The Dale Jr. Download - Dale Jr Career Classic: the 2001 Dover “9/11” Victory With #8 Bud Team

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

September 11, 2001, was a day that changed our country forever. Less than two weeks after the tragedy, NASCAR returned to the track, offering a brief escape, a sense of unity, and something to cheer for during a time of overwhelming grief and uncertainty. This week on DJD Reloaded, we’re taking you back to that unforgettable race. We’ll be joined by the people there – two of the men who helped Dale Jr. capture that emotional victory. It’s a Throwback Thursday you won’t want to miss. This is the story of a race that meant more than just points, more than just a trophy, and will be forever remembered as a race that brought fans together. Hear DEI No. 8 Bud team members Jeff Clark and Joey Meier talk about that iconic race, with stories leading up to and following the race that you’ve never heard before. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Do you remember Dover? 2001, the first race back after 9-11, and one of Dell Jr.'s most iconic wins. We love taking a look back at classic races on DJD Reloaded. And this one, this week, it just feels right. So we're going to take a look back at that race with two members from that Bud 8 crew and Joey Meyer and Jeff Clark. We'll talk with them all about the race and those memories that they remember. It's a throwback Thursday you do not want to miss where the story of the race. And this one was more than just the points.

and more than just a trophy. DJD Reloaded starts now. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Welcome into another episode of DJD Reloaded. We were going to do something different. No idea that a tradition was going to be started. The racing world is Connor Zillard's oyster. Is he truly the next NASCAR prodigy?

Hey, you did a cartwheel down the stands. Holding your cooler, your arm never bent. It was like watching an Olympian at its in its pod. Welcome into another episode of DJD Reloaded. I'm your host, Carla Gebhard. And like we've already said, this is kind of a throwback Thursday edition, taking a look back at that 2001 Dover win by Dale Earnhardt Jr. And I'm joined in studio right now by two of the Bud Crew eight members.

And we've got Jeff Clark and Joey Meyer. And you guys are friends. You keep up with each other weekly, right? Joey, you were kind of telling me, you don't live far from each other. You meet for lunch twice every. We live right around the corner from each other. Yeah. And it just so happens.

Our paths crossed early on in our career. And for whatever unique reason, Jeff and I have always kept in contact. There's probably two or three of us that have that kind of relationship. And the texts go constantly. We're always talking. You know, we've gone in way different directions since we left DEI, but we've always stayed inside the racing business. And family has been, it's the way it was and it's the way it still is with a handful of us. And Jeff and I, we do.

We spend a lot of time talking BS and back and forth, grabbing lunch in Mooresville. You know, it's a small town, so it makes it real simple. So let's go ahead and mention kind of what you do currently. And Jeff, we'll start with you. And then what your role was with the A crew back then. Sure. So my current role is VP of Sales with Rouse Yates manufacturing solutions right around the corner here. And our business is very diverse.

It's anything from aerospace manufacturing for components to space and satellites. and most relative to what we do here is a lot of the next-gen car components we do up there and been very involved with that from my background in motorsports and racing and all the way back to working on the bud team as an engine specialist. Joey was our pilot and my assistant under the hood on engine needs and requirements and that's pretty much how our relationship started. One, we had the safest pilot to date in all of NASCAR and well it really felt comfortable flying with that and then under the hood really had a lot of confidence in Joey's mechanical skills and what he would do to help me on engine prep getting ready for each race. Joey.

You know, it's so funny because everybody needed a specialty to get into the garage. And because we were all mechanics, we'd all been our own race cars, but you had to have that thing that got you in it. Well, flying was what got me to the track. And from day one, I was volunteering my time. And you kind of build the trust. and Jeff Clark and I worked together long enough that eventually we had a routine, whether it was the top of the engine, bottom of the engine, changing valve springs, race prep, whatever it was, we just worked together as a team.

And he used to get kidded all the time. And it kind of dug at me a little bit. He's like, what are you doing letting the pilot work on the engine, right? Well, I was thinking it the other way. If the motor guy was your pilot, people would be going to him going, man, that's the coolest thing in the world. You get to work on the engine and fly the airplane. But it didn't work out that way. So we've always had that relationship.

Currently, I'm still flying in the NASCAR industry. I call Dale Jr. and Amy, my boss. I'm not sure which one's my boss and which one I fly more, but I'm currently still there. I've been doing that for over 25 years now. And we're talking a little bit about this 2001 season, right? I mean, historically that season, just monumental in NASCAR when you're looking at it. But specifically, this Dover race, I know fans are really familiar with this moment

and just kind of the meaning behind it, right? It was more than just a race. You think back to after 9-11 and just the impact that sports had across the country and bringing people together. That was definitely the case with the Dover race when Del Earnhardt Jr. won. And one of the moments that really sticks out to a lot of fans is actually the Wilson ball that's sitting between the two of you right now. This thing was in his car. It was, you know, they called it a passenger, right? In his car, he had no idea that it was there and it was kind of an inside joke from the team.

So which one of you, like where did this originate to put this ball inside of his car? Yeah, so Dale Jr. would get communication on the radio a lot of times. And obviously Tony Jr. pops, you know, Tony Sr. would talk to him. And sometimes they wouldn't talk to him. And he'd get a little frustrated and say, hey, guys, I feel like, you know, Tom Hanks out on a deserted island. You know, where are you at? Help me out. I need some info. So taking a little bit of that, spinning it up, we had a really good crew. I think B. Hoover and Brian Cramm, if you guys got some ideas.

Tom Ryan were a part of it, got the volleyball that Tom Hanks had, the Wilson, right? That character. And dressed it up, put it in the car, and during the race, mentioned it, hey, Wilson's in the car with you. If you get lonely and you talk to Wilson. And he's like, what are you guys talking about? And he started reaching around and felt it. And I think some of the camera footage actually panned in on it during the race. So then the whole culmination of winning the race, Joy putting the flag in the window, that

famous victory lap that Dale Jr. took, the fans, Channing, USA. You just, you can't imagine the energy from that win. And it is so exciting. And there's a lot of history before that. We were testing at Kansas during the actual event going down and having to drive home because air travel was grounded. We had to all rent minivans, the whole team, and drive from Kansas Speedway back. And a lot of bonding happened during that and a lot of thinking, you know, what happened to our country, what's going on. So a lot of buildup to that race win and such a special win. And I was going to say you were talking about this a little bit before we started on the show about the week leading up to 9-11.

It was pretty crazy for you. So we were. We were in Kansas testing. We'd flown, you know, we had a 30 passenger plane that we flew out to Kansas. Never made a lap. We were in the garage getting everything warmed up. And somebody ran out and said, hey, Joey, you're not going to believe, but some dummy just ran into the building, right? Not knowing the catastrophic event that we were getting ready to witness.

So we all piled into the hauler to make fun of this one guy that hit the buildings and the rest of history. So we were enamored with what was going on for two, three, four days. And as Jeff mentioned, the industry of aviation had shut down completely. You were not taking off no matter who you were, how you were. And we sat there for two days and then finally drove home. And then a week later on the way back to pick up that airplane. A little unknown story is we hopped on one of our 10 passenger airplanes to, to take some team members up to Indy.

We used to do a seven post test up in Indy, and we were going to drop them off, and then they were going to run myself and the flight crew over to pick up the other airplane in Kansas. What landed short in Indy, we took out all the approach lights and just about wiped the entire airplane out. So we went from 9-11 to an airplane wreck

to picking up our airplane to going back to Dover. So it was very, very emotional roller coaster going up and down. But as Jeff mentioned, the intensity of that race, it's something you'll never, ever forget it when you were there, and the emotional support that we had from every single person in the stands was undocumented. It's just amazing.

When you go back and look at that race, you see the crowd and just the energy, all of the American flags. I think when you listen to Dale Jr. talk about this race, he says, you know, it was that moment of we could go back and go back to normal. It's like you were given that permission to do that, and that's kind of what sports did for a lot of people across the country. but I mean, that just gives me chills even talking about it. Yeah, I agree. The ability to come back and bring such a message and be a part of it, right? You know, someone was going to win that race, but very special in the height of Dale Jr.'s popularity, the excitement about him as just a competitor every week, but to bring that win home and in front of that crowd,

it's something you never forget to get goosebumps now just talking about it. Yeah, seven months earlier as a company, we went through a huge. loss, right? Right. And in July, went down to Daytona and won that race. And that was a healing moment as a company, right? There were 300, 400 people there that that we bonded together as a team and said, we're going to be okay. Well, what 9-11, what that race in Dover did was as a country, we carried that in my opinion to say, we're going to be okay. We're going to get through this. And you felt like you went from a company in July with 400 people to the entire country at one time in my memory I can't remember the country being on one side of one event

and being such a special event to take that under your arm and go we're going to be okay and it happened to be with dale junior yeah and I'm just kind of curious because we were talking about the Wilson ball earlier you know that was the the moment that you decided to do that did anything about that decision to put it in his car to maybe just kind of lighten the the week like what kind of What was the meaning behind that? Because, you know, that's kind of a separate gesture from the mood of the week, I would think. Yeah, I think there was a lot of that, trying to lighten the things that we're dealing with, thinking about. You know, like I said, we just took a big van ride back home from a test and a lot of thoughts going on and what the country was going through.

And as we rode across country, it was, there was not another car on the highway. It was an eerie feeling. So to lighten things up, this helped tremendously, not only for us, but for the fans, everybody that bought into it, loved it. thought it was really cool that we did this gesture and everybody could relate to that movie. You know, the history of Tom Hanks, all these great movies he's done. But that was a really nice iconic movie. And to tie Dale Jr. to that and this moment of having a Wilson riding with him, it definitely lightened it. One of the things you noticed, too, is that during the race, and I keep what, it's amazing to me how the race wasn't prepared like you knew you were going to win it.

Like we weren't in that state of mind in 2001 yet that we wanted to win. Right. Right. But we weren't expecting to win every race. And at the end of the race, when that caution comes out and they interviewed Tony Senior on the box, he was visibly nervous. He was, he was wired to say, I don't know if we can win this race. He just, he was able to go away and, you know, get away from Jerry Nade doing them guys. But it wasn't the arrogance that the team had.

It was, we had confidence in ourselves, but we weren't at that point in our careers yet to go, when we weren't going to kick. everybody's butt. Right. And that's what the excitement was we can still do this, but we weren't sure of ourselves. And the other thing was interesting, too, from the American flag standpoint, was they were lined up on pit road before the race. You know, and that just happened to be one of those random things, kind of like Wilson being in the car. We didn't think about it having a purpose. We just did it because it was fun. And then all those flags on pit road just happened to be there. You know, and that was just a nice tribute to that moment. Before we get any further into, to that and we're talking about Dell Jr. winning that race and then, you know, taking the victory

lap around the track with the American flag holding onto that. Let's go ahead and listen to his kind of in-car audio from that moment of when he kind of asked for it and then we'll come back out and talk a little bit more about that. Hey, where's that big American flag in? And you were the one. Yeah. So they were tie-wrapped to the pit boxes and I was sitting to the turn one side of Tony Sr. Tony Jr. was to his right. And we were all on our way to Victory Lane. And I just reached up and side-cutted the American flag. And we were all marching, if you will, to Victory Lane to meet him. Well, all of a sudden, he now wants the flag, which, you know, I was working with Brad for a while. We did that for every race for Brad. But this was before that. And all of a

sudden, now I'm jumping over the guardrail with this flag. And it was just one of those random things. He wanted to carry the flag because he knew, understood the importance of it. We jammed it in the window and of course he did his lap around the track. I know. I think I read somewhere that you cut it down and I was wondering like, okay, if they're all lined up, how did you get, how did you get it down? So it was just great. Yeah, we had a tire wrap to the side of the box, so our pit box. You know, and the pit box is back in 2001. We're a little bit smaller than we have now, so it was kind of easy. In fact, I was sitting on the side of the pit box and he just took some side cutters and cut it off. We were all going to victory lane, and it just happened to be that he wanted the flag and the rest is history.

When you see that picture, and I know Dirty Mo Media posted that on 9-11, I have. a lot of kind of fan engagement to just fans, I think, remembering that moment, right? Just an iconic thing to remember. What kind of emotion comes to mind when you see a picture like that? There's 140,000 plus people and every single person was on the same side. They all had their favorite drivers. They all had their favorite politics. They all had their favorite colors, whatever the case may be.

But every single one of those people in the stands, and you felt the raw emotion and again, the relief of, we're going to be okay. Like, you just felt like you had cured something. And every time I go back, again, it's an emotional day for myself.

I'm proud to be a part of it, but a minuscule part of it, but it's the intensity of that race, post race was, second to none. I mean, it was bigger. I actually believe it was bigger than after Daytona. It was.

It was a national, you know, issue that happened. It was a tragedy. And a lot of the emotions and the reeling and are we going to war? What if? What's going to happen? And it put that on pause for a minute. And Dale Jr's thinking, and his passion, as you all know, he's one of the most passionate guys about everything, his family, his friends, to give that back. And a lot of the times with our sponsor, we would host soldiers at the racetrack. We would do a lot of special events. Dale Jr. has always been very active in that area. and to do that and have that patriotism stance is just overwhelming for the fans for us as individuals like I said still get goosebumps today thinking about it do you what do you remember about the

celebration I'm sure there was excitement but also probably a little hesitancy I would assume of like how you're going to celebrate and you can kind of see the videos in victory lane and just the the relief, I think, of the win for you, but what was that like? Yeah, I'd say most of the time of Victory Lane, we were pretty quiet and humble. That one, we were wound up. You heard a lot of the chanting and, you know, a lot of the military like, go, go, go kind of thing in their little huddle there, Dale Jr. jumping off the car into the crowd. It just, the energy was on 10.

You're excited about a race win all the time. That's what you're there for, right? but to do it with the culmination of all the events of the country on your shoulders and to be able to give that back, it's just amazing. Still, like I said, amazing to look back on it and think we help the country do something in our little space that we work in. Made you feel like you're giving back. It was one of the first events that was televised, you know, post-9-11. And it's a couple times that NASCAR has been involved in being the first sport back, right?

So you took a lot of pride in the fact that you were the first sport back when the race started. But then as the race went on and you're like, man, there's only a couple cars leading all these races or these laps. We have a good chance to win this thing. And you wanted to be the person to pull that string and get that checker flag. Does anybody know what happened to the flag after? I do not. That's a good question. No, I do not.

Maybe somebody out there that's listening right now has the answer to that. Would you like to know where it is? Yeah. Absolutely. I'm sure one of our guys, we had a really good. group that would, you know, always ask Dale Jr. first. Hey, this is something, Victor Lane, can someone have it? We were always very good. Dale Jr. is always so generous to let us have pieces of that, those wins, that history. Yeah, I think someone has it,

and hopefully we'll hear where it's at. Yeah. Learn more. Yeah, over 20 years later, does the moment feel bigger now, or did it feel bigger than when you reflect on it? That's a great question. You know, I, if I sat and talked about it for 30 more seconds, I'd tear up. So I still have an emotion referencing that race, that event, because there's so many pride reasons to be happy, right? Not just for DEI at the time or Dale Jr. in that team in the country in 9-11, but to be a part of a historical moment that wasn't planned, right?

We didn't act it out. It was just spontaneous in the moment. But when you were there, you know, I have always said this about that time back in the day. people referenced like I did back in the day. Well, we all knew, every single person at the time knew we were living a special moment. So to be a part of it back then in 2001 with what we'd gone from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, I don't know if I could ever replace that, but like you say, it gets the hair on your arms raised and the goosebumps when you talk about it just to be a part of it. Yeah, I agree.

I think it's both. I think the moment was so incredible because the emotion was wrong, right? It just happened. But as the years have gone, to look back on it and then really realize how special that was, it grows and it builds as we go. But there was no bigger moment than right then and there. How often do you two talk about maybe that 2001 season? Is it as often as you might think or not really?

No, I don't think we reference a specific season. Yeah. I don't think we just a crew. Yeah, just the memories of different goof. goofy things. You know, you spend so much time on the road together. You know, at times, you're with your crew member guys more than you all your own family. And so you just reference different things, not maybe a specific time at 2001. But, you know, we were together 15, 20 years. You know, the other thing that really comes to mind, and this is another really, really good memory,

to follow that up, Dale Jr. organized an event in New York with New York Fire Department, New York Police Department. We trained their police department. They both have athletic teams to play a lot of sports. We brought them DEI, trained them how to do a pit stop. And then we had a pit competition

on, you know, Broadway. They're right in front of Macy's department store. Wow. Like where the parade goes down. And we let the police department have their pit stop. Then the fire department did theirs. And then we did ours, full dress, fire suits, and everything.

But going up there for that event, Joey flying us in got clearance to go down the Hudson. and flying, I don't know what the altitude was, but low, low, low that you could never do today. And that memory of seeing the buildings, a lot of us had never been in that environment, but to see the skyscrapers, all the buildings, and to go down the Hudson, and then we got tours of ground zero. We went down on site, got to see it and feel it. So those are the things in the follow-up that really make it realize how important it was to be a part of that. What we did was such a great thing.

in that heyday of sponsorship and support, just great memories. I think what happens is you'll see something on social media. And then we'll fire a text back and forth. You remember that or some other comments come up or someone has something, a memorabilia piece from that event. They'll take a picture and personally and privately we'll share that stuff. But it's really neat to have that history. Who are some of the other guys on that 18?

B. Hoover. B. Hoover. He's up in, he's up in RCR. You know, unfortunately, through time, we've actually lost a couple of guys. They've passed away. You know, and that's when you realize, like, geez, we've been into sport a long time. You know, Randy, you know, Fabio, he's still around a little bit. Randy Cox, Tom Ryan.

Tom Ryan, still over at Hendrick. You know, of course, I say Tony Senior and Tony Jr. We see them quite a bit over at the late model stuff. So, again, the core group of guys are still around. And it's, again, we talk a handful of times to everybody. Brian Cram, Steve Mill was a big part of our day back then. There was a lot that went into a tie Norris, obviously. Saw Thai last week.

Yeah. So there's a lot of us that have that bond that we still talk or we see each on the garage and always remember that time. That was a really special time in the sport in general, but that was a special team because of the Earnhardt family, because of Dale Jr. He made it special. And then those types of wins that just cement those emotions.

and that bond will be there forever. You mentioned being humble in Victory Lane or most of the time that that was the case for the eight crew. I'm curious, though, if you had a word to describe the eight crew, really just during that time period, what would be the word that you would use? I'm either going to use motivated or dedicated. The load that Dale Jr. carried in 2001

was insurmountable by, anybody else going what he went from the beginning of the year through the July race through the September race. The load that he carried was amazing. But the team was dedicated. The amount of work that they went into, and other teams worked hard. I'm not taking anything away from them. But there was a mission to prove that they belonged because this was only their second year, right, in the series.

And now it was starting to revolve a run. the Dale Jr. driver, right? Not just the persona and the sponsorship, but now it was important to make sure that the industry knew he belonged, and then the team behind him belonged. And so dedicated or motivated were the two that I would think of. Yeah, I agree.

I think, you know, obviously Dale Sr. Teresa, the legendary team they built. But this was Dale Jr.'s moment. Coming off two Exfinity championships, we want to make sure people knew that he deserved to be there. The extra effort, I remember nights after wrecking at some tracks in our rookie year.

And again, a very successful rookie year with two points wins and the all-star race as a rookie is just amazing to think someone could do that. But on some of the downsides, we have wrecks. We'd go right home to the race shop and we'd work all night to get the cars ready for that week because Dale Jr. felt that was a car he wanted to take. And Tony Senior, Tony Jr. led the crowd and we would turn that car around and have it ready for the next week. So that's the dedication side. The commitment from him, never seen that in a lot of drivers I'd work with prior, and I'd worked with some pretty good names between Davy Allison, Ernie Irvin, Rusty Wallace. But then coming there to work with Dale Jr., he proved it every week.

He was there. He was all in. Got a lot of people who would say, oh, he was into the fun side of it. Now, we had a mentality of work hard, play hard. And back then, that's how we ran. But we got our work done first. The dedication was set. And then we earned the fun.

And that was more fun because you worked hard to get there. And not to mention everything he was going through that season, everything y'all were going through that season as well. We're talking about the Bud 8 crew team and the Dirty Mo. Media crew has set out a lot of the memorabilia right here. We have some of it from that season and just that time when he was in the 8 car. Is there a favorite piece of memorabilia that you have from maybe the 2001 season or just from that time period?

The baseball car to me will always be the car. I got my start in spotting at speedway races. We always used to use two spotters at speedway races, and it just so happened that I was spotting the backstretch. Ty Norris was our primary spotter, spotting the front stretch, but with the baseball car, getting back to Victory Lane,

when it happened, where it happened, and how it happened, that one car, because our car, man, our cars were beautiful back then, those red and black stripes, but the baseball car was just so different. It just sticks out in my mind as one of my favorite. Yeah, I think that Daytona win there, and then this one right here with the car and the flag. And Joey, you brought that in. Yeah. I think we all have one of these. Yeah. That's a pretty big deal. And I've got one where the car's actually going across the, like the Ellen Quicki reverse lap, victory lap, where it's going across start, finish line, flag, flag out.

And that's those two memories. So we're going to continue on talking about this 2001 season. And we've got a little trivia game. It's nothing too difficult, but to jog a little bit of your memory from moments of that season. And so a pretty easy one to start us off. But how many wins did Dell Jr. have in 2001? Four?

I want to say four. Close. Are you going to go higher or lower? I'm going to have to go lower. Yeah, I would say four or three. Maybe we're just ambitious with four. It was three. Three, yeah.

Yeah. So Daytona, Dover, and then Talladega. Okay. Anything. Jump out of you at one of those races, the Degger race? Was the Talladega race a noble race? The Talladega race? Yeah.

Was it a no-ball race back then? I'm not sure. But those are the race. We did really well the no-ball races for a long time. We had a lot of noble races. Yeah. So some things that stand out. we, and a good and a bad.

So there were a lot of innovations going on back then in cars, and they were challenging our win at one of the Talladegas, and they pulled our car. We started tear down. Yeah. Carbators off are going ready to start or tear down. And they come in and told us to close the hood, we're going through the height sticks again.

And we're like, oh, my God. So the area they were looking at was questionable, but it was good. But to make the point and set the president, don't go there anymore, us on one of those kept the win but what the interesting thing is when we're doing our tear down we have a notebook we're doing all our tear down notes well they had taken the restrictor plate off for that race and put them a notebook and they closed my book up and threw it on the counter

because NASCAR came in like the army was going to take our car well after we got everything calm down we get on the airplane to go home I'm doing some post-write notes and open my notebook and Dale junior always sat beside me there's this plate and you didn't take that plate out of the garage back then. He looked at me like, what are you going to do with that? I said, well, you're going to sign it first. And then, so he signed it in the airplane. And then I went in, I went on, went back to the track next week. I said, hey, that plate, they said, you guys just keep that. So I offered it to Dale Jr. He said, no, you're the engine guy. You keep it. So I still have it? So I still have it in my personal trophy case at home. And again, that was, that was one thing that a lot of good came out

of it. But the whole history of Dale Jr. at Talladega, I mean, to hear that crowd, that was, that was that was big right um the wins the consecutive wins and then we didn't get a little we our confidence showed a little bit because after we get our car in line for inspection we'd start setting up for tear down and everybody in the garage like man these guys already ready to tear down like they're going to win the race and we we went there with that mindset and then if we didn't win we could pack it all up but we want to be ready and that was where that team was really evolving and getting better and better as he was getting better and it was fun to be a part of that And Daytona earlier that year.

That's, again, that's just an amazing to listen. We had a late caution in that race, and they pitted him, and we were in the back a little bit, seventh, eighth, somewhere in the restart, and he had no confidence in the ability of that car or himself, and a couple of us got on the radio and just said, look, we're going to win this race. And then, of course, he drove to the front and we want it. And, again, it's just an amazing event that allowed us to rip the scabre, off from DEI at Highway 3 for that moment and allowed us to say we're here, we're here to stay. I was also just told that Degger Race was a no-boat race.

Okay, there you go. Next question. Dale Jr. was on the poll at two races in 2001. Do you remember which ones? Oh, my goodness. Michigan was one of them. No? No. That was maybe that was the year before. I've got a really nice picture of the poll. Okay. The record track record admission, so I may have my ears wrong. Wow. I feel bad. No, that's okay. 2001, Texas. Do you remember anything about Texas? And Atlanta. Wow. Yeah. That's awesome. No, those are memories. That's a long time. No, I couldn't remember because he's not, go back and look at his career. He wasn't the actual qualifying king.

Right. You know, so we must have had really, really good cars. There was one driver injured during the race at Dover back in 2001, and they had to go to the hospital during the race. Do you remember who that was? Oh, my goodness. Back then, the crossover was not built. So I remember that ambulance pulling out. I do not remember. No.

No idea. Jeremy Mayfield. Okay. Oh, goodness. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Who was second at Dover?

over that year. Jerry, they do. Yep. They do. That's a quick one. Yep. Ricky Rudd also led 169 laps. Spun out lead, I believe.

So there's a classic battle between Dale Jr. and Ricky Rudd. And it was like they had a short one car in about 40 laps in. We would take it over. And he was gone. Yeah. And that was so cool. Yeah.

Rud finished third in that race. Some people, obviously, they waved the checker flag. Do you remember them waving the American flag? No, I didn't realize they waived it for the end of the race. I was too involved in what we were doing at the time. I had no idea. I remember him showing off a little bit coming off a four, and I was like, don't show off too much.

Cross that line, because he turned it sideways a little bit, coming off a four for the victory. Was it like a six-second lead? It was at one point in the race. He won it by quite a bit. Yeah, we only had a handful of laps left after the restart, And again, they interviewed Tony Senior, and he was very nervous and being able to hold those guys off and there wasn't a problem. But yeah, we were instantly three or four seconds ahead of those guys.

It was really, really fast at the end of the race. Yeah, we had a long run car. It would set sail out about 40 laps. Just had to be patient, let tires come up. And that wasn't usually characteristic of Dale Jr. be patient at Dover. A lot of times you'd hear them bouncing on basketballs. We've got to get this thing into the track. And so for some reason, it just, it all fell in place.

I know we're going to wrap it up here in a minute and let you get back to your day jobs. But is there anything else about that season or just the eight crew that fans don't know from that time period at all? You know, 2001, if there was ever any season of any race team that went up and down, that was the season, right? Clearly, the beginning of the year, you don't even know the Monday after the Daytona 500, Teresa comes in and goes, we're going to continue. this and you get all ramped up and you're going to continue, but you don't know if you can because the physical leader of your team is no longer there. So then you start racing and of course we win the next race, Rockingham, right, with Steve. We run the race at Daytona in July. It's that one year, you climbed a hill that some people didn't think was going to happen

and you look back now and you don't realize how monumental that entire year was. Like 2001, there was a lot of things happening in 2001 because we ended up racing Thanksgiving weekend. Right. Because the race got moved. And so it wasn't just one event, right? There were multiple things going around that year that when you look back at 2001, you're like, I'm so proud, but I can't believe we got through this year. as good as shape as we did. Yeah, and everything happening for a reason. So, you know,

Michael wins the 500. Steve wins Rockingham. We were set to win Vegas, and we had a miscue in the pits, and Harvick wins. And that was meant to be. Those guys needed some healing too. And then our win came at Daytona. So it was really neat when you think back about it. Yeah, we were mad. We blew Vegas on a pick deal in the pits. Us guys made a miscue on some fuel stuff. So, yeah, we should have won the race, but then you realize later, no, that was the right thing that happened with the 29 win and Kevin, RCR needing that healing too. And then our night came. I think the biggest thing about the Daytona win was the celebration out in the grass because before that, besides Dale Sr. doing his burnouts in the grass, you didn't go out there. Yeah. And Michael and Dale Jr.

pulling down there and our whole company going out there for our celebration, our company celebration, that's a good memory. There weren't many women. There weren't many. wins where other race members from other race teams were happy for you, right? Everybody was happy when Harvick won Atlanta. Everybody was happy, you know, when Dale won July. And everybody was happy when Dale won Dover. It just happened to be those races because they were all monumental. They meant something to somebody and somebody was everybody at that time.

Yeah, and we kind of started this conversation talking about that win at Dover. And obviously that moment in history, you know, forever changed the history of America. just a lot of people and how they approach their daily life. That 2001 season, though, I have to imagine, that was pretty heavy to carry. And so what is something, did that change you? Like, are you still carrying something from that season? Just perspective maybe on life? I mean, I know 9-11 in general is that for many people across the country,

but for that season, there was even more. In aviation, there were rules that temporarily were changed in 2001. that are still today. So that was a huge, the industry took a huge turn from a security standpoint, from a procedure standpoint, that every day that I fly,

we still deal with things that were implemented post 9-11. So we do that every day. Yeah, I think the other thing is the involvement with the U.S. military. My generation, we grew up with, you know, a lot of things going on with the Persian Gulf.

You know, a lot of my generation was going off to war in fighting battles. And so our involvement was always, you know, noticed, but it certainly got heightened at that point. And the fact that we did everything we could, the music industry was big on it. You think about Toby Keith and all the things he was doing. Later in that year, a few years later, we got to meet him with some events out in Sturgis, South Dakota, through the brand with Anizer Bush.

And tying that all together was just amazing, just the patriotism and the involvement with our U.S. soldiers, the men and the men and the brand. women that keep this country safe. Yeah, love all of that. And we appreciate y'all coming on and kind of sharing and reminiscing on that season and on that moment. Thanks so much. We really appreciate it. I appreciate it.

Appreciate us. Yeah. Thank you. And once again, we just really appreciate Joey and Jeff for coming on. Just some great stories shared there. But now it's time to bring in their former driver. It's this week's Asch Junior segment. That's next. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr., and we're live here on YouTube. Dirty Mo Media.

Thanks for joining us today. This is the Ask Junior segment of the Dale Junior download. We've had a fun show this Tuesday. We're talking about Atlanta, and we're talking about charters, and we're telling some fun jokes. But it's been a fun show. We had Joe Lugano call in and talk about Larson's Crash and Denny's approach, his strategy for his race.

And, yeah, it's been good. So you guys have put some questions together for this Asch Jr. Amy was here last week. She had a lot of fun. I wanted y'all to know that she really enjoyed the show. And so she'll be back at the first of the month for every month for the Dale Jr. download this year, next year. And she's enjoying that. So thank y'all for being great to her.

I saw all the comments on social media that you guys had out there. But let's get right to the question. This first question coming from Facebook, it's from Tiffany, but I think someone in this room could benefit from it even more. she wants to know what's one piece of wedding advice you can offer to a couple getting married soon Dalton you've got your wedding this weekend this Saturday oh man wedding advice what you got let me think about that one um what do you remember from your day of yeah so um there is uh you know I don't know. There's,

you know, there's some stuff that you'll do during, so what happened with us is we went to the location that we were going to get married. I'm with all my buddies and groomsmen, right? We're in our own space. I would enjoy that time. You're going to be nervous and you're going to be kind of like,

hey, what's next? Like what happens next? Don't really worry about what happens next. Like, I wish, you know, I could go, back to that room. We were all hanging out, you know, and getting, you know, just talking about being there. And I wish, you know, I wish I could go back and relive that. Not that I didn't

soak it all in, but that was a great moment, right? Amy, my wife was in her space with her girls doing the same thing, right? Laughing and getting all excited. And so those are some really, really great moments and a lot of times you're like so anxious about what is the next thing, pictures or whatever's coming next, that you're not

like living in the moment. It's impossible to like live in the moment because you're so anticipating the wedding itself and the moment you're up on that stage in front of everybody but let it be slow. Let it

chill. And everything's going to be fine. Everything's going to go great. There'll be some hiccups. Something's not going to happen the way it's supposed to. That's okay. Now your wife, that's not okay. She's going to be upset, right?

Put on a strong face for that. Yeah, be like, hey. Are you kidding me? No, we're kidding. Yeah. But I also, like, when you're standing up there with the

preacher or whoever's officiating your wedding man when you're when you see her for the first time it's tough like I mean why because I'm with this person all the time we're around

each other all day every day but in that moment when you see her for the very first time walk out in the dress it's real it's like that's when it hit me at least. I was like, holy moly. Like, I'm really going to be somebody's husband. I'm really, you know, that was a really big moment for me.

And that was one of my favorite moments. And so as she's getting closer and coming up there to join y'all in up there. It's just, that is such a really, really badass moment that you'll never forget. You shouldn't forget. But it's like quick. It's over and it's a shame. It doesn't last forever. and I guess, you know, afterwards, don't, you know, don't take a ton of stock in who stays, who goes to the rest of the thing.

You know, we had a party. Ours was on New Year's Eve, right? So we had a big party. We kind of did a two-for-one thing, wedding and New Year's party. But, and you might, you shouldn't, you shouldn't care, like, who's there, who's not there. It's, the day's about you and her and, and, you know, I would just enjoy, you know, whatever it is you have planned. I don't know, man.

I mean, the pictures and the videos, if you have someone handling that for you, don't rush through that. Yeah. but the guys are like, yeah, the pictures, well, okay, you know,

I'm going to do them, right? I'm going to do the pictures, but that's an important, so you might not, you might, they are important, but you might not feel like

there is important until you're years later. I have, I have two pictures in my house from our wedding day. One is us kissing at the, on the stage, right,

We have that. And then I have this other picture from our reception or our party afterwards where me and Amy are together. And I'm in our person took those pictures right. And I'm so thankful for those because they're two of my favorites. And man, I mean all the, I didn't really think it in the moment when we were doing all that because we're just like pictures. You know, it's like when you go to your family reunion and you're having a great time. time you're hanging out with your uncles drinking beer and the aunts

and daughters and everybody goes okay everybody get together we got time for the pictures and you're like yeah I was having a I got I was having such a good time right here but you know take the pictures put the effort in to make the pictures

good because they will be very important to you in 10 20 30 40 years and I mean if you have kids my little girls Nicole's going to be four in October and Isle 6th. They look at those pictures and go, there's mommy and daddy on your wedding day.

Like they look at them and that's important pictures to them and they're only tiny kids. And they look at those and that makes, they look at those pictures and they, it raises our profile, right, as parents when they see that picture on the nightstand or in the living room and they see the love and the companionship and all that.

So I don't know. I just let the day, don't rush through it. Don't be anticipating the next thing. Enjoy what's happening at that very moment. And it's not going to be perfect. It is perfect. It is perfectly imperfect. It's going to be perfect, but it's not going to be perfect.

That makes sense. I don't know. Hopefully that was helpful. It was. This is great advice. I like the idea of being present in the moment because it makes a ripple effect towards the future. I like that a lot.

I just wish, it's hard to do. You do that in everything in life, but you're anticipating, I'm anticipating the next thing. Like, I could probably be enjoying this more, but I'm looking forward to what is next, right? What comes next? And, boy, you probably don't do that anymore than on your wedding day because you're, you're a little nervous, right? You're going to be up in front of everybody. You've got this process of whatever it is. You're going to do your own vows.

I don't know. and that whole moment you're nervous it's going to go fine everything's going to you're not going to forget you know you might stumble you might you know but you're going to get married you're not not going to get married right uh it's all win goal will be obvious i'm going to make the race yeah exactly it's all wins there's no there's no open cars it's fine i've got my charter yeah anyway all right That was good. Good stuff. Appreciate it.

Hey, the pictures, going back to that, obviously I'm talking about the pictures with your wife. Right. Do take the candid shots with friends and family. Like if you see your person, your photographer around, and you're standing next to your uncle or your favorite aunt,

hey, get a picture. Right. Get that stuff. Right. Get those moments and get those. get that documentation. Guys are terrible at that. I am.

I wish I had way more pictures of me with people from moments, right? And that'll be a special day that you'll want to have a lot of photos. All the photos that I have like with my mom or anybody in that day, I'm so glad that I have them. I wish I had more photos with all the other people that were there that attended. It's good stuff. Yeah, it's good stuff. Dalton's wedding will be my first wedding I'm attending. I'm going.

Oh, yeah. Let's go. All right. Mike Davis said he's going. Yeah. Hell yeah. A lot of dirty about people are going to be here. Nice.

All right. This next question is coming from Joshua, but I've seen a bunch of people ask this. Brett mentioned you have a Watkins Glen adventure story with Ken Schrader and Bobby Labani. I don't know if you said we should ask. And now we've got folks in YouTube chat. It was Harry LeBoney. Um, I remember. So, uh, it's not an adventure.

We didn't go on an adventure. Um, so funny story. Um, this has a lot of little layers to it. I am in my bus. It's Friday night. We have, we've qualified. So you used to practice and qualify on Friday. And then you'd have a couple practices on Saturday before the Xfinity race or whatever else might be happening.

But, so. All that was going to go on Saturday was like a couple of hours of practice. Qualifying has happened. I'm in my bus. It's like 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock. I get a knock on the door and it's Kenny Schrader. His bus is next door to mine. And he's like, hey, guys want to talk to you.

I'm like, who? He's like, the guys, come on, come to me. And I go into Kenny's Schrader and it's him, I think Sterling Marlin, Terry Labani, maybe Bobby. I don't know, there was a few, there was like five old heads in there, right? And they're drinking beer. And they've already been out riding on golf carts

around in the infield, because it's like the infield or the camping at Watkins Glen is this wild. It's legit. Yeah, it is. They're going to have a great time. And so, and this was back when it was a weekend deal. right there was everybody we all were there for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

And so, Straders, and they're raising, they're not raising hell, but they're drinking beer, just laughing and telling stories. And so I sit down next to Terry Labani. And this is probably 2001 or two. And they had yet to make, I don't believe they had made the Hans device

or the Hutchins device mandatory yet. And so we were, I sat down and they're just, they're just going about about this and that another. You remember this? That was a funny story.

They're just going and they're not, I mean, they didn't bring me in there to, they are not like, hey, Dale, we wanted to tell you X, Y, and Z or Dale Jr., tell us about this, or what did you think about? that. They didn't know him. I just sit down and they just carry on about whatever they were doing. Part of the crew. And I sat there for like 10 minutes wondering what the hell what Trader brought me in there for.

And finally, they're in the conversation and this conversation is going on. And Terry the Bonnie leans over and goes, hey, I've never said one word to this man my whole life. Terry Labony, you know, it was Terry Labony got it down. Yeah. I didn't. I didn't speak to that generation unless they spoke to me. Sure. And Terry LeBondy never spoke to me, so I never spoke to him. And I loved them. I loved all of them, right?

They were my heroes. And so I remember when I went to St. Louis and race for the first time in the Xfinity series in 96 or 7, and I pulled out on pit road and I saw Terry Lubney in his bush car. And I was like, holy shit. I'm on the same pit road as Terry LeBoney. Like, I think about that. It's really cool. Yeah. I had never in my life thought I would.

share a racetrack with these guys. And so here he is. He goes, hey, man, I want to tell you something. I was like, what? And he goes, I really think you need to wear one of them devices. And I don't know if I was wearing one. It was either he wanted me to wear one of the Hans or Hutchins devices or he wanted me to go to a full-faced helmet. But it was one of the two, he was like, hey, I really want you.

you to think about doing that. And I was like, yes, sir. I was like, whatever you say, you tell the Bonnie. And he's like, yeah, man, I really want you to be around here for a long time, man, don't want you anything to happen to you. It's like, I really think you need to take it serious. And so I was like, you got it, whatever, I'm doing it. And so that was, you know, that was really cool because, you know,

dad had passed away, right? Dad was my, dad was going to be the guy to tell me all the things that I should be doing, right? He'd been that my whole life. And now, Schrader, Terry Labani, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labani, all these guys picked up where that void was at, right? And they were all, you know, every other week going, hey man, I saw you doing this. I think you should do that. Hey, I saw you weren't doing this. I think you should try this.

And, you know, it was really nice. and so I did what he asked me to do. And the next day, they, the next day, I think it was Schrader or Sterling, I'm not sure who, pulls out on the racetrack for practice,

runs about two laps, says, man, there's something wrong with the transmission and had the guys changed the transmission because he was so hungover. He needed, he did not want to be in the car and he's like you know transmission change is going to take the rest of the practice

and he'll get in the car for the final practice and run it and so i mean those guys are like that like sterling and trader go to wakins glen in the twilight of their career right and they're like yeah whatever it's but uh you know i mean they were just they were just kind of loose about it yeah it's going to be my new like hangover term is like i got i got a transmission transmission yeah Yeah, yeah. I just blew a motor. I need to change the transmission. Third gear doesn't feel right.

I hung a gear. I hung a gear. Yeah. Vibration. Bad vibration. Bad vibes. Oh, man. This is a good place to NS Jr.

But I've seen a lot of comments and I've screenshoted them and I've put it in a folder. So if you've asked a question, don't worry. You might hear it later on. That's my message to the fans. That's reassuring. That's for you. you guys. Man, thanks.

Your questions are in the hands of Andrew. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I've got a folder in my phone. It's called Ash Jr. I hope that's what it's called. What else? All right. I don't know.

Well, I know that story took a ton of our time, but I appreciate everybody tuning in. We had a lot of fun today. Another great segment by Dale and Ash Jr. This week. We appreciate all the fans again for sending in all of those great questions. And don't forget all the Dirty Mo Media. podcast that are out from earlier this week. Be sure to go back and listen to all of those.

We've got Watkins Glen, a road course, and the NASCAR playoffs this weekend. We hope you enjoy the race, and we'll see it here next Thursday for another episode of DJD Reloaded. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.