The Dale Jr. Download - David Green: Why He Turned Down A Ride From Dale Earnhardt

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with 1994 Busch Series champion David Green to learn why he turned down a ride from his dad, what it was like replacing Ricky Hendrick, and how he navigated racing against his two brothers.After growing up in Owensboro, Kentucky and venturing into kart racing with his brothers David and (former DJD guest) Jeff, David made the transition into late model racing and found success in the NASCAR All-American Challenge Series. His relationships with Wayne Day, Mike Alexander and Bobby Labonte helped usher him into the NASCAR garage, initially building cars and making one-off starts in the Busch Series. But once Bobby Labonte was promoted to the Cup Series and vacated his family-owned ride, David was hired full-time and would lead the team to the 1994 Busch Series championship.David fills Dale in on an encounter he had with Dale Sr. where he was approached to replace his brother Jeff in the #3 DEI Busch car. He also reflects on his time spent driving for Hendrick Motorsports, replacing Ricky Hendrick when he made the decision to step away from racing in 2002. The conversation also covers David’s decision to retire from the driver’s seat, and how he took a position working as a NASCAR official as part of the research and development safety team, where he currently works today. Dirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Dale Jr. Download merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuff.And for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaFanDuel disclaimer: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. 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.

I got a call. And your dad's like, well, come see me. Come deer hit shop. So I drove up there and, man, we sit there and he's like, hey, I love Jeff to death, but we're going to make a change. He said, I want you to drive three car. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. All right, so we're going to have a great conversation today with a guest that I'm looking forward to,

one of the three Green brothers that have raced in the Xfinity Series and the Cup series throughout the years. There's Jeff Green who's been on the show, Mark Green, a great friend of mine who's still in the industry, and then David Green, who's coming in today. David won Xfinity Series championship, raced in the Cup series. He's now a technical inspector for NASCAR in the Xfinity Cup. He's kind of doing a little bit of everything. a really great guy

want to hear his story he's kind of one of those kind of dudes that's just been around and ground through it and he's had a ton of connections and no telling what names might get brought up in this conversation our past crossed several times

throughout the years in different ways and he was my career was affected or influenced by him or his brothers and somewhere or another multiple times so it should be a lot of of fun. I've never really sat down and talked to David a ton, but I love the Green family, and I love the kind of people they are, great, great, great folks. And so this should be,

this should be one for us to enjoy. Let's get started. David Green has joined us on the Dale Jr. Download, born in Owensboro, Kentucky, a lot of, a lot of racers from Owensboro. Do you think the reason why is because of, you know, the location of the racetracks like Nashville, Fairgrounds, and some pretty respectable facilities where one might look for talent. Plus Darrell Walter sort of... Right. I agree on the racetracks. Darrell, I would add into that equation, right?

Like you said, Nashville Fairgrounds, Louisville. Louisville, darn, they had like two or three racetracks. Yeah. Went right downtown, went up in Charleston, Indiana, right across the river. You could really even look at Indy with IRP. I mean, gosh, I think we're probably missing something somewhere else. Yeah. Yeah, I think the racetracks had a huge bearing upon kind of the direction we all went, right?

Yep. There were the Green Brothers, but also the Waltrip's Jeremy Mayfield. Your dad raced in the NHRA. Is that right? That is correct. How did the sons? and we're going to talk about your brothers quite a bit in this conversations, but how do y'all get interested in oval track racing if your dad's driving, you know,

going to the drag strip? Right. That was always a good question kind of throughout our career, right? So to start off right there, ever since I can remember being around, right, me being the Otis, Mark was 13 months later than Jeff's another six years, maybe. But I can remember going to the drag strip Friday. Saturday, Sunday. And one of my early memories were, you know, we were in school all week long, right?

And on Saturday morning was when the cartoons were on, right? Yeah. Didn't have one during the week like now. That's right. So I was all set up to go watch cartoons on Saturday morning, right? And dad's like, no, you're coming out here in the garage. We get that mother's aluminum polish, and we get us a rag, and we polish the front wheels on the drag car, right? get them all polished up.

So being around drag strip all those years, I figured that was where we were all going to be heading, right? And to my knowledge, Dad never ran a lap in a stock car. Now, he'd race go-carts and probably step ahead of that a little bit was we all kind of got started and racing with go-carting, right? My uncle and Daryl were in the same class during high school, graduated school. Daryl. Your uncle and who?

My uncle Clyde Potts. Yeah. And who? And Clydee. And Darrell. And Darrell. Okay. So they went to school together. Damn.

And that's kind of got that go-kart craze going, right? And then we do the drag racing stuff with dad. I mean, round the clock, you know, all week long, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's cool. Really love drag racing. But as things kind of got toward the end of his drag racing, you know, I've been. became old enough to have a license to make a trip down to strip, you know, then along came Mark, then Jeff eventually.

So we all kind of got a little bit of time in a drag car. Did you? He had like a super stock, Camaro, you know, probably 150 mile an hour car on a quarter mile, something like that. Beach Bend down in Bowling Green was right down the road, great facility. But I quickly found out, along with my brothers, that within a few seconds, your race is over, right? So you mess it up one part of that six, well, back then, probably 10 seconds for a superstock car on a quarter mile. Your day's done.

No second chances, no nothing. So we quickly found out in stock car racing, man, you can mess up a couple times, right? And still have a shot at lap 200, 300, 300, 400, so that kind of diverted, I think, our career paths into the stock car arena. But you started racing go-carts at what age? I was probably 14, 15-ish, fairly late, right? This day and time, that's an old person. As normal, though, back then. Right, back in the day, yes.

That's about when people started. Right, just prior to having a driver's license, right? You got in it first? Yes, my granddad, they're on my mom's side, got us going in that direction, right? So Mark was right there along my side, right, because we were fairly close in age. Did you both race? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we, and unfortunately, we were in the same class together all the time, right?

So the good thing about Jeff, he was down here in the junior class, right? And Mark and I started out in basically the adult, or prior to adult class. But, yeah, it was Mark and I were head-to-head all the time. And then we could sit over and watch Jeff, right, and pick on jail. or whatever. But Mark and I were, it was on from day one on go-karting. Yeah. So how much success did you have in carting?

I think very successful later on. Early on with the tutoring of her grandfather and my uncle, we got on the right path quickly. But the one thing that carding, I think, did for me personally, was it helped me understand the vehicle number one. You know, we didn't have mechanics. We were doing all of our own work. We'd take the engine off, send it off to Lynn Haddock down in Chattanooga

to do our blueprinting, stuff like that. But we were responsible for the go-kart. So I learned quickly on that parts and pieces better stay on it, and it better be top-notch to endure. And I think our races were probably 30 minutes. Maybe it's a time to race. So that was a big advantage. I felt like that I gained from go-karting, but you talk about super competitive.

Not just between Mark and I, obviously Jeff as well, and then just the whole competitive spirit of go-karting. All road racing. Correct. What is your aspirations as a driver at that point? You're not racing stock cars. You're not anywhere near a path that might take you down toward NASCAR. Right. a great question that's something I look back at even today

because we hear drivers say man I you know at 15 you know I knew I wanted to drive cup one day or I wanted to run Xfinity or the Bush series I'm like you know I never thought that I don't know what my brothers thought but all I wanted to do if I was in the junior stock class I wanted to run an open class and then I remember there's time I wanted to run the dual engine class

And I always just wanted to go to that next step, whatever that was. Now, did I still have aspirations to run our local stock car track in a stock car? Maybe small, but I'm telling you, seriously, it was not on my radar. I just wanted to be the very best I could be at that class. Then I knew probably then I would have more confidence going to the next level. And, you know, we weren't even thinking back in today about making sponsors happy. right. We were just having a good time and wanted to get that trophy. That trophy meant so much. How did you get introduced to the short track stock car world?

Mark actually was the first one to go to the stock car track. Okay. So I'm thinking this is not right. I'm older than Mark. Why shouldn't I get the first shot right? But I'm telling you, Mark was very good. He was. He was the guy that sets the bar very high at Kentucky Motor Speedway. And so I think that really kind of got obviously myself looking at it And then ultimately Jeff And then I remember dad bought a streetstock car And it was blue and yellow And it had a number two on it

And I'll have to dig that picture up and send to you But similar to your dad's car right there It's a Chevy 67 Camaro street stock And I'll say even to this day the most fun ever, you know. But anyway, that was my first start in street stocks. We're at. It took most speed away.

And Mark had already been out there a year running late models. And I'm like, man, I've got to get ahead of him somehow. And I think each one of us kind of drove each other to go up. That's kind of got what has got us going there. But I think obviously Darrell running that track really got the ball rolling. And then when Mark went out there and Mark was whipping up on them, I'm like, this is where we want to go. And we found out that, you know, it wasn't a 10-second race or a few seconds down that dragstrip.

We could mess up a time or two. So you're just racing locally. How do you run in and get up with Mike Alexander? Yeah. So that's a very interesting time in my career, right? So we were racing at Kentucky Motor Speed. We'd venture down to Nashville for the fairgrounds. I met Wayne Day.

So we actually raced against each other. Wayne had a guy in the name of Jerry Cisco that drove for him. His brother Dave Sisko drove the Cup Series back in today. And so Nashville is, I'm sorry, Wayne is down in Nashville, Goodlettsville, Tennessee, north of Nashville, 31W insulation. Yep. So as I'm racing against Wayne, Jerry's kind of on his way of retiring, Jerry Cisco. And Wayne said, hey, won't you come drive from a car, drive my car? I'm like, okay, this is going to be a lot better financially to do that, right?

And so Wayne and I got hooked up, and actually in 1980, I moved from Owensboro to Nashville to go work for Wayne full time. Really? We built chassis, we hung bodies, we had our own cars. For other competitors? Yes, other competitors and Mike being one of them. Yep. So Mike was a huge part of my career along with Wayne that we were building late model stock cars.

We were building some bush cars. He had his own Bush team, the number 84 action vans. That's right. But with Mike, we were doing it all right, and he was being successful in the Bush series, winning races with cars that we built at Wayne Days. Bobby Hamilton, same way. He'll probably be part of the story here in a minute as well. Mike so then unfortunately Bobby Allison got hurt in the Cup series so Mike was tabbed to sub for Bobby

and Mike came up to shop one day he said hey I don't know what you're doing this weekend but you're going to go to Langley I'm like I am what are we doing he said well you're going to practice my bus car and you're going to qualify it and if something happens you'll race that thing So we're going to get comfortable. But probably I'm going to show up and race it. But you'll have your day one day. So we did that, Dale, I think, about maybe eight times that particular year. From 1980, all the way up until 88, 89, he spent a majority of that time living in and around Nashville, racing short tracks, racing the fairgrounds, building race cars.

for, I'd say, you know, six, eight years. Yes. What's amazing to me is there's a lot of people like you that didn't never give up on that opportunity. It's different today. Like, the way we get these kids and, I mean, people are racing at five years old, and, you know, you've got a Conner's Village

that's head to the Cup Series before his 21st birthday. Someone would spend his whole adult life working toward that opportunity to finally get behind the wheel of a competitive cup car. So you had a big chunk of time where you're happy and content with your life, racing locally and helping, in this particular case, Mike Alexander, working for the days. Did you ever, did he ever not show up to one of those Xfinity races?

No, he showed up. He showed up every time. And back to comment prior to what you're just making a note of was, so I come from home where we worked the concrete plant, right? Get home, run out to shop, work to midnight, right? Didn't think twice about it. Now a sudden, in 1980, I drove to Nashville, live in Nashville and go to work for Wayne. And I'm like, you know, seven in the morning all day long, work in a race shop.

cutting tubing, building chassis, hanging bodies, putting cars together, setting them up, go to the racetrack and race, the NASCAR All-American Challenge series. And then we get into the Bush side of things. But how interesting was for me, it's like, man, come 5 o'clock, I see the guys in the shop like leaving, getting their lunchboxes walking out the door. I'm like, where's everybody going? it was so interesting for me that finally to get to work on a race car all day long and even get paid to do it, right? Yeah.

And it's some of it's your stuff, some of it's customer stuff, but I looked at it all as my stuff, right? But what an interesting time, right? So, yes, a big chunk and, you know, helping people, not never really thinking, even to this point, I'm not saying, hey, I'm going to get to the series, I'm not going to do this, I'm going to do that. So just a great time. and Mike Alexander was a way of a driver. He was easy to be around. I don't know him very well. Not at all.

Now, I was around as a kid when he was running that 84 action van's car, when he drove for Dave Marcus that year in the 80s, when he gets called up to drive Bobby's car. You know, I was, and I guess even recently, maybe even a year or a year or two ago, he's still at the fairgrounds trying to run. race a late model. Yes.

You know, so I've, I've been aware of him, but, and he had this, there was this opinion that when he got called up to drive Bobby's car, that he was ready, and that he was, he was capable. Yes. How come you think that things didn't work out for him? I know he had some injuries and different things. Yeah, I think two-fold, number one, the injury at Pensacola. Wayne and I were running our super down there at Snowball Derby when Mike unfortunately got hurt

But I think the other part of it was, you know, Mike had always been a team owner He had his own stuff, he and he was tough man, he was You know, many times he had his crew polishing the toolbox, right? Polished to jack stands I mean, he was that kind of guy But his performance on track spoke for it too, right? So I think it was two-fold, a little bit of that. But I think probably the injury, probably surfaced to be the dissatisfactor that where it all went. The Day family owned an Xfinity car, am I right?

Yes, we actually built a car in-house. Here we are, you know, building the cars for Bobby Hamilton after Mike's. We first started building some for Mike. We built some for Bobby Hamilton. And then I actually built some for Bobby Hamilton. Bobby and Terry Lubani. So then Wayne's like, heck, let's build one in-house, right? Osmobile was the body style back then and the V-6s, right?

So we built one, and I think we might have, I forget where we were at first race we might have went to, but chances are we might not have qualified for it, right? Because back in the day, there was 50, 60 cars. Red 16? Yes. Actually, that first one could have been white with red numbers, 16. Yeah, yep. And I remember that being their scheme.

Yes, yes. For all those years. So you ran a couple of starts for him in the Bush series. You finally get your chance to get behind the wheel. A lot of mechanical issues, just buggy stuff being a small team. Small team. Yeah, just kind of out of our wheelhouse, so to speak. Yeah.

Actually going there as a team. But, you know, I think it was great building blocks for things to come. But what an experience I got to do. those eight races. Thank goodness we qualified for every race, didn't use a provisional, and just learned so much all the way from how a championship caliber team operates. And then here, Wayne and I can use those same things that we're learning onto our own car. And just from one end to the next, all the way to how you sit in a race car.

Yeah. Which that'll be a story later on too. I always get accused of how I sit in a race car. and then I didn't mind put my own seats in after that and you and I'll probably have stories about that as well but just a great opportunity that led to the Fillmore ride in 1991. Who drove that car before you? Bobby Hamilton.

Did you have a relationship with him? I did. Do you think he went to bat for you? He probably did. He probably did. So the eight Fillmore car would end up becoming in this little brief moment of the sports history this little pipeline.

Yes. Right? Correct. And I don't know if y'all thought about it like that then. We didn't. But he certainly had just gotten a cup ride. And now you're getting in that car and you've got to think, crap, if I do this, this and this and check this box and this box, who knows where this could go? Well, sort of did.

But, gosh, that's still a huge mountain. That's a huge task ahead of you, right? And I've still got it in my mind that. understanding the whole process and being able to build cars and doing all this, how many parts and pieces there's involved? Now we're starting to think about sponsorship. Oh, yeah. And I was blessed with the Fillmore opportunity that was good for one year for me personally.

But, man, we came out of the gate strong. Just a really quick story, Bobby Hamilton. We were getting ready to go test Daytona. And back then there was like a test in December and two in January. January and manufacturers test. So Bobby and I, he came up to Wains before I went there full time. He said, hey, when we get ready to do that Daytona test, he said, I'm going to call Mike Friar that built the engines, V6, Buick.

He said, I'm going to tell Mike. I said, I want them to put in the Martinsville engine because that Martinsville engine I just ran to finish out the year was strong. He said, but now you've never been to Daytona. He said, I want them to put that engine in that car. You just go down there and test, test, test. He said, it's probably going to be an awful little bit, but you're going to get laps. So we went down there, we tested.

We were pretty good at the first test. Each test, we got a little bit better, but we never changed the engine. So the mindset was, after the final test, we were going to send an engine back to Mike. He's going to freshen it up, put the Daytona package in that thing, right? So, but we had to make decision when we left that final test. We were like P1 or P2. And so we just left it as is. I think you rebuilt it, freshened it.

We left it as is. And went down there and sat on the pole. Man, things were great. And obviously, I think that weekend was the first weekend. I got to meet your dad. And we started our relationship. And it's funny, we, back during that schedule, we, I think, practiced on a Monday, qualified on a Tuesday.

but we were there like for two weeks right so i'm starting on the pole jack sprig is second and your dad's third so all week i think i woke up thinking oh gosh here we are we're going to take off we're going to get into turn one dale's going to put me in the middle i'm going to be three wide never started a race there at detour nothing right and back then i don't know how much drafting we did throughout the week like we do now um but that did not happen in the race, but I had fears of that happening all week long. But your dad was good about it. He's like, you know, he said, hey, buddy, that car is pretty fast. He said, yeah, I said, yeah, it is. I said, he said, just keep her going straight. We're going to be fine. I'll be right there with you.

And sure enough, he was, right? So it was a good start to 1991. Yeah. Probably about the fifth race. We ran Bristol. I ran second, and Jimmy Smith was third. And I got huge satisfaction. I really felt, okay, maybe now I'm here, and I can be there, and I've got a career in the Bush Series, and who knows, one day, maybe Cup. Because the Daytona Poe was one thing, right? But I needed to do it in the race to satisfy me.

Had a great race at Bristol. Our very next race was Lanier, Georgia. And I remember also it was a standalone bush race, but still we had probably 50 cars show up, right? But I think the cup series off in Michigan. And, man, we were able to win that race that night. And I remember the first person when I walked into the media center after winning the race, a reporter said, well, hey, it's a good race today, but there was no cup drivers here. And it kind of hit me. I said, okay, I agree.

But, hey, last weekend, when I ran second to one of them and had one in my rearview mirror, that felt pretty damn good. Yeah. And so tonight feels good, too, right? But we were very fortunate that team was on it. They had a year or two with Bobby Hamilton and just plug a driver in. And we were on our way then, I felt like. Hey, T.J.

You know that I got my own Chevy dealership down in Tallahassee, Florida. We're part of the Hendrick Automotive Group. Yes, I have heard of Darren Hart Jr. Chevrolet. I bet you'd be surprised on what type of Chevrolet vehicles we specialize in. If I had a guess, I'm going to say it would probably be Chevy trucks. Well, we definitely sell plenty of those, but actually we're really big in commercial vehicles. We actually sell a lot of crane trucks, or the number one seller, actually, in crane trucks. Okay, I definitely did not see that coming.

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Our team at Dellenhart Jr. Chevrolet will give you a world-class experience. Chevrolet, together, let's drive. I didn't race against you a ton, but your record speaks for itself. Your ability, wins, championships, and all that. There's no doubt about your ability. What I think I was surprised to learn is when Mark came into the Xfinity series finally, that's kind of when I was there as well. And I watched him pretty closely.

And I thought, man, he's better than I think people give him credit for. Because the general, like you knew, because you grew up in that family, right? But the general, the general, like, thought of Mark was like, oh, they got a third brother. okay, you know, and wow, that was pretty decent. You know, that was a pretty decent run. Right. You know, none of us, you know,

I certainly didn't know how, you know, what he'd been doing back home. I certainly didn't know why his deal took so long for him to get there. But I do know when he got behind, he got into 37 and a couple other opportunities. Like he, he ran really, solid. And I just feel like that Mark's career as a driver is kind of one of them, you know,

what could have beens. Correct. And, you know, I don't know. That's always kind of bothered me a little bit, that he didn't, you know, there's a lot of drivers out there that will never get that chance to even get to the Xfinity side or get to that level that probably we'll never know had what it took. He's one of those guys that actually kind of did get there, and we just didn't really get to see what he's capable of. Yeah, I think, obviously thankful to Clarence Brewerer that started Bruko. So Mark was there on Ground Zero with Bruko.

Timberwolf, a local company there in Owensboro, jumped on as well. sponsors. But yeah, I would agree. And I think Jeff touched on it many times. I know I have too. Mark's at the bar, and he's set it very high from the driving side, right? For both of you. Exactly. Absolutely. And then I think probably, you know, having a family, starting a family is very important, as we all know now. But I think this was one thing that Mark chose to start with first, then that kind of, you know, delayed his opportunity. But thankful for clearance for that to happen. And then eventually Mark got over here in North Carolina.

And I joked that, you know, eventually Mark said, hey, wait a minute, I was first one. David went, Jeff went, I'm going. So here we are all over here now. Mark still races, plays around those legends cars a little bit. And he works over at Rev. Yes. managing a lot of operations over there. So he's doing, I see him every now and then.

And I didn't know you as well, but I did know Jeff a lot from back when he drove for dad. And then when me and Mark raced against each other in the Xfinity series, Mark was a really, really nice guy. Like I didn't, I wouldn't, I was a little introverted. Mark didn't let that stand in the way. way of us having a conversation. Right. And I always appreciate that about him. Always the way that, you know, they were, y'all all are three different people.

But all of you seem to have really great manners, easygoing, calm demeanors. So your parents and your family and your environment was conducive to a pretty solid upbringing. Well, thank you. That means a lot. You know, having two brothers in racing and we're all kind of doing the same deal, fighting for the same real estate at times, right? Yep.

Very challenging. And I think throughout our careers on the driving side, that took its toll a lot. I know Jeff and I became further apart. How did that happen? Well, I think he was, driving the famous number three. Yeah.

Well, even before that, Jeff was, it's almost like what Mark and I experienced through go-karting, the local track at Kentucky Motor Speedway, and then getting into the Bush series. Jeff took all those things, trials and tribulations we experienced

and put those into one package, and boom, came out of the gate. You know, he set a track record, so to speak, right? Yeah. Coming right out of the gate. So, and then the unfortunate part of it, and I can even say this with Mark, is kind of the heyday of all of our careers, we're right there in one time frame.

It's like I wish that Mark and I would have been separated by 10 years, then Jeff, another 10. That'd make me really old, but anyway. And then we could experience those in a calmer atmosphere. But I'm telling you, and we've grown closer now after we've grown closer now after we're. We retired on the driving side, and that means a lot too, right? That looking back at it, it wasn't fun. Now, we'll say this, at the racetrack, I was always just biggest supporter. I would talk to him about racetracks, talked to him about setups, because I worked in the shop.

I helped my guys set up the Slim Jim car, right? And I'd always try to help him. And then we'd go to Fairgrounds, for example, and Jeff was the king at the fairgrounds. And then I think, Jeff, and we know this, right, as you go to your home track, everything's on the line, all your people are there, you want to try really hard. And sometimes we over-try. To me, every time we went to the fairgrounds, race the Bush Series, Jeff just tried so hard to do whatever that sometimes it hurt, right? But I would always tell him the truth. And then some of his team members, I think, thought at one point I was kind of fibbing to them.

you know, I have codes for springs and all this kind of stuff, right? But I can honestly say I always told Jeff the truth. And, because he's my little brother, right? So we want to end up one and two cross the line or in this case of just March running. We can be third, one, two, three. And we almost had that happen at Myrtle Beach. Gosh, I was driving a caterpillar bush car. And we ended up sitting on the pole and ended up winning the race.

and Jeff was maybe third or fourth in the three car. But yeah, we almost had the perfect scenario, perfect storm one time there. So it's interesting that you said that it was difficult at times because obviously the rest of the world is not privy to that part of y'all's life and the experience that you and him are having as brothers. From the outside looking in, I would have said just opportunities, because he also drove for the day enterprise a time or two. But, like, Jeff's opportunities were assisted by the success that you had.

Much in the way Michael's, Walter's, opportunities were assisted by his brothers, not only his notoriety, but like, hey, you know, maybe there's some of the same genes in there, right? If one, you know, we'll do that right now with the quapples, right? Right. With Caden and Carson. Carson's a solid-ass race car driver. I think he's got what it takes. Right.

He's probably got it. Caden's got that too, you know? Travis has raised them both. So, yeah, and it's interesting because I, you know, Jeff would probably get mad at me for saying it, but I feel like that, you know, once he gets, I guess, to the exfinity level or, you know, or even the cup level, like the rest is up to him for sure.

But like from the late models or running the local weekly stuff at the fairgrounds up until he lands that three ride in 96 or whenever that was, 95, I feel like that you influenced that even so slightly. Right. In the same way that, you know, you said, hey, man, we ran that track and Darrell's, you know, Darrell having

raced that shore track was a big deal. So, you know, if that was happening, I mean, I think deep down, it's like,

hey, you always want to kind of help open the door, right? Yeah. And, you know, not that it's unique because we have a lot

of brother acts in racing, right? The Bodines and it isn't unique. Yeah. And that's why I think it's more, you know,

interesting that while I feel like, you know, one may be assisting the other, and hell, if he goes and runs great and kicks ass, that in turn help you as well. Exactly. You know, back the other way. Yeah. But, and he does have this hard-headed independence. Jeff.

Yes. Oh, yeah. It is. He is, I know what I'm doing. I know what needs to happen here. that's probably what helped break us away a little bit, right? Not being as close

as I feel like we should. Looking back at it, now, I wish I'd hugged him every time we went to the racetrack and jumped in to do battle, right? But most time I was like, sure, I'm going to get you today. Yeah.

You end up having a really solid year with the Fillmore team at the end of the season. and though they let you go? Yes, there was some sponsorship issues and didn't ask a lot of questions, but I do know it was December-ish, early December. Late.

And as you well know, that's tough. And I'm sitting here thinking, okay, well, we had a poll. We won a race as a rookie, I think in my six full-time start that year. And we were leading rookie the year, Martinsville was our last race. We lost a motor halfway through the race. Jeff Gordon and I were going back and forth.

And, you know, sidebar to all that. Jeff was a rookie that year, and I was. We probably had a couple more in there, too. But Jeff was like 17, 18. And I'm like 33. I'm like, you know, but I was enjoying every second. I was learning from Jeff. But I knew that was.

going to be enough to secure a rookie year. Now, if we'd have finished it all off, that would have been maybe a different story. But quickly, I got the news in December. Went back to Winsboro two hours away. And even thought about talking to Wayne again. But, you know, I just wanted to let everything settle. Because I'm thinking, hey, man, what a successful rookie year.

And then this happens. And I'm like, man, if this is what big time, auto race is all about. I don't know if I can handle this. Yeah. And so I went back home. spent all days and just

kind of figuring out what I want to do, right? And phone rang Bobby Levani. Bobby's like, hey, I just heard the news. This is probably a day or two after I got to let go, but he said, hey, I heard the news.

First thing first, you need to be driving. After a year like eight, you need to be driving. But right now I need some help. Yeah. I'm like, okay. So I thought about it over Christmas and I called he back. He said, all right. He said, head on over. So I drove over January 8th. Where are they at? In High Point. Okay. Just worked there throughout 92. The whole year. The whole year. As a mechanic. What was it? And spotted. You know, spotting's kind of come along

then. What is it, what is it like? I've heard stories, but what is it like working for for senior? Bob Sr. I would say more like probably working for Tony Uri senior. Fiery. Fiery to the point. And record speaks for itself. I learned so much from Bob, but just a hardcore racer, right? Number one, we weren't going to be a pound or two light.

We weren't going to have a spoiler that may be flexed in the air. No? Legal? Legal eagle. Legal, legal. Is this Bobby Labani's first or second year in the Bush year? This would have been Bobby's second year, I think. Now, he won in 91, so this might have been his third year in 92.

Got you. Bobby had won. Maybe he needed some help. The championship. So he needs some help. But I think there's some other ulterior motives that we'll get into. But went there. And Bobby's like, hey, I'm still back in Kentucky before I drive over.

He's like, hey, he said, if you stay there, you're going to be out of sight, out of mine. I want you at the racetrack. And I promise you, if Jack Ingram calls at race number three and needs you to drive a car, you're going to go do it. I'm like, okay. Yeah. Okay. So went over there, plus I need a job, right? So went over there.

I worked. Jack ended up calling. I mentioned him because he did end up calling. not the third race of the year, but at some point in time prior to mid-season. And I went in and talked to Bobby, walked into office, shut the door. And you know, Bobby, he's like another father to me and big brother that I didn't have. And I kind of told him about my phone call, and he's like, hmm, the Bobby way, right? And he's like, let me think about this, but I think we'll pass on this one.

and I'm like, okay, okay. So I passed on it because he said, I need to stay with him and go spot and do all this. I'm like, damn. So about September that year before Hickory, Bobby, it's on a Monday, I think. Bobby says, hey, don't make no plans for tomorrow at lunch. We're going to go do lunch. I'm like, okay, because usually we just ate at the shop in the break room, right? because we had Bob said, we got work to do, man, we got to go.

So Monday after work, Bobby came out there and says, yeah, don't forget, now we're doing lunch tomorrow. He said, but bring some nice clothes. Okay, okay. So got clothes. We took off. We're going to Raleigh. And I was like, well, what are we doing?

He said, well, I'm going to take you over to the Goodmark Foods, Slim Jim, Parent Company for Slim Jim, Goodmarked Foods. He's, we're going to go over and just do a little C. in recap with Dick Miller, the president of Good Mark Foods. I'm like, okay. Still, I have no idea. So we're sitting in Dick's office there and a big old desk. And Bobby's like, yeah, you know, I need to let you know that I've got this offer on the table

to go cup race next year of Bill Davis, Maxwell House and all this stuff to Mr. Miller. And maybe they'd already had this planned out. But Mr. Miller's like, yeah, congratulations, congratulations. He says, now, you know, we're still. on for next year right slim gym on the bush car and all this stuff and he said oh yeah yeah and and bobby's like yeah but we probably need to think about a driver and dick's like yeah yeah well i'll be open for any conversations you know in the next coming weeks or so and bobby's like well i brought him with me and there i am sitting right yeah so that was my introduction to the idea well no it's how it's real i'm

to drive the 44 slim gym car in 1993. Yeah. Like, holy smoke. Best car in the garage. Holy smoke. And, man, I've been working on this thing all year. And Dale, honestly, I say Bobby had all this planned out. And what a savior to my career, right? Is he brought me on board to work on this car, build these cars, hang bodies, work with the guys in the shop. He was prepping me for getting in that thing

And when I wrote in that thing And I mentioned a lot of times It's like we just pulled Bobby's name Because I put the decals on the car too, right? I love that Still love that today But yeah, I was able to pull Bobby's name off And put my name on

And moved the seat around a little bit And we're set to go In 1993 So here Bobby missed out on the championship And now he's giving it all to me I'm like, oh man And this is going to be some pressure here. We get to that point.

We fire off in 93, and, man, we led the points for a long time and had a couple of little misfortune at the end of the year, blew a tire. And heck, I broke my scapula a couple times with some blown tires, and that might have been part of it too. But anyway, we failed a third at the end of the year. But my first season with driving a Slim Jim car, we were third. So, but we had a lot of momentum for down the road. That's painful breaking your shoulder blade.

And I did it twice. And Bobby did it. Yeah. Yeah. And probably you did too. Those old seats where that seat ran right across up. Oh, my gosh. Very painful.

Yeah. Very painful. You won a championship in 94. I remember this part of, this part of the history the sport quite well. Out of the success of driving that car, you, and you talked about the relationship that you'd created with dad,

right, as soon as you get into the sports, you're in and around all these figures, and he's one of them. There was a, there was a, this is something that I didn't know. There was an opportunity to drive that three car. Yes. In the Xfinity series.

I got an offer, mid-season of 95 from Buzz McCall on the Caterpillar Bush team. Ward Burton had drove that car just a handful of races. And, you know, the pay was good as well. Just all those little things, right? But, man, you're talking about a tough decision or tough time knocking on the door to walk into Bobby's office and say, hey. But I'm telling you, at first he was not very happy.

But I look back at that thinking, okay, that's my, you know, that's my big brother. Yeah. You know, it made me feel good. And still to this day, he's my best buddy, right? And we talk all the time. But so I went to do that deal. And then so Ward had drove the Caterpillar Buscar and a handful of races. And in 96, they're going to go full time with myself driving.

So a couple of things is a brand new team. Yeah. And we got to run all the races. And we came out of the gate pretty good. Yeah. Really good. And we had a great engine program with KTEC. And, you know, the car side of things, we were still trying to find our home with chassis

and stuff like that, right? But we had a couple of the cars. We won Hickery. We won a couple of races right. Right there, then toward the end of the year, about September again, is Caterpillar. Caterpillar wanted to go cup racing in 97. So obviously, Buzz said, heck, yeah, we're going to go cup racing. If I remember correctly, you're in position, you're battling for the championship when this decision was made.

and it sort of took the attention away from that a little bit. You're correct, and this is very similar to maybe... It was a sacrifice that was necessary to get the team into the cup series. Correct. Very similar to maybe one stage of Jeff's career when the same thing happened, right? And this is really ironic and kind of odd when we start to talk about, right? So, yes, September Caterpillar went to go cup racing. So we had the number 95 cat bush car.

Then in 97, it was going to be the number 96 cup car. So we had just agreed to go cup racing in 97. Then it was about a week later. I got a call. And your dad's like, where he at? I'm like, well, I'm working in shop on the cat car. And he's like, well, I'm working in a shop on the cat car. And he's like, well, he's like, well,

come see me. Come deer hit shop. So I drove up there and, man, we sit there and he's like, hey, and I don't even know if I knew at that particular point that Jeff was not going to be there. And your dad said, first thing he said, he said, man, he said, I love your little brother to death. Love him to death. But in racing, and I'm still trying to learn, you know, all the nuances of, you know, I think you would agree to back in the beginning.

It was just us driving a car, and we're just thinking about us. Well, all these ingredients to the team, personnel, all this stuff. So your dad said, you know, I love Jeff to death, but we're going to make a change. And he said, I want you to drive the three car. So let me interject maybe right before all this happened. We were at Darlington in the fall. I'm in the cat, Bush car. or second or third in practice, and I hated practicing at Darlington.

Tires wear out, they make you out there and run. I think you would say the same thing. I loved to race there, but hate to practice. So I'm out of the car. We were kind of walking around because we got an hour practice, and your dad hollered at me, come over, and he said, hey, he says, just getting ready to go out and make a run here, you do anything. I said, no, we're pretty much done for this practice.

He said, hey, I said, I want you to make a lap in the three car. I'm like, okay. He said, Jeff always complains about the engines. He said, but I don't know where to do and what to do with it, right? How can we make it better right here today? He said, I want you to make a couple last. I said, you sure. Are you going to tell Jeff?

Yeah. And he's like, everything's fine. Everything's fine. You know how he was. And so Jeff came in. And he kind of looked at me like, what are you doing standing here, like in your cat uniform? And I knew right then he didn't tell you. So I jumped in that thing.

We went out there. And again, remember, I hate practicing at Darlington, right? And they didn't put new tires on it either, right? So we went out there, and I'm like, oh, man, I can't scratch this thing, you know, the three car. And we run a couple pretty good laps and come in. And your dad had told me like, hey, when you get through running, come straight to the trailer I'll meet you in the trailer

so got out went in there he said all right what you think I'm like did I did I do pretty good or because I was really cautious right but you know sometimes being cautious is good yeah and I ran pretty good times right

and Dale was like what do you think I'm like I'll be honest with you I said if I could take my engine and put in your car we'd be bad So the motor's not good.

I didn't say that that way, right? So Dennis Fisher's in there. Oh, he's in the trailer. Oh, no. And Dennis built engines. And he was a quality engine. He was. He's a great guy. And really all it boiled down to is some of the throttle sprats

went there and had a little burp. And maybe Jeff had explained it in a certain way. So Dale, I leave and everything's fine. And your dad's like, get on out. of here, right? So I went on, did my deal. So we're qualifying. And I remember I went out like five to go in the lineup, and maybe I'm second. No, I'm third. I'm third. And there's about two or three cars to go. And you know how it used to be? It's like, man, I really want to stay on the inside here at Darlington. I don't want to get bumped by one guy and move to the outside. So I survived one

guy, but the last car to go out was the three car. I'm like, dang. Okay, maybe. Maybe I can stay in the inside lane. Hopefully he'll be fourth. Hopefully he'll be fourth or fifth or something. Sucker went and sat on the pole. I'm like, whoa. So I had to go back over. Like, what y'all?

Did y'all change anything? Oh, yeah, we just did some stuff to the carburetor. Okay. So I really felt good then for my brother, right? Yeah. He's got him a pole, and if I could help out, fine. But then I also understood how well that car drove, right? And so then fast forward in my meeting over at Deerhead Shop.

He said, I want you to drive the three car. And I'm like, and I didn't even think about first saying, hey, we just signed a deal to go cup racing. What came to my mind was, that's my brother, you know. And your dad's sitting across from him. He's sitting there, I'm sitting here. And your dad had this look on his face like, that's right I mean it is really surreal

and one of them moments I wish I could have taped and memorized even better but I never get that moment and I'm like Dale I said man I had a great time in it in the four laps I drove it at Darlington I'd love to drive it everywhere but I do understand

but man that's my brother that's my youngest brother and I'm very proud of him and but Now, did I think about after that? And I never told Jeff that. Did I ever think about that afterwards? Like, man, I should have took that?

Yes. I thought about it. Because when we went cup racing on the Caterpillar team, we were like a one-year-old full-season Xfinity Bush Series team going cup racing. It was not good. Not good. But that was an opportunity. and obviously Steve Park ended up driving it.

Yeah. They ended up getting Hutter engines too. You should have said to Dad, I know you probably couldn't, but he had his own experiences with those same fisher engines. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dennis was amazing as an engine builder, but for whatever reason they were struggling to make power with those cars at that particular time. Well, in that particular day, it was just some tuning, right? Maybe a little deeper, but what a pivotal time in my career personally.

Yeah. But yeah. Hey, it's Dale Jr. Did you know that we've got brand new merch from our Star Stripes and Bears Collection available now? We've got tanks, teas, beach towels, and more just in time for summer.

Check it all out at shop.dirtymomedia.com. Well, you, that kicks off your cup career, right? And you talked about how things didn't go well with the Caterpillar team. They released, Larry Hedrick calls you, they released Steve Grissom from the 41 and wanted you to run the last few races of the season. You signed a deal to run the full year in 99.

With the Kodiak. Yeah. That deal was kind of clunky around that particular time. Yeah. And it kind of had always been with, Larry and his team. You ended up leaving in the middle of the year or after a race at Richmond? Yes.

I think after another broken scapula, I had to sit out a week. And, man, back in the day, if you missed a week, they might be looking for somebody different. Sure. And sure enough, that was the case. Larry was a great guy. I think really put a lot into his race team, but just never got to. around the corner.

Right. Like you said, to be consistent and smooth. But, yeah, unfortunately, yes. You'd sign a deal with Tyler Jet. Who was that? So that was Tim Beverly. Rich Bickle had been driving that car. The number 45, 10, 10.

The collect call stuff or whatever? 3, 4, 5 or something like that. That purple car. Purple car. So I did like the last 10 races maybe of that year with that car. The first race or two, they had been building their own engines, and I think that's what Richard Bill could have had an issue with, right, engines. So the first two races we ran, things weren't real good,

but new enthusiasm, new team, James Ince, if you remember him, he was crew chief. And the uniqueness of this team was James was crew chief. we had Chad Canals as a shot guy we had gosh Jay

Jay guy over there working there's a lot of who's who on this particular team and James philosophy was a little bit counter

opposite of Bob Labani is maybe more like a Harold Holly I'm going to try to get it through if it gets through it's going to be

good. Yeah, he's going to, we're just aggressive. Yeah, really aggressive. And as I walked up to that car to sit in at the first time at the race track, and you know this feeling, I felt like I was two-tenths faster before I even got in it. Yeah. This thing's all twisted up. The 10-10, 3, 4, 5, all the graphics were cool.

Yeah. And it's a Pontiac. Yeah. This thing is right. So then after about the third race, they're on. we got Hendrick engines. So probably our bright spot of that was Homestead. Setting on the pole.

Yeah, so we ran Homestead on this has been the second version of the track, the flat corners. We went down there and tested and we were pretty good. We just made small tweaks to it. And again, James and Chad and that whole group, the Hendrick engines, the Pontiac, I can't explain how wicked looking that body was, right? So we went down or sat on the pole and I was very tickled to, I think, Rusty Wallace met.

I made a comment in the media center post-qualifying to some effect of like, well, if you're in a Pontiac today, anybody could drive a Pontiac. Oh, yeah. John Indready was second, and I think possibly Bobby was third in the Gibbs car. But Pontiacs did make up the first four spots, but. That was a little offensive, but I got over it. But yeah, we ran okay in the race. But yeah, my cup career just, we never got all eight cylinders going. It seemed like, you know, as happy as excited as I was for the cat deal to go cup race,

and what a great sponsor. You know, it just never materialized, you know, to where we needed to be. Around 2002, you replaced Ricky Hendrick in the Bush car that he had Ricky was driving for the final six races of the season. You were his driver coach. You're at a test. He goes and runs a run and comes in and says he's done driving race cars. He had had, this was after the injury he had it, I think at Vegas or somewhere he wrecked and had an injury to his right arm. Yes.

So, and I know that Rick had mentioned that, you know, coming back from that and just really kind of set in to him that maybe he wanted to go do something else. But that had to been pretty, like, you know, you had to probably go, yeah, right, whatever. You know, you're going to be fine. Right, right. Well, in 2000, 2001, I drove the 34 car, and that's how I met Ricky. he was doing some partial Exfinity stuff You drove the CC?

CC well, right 34. Yeah. And things were good there. Just never able to win, but we had Hutter engines. Thanks for good. Then, yes, we were Atlanta at that test,

and we broke for lunch. And Ricky come up in the lounge and just said, I think I want to do something different. So it was shocked to me. He said this to you, just to you, by yourself? Yes, it was myself and, gosh, I'm forgetting the name, Ken House. Okay, I know Ken.

Ken was up there, yes, up in the lounge, and I think Ken and I both kind of looked to each other like, ooh. So after lunch, I threw Ricky stuff on and jumped in. We made a couple laps, and, you know, I wouldn't totally comfortable in the car just jumping in a test, right? I mean, it's a fast track. I remember back in the day the new pavement. So I was on the edge right, and I can't tear this thing up. So I remember we left the track, I called Rick.

I'm like Rick. You probably already heard this, but this is what Ricky said. And I said, but my personal feeling is, because I'm his driver coach, right? I'm trying to, I'm like, I think this time tomorrow he's going to come back. right and he's going to say hey I was just having a moment that day at Atlanta so I got off the airplane and I'd missed a call from Rick and he said call me and so I called him he said no Ricky's stepping aside and we want you to drive it the rest of the year so at in 2002 I didn't have anything solid right I just left the 34 in 2001 was sitting there idle in 2002

trying to put things together, then this all happened, right? So drove that car the last few races, knowing each time I was auditioning for this thing, right? And I told Rick, I said, I'm just going to be point blank. This is not David Green style, but I'm just saying I'm auditioning for this car. GMAC was on the car. And man, Dale, I can remember going to Charlotte, which hadn't been one of my better racetracks. And rolling out there in practice, and that was back in that era to where we was probably turning nine grand.

You know, we had no gear rule, and this thing's all twisted up. I mean, it's nice, right? And I think I ended up running third, fourth, fifth, something like that. Shoot, I never even got close to that before, right? And this thing is so driver-friendly on the horsepower, nine grand on RPM. I mean, it's just wonderful. Man, I really want to do this next year. So we go to Phoenix, maybe the last race the year, homestead, something like that,

and Rick told me before we started, he said, listen to it, man, really appreciate it. But, you know, our group of people back at HMS were really kind of targeting a younger driver. I'm like, okay, I understand. Because, again, when I was a rookie in 91, I was old, right? So I'm really old now. But he's like, no, no, no. But we're going to make it right. So when Rick says things, right?

He means it, right? But the unfortunate part of was I knew I wouldn't going to drive that car in 2003. So Brian Vickers got it. And what Rick meant by making it right was. And I think he influenced Clarence Brewer now to hire me to drive the 37. Yeah, Timberwolf. That Jeff Purvis. So Mark started into 37, my brother.

then Jeff Purvis drove it, unfortunately got hurt. Then I got plugged in to drive it in 2003. So Rick was instrumental in that part of it. But he also was instrumental in not only coaching Ricky and helping Ricky. I was also a part of the test team with the new COT car that it came out. So Rick Stump and myself and Lance McGrew and that whole test team, gosh, I tested for those guys for several years. But it all got to get kicked off and got in high gear when I went to drive the Bruko Xfinity car. We did the Speedway races with the R&D team at Hendrick

Motorsports. And we did R&D, right? And that was fine. That was great. Now I'm cup racing again, right? With Hendrick Motorsports. So we continued doing our R&D testing, even though I'm driving for now Bruko in 2003. And we come out of the gates blazing, Jason Radcliffe, his crew chief. Damn. Yep. And Clarence had really built his program, thanks to Mark early on, right? Back home in Kentucky team and Timberwolf and just, I think we won three or four races that

year. And got down to the very end. Well, I was leading to points. We were at Dover in the fall. and on lap five, Scott Riggs got into me and turned me around, and I crashed out early and lost my point lead. So we fast forward going to Homestead. They just reconfigured the track. It's Brian and I and Scott Riggs, I think, was close.

Hornaday was close. Five laps into practice, I think Brian had an issue, got into a wall. They had to go to a backup car. And so we're sitting there, you know, their teams are parked at the garage like they do now, You know, we had maybe 10 people on the team, five, six full-time people. We're sitting over here watching the traffic in and out of the five team. Heck, they got more engineers, and we had people, right? So I'm like, we were really up against the giant, right?

So got down to the end of the race with 50 to go and passed Brian. I think I had to beat Brian about three spots, got around him, and then was a very challenging day, I'll say it this way, and passing Casey Mears for the position that I really needed. And I ended up one position short. I think I lost it by 12 points. And dang it in 96 driving the cat car, we lost it by 22 points. That's the O system, obviously. So I think every once in a while, if I could have gathered up about 30-some-odd points,

I could maybe have three rings, right? But it was a great time, and Rick said it at the end of the race, they're celebrating. Brian went into championship and kind of put his arm around me and said, hey, I was going to win this championship one way, the other, whether it's you or Brian, which meant a whole lot, right? But, yeah, a great time in my career there as well. How do you wind your career down? How does that happen?

Well, we ended up finishing out my career for driving with Bruko. Timberwood, 37, then with some regulations, Timberwiff had to leave the sport. Kleenex got involved, and here we go again. This is another sponsor, Jeff. It's like how mirrored seems like our careers might have been. But I know in 2005 maybe we won Pikes Peak with Kleenex, and that was my lot of last win. And then I think we maybe ran one more year than the team wanted to go a different direction.

And then I went to do, I was still doing the R&D testing with Hinder. And then kind of put together maybe a couple of won offers, you know, Tommy Baldwin had a deal. We did a couple of races with one time. But I didn't do the start park stuff like Jeff did. So I mainly resorted back to the 10. casting with Hendrick. Then when Bobby Labani went to drive the 47 cup car, when Tad went cup racing,

I went over to spot. So then I got in that spotting part of my career and spotted for a lot of great drivers in Cup and Xfinity. He inspired for you, I think, at Daytona one time, and I was a nervous wreck on that one. But you were good to me. You were kind. And hopefully I did okay.

But, you know, the spotting deal was kind of the step right out of the car where I could still get my driving fixed sort of. I felt like, you know, at least Bobby and you and the good drivers I spotted for always made me feel like I was sitting in the car with them, right? And that was the fun part about spotting. So I still kind of kept my driving need there through that time. And then in 2012, still doing some tests and still spotting, John Darby approached me at Phoenix in the cup garage and said, hey, might have an opening, would you be interesting coming to work for us? And, you know, my first thought is like everybody says, oh, man, you're going to work for the dark side.

You're doing this, doing that? And I actually thought about it for a full year. Because, again, I knew that was going to be a big career change. But I accepted. And one year later, I told John, I said, count. me and let's do it. So I started mid-season of 14, and I've always been a part of safety, car and driver stuff, which, you know, I got to work and be hands-in-hand with a lot of drivers I drove for, or drove against and with, and then moving forward, working with John Padlock and

Matt Harper and all the folks at R&D, Tom Gideon, man, I learned so much. And then, to be honest with you, being at a racetrack in that competitive environment, getting respected by my peers as far as guys I used to drive with, guys I didn't get to drive with, guys like yourself and just other teams really fueled my fire and it still does today. Really? I enjoy the heck out of my job. Now the travel's tough.

Yeah. But the company does a lot for us to get us around quickly. But I still love my job. I love to look at race cars. I love to look at race cars and how teams do things differently to get the same result. But also the fun part is how we've involved safety, and it didn't start with me, right?

But John Padillac and the guys at R&D have really taken that to another level. And it's fun to be a part of that. And it's fun to have the camaraderie in the garage and the respect. It means so much to me. I think that the one thing, I mean, of course, I think we, as drivers, have a really hard time coming to terms with not driving a race car. The joy of competition, the joy of going down in the corner and your car rolls the center better, and you're going to throttle up and turn right up underneath this guy.

That right there is exactly what is hard to let go of. But we will do it as long as we get to keep going to the track and it matter. And it will be an asset or a value to something. Like I wanted, I never thought I was going to be a broadcaster. But when I found that avenue, like I didn't want to stop going to the track. Right. But I needed a reason to be there. Right.

Right. And I think that you found that same thing. Same thing. In a very, you know, a very critical role. I've seen you walk around and work the garage and the sport, I mean, the, your keen eye, you know, of over the years looking at. interiors and headrests and positioning and just being being someone willing to walk over to a driver like a Joey Lugano and say, hey, I'd really like it if that was about a half inch taller or if that was a little bit this way or a little bit that.

I think that's going to benefit you better and be safer. That's, you know, that's a, you can't put a value on that role. So I'm thankful that that that's something that you found, you know, enjoyment in because it plays such a critical part of keeping all of us on the on the racetrack and keeping us safe speaking of that you talked about mounting seats I know your driver your brother Jeff told me a few things about mounting seats and tip it like one of the things that I always like I jump in a race car way back when I'm young I mount I mounted the seat perfectly straight that's why I thought you're supposed to

mount it. I get in the car. I'm driving cars for years. I'm driving cars. And I kept telling people the same thing. It's tipped over on the right front. Everything's great, but it just feels like it carries the left rear. It's tipped over on the right front. And Jeff told me to turn the seat, tilt the seat. He's like, if it feels that way, then tilt the seat. So from that moment on, and this was probably like late model stock just right before I got into the bush car. I started mounting the left side of the seat. or tilting the right side up, you know, or if it's an insert, mounting the insert. All of my Hendrick stuff, if you were able to look at the insert,

my body is tilted inside the insert, right? And so, and it would take that sensation away of getting me, you know, getting the car, it felt like it would give me the platform of the car that I wanted, but it was just kind of tricking my mind. You know, I guess were you particular about the, types of. Oh, absolutely. And not that I stumbled off across it, but back into Mike Alexander days, right? So I had to, thank goodness we were the same size, or close to it. And I wasn't dare going to

tell Mike, oh, I got to move the seat for me, and you're going to suffer through it the race for you, right? So I jumped in Mike's car, and that's where I got my trend going, is not only to have it tilted, but he had it turned. Damn. Now, this is an oval. A road course would be straight up. But he had it turned, and that kind of caught me off guard a little bit, like, why is he turning it? I get this part of it. And then also that put the steering wheel a little off center to the

right, you know, a whole motion there. Yeah. So back to turning it to the left front tire, so speak, or the A post, it obviously put your vision where you need it to be. And then I think one of the main factors as well is it straightens out your right leg. Yeah. And sitting in the garage back when we used to have practice, we were waiting for spring changes, shock changes, all that stuff. My car was very uncomfortable sitting in the garage.

Now, when I got on the racetrack, it was comfortable because all these things being done, pedal location, steering one location, was ideal center of the corner. because that's where I wanted to go the fastest, right? But it wasn't my idea. Mike Alexander led me that direction. And then I had a lot of pushback from teams and interior guys. That's why I wanted to be the interior guy. I just do it this way, right? But I got a lot of pushback, but I learned that from Mike.

And that whole deal of now of a sudden, because back in the day our cars traveled. A bunch of Delta on the right front. Yeah. And if you start up here, then just to me, keeping in mind. the center of the corner is the most comfortable spot for you. Your foot wanted to go down because it wasn't all bound up. But yeah. Yeah, I had guys get in my car even late in my career and go like Bowman and Regan Smith and go,

yeah, I can't drive it like this, you know, sitting in the garage. I'm like, yeah, not going to feel good right here. But wait until we get down in the center of the corner of Charlotte. You're going to be exactly everything's going to go where it's more, you know. Exactly. Because I would actually, you know, I'd build the headrest up. And so if you were sitting in the car, you almost had your head tilted a little bit. And you're thinking, this isn't good.

I can't drive like this. But once you load and get everything going where it goes down into the corner after, you know, five to seven Gs down in the corner, whatever we're feeling there, maybe it's not that much. Everything is, now you're sitting straight up and down. Yes. It's always found that fascinating. I learned that from your brother Jeff. Yeah.

So we even use a lot of that mindset even today, right? With drivers watching the cup cars have high-speed cameras that look at the driver at all times. Unfortunately, in an instance, say Alex Bowman's yesterday, you know, we look at that on what's happening. But just normal driving, right? There's interesting things you see. Really quickly a story, and you might have forgot this one. We talked about seat location. Yeah.

The 83 car. You're going to drive at Charlotte. I forget what year it was. I was going to drive at Charlotte. I was spotting for Landon when Landon was over here. My white Navy, 83. Yeah, yeah, right. So you called me, I said, hey, I'm over in Charlotte over there in a couple weeks.

They got the test on Monday. Can you go over and test? And I'm like, okay, yeah, I can go. So he said, go shop, make sure things are in the seat. So same mindset. I got to drive it the way you drive it because you're going to race it, right? So I get in there and that thing's kind of doing this number. so we ended up putting some padding on the back, right?

And I need to get up here and get where I can see. Because I was like a 70-degree angle. I wouldn't lay back right. And I, again, learned that from Mike. And I always thought, too, I'd throw out there for comical reasons would be they never can accuse me and not being up on the wheel. Yeah. Because I'm up on that wheel before we start.

So anyway, I put some padding in your seat. I get up there where I'm comfy. We go there and Rick Stumps over there. And I fire out, and I remember it was the year that they had levigated the track. It was fast. It got as fast. But you had an appearance so you couldn't go, and I was giggling and ready to do it. So we rode out.

I came by one time, went through one and two, got down to three and four, and about in the middle of three and four, that thing goes, boom, it dropped down. And I'm looking at that wall off of four at Charlotte. and that was we were probably wide open yeah kind of time-free which we didn't like right as a driver but anyway come off turn four and that wall looked like it was that tall and I'm like I am going over this wall

when I stopped I was in turn one of the quarter mile I'm like oh boy that hurt then I thought oh crap I got a tail Dale junior it just wrecked his car so I get out I go down there and I see Dr. Petty because I'm like, well, they brought me down there anyway. And he said, call me a couple days, make sure you're doing okay.

And I felt okay right then. And man, about three days later, I'm like, oh, so I go see him. And I think I'd just small fracture of a rib or two. And what had happened was, is a Butler built seat. And I love those seats, right? But what I did wrong was I put about an inch and a half or two inches the padding behind my back. Yeah.

And it took the rib from being here to move to your side. To move it back here. Yeah. So I don't remember what you said when I called or talked to you about wrecking your car, but we come to find out sway bar boat. Holy shit. Got into the inside the tall tire. So the levigation of the track.

So fast it has so much tire deflection. Yes. Yes. Yes. So it's like, oh, shoot. So that's, that was a good less. That was always my fear of driving those cars back. then you'd run even the cup cars we'd go to you know in 03 04 we'd go to uh fontana or Atlanta and

you'd go out and run and come into the garage and Tony Jr. Nima'd lift the hood and the left front or the right front tire might have a damn one inch wide groove in it from how where the fender had rubbed it had laid on top of the tire yes or the fender strap Fender strap, right at the seam between the hood and the fender, there's an one-inch strap that ran the entire length from the top of the hood all the way down to the hood pins. And that laid on top of that tire and cut this groove. They were traveling those cars just as far as they could get them.

Until it laid that damn fender lay on that tire. And you'd see fenders with the paint boiling off of the fender because of the tire laying. and I remember I did go to Fontana. We go to Fontana off into term one, first lap of practice. Oh, down into one new tire, full throttle back to the gas, and that right front tire exploded because that strap laid on that right front tire. And I'm like, God, we can't keep doing this shit. Like, we've got to figure something out.

Now, then when we had telemetry, I did a test out there with the COT car. It was early morning, and we made a couple laps there. came in, you're looking at the data and stuff like that. And it's like, how fast was we running down there? Like, I'll end up one is like 204 or something like that. And like, after that, I think I slowed up a couple tests for us today. We went, me and LaTart went to Michigan to test, and this was in 14. They just repaved, they just paved the track maybe a couple years before that.

But we were tire testing. and we're out there, Biffles out there, a couple of us, and I mean, I'm running, we're on a 20-lap run, and it's near wide open. And I come in the pits, and I'm like, Steve,

I'm like, I'm just going to tell you between me and you, you know, I ain't even close to what we can do. Right. I was like, I'm not going to be, not today. Not today on a tire test for a good year. Right. But like, yeah, like the last lap of every run,

I just do what it could do. be like half a second faster. But I just wasn't willing to run it like that for 20 laps. Were you the driver that won Bristol when Mark Martin pulled off the racetrack? Yes, it was. What did you think about that? Did you think they were going to walk into the victory lane and maybe tell you that they were going to give Mark his win?

No. My memories right there of that day were we were coming on strong at the end of the race, right with 50 to go I might have got into second right there mark was leading as you well know mark was what that wind dixie car and mark were tough to be everywhere we went and he was he was the gauge right he was the bar so i'm i'm chopping into his lead there a little bit and i kept thinking like okay it looks like i'm going to catch him now i'm trying to size up where i can pass him because that's going to be the tough part but as we well know mark was one of the most clean respected drivers out there that I knew if I could get there was going to be fine, right?

So I got pretty close and then caution come out. And so we were driving around through there and nobody's saying anything on my radio. Now, the thing that I remember the most was when we were rolling into the three, rolling three and four, coming off of four, pace car still out on track, Mark peels off. Yeah. And it still didn't hit. me quite thin, but what did hit me was pace car still on track. So, I'm wondering you didn't follow him.

Right. That comment's been made. I never thought that. So I obviously stayed out, right? We come back around to, we got to checker that lap. Heck, I stayed on track another lap. I'm like, I'm not coming off to y'all tell me to get off. So then the other interesting part of that is now if Mark had turned off the track

and Victory Lane would have been down there where normal Victory Lane is. He would have been there before you. Even though he's on pit road. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was what was told to me. But obviously Victory Lane being in the middle of three and four. But, you know, yeah, I was like, whoa, what's just happening, right?

Number one, I was very proud of how we ran that day. And to run second to Mark Martin was going to be like a win to me, right? And we were in it for the long haul, for the championship. But then I think the coolest thing for me after that, weekend or as it was ending up right there was the interview i saw that mark did they interviewed mark and he's like dumbest thing ever did my life or something like that right he's really hard on sale but he said hey he said i've been rooting for david green to win but not quite like that yeah so to me that total respect from mark right but uh yeah that was an interesting one um but as i say

you had to be somebody had to be there right yeah it's going to be somebody i was very proud of my team that day and we were strong. It had been nice to have been able to try to pass it. Yeah. Not many people ask your side of that afternoon. We've heard from Mark on that a few times because we still like to remind him of it. Oh yeah.

You talked about spoilers that might bend a little bit in the wind. I walked into the shop one day when Jeff was driving I think they're getting ready for the very first race together in Daytona and Jeff was on the bench welding aluminum

for the rear spoiler. Right. And it had to be welded all the way across, but he welded it in little stitches. And then he would put J.B. weld

right to look like aluminum welds in the rest of those gaps, hoping that that would make it flex a little bit. Jeff, Jeff was pretty, Jeff was aggressive

when he could be. He didn't mind, he didn't mind pushing, pushing the limits of the rule book. And I know you're a NASCAR official these days, but we love talking

about in this room. Is there anything from your own career, anything that you created, any rule that you might have manipulated, or anything that might not have, maybe you did, maybe you wrote a new rule. Was there anything that you ever done that you thought was pretty clever? Well, I have to say this with working at Bobby Lobney Racing, it was. It wasn't then. It wasn't then.

I can promise to that. And the other teams I work for, obviously, um, uh, you know, Wayne Days, you know, building cars for customers, and we were straight in there. I think the only one I can think of, Dale, and with more time I could probably think, I thought the deal with Jeff on the spoiler was pretty cool, right? I did too. I think there had been some talk of, you know, back at that Fillmar car at one time, maybe some, brake calipers and the lower control arms to kind of jack the car up and down, you know,

after inspection, da, da, da, da. But I'd say probably the biggest one that, and we didn't actually do it, we actually found out about it. So, you know, Mike had had those Bush series cars. We brought it up to Wains. We, you know, we were kind of copying the body and going from there and this and that. So when we built the Daytona, 1991 Daytona Bush car for Fillmore for me to drive that we sat on the pole with, we kind of copied off of some of those cars that Mike had had. So they had real glass.

Front glass was real. And you remember those days. And we had chipped the glass in that car at Daytona and cracked it, right? That was the issue there. They'd get chipped and cracked. So we was going to replace that for either Talladega or the following Daytona. And I remember like, oh, yeah, you just called down here to the Osmobile Buick store and just order a front windshield for a 1991 Oldsmobile.

So we ordered one. They shipped it up to Wayne Days. We unboxed it. And we've got the car right there. We had no damage in the race. So then windshield's broke. So we pulled the windshield out of the box to put in the car. You know where I'm going, right?

This thing is like two inches too wide. So maybe when he sent us the wrong model car or whatever? No, sure enough. So the windshield was trimmed. down for that car, right? And that's prior to some rules here, there and yonder. But probably the

thing that got, that I was more involved with that was probably skirting around was that same particular car when we went to the Daytona for the race, Kip McCord, team manager says like, so we went through the routine at the shop on inspecting the car.

Yeah. And Kip's like, hey David, he says, when they go to measure the doortop on this car up here behind the A post, he said, I want you on the other side of whatever the official is that's checking that measurement. And more than likely, he's going to shoot you the tape measure through the car. Then when you're on the right side of the car, he's probably going to be on the left. I want you to cut that thing two inches. What do you cut it, two inches?

extended past. Don't hook it on the edge. What happened, that car was narrow. Windshield's narrow. Yeah. But the windshield part of it, obviously they didn't have a template back then for that windshield. But the doortop measurement was when they physically did. So I'm like, oh my gosh, you're going to put me over there.

He said, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, anything drivers do, they believe what drivers do, right? So he put me right into the fire right off the get-go. So, yeah, they measured it and I cut it, and it was right on the rule. That's awesome. Yeah, I know that wasn't that uncommon. Darrow Waltrip and Junior Johnson. Yeah, all those cars were that.

Yeah, they were narrow as hell. Which, as we know, prompted templates, right? Yeah. And I think... There was just an overall back in those days. Correct. And I think... From nose to tail.

You know, you asked a question, maybe it's something I did that. that prompted a rule. Not that I necessarily did it, but Tony Stewart was the same way. You were a little bit the same way as we put the tilt. We put the tilt back in the seat, which then got, you know, our helmets closer to the road wall. Closer to the doorbars.

On any left side hits, which we know we've seen those, and those aren't good. That prompted, actually, our new cup car, you know, I carry around a gauge that, that we check to make sure that no matter whether you have tilting a seat or you have tilt in the insert, which is typically what guys do on the cup side is sit the seat straight, then do your tilt with the insert. But anyway, what we want to do is always maintain a measurement from a common spot on the door bars.

Yes. in short of the helmet will always compress the headrest foam and do a lot of compressing on your headrest foam on the left side before it ever reaches the padding on the halo. Right. Without that rule, and a guy leaning really hard. Oh, yeah. You know, your helmet is going to hit the halo. Yeah, you're all in that halo.

That's why I always... And you missed a headrest. That's why I always tried to get laid back. It was really not so much that I liked the profile. I'd love to actually be sitting up straighter in my cars through the years, but I did not want to be anywhere near that halo bar. Correct. You know, and I always,

every time I would get in my cars in the shop and sit down, I put that helmet on. And the first thing I did was tilt my head over and measure this. Measure that. Yes. Smooth my hand around. I go, okay, that's good enough, you know. Because that was,

that headrest foam can move and compress, but that halo bar ain't going anywhere. It's not going anywhere. And obviously your dad never had that issue, right? He was always slow. Yeah. I wanted to end this conversation with giving you a chance to talk about your son, Austin. He's been racing in the Trans Am series and now the Xfinity Series as well.

It's been fun watching him work his way up to the ranks. I know he's worked hard to get at the minimum opportunities he's had, but he's done some amazing work with all of those. Thank you. You know, how stressful, I suppose, is it being a dad? Not only watching him out there on the track, believe in his abilities, understanding the challenges he faces to prove himself. And you're in the thick of the industry.

While that might give you some opportunities to keep the conversation going every day, you also have to keep your mind on your role, your responsibilities, and not be distracted by him being at the racetrack trying to compete. How do you manage all of that? Well, the last part there is very tough. Very tough. but the folks at NASCAR very supportive of watching him

participate and allow me to be a part of those weekends where maybe I don't have to work the Xfinity race I can just be there as be a dad but always just be a dad and work at the same time but very challenging I know early on we had our bandos, we had our legend cars and you know trying to want to do it myself

and giving the best opportunity, you know, then you plug in a guy like Timi Latica and Cheryl that gives him an opportunity to drive their legend car, then watching him drive some equipment that's not ours, not mine. I just kind of get back to look at it. I really didn't see a truer picture of Austin and his abilities, right? And not that ever said, hey, you're going to be a race car driver, but what I wanted to do is like if he could really do it and prior to him driving Timmy Elitica's legend car, I gave him many opportunities to not fail, but just to stumble

because either I didn't know the tricks to do on a legend car and stuff like that, but he always, always rose to the top. So then that's another confidence you have, right? But also an issue, right? like now we got to find him another ride or going up the ladder. So there for a while, I really thought that I've not done a good job as a dad. Based on my career, my brothers, our family, just I haven't done a good job of putting Austin in the right spot, whether that's, you know, sitting money aside.

And again, you know, during our era, the money was not. not like it is now or even in the late 2000s. But nonetheless, you know, I just thought, man, I haven't done a good job. And man, that's tough as a dad. And I know you're finding that out with your kids now in other aspects, right? So Timmy Latica took Austin to another level of a legend car. Boom, they were winning. And every challenge at Austin met, he met that and surpassed it.

So I was very proud of him. I never got to go to college. Neither are my brothers. I always say my education passed high school was racetrack, man, racetrack, racetrack. So he, I was so proud of him, went to App State, graduated four years of college, done a great job. And then I always told him, like, you do that first, then we'll worry about the rest of it. Then count my blessings each day that Mr. Doug Peterson came along with T.E. gave him a shot to drive his TE2 car,

and then Mr. Peterson said, hey, I want to give Austin an opportunity and show him to the world. And, man, again, I can't thank the good Lord for that opportunity that Doug gave him and then to put him out there, right, for people to see. And I think all I ever wanted was just give him an opportunity. Just put him in that element,

and no matter how big, small, and see what can happen. And gosh, she's made me proud. So, but then, you know, two years ago, not last year, when Mr. Pete decided to take his team to go infinity racing. I'm like, oh, wow, this is a big jump. Do you guys really know? And I'm like, yeah, you know, we got. So they obviously did road course racing as their profession,

and that's where they went on the Xfinity side. Bought a couple cars from RCR, and, man, they did really good. One of the neatest things, Richard, Richard Childers, at Coda on Sunday. So Austin's first T. Xfinity race on Road Course was Cota last year. So I saw Erci on Sunday, and he probably saw my smile a mile away, right? Austin ran seventh in his first race. And R.C. is like, he said, I had to ask one of my boys yesterday, who's, who's that 32 car?

And whoever said, well, that's Peterson Racing, Jordan Anderson Racing, like, who's driving that thing? And they's like, Austin, Austin Green. Like, is that David's son? So what a proud moment, right? And I'm like, you know, Richard really, it just made me feel. So, so, so blessed that Austin is able to go put that race together. So fast forward, he had a great race at Sonoma. Just things were really good.

And then, you know, Mr. Peterson's like, hey, I want to do more of these, do some oval stuff. And, you know, ultimately think about going full time. So what a blessing. Thank Mr. Peterson every day for this opportunity. And then to me, and I kind of tell Austin after the fact, you know, it's like, hey, you know, there's a lot of pressure. You know, this particular day you had to go out not only make the race, but just be respectful to the other drivers. Because one day, that's going to be reversed.

Little did I know that one day was the same day as first race. And I was so proud of how he respected other drivers and the comments I hear on a Sunday, you know, from Kyle Larson to Justin Allgaier. I mean, he's just everybody, right? So, so, so proud. But very, you know, what do we do now? right? And as you well know, it's not like back in the date or where you saw that talent. And I tell Austin all the time, like, you know, things go full circle. Yes, we need sponsors. We always have to work towards that. But you just be yourself, do the right things. And no matter whether you win,

lose or draw, it's all about how you get there. And, you know, most recently, he won to Arc a race at Charlotte. And whether he had won or he ran second, because very good equipment, Shane Huff, and those guys, PPG, top-notch stuff. But that adds to the pressure, right? And I hung out all day on top the truck with Shane and Connor Mosaic and just being a dad, listen only radio, no talking. Sure. I was just so impressed on Shane and the team and listen to Connor and Austin talk after practice.

But Dale, if he'd ran second or third or fourth or fifth, I'm still proud of how he navigates, right? To me, that's going to get him further than, because we know we can't win them all. But, yeah, it's just very proud. I hope, you know, I just hope that the little momentum will keep going, and he'll just get a shot. Yeah. And that's how he can ask. That's right. Well, I think he's certainly got a lot of people's attention.

Well, I appreciate that. Yeah. It's a nice feeling to have that, you know, that he does the right things on the racetrack. Yeah. And that is equated with the speed and getting good finishes. Well, we can't wait to see him get more opportunities. Austin's out there, you know, grinding for every chance he can. And making the most of them, those top 10 runs and that Xfinity car are extremely impressive,

knowing the limited amount of the team runs and the limited amount of opportunities he's had behind the wheel. Those races, especially at Coda and the road courses get chaotic. at the end and his ability to just kind of quietly navigate to get the result is probably because you just expect the rookies just to get swept right up into those moments, you know, and overextend themselves late in those races. Sharp little racer. This has been a fun conversation, man. Well, I wish, thank you so much for the opportunity.

I think we could go on and on and on, right. I think, but, you know, from the time that, You know, Bobby kind of put me through that learning process and, hey, now you're going to drive to the toughness of our sport as we all race together, talking about my brothers, you know, what your dad did for Jeff and the opportunities he gave me and what we learned from all that, right? And then lastly, I think from Owensboro, Kentucky, you know, at one time there was maybe eight or nine drivers, if you count Jeremy and David Keith that had run Arka. It was Jeremy's stepbrother, or yes. But there was like eight or nine crew guys or 12 crew guys from Owensboro. So very proud of what Owensboro's done with NASCAR, but super proud. you know, for, I know, like we talked to the beginning, right,

I didn't know if it was going to be past the next go-car race, right? Yeah, yeah. Or what class that might be. But then get an opportunity in NASCAR All-American Challenge, then the Bush Series, and then fortunate enough to win a championship, and then knowing Mark would have had that same shot if the right opportunity would happen. But then fast forward and little brother, Jeff, wins one.

So to share those accomplishments, and so very proud. Yeah. Well, we're thankful. Yeah. I'm thankful to have the chance to talk to you, to get to know you better for everybody else to enjoy this story. It's a fun conversation. Thank you.

And we love seeing you at the racetrack. We love you being a part of the industry and everything that you've, everybody's lives you've impacted as an inspector. Again, we can't put a value on the job that you've done there. And it's awesome to have other, it's awesome to have people in the garage on that. side, the dark side, as you say, that have drove race cars, that have been behind the wheel, that understand what the competitor's thinking and dealing with and challenged with, you know, because we look at you and go, he's one of us, he'll understand, he knows what I'm dealing, you know, and you can have a lot of grace.

But we appreciate you. So you're at the racetrack here, I guess, this weekend in Mexico. Absolutely. And I promise you, and I hope I get to send you more proud dad text. Yes. I appreciate sharing those. It was good things. But thanks, Dale.

It's been a pleasure. Absolutely. David Green on the Dell Jr. Download. All right. So that was a great conversation with David Green. I really enjoyed that, man. Looking through our notes that the team, Bobby Marcos and Andrew have compiled. I got a group here that helps me be able to sit down here and do this as well as we do it.

And they do an amazing job. You know, just I know I was around David. I know what his career was like, but those little moments like at the test with Ricky Hendrick and just, even stuff I'd forgotten. Him testing my Xfinity car. I totally forgot about that. So just, you know, and listening to, I guess, the challenges of racing with your brothers and trying to both, all three of you trying to make it to the top or at least as far as you can go. pretty compelling. David is a great guy,

Salt of the Earth, and great race car driver, really fun race car driver to be around on the racetrack. Still today, doing good things in this sport. As an inspector, I know he's got several roles and has had probably many responsibilities over the years,

but one of the things that I've always appreciated about him was he was one of those individuals that actively roam the garage and nitpicky about all of the safety aspects of the interior of the car. He wants to see that headrest. He watches every driver get inside the car, buckle in, and then he looks and sees kind of where their heads positioned according to where the headrest may be. And are they getting all of the benefits that that can provide? And, which is so important these days. But so we need people like that that want to do that job and want to have passion for it.

And he does. So we're thankful for that. And I mentioned about his brothers, Mark and Jeff, two great dudes. There are all, I would say I'm thankful to be friends with all of them. and they all have a very similar salt of the earth, polite, do it the right way, they're never going to cross you or do something that you're going to go, man, why did you choose that? Just nice people.

And racers, really good, really good hardcore racers that have been, you know, that have worked on their own car, tuned on their own cars. They know every aspect of this industry. There's not a lot of people like that around these days. Pretty cool. So a lot of fun for me. Hope y'all enjoyed that conversation.

David Green, it's been involved in this sport forever. He's the kind of person you need to know about and learn about. It's time for the white flag. The Teardown was live after the race on Sunday on YouTube and Twitter. If you haven't already subscribed to the Dirty Move Media YouTube page, you need to do that. you'll get the notifications that the tear down is live, right?

Everybody's telling us how they're loving the post race shows that we're giving you from Amazon. Well, you can continue that experience by tuning into the tear down live after these races every single Sunday. And make sure you subscribe to DirtyMow Media on YouTube. The notification comes in. Boom, the tear down is live and you can jump right in and be part of the conversation. Action is detrimental taped on Monday with Denny Hamlin. fun hearing from Denny, particularly after he wins races when he's in such a great mood. I give him a hard time for being in kind of a down mood every now and then.

He says you can't really tell when he's in a bad mood, and I disagree. I can tell within about a word or two, whether Denny's in a Denny mood or in a good mood. Shout out to Denny Bros for the win this weekend. I know they're all happy. Doorbubber Clear also dropped on Monday. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. come by to talk about a lot of things. He's had a great year up until Nashville. We'll talk about that.

He talks about it with the team about Josevar and how that all went down. And you won't want to miss that. But obviously we did Dirty Air yesterday with T.J. Majors, had a lot of great conversations, went in depth about a lot of things going on with Michigan preview in the next race with the Dirty Mo Doe gang. For Mexico, just a great conversation, a lot of fun.

And Herman Schrader and Speed Street also are dropping on today. So if you love Herman Strader, you want to hear some Speed Street. We'll have all that out for you as well this week. So then you got blessed your heart. Man, we got a lot going on. Me and Amy are not going to be doing the show this week together. I've got to go to Mexico. And so Amy's going to have a special guest come in. She's already had a show where she had a friend of hers come on. Everybody seemed to really enjoy the conversation. I'm hoping, I don't know who's going to be your guest, but I'm kind of hoping it's one of my friends. Somebody like TJ that she can give them shit, give me shit, kind of ask a lot of questions

of why was it, was it the way it was for so long? I thought that might be kind of fun, but we'll see. I'm anxious as you are as to who will be the guest, special guest on Bless Your Heart this week. So look forward to the race in Mexico and yeah, for me, I'm done. I will see y'all next week at Dirty Air on Tuesday. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.