. You know, you knew even when you had that. period of time where you weren't having the success. You had a responsibility because of being the

most popular driver and being who you are and we're always accessible, whether it was before or after the race. And I never had to worry about that you would not talk to us no matter how good things were going or how bad things were going. Tony could be funny. Tony Stewart. Tony Stewart. Yeah. Tony would needle you on the air or something or, you know, walk, by you and maybe goots you while you're interviewing somebody. Oh, yeah. You know, there are a couple of stories that are probably a little bit longer than I got time for. But one, he was sitting in his car.

And Victory Lane and Daytona up on Jack Stans is the second race. And I couldn't tell if he didn't see me. I was standing up at the corner car. I couldn't tell if he didn't see me or he didn't want to talk. So in Dayton, if the cars were on the back straightaway, you could actually, you know, speak to somebody. So I pointed a microphone. I said, Tony, you want to talk?

He looked at me at the corner of his eyes, and he said, no uncertain turns. No, I don't want to talk. And then he looked back and grin real big. He said, you know it ain't personal? It grin. And I gave him a thumbs up. And, you know, next week or two when I saw him, I said, you know, Tony, I'll never throw you under the bus, but I've got a responsibility to ask and if it's a bad time.

And he was sitting in a car, went in it down, helmet off, and sometimes that means you're okay to talk. And he said, you know, the thing that I'm trying to do is not say something I won't regret. He said, we blew up at Daytona and we got involved in somebody else's accident, Talladega in this race. He said, if I finished 15th in all three of those races, I'm leading to points. He said, I was just trying not to say anything. I wasn't going to regret.

He said, you and your guys have always been respectful. But when he looked back and said, you know, it ain't personal. But he could get you to. I ask him a really poorly worded question. once at Talladega. So, you know how you guys, some guys, I don't think you ever did it much, who would ride at the back. Yeah.

And I was trying to ask a question about what is his strategy today and how he's going to approach it. And I didn't word it very well. And he looked at him, he said, you know, I think I'm going to just ride around here in the back. And if I get a top 35 finish at the end of the day, I'm going to be happy with it. He just looks at me and leaves me hanging. It's like, I probably deserve that.

You know, I like that about that, that they feel confident enough. venue that, you know, you can have a little bit of fun. Yeah, I suppose. You know, you've had some great moments with some Hall of Fame inductees. And, I mean, that's one of the incredible experiences for you, I think, at this part of your career. It's almost maybe very rewarding for you, after all the effort and time that you've put in. to be able to interview all of these people, be a part of their lives,

work the beat in the circus that NASCAR is, and now be in this position to position all of these very deserving individuals into maybe the greatest place they could ever want to be, and that is the Hall of Fame. So, you know, I've never, I did not, I saw, I experienced a lot of championships with my father, watched a lot of drivers go through our sport winning titles even though I never won one I got a pretty good idea what that might feel like and nothing in my life and I don't believe it I believe

it's consistent across the board can compare to the moment of standing up there and accepting the the induction into the Hall of Fame and giving that speech and I feel like that that must be pretty emotional but also very special for you to sort of be the guy that that helps that happen for everybody. You, I talked about how you developed this reputation and friendship and trust as your work as a pit reporter and just always being there and being around and being so kind and drivers want to trust the media, want to trust journalists, want to trust reporters, want to trust reporters, and broadcasters, but it has to happen over a period of time, and I don't know anybody that

did that better than you, and now you're in this position where you literally help the individuals in this sport that have accomplished so much settle into that most important position as a Hall of Famer. I want you to spend the last few minutes of our interview just acknowledging that moment and what that must be like for you to watch people get to celebrate that, how eager you are for every single group to come around. I can't imagine how you might, you know, be counting the days to the next induction to be able to get that experience again with a whole new batch of deserving inductees. It gets emotional. You noticed it at your induction when we talked afterwards that so I also

acknowledge if we lost anybody and at your induction we had lost Jack Angram and Maurice Petty and you know all the living inductees are friends in some in different ways than others and and that gets emotional but what I will tell you probably the thing that I am not proud of personally but but the fact that the team that we have has that trust now in people from people. You know, I worked with you some, but you and Tony Mayhoff and others worked with you, much more than I did, whether it's Kevin Schleash or Wendy Bell, Tom Jensen, and just a host of team.

And one of the things that has meant the most to me, so you came on your show after your induction and talked about the Hall of Fame weekend. And you said, you weren't sure why it was going to take three days, but you understood. stood afterwards and appreciated, you know, and that's a cadence that we have worked on with NASCAR, and this is a true great partnership. This is not Winston. There's so many people that have been put into this and that make it work and so many other people that do so much more heavy lifting than I do.

You know, we all worked on together to build it and said, you know, you just liked how it was cadenced out. But the other thing that you said that meant so much to me, that you said how much passion our people have and how much it means to them to do this for you guys. And it's true. And how much of that passion I transferred to them or they just have it because they care about what they do. I've never told you this. So, you know, we do parent company all team meetings about three or four times a year.

and the whole company is involved in this, volunteers that are ambassadors that take people around that help with every aspect of it. We played that for the whole team. The people that do the food and beverage, because we took a pretty good meal. Yeah. We played it for the whole team

because it meant that much. And that's where I get just so much satisfaction and appreciation for the team that we have. and I appreciate you saying that to folks. And there are individuals that I have been closer with over time, you know, yourself being one of them, that it really meant a lot. I've never voted for anybody because they were a personal friends.

I can honestly say that. You know, I didn't vote for Terry Labani the first time he was eligible, but I look forward to when he was getting in. But, you know, there's a ton of different ones that speak to the people. you know, Richard Petty, when we talked about what car we might put on Glory Road, he said, you know what we got in a collection, you take what you want. First time I ever talked to Richard about the Hall of Fame, he said, please be sure to tell the Petty Enterprise's story, not the Richard Petty story.

Wherever you think I fall into that. Yeah. That's why the hat we just unveiled is about the story. You know, the time walking with Mr. H., around the week of it. And he said, I've never taken the time to stop and reflect. And this has given me that encouragement to do that

and all the people that mean so much to him and watching him with one of his grandsons at his exhibit. And when Ned Jarrett was announced to go in a Hall of Fame in 2011, never forget this, walked up to congratulate him. He says, I want to make you a good inductee. said, Ned, this is about you.

But you know how Ned is. You know, when Richard, who normally didn't stay around after the voting, but when he thought his brother might get in and to be able to be there and congratulate him. And, you know, so many of those, it's about the people. Fred Lorenzen's kids never saw him race. Never ever saw him race. when they rolled him into the Hall of Fame to see his exhibit in a wheelchair and there were 40 people at least on either side

and Chris and Amanda got to see they gave him a standing ovation and they're literally got tears in their eyes the families of the inductees you know when all the Earnhardt's were up there together for your dad's induction you know I tell people all the time if you've never experienced an induction and you're working here, you can watch the inductees, but they're going to be awshucks. That's just what I did.

Watch the families. And they're with Chad and Jimmy's kids this past time and Donnie's family. You know, it's just you go on and on. Yeah. I love it. I've, you know, I think as I get older and I go to more and more of those functions, I fall in love with it more and more every year and look forward to it. And when we got inducted, there's a little dinner that you guys have the night before

where we go upstairs and it's kind of like an intimate. They'll be the inductee and some of the other Hall of Famers and maybe some wives and family and so forth. But we're all in this room. It's really only about 20 people maybe. and it feels incredible. I don't know how else to describe it, but being in that moment,

knowing that tomorrow they're going to be Hall of Famers and they're going through that three-day process, and they're sort of bewildered and taken aback. It's almost as much fun, experiencing that three-day weekend as an inductee. It's almost as much fun watching now, seeing other people go through it. And you get reminded about the emotions and the feelings that happened for yourself, watching someone else go through it again.

And I just can't say enough about the great job that y'all do, not only to make the induction as special as it should be, but also that the place is there. It's a, it's every single day, any day that you want to go and learn about the history of our sport, the doors are open and there's a place for us to go. We really never had that. I remember going down to Talladega and to the hall, to the museum there and being that, if I was, you know, if I was going to go to Talladega, which I went quite a bit with dad, you had to go in there because that was really the only form of, a Hall of Fame that we really had as a sport and now to have this official, you know, brick and mortar location right here in our backyard where it belongs, right?

Right down the road for any one of us to go to, any moment we want, take our kids to and have events. We've just recently had an event with nationwide insurance over there that was so much fun. So anyhow, I'm just so thankful that you decided to take that job. back in 06, I can't think of anybody better suited to, you know, usher that, that whole project into the world and to be the shepherd of it and to help people understand that all the people that you have underneath you that are responsible for putting on the ceremonies and all the other events that happened

there throughout the year, you're the, you were the perfect person for that. And so I'm thankful. I appreciate you. I'm thankful for the time you give us today. Had a lot of fun talking to you and catching up. And always enjoy being able to see you when I do. But I'm thankful that you came here today to give us some time. Well, you're kind.

I appreciate being here. And I can't thank you and the industry enough. And I can't sing the praises of the people, not just at our team, Amber Wells and everybody at the NASCAR team, Mike Helton, Steve. It's a perfect partnership. and I'm just a very small part of it. The city having the vision to bring it here and to go after it, NASCAR,

to put it here in the industry. And Mr. H led, you know, the local effort. There's so many people, and I see myself as one small part that's just so blessed. And everything you just said is why I said, I know I'm going to look back and regret it if I don't be a part of this. Yeah.

And just, you know, Gary mentioned having, you know, surround yourself with people, I was fortunate that people, you know, embraced me and surrounded me, our parent company, the city, NASCAR. I didn't build the team. I was a part of building a team and just so blessed, you know, it's my passion, our sport. I mean, we call it our sport, our house. And it's your sport, my sport.

Yeah, you're right. I appreciate you. Thank you, buddy. Winston Kelly on the Dell Jr. Download. All right, it's a great conversation with Winston Kelly. And I've been talking about trying to get him here for a long time, so thankful that we could get him here and talk about the Hall of Fame. He's the executive director there.

And it was a long-time broadcaster for MRN and just some pretty cool stories about how he got his start, some of his memories from being the lead pit reporter for MRN. And great to see the emotion, you know, that he has for his role. the Hall of Fame and how important all of that is to him. And we're lucky that we have somebody who cares so deeply about the Hall of Fame and all the people that will be inducted there in the future of the Hall of Fame. We're very lucky. He's got a great team around him and had a chance to work with him many, many times.

And so always walk away really thankful that, you know, that group's the ones that are in charge over there. So, yeah, good times. Yeah, I was surprised he was a little more transparent about some of the questions on who the tough interviews were and stuff like that. I wanted to kind of get into the voting process for the Hall of Fame. But, you know, I'm not saying I'm critical of it, but I'm just curious as to, you know, some of the protocols and why they do some of the things they do and how they choose who might be part of some of the voting committees. Because sometimes, for myself, you know, for example, I'll get an invite to come and be a part of, one part of the process and then the next year maybe not an invite at all

and then the next year maybe a part of the voting of another whole different process so they kind of just kind of mix and match and try not I think they try to avoid you know redundancy I guess in

how they do things so that the trying to truly get the most organic group in each in each class each year years. So I don't know. You know, everybody's got their opinions on how it goes down and who should be in. I think that probably is the toughest job for him. I didn't, I guess we should have asked him that. Like, how do you handle the aftermath, the criticism? Oh, man, why didn't this person go in? Oh, this person belongs in there. Because I'm part of that. I'm part of that. We're all part of that group. We're all always on Winston's case about, hey, why didn't this person go in? But they do such a tremendous job, and I wouldn't want that responsibility at all. So anyways, I appreciate Winston getting us some time today.

I'm thankful for Ally, our sponsor of the guest segment. They brought us an ally today in Winston Kelly, and no matter what you're saving for, whether it's race tickets or a car, maybe a race car, or a new home, we're all better off with an ally. All right, it's time for the white flag. Dropping Sunday night to tear down with Jeff Gluck and George Bianchi, covering everything from Pocono and also on Monday action is detrimental with Denny Hamlin. Denny giving us his point of view from second place this weekend.

Doorbop are clear. Guys giving us their opinion on the 7 and 8 accident during the cup race and everything else going on in the sport. Yesterday we did the same dropping dirty air on Tuesday. And then today, Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden. Tomorrow, DJD Reloaded comes out. It's back again. a little break last week. And Dirty Mo Doe

with Steve LaTart and Tampa Tams. You'll want to hear those guys preview the upcoming race. I don't think anybody does a better job. Previewing the upcoming races than the guys on Dirty Mo Doe. We've got an Apple review to read for you. This is from

Captain Stud. Sounds like it. Yeah, all right. Captain Stud. I listen to both parts of the Gary Nelson interview twice. It brings me back to the good days. I like it, man. Appreciate the review. That was to the point, short and brief, and that's the way we're going to end this show.

Hope you enjoyed it. Thank you, Winston Kelly. We'll see y'all next week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.