The Dale Jr. Download - 594 - Mike Curb: The Name On Earnhardt's Car

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with a legendary figure behind the scenes of motorsports, longtime car owner and sponsor Mike Curb. After falling in love with motorsports at an early age through the pages of Motor Trend and National Speed Sport News, Mike made the acquaintance of Cary Agajanian at an early age and began taking in races at the famed Ascot Park. Mike pursued an interest in music and when a song he wrote became a jingle for Honda, he dropped out of college and pursued commercial soundtracking full time. Mike simultaneously developed a recording company and a career in politics at the suggestion of Ronald Reagan, but his love for auto racing remained tried and true. He entered business with Agajanian owning local sprint cars, and the Curb-Agajanian Performance Group was born.Mike’s entry into involvement in NASCAR is a fascinating tale that stems from longtime NASCAR executive Les Richter serving as a chairman on his campaign for Lieutenant Governor of California. At Les’ request, Mike and his wife attended the 1980 Cup season opener at Riverside as Grand Marshall and it was there that he was propositioned with the idea of becoming a sponsor for Dale Earnhardt. Mike also explains the events that lead to Curb Racing fielding a car for Richard Petty in 1984 and how the famed picture of Ronald Reagan landing at the Daytona 500 came to be. The interview covers Mike’s vast involvement in racing today, which includes co-ownership of NASCAR Truck championship winner Ty Majeski, his relationship with Ronald Reagan and his career in the music industry. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. on the Dale Jr. Download, and we got a great ally guest segment for you today. Mike Kerb is going to come into the studio. I've wanted to talk to Mike for years. This guy has been on the side of my dad's race car in 1980. I know nothing about that, but that man's name has stared at me for decades. And obviously, we know that Curb Records is a big deal in motorsports. They've had success in music, obviously. but also the guy had a political career that I don't think a lot of us know about and a heavy involvement in the 1984 July Daytona win with Richard Petty, his 200th win. We're going to hear all those stories and more. He's right outside. Let's bring him in the studio. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.

Hey, everybody. It's Del Jr. kicking off our season in 2024 here. My guest segment today. Casey Atwood, David Hoots, Elton. Salyer, Zach Brown, Will Compton today, Taylor LeWan. I never would blame you for going and winning their trophy, especially that trope. The one time I get a market. So that's the only time I can ever remember being frustrated with you.

Your dad comes to me at the driver's meet. Boy, if you use your head today, you got a chance to win this race. So we take the green. We go into turn one, and your dad hits me in the back, wrecks me, and I take him out. Okay, we're f***. I mean, been all the up. There's a period of my life that I was Richard Pett. And then there was a period of my life that I worked for Richard Pett.

And then there was a period that I was teammates with Richard Pett. And then there was a period that I went and drove somewhere else and I was a competitor. I was closer to Adam. He ever was the guy. Yeah. I was the man. Oracle comes out the next day and they talk about a couple people that follow me. And you're one of them.

I'm thinking Dale F. Jr. follows me. This is kind of where my life changed. That race still is tough for me to talk about. I have been chasing a NASCAR championship for 20 years. And I don't know if I ever recovered from that. Do you remember feeling the freedom? Do you remember feeling liberated? In a way, it was scary.

But now, looking back, seeing what I do now and the person I've become, it's that challenge that I enjoy. Before we bring Mike in, I want to thank Ally for supporting us here at the Dale Jr. Download. They bring the guest segment to us every single week. We thank Ally every single week. We cannot do the show without their support. They've found some good value here. We hope that they are appreciative of our efforts.

But they, you know, they should be very, you know, they should be thanked and celebrated by all of us because they invest in so many areas in our, in our, in our ecosystem in in in nascar sponsoring Alex Bowman obviously running commercials throughout the events they keep this big machine going down the road and it takes a village it takes a bunch of people and allies one of those entities that's very critical to to NASCAR success and our success here at dirty mode media so we're very thankful we have i've enjoyed uh reading this script every single week because truly most of the people, I mean, 99% of the people that sit down at that table are an ally. They are a friend. So it's a great, it's a great connection. We're all better off with an ally. Whether you're saving for a new car, a home, or a new vacation, whatever it might

be, yeah, we're all better off with an ally. With all that said, let's bring Mike into the studio. I've been looking forward to this. We were lucky that you agreed to come visit us today. And I've been really looking forward to this interview. This is the final guest interview of the season. So we like to end on a high node, and this is going to be a lot of fun for me. Where did you come from? Today I came in from Nashville, Tennessee. All right. You got any other business while you're in town? No, I just came in for this.

No kidding. It looks like I'll be coming back a week from Friday, though, for the – I was the car owner for the Time of Jeski car, the truck that just won the championship. So we'll be coming back. Sharon will be your opening act, I think. Yeah, that's right. So we'll be celebrating our championships together in Charlotte here. And that's interesting.

They asked me when was the last time that I'd been up on the stage for a championship? I said, yes, 44 years ago in 1980 when Dale won, and I received the trophy at that time, and I said, you know, I win a championship every 44 years. What do you remember about that night in 1980? Oh, wow. Where was it? Well, the actual ceremony was in Daytona, Florida. Oh, I never do, so I've seen pictures from there, but I didn't know where it might have been.

Well, you know, there were like three or four different ceremonies, so I don't know if I was at the final one or not, but I received my trophy in Daytona. Wow. Which is a beautiful, beautiful occasion because it was so unexpected. You know, I didn't even know at the start of that season that I was even going to be involved, you know. Yeah. How did the, I guess we could go there. I will get there eventually. Let's start, let's just start back with where you were born, Savannah, Georgia. But you moved to San Fernando Valley at an early age.

What was the move for? Well, my father was FBI agent. He was in charge of the Georgia, East Georgia Division FBI in Savannah, Georgia. And that's when I was born. And then he got transferred. to South Carolina, to Charleston. He got transferred into Oklahoma, into Oklahoma City,

just outside of, later to Arizona. And then, of all places, Compton, California, which is right by Watts. I got to start school, which I loved. It was a racially mixed school, which was a beautiful experience for me, particularly for music. They all love Mahalia Jackson.

All my black friends loved, those great soul singer, so I learned a little bit of how to play piano. Never like them, but I learned a lot about music, you know, in the early days living in Compton. Yeah. But my father was an FBI agent, so they kept transferring, well, it was, you know, Jay Edgar Hoover. Okay. It was Jay Edgar Hoover was head of the FBI at that time. Kept moving them around. Yeah. You graduated from California State University. I actually didn't graduate. I went for two years. Oh. I went for two years to Cal State.

Why did you not graduate? I wrote, while I was, when I was 19 years old, I was in my second year, I was interested in writing songs, and I wrote a song called, You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda, and we sold it to the Honda Motorbike Company, and it became a Honda commercial. Yeah. company to make commercials and do music for film and records. And that was 60 years ago. And we just were celebrating our 60th year. That was sidewalk records? Well, we called it sidewalk productions. Sidewalk records. Yes. And so we couldn't get the name curb because there was another company called Cub. Yeah. That was owned by MGM. So the closest thing we could come to curb was sidewalk. Right. And so when, how did you eventually get curb records? Well, as time went on, we were able to get the name cleared.

Maybe five or six years later. Yeah. It became curb records. Sidewalk productions initially started out mainly writing was just jingles? Was it a jingles? Did you know it was a jing? We did, well, was it was intentionally a jingle when you wrote that for Honda? No. No. No, it was a song that I wrote. And then, I met Bobby Darren, who was a singer, you know, in an elevator over at Capitol Records, and he listened to the song and liked it and introduced me to the Gray Agency, and then they made it the commercial. Wow.

But the big commercial was Chevrolet. I wrote, Get On the Move with Chevrolet, which was Chevrolet, which was Chevrolet's theme for years, you know, going into the 70s. And that was, when John DeLorean, I don't know if that name, rings a bell, but John DeLorean was president of Chevrolet, and a friend of mine introduced him. After I wrote the Honda commercial, a friend of mine introduced me to him. He said, I want a song for Chevrolet like the Honda song, so I wrote, Get On the Move with Chevrolet, and they made it their theme. How do you come up with the idea?

Oh, wow. I don't know. You know, just the, be honest with you, I think it might have been John DeLoreon's idea. I don't want to take credit for it. He, I think he might have said to me at the time, I think he said, Mike, write a song about being on the move with Chevrolet. So, you know, get on the move with Chevrolet. Chevy's got the power to stay. You know, the 70s are here today. Get on the move with Chevrolet, you know, that type of.

Get on, they get on the move. And I had my black singers doing, you know, get on the move, get on the move, you know, doing the syncopation there. Yeah. And so in 1963 is when you started, in 1969, you merged with MGM records. So you're 24. How are you getting such great, incredible opportunities in networking?

What was your secret or what was your intention behind being so great at connecting meet people in an elevator? Turn that into something. Be introduced to this person. Succeed there, right? And you're building this reputation that, you know, would create these opportunities. After I wrote the Honda commercial, you know, I probably made a few thousand, but, you know, I rented an office and so forth. I actually lost my apartment and had to live in the janitor section of the building where I had my office. So I think the idea, the fact that I was starting out with nothing was probably something that caused me to want to work really hard.

So if I had a chance to meet John DeLorean or if I had a chance to meet the head of MGM, I was ready. You know, they say success is when opportunity meets preparation. Look at your whole life. Look what you've done your whole life. I mean, I remember meeting you out in Nashville. I want to say in 97, was it gargoyles on your car at the fairgrounds? And I remember meeting you there.

And, you know, you were just your work at, you were under the car. You were doing everything yourself. you know you weren't no one handed it to you you if anything uh it's harder when your son of i remember hank williams junior was one of one of the first hit songs i had that was a big hit was called all for love of sunshine with hank williams junior and we and we went to number one and we were getting our award and we were at a breakfast meeting and a lady came up to hank williams junior and said you know you're never going to be what your daddy was and i thought oh Oh, no, what's he going to say?

And he stood up and he said, you know, no one will ever be what my daddy was. But you know something, and you know it better than anyone. When you build someone else's legacy, like I tried to do with Ronald Reagan, like you tried to do with your dad, you build your own legacy. Yeah. And look, I mean, I was just looking the other, do you know, did you know that this was your 88th victory, which is a great number for you? So the Justin's was the 88th victory for junior motorsports. Did you know that? I was trying to figure out because I was trying to figure out the,

I know the chance two, you know, was 2003 to 2005, but I wasn't counting. I was just saying junior motorsports for 2006 forward. There were 80, this was Justin's victory, was the 88th victory, which is interesting because 88 was such, it was a number that you did pretty darn well with. very well. But I mean, you had to make your own way. It's tougher oftentimes when you're the son because everybody's expecting you to go out there and be exactly the same. And when you build your own legacy, I just repeat what I said. I think when I worked to build Reagan's legacy, just as his state chairman, I ended up creating something where I ended up being in government,

which I had never. So it's all, and you did the same thing. You built your own legacy. which is just phenomenal. Yeah. When you merge with MGM, you'd eventually become president of both MGM and Verve Records, which you would eventually form curb records. You had a very productive life as a musician

scoring several films throughout the 60s and 70s. I mean, when I look back at this, you lived it. It doesn't seem maybe as unique or uncommon to you because you just, you were, you went through it and you lived it. But when anyone looks at this, I mean, how do you,

how, it's just you, your life has so many layers to it. You talked about the political, you know, your career as a politician, you're as a record label in motorsports and so forth.

But score, you know, you went on from writing jingles to scoring film, and then you would find, you know, you include, this includes the theme to the song American Bandstand, one of the most, you know, it's a most recognizable theme songs that you would, anyone would know. Well, that's why I started out, basically, I started out trying to find a niche where we, where I could put records on my small record label, which is now celebrating its 60th anniversary.

this year. So at that time, it was very small. Now our label is the largest independent label, independently distributed label in America. And what we'd have done, or what I always tried to do, was find a niche. And so in the early days after the Honda commercial and the Chevrolet commercial and SunKissed Orange, I did several commercials, we started doing music for films where we would put the music in the film, give it to the producer virtually free, and then we would have the right, to put the soundtrack album out on our record label. And so I probably did 50 of those, and that's what excited MGM

because they wanted me to do that same thing with them. Is this popular music? Yes, like for example, with MGM, one of the first films I did was Kelly's Heroes with Clayne Eastwood, and I wrote the theme song, Burning Bridges. That's still going today. That's still, so I think the niche that I

was in was creating music for film rather than just having to rely on whether your next single record would be a hit right which is which is why a lot of the companies have gone out and so um that was a unique that was a unique way to create the the record label right and have it succeed right uh that laid the bedrock I suppose for your ability to then go out and, you know, find artists, take the risks that you're talking about on particular artists and records they create. Right. And then also to sponsor race cars in 10 different divisions and, you know, and be co-owners and do all those kinds of things.

I don't have, because you know I don't have any talent to build engines or be a crew chief or but certainly don't have the talent. had to be a driver, but I do, I love it. And I love, what I love is racing and music history. I love, I love, you know, it's exciting to me, like I'd like to be interviewing you, you know, 50, 50 victories, 26 in Cup, 24 and in Xfinity, it's exactly 50, exactly your age. You know, it's exactly 50, exactly your age, 88, exactly, your number, you know, your grandfather's number when he won the sportsman championship in 56, Ralph, eight. I mean, eight, when you joined Hendrick, 2008.

I mean, we have a condo in Daytona. We have a whole room of artifacts of you and your dad. Really? Collecting all the different cars like this. And there's all kinds of interesting things we've collected. And people send us. You know, when your name is on the side of the first championship of what many people feel is the greatest driver in history.

you know, and to see when that happens, people are going to talk about it. Like we are now. I'm still trying to figure it out. Right. I'm looking at Kenny Schrader right now. I'm amazed that I'm here. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Shredger could go over to the Vatican and the Pope would go.

Hey, Schrader! I only screamed at TV one time yesterday. When Warrison's show. Got the gap. Oh, my gosh. No, no, no, no. You and I are of age, and we found this dirt. Okay.

You keep saying of age. You do this all the time. This is what he does to me all the time. I just correct you when you're wrong. You correct me when I'm wrong. You're shooting at three wide. Russ. He's got his white glove.

No, Schrader. No. I should have paid a lot more attention. Hey, this is Ken Schroeder. And Kenny Wallace, inviting you to live. to our podcast, Herman Schrader, every week on Dirtymoe Media and Sirius XF. If you're a true race fan, then you know that Christmas just isn't Christmas without a Lionel diecast under the tree. Our friends at Lionel Racing, the official diecast of NASCAR, have your holidays gift giving covered

with special deals on diecast cars and trucks now through Christmas Eve. Little 164th scale diecast are the perfect size to stuff a stocking, and for the passionate race fan on your list, there's no better gift than a 124 scale diecast that's packed with details like an opening hood, rolling tires, and an authentic decal package. Linaill Racing produces diecast for everyone's favorite driver from NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity Truck Series, late models, historic NASCAR legends, race winners, and more. So make this Christmas a diecast Christmas and shop special deals at Lionel Racing.com. You can also stop by the Lionel store at Concord Mills near Charlotte Murder Speedway or

Opry Mills in Nashville, Tennessee. Lionel Racing Diacast are also sold at team stores, official trackside haulers, NASCAR.com, the official linell dealers and Walmart and Target stores nationwide. I want to ask you why you got involved in racing, how you got involved in racing,

but before we go there, you talk about your involvement in motorsport today. why does that work for you putting curb on the side of that truck that won the championship this past weekend in Phoenix or on a wingless sprint car somewhere that's going to run throughout the midway? You know, why does that work for you? How does that support what you're trying to do? Well, if you know about curb records, it's probably because of racing. You know, the curb records had a lot of hits. probably 14,500 chart records in Billboard over the 60 years. But we don't, we're not like, and Motown had a sound. When you heard a Motown record, it could be the Supremes, it could be

the Temptations, it could be anybody, Marvin Gay, and there was a distinctive sound. My records are either country or their pop or their R&B or their contemporary Christian. there's not a definitive sound like Motown had that definitive Motown sound. So I think Curb Records has gained a lot through being in motorsports over the years. I mean, we couldn't use it on the, we couldn't use Curb Records on Dale's car because I was in government at the time. Oh. And my company was in a trust. Yeah.

So I had to do that as an individual. That was a whole story. Interesting. story. Sometimes I'll, well, maybe, yeah, I'll tell it. I mean, so, yeah, I want to get to it. But where did your interest in racing develop? Where does that come from? Well, when I was young, very young, I was dyslexic, which meant that I would read backwards. I'd spell my name, Icombrook. And so my parents were concerned. Sure. Try to figure out, how's he going to get interested in he didn't want, I didn't, wasn't interested in school books or anything. So one day, my parents,

My mother noticed I had picked up a Motor Trend magazine while she was shopping, and I was reading it normally. And so they said, maybe if he reads something he's interested in, he's not dyslexic. So there was a tearout in motor trend for speed sport. Speed sport, you know, started in 1934. And so my mother for Christmas and my grandmother bought a subscription for Speed Sport when I was like, when I just moved to Compton, when I was like four or five years old, just starting school. And I read it religiously.

And I absolutely love racing history. I think I can name every Indianapolis 500, winter, every Daytona, five. I mean, I know Dale Earnhardt Jr. won in 2004 and 14. I can see it. I know those, you know, I remember, for some reason, I picture records, I picture, I love music history.

I love motorsports history. Yeah. You know, I'm devastated about losing Bobby Allison. For sure. I even got to be with him one year on one of the cars. And it's just devastating when we won Indianapolis 500 with Dan Weldon and then we lost him later that year. Or when Brian Klosson, that's the hardest thing.

But I love racing history. My favorite driver back in IndyCar racing was Bob Swickert back in, mid-50s, in 1955, he won the final AAA championship. He won the Indy 500. In 53, he won the Hoosier 100 on the dirt, and the biggest silver crown race of the year. You know, I just remember all these things. I just love racing history.

I'm excited about your history. You know, 50 wins in the two top divisions. it's unbelievable. And 80 hate wins, not counting chance two. I mean, that's another 16. I mean, I don't, to me, I love, I'd like to be interviewing you. I'd like to be interviewing you. But for me, it's just been a beautiful thing, studying history and loving the history of it.

Because it's allowed me to, you know, participate. Yeah. And, you know, and a lot of different things in racing that I don't even know how to describe. Before you became involved in Dad's Race Team in 1980, what other involvement in racing had you had? Really just local sprint cars. We were doing Carrie Agah Janian, who's right next door. I met Carrie Aga Janian at a Bible camp in Redlands, California, back in. Oh, and we were both probably eight or nine years old.

He's a little bit older than me in August. And his dad was J.C. Agagianianian. And I was already, and so when I heard there was an Agagian there, that was the first person I ever met where I knew the name, you know, because I'd been reading Speedsport. And then while we were there that weekend, they had that terrible wreck up in Pennsylvania in AAA and Clay Smith, Roger Ward, who went on to later when Indianapolis, at that time, crashed into Clay Smith,

who was the mechanic for J.C. Iganian, and Clay died. And I remember Carrie Agadjanian's mother being really upset. So we spent a lot of time talking to one another. And Carrie and I started doing racing together. And then his dad had Ascot Speedway. And so I would go out there. And then I ended up sponsoring and I call owning sprint cars back in the 70s. Yeah. But it was, I was doing it. Yes, I had curb records on the side of it, but I also loved dirt racing. And I loved it when the NASCAR guys came in, you know, when the, the NASCAR West series,

you know, it's gone through a lot of different names. Later it was K&N West. But the series back then, the NASCAR West series would come out to Carroll Speedway, to Gardena Stadium. They'd come out to Ascot, Marshall. Marshall Teague, I remember in 1953, I remember the pure oil Hudson Hornet

I'm picturing it right now running, you had such great aerodynamic, I'm remembering that and saying gee I wish I could do that and I tried a couple of times driving You did? But I didn't have the talent. I just didn't. That's crazy you tried. I didn't have the talent. It's still pretty neat.

I didn't have the talent to do it. It was a neat, it was nice to try but I didn't Where did you race? Oh, I was most of the races where I mostly raced for just, I got into the cars that I was sponsoring. Locally. Locally. I tried, I tried doing hot laps.

I didn't have, I didn't have what you and Tony Stewart. I didn't have that gift, but I had maybe a musical gift, you know. So, you know, they say, my father used to say, if you're good at one thing, do it. But I thought, you know, if I could do the music, maybe I could find. a way to get involved in motorsports. So I almost started with Bobby. It was really funny. Bobby Allison, the same year, in 79, I went to Bristol.

In fact, Dale Earnhardt won Bristol, 79. And I was there. There was like April of 79. And there was a local businessman in California named Warner Hodges. Yes. Who was wanted, and he was. was, he had made an agreement to sponsor Bobby Allison for 1980. And Bobby was driving the Budmore Ford. That was the number 15 Bud Moore Ford, blue and white. And he wanted me to do the hood on the car

to put curb records or my curb or something on the hood. And I said, Warner, I've just been elected Lieutenant Governor. Ronald Reagan, I don't want to let him down. And in California, when the governor's out of state, the lieutenant governor is governor. I said, I think it'd be awkward for me to go on a race car. So I said, but I said, Warner, if I ever do decide to do it, that's who I would love to do it with Bobby. I followed his career back to the sports, followed him in the modifies and everything, you know, so I said, I'd be thrilled to do it, and then I forgot about it. And then in January of 80, Les Richter had been one of the co-chairmen of my campaign where I was elected to lieutenant governor.

And Les Richter, I was a huge fan of his. He was the NFL legend. He was the Rams back during the Norman Van Brockland date when Norm Van Brockland was quarterback. He was, to me, Les Richter was larger than life. You know, the fact that he would be my co-chairman and helped me get elected. It's hard for a Republican to get elected in California.

And you need people. like Les Richter. So Les said to me, Bill France and I want to talk to you. And Les had asked my wife, Linda, who's here, to be, asked us way back then to be the Grand Marshal for Riverside. Riverside used to be the first race before Daytona. So in 1980, I'm trying to recall this exactly, but in 1980, my wife and I were the Grand Marshal's of the Riverside Raceway. So we came out on the Friday before the race. All right. So on Saturday, Bill France Jr., Les Rector said Bill France Jr. won seven meeting with the three of us. And I said, what is it? He said, we want you to get involved with the car. And I said, you know, I already told Warner, I couldn't do it

for Bobby. I said, who do the, what do you want? And he said, Dale Earnhardt. And I said, well, what is the problem? He said, well, you know, Dale was injured in 79, as you know, and didn't get to run the whole season. Also, Austerlund didn't run the whole season. And in fact, in fact, Pearson got in the car and won his 10th, his 10th, Southern 500 that same year. So the, so the, but Dale was back in the car for the Riverside race and they said, well, we want you to talk with Dale, but Dale wants to run the whole season and Austerlind is only committing a partial season at this point. Maybe he'll run the and we're wanting you to come in essentially as a sponsor. Yeah. And so I said, well, have you talked to others out here? I mean, I mentioned Warner is a good

example. I said, Warner, he said, well, Warner's doing Bobby. So we'd like you to do Dale Arnold. So I said, well, my company, Curb Records, is in kind of a trust because I'm in political office now, so I can't put Curb Records on it. They said, well, do you have a private company? I said, well, I have my Kerr Productions. They said, we'll put that on the side. And they said, also politicians in the South put their names on cars. Anyway, so first of all, saying no to Les Richter and Bill France Jr. It is impossible.

I mean, these. They don't give you a chance. I love Bill French Jr. I mean, he's so amazing. And Les Richter. Anyway, so I said, you talk to Dad? I, we went to the pits and we talked to Dale and, and they have a great But I don't think it lasted more 10, 15 minutes.

But we talked about it. Of course, I knew a little bit about his history. I didn't know, you know, he had raced in 75, 76, and 77, but like maybe one or two races. So I didn't know much about that. And there was, and he hadn't done Bush series or at least I couldn't, I had never seen him do it. So, but most, a lot of his racing was regional. So I hadn't had a chance. I'd heard all about him and I had seen him.

And I actually seen him once at the old Concord track. I had been out there with a friend of mine, and I had seen him, and I watched him find this groove that nobody else could find. So I knew that he was a genius, you know, but I didn't realize exactly what I was getting into. But I said, yes. And then I also said, let me ask you this. I had promised Warner. I told him that if I ever did this, I would also, I had.

do something with Bobby. And so Bill France Jr. said, well, why don't you put Hodgson on the hood of the Earnhardt and you go on the hood of the Ellis? And how that happened? Yeah. And so I said, well, how would that work? And so, you know, Bill France,

and I could talk about the Petty thing that he engineered. Later on, you know, when Petty, when he called me in 83. Oh, yeah. We're going to talk about that. I mean, Bill France, was a gene. was a genius. I mean, he brought, he brought racing into the TV age. But I mean, what he, he was, but the thing about Bill Francis, you could not say no to him. That's interesting because I had no idea. I mean, it's right there on this car. Somebody painted this car from a piece of wood from,

that was probably painted, bought and painted in 1980. Yeah, and that Hodgson car, if you look at the, for the whole season, it said my curb on the, on the hood. But dad's car has Hodget on the hood. like her productions on the quarter panel. And so we talked. I've never seen that one with, that's an interesting, I'll have to take a picture of it. A little custom work there. But I was talking to somebody and we talked about it on my show yesterday about Bobby

and Dad were very close. They started out, well, Dad would always say in all these articles throughout 79 that Donnie and Bobby were the ones that were always really helpful. Who could he go up to in the garage and get an honest dancer? Those were the two names that he would throw out all the time. but they were almost sub-teammates, if you will. And I'd add a third name, Neil Bonnet. Yes.

The three of them, and it's so funny saying the three. That makes so much sense, how they would interact as much as they did, because there's all these pictures of Dad and Bobby talking in the garage from the 80s and 7980s, and it was probably encouraged or they were kind of drawn together because of that connection between you and Hodgden and so forth. Yeah, and so we'd... I had no idea. So basically what happened was we made the agreement

that I would put up the money for the Dale Earnhardt car and we would put Hodgson on the hood and that we... And that... And then I would go on the hood of the Allison car which had Hodgden on the quarter panel. And then we left Riverside and I went back to Sacramento

trying to be a good lieutenant governor in California when the governor's out of state, the lieutenant governor is governor. And I almost didn't go to Daytona that year. But then all of a sudden I said, you know, I better go. We've got, and I went there. And the day after I got there,

Dale won the Bush clash in a curb car. And then Bobby finished second in the 500, and Dale finished fourth. They finished second and fourth. And, you know, and I must say, as a race fan, I was pretty cool. Buddy Baker, I was cool with Buddy Baker winning that. Of course. It was kind of like when your dad won Daytona finally, the whole industry erupted.

I think it's funny. My wife wonders why I, like I was kind of pulling, I was kind of hoping if we didn't win at Grant. Grant Infinger had won the regular season championship for us, but not the overall. And I've seen him like Justin, Allga, Grant's tried so hard. So I was saying, you know, if Ty doesn't get it, I hope Grant gets it. So I'm still a racing fan, but we almost won the Daytona 500 with Bobby that year. And it was pretty exciting. Yeah, I sure. So I got to, so we, from that point on, it was like, wow.

And then, of course, he won Atlanta and he won Charlotte, the Charlotte 500, and then Martinsville, you know, and then Bristol and Nashville. He won Nashville, too. I mean, it was called the Music City 420. Yeah, actually back then it was called the Bush 420, which, but it was, It's now, now, the later it came in the Music City. So, I mean, it was like, I mean, the whole thing was so surreal that I don't even know how, you've had experiences like that.

I mean, just this weekend, what happened with Justin. Yes. It's like surreal to go down two laps and to have, suffer two, maybe three penalties, really three. What do you think about it, or two penalties at least, and then the speedy. And to see him come back from two laps back, there would have been people. who had parked the car. He wanted to park. He told me.

Oh, did he? He said, I wanted to park it after that last building. No, but when you see some, that's to me, that's racing. I'm more excited about things like, I was excited when Buddy Baker won in 80. Yeah. But having said that, when you have cars with your own name on it, finishing second and fourth, we were in it. You were in it.

In it all the way. And from that point on, as soon as I finished my term in government, I've been doing everything I can, you know, in racing, whether it's World of Outlaws, USAC, IMSA, NASCAR, IndyCar. We almost, we were second in the Colton Herda was second in the IndyCar championship. He won the final race at Nashville. But we, you know, one of the things we also did, and I, I saw Carrie's office, Carrie and I, it was Carrie's idea, started a curb elite program years ago to take young drivers who've never had a chance. And the first five drivers that Kerry came up with were Christopher Bell, Kevin Swindell, Kyle Larson, and Regal Abreu, and we, we, and so when we went to Daytona for the Battle of the Beach in 2013,

yes. We had a curb records car and we put Kyle Larson who had never been in a stock car, never been in a, and he won the, he won there before, but he won the All-American, late model division of the Battle of the Beach in a curb records car and that was his first victory at Daytona now if you if you say to a historian what was Kyle Larson's first victory at Daytona well they would they would probably say when he won the the bush race thinking was it 20 20 was it 19 or 20 2009 when he won the bush but race but his first race at the speedway actually was battle of the beach and no one wants to hear that's the But it was fun for me because it was fun to work.

And Kyle drove our midget, our USAC, and won 30 races. And so we knew what he could do. And when we put him in the stock car, we didn't know Ganesi was going to grab him so fast, but he did the right thing. He did. What got you involved in politics? Ronald Reagan. How? How do you know Ronald Reagan?

Wow. Back then. Okay. I was at an event. Obviously, as my company started to succeed, I did some charity things, and we do a lot. Our foundation does a lot of charitable things with colleges and so forth. In the early days, there was a group called Junior Achievement. It's got your name.

Junior Achievement. It's a group that teaches free enterprise to kids in fourth and fifth grade. So they asked me to come and speak, and I'm not a very good speaker. So I was, but I was speaking there. And the next speaker was Ronald Reagan. And the guy who was supposed to introduce him was tied up on the freeway, which is what everybody in California runs into. So they set a card saying introduce Ronald Reagan.

So I introduced him. Not a great introduction or anything. And then after he spoke, there was like a round table where he all sat. I don't think he was there for more than 30 minutes. They give you like the rubber chicken. But I was sitting at a table. table with maybe eight or nine people with him. And he said to me, he had seen back in 1972, I had a real big hit record with Sammy Davis Jr. called The Candy Man. It was

a, and I produced, and it was Sammy Davis Jr. singing with the Mike Kurb congregation, which was my group. And Richard Nixon had had asked that that record be performed right outside the convention, Reagan had been at the convention and he had seen that. So, or someone gave him a card and said, Mike Kerb was the guy that did that. I don't know because maybe he knew I was going to be there, but he said during there, I loved seeing your group and seeing Sammy. He said, I'm going to be running for president. Would you be interested in finding some entertainers for me? And I said, sure. You know, just like I said to Bill France, sure. All I did was say yes. So, I said yes, and then a couple of days later, they asked me to do that.

And then after a while out in California, it was getting kind of testing because he was running against Ford, who had become president because Nixon had resigned. So Reagan said, you know, we want someone young at the top of the committee. So we're going to ask you to be the co-chairman. They had an older lady who was one of the co-chairman and asked me to be the other co-chairman. that was several months later and I had been helping them with entertainers but he liked me

he actually treated me almost like a son but he liked me and he said I'd like I've looked up your background I'd like to see you become a co-chairman of our California so in 76 I was the co-chairman

and then after that he lost to Ford but he carried California and so because he carried California he could name who is the national committeeman. And so he asked me to be the California National Committeeman. What is that? That's the person who represents the party to the National Committee.

Okay. So you have the National Republican Committee in Washington, D.C. And each state has a committee man and a committee woman. The National Committee woman, I think, was Nancy Pelosi, because she had been with Jimmy Carter, who was another fifth. fabulous person, by the way. My wife and I just got to see him, not, I'd say three or four, just before he started having his health problems because of habitat for humanity. But we had

some really great people, like Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan. But in any event, then he asked me to be national committeeman. Well, when I was working as his chairman, I put it, my job was to put a chairman in each, or a chairperson in each of the 58 counties in California, which I did. And he liked those choices. So then he said, why don't you run? I said, well, I didn't graduate from college. I don't have the, you know, my grandmother was Hispanic, but she was a huge fan of American government. She came over, put herself through college, loved the American political system. And she used to force me to watch the, the conventions. She was a Democrat. She would force me to watch the conventions, Democrat, Republican,

to where I, so I learned a lot from her and learned a lot, you know, learned a lot from going through public, I mean, going through public schools in California and, you know, learning a lot about the beautiful diversity. California has beautiful diversity, Hispanics, African Americans, Asian. So I learned a lot about that. And anyway, whatever it was, They came to me and asked me, they didn't feel they could win the governorship because Jerry Brown was popular, but the incumbent lieutenant governor, they thought to be defeated. They asked me to run. And I looked at it and said, you know, no one had ever, no Republican had ever won and served

a full term with the Democrat. And the state started in 1850. So there were millions and millions and millions of people. There are 30 million people in the state, but millions of people, no one had ever been elected as a Republicans and served a four-year term with a Democrat because they knew Brown was going to be reelected. Well, I ran and I won. I won the primary and I won the general election. Now, I did reach out to all the different diverse groups, which a lot of times Republicans sometimes don't do. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. But being in California,

being in the music business, my friends came from everywhere. You can't name anything that we didn't one of at least. So that was good. And so, but we were, I was able to win the primary and then I was able to defeat the incumbent lieutenant governor and become lieutenant governor. And then Brown decided to run for president and the Supreme Court made me acting governor. I served for, for the first two years of my term, I served over 200 days as governor of California. So how, what is that responsibility comparable to? Awesome. When I was talking to my wife about it the other, because she's been on this whole ride with me, you know, for 50 years, you know, and why she, and she was having babies during that. I mean, both of our babies were born. Both of our daughters were born while I was serving as acting governor. And there she's up on stage one night, and the next day she's having a baby. I mean, of course, we learned that about our wives, right? If men had the babies, there would be no babies, right? With the respect you gained for your wife. when you watch your half.

You saw that and I saw that too. But we were just talking about the other day when we would fly over California and say, my goodness, we have responsibility for 30 million people. You take it seriously. And, you know, it was, I enjoyed it. But then after my term was over,

I went to Washington with him. Yeah, with Ronald. Yeah, with Ronald Reagan. And that's where we had the interesting interface, which I'll talk to you later about with Bill France and Richard. Yeah. So what goes into the decision, I guess, on your future. So you're elected, you're elected the lieutenant governor. Your acting governor for over 200 days.

Is, could you have decided at that point, I guess, to make a career at trying to remain in those roles? But, or was there like, okay, that's that, we've done that. Now we're, now we're going to do this. or is it were Ronald call and say, hey, I need your help, come to Washington? Well, Reagan asked me to come to Washington, D.C. Why? Well, first of all, number, first of all, number one, I have to tell you, I was not reelected because, well, I was, I didn't run for lieutenant governor. Why?

Well, what I did, I was lieutenant governor. Yeah. But then I was acting governor so long that I decided to run for governor. The only problem is when I ran for governor, I was all, I also had to get through the, I had beat the Attorney General who had been a state senator for 20 years, and we kind of split the vote. So I didn't win. Even though the polls showed me way ahead, I didn't win. And I thought, you know something that's devastating?

Well, it turned out not to be because that night I endorsed my opponent on that very night. I said, look, I got into this. I said, whichever one of us wins, well, or see the other, so I endorsed him. The next day, or two days later, Ronald Reagan called me. He was already president then. And I had been his co-chairman when he ran for president, the second time, when he ran for, so he called me and he said, Mike, I want you to come back to Washington. I want you to do in all 50 states, which you just did in California,

which is to unify the party after the primary, because you see what happens. you saw, you know, after what happened with Trump and Nikki Haley and DeSantis, you know, there's always that period afterwards where they need to either come together if they want to win in the general. And so Ronald Reagan asked us to come to Washington and we had two small kids that had just been born while I was acting governor. And we said, you know, do we want to spend our life running for political office or do we want to get back in our record business and get back in our motorsports company and get back in line? And so I said to Ronald Reagan, yes, I'll come to Washington as long as I can have my businesses. And he said, well, I will

appoint you to jobs that don't pay a salary. He made me his representative on the USO board. He made me his representative on the International Trade Relations Board. And most of all, he asked me to chair the RNFC. So it was a fabulous experience for my wife and me and our two young daughters who had never seen snow. And while we were there, also we were close to Charlotte. We could fly out of Reagan airport to Charlotte. So, you know, and of course, what this, if you look at the framework of this, when I was elected, it was 78. When Dale won his first championship, it was 80, we couldn't continue on in 81 because I was serving as acting governor. So I couldn't get into the sweepstakes of JD, you know, JD, whatever it was, Stacy, Jayd Stacy. I could feel you in on

some of that, too. But there was a, there was a lot of stuff going. on between Austerlund Childress and J.D. Stacey, that, because Richard Childers is a very, very close friend of mine, I had a, I knew what I wanted to see happen, and it did. But anyway, I didn't mean to get off on that. Where was I? I was talking about. What I want to ask you is this, so we all, you know, I, I was young, but I lived through Reagan's presidency. What you, you You had a very close. Well, you would have been three. You were born in 74.

He became president in eight. You would have been six. Yeah. So you lived through it. I did. Do you remember him? I do. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Wow, that's incredible. The impact he had, huh? Yeah. Well, he did. He left an incredible mark. Yeah, well. What I want to ask you what it must have been like to have such a close

relationship with the president of the country. And who was he really as a human being as a person? The best. He was like you. He could be with all your mind-boggling success that you've had. You come across to everybody. My wife wanted to adopt you the first time she said. We didn't have a son.

So, you know, you became not just Dale's son, you became everybody's son. You know, and I think that Ronald Reagan had that same thing that you have. It's that, you know, where people feel like you're the guy next door. You know, you're not trying to put them down. You're not trying to be an elitist. He was just, you could, I mean, we even wrote two or three songs together, sitting in the backseat of his car. Of course, I was from the entertainment industry.

He had been an actor. He had been in 43 movies. But, you know, he sort of treated me like a son. There's no question about it. What was the age difference? Substantial. Yeah, it was? Well, yes.

Just to put it, I was the only person when we had in 1988, when we were developing the Reagan Library in California, I'm the only person alive today who is at that meeting. Wow. You know. And I'm 79. Yeah. I'm 79 years old.

Yeah. So, you know, that's another interesting number two, 79. That was when Dale first got in the hostel in the car. Yeah. But, I mean, 79 years old, at that time, when I was elected, I was 33, I think, 33 years old. I was the youngest person ever to be governor or whatever. So, and for years I was always the young guy in the music industry or the young guy. you know, at the racetrack or the young guy in the music business, now, now I'm not.

Yeah. And it's really, it's freaky. It is freaky. I mean, I could be your father. Yeah. You know, and I wish I were. But, I mean, honestly, it, but problem is, if I'd been your father, you wouldn't have had those jeans.

You would have had the same problem I did when you drove a race car. You wouldn't have been able to find those cushions and, And so you wouldn't have those genes that are so rare. God, so rare. But I mean. When you go to Washington and you worked on what it sounds like just a myriad of projects and support of whatever was necessary, let's talk about how all of the worlds came together, all of the different narratives or entities came together for,

Richard to become your driver, right? And how he's, you know, Ronald Reagan is in Daytona, in July for that 200th win. I had Buddy Parrott, who was the crew chief on the car at the time, sat here and tell me how it was kind of like all of those things were put in the right places, like a chess match. And when, you know, of course, Calgary could have beat. Richard to the line and none of that works out and it's not storybook, but it ended up being perfect.

Did Buddy tell you what a good relationship the two of us had? I think he was very favorable, yeah. Yeah, because it was a beautiful experience. He's a good dude. I really, really liked working with Buddy. I'll tell you how. So what happened? So why do you, Richard's going to leave his family team, right?

It's going to drive for you. All right. So here's what happened. All right. Now, 1983. My term ended as governor and lieutenant governor in early 1983. All right. I've now moved to Washington, D.C., right? And meanwhile, we still have our shop in Canapolis at that time. We had a shop in Canapolis that time that we had a shop in Canapolis that we had put together, that we had, I want to say, Well, it's since torn down, but we have a, we, have you seen our building there, the big building? Yep. We had a small building, but it was right where they were building up the campus for North Carolina. Yes, sir. So they needed to tear it down. And David Murdoch, who owned Cannon Mills at the time, was my neighbor.

Really? Well, we bought, Reagan had a ranch up in Santa Barbara. My wife and I bought a ranch just outside of L.A. because we wanted our daughters to have horses and we wanted them to have a normal life. We didn't want them to, you know, so anyway, so to put it in perspective, all right, so now we're living in Washington.

I'm serving as the chairman of the RNFC and representing Reagan and various things. All right, so Charlotte. And I was at the race. I went to the Charlotte race because it was easy for me to get to. And we have a condo in Charlotte or in Concord. And my wife and I love going to North Carolina.

It was an easy thing for us to do in Washington, D.C., get on a plane at Reagan Air. So we went to the 1983 in the Charlotte race. It's around October 5th, not the 600. Oh, God, I'm thinking of you running out of gas. Yeah. That was, how did you expect your fans to deal with that one? I was just as devastated as they were. the 600, too. I know, but I mean, well, you know, see, those things that we mentioned

Algar, I'm a race fan. I'm a fan of yours. I'm a race fan. But we never got over that one. But I'll tell you, though, when we got over it was when our car was running second in the Indianapolis 500, and the leading car hit the wall on the corner, and we slipped in and won the race. So my wife said to me, you know, that gets you over those moments. We had that happen. We with tie this year, and I think it was Martin's full world, the final lap, I ran out of fuel bleeding. But, but I mean, it happens. But anyway, so what happened there, and I don't know any of the details other than there was apparently a discrepancy with the engine. And I told you, I have no talent in that area. So I'm not making any judgments one way or another. But what

did happen is they made a decision to penalize the brother and not Richard. Yes. Richard kept the win. Right. It would have been like if somebody had penalized Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Talladega, you saw what happened with the cans and everything. There would have been, you know, they can't, there's certain things you can't do in this point. You can't take Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of the race. You can't take Tony Stewart out. You can't take Richard Petty in 1983, taking Richard Petty out at a time with some of the other superstar drivers were starting to retire. Yeah. And that was Richards, I think, 198. He was getting close to 200. It was his 198th victory, and they made it this decision.

Same decision they made like with Austin Dillon. They let him keep the win, but they took away the championship run. Well, they did the same thing here. They let Richard keep the win for his 198th win, but they penalized the team. Yes. And so I got to, I was in, so there I am. And I had already gone back to Washington. I had to go back that night to Washington.

I got a call from Bill French Jr. and he said, Mike, you know, there's, I have something I want to discuss with you. And I said, what is it? He said, well, do you still have the shop in Kittapolis? He said, I'm told you. I said, yes. He said, do you have some of the chassis? I said, well, I bought four of, I have two Monte Carlo's and two olds, but I don't have all, all of them. Some of them might have got sold, might have been sold to J.D. Stacey. Yeah. So I don't, but I have, he said, but you can build a Pontiac on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a Chevy. I said, well, that's over my pay grade. Yeah. I've got four chassis here. He said, well, look, I've got a driver that I want to put in your, in your car. And I said, well, what do you, who? He said, are you sitting down? So I said, okay, I'll sit down. Who do you have in mind? He said, Richard Petty. and I said, why? He said, well, didn't you see where he was penalized?

I said, well, I didn't see where he was penalized. I saw where his family was. They said, well, they're not going to be able to run. I said, what are they going to do? He said, well, they might run Kyle, Kyle Petty, but I think Kyle was in the 21 at the time, and he had just won, I think he had just won, that might have been the year he won Richmond. Yeah, I think he was driving the, he was driving number seven. 7-11 car oh was he in the 7-11 yeah so he was kind of still in a family car at that time well he

all right well when he went i thought he went with sabottis after the 20 did he go to the 21 his late 80s oh but didn't he go to the 21 first 84 85 maybe all right so then he was in the 42 yeah uh not the 7 or was he in the 47 or was he in the 711 car in 8384 i think but that was the 42 car then yeah it would have been yeah seven so it was still the petty water still with petty All right, because they had talked at that time of the possibility that he might go to Wood, Wood Brothers, that he had other opportunities. And Sabatis was already in the picture wanting to do something with him. That didn't occur to much later, though, right? So they didn't know if Kyle was going to stay with the team or not, but that wasn't the issue for me.

They were going to keep a team and run Kyle, and I guess that you're right. You're better at history. I thought I was good at it. You're far better. Was it 7-Eleven at the time? Did they stay? I can't remember what he, so in 84, Kyle may have ran, I think in 84 Kyle might have ran, gosh, wrecking my brain. Well, 79 is when he won the ARCA race at Daytona, because I was there.

But in 84 had he? So when Richard left the family team, I think that Maurice ran a Ford with Dick Brooks. There's a white number one. So he kind of ran like a very limited schedule after that. Was it four or 44? Number one. Oh, was the number one car?

A white Ford. Okay. So I remember. I think they still kind of ran, they might have ran Kyle or Kyle might have went somewhere else. I can't remember. All right. So Maurice then ran a four.

That's interesting. Yeah, and now I vaguely remember seeing the petty name on the, Dick Brooks, yeah. Yeah, his final few races. Yes, all right. Okay. Well, then here's what happened. They asked me if I would take, if I would resume my team, because I was now out of political

office, they had liked the experience we had in 1980. Bill France liked the fact that I did what he wanted and we had a pretty nice result. And I'm not claiming any of the credit. I mean, I've already said I'm not a driver. I'm not an engine builder. I'm not a, you know, I'm not a crew chief. so I'm not trying to take credit for Dale's championship, but it had been a nice experience for them

in the way we had funded it and how we had worked the thing out with Warner. Because a lot of those guys like Warner Hodgden and Rod Austerlund ran into serious business problems because in California we had a huge savings and loan crisis in 79, 80, 81. And it really hurt people like Rod Austerlund. It really hurt people like Warner Hodgden.

It really, a number of those guys really got hurt. It didn't affect the music industry. people were still buying, you know, even when there's a recession, people want to listen to music. Yeah. So basically those, and those guys always kind of got over their heads a little bit, you know, or a lot. Yeah. But a lot of them did. And so, but at that point, Austerlund had already sold.

J.D. Stacey. And he had sold to Stacey. I should fill that in a little bit first here, because on the Stacey thing, this was something Dale did not want. No. So, J.D., if I could interrupt you, what I believe, and I only can piece it together, I wasn't living it like you, but I'm thinking that Neil and Dad having a little bit of a friendship around 1981, also Dad's own observation, but Neil drove for J.D. Stacey in 78, 77. J.D. Stacey bought the 71 K&K Insurance Dodge from, from Crenniff.

Is that the Dick Marcus? Dave Marcus. Dave Marcus. You said Dave Barker's up. Yeah. And so Neil gets in that car and drives it for about three years. And I think Neil might have gotten Dad's ear and said, I don't know if you want to be, I don't seem like the kind of guy that I think you'll get along with.

But either way, like the, or maybe Dad just had his own opinion. There's a picture of Dad and J.D. Stacey at the car before the July race in Daytona, and Dad is miserable. You can see the look on his face. J.D. Stacey's standing there with a cigar about 12. 12 inches long sticking out his mouth and has some kind of a wrangler sticker taped to his cowboy hat. It just didn't look like the kind of guy dad would want to be in business with, but my opinion. Well, first of all, I don't know anything about J.D. Stacey.

So I don't, I can't say anything derogatory about him, but I can say what Dale Earnhardt told me. Yeah. Which was, I'm not going to do this. Yeah. And so I said, well, Dale, you know, at that point. Wrangler had taken over, so there was no need for curb, and I was fine with that. I mean, I offered to stay on the B panel. I offered to do all kinds of things to stay on it in 81, but I believe that Rod Austerlund

was already thinking of selling. And I think what happened when Rod was able to attract a Wrangler, to make the deal for Wrangler, I think he felt that the value of his team having just won a championship, that this was the right time to sell. And again, I like Rod. And I think basically he was having issues financially at the time. So obviously, this was a great opportunity. So I didn't want to stand in the way. The only thing is there was a clause in the Rangler agreement that said if Dale was not the driver, Rangler had their approval or to get a replacement driver.

Yeah. So, so you're correct. In July, I was at the July race, and Stacey was the car owner, and you have to remember, another thing is you know better than I. When it's one thing to draw a contract to sell your team, it's another thing on the day that NASCAR recognizes it, because there's all kinds of things where the points transfer, do they transfer over, do the 43 points transfer over to curb, or do they stay with petty enterprises and go to the 42, do the, do the, do the, do the, do the, points for the two car, does that translate into, can J.D. Stacey take that over and have those points? It has to be approved by NASCAR. Well, if you look at the first six months of 81, you'd see that even though, I mean, you saw Daytona where Childress was drafting your dad, they were third and fourth, almost won the race. And you could see that Childress and your dad had a personal relationship

like Neil Bonnet. I mean, you're in the garage. You're seeing him with Neil Bonnet. You're seeing him with Richard Childers, you know, looking at the Richard talk, you know, so the bottom line, and Richard Childers was a friend of him. I had met Richard, and I really, really liked him. He drove the CRC chemical car. And I identified with him because I'm an independent record person. He was that independent guy that probably finished top 10, 50 times, but never got to really visit. He did, I think he won at Bowman Gray one time. He's a talented guy. But they almost drafted their way into winning the 81 race Daytona 500, and they finished third and fourth. But I could see there was a relationship.

So I always knew that Dale was not going to drive for Stacey. He said he was not going to do it. And the way he was the kind of person, your dad was the kind of person. If he said something, he meant it. He didn't, he wasn't a phony. He didn't just make up words. He said, I'm not going to do, I'm not going to drive there. I'm not going to go there.

That was what he said to me, period. Oh, yeah. I'm not going to, what should I do? And I said, what are your choices? He said, I could get in Richard's car. And I said, well, I love Richard Childress. The only thing is, are you going to take Wrangler? He said, I can take Wrangler. So by the time they reached Michigan in 81, they, the team was Richard Childress, Wrangler. And so the thing that was so fascinating is for six months, they didn't get the transfer to Stacey. Stacey probably didn't have the transfer almost until maybe the July race or maybe the Pocono race. But Richard got the transfer through in a week.

Wow. And so when they went to Michigan, it was Dale Earnhardt in the Richard Childress Wrangler car. Yeah. And number three. Yeah. And it was number three. No more number two.

No. He didn't, Richard wasn't looking for number two. He didn't need it. Yeah. No. He didn't need it. So that's what happened. Now, but then for some reason, Rangler wasn't satisfied.

with what was going on. So the Bud Moore thing came along. And they felt that the Bud Moore team and there was some Wrangler and Ford were doing, whatever it was, as you know, they made a two-year agreement with Bud Moore and Dale drove, as you know, your dad drove in 82 and 83 for Bud Moore.

All right. And we love Bud Moore. He was a hero, American heroes, served our country with dignity. And we had been on his hood. with Bob, we love him, but it was a jolt. It was a jolt because we were with Richard. So what they did is they ended up flipping drive. He put Rudd, Red left the Moore and came into the children's car and, and Rudd did okay.

Yeah. And, and, but your dad didn't like the Bud Moore thing. He won Darlington, but that's a driver's track. Yeah. He won Darlington that year. Had a lot of engine failures and frustrations. Oh, yeah. Bud built his car to be driven a specific way, which was successful. Yeah. But, uh, dad, didn't drive in that style and bud was always trying to dial dad back and dad wanted to run full throttle yeah but um so so so he didn't so he won so he won maybe the one race darlington in 82 and he won a couple of races to 83 but yeah there's no question your dad wasn't happy so that's when he and asked me to come to Charlotte he picked me up at the airport dad your dad picked me up to

Charlotte Airport and and we had arranged a meeting in my condo with Richard Chilters. Now Richard, I sent you a video. I don't know if you had it, if you saw it, or I have a copy of it. Richard did a video where he talked about it because it's for me to sit here and act like I'm taking credit for Richard Chilchard's and your dad is ridiculous and I'm not going to do that. But Richard, I have a video that I could show you where he felt I played a play a a big part, but here's what he said. Your dad was trying to decide if it would go back. All right, it was 1983. And it was right about the time that I was doing the Richard Petty. The Richard Petty was around October, right after the October 5th Charlotte race. So isn't that interesting? When did you

get to be my age and you've got to remember all these here? Yes. You're doing very good. I got to go back 60 years. But you do it really well too. But I'm just trying to remember. So it was around October, the latter part of October of 83, and I'd love for you to talk to Richard about it. But what happened was we had a meeting at my condo, and Richard wanted Dale to come back. Oh, yeah. And he wanted Rangler to come back, period.

And he had all kinds of, and General Motors wanted him to come. Chevrolet wanted him to come back. And Dale had to persuade Rangler. And that's the real issue was Dale. If Dale went, Rangler was going to follow. but it was something where even Dale wanted to be sure, and there were other opportunities, there were two or three other teams that, as you know,

and these are things you know more than I do because you know what other teams he might have been talking to, but he had already been a champion, and everybody, you know, even in Budmore's car, winning Darlington, it was pretty impressive, you know, right out of the box. So, you know, he could have picked a lot of different teams, But at any event, my job at the meeting was to try to bring them together.

Everything I learned from Ronald Reagan about, because there were issues where they had to come together. I think that the respect that your dad had for Richard and the fact that they liked each other, they liked each other and respected each other, it was just a matter of could they convince Rangler that they were going to build a championship team. and I believe that I helped them on that. Richard Childress has said I helped. But look, sometimes when you're just part of something, just to be part, to feel that you were part of bringing them together is a great feeling.

Of course. After Charlotte, Bill France Jr. calls you and says, hey, man, I need you to help me get your team, get going. Richard Petty's going to drive your car. Are you telling me that Richard finished the year driving your car? Or was this, he was going to get in your car in 84? No, 83, the same month that I had the meeting with Richard Childress and your dad, was the same month that I got the call.

The race was Charlotte was October 5th. It was the next week, so it had around 11th or 12th where he called me and Bill France called. And told me about this opportunity. I then came to, I then came down to Charlotte. So I was there, you know, in Charlotte. And so I was, at the same time this was going on with Petty, the Childress. Yeah, you're in that. Yeah.

Because it was all for 84. Now, in 83, he finished out the year with his family. They allowed him to finish the year. And then because there was no way we could gear up in time. So we geared up and we got Robert Yates to build the engines. And that's another story because he was signed to die guard. And they were building Ford's, you know. Yeah.

So getting them to build a ponny. engine was a fascinating thing. But Robert Yates building the engines. Buddy Parrott was incredible. All right, we put this team together operating out of our shop in Canapolis. We built up the shop as much as we could. We bought land, which is where our big building is, where we have our museum and where we have the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. We were trying to build up and trying to get ahead of it, which is hard to do when you start a team in January. In the first race is in Riverside at the end of January. Yeah.

So, but in any event, we did it. And by the time we got to Dover, we won our 199th race. That's right. Okay. All right. So now we're, we're moving on and thinking, oh, my goodness, the 200th victory could happen. Any moment.

And it could happen in my car. Now it's a different thing. The, it's like, all right, how do we, now we were in a position to try to make it happen. So we tried every way. I don't know what more you can do when you have. States building the motors. And at that time, we tried everything under the sun to have our car ready for Daytona. Well, all right, now what happened to Daytona? So I'm in a meeting at the White House. Now I'm living in Washington, D.C., right? With my family. I'm in a meeting. There's seven or eight people, and we would meet periodically with the president to talk about what he would do. And he had appointed me chairman of the RNFC. So that committee raises funds. So I would, all. always want him to make appearances for something that might be good for the fundraising. So I mentioned, why don't, he was looking for something to do on the 4th of July.

I said, why don't we plan an event in maybe we could do a fundraising event in Daytona, but maybe you could come down and just attend the race. He wouldn't? Because he was concerned on that very day. In fact, he ended up canceling the concept of the fundraiser because he wanted to, to lay a wreath at Arlington. The 4th of July, as you know, that race didn't always fall on the 4th of July. That year it did. So he decided that he didn't want to do a fundraising event in Florida, and he decided he didn't want, he wanted to lay a wreath in the morning at Arlington.

So then the question is, what else could he do? So in the meeting, I said, well, what about coming to Daytona? Because then he was, it was 84, he's running for re-election. Daytona was one of the swing states. This year, there were seven swing states. Florida is no longer. longer a swing. But at that time, it was a swing state. So I said, what about if you came to the race? There would be 100,000 people. They all love you, you know. And everybody in the room turned around looked at me like, go into an auto race. So we forgot about it. And about 20 minutes later in the meeting, Ronald Reagan said, you know, I used to do, I used to call sprint car races before I was an actor in Des Moines, in Iowa, and he said, I saw those two guys fighting.

And of course, I knew he was talking about Bobby and Donnie. And, you know, because it was 79 in Daytona. Well, you know Bill France motto. He said, I don't want any fighting of any kind unless it's a week before my race. So he showed that video of Donnie and Bobby and Kale over and over and over, right? So Ronald Reagan had seen it. So he said, I enjoyed that video. He said it sounds like it's a pretty.

exciting sport. I said, well, you should consider it. He said, well, you know, I would consider it. You have 100,000 people. He said, but I would rather not speak. Maybe I could, I said, what if you sat in the booth? You know, Ned Jarrett will be there. He's like the guy next door. And, you know, I could prep you on all the different rate. Obviously, I knew all the car numbers and everything. I could prep you on all that. So anyway, he said, I like the idea. So I went back to my office there. and I called Bill Franz Jr. This time, I said, Bill, are you sitting? Because he said to me.

And he said, Mike, I really under pressure. He said, I can't sit. He said, I said, if you have someone you want to bring, just tell my, let me know. I said, will you sit down? I'm going to tell you who it is. So he said, I'm sitting down. I said, it's Ronald Reagan. He said, oh, I won't repeat the word.

I won't use the four-letter words here. But it was several of them. in succession. And he said, are you serious? I said, Bill, I'm, I've never been more nervous in my life because if you come up and this doesn't work out and you announce it, you're never going to speak to me again. And Bill France said, I'm going to come up there. And what Bill France did, what do you do? He met with security people. He met with, came to Washington. Came to Washington. The next day, he met with the Secret Service. And, you know, he's, I'm sure Jim knows, a different side of the details.

I've talked to Jim France about it, but the most exciting thing was that Bill was just a genius, the same way that I couldn't say no to him, nobody, everybody in Washington loved him. And he put it together. I opened it up, but Bill France put it together logistically and it was himself. But then by then, all Reagan's people got involved,

and Reagan had a lot of good people as well. And so it was quite an exciting thing, but for about two months there, I wasn't sleeping because I was afraid if the president got sick or if there was a security issue or... It just doesn't happen. Who do you bring? I'm sorry we couldn't bring Reagan, but here's who we brought, you know?

So basically it was a scary thing, but it happened. And then when his plane was coming in, it was right over the top of the 43. Yeah, that iconic picture. And, you know, I introduced him you know, I introduced him to Dale. And we got, we snapped a picture. I don't have it, but we, we snapped a picture of Dale.

I was there. Oh, were you in the picture? I don't know. Well, you were in there. I was with y'all. After the race, we all ate Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yeah. Do you remember that? Of course I do.

So when we get talked about this on the show, the race happens. Yeah. Everybody's thrilled. Ritchie Petty is won his 200th win, even me. And I'm not even, I mean, I was a Dale Earnhardt, fan strictly. And but everybody it was everybody was completely completely happy with the end result, right? Usually races are over and everybody leaves. But we were, we're hanging out and a dad changed his clothes and me and Kelly are there and I'm very young, maybe I guess 10 years old at this point,

nine years old. We're like, what are we doing? We're going to eat with the president and we're like, no kidding. So we went over this big, giant tent and it was in the infield and it's a big giant tent at least it felt like it was in the infield and there was box lunches of kentucky fried chicken maybe a thigh maybe a leg bone i don't know but um i remember and i sat down there was these long benches of just folding tables and chairs and cheap you know cheap stuff you'd see at a family reunion and we all sat down and there's richard and there's Ronald Reagan like 10 feet away from me and even at a nine year old I mean I I knew exactly how big that how big of a deal that was and you see I put I arranged for

Bobby to sit next to him Bobby did sit next to him I arranged for that Bobby Bobby Allison said Mike there's one thing in my life yeah that I want more than anything and I said what he said I want to sit next to Ronald Reagan yeah and I said I'll tell you something that may be one thing I can't build you a car, I can't tune your engine, but I think I can arrange for you to sit next to him. Would you be willing to take him around? Just kind of take him around. Richard didn't.

Richard wasn't enough. Well, he didn't want to do that type of thing. You mean, bingo, like introduce. Is that what you mean? Yes. In other words, Richard didn't say he wouldn't do it. Richard, well, first of all, Richard won the race. Yeah.

And so there were all kinds of things going on. Richard had responsibility. Also, Richard was a huge Reagan fan. and Reagan really like Richard. But the problem that Richard had is Richard had taken Reagan around, people are talking to Richard at the same time talking to Reagan, whereas Bobby was in a position to just kind of move him around. So I said, Bobby, if you'll take him around, I'll arrange it,

and then you can sit next to him. And that's how that happened. So that's one thing I did. Very smart. But I'll take credit for that one. I can't take credit for too many other things, but it'll take credit for that one. So this is all, kind of crazy. Crazy to have the stars all aligned for all of that to work out perfectly.

God is, you know, God is in there somewhere. Yeah, for sure. My wife and I are Christians, and we think that God creates those opportunities. It's our job to go in and do it. But we're, I just, there's a sense of miracle in some of these, just the chances of being with Reagan or being with your dad or being with your dad or being with Richard Petty or Bill France. These things, I don't know, I just feel like we're put in those places positions like you

or you're put in the position. But look what you did. Look what you did with the gift that God gave. Look what you've done with it. You know, when you take 88 wins, not even counting chance two, which is another 16, not even counting the 50 victories in Cup and Xfinity, you put all that together. your numbers and your dad's numbers when you add in the car owner

and everything else come out pretty close and you're not trying to you're not trying to one up your dad and that's what's so beautiful but as you have built his legacy you've built your own and I think as I work to build the Reagan's legacy I had

then that opportunity to have maybe my own opportunities in government that maybe someone my age would have never had and I think a lot of it is when you're being around people like Les Rector, Bill France. My father said, I'll know you by the company you keep. Oh, yeah.

And you've seen so many of these people, even people we've talked about today, who are here today, and gone tomorrow. And not that they're bad people, they get in over their heads, they make commitments that they can't follow through with in some cases. And I've never wanted that. I wanted, I'm the same as you. I wanted a marriage that'll last forever. I wanted to have people in my company who have been there 30,

40, 50 years like I wanted to follow what my father said, which I'll know you by the company you keep. If you get to meet Ronald Reagan, that's a good thing in government. If you get to know Dale Earnhardt. Dale didn't, I wasn't as close to Dale as I was to Reagan, but just being around him in the times that I were, he was so focused. I mean, his eyes were so focused. Everything was focused on, if you were talking to him in the pits, he was totally focused on that race and he was thinking of his setup. He wasn't thinking of the people he was talking to. But he's a genius, and he had the genes.

I guess all I'm saying is all these opportunities that you've mentioned, I haven't had anybody do an interview that has gone into all these areas at one time. This has been kind of fascinating for me. But I do think that God has opened up these opportunities for both you and me. And here we are all these years later. I mean, here we are going to a NASCAR banquet winning championships. Yeah. And you've got all these years ahead of you even more after I'm gone, you know.

I have to know. So when all of that said and done, the day for the choice for Ronald to go in the conversation, going back to that meeting that y'all had where you brought up the idea of him attending the race, it's a massive success, right? Does he ever say when it's all said and done, does he call you the next day? Well, yes. More than that, there's a tape that I'm going to leave with you when he was announcing the race. And the 43 car looked like in the final restart, it looked like it had a chance to win.

And Ned Jared said, well, have you picked a favorite? He said, well, I'm kind of a conflict because Mike Kirby and I have done a lot of things together. When he would say things like that, I left you a tape of it because we've never, the children's tape was something he did when I was being, they were honoring me for, we were raising money for mental health.

And we were trying to help some friends. And Richard did a video because they were honoring me, which was the last time because it was, those things, as you know, when people call them want to honor you, it's a nightmare, right? All your friends have to get, but they were doing that and Richard did this video and so he told me I could use it anyway I want to use it but in that video they had a piece of where Reagan was at Daytona calling the race

and he talked about his relationship so those kind of things I think it's better for Reagan to say what he thought of me or but he's done that and but I will tell you this that he treated me like his son. I mean, I mean appointing me to be chairman of California, but later on, I was the national chairman, co-chairman of his presidential campaign. I was the, his chairman for the convention program. He just seemed like he just appoint anything that didn't pay a salary, but he pointed me to all these different things. My wife and I, we were talking about the other day, I said to him just before, you know, when he just was retiring, before he had the issues, the, I, I said, why did you do this?

Why did you, what did you think? Why did you do this? And he said, I trusted you and you never let me down. Damn. And I think you would say this, that if your dad said that to you, which he probably did. That's the best compliments you can get from a guy like that. Right. You don't, you don't expect your dad to say, oh, I like this and I like that and you're the best.

But if your dad said, you know, I'm proud of you. Yeah. And I think he did. He certainly, he certainly said that to me. Yeah. He said that to me in one of the visits I had with him. I said, isn't it amazing with Dale Jones? He said, yeah, I'm really, sound like I'm really proud of him.

Did he say it to you, I hope? Oh, a few times, maybe, yeah, yeah. I knew where he stood for sure. Well, you know, my dad was an FBI agent. He was also not the kind of person to say all kinds of, you know, particularly when you drop out of college or whatever. but but he was um my father at the end of his life was happy with what i had done you know and your dad was like over the edge just you know realizing what would what you've done in your own right so

i really uh thank you for uh inviting me to be part of your podcast i've really had really been and by the way i i can spend more time if you want yeah do you have more questions well i just i'm enjoying this yeah i'll stay all night actually i um you know you you know you I did want to ask you, you know, it's going, you know, fast forwarding from 1984 all the way through the years and here we are today, you've had an incredible amount of success in the music business and that has blossomed and exploded into, compare, you know, from where it began in the 60s to where you are today, it's an incredible accomplishment. and you're still heavily, like heavily involved in motorsport. I see curb on everything. And I guess, you know, what is the, what's the motivation? You could at any moment at your age, say, I'm tired of working.

I'm ready to just do nothing. So what's the motivation to continue? Well, what we're doing right now? or what happened Friday night when we won the truck championship, dominated, you know, almost the entire race, the idea that there's still things to do. But more importantly, all the people around me sort of depend on what I do. Just like think of all the people at JR Motorsports that depend on you having the willingness to keep going.

Yes, yes. I mean, what is this the fourth? I guess if you can't count the true X, it's your fifth championship, right? And so, I mean, basically, and you've been, you've had several others where you were, where you should have won it and deserved to win it. But, I mean, is 88 victories or 88 plus 16, if you count the chance to? When is enough, I don't think it's a matter of numbers for you or for me. It's the idea that I could be Tony Stewart's partner when he started his dirt. contract team and follow it from USAC all the way up to what we're doing with Donny Schott's

25 years later, or Casey Kane just passed his shop here. You know, we started together an open wheel team and now Brad Sweet's won four World of All right championship and now the inaugural High Limit Championship. I don't want to stop doing that. Now if Tony called and said I want to stop. I know he stopped the NASCAR, but he doesn't want to stop the dirt track car, you know, and I think he loves it. But I told Tony, I'll stop when you stop.

Yeah. But unless he calls and says, I want to stop. So I think these long partnerships that we've had, like with Michael Shank and the M-Sachar, it's not just the championships we've won, it's the, just the, I don't know, it's the idea of starting with Michael Shank and then winning three, 24-hour races

with them. The fact that we started and we struggled for so many years, it makes it exciting. You know, so all the teams that I've been involved with, I've been involved with for 20, 25, 30 years. So I don't want to stop unless they want to stop. You know, and if they want to stop, obviously I will. But, you know, why stop? You're not thinking, I'll bet you when you're at my age,

you'll be doing what you're doing right now, particularly if God gives you the health. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. And, you know, if you take care of it, and we're careful of what we eat and everything. But, I mean, you know, you've got to stay out of those private airplanes and stay out of those GT cars, too.

You gave us two real scares there. Those are scary moments. Did that cause you to rethink some things? Yeah, a little bit, not so much. I mean, you know, I don't know. it definitely helped me appreciate life and how fragile it is. What about, I've always loved music. I've always, you know, music is part of every day of my life, everywhere I go.

I prefer to have music playing. I love the exploring. I love the discovery. And it never ends. As long as somebody's making new music, there's always new music to discover. And it just changes, it can change your day, your mood. What do you love about the, and so I say all that because I felt like I used to tell people back in the, you know, 20, 30 years ago that if I hadn't have made it in racing, where would I legitimately have tried to put my efforts?

and that would have probably been in the music business as a scout of sorts. I would have really enjoyed discovery and trying to help artists and connect artists to labels. What about that is exciting? Like you, you're, you know, I'm not sure exactly what your experiences have been like in your life, but when you find something that nobody knows, when you find an artist or a song or a sound that you know is unique and you can't wait to share it with the rest of the world and you know that it's an A plus sound, what is that,

compare that to something. Tell me what that feeling is like when you, when you have that discovery moment and then when it realizes its potential and it is received well by the public. Well, I didn't want to interrupt what you've just said for the last couple of minutes because that's beautiful. It's almost like a testimony of how you might have considered a career in the music business, which is fascinating, because I was going to ask you,

do you play an instrument like piano or guitar? I peddled with the drums years ago, but it never was very successful. I ended up, I quit doing it because everywhere I went, people had asked me to play, and I never thought I was played well enough to jump on a stage. in front of, you know, a couple hundred people or whatever and play a song. But I did enjoy playing the drums. I had a sit in my house and played a lot of, you know, Credits and John Cougar and stuff like that and pretty simple stuff. But, uh... I feel like changing sides with you and interviewing you because this is very exciting

because this is something, I mean, there are a lot, a lot of people watching this and 99% of them are your fans and so they're more interested in what you're saying. I would say to your fans, this is exciting to hear that if you had had another career, you would have considered music, and I would say to you, you don't have to play an

instrument to be in the music business. Some of the very best people who have been with my company for many, many years, 30, 40 years are people who just love music. Now, you mentioned John Cougar, Melanchap. You mentioned Creen's Clearwater

revival. All right. We're talking, of course, 60s, 70s. It's fascinating how similar that music is to what country music is today. I mean, you listen to 70s pop and 60s pop. You listen to, but a good example is your example. You listen to Creedons. Listen to Proud Mary. Tell me how that differs in terms of the feel with today's country. So I would say to you that you could be successful in the music industry. Because as you say, you like music. Finding a talented recording artist is exactly like finding a talented race driver. Where do you find a driver who's young? Where do you find? And if you look at your own company, look at the Noah Gregsons and you look at the drivers over the years, the Truax's, the people that have won championships with you

over the years, Byron, we could name them all, Reddick. You know, we practically named them right there. Chase, you know, Chase Elliott. You take the championships that you've won. In some cases, it's a young guy starting out that you could really identify with, like Chase Elliott, because Chase Elliott is following the Dale Jr. thing. He's got the advantage of the name, but then everybody's expected. him to be Bill Ellie.

Yeah. So he's got the name, but he's got to go double to prove it. Well, you could help build Chase Hill. And you did. And you built him into a driver that had almost as many popular driver awards as you've had. I don't know if we've, how many, I haven't counted all those. I've counted your wins. He's headed there, yeah.

But you're, you know, you knew that there was something special there. Whereas Truex was that blue collar guy like, you know, like Ty is, you know, like Ty Majeski. He was that, you know, with a dad was a different kind of race, just a short, never really got into the big leagues like your dad and Billy. But you take, what you've done with your, with these, every one of your championship drivers, look at Redick. Reddick's dad owned, grandfather owns Broken Bow Records.

Yeah. And when he was just starting out in NASCAR, he had a chance, at North Wilkesboro to get into Kenny Schrader's car for a for a cup no for a North for K&N North race

and they asked me his grandfather asked me if I would facilitate that I said well I don't know Kenny well but if you could get the car I'll sponsor it and they listed me as the owner

that was his first victory I was listed as the owner but all I did was put it together but his grandfather wanted him to be in the music business and he ended up selling his record company for a lot of money and he would have loved for Tyler to have done that but Tyler had a dream to be the next Dale Jr. And he's pulling it off.

Oh yeah. He's pulling it off. And so I guess all I would say is the same gene that you have that has allowed you to discover these young drivers and convince them to join your team and then put a quality product there that they can win championships with, surround them with that

because they can't do that on their own. And you're able to do that for them. That's the music business is the same thing. You find a young, we've got a young driver now, a young recording artist's name, Kelsey Hart. He's got a song called Life with You. And it's kind of how I felt

when I got married years ago, I wanted to do life with my wife. And here's a guy with a song saying, I want to do life with you. And it's connecting, it's already gold and it's not even in the top 30. Or Dylan Scott would be a better example. Dylan, by the way, loves racing.

I don't know if you've followed him. But there's the guy that is, to me, like Tim Dugger, but he's a younger version of Tim Dugger. Dylan Scott, he's exploding on our label right now. And there's no difference in what we're doing with Dylan Scott or what we did with Libreys or what we're doing today or what we did years with Tim McGrath for 23 years. Tim McGrath was with us.

Now, look, Tim McGraw left after 23 years and went with my next-door neighbor, Scott Borchetta, but Tyler Reddick left and went with Childress, right? Yeah. I mean, drivers sometimes... It happens, yeah. You understand it. I mean, in 2008, you made a huge decision to join Hendrick,

and you made the right decision. But another eight, all these eights, but in 2008, you made that choice. Well, you made the right choice. You made the right choice, because he could give you a product that you felt could go take you to the next level. And you felt you could also take him to that level, and he felt that way, and you did.

Well, so I guess all I'm saying is, it's very similar what Rick Hendrick did with you, what you're doing with, what you're doing, what you did with the various drivers I just mentioned, who you won those five championships with, is the same thing I do when I find a young artist like Dylan Scott. I try to put a team around him that can make sure that his records get played on the radio,

and that he gets the opportunities. We put Tim Dugger on the truck that won the championship on the deck later. Yeah, he wanted me to tell you hello. He was really excited about this episode. Well, I love Tim Dugger. And Tim Dugger has built a career around racing. And he's not trying to be Tim McGrath. He's trying to be Tim Dugger.

And, you know, it's like you mentioned Dick Brooks, or you mentioned Richard Childress when he was a driver. Some drivers were content to be to drive. as independents and did it their whole lives. Dave Marcus was, you know, and that, and I remember Bill France Jr. saying we can have super teams, but they're never going to fill the second half of the field. Yeah. The second half of the field has to be those people.

And out of those independents might come the next children's. That's right. But it's hard. Yeah. But it's possible. But, I mean, so I would say to you, you'd be a tough competitor for me. If you went into the music business. Yeah.

So why don't you do it? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Why don't you find an artist? I don't have any experience. I mean, it's like I wouldn't open a restaurant, you know, expecting to be successful if I didn't know how to run a restaurant. But I do feel like that I have, I do feel like when I know when I hear good music and I know when I hear something unique or special. And like I say, I mean, if I had maybe.

committed myself in my early 20s to being a grunt that was out on the beat, going into the clubs and listening to the vans and trying to find something special somewhere in the small towns around the country. That would have been probably a thankless but a very fun, fruitful existence. And maybe that would have turned into something different over time. But I would have enjoyed, like I love the discovery of music. That's the best part about it. Well, you've talked about your love for music and how you could do this and what you've done, obviously, as a car owner and as a driver.

And what you've done on television, what you've done with NBC and what you're doing with the podcast. I would say in many ways, you and I probably have both tried a lot of different things. It's safe to say we've both tried to. The one thing that you and I have in common is we don't give up. And second of all, we've made sure that while others around us have done things that we wouldn't do, and we've seen them make those mistakes, we've tried not to make those mistakes. We've tried not to get in over our heads. Sure.

We've tried not to get in, you said the magic word, that you don't know how to run a restaurant. Well, neither do I. I love to eat at restaurants. I've been trying to lose a little weight. But I've always said I don't want to do something in a field that I don't know. And that's why I've literally studied racing history. I mean, I follow it. I mean, I'm just as excited about Ralph Fernhardt winning the sportsman championship in 1956

as I am about us winning with Thai Majesky in 2024. I love racing history and I love music history. But I wouldn't want to get into a restaurant just for the same reason that you don't want to get into it because it's not our expertise. We're not cooks. We like to eat, but we don't like to be cooks. And chefs, and some of the best restaurants are run by chefs that know how to make special food. But I think the real key is to find something you love, whether it's one thing, two things, or three things.

And if you love being in the music business, find an artist and call me and we'll develop, find a new artist. And with your contacts and mine will develop the artist. All right. If I find somebody, I will. Find the next star. attention. If you don't know how, if you want to open a restaurant but don't know how to run one, you partner with somebody who does. That's an alternate route, which is what I did with the Whiskey Rivers in the airports. I can't thank you enough for coming today and giving me your time.

I have seen your name on the side of that race car that my dad drove in 1980, and I have heard your name thousands of times in conversation with friends through motor sports through music obviously my relationship with tim uh dougar and you have always sort of been in the ecosystem but i've never had the chance to really sit down and talk to you and i'm very thankful that i was given some time today to spend with you and just one-on-one so i could be curious and what a fascinating, fascinating life. You went wherever the wind blew you and you took advantage of all these incredible opportunities and you set in a really cool example for people that have ambition and you made things

possible for yourself and succeeded in so many different areas that are totally unrelated, but at the same time oddly related, from politics to music and motorsports. It's, I've really, really enjoyed this. This was everything and more than I hoped that it would be for this final episode of the season. Mike Kerr, thank you. And thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Yes, sir.

I really enjoyed this. And I have felt the same way, by the way, about you. I mean, partnering. If you want to be in government, partner with Ronald Reagan. If you want to be in racing partner with Dale Earnhardt, with Richard Petty, Richard Childress. You know what I'm saying? if you want to be in whatever the sport in music, partner with Dylan Scott, partner with Lee Bryce,

partner with Tim, partner with someone that you can work with and who can take you to the next level where you can help them, but they can help you. It's like my father said as an FBI agent. He didn't make a lot of money, but he was a very, very good man. and loved our country. And he said, I will know you by the company you keep. I would say you've lived your life that way.

I've tried to live my life that way. And let's both keep partnering in life as long as we have life. That's right, buddy. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Mike Kerb on the Dale Jr. Download. All right. So great conversation with Mike Kerb.

I got to tell you, man. Goodness. The guy, you know, at a very, very young age, doesn't finish college. Writes a jingle, writes another jingle, keeps, you know, creating and builds a business, sells that business to MGM, becomes president of MGM. I mean, we went through it. He has this, just the career in the music industry alone is fascinating. but we didn't get to get that deep into that because

because he had a career as a politician and because he's also had a career in motorsports. One thing we also didn't get to talk about, 2006, he purchased a house in Memphis, Tennessee, which was once owned by Elvis Presley, and they renovated that house and turned it over to the Mike Kerb Institute at Rhodes College. So his charitable initiatives and efforts there

to invest in better his communities all across the country everywhere he's been i don't know the countless things that he's ever you know the dinners and um charitable auctions and dinner you know he's been to probably more than can count uh just fascinating just a fascinating guy listen you know he's uh he gets on and on and goes and goes uh you got to steering back toward the original path, but sometimes just letting him go, he would tell you some really incredible moments and nuggets about different things that happened.

So worth the listen for me. I don't know what you thought, but I certainly enjoyed it. Mike is probably not an entirely familiar name with a lot of our younger fans, but now you may know that there's guys like him in our industry that have left a massive impact. and it's cool to hear their stories and remember the role they played. So pretty awesome. Like I say, I'd seen this guy's name on my dad's car. I did not quite understand it.

I didn't know why it wasn't curb records. I always wondered why just his name. I always wondered how the Hodgton got on the hood. It was over here with Bud Moore. here. He really put all that together for me. Help me understand. I really didn't know how all that stuff

kind of coexisted and why he couldn't have Curb records. If Curb records existed back then or whatever whether he was the president of the MGM, I don't know. But he explains why he couldn't put any of those businesses on the side of the car back then and pretty interesting to just have Mike Curbs' production. on the car.

But just crazy, cool, fun. I was glad I got to talk to him about music and always had a little dream in the back of my mind of what it might have been like to have pursued a life or career in the music industry on the business side of it, on the discovery side of it. That would have been a lot of fun, a lot of challenges, not always fun, but rewarding.

and so I'm curious to know more about that, so that was fun to discuss it. I feel like this was a home run. I feel like this is everything I hoped it would be. We end the season strong with our ally guest segments, and we want to thank Ally for everything they do. They've supported us so incredibly all year long. They're a partner of mine,

and I feel every time I see that commercial during the broadcasts where we talk about saving money, and I'm honored that they asked me to do that. So I'm thankful that they invest in our industry, sponsoring Bowman full-time, and they help keep NASCAR moving. A lot of people do, but they're one of those businesses

that help keep NASCAR moving down the road, and they certainly support us well here. So thank you, Ally, and can't wait to see what we do next or what the future looks like for us as partners. But it's been a good, good season with all these guests that we've had this year. All right, it's time for the white flag this Wednesday, as we mentioned yesterday on the white flag. Dropping every Sunday after every race new this year for Dirtymo Media was the Tear Down.

What an incredible show. Thank you, Jeff Gluck. Thank you, Jordan Bianchi, for being a partner with us. Thank you for trusting us with your property. Thank you for allowing us to showcase incredible work that you both do and allowing us to show that to more people in our industry. And I was so excited when I learned that we were going to be able to have the tear down on our channels. I remember I was going to like Disney on Ice out in Durham in North Carolina.

and I called Jeff and text Jordan. I said, hey, I am so excited about this. We're going to have a lot of fun. It has been fun. They do an incredible job. They add legitimacy to Dirty Mo Media. So thank you for all the work that you've done this year. Their show dropped this past Sunday after the race.

Their reaction to the championship final weekend and championship winner. winner, Joey Lugano. Dropping Monday was door bumper clear with Joel Edmonds and T.J. was on that show. Those guys will have one more episode this year. They're going to do a Christmas episode, I think. So keep your eyes and ears open. Follow all of our social handles to keep up to date because we're going to create a lot of content this offseason. Usually this is it. This is the show. We shut down. We take the rest of the winter off.

Not this year. This year, we're coming back into the studio multiple times. I'm going to do several more Dale Jr. downloads. Amy's going to be a part of some of those. We're going to have some fun this offseason. I've been looking forward to this. I've been telling Mike forever that we need to keep going. I don't know why we stop.

So we'll see how it goes. Yesterday, the Dirty Air Show, me and T.J. and the gang, we recapped Phoenix. And then Actions Determinal with Denny Hamlin came out as well on Tuesday. We'll give Denny a break. Dude has been on it all year, doing an incredible job with actions detrimental. How lucky are we to have a driver

currently in the middle, in the mix, battling, trying to win championships, trying to win races, coming home immediately, sitting down and giving us his interpretation of the weekend. We're lucky. Thank you, Denny Hamlin.

Thank you for everyone who works on actions, detrimental for the incredible content that y'all created this year. That was a lot of fun. Dropping today, Speech Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden. All right, so you want to listen to that episode as well. Thank you, Connor, again, for teaming up, for trusting Dirtymo Media over the last couple of years. We've loved him being part of the team. This is the coolest dude.

Everybody knows Connor's cool. I'm not telling you nothing new. but this year we brought in Chase Holden and we were looking for whatever that ingredient was that was going to be the missing component for Connor Daly and Speed Street and Chase has filled

that void. He's filled that role perfectly. I think they really work well together. Chase knows what he's talking about. He's a big fan of motorsports and always comes with some great, great input. Dropping tomorrow

we'll have DJD reloaded. This is different this week. DJD Reloaded's been awesome this year every Thursday been kicking ass with that show but this week's going to be a little different. This will be the first episode of Herman Schrader our new show with Kenny Wallace

and Kenny Schrader. All right, that'll be the Thursday episode of Reloaded, DJD Reloaded. So you'll want to tune in for that. You don't want to miss the first one. This is going to be an epic series with the two Kenny. So you don't want to miss the very first one.

Everybody's been waiting on this. Clock is ticking. There's a clock somewhere in the corner, counting down to the moment that show starts. It's been a fun week. Again, I say, we're not done. We're going to have more content. But it's been a fun day.

But I'm going to wrap it up. I'll see you all later. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.