The Dale Jr. Download - 572 - Buddy Parrott: "My Sport, My Love and My Job Was Always NASCAR Racing"

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomes legendary NASCAR Crew Chief Buddy Parrott to the Dirty Mo Media Studio to learn more about the pivotal role he played in some of NASCAR’s greatest moments. Growing up in Gastonia, North Carolina, Buddy participated in competitive diving all through high school before finding his way to a race at Birmingham International Raceway on behalf of Huggins Tire Service. Buddy would take a job with the company working as a tire man for their NASCAR events, mounting tires for the entire Cup field on a regular basis. It was through this service that he met the legendary Harry Hyde, and not long after Buddy would approach him for an opportunity to work on his famed K&K Insurance Dodge team. Buddy explains that his time with Harry was invaluable, and he considered him to be his mentor, teaching him everything he knew about race cars and racing setups.Buddy would make the decision to split from the team when Kentuckian Ferrel Harris came to the shop to purchase a racer and some Raymond Fox-prepared engines. While working with Harris, Buddy also spent time teaming up with Robert Gee to help prepare his dirt cars, which were chauffeured by none other than Carolina ace Hayward Plyler and a young Dale Earnhardt. Dale Jr. was surprised to learn that Buddy served as crew chief for his father’s 1976 Atlanta 500 attempt in a car owned by Johnny Ray, which was famously destroyed in a crash. Buddy would move on to the DiGard Motorsports outfit to team with Darrell Waltrip and take the NASCAR Cup scene by storm in the late 1970s. Listeners can hear all of this, plus more about Buddy’s time working on Harry Ranier’s Gray Ghost, helping Richard Petty score his 200th win, and the 1990 Daytona 500.21+ 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.

All right, everybody, we're back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download, and it is time for the guest segment presented to you by Ally. Buddy Parrott is on the show today. Buddy has been a crew chief in this sport for over 30 years and for so many teams. My goodness, when you look at where this guy was and where he's been, I need to know what's the deal. He's won a lot, had a lot of success. This is going to be a fun conversation.

And maybe we'll learn something new. I'm sure we will. Let's get started. The following is a production of Dirtymoe Media. Hey everybody, Dale Jr., Dale Jr., back again, the Ally guest segment today. Buddy Perry, Buddy has been a crew chief in this sport for over 30 years and for so many teams. He's won a lot, had a lot of success. This is going to be a fun conversation.

All right, yeah, back in the studio again for this Ally guest segment. I want to thank Ally for everything they do here at the Dale Jr. download. and for Dirty Mo Media and for the entire sport. I mean, they're really supporting NASCAR in so many different ways, and we're lucky and thankful for them to leave the impact and influence that they are in the sport. We've got a great ally coming on the show, and Buddy Parrott is the guy's name. Buddy Parrott, his two sons, Todd and Brad, that I know rather well,

both also became crew chiefs in the NASCAR series. But Buddy Parrot, I'm not sure where his story. begins, which is always fun for me to learn. Where did he connect to motorsports and what brought him into this world? And so we'll learn all of that. And I know that he had a lot of success with Darrow put the DiGard deal. He ended up, you know, all the way down through a couple of decades, ends up at Roush racing and has success there, managing some of their programs and being a crew chief.

So a lot of me on the bone in between those two jobs. throughout the 80s and into the 90s. So just a lot to cover. And I'm excited to finally talk to him. 84 years old. But still really, really sharp. Got a lot of great memories and things he wants to share. So let's get him in the room.

All right. So we got Buddy Parrott here on the Dale Jr. download. And, man, I'm excited about this. It's been a minute since I've seen you. But, and I don't know of many people that have had the kind of career that you've had, the longevity and the different kind of parts of the sport that you've experienced. But you're 84 years old.

Look like you're doing all right. Well, other than having to walk with a stick, I'm doing okay. Yeah. Yeah, I'm still making it. Matter of fact, in two months, I'll be 85. Wow. So everybody talked about, you used to, you talked about things. and I said, I brag about, I'm 85.

I'm a very, very lucky person to be 85. I gave the man upstairs quite a few opportunities. Yeah. I'm anxious to hear what you've dug up about me. Well, I mean, honestly, you know, I have learned a lot about your career over the last couple of years because, well, ever since I really started. doing this podcast and diving deeper into the history of the sport. And I did a, I did a deep dive into the 1979 season and learned a little bit about some of the,

you know, that was a very difficult kind of part of your career, at least difficult for you, because of the tumultuous things going on at Dygard, which we'll get to eventually. But, you know, I grew up, I grew up around the sport and I was a little bit, quite a bit younger, I think, than Todd and Brad, your sons. But I do remember being in the pits at Martinsville and seeing Brad glue and lug nuts or Todd glue in lug nuts. And I knew whose son they were. And to watch them develop into the crew chiefs and have the success that they had

really was impressive to see. which I'm sure you were very proud of. I want to know you were born in Gastonia, North Carolina, local, back in 1939. And while you were in school, you competed in diving and swimming. And you took a job at Huggings Tire, Huggings Tire, working as a tire changer. So you worked at a local tire store. Is that, you know, so you're a rather big guy, so you're a bit of an athlete. when you were in school.

You know, was athletes and athletics a big part of your life? Well, I won a championship when I was 12 years old at a pool called Limeberger Park and Gastonia. And so I guess that's where I've got my competitive spirit, so to speak. But later on, after I'm... I graduated from high school. Did you play sports in high school? Yeah.

Well, I actually was a diver. I won the North Carolina State High School Diving Championship. Jeez. In 1958. Wow. Yeah. Had a place called up in Winston-Salem. Yeah.

At the college up there. Yeah. So. But later on, after, after I graduated, I'll tell everybody that I had two jobs in my life. I was a glass mechanic at Pritcher Painted Glass Company in Charlotte, and that led me to going to Salisbury, where Huggins Tire was located. Well, they were located actually in Thomasville, and I met this guy that was a drag racer, and one thing led to another.

I got the opportunity to go to a race in Birmingham, Alabama. So I go down there. Is that a drag race? That was a, no, it was a NASCAR way. How did you get that opportunity? I was with Huggins tire. Yeah, they had a car? No.

They were supplying the tires. NASCAR was running there. Okay. And they were supplying the tires. I got you. I didn't work at a tire store. I went straight to work with Huggins Tire, who was one of the five, three or four dealers in United States.

There you go. And so after it was all over, Ross Huggins called me, and he said, buddy, would you be interested in coming to work up here? I said, well, I don't know. He said, I like the way you work, but I'll tell you what, I'll really. like about you. I like to weigh you party. And Ross obviously was a great guy. And so he actually gave me my start and stayed there about four years. And you mounted and dismounted tires, race tires? A hundred a day.

Holy cow. We had the, back then, we had two, two or three tire machines and we go to Daytona and we had to full feel and um so boy i'll tell you what you're talking about working my my first job was stuffing shields and uh putting the inner liners yep putting the interliners and the tires well i kept putting that thing and i mean you had to be a real man to do that and of course i was popping them in there and i kept hitting my elbow my arm here my forearm yeah and that thing got about this big so i got a big old bruise and everything and Ross looked at me and said what's wrong to your arm I said nothing because I didn't want to tell him I was hurt so I got a piece of roll bar pattern put the roll bar padding

and just kept working what a time we had and that was a fun experience also it led to knowing about tires and I will get into that and tell you why that led to my next my next job yeah so you worked so this puts you inside the garage this puts you around NASCAR this puts you around the industry and to your point working with tires so what were you able to learn in those early days mounting dismounting tires working with tires that would help you going forward air pressures balancing, stretching, just a few little things that

but the main thing was was date codes how to code your tires. And so I... We still, that's funny you mentioned that because we still deal with date codes today and still date codes, even at the grassroots level of short track racing,

date codes is everything. Nobody wants it. old tire on a race car. I don't care if it's two months old. Why is that important? Well, first of all, the date codes tell you what day, what month it was built, what year it was built, and what day actually. And so what you do, if you get a tire that's been four months sitting in the warehouse at Charlotte Motor Speedway, matter of fact, but if you get the four codes. A lot of times you can't do that, but you get them as close as you can. You get the right sides, the same date code, and the left side's the same date code. Then you're pretty well

off to the races, so to speak. How did that job turn into an opportunity to work for one of the race teams? Well, we were in Atlanta, Georgia, and Firestone was a lot of our competitor. And back then, my competition or our competition was not the race cars, but it was about good year in Firestone. Yeah. Well, Firestone had brought a tire there that wasn't doing very well. It was a little bit, a little soft and was blistering.

And so I, we were, they shoved all of that. wheels to Huggins or a good year and so we were left with mounting all the tires well after that race you know firestone pulled out and so no more competition and all of a sudden we we have the full fill of race cars well I'd met a few people and most well Harry Hyde for instance Harry would always bring his wheels and stack them up in front of my machine because he wanted me to mount the tires.

So I called Harry and he was in California racing and I called him and I said Harry, are you interested in a good tire guy for your race thing? He said, yeah, you know one?

So anyway, that's the way he was. Yeah. I said, I need to, I want to go, I want to go racing. I want to go racing. I want to be on a race car. He said, okay, go over there to see Tommy Johnson. Tell Tommy to give you something to do until I get back. Who's Tommy?

Tommy Johnson was the shop foreman. Okay. He was Harry's right-hand man. Matter of fact, his name was Bill Johnson. Is this the seven? Have you ever heard of him? No. Well, Bill Johnson raced at Concord Speedway with the hemi and the Pike's Peak car that we had and all that.

Is this the 71 K&K Dodge that Bobby Isaac drives back in 1970? That's it. And so you went to work at one of the most iconic cars in the series. I mean, you know, you had Richard Petty and, and, you know, Bobby Allison and a couple of the drivers, but the 71 K&K Dodge was an iconic car. And Harry Hyde, I don't know if he had the reputation that he would develop at that particular point, but, I mean, he's, it's a recognizable name as any in the sport. Did you know what you were getting yourself into?

Well, I had, like I said, I had a relationship with Harry through me mountain tires for him and things like that. And I tell everybody, I said, man, I worked outside for three or four months before I even saw the inside of the race shop. Doing what? Mountain tires on the truck. He would get his tires from Goodyear. And that's back when they had the steel ring around the tires. the old Dodge trucks and everything. So Harry said, you'd be careful out there.

So I engineered a way to do the, air the tires to where that ring wouldn't blow off, you know, and cut my head off. And so later on, but I was going to the racetrack. But like I said, I wasn't working on the race cars. You know, I didn't have that opportunity. I was mounting tires and dismounting tires and bounding tires and bound. and tires and taking care I was the tire man. Right. So over time, so you, so this is kind of how that was your experience in the first

handful of years. I mean, when do you eventually get this opportunity to start to understand how the car works, right? Where do you, where do you develop the knowledge of, you know, that would serve you throughout the rest of your career? Well, we had a station wagon that we drove. we drove to the racetrack. We didn't fly the racetrack.

And I was Harry's driver. Harry trusted me. Harry's son, Harry Lee, had a tendency to nod off, you know, what I mean. And it scared Harry when he drove. But Harry could go over there and go to sleep and everything while I drove the car. But we had a lot of conversations going down the road. I mean, can you imagine getting in the car and driving to California? That's a lot of conversation, man.

Right. And so I learned a lot from that man. He was my mentor. I mean, my setups, things I learned, I owe it all to Harry Hyde. So you worked with them through 1974. Why would you, what took you away from that? Well, that particular day, it's amazing how things popped back in your mind. That particular day, I was riveting brake shoes.

What we would do, we would take the brake shoes and put new pads on the, on the shoes. Drums? No, yeah, the drum brakes. Yeah. And so I was back there doing those rivets and everything and getting ready for Earl Parker to do the machine work, you know, or fit the brake drums or fit the shoes in the drums. I don't know whether you remember. Oh, I've never done all that. I've never done any of that.

Yeah. And it wasn't Earl Parker either. Earl Parker was the, was the spark player guy. But, man, his daughter was in racing. His son was in racing. And he did all the shoes. Sure. The brick shoes and stuff like that.

So, all right, I'm back on a program now. Okay, now what was the question? Give me. What happened on, what took you away from the seven one team? Okay. I was back there, and so I had been approached by a guy named Farrell Harris from Pikeville, Kentucky. Yep. Made his money, auguring coal and cutting tops of mountains off and all that.

But anyway, Farrell and I got to be friends, and he had, he had, he had, bought a car from Harry, two motors, and by the way, Raymond Fox engines. And so I looked at Harry, I said, Harry, I'm fixing, I'm fixing a leave. He looked at me. He says, well, I said, if you're tired, it was about three o'clock in the afternoon. He said, if you're tired, go on, going on home. I said, no, I'm thinking I'm going to do something different. And what are you going to do? I said, well, I want to, I'm going to start a deal with, with Ferrell Harris. And he said, now what do you know about a race car? I said, I learned from you.

And that was all I had to say. Yeah. And he said, and he wished me luck. And he said, anything you need out of this shop, you got it. Looking back on that, did you make the right choice? Oh, yeah. Yeah. It gave me an opportunity to go across the street.

And I want to clarify this because. A lot of people have got on here, and I watched your downloads until 4 o'clock in the morning with two guests that you had on there. Yeah. And so I want to clarify that I do and did work on race cars. Yeah. I went over to a little gas station across the street beside the Apollo restaurant, it was Buck Little's place, and took Ferrell's car and the engines.

and I went over there when I said we it was no we it was I went over there and we ran 12 12 races a year out of that okay that's where we that's where I started I had I had people come over and help me in the afternoon because I had a cooler that was full of beer they would come over and have a cold beer yeah and matter of fact I could come up with Coors Beer at the time. But at the time, Robert G. Robert G. was there. He wasn't there with me, but he was right down the road on Hutzpeth Road.

And Robert was keeping up the cars. And Raymond was building the engines. And I was doing the chassis work. I had a set-ups from Harry. And I had a guy named Larry Reagan. and used to come over, and I'd get the car all set on the front end plates, ready to go, and Larry would get off and work, come across the street, and set the front end on the car. So one day he said, buddy, I don't mind coming over here and doing this.

He said, one of these days, you're going to be off and I'm going to be sick or something, and you won't be able to do this. I said, okay, he set me down on my knees and taught me. the art of Kastor and Camber. Yep. All that. And so that's where my expertise were. Front-in settings,

bump steer later on in my career, bump steering the cars, making sure they drove right and straight. And that's where I learned. Yeah. It was a no-brainer because I didn't have any, I don't have any pressure, okay? Farrell Harris appreciated everything I did,

and I appreciated the way he drove the race car. We took a car to Daytona and out-qualified Harry, and Harry had an ARCA deal, and that's what I wanted to tell you. We were running ARCA and a few cup races. But we out-qualified Harry at Daytona. He said, I don't know how you did that.

I said, well, you told me how to do it. You running these limited events during those years with Farrell Harris presented you the opportunity to be other places as well. You served apparently, I never knew this. You served as the crew chief for dad's car at 1976 at the Atlanta race where dad drove Johnny Ray's car, the 77, that he ended up flipping at the end of the race. Matter of fact, you had that car. Yeah, the die cast. You had that car. And every time I saw it, I said, well, boy, that brings back memories.

How did that happen? How did you end up on that deal? Again, I had some free time because her schedule. Yep. So, Robert, I don't remember how the thing went down, whether Dale made a deal with Johnny Ray, John Ray or I knew John Ray. Yep. and Robert, but we all three kind of put it together.

Man, what a deal that was. How was it? I mean, I know Daddy ended up, Daddy was running into top ten when he ran up on Dick Brooks, who was coming out. Dick Brooks had had some trouble, been, you know, been behind the wall, getting his car repaired, pulled back out on the track and was running, ended up blowing his engine or something, and Dad come through there and clipped him. but I've heard all kinds of different stories about that shook him up real bad mama Brenda my mom was scoring the race at that point but it was a pretty bad little spill but do you remember much about I guess the weekend and how practice win or how dad was and how did you know much about dad is this your first experience being around him well first of all I had been I'd been around you your dad quite a bit. Oh, yeah? Okay, so if I get off on this little deal, then I want to bring it back.

Okay. First of all, Dale and I had a relationship through dirt tracks. Okay. Concord Speedway, Starlight Speedway, South Carolina down at Gaffney. Can I tell you a story about that? Yeah, sure. Well, we're, we raced that number 17, and you had a door panel off that car. Yep. Robert G's dirt car? Camara. Yeah. And so we went to Concord on Friday night, I think it was Friday night.

And so the next night we were in Starlight Speedway in Munro. All right. We go. We finish up. we won the race at Concord and the car wasn't tore up very bad so we we go to the shop clean all the mud out wash it down pressure wash it I guess we had a pressure washer then I'm not sure but anyway we get it all cleaned up and so reset everything and your dad was there with me listen he wasn't scared to get his hands dirty and so we get to

we get the car loaded and we're running a little late as usual we loaded that thing up on the trailer and that stick-bodied truck and I'm not real sure whether I was driving the truck or Dale was driving probably he was because I'd worked all night and we're going down the road and I want to tell this because I tell you what kind of guy your father was we're going the road and he looked over me and he says birdie he called me birdie that was my nickname he said birdie you got any money on you i said yeah i got i got a little bit of cash and so luckily i did and so he said i need some money to eat on and i said okay so i gave him i said well i've got some money i split it with him i gave him $20 i think i had 40 bucks maybe or but anyway

your dad, we're going down the road and we're getting closer. And I got to thinking, I said, you know, deal, here's the deal. If you don't get me in a fight tonight, if you don't run over Billy Scott, you don't have to pay me that $20. Okay? He said, okay. So we're in the race. the heat race, mind you, and who does he spin out? Billy Scott.

Billy Scott. You will not believe the people that love Billy Scott. Yeah. At that racetrack, they didn't really take care for your dad, but they did. But anyway, man, I get down there and he's already unbuckled his belt, and he's in the middle. he's in the middle of sitting on the drive shaft loop of the tunnel in the middle of the car and people swinging at him and throwing water bottles or maybe beer cans whatever and he's duck he's still got his helmet on and everything and so about that time I look around and so I get

there and I'm pushing people out of the way I see people flying through the air I said I know, Farrell Harris had been there, had come with me. And Farrell Harris was a bad man. Yeah. Farrell was grabbing people and throwing them, throwing off the car. So the moral of the story is, if it hadn't been for Farrell Harris, we'd have both had her ass kick. No kidding. Yeah.

So needless to say, your dad still owes me $20. So I didn't know that you. You know, I didn't know that you had spent time with dad when they, when he was sort of going through that grind of running those dirt tracks around, you know, North and South Carolina and so forth. I often wondered like who, I know that Robert G. built that 17 car and I know that Robert G. Jr. was probably involved in in the car a little bit. but I never know, I never have really been able to hear about, you know, those type of stories and what those weekends were like. So you, you, your relationship with Robert G., which probably started with your employment at Harry Hyde, 71 K&K Dodge, where Robert G also worked, is probably what connected you

to dad, because dad would marry Brenda and, you know, he's to, me and Kelly are born in 72 and 74 and dad's driving Robert G's dirt car and so you that's how you end up as the crew chief for the cup car at Atlanta I'm assuming that's right but first of all again I'll I like to side till side sores if it's okay all right well your dad like said he was married to brenda and robert g myself robert g and raymond fox were known as the three musketeers i mean that's the way judy always said that you know because we were always together raymond fox had a engine building facility uh room right in the back of that little shop down there on hutchman's yeah granddaddy shop and robert robert and i were just just like brothers okay i mean i love

that man I still love him and I'm missing. My wife, Judy, I just told Kelly out in the foyer there lobby, I said, you know, I'm going to tell a story on you. Judy used to babysit Kelly, so Dale and Brenda, they'd go to the race or they would go have a date or whatever. And so Judy was actually a babysitter for Derek Carroll. And so we go back a long, long way, okay? And there's lots of stories to tell.

But we've only got a, what, my four or five hours? That's what we're about, yeah. But now, back to the original question, And Dale and I had a lot of, Ann Robert. And I want to bring up this guy's name because he was synonymous, that's the word, in your dad's career. Not because Cruz was that great a mechanic or whatever. Darrell Cruz? But Cruz had arms like a damn tree.

And he would, nobody mess with your dad. Your dad, your dad, when I knew your dad, he had arms about to spig around, you know, a little skinny guy. And Cruz was his bodyguard, man. Yeah. I mean, I heard you mention Darrell Cruz. I love Darrell Cruz. I did too. He was such a special person.

And so I got to tell you a little story. We're all working on the race car. And so we got invited downtown Charlotte's for. something. I don't remember where it was or what. I had a 65 Cadillac, four-door Cadillac, old big, long Cadillac. So we go, your dad, Robert G. and myself and Cruz, we're all getting this car, and here we go to Charlotte. And we get down there, and your grandfather, he didn't, he, he wouldn't take a drink, you know. And, of course, I had to follow along. I did, uh, We had a lot of fun.

I got to say one thing, your dad was not a big drinker. No. Okay. So that was a good thing. All of a sudden, the designated driver was developed. Your dad was the D.D. Yeah. Driver.

And what a mistake that was. We're on our way back home. And you've got a picture of this now. This is a big old Cadillac. And we're flying down 49. and so we get right about that curve where Del, I mean, Love's junkyard was, okay? Your dad hangs that old Cadillac, the right rear out in the gravel and the dirt, and it's beating all up under the car, and we just know we're going to die,

or we're going over there in those wrecked cars and be a junkyard dog. Yeah. So we pull up. We go on up and Dale turns into Hutsworth Road. Cruz reaches over and grabs the keys and jerks the keys out of the car. He gets out of the car. Of course, we all get out of the car. I don't remember why.

But anyway, we get out of the car. And Cruz walks up and just slaps your dad. I mean, it scared us, you know. And I'll never forget that. And I said, Cruz, stop that, man. You're going to break his jaw. Because it was little. Dale wasn't that big.

But that's the story I wanted to tell you, how close we were and how much fun we had. Many, many nights was spent at Robert G's house. That was work central and party central. You've heard us talk a lot about Fandual, America's number one sports book. Well, we have something a little different for you. Now through September 22nd, all fan. Dundle customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then, with a YouTube TV-based plan, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out-of-market game.

All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment, and you can cancel any time. Just visit fandul.com slash Dale to download America's number one sportsbook. 21 plus and present in North Carolina, full price of NFL Sunday. ticket will be automatically charged seasonally after free trial. No refunds, terms, restrictions, and embargoes apply. Gambling problem, call 877717-7185543

or visit more than a game.nc.gov. This may be my favorite time of the NASCAR season. It's when the on-track drama starts to ramp up and each driver fights harder and harder because each win might mean survival and a shot at the championship. And hard-fought battles on the track mean that this is also the time of the year when raced wind die casts from Lionel racing really tell a story.

These authentic replicas capture a particular moment in NASCAR history like no other collectible does from each piece of confetti on the car, the tire marks, the tire marks, the artist at Lionel do an incredible job making the raced wind diecast look just like the real thing. These diecast are incredibly authentic. Remember when the trackhouse team put a giant taco on Daniel Suarez car at Atlanta earlier? this season? Well, Lionel Racing's Atlanta Win DiCast has a taco on the hood too.

I have Lionel win diecasts in my collection, and you can too. By ordering them at lionelracing.com, team stores and authorized Lionel racing dealers. And don't forget, you can find a wide selection of diecast at the Lionel stores in

Concord Mills Mall near Charlotte Motor Speedway and Opry Mills Mall in Nashville. Okay, we're going to get back to Back to Atlanta? Yeah. You want to talk about that? Yeah.

All right. We'll get that car, get her all set up and everything. And I don't remember. I know Cruz is with us, and your mother was a spotter. Yeah, everybody had to have a spotter. And I don't remember who else was on the car. Robert Jr. and Jimmy. Yep.

I don't remember where they were old enough to do that. So anyway, we had a pickup crew, which was normal. I'm changing the right front tire. First pit stop. The car in front of us, pit in front of us, had stopped gas everywhere. Your dad comes flying down pit road. This is full pit road speed. Come flying down pit road.

I'd dive out there in front of the car, and I'll dive out there in front of the car, and I wind up on the hood. I'm looking at Dale like this, you know, in the hood. I roll off, I roll off the car, boom, boom, boom, change the tire, go back around, and I'm like this with him. Okay, I said, hold it. And so I go around and then, I grab a win-a-net, you know, and I shake it at him like that. And I said, don't you ever run over me again like that?

And he was really sorry. He didn't mean to do that. He didn't want to kill me. hurt me. So later on in the race, that deal with Brooks, he flips the car. All I knew, we couldn't see that corner.

And so all of a sudden, yeah, it says, the 77 car, Dale Lerner, hard, upside down, flipping, flipping, and, man, I just broke out, and I was pretty fast runner back then. Can't hardly walk now, but I ran as hard as I could. because he wouldn't come back on the radio. I said, well, he's got to be hurt. I'm running out there, and I get all the way up to turn four, okay, and start to run, make the turn, and here he comes,

walking down pit road, swing to the pits, swinging his helmet. He's got his helmet in his hand. He's walking down pit road, and I look at him, and I'm like, I'm completely, out of breath from running. And I grabbed him, I said, why didn't you come back to me? He said, radio's tore up. Damn, yeah.

You know. The car was destroyed. Oh, man. Destroyed. And that's the other story to this deal. So that was the end of the race. We get home, we load that car up, and man, and it's a basket case, like you said. Robert Jee said, boy, do you said, boy,

what are we going to do how are we going to how am I going to pay for that call that's the way he's talking and I said Robert I don't know I ain't got two nickels rubbed together yeah so I don't know whether

later on John Ray they traded out stuff but the story that I got was dad and Robert they ended up repairing that car in the shop at Robert's house or somehow or another

that thing got put back together. You know, and I, that's, that probably happened, but I don't, I don't remember, I don't remember, it looks like that car was so torn up that we had to build, build, build him a new cars. Hard to imagine, yeah, looking at the photos that I've seen, it's destroyed. Well, you know what? And I would like to say that. That was a special time.

I mean, that was a great, that was a well-built car. Yeah. That was, that was a die-guard car. Yeah, okay. It was. What a beautiful paint job. You end up going to Dygard in 77. So you're, you're, talk to me about that.

You left the 71 team, this, this, you know, this full-time operation. You got this opportunity to go man and oversee Farrell Harris's deal. And you do that for three or four years. And how does the opportunity with Dygard come together? there. Well, I was working in Robert's shop, and we were doing dirt cars and winning a lot of races. I had a big guy named Hayward Plowler. You ever heard of him? Oh, heck yeah. Yeah, he was driving the car, and we were winning races. And Robert G gave me a whole 10% of the winning. Mound about 50 bucks a week. But I never worried about Robert paying me.

He always took care of things. You know, he paid his bills and all that. But like I said, I get off on tangents and I veer off of your schedule. It's fine. Oh, it's fine. Haywood won track champions and tons of races at Metralina in Granddaddy's car. And I had no idea. You were part of all of that.

He gave me a gold watch for winning a. championship. I had no clue that you were working on that car. Oh yeah. I was I've got a thousand pictures of that car with Haywood standing beside it or driving it. Well, we can we can elaborate on this a lot because there's a lot of stories about that car not that particular car but the one with the Volkswagen Fenders that Darrell Walter has right now. We can we can talk about that a little bit. Tony Furr's dad. Henry Henry Furr was the track motor and we ran we ran all the races at uh at at the speedway yeah Robert used to I used to tell everybody I said yeah we had a fight and the race broke out you know oh yeah but

Robert you your granddad had a big old tussle nobody missed with Robert he's a big old baron he was strong as an ox and uh but Hayward Hayward took care of business you know Haywood's a big guy. So Dad drove that car up and to a point and then dad got out of it. Haywood gets in the car full time because Robert Jr. told me that they were interested in going to the race and racing all the time. And Dad didn't want to race all the time. He had other things he's trying to do, right?

And they get Haywood to drive the car. And then Dad starts driving Tony Fur's dirt car. And they had a few run-ins a couple times. Dad, I guess dad, mom tells me the story about one night. Dad was really, really upset with Robert G. And I don't know if you were around for that one, but Mama had to talk daddy off the ledge. I don't know what would have happened if she hadn't.

But apparently, you know, dad would eventually mend the fences. I mean, Dad ends up driving Robert G's Bush car in the early 80s. but there were some times when things weren't always great, I guess, between Granddad and my dad. But I do want to know, like, you got hired to go to DiGuard. Why did you leave, you know, I mean, I imagine I know the answer to this, but why did you leave the fun you were having with the Granddaddy and get back into the cup or the NASCAR grind?

Well, I was, between Leonard Wood and I, we used to have a little conversation about who was the best front tire changer in NASCAR. And so that's how I got involved with DiGuard. I was actually going to the racetrack and changing tires, changing front tires. And so David If was a crew chief. So we were at Darlington, and I was approached by Jim Gardner and got a call, and they said, we'd like for you to come over to DiGuard and go to work with us. I said, well, I said, I don't know, man. I said, heck, I'm winning a lot of races.

I said, I know what it was. He said, you don't want to be working on a dirt car. He said, we're going to put you in a nash, NASCAR. I said, well, how many races y'all win? Yeah. So that's how all that started, okay? I was a front tire changer and elevated to a crew chief. Only because David F. had decided to take a deal with MC Anderson. And I think Benny Parsons. Yes. And so I worked as I worked on the car. with Darrell.

See, I'd met Darrell through Robert G and all that because he had built that 17 car. That's right. Terminal Transport, whatever car. Yeah, but so I got

involved with Darrell. I was a car chief, well, as Gary Nelson said, you get elevated. I was, I guess, the car chief, all I said All I said was, I was a front tire changer, man. That's all I knew. I had to actually win a race with Darrell before they put me up, they stepped me up to a crew chief.

I don't think the money was there, but the crew chief title. So that's after we won the race at Nashville, Tennessee, I became the crew chief on the 88 car. I didn't know Gary Nelson worked in that program. And Gary was on the show not too long ago and talked about, you know, how much fun it was working together and being a part of that. And I think this lead radio, he brought it, said that came from those, that 77, 78, Daegard days. And so I guess I want to jump right into it. You and DW were a potent combination. won a great many races together.

It looked like, so in looking at DiGuard from a, from a 40,000 foot point of view, they started with Donnie Allison. They were fast out of the gate, had some reliability issues and motors and things like that, but had some, they showed that they could be competitive. And when Darrell comes along, when you come along, that's what got them over the hump. The Gatorade sponsorship, it becomes an iconic. car just visually and in all you know if you didn't know the gardeners or didn't if you didn't know anything about the turmoil that was going on between darrell and them and then and i guess you

it to a point you this looks like an an incredible program right that that points couldn't get out of its own way and so you y'all win you know six races You're winning a lot of races. You're in the battle for the championship leading the points by large margins at some points in the year. And it would unravel. Something would happen. Darrell would unravel. I mean, you can tell me what you experienced, but it just seemed like the emotion, you know,

was always so volatile within the team and the relationship between Darrell and the relationship between Darrell and the owners, and you always seem to be, at points, the fall guy, the one that took the brunt of the blow, you know, the responsibility for the performance of the team or the lack of it. Well, I talked to my lawyer before I came on this program, and they told me anytime I wanted to, I could take the fifth. Yeah. If I had a fifth, I'd drink it right now.

Trust me, I don't drink anymore. any less or whatever. But y'all had a 200-point lead in 1979. And a lot of misfortune, crashes, engine issues, or what have you. Richard Petty catches up and eventually wins a championship. You won seven races and are going to win the championship if those problems or those issues. and misfortunes that are mostly out of everybody's control, they don't happen.

And then at the end of the year, you're fired. What is, I mean, how do you, and then they hire you back. Like you got, talk to me about that. Well, why would you even go back? I guess I'm the, maybe I'm the only one who's been fired and rehired. Yeah. That's the word. Man, we had a great team.

Yes. Okay. It's a great tool. To hear my friend, my dear friend, Gary Nelson, talk about it. You know, I didn't do anything on the car. All I was was real strong and I could put people around to do the job. Well, that was my forte. Okay.

I knew if I could hire the right people and get the right assembly there, this was a no-brainer, okay? you let the guys that work on the cars. Yeah. You hire them to work on the cars and do their job. Gary was fantastic at what he did, okay? Let me tell you something. Me and that guy, we would work on the car all night long, maybe for two days. Frog Fagan was a body man, and we would hammer on that car and fix it and do things to it.

Loaded up with Buckshot, whatever. But that's another story in itself that I don't really care to talk about. But we believed in Darrell and Darrell believed in us. Daryl and I had a special relationship when he come to town, which wasn't very often, but when he come to town, he would always say, hey, Joe, call Judy and Cudy and Cist. she'll fix us up some of those frisbeys. I said, what do you mean? She said, tacos.

You would always make tacos. So we'd go have dinner, ate together and everything. And so we just had a great relationship. 78, 79, you know, maybe I became a little headstrong to a point where, you know, I'm here in the pits. I'm calling the race. Maybe Daryl's not believing in me. All of a sudden, I'm telling Daryl to please back off at a race at this coming up this weekend at Darlington, Southern 500. We had the field lapped, and I'm begging him to back off.

Oh, buddy, this thing feels so good, you know, and he was in a rhythm. And not being a race car driver, I didn't understand that. I was just telling him back off because he didn't need to crash the car. Sure enough, boom, hits the wall and takes the side of the race. Well, that was kind of the first of many problems we had. And I won't get into that. Sure. I like to remember the good times.

I understand. I like to remember the good times with Robert G. dressed up in that Gatorade uniform and strutting around in the pits. And, all right, we won't have to get into detail. But during, so you, you and Daryl would get contentious. I had the same experiences with Tony Jr. and Tony Sr. I love them. They're my family, right?

And I can say today that one of my biggest mistakes, if not the biggest mistake, I ever made in racing was taking Tony Senior off my pit box. But I didn't know it in the moment. I can't go back and change it. But you would be released and then you would be rehired in the same offseason. So I mean, I guess things weren't so. The bridges weren't burnt. Things weren't so negative that you wouldn't go back and they weren't, they were willing

to bring you back. I'm kind of curious, I guess, how the conversation starts, that they're like, hey, buddy, we actually actually want you to come back. Would you come back? How does that happen? Well, first of all, Darrell instrumented all of that, the reset, I should say. Darrell was not a happy camper. I don't think Darrell and I had that much of a problem.

the problems we're laying in and things that, let me tell you what, man. I was a race car crew chief, a mechanic. I wanted to build the cars as fast. I want to make sure the cars track good, the handle good, and that was my job. My job was not to decide who was going to sponsor the car, and my job was not to talk to the car owner,

Bill Gardner and Jim Gardner, and I had a great relationship, but you never saw Jim, I mean Bill, unless he called you up to New York. Matter of fact, that's how I got my job back. Darrell said we had to go, I had to go all the way of New York. And with Darrell, I don't know whether Darrell was with me or not, maybe not. I had to go all the way up there for him to tell me that we want you back or we would like to offer you a job to be the chief again. Were you like, great?

Or were you hesitant? Well, let me just say this. At the time, at the time, I didn't have anything. I had two young boys and I had a wife that was very supportive and good, bad, or indifferent. It was where I'd been. And I was comfortable there. Okay, I was comfortable going over to the shop, although it wasn't air condition.

Yeah. But I took the job back. Yeah. I accepted their proposal or whatever. And so you go ahead. We're up to, we're up to, I came back. Yep. Let me tell you what we did.

We went to Riverside and won the damn race. That's all we did, you know. And then we won, I think we won three or four more races, two or three more races. And you want to know the demise of the, okay. Darrell, I'm going to put this, I'm going to put the demise into this harmony on the disruption and the frustrations over the contract. Darrell is not happy with ownership. He sees that he's being presented with different opportunities of the places he can go.

I'm not sure exactly in 1980 when he might have learned that Cal Yarborough is moving out of junior's car. And junior has been now convinced that Darrell might be the guy to take that car. I don't know exactly when that happens. But I got to imagine that knowing the when the guard. The gardeners brought, they brought two, I forget the names of them. They brought two athletes that weren't even race car drivers to Charlotte Motor Speedway. And in the middle of the pre-race before start your engines, they interviewed one of the gardeners and he says, yeah, if Daryl doesn't drive, I'm looking at all types of people to drive

I race car and here's here's two guys right here I'm considering they're not even race car drivers one's like a football player the other's an Olympian and I'm like what a circus that must have been well that was that was that was before that was before I mean that was after you left yeah after I left was it was it already was it building in the shop was there well I think the 79 situation was I mean, it broke my heart as much as it did anybody else. Robert Yates sat back there and rubbing his face and head and trying his best to build the best engines. And, you know, the thing that happened at Ontario was that we, no, we had an air cleaner that broke the vent tube off the carburetor and went down and shut the valve off.

And so we were running on three, seven cylinders. A lot of people don't know that. Yeah. But I guess the deal... You come back, though, you know, and you win Brousside, win a couple races. What made you say I had enough? You left, I guess... I don't remember me saying I had enough.

Well, what happened in June? I remember... I remember we had a... We had a... What was his name? that was a, I call him a general manager, so to speak. He was working with Jim and Paul Lufkin. Okay, okay, I'll mention Paul Lufkin.

Paul Lufkin was a big part of good or bad, the good, the bad and the ugly, I should say. But I just, maybe it's, maybe. when you lose interest in your operation, you know, you tend to fall back a little bit. I know that Darrell was very unhappy, but, man, it was a job to me. My job was to prepare the car for the race and to try to, I mean, be up on that pit box

and to make pit calls and win a race. That was my job. go get a hat in Victor Lane, you know. So you were surprised when they came to you in June, said that they were going to make a change? Well, I don't know. You know, I'm sitting in Ontario, California, and a guy walks over to a table, and his name was Richard Petty and sits down.

Well, I'm in a booth, you know, I'm maybe having a cold and whatever, relaxing. And Richard comes over just out of the blue and sits down with me. well it got back to the gardeners that I was actually sitting in the bar with Richard Petty the guy that we were going to race we were racing for the championship the next day or the next two days so that was that was put on me believe it or not wow and which in a way I'm glad Richard came to visit because it led to a few more things that we'll probably talk about later Rome. But it was a great time for me, a great time for my family. Todd and Brad grew up in racing and got to be around Darrell. Darrell was very appreciative. And boy, I'll tell you what,

Darrell and Stevie didn't have any babies at the time, but they had these dogs called, one of them called Frank Cannon. Oh, yeah. I used to put, I used to put cotton in the dog's ears because we'd put him in the trailer and we'd put him in a trailer so so he wouldn't oh oh oh all all race looking for darrell yeah but he carried those dogs around they were his children he treated those dogs i remember in the early 80s having them basset hounds oh yeah they were great uh i'm trying to think uh the the one was frank cannon and uh and i'm trying frank was darrell's father-in-law but uh you know you're While we're talking about things, I would like to bring up about the things that I'm about the things that I instrumented and was a part of that I was real proud of.

Sure. We were running at a place called Martinsville, Virginia, and we lost an engine up there. I got pictures of it. There's pictures of Stevie standing beside Darrell. you know and that was a great picture standing beside darrell was inside darrell's job was to take the shifter off and put the shifter back on we changed the motor in 11 minutes and 26 seconds during the race yeah and finished 11th that day I mean this was under caution when we got but we went back out I think finished and we were 11th or 12 you had

that was a that is a hell of a thing I'm glad you brought that up right around 79 or so, the competition, the championship battles had gotten so competitive. Teams could change engines during the race if they lost a motor, which was rather common. And as the 79 season was progressing, y'all's ability to change the motor and change it quickly had improved. You were doing it in, you know, 25 minutes, 20 minutes, and then you had that record-setting, you know, moment in Martinsville where you changed that engine in 11 minutes. you must have spent some time back at the shop preparing for that possibility and being ready

when that spare was needed to have that all happen as quickly as it possibly could. Well, you know how they have pit practice now? Yes. That's all they do is pit practice. Well, you know, I had pit practice. I even had calisthenics practice in the shop. You know, we all participated. We would jump up and down, do jumping jacks and all that. Did you practice changing engines? We practiced, man, we practiced everything.

Yeah. We had Butch Stevens. Butch Stevens was a big, big guy. Butch was under, Bush didn't care about getting dirty. He'd waller in the, he'd waller like a, I'm not going to say, he'd just waller in the mud. In other words, okay. But I love Butch. He's still my friend today. Butch would take care of the underneath the car. Gary was on one side and James Harper was on the other. My job was to jack. My job was to jack the car, pull the engine out, take it, take the other motor, stick it in the car. And Robert Yates, of course, I don't remember whether Robert was there that day or not.

but Robert was involved. But that was a heck of a, heck of a deal. We got burnt, you know, we didn't worry about it. We'd fix that the next day, you know. But matter of fact, we were the reasoned they outlawed that. That's right. Junior, junior, they did a, they changed the motors. Changed the motors too and everything.

And Kale's car. But, I think after 19. 79 or 80, all the teams kind of got together and said, let's just not change engines. This has become too much. It was such hard work to try to have to do that inside of 20 minutes and carrying, you know, carrying all that extra stuff up and down the road. Of course, I'm sure you still carried spare motors, because you lost one in practice. But that, you know, it must have been like a community decision among NASCAR and the teams to say,

all right, let's just outlaw it to where, you know, changing an engine during the race became illegal. I want to know, okay, once you are let go for the second time at DiGuard, you go take a job working with Harry Reneer. A really neat outfit. They're still kind of young. They've just been around the series for about three or four years. They had Lenny Pond and then Buddy Baker, and you worked on the famed Grey Ghost. The Grey Ghost, in my mind, is the best-looking race car that's ever been in the... the sport. The choice of colors and reflective numbers and sitting on the, whether it's on

that Monte Carlo or on the Olds 442, it doesn't matter. It's this beautiful, beautiful race car. We appreciate it today because of its nostalgia and its history. When you went over there to work on that car, how cool was it to have an opportunity to work there and be able to be a part of that team's success. Well, what led up to that job was that I was in Daytona with a guy named Ken Reagan. Oh, yeah. And we actually, that day was a big day for me because Ken Reagan outrun the Diagard car. We finished in front.

Something happened to Darrell or whatever, Rick, I don't remember. But anyway, we finished in front of them. So that while I had my chest try that. but uh harry renear i was really good friends with buddy baker i mean everybody everybody loved buddy baker i loved he had a good first name but uh no i respected him and his father and and the whole thing but uh um harry neer approached me said i would like to talk to you and so i was offered well he asked me to come meet with the wife Wadell, Wadell Wilson, who I'm friends with today.

We've done a lot of things together, road and motorcycles and things. But anyway, Wadale said, buddy, I need some help on this car. It was not a crew chief. Wadale was the crew chief. He was everything. The general manager. Engine builder. Engine builder.

He was the whole program, okay? But boy, did he have, he had some people, he had some people in that shop was unbelievable, you know. Have you ever heard of a guy named Slick Poston? No. Well, Slick Posting, Slick Posting was the man that he built gears, transmissions, and it probably did a lot of work with your dad, for your dad back in the day. But, but anyway, I go over there and Baker, Baker. on it, I'll back up a minute. Baker asked me would I come if I was, if they would hire me,

he'll give me the job. I said, I said, if I could work with you, that'd be great, man. I was after working with Darrell. And I said, yeah, that'd be fine. I would love to come work with you in any capacity. And so my job was the chassis, to work on the car and to take Baker to the racetrack and changed. I'm thinking I was, again, a front tire changer. But that was a great time. You know, they said Baker couldn't drive a short track.

Well, we won Martinsville. You did. Yeah. So that's about the extent of that. That was a brief time you were there. Yeah. You ended up taking a job with Ron Barfield, or Ron Benfield, sorry, Ron Benfield. in 1981.

He had the number 98 Levi Garrett car. Morgan Shepherd, Johnny Rutherford, Rusty Wallace, Joe Rutman, lots of different drivers in that car over the years in the early half of the 80s. Why go work with Ron Benfield?

I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. And a guy walks up to me and gives me a card with his name on it, and I looked at who is Alan Kowicki? Yeah, I looked at him, and Alan Kowicki gave me his card in Atlanta, Georgia, and told me he was coming in NASCAR racing,

and he would love to interview or talk to me about being a crew chief. Yeah. I said, well, and I had already previously kind of told Ron Benfield that I would take that Levi-Garrett deal with Rutherford. I didn't know who, as Todd, used to call him slider. He would always, before he tried to qualify or make a qualifying lap, he would always look like he was going to lose the car.

He'd drive it so far deep in the car, a corner that it would just about wreck. But anyway, I didn't take that job. And man, what a story that was. Yeah. You know, but anyway, I want to tell you that Ron Benfield, who was a studying. orthopedic surgeon, he was into college. Okay. And his dad owned a hardware down into eastern part of the state.

Yeah. I can't think of the name of town. But anyway, Ron Benfield and I, every time I have a little ailment, who do I call, Ron Benfield? So Ron and I are friends today, him and his wife. I invited him, he and his wife, Pam. I was given the opportunity, and it was really an honor to introduce Johnny Rutherford into NMPA, National Motorsport Press Association, Hall of Fame.

And so my driver for that night was Pam and Ron Benfield. I invited them to come to that. And so I wanted to get that out because he's struggling a little bit with some. He's actually retired, but he's got a few little medical issues. But why did he want to start a team? He just wanted to race. Here's what he told me. He said, buddy, I've got a company called Conwood Corporation.

And Levi Garrett chewing tobacco. Well, I didn't chew tobacco. but he said I would like to talk to you about taking this team and going forward with it. So who do I call? Your grandfather? Robert. Robert. Yep.

Robert, I got this deal. I need a place to put it. I said, I want to rent your shop. Well, at that time, Robert had kind of backed off a dirt car. and stuff like that. It was an ideal situation. You know, X amount of dollars to rent his shop, his equipment, the whole deal. So, and another thing, we had Raymond Fox, build engines.

Back together again. Back together again, man. So, anyway, we started that team. We had to common with people come. Johnny Rutherford came and we had a car Robert G had put all the metal and put four tires under this car

and supported it some way with a frame and everything and had this car sitting there and that's all it was you know when they people came in and looked at that car well I want to tell you what

your grandfather did a masterful job building that race car it was beautiful I don't know whether you ever saw it or not Nutmeg Brown and Gold. Oh, yeah. And number 98. Johnny Rutherford.

I remember when I was a little boy, probably about 10 years old, going out behind Granddaddy Shop, and there was a 98, Levi Garrett, maybe a Buick or Pontiac from like 83, sitting out back with the fender and nose cut off of it. And just sitting back underneath this shit. that he had a little lean to behind his shop. And so I know he had a connection to that car,

but I didn't know that he, and I didn't know he built and put the body on the very first rendition of Ron Benfield's organization, that first car that y'all built for Rutherford. I remember, I know that car. It would, y'all would change the brown and the car would be blue and white and yellow after, after the first year.

But that very first car had that sort of darker brown on it. you did have a mix of drivers and you ran a limited schedule. Y'all didn't run every single week. But you man that program for three years before you would end up taking an opportunity with Mike Kerb. Richard Petty was leaving his family operation to go drive for Mike Curb in 1984. Dale Inman and Richard Petty would split for the first time in their career. Dale Inman would go work with Terry Labani at the Piedmont car for Hutchinson Pagan, or not Hutchinson Pagan, but Hagen.

And then Richard Petty needs a crew chief. How do you get the call? My sister Jackie and Jody started this whole souvenir business that everybody is so, it's amazing how much it's grown and everything. There were two people, there were a couple trailers out there. One of them was the little red caboose, I think, as Guy had, and a couple others. But Jackie was doing the souvenir program for Richard, and Jody was going to the racetrack with them. And so here we go, man.

We've got the whole parrot family in NASCAR. So Richard, I don't know, somewhere, and I may be wrong. but I can tell you that I've heard this, that Richard said that there's not but one crew chief out there that I want other than Dale Eman with Buddy Parrott. I got a picture of us going to the, you know, press conference and doing the press conference and all that. Announcing your deal.

That I was going to be the crew chief and all that. but boy little did I know what that that program was going to entail. Well, there was a lot of, a lot of things. You know what? Was it a brand new team? It was a brand new, it was a brand new team because I had hired, I was able to hire all the people. I was able to build, building all new cars, whole thing. Well, the only car we had was a, was a Daytona car.

Okay. And I'll tell you a story about that. You know, there's some things behind the scene that went on that a lot of people don't know that Butchmock and Bob Rehilly were involved in that deal to start with. Okay, I was going to go to work over with Bob Rihili and Butchmock at their shop. That's the way that thing was going to work. I didn't have a building and work in or anything. You were going to use their building.

Yeah. This is Bob Rehilly, the Butchmock, with the 75 car, that light blue car, beautiful car. So they have a shop you're going to run out of that shop with Richard? Exactly. Why does Richard think that's better than what he'd been doing with Dale Emmett? I mean, not take you out of it, right? Why is he going to leave his family team and go run for Mike Curb and this operation that he doesn't, I mean, he's Richard Petty.

What a risk. Well, again. You know the deal with Darrell? Everybody wonders, well, why would Darrell leave the guy, the guard deal? Exactly. Well, Darrell had a better, better situation. And I don't know this to be a fact, okay? I do know that where I was told one time where there's smoke, this fire.

I've been told that, you know? Yeah. Well, let's bring my curb into it, Lieutenant Governor of California. Let's bring a guy named a president of the United States called Ronald Reagan. Yeah. Okay. Politically motivated situation. I got you.

That was the whole deal. Really? Okay. And another thing, have you ever heard a guy named Mike Murdoch? I mean, not Mike, Murdoch. What was Murdoch's name? Oh, Cannon Mills. I don't know.

Okay. Well, you need to fish. Murdoch. Yeah, Murdoch. Yeah. Okay. Murdoch on Cannon Mills. Okay. He was a supporter of Mike Kerb and Ronald Reagan.

Yeah. So it was our deal, not my deal, but it was the situation that we're going to get Ronald Reagan elected to the presidency of the United States. Okay. And Richard Petty is going to have to do that? Yeah. Wow. Richard Petty is a man. Oh, right.

Yeah. No, yes. Yes. Going for 200 wins. There you go. Well, let me tell you. So we go at Talladega. We had Gary Nelson, a 22 car with Bobby Allison, and Richard Petty with a 43 car, all out on pit road, me holding up a banner, go Reagan, you know, blah, blah, blah.

and a media event. Who won the election that year? Ronald? That's right. Yeah. And who came to Daytona Beach, Florida? That's right. Now, I want to talk about that a little when we.

We're there. Okay, all right. We go to Daytona. I mean, you ask why Richard left. I think Richard was offered quite a few situations there. And. And, but it was happy times for me. You know, I had my sister out there selling souvenirs and Jody was out there.

Todd's on your, Todd was doing the tires. Todd was doing the tires. That's another thing, you know, Todd and Brad both became part of the team. And then crew cheese. But it's only, it's two months from Daytona. I had the car. I had the car that Richard won the race, races with. It was his speedway car.

All right. So we go, we didn't have a place to put it or anything. Richard called me, and I'm thinking it's Christmas or maybe Thanksgiving, but one or the other, call me and says, what's your boy doing? I said, well, we're sitting here having dinner. He said, well, you get through dinner. I want you to go over there to Raymock. It was called Raymock.

And I want you to get that car and everything over there. that belongs on that car and bring it to level cross. Okay. I said, all right. So here we go. Todd and I, Todd and Brad and I go over there. We load up stuff. And I think, I don't know, the way the thing was going down, I think,

I'm not real sure that Butch and Riddley wasn't happy. I don't know whether they were happier. I don't remember. I didn't get involved of that. Sure. Again, my deal wasn't getting sponsorships and stuff. it was getting the car ready. And so that's what I told Butch in them.

I said, man, I was told to do this. That's what I'm going to do. I took the car in a sandblasted state that we sandblasted the car and took all inside out, everything, took that car down to level cross. I said, I took that car to that level cross, okay? We bonded it up. We painted it and brought it out of the shop. and I sat there

I don't like to use I but I didn't have anybody but me so it is I I did all the oil lines redid all the oil lines in the car and prepared the car for the engine and guess who sat there and watched me the whole time

who? A guy named Lee Lee Patty. Yeah really he watched me he'd come out there every day and spend time with me me. And so, and that was very good. I wish he to help me a little bit. But I was cutting oil lines and doing oil lines and stuff like that,

getting this car ready to go. And guess who was working his, you know what, off, in Canapolis, North Carolina, getting our shop written. Now, it's our now because I got David Oliver with me. Oh, yeah, my uncle. That's right. Yeah, but married to my aunt. I got married to your aunt.

married to Kathy. All right. So David called me one day. He said, well, they're fixing to pour the floor. I said, they are. We had a race shop, and it was, you probably don't remember this, but a Dodge dealership called Dove, Dove, his last name was Dove, it was Dove, Motorsports, or whatever, motor company.

That's where we put Richard Petty Motorsport, and I think, I don't think, whether they tore the building down or not since then. But anyway, we're going there. He said, we're fixing to pour the floor. I said, well, I'll tell you what you do. You tell those guys pouring the floor. If it's out of level anywhere, I've got to picture.

This is a big old shop for the dealership. I said, if they don't have this floor level for me, we're going to tear it back up. and these guys from the mill were, man, they were tough. I mean, they knew what they were doing. I had that floor. They shot that floor level all the way through the car. All the way.

We used to set our cars on the ground and set the cars up with a tape measure, okay? Yeah. And so I got tired of Robert G. Shop being like the, excuse me, Robert Sched job doing like that crooked and everything. So I just wanted to bring that up. Yeah. But this is all going on. And David, David is the, he's my general manager.

David Oliver. David Oliver is getting all this ready for me. And so in the meantime, we hired a guy, Howard Hostetter. We hired a guy named Robert G. Jr. to do the bodies. Yeah. How about that? We had a body shop, he made a body shop, put the fans in, did everything, you know, and had a nice floor.

All right. So what are we going to do about the engines? Guess what? Raymond Fox, Jr. Raymond, come on up here, man. Get this stuff ready. Richard called me one day. Well, I forget what, maybe one day or whatever, but so one day he says,

we need to get something going on these engines. I said, what do you mean? He said, I came up there and said, that Fox is, he's building, he's building a motor on a, on a, uh, uh, a kitchen table. I'm going to tell you what. That was one talented individual. He learned a lot from Ray Fox,

Sr. I'm going to tell you. And I'll always respect him and love him, okay? But so we get all this put together. And we got the pit crew, we get the pit crew, and we get these guys and those guys. And that's how all this happened, man. Yeah.

We got one car we're going to Daytona with, but I knew I had the best race car driver in the world. For the first time, I can tell you that I went to the racetrack and I never worried about a backup car. We didn't have any backup cars, okay, because I had Richard Petty driving the car. Yeah. All right. Take us to the July Daytona race where he wins his 200 win. this is the same car, I imagine. And Ronald Reagan is there.

It's a big deal. Everybody, I was there, probably 10 years old. I remember everybody talking about how Ronald's going to come in to the race. And there's that iconic picture of his plane flying in and landing behind the back straightaway as Richard's in the middle of the event itself, going down the back straightaway. Just a classic iconic moment for the sport as him and Kail are battling side by side to the caution.

Ken Reagan, coincidentally, is in that photo as he's getting lapped. Sorry about that. Yeah, y'all win the race. And the funny thing about it is premeditated was this big, giant tent in the infield, which I guess whoever wins the race, Kale Yarborough, Richard Petty, whatever, whoever

is going to eat with the president in this tent. And I remember being about two tables over. I remember being 10 years old and looking about from here to that wall over there at the President of the United States and Richard Petty.

And all of us, there was this tent that probably held about 200 people maybe. And it is full of long tables and we all sat down with a box lunch from KFC. Do you have to remember that, right? I got to have a drink a minute. But I just remember all of us eating KFC chicken with the president. What a story.

Yeah. All right, let's do the race. Let's do the race what was happening during the race. and then let's do the Ronald Reagan thing. Okay, and I'll answer your question when you may have to feed me back. We'll get to Daytona. We've got a beautiful race car. Yeah.

DeGlo red. DeGlo red and blue, 43. I got my chest stuck out. I'm Richard Petty's crew chief. I tell Dale Eam, and I say, man, you wouldn't. Dale's such a good friend of mine. and what a job he did with that program. Sure.

I'm glad he's in the Hall of Fame. I help put him there, by the way. We'll touch on that maybe. I help put you there also. I'm on the voting committee. Oh, really? Yeah. But anyway, we get to Daytona, and this car,

NASCAR does not like this car, but you know what? I didn't worry about it because, hell, It was Richard Petty, man. Yeah. They're not going to keep us from racing. Robert Yates built the engine. And trust me, it was a biggest engine you ever saw.

I'm just kidding. I tell you, you tell Robert that. And he's, buddy, don't say that on TV. Robert's gone, but he's never forgotten, okay? Yep. So the motor y'all won in July 4th, July 4th, was it a 8th? engine. Yates engine. Yeah, very cool. The race morning,

Robert comes over to me, he looks at me, he says, buddy, I got something to tell you, ask you. He said, I know what you're going to say. Bill Gardner sent me over here and told me I need to get that motor out of that car. And I looked at Robert, and I said,

Robert, I would tell you something. You're my friend. Well, we'd had an issue at one time in our life. I said, But there's not enough people in this garage area that can come and get that engine out of that car. So you might as well go tell them no go. He said, I thought that's what you would say. He laughed.

We went on to win the race. We went on also accepting people saying, oh, Robert, they built a big engine and blah, blah, blah. It didn't happen. The engine was built. 358. You know, it was a legitimate motor. After the race, I had a little guy.

He wasn't a little guy. He was a pretty big guy. He jumps around my waist. His name was Ralph Salvino. About knocks me down. He is so elated that we had won 200. Yeah. Okay.

And now, have I, if I gave enough talk about that deal? Yeah, I mean, do you remember going to the tent, though, with the president? Do I remember? Right. Man, I, I even went, I even went back to the motel and put a clean shirt on. Did you? No, we went to. It happens right after the race.

I can't remember. Judy and I were there. It happened right after race. Yeah. We had to go through all this. security stuff and everything, everybody. And so myself and Judy, and anyway, I was walked into that tent

and introduced by Mike Kerb to President Reagan. Yeah. Well, I tell everybody this story. I said, I'm probably the only guy in the history of NASCAR or whatever, that had the president of the United States, wipe his hands off, stand up because he's eating Kentucky fried chicken and shake my hand.

And I've got a picture of that, okay? I got a picture of the shaking hands. And I'm pretty sure Tyler, my grandson Tyler, has still got the picture. But what a day. Man. We had Tanya Tucker singing Stand By My Man and Mike Kerb and Mike Kerber's there.

And by the way, what a nice guy. Did you know, Mike Kerb? We're going to talk to him here. Huh? Are you really? He's coming to the table at some point this year. One of the only car owners that ever did exactly what he would tell me. He was going to do.

I'm going to tell you what. What a nice guy and his wife, everybody. After that year, what happened. into that team. Richard's going to go back home. Okay. The thing was and the thing that I didn't want to

and I didn't, I kind of moved that out of the picture was the reason that Richard left to start with. I said it was public, not publicity, but political. Political. Political.

For Richard to do that because he was a good, he was he had something to do with the Republican Party in, and down in Randomman. He did. All right, so,

but I know there was other issues, but I, again, we didn't come on here to do all that. Okay. Okay, so kind of like Darrell and, Darrell and the Gardner's,

I think Richard had some issues, maybe back and forth with, with people because of, of parts, fenders. I'm not going to say it was GM, okay? I'll just say GM.

Sure. And so, Richard, he's going back to going on. Going back home. What happens to that shop and all that stuff y'all built?

Richard walked out of there and Mike Kerb kept that in there. He kept a 43 car sitting in the, in the, the showroom like the showroom. It was a showroom, race car, I mean, a new car showroom, kind of like your place up in

your dad's place in Hickory. But then, and I haven't been there, but they say he's got a beautiful museum. It's still, that's the building in Canapolis? No, he built a separate, I think they tore down that dove. Okay. They tore that whole corner down. I know he's got a museum in Canapagos. Apple's full of all those cars that's that's where he moved all all that's all of his

stuff so immediately after the 84 season you had this nice shop this floor building all the stuff you you ran it one year and then you then it was it wow man I'll tell you what surprised to me surprised a little little hard on you know far as me for as my family Todd, Brad, myself. Todd, Brad, myself. My sister was still involved with the souvenir stuff, but she wasn't too happy. I won't think she was too happy with that deal anymore.

She loved her brother. From 85 to 87, you worked with Tommy Ellis, and this is at the Freedlander car at 18. That was a new team. Yeah. I can tell you about that. A little story about that. Sure.

Freedlander car. Yeah. With the prettiest cars you ever saw. A good-looking race car. Man, we go to Daytona and test. And, you know, you ever hear Baker famous words was 2010? Okay. Yeah.

Back then it was 207, 206, to a – Baker, come on the phone, come on the radio one time and says, he just run 2010. But anyway, our practice speed, and I tried to get it up on Google, and I couldn't get it, But it was in the paper, in a Daytona paper, or maybe the scene, that we had a practice lap of 220, at Daytona. Yep. During testing. Sure.

I remember that. Okay. And man, was that car cheated up? Again, here goes your grandfather. That's when the arrow coop was developed. Yes. They put the, because they had that notch back glass was terrible. Okay.

They had the air coop, and all we had was the back glass. They had no trim or anything. And so I'm waiting, you know, waiting. We want to paint that car, do everything. So I told Robert, I said, Robert, gee, I said, Robert, get that glass. Let's fix it. Let's put that glass in the car. Well, buddy, you don't have all that trim.

I said, we don't need it. We're going to bando it in. We bandoed that car, the back glass. That was the slickest race car you'll probably ever see, along with a few other little items that we, I learned something from Richard with chassis setups about what an engineer. He was maybe not called an engineer at the time, but a guy named Warren Prout was probably the smartest guy I had ever been around.

You know, Warren Prout was the one that did all the engineer and steering geometry and stuff like that for Richard. And so I learned a little trick. about what you do the front wheels at Daytona. And Gary Nelson mentioned a guy named Steve Peterson the other day. Did you know Steve? I didn't know the name. Well, Steve Peterson was actually working at DiGuard with me.

Okay. He was the one that I said, Steve, we need six, eight horsepower. How can we get it, you know? And this, Steve Peterson made me an alternator. okay that turned the fan turned the water pump so what does that tell you the engine didn't have to use the engine didn't circulate the water in the water pump i mean in the in the engine yeah so that was six six eight horsepower wow okay yeah and today these cars they cut the ampalos down in the in the water pump and do all kinds of stuff see again i had the best teacher of all

His name was Harry Hyde. Back to the shot, you know. Gary sat here, we were doing bags of shot in our race cars in 1968, 69, 70, okay, with Harry Hyde. Sure. But we had 200 pounds in it, okay? Yeah. And we had a hopper built by Tommy Johnson put it in the driver's door right there. Okay.

That's another story. Yeah. That's another story. But okay, so where were we? So you end up going and working with the Freelander team from 85 to 807 with Tommy. Right. Okay. Go ahead.

And so you went up there. You thought it was a great team. Tommy would drive the car for a couple years. I think Dale Jarrett got in it. I don't know if you were there when Dale Jarrett started driving the car. You worked with Jocko Majocamo. Jockma Jockerachmo. Giacomo would start.

It's a crazy name. And he would start a handful of races from 87 to 88, famously involved in the crash with Bobby Allison, the career-ending wreck in Pocono. But how did you end up over there? Boy, I'll tell you what, man. Y'all have done your homework. Well, yeah.

It's not easy. It's not hard to find all this stuff. Jocko Mijako. One would tell you something. His dad was a race car driver. Okay. Yeah. And I got involved in, that was 85.

Yeah, okay. And 84, I wasn't going to, I wasn't going to Randleman. And so my deal was gone. Yeah. Okay. Here I go again. Oh, big bud, looking for a place to land. Yeah.

And back then, Dale, I'm going to tell you something. It wasn't hard, it wasn't hard to find a job in NASCAR and racing. Okay, because we didn't have the people that are involved in it now. Yeah. We didn't have the northern. We didn't have the northern contingent. We didn't have the West Coast, you know, mid-Mid America. So anyway, so Jocko was one of my programs.

Okay, so I had Jocko, I had Jimmy Jinks, I had Ken Reagan. Eddie Beerswe. Eddie Burswell was driving the Jim Jinks car. Yeah. Okay. So here I've got four teams I'm working with. Yeah. Okay.

Part timers. Part timers. But you're filling up a year doing that. I had a white truck. I had a white truck I got from Ken Reagan. I had my front end plates, my front end stick. You probably never saw. I should have brought that front end stick and give it to you.

I don't have a bunch of history. Okay. I've got a. I got a few more little items I might let you have for history, the soaking machine and a few other, bump steer gauge. But anyway, that, you in,

Jocko, Jock was one of my programs. Sure. That I would go to the shop, I'd set the cars up, okay, my job was to set the cars up, go to the racetrack and call the race.

And that's all I did. Sure. You know, I didn't have to go day to day, but I'd drive my truck up there, fix their cars, meet them at the racetrack. And that was my food, my room, and X amount of dollars a day. You ended up after the wreck with Bobby, you parted with that team. You didn't want, you chose not to continue that relationship. Is that true?

Well, it was not like that. No. It was they decided. Okay. I'm going to tell you what a family. What a family they were. Did he decide? I mean, was he?

See, he was a, go ahead. He was a part-timer just having fun. He was a road racer, okay? He would have done great the way the thing is today with the road races. Did that wreck affect him emotionally? Big time. Yeah. Big time.

He and his family. And it actually took him out of business. It actually took him out of business. And thank God it didn't kill Bobby. And, you know, could Bobby and I, Bobby and I, we've had our issues over the year, mainly because of Daryl. Yeah, for sure. But I'm friends with Bobby and God, I hope he lives as long as I do. He's hanging in there.

I know it. Coming into the 90s, you would work. with Derek Cope, who we just had on the show recently, and Bob Wickham, Bob was cool. I was great friends with his son, Mike, still am today. I just talked to Mike today.

And you went to 1990-day, Daytona-500. The body on that car put together put on by my uncle, Robert G. Jr., and Robert G. Still connected to Robert G. It's weird how many people come in this room have, at some point in their lives, all

the guys from your error had some relationship at some point, working relationship with my granddaddy. You don't want, don't you? Well, people assume, so buddy, people always assume that, like, I'm Dale Earnhardt's son. Everything in my life is always going to be connected to Dale Earnhardt and that side of my family.

And I'm always eager to promote and share how much my mother's side of the family also participated in racing and mattered, right, to the evolution of the sport. and you helped me do that with your, you know, your stories around Robert and how much he was involved in all the things that you did. But you ended up building a brand new team again with Bob. That was my forte. Yeah, it was. You put incredible people around you in that, in that shop.

Me and Derek just had this conversation. And you win the Daytona 500. You basically took Derek Cope down there. who had only a handful of starts and, you know, kind of coached him through the whole process about what you wanted him to do and set him up for that success. And he was in position to win when dad has the troubles he has, there you are. You end up going to Dover and winning another race in the same season. and Bob, as we know, you know, the Purulator deal and Bob, it was difficult financially, and the deal would end up coming apart.

But it was probably something I think you're very proud of. You worked with a lot of different drivers through 9-1-92, Buddy Baker, Ricky Craven, different people. You joined Penske Racing, reuniting with Rusty Wallace, working with your son, Todd. In 92, and over the next few seasons, you won a lot of races together. It's sort of like proved all over again that you were more than capable of doing the job. And then again, you would go to Diamond Ridge Motorsports. You would leave Penske, a winning organization. Drop down to Diamond Ridge Motorsports and work with Steve Grissom.

And then go back to the top again, work with Jeff Burton and be his crew chief over the next two seasons. He became a team manager at Roush and then eventually retired. The ebb and flow of your career, if you were to chart it from beginning to end, in team performance, not so much how you ran on the track, but like you would go from a big team to an upstart, big team to a brand new team. young driver, big team, established driver, and you won, when you were supposed to win, you won.

And then you won when you weren't even supposed to win with Derek Cope and other situations. It's really fascinating to me. I guess what's fascinating is you were talented enough to just be in one place. Like find that A-class operation and just be. But you were, what was it about these upstarts and these like hair,

these like new operations, these shiny new things like the Bob Wickham team with Derek Cope? What was it about these, the Freelander deal with Tommy Ellis? What was it about these other programs that weren't established? that were so intriguing to you. Why did you, what was it about going there? Well, let's get this started by saying I had a driver tell me, tell you, or tell the whole audience that he's the craziest crew chief I ever met or I ever had. And you know who I'm talking about, the DW.

Yeah. All right. Well, maybe I was crazy, but I was always looking. My motto's been in life. If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space. Okay. So I guess challenges. I've been challenged.

I've been challenged a lot in my life. I've been able to react to those challenges, and I'm so happy. I've had a lot of support. I've had support from so many people that if and when I ever get. to that little hall that they got downtown Charlotte, I will make sure that I have a list of so many people that helped me get or help me conquer the challenges that I had. And that was a big part of me, okay?

My big part of me was I love to hire people, I love to work people, I like to be around people, good people. man, I can name names that are so successful right now in this business. And one of them probably you've had us, you've ridden in one of his seats is Brian Butler. You know, Brian Butler was, I hired Brian Butler at Robert G's shop, you know. And to reiterate on what you just said about your father-in-law, Robert G

the reason people was around him or came around him because he was such a good person he was such a hard worker and you know what? He knew what he was doing he could build the prettiest race cause if anybody could ever see so

I don't want to use the word bored but I made a statement. I had a statement, a driver told me one time he said, I said, I picked the pit, okay. I picked the pit to where I could win the race, we could win the race, not win a championship, okay? That may be my problem that I never, I never etched that little deal with the championship. But anyway, the driver said, I've won enough races. I've won enough races. I've won enough races.

I want to win a championship. And so had I looked that way, I might have been better off or more successful. And had I won a championship, I may have stuck it out or tried to win seven championships like Jimmy Johnson. You know, Johnson and those guys, one place, seven championships. Yeah. Never left. Okay. But you think you would, do you think, is it?

may be fair to say that you would go to these teams and, you know, go to the big teams, win, have success, and you're like, hey, I've done what I came to do. And you would see another challenge and say, I want to go. Because I think that I'm similar in that way is like, I see something I want to, I see something I want to get involved in and I dive in 100%. I get what I want out of it and then I move on. to the next thing that I see that I want to get involved in and I want to have success with,

and whether it's hobbies or whatever. And, you know, racing's never, I mean, racing's hard work, but it's never, it's not a job, it's a passion, it's a love. It's a thing that you love to do and want to succeed at. And I can't imagine there were a lot of guys like, it's not uncommon for crew chiefs, to be those nomads, right? Like have success, kicked ass.

Oh, this is, you know, this is, I did what I said I would do, wanted to do here, and now I want to go try to do it here. But it was interesting to me, I guess, how you would bounce, not from just all great teams. Like, you would start a brand new team, or you would go to an unestablished team or a team that hadn't had success and try to make an impact there. like the Ron Benfield program or, you know, you know that the back, you know that the deck stacked against you when you're going to take, you know, Johnny Rutherford to the racetrack in a brand new car and a brand new team to try to compete against, you know, all the heavy hitters.

You know that you're in a tough spot, but you like to do it. You like that challenge. Am I right? I had two jobs in my life. One, well, it was a glass mechanic at Pritcher Paint and Glass Company. The other one was NASCAR racing. Okay.

Man, I've been a fan. I used to go to Bristol as a fan, and you don't want to get into all that. But we, man, I ran with a group that loved NASCAR racing. We go to Daytona and take, July 4th and go stay at the castaways and put on diving exhibitions and crazy shows and with Donnie Allison and you know Donnie Allison was a diver also. I didn't know that.

Yeah, he was Florida State diving champion. He and I used to meet in Daytona and put on the shows. Wow. The diving shows. Oh my gosh. Yeah. But anyway, my sport and my love and my job was NASCAR racing. I've loved every bit of it.

from Big Bill France to Jim France to Little Bill, they call him Little Bill. They all represented such a great organization and still to this day, and I hope it lasts forever. But again, it gave my sisters, my wife Judy, worked at Charlotte Motor Speedway with Slick Johnson, and all that group over there. And so Todd and Brad, I must not have done too bad because both of them followed me. It's kind of like your dad.

He didn't do it real bad because you followed in his footsteps and made him very, very proud. I agree. Todd would go on to work for Penske, Petty, RCR, and Yates, one of the most successful crew chiefs with 31 career wins.

And Brad would crew chief in the Xfinity series and he's worked for several teams as well and had his own successes. You were in the sport for 34 years and I like the term I like the term that today people in the sport, the drivers, the industry, the mechanics, the crew chiefs are all standing on the shoulders of giants and you're one of those people that they're standing on right now. You help pave the way, you help make the sport what it is today. It's been a lot of fun for me to sit here and talk to you today and talk about all of the things that you had your hands in.

And it's a lot. It's more than we could ever have time in the day to discuss. I try to do my best to get from one decade to the next and one era to the next and give, you know, shine a light and celebrate you and everything that you've accomplished. But you have a great reputation, Buddy Parrott, and when people say that name, they know who it is. Good or bad.

Well, I think a lot of people really admire all of the things that you are a part of. And I learned today a lot of things that you are a part of that I didn't even know. So I'm thankful for that. This is what is great about sitting in this room, and at least for me, is to learn so much new stuff about you. I mean, I thought I knew everything you'd done, but it, you know, there was so much more below the surface that you've witnessed and been a part of. And I'm envious. I really am. All the things that you've seen, all the things that you've witnessed, all the things that you've influenced, you should be very thankful and very proud.

we're lucky to be able to hear about it. So thank you for coming here today and spending a couple hours with us. And I just want to tell you that I appreciate you. Thank you very much. Well, thank you for having me. And thank you for having the parent family. And thank you for the questions. We're very honest and great.

I would like to say that without people like you, our sport wouldn't be what it is. because the history, you're more into the history. We could sit and talk for hours about little things or big things. But, you know, NASCAR has been my life. It's been my family's life. And I'm just proud to say that I, evidently, as a father or as a mentor or whatever, my two sons followed me in the sport, Brad and Todd.

and Judy even found her way and my two sisters Jackie and Jody. So thank you very much for having me. And anytime you need me, I was a bit apprehensive about coming on because I didn't know whether this is going to be a roast or whatever. Yeah. But it's been really great. Thank you. Thank you. Buddy Perry, I'll tell you, every guy that I bring in here, I want them to leave

glad that they came. I want them to have fun, and I want them to feel like that they made a good decision. I will say also that everybody that comes in here, they tell their truths, right?

It's their life and the way they lived it and the way they saw it. And I think you did a great job today. We appreciate you, and yeah, this has been a fun one. Thank you very much. Buddy Parrott on the Dale Jr. download.

Buddy Parrott is we'll just round it up because it seems like what he likes. It's 85 years old and still pretty sharp you know I love I love the era

that he worked in that he witnessed I think all of us are probably different no matter your age or what your favorite

era of the sport is, we're all probably a little different in what we sort of romanticize or what we're nostalgic about. Man, you know, if you had a time machine, where would you go, right? Where would you send yourself and what would you want to witness? I often think about putting myself in the garage area in 1978 or 1976, maybe 79 or 80, and being able to be able to be. to see some of those races back in the day when the sport really didn't realize what it was about to become. And Buddy lived all of that.

He lived it in so many different spaces physically with so many different teams. He saw the sport from a lot of different perspectives, from the haves to the have-nots. And it would have, you know, I would have loved. to have been able to have this conversation with him 30 years ago or, you know, 20 years ago, but it's still great to be able to pick his brain and, and try to put ourselves in those garage areas, try to put ourselves in those moments. And so I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope that he is, I hope he's celebrated. What a career.

I mean, you know, it's probably sound kind of silly, but one of my favorite movies, Forrest Gump, is one of the things that's unique about that movie is all the things that Forrest got himself involved in. And all of the places he found himself in, and I think that's what the movie is kind of, good at, at least, is telling us how, maybe helping us understand how thankful we ought to be for where we end up. You know, you have those moments in your life of, that, where you have these

moments in your life where you're like, how did I get here? How did I end up in this moment? And it's almost too good to be true or you're experiencing something that you believed you'd never see or do. and buddy sort of had those he had those multiple chapters you know a bet that he thought you know he went and had all that success with Darry Waltrip in the late 70s and with the Gatorade car do you think that he ever thought that he would be winning races with Penske with Roger Penske and and Rusty Wallace in the 90s or even moving on beyond that and doing great things with Jeff Burton and Rouse. Just a lot of longevity.

And still, I'm still, I still don't have a real answer to the nomad style or the coming and going style of some of the crew chiefs from back in the day. They talk about suitcase Jake, Elder, and how he would just up and leave and middle the year and go from one operation to the next and people would welcome him into those new teams knowing that hell he might only be here six months where he gets tired of this and goes to the next operation but they knew that while he was there he would have success they would have success there were more there were more than one suitcase jakes in the sport back then and i don't think that buddy parrot can really be categorized as such but he certainly did did change a lot of

careers and affect and influence a lot of teams, worked with a, worked with who knows how many mechanics and influenced so many different people in so many positive ways. So pretty cool, just awesome to be able to sit with him. I've never sat down with the guy and spent much time talking to him. I had no idea, no idea, that he had so much time spent with my granddaddy, Robert G. How did I not know that? I didn't know, you know, I've got, I was telling him, I'm like, I've got, I've got a lot of pictures of that old dirt car that Granddaddy ran in the 70s.

Had no idea that Buddy Parrott was working on those cars continuously for years. I had no idea that Buddy Parrott was around my father going to the racetrack with him. I had no clue. How can that be? That's what I love about doing this. So what I love about sitting at this table is being able to be introduced to some of the things that I should know, I guess. But that was a fun one.

I hope you enjoyed it. I want to thank Ally for everything that they do for us here to bring us the guest segment every single week, Ally, bringing us another ally. And no matter what you're saving for, whether it be tickets to Darlington, hopefully you've got your tickets by now or tickets to the Florence race.

Come on out and see us this weekend. Maybe you're looking to buy a new car or a new fifth wheel or a new home, whatever it may be. We're all better off with an ally. So thank you, Ally. Now it's time for the white flag. All right, it's time for the white flag here on this Wednesday guest segment dropping last Saturday after the race to tear down with Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi. Everything's kind of shifted up a day. and good job everybody

I mean I would not be surprised that the tear down came out those guys are pretty diligent they're definitely going to do the tear down I don't care what day the race is on but the Sunday drop of action is detrimental you know Denny Hamlin

he could have said hell I ain't doing it I'm taking Sunday off good job Denny Hamlin nobody will remember this but you did a hell of a thing Monday doorp upper clear with guests an Xfinity Series winner, Ryan Truex.

Ryan's won two races this year in a part-time, very limited situation. Will Ryan Truex get more races, more opportunities next year? Does the retirement of his brother and that opportunity for his brother to maybe run a limited Xfinity series schedule somehow, is there like a True X, Truex, All-Star car coming at us? That'd be pretty cool. Yeah. Yesterday we had Dirty Air come out, presented by Xfinity, with Bubble Wallace as a guest.

Also, we mentioned Bubble Wallace because of his relationship with Xfinity, but as usual, we had the winner of the race Harrison Burton and his dad, Jeff Burton on the show. Great conversation with everybody that was here. A lot of fun. Dropping today, along with this episode of the Dale Jr. downloaded Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden. And they will have Will Power on the show.

you never want to miss an opportunity to hear Willpower. I'm sure that Connor Daly will pull out some pretty damn good sound bites. Will Power's been stirring all kinds of things up over in the IndyCar series this year. So I bet he'll be on one for this episode. I'm not going to miss it. But anyways, DJD Reloaded now with Asr Jr. It's kind of like selling a product off the shelf. Now with...

Yeah, it's right. Now with more sugar. Yeah, more Dale. All right, DJD Reloaded. That's where Asked Jr.'s at. I didn't know that. So you can't find Asch Jr.

In the Tuesday show anymore. You can watch it live on YouTube on Tuesdays. Ah. So if you want your Asch Jr. Early, tune in live. That's going to change my way of approaching Asch Jr., so that's helpful. Okay, good.

Not in a bad way. Yeah, Ass Jr. with DJD Reloaded. And maybe they'll talk to Parker, Ritz. Ritz. Let's laugh. Gosh, I never came remember. He's booked already.

He's already booked. Fantastic. Wow, good job. All right. Well, let's ask Parker if he got in trouble for pushing the 21. Let's ask Parker if he heard the radio transition telling him not to. And then why he, if he did, why he decided to do it anyways. And then does he have any regrets?

And has he got a smack on the wrist? Anybody, any other questions you think we should ask? Those are some really good preliminary questions. Preliminary questions. Yep. And then we can ask him how many times people mispronounce his last name? Twice already in white flag. Yes, it's a challenging, it's a challenging mixture of consonant, consonants.

I can't even speak. Get me out of here. I think it's a you problem. Throw me away. Throw me away. Windale's junior ride is back. There's still some time to purchase your. raffle tickets. They're $25. The program runs until September 30th or until tickets might sell out.

It's a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, a brand new, 2004 model, and the Dale Junior Foundation. We'll cover the taxes for this. Do you want a car for 25 bucks? I mean, if you just buy one ticket, that's basically what you're doing here. Get a Corvette. We got a five-star Apple review. I always wondered what happened to Derek Cope. I'm glad he's doing this. well. He brought back so many memories. Thanks for having him on the show. Great five-star Apple review from someone. Well, I hope you all enjoyed today's show. It's fun for me, and it's been a good time in the studio this week, and got a lot of content out there going into Darlington, big race weekend. Hopefully you're tuning in and checking out everything going on to the end

of the regular season. Also, don't forget, as we mentioned, we'll be out at Florence on Friday night racing for the cars tour. Me and Josh Barry, Bubba Wiles will be there racing his legends car, and Kevin Harvick could be racing in the pro race, a hundred lap pro race as well. All Friday night. I think they can fit anywhere from 3 to 5,000 people in that joint. It will be packed.

But you don't want to miss it. It'll be fun. Some grassroots racing right down the road from Darlingson Speedway. We'll see you. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.