The Dale Jr. Download - Dale Jr.'s Epic 2001 Celebration & Dale Sr.'s Leadership Lessons

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

Welcome back for another episode of the Dirty Thirty — where we take the very best from Dirty Mo Media's week in content and distill it into a small batch blend of our hosts and guests. To start us off, Dale Jr. talked about his famous 2001 win at Daytona, only a handful of months after his father passed away. He remembers the celebration, the faces, and the somber moment that came with the crowd that surrounded him. We had a reunion of driver and crew chief this week on Door Bumper Clear! Ward Burton brings his son Jeb Burton to join in the fun with Tommy Baldwin to tell stories from the glory days, and the time Tommy told him he was leaving the No. 22 ... until he wasn't. Denny Hamlin checks in with us about his battle with the No. 45 team, his luck, and what that means for his regular-season championship chase. And finally, Kelley Earnhardt talks with Jeff Gluck about the business lessons she learned from her dad and how she approaches leadership today. That's all for this week! Catch us next time on Dirty Thirty, next week. 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, I'm Dillon Hart Jr. And this is The Dirty 30. The best highlights from all of our podcast this week, 30 minutes every single Friday. The Dirty 30 coming in short. Let's get right to it. This episode of The Dirty 30 is presented by Arby's new Meat in Three Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats.

First question. This was a popular one is what was your reaction to the T&T piece about your Daytona well. Oh, yeah. Dude, I had no idea that they put that together.

And I didn't even like connect it to July 4th, you know, as sort of like a, they were, so we get this

text of messages from our producer on the pre-race. And Jeremy, he's a great guy, tons of fun to work with,

easy going. And there, he's done some inside the NBA stuff. So he's like, hey, kind of wants our show to have that feel

where we're just chopping it up and giving each other hard and he texts us, all right, man, this is what we're going to talk about, y'all. Segment one, most patriotic races in NASCAR. Segment two, you know, it's just, that's it.

That's all you, all right, you're going to talk about that segment one. No more notes, no more information than that. You're on your own. And so we sat down at the desk and I got the text messages. Tomorrow we're on at 4 a.m. or tomorrow we're on the air at 4 p.m. local, here's what the outline of the show looks like. Segment one, two, three, four, five, and it's just one bullet point for each segment.

And so I start writing down most patriotic NASCAR moments. I mean, I'm having a hard time picking one. And so my mind went to like, you know, I just remember racing in Daytona or as a kid going to Daytona in July, and I thought that was epic. Being at the beach during that weekend, racing in the morning and getting out on the beach and the sand and playing as a kid or swimming at the pool by the afternoon after the race.

And Daytona just felt like where we were supposed to be. And anyhow, you know, we're going through. Everybody else starts talking about a race, and they talked about the Dover 2001 race, which was cool. and then they Marty started talking and teeing up this piece and as soon as he started talking I recognized the race he was he was

presenting and I'm like oh and they started running this piece I can watch it we got a monitor in front of us so I'm watching it happen and the drivers are looking I don't know what the drivers were watching but they got this iPad you know and I guess it's you know scenes from the race or whatever

and that was just really cool man to hear them hear them all have an opinion or a comment or and then the fan reaction to it on social media afterwards. I got text messages from my wife and, you know, just my sister, everybody. It was cool. I mean, it was just really, really cool. I told Jeremy thanks for that.

I got connected to a couple of the individuals in the production team that worked on that piece directly and thank them. And, you know, it was just awesome. I felt like a million bucks for that brief moment. What do you remember of the celebration after you won that race? Because I think a lot of people were tweeting in about, you know, how iconic that was. What do you remember from that? You know, just I don't know how drivers feel about it today, but when you win a race,

when you, back then, when you won a race, NASCAR, couldn't wait to get you into Victory Lane because they had an interview that needed to get done. And everything, as soon as you got out of the car in Victory Lane, it was like somebody had you by the wrist or by the arm and they were like, all right, go over here, sit here, stand here, put this hat on, smile, take this picture, change your hat, hold this, hold this photo, hold this trophy, put this over here, hold this flag, put this hat on, change this hat, put this hat on. And Victory Lane celebrations would often feel like a photo shoot or like work. And I got a taste of that when I was racing in the Bush series in 9899.

And so I had an intentional, anytime I was like, I'm going to do what the hell I want to do. I'm all, I'm all celebrate with my team. Like when we won the Daytona 500 in 2004, I pulled down on the front straightaway and get out. We didn't do front straightaway interviews. They wanted your ass to maybe celebrate a little bit, but get to Victory Lane and get, so the,

so the, so the broadcast could get the interview and continue, because the broadcast is trying to go off air. Yeah. We're on a big network

and they're trying to get the hell off air. They got another damn show to run. They got another TV show, whatever it might be, it's got to start. And so you couldn't be farting around,

you know, in the infield somewhere. But I was like, I'm going to do what the hell I want and celebrate with my team. I don't want. be around any handlers, any NASCAR people telling me where I needed to be and go. And so we pull down into the infield and do some donuts.

And I see Michael do, I see Michael in his car. And so I park and he parks and we get out. And it's just like, man, we'll get to Victory Lane soon enough. No rush. We'll get there. And then everybody runs out there, Chocolate Myers and all my team. I think the hardest, when I watched that clip, when I watch that clip,

the hardest part of it is there's a real short clip of Danny Earnhardt, my dad's brother. Mm-hmm. And I remember it. Yep. And the look on Danny's face. That's really the only time you see that too. Like, I saw, he just walks by the camera as he's passing by and you can see him.

And there's everybody around Danny is, is in elation. And there, a couple people got their hands on Danny and they're shaking him and everybody's just jumping and happy. Danny, senior, has this look on his face like he,

like the same look he had on his face in February when we lost dad. And that's the hardest part for me because I know that I was young and naive, right? I lost my dad, but I was young and naive. And I was, I wasn't, I didn't realize what I'd lost. You know what I'm saying?

And Danny did. He was old enough to know. And so that was tough. But just a really cool piece. And I just remember we were going to get to Victor Lane when we got to Victor Lane. We weren't no damn hurry. And so, but now they do the front straightaway interview and all kinds of stuff. So they go ahead and get the interview knocked out.

Hey, y'all, this Jerome and Tiff Davis. Our new weekly podcast is out. now on Dirty Mo Rodeo's YouTube channel and podcast platforms. With new episodes every Thursday, leave us a comment and a review and come see what this cowboy life is all about. Hope y'all come and check us out. Until next time, adios. All right, time to move on to Ask DBC with the questions you've all been waiting for, get answers.

So Ward will start with from winning Daytona 500, loose lug nuts at Watkins Glenn. Why do y'all bring that up? Because we have a kick in their ass that race. Well, they gave me a really good call, but we all made mistakes. While y'all buss and Tommy's ball. I mean, think about it. How many crew chiefs also went over the wall? And he wanted to do it.

They didn't have a choice. We didn't have the people. Yeah, exactly. He was damn good at it. Any other memory that maybe the cameras didn't catch between you two during your tenure? Man, we went through good time. and not so good times, as Tommy alluded to later when we were together, resources. We were closing the gap.

With Tommy's enthusiasm, Davis was letting him do for the most part what he wanted to do with the resource he had. The gap was being closed. I mean, there was a time we were in top six in the points with the Gibbs and the RCRs and Hendricks, and Rouse and technology just started changing it and we couldn't we didn't have a resource to keep up with it

and it was really at the time I don't think Tommy understood what was going neither did I well I understood but what what was happening that I didn't know back then when Bill Davis racing was Toyota was coming

into the scene and as everybody knows Bill Davis was the one that started the Toyota truck team well as Technology was growing and becoming more important in our sport. All the tools and all the people were getting shifted to building this new Toyota truck program. So I was kind of left on an island. They took our head engineer and they took my head body.

Being Todd Holbert and they took my head body guy that back then, those are the two things that you relied on. And they went and went over to the, we called it area, they called it Area 50. It was three, four, five months before I even knew what was going on. And they took them, and I was by myself for a little bit. So that kind of hurt. And obviously the Toyota program took off and was very successful with how they were doing it. Again, Toyota started their, everybody worked together right from the beginning. I mean, every Toyota truck was built in that facility for other.

teams. So Toyota had that mentality right from the beginning when they came into the sport. So once we switched to Toyota, we were behind on, even on in the cup, we were behind on engineering. And Joe, we relied on, again, Joe Gibbs's kind of information that you, you know, they weren't going to give up anything back then. So, yeah, we lost our way a little bit there. And, yeah, it was hard. It was hard. I think we finished in the top 10 in points for two years in a row and won some races and lost a lot of a lot of races as well but it was fun man we had a good time together we did Tommy you passed up on a pretty good opportunity hold on this minute so you just told me a story and I didn't realize that so thanks for sharing and what I did happen when it when it got publicly known Daryl Jackson and another guy with Dodd called me at Dover.

And because they had just found out about it. And they cut off all support too to the team. The Dodge support won't because we were dodged. So it sent Davis into a different direction, but actually killed us. Yeah. It won't long after that. He got releasing. And then the next year I got released.

While you were still with the Bill Davis team, Tommy, you turned down a pretty lucrative opportunity to go to a championship winning organization to stay with the 22. Why? I mean, Ward had a big influence after it, and it was after the fact, right? I already, you know, I was going to take over from Ray Everham to do the crew chief Jeff Gordon, and I made all my calls, right? I walked into Bill Davis, told him, because it had to happen quick because it was going to be almost past mid-year at that point. And then I called my dad and I got silence from him. I'm like, I thought you.

Did you really? Yeah, I got silence from him. I'm like, what's wrong? He's like, you know, he's typical dad, right? He's like, dude, they have a dynasty already over there. You're in the middle of building one where you're at. Why don't you just build what you got there? And I'm like, I hung up the phone.

I was like, oh, shit. Right? I'm like, now, what am I going to do, right? And they're getting ready to raise on the plane on the way to Michigan, and they were going to announce it that afternoon, right? So I call Tommy the third. I say, hey, I just want to let you know. I'm all excited.

He starts crying. Right? He started crying, oh, Jeff, you know, because him and Jeb are friends. Why are you living? I'm like, oh, shit. And then I call Ward. I just want to let you know. And Ward went to bat for me.

He hung up the phone, and within a half hour, he called me up and he says, all right, here's what we're going to do with this, this, that, that. I paid part of his salary. Yeah, he ended up paying part of my salary for me to stay. Because David wouldn't do it. Yeah. So, you know, it was, yeah, because we had what we needed with his leadership. What year was this?

92,000. So before the 500. I went to Jeff Gordon and got on his, you know what, at Indy. Now, you're trying to steal my damn. He said, what? It ain't me. I said, bullshit. And then one more thing on the manufacture front,

So 2000, you got the first win at Darlington in the spring race and the Pontiac for Bill Davis. And then that was one of the teams that transitioned to Dodge in the first year. You go back to Darlington in the fall and win the Southern 500. How did you gel so quickly going from the success with the Pontiac car to the Dodge car in that day and age? Yeah, I mean, the Dodge was a better body. So we actually helped us going to the next races. I mean, we used all the same tools, same setup. and stuff. I think there was a couple different things you had to do from the spring to fall

Darlington race to make the car is just as good. And we knew what needed to be done. So, yeah, we had a lot of fun at Darlington, man. I mean, we had a lot of really good races at all those facilities. And again, man, it's just we were racers, right? When I, we brought a bunch of racers. You know, you heard Chris Rice last week on the show. We just, we had a lot of people. We had a lot of fun. too right and um we worked hard we played hard and it was good man good times i wish y'all would have at some point when y'all did have opportunities to go somewhere looking back on it y'all could have went somewhere that had more resources rob a date's called me and uh he wanted both of us to come yeah they didn't have a lot of resources he had everything when he needed it but then when the

sport good they didn't yeah they were in the same boat as kind of like we were worth. All right. All right. Don't forget about stopping by the online merch store. We have some new stuff dropping called the Zero to Freedom Line. Check it out at shop.durdymo Media.com. A couple of those new shirts will be on there for you guys to enjoy.

Well, big picture here. Fortunately for you, the 45 had an unfortunate day. So you're able to make up, not make up, but add 40 plus points to this regular season championship race. Yeah. I mean, there, you know, that's, that was, so when we talk about luck and racing, sometimes it gets used over, well, it doesn't sometimes, a lot of time to get overused to a blanket statement of you having a bad day. And sometimes when you have, you know, you get caught up in a first lap wreck. Not of your doing.

Sometimes that's luck, but sometimes when it happens back in 30th, it's like, yeah, but that's where things. typically happen. So this was definitely bad luck. You know, for Tyler Redick, obviously something punctured. The radiator, all kinds of fluid was going out and they went lapsed down. So definitely on a string of bad luck there. I don't know how good his car was. It didn't appear that it was great when I was around it. But I think we were at different tire. well, no, there was one stage where he started right behind me, and then he was behind me in the short run, but then in the long run I didn't see him.

So I thought maybe Bubba probably had the best, the best 2311 car, but who knows? I mean, great, great finish for all those guys, 6th, 9th, 10th, for all those guys, certainly you would imagine the 45 would have been up in the top 10 as well. Is that now the primary focus with, A handful of races ago, just win this regular season championship? I'd like to win one more race before we get into the playoffs.

I thought Chicago Land was going to be the best chance of that. What if it's Indy? Indy would be next, then Richmond, then New Hampshire, then North Forksboro, then Iowa, then Atlanta, then Daytona. Are you saying you want this win because of the standings to make you feel comfortable? Or you're just saying because you just want a win? No, I just want a win. I just, that's seven races without winning.

Add the two that we, now three in a row that we haven't won. So that's 10 races. That's a, that's a dry spell. The three in a row you haven't won? Were any of, were two of those on the table? Hey, they still count. Well, it's still, I mean, it's still. Does that, so you say, is that effect your demeanor?

No. No. Because I know where we're at. I feel good about where we're at, obviously. But, you know, you just, you want to win. And that's, that's always been my main goal. It's just to win as many races as I possibly can. So not winning doesn't affect momentum.

That's not a thing. Not if you can also win the regular season. you know what I mean? Right. Yeah. Yeah, because whether you win the next six races or not, you win the regular season. You're not getting any added benefit as long as you win the regular season, right? It's that points.

That's right. You're going to, the winner of the regular season will start with 2,100 points, whether he has 10 wins or one. Your dad was famously protective and guarded about the business side. How much of what you know did you learn from watching him? and how much did you have to figure out the hard way after he was gone? Yeah. You know, I, at the time with my dad when he was living, I had a really tough time with the way that he allowed us to be part of the business.

You know, and he allowed us to be part of things in a very arm's length way. So, you know, we worked at the dealership under, you know, the leadership there. and or, you know, I worked at Sports Image at the time with Hank Jones back in the day that eventually came action performance. But we never got to work inside of Dell and Horn Incorporator, or I didn't, I should say. Dale eventually, you know, got there. But, and, but, you know, I think that that was helpful in the way to learn from other people and not have to worry about those family boundaries that have to.

especially when you're less mature, right? When you're a young, 20-some-year-old and you don't have the different experiences that I think are so important. You know, you have to be exposed to things in order to get those experiences. And I think that's what's really, you know, crucial about the way we go to work in business and starting from the ground up and things like that. But my dad, you know, even in at home, you know, we learn. from him and the way that he carried himself and the way that he did things and the business and all that he and and I got to learn that sitting on the opposite side of the table at sports image you know first let's say because I was you know involved in being an account manager for some of his sponsors and so you know he was the opposite side of the table putting the pressure on us on you know what their expectations were and things like that and how to live up to those expectations so I did get to learn a lot from him And, you know, after, I mean, it was 27 when he passed. So I feel like I had a really good foundation of, you know, business and things to learn and do.

And then, you know, I've said this too often. Once I came to work for Dale, you know, I really leaned on other people in the industry like John Bickford, Jeff Gordon's stepfather, and Mr. Hendrick and so on and so forth to really, you know, not reinvent the wheel and get good people around. me that could continue to mentor and continue to teach, which I think is important. You know, one of the things that, and I think this kind of question comes up later, is, you know, about our younger generation workers and things like that. You know, I think that a lot of our workers, you know, they expect to come in making the most money right at the top, that work ethic of start at the bottom. you know, you hear Steve LaTart talk about it. I don't forget it. Sweeping the floors at Hendrick

to becoming a crew chief. I'm sure you have similar stories, Jeff, of, you know, where you started. Caitlin Vincey working at her local short track to get involved and then make it to where she's at today, you know, and getting those opportunities. And that's, you know, that's how it works. You know, I didn't, you know, get to buy a fancy brand new car when I was 20. You know, I didn't get that opportunity until I was much older and had had a career and had a job and those kinds of things. So you got to work for that and work for that experience as it comes along and take advantage of those opportunities to learn from people around you as you go, you know. So you talked about the things you've learned.

What's something you've had to unlearn from growing up in racing that didn't actually serve you as you found out when you stepped into a leadership role? You know, I don't know that this is really something I unlearned from. growing up in racing, but one of the things that I have, that I struggled with for a lot of years is, is my own expectations of people and what I, you know, the consequences, if they didn't meet my expectations, which are sometimes harsh, you know, like, okay, if you're, you know, why are you sick today, you know, can't you get in here and, and do something, you know, or whatever? Like, I was a, I was a very, high expectation balls of, you know, what you, what I expected out of you in my younger years.

And I've mellowed out a lot, you know, I think a lot of that comes with, you know, having your own kids, family, all of those things that you have to start managing instead of being a single person. You know, when you're a single person, you pretty much can do what you want to do. You know, you can, you don't have these different things that you have to manage and balance. like you do when you have family and things like that. So that was, that's something that I've, I've mellowed out in the, my expectations and grace that I give people. I didn't have a lot of that. And that's probably something I learned from my dad, I would say. He didn't have a lot of grace for people either. You know, the expectations were high. And, and, and so that's something I've had to learn to like, give up a little. And delegation. Delegation was a really hard one for me, too,

to delegate to people and to trust people to get things done. You know, sometimes I just felt like it was easier to do it myself. Do you ever feel that way? Well, here's the thing. I think what I hear from your talking about this is that that's sort of like this high achiever, high work ethic mindset, right? And the problem is for people like you that have that is when it's very hard, even there may be very good people, but to meet that standard that you see.

and yourself is very difficult to live up to. So it's sort of a balance that you have to walk as a boss where you don't want to like just let people get away with not working hard or something. Yeah, yeah. But it's also not realistic perhaps to find an entire company of people that are going to operate at your same level. So that's got to be such a tough balance and learning process for you. Well, and you really don't want all the same kind of people in your business, right? Like, you know, you want, you know, different, the different thinkers, you know, critical thinkers, problem solving thinkers, creative thinkers, outside the box thinkers, those that just do it by the rules. I mean, you got to, you know, you want all of it. You, to me, what's very important in our business is that we hire people that we keep our culture.

You know, there's that base and foundation of our culture that's important. But we need different mindsets, bringing different things to the table, different skill sets, those kinds of things. All right, that was another episode of The Dirty 30, presented by Arby's new Meat in Three Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meat.