The Dale Jr. Download - DJD Classics - Kerry Earnhardt: Accepted Or Rejected

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

This conversation was an instant classic. Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomes his brother Kerry Earnhardt on for an honest conversation about Kerry’s childhood, meeting his father, and living with Dale Jr.Along with co-host Mike Davis, Dale and Kerry Earnhardt fill in the gaps about his childhood that Junior never knew. The eldest Earnhardt son details his family situation from a young age, when Dale Sr. left the picture and what life was like growing up with no knowledge of his other family.Find out what Dale did in the middle of the night that pissed Kerry off. Who caused the phone bill to be so damn high? They explain. The two also swap stories about working together at the dealership, including the time Dale Jr. got fired.As Kerry then secured an opportunity to race at Dale Earnhardt Inc., find out how it all came shockingly crashing down the night of his father’s death. Find out what Kerry has been up to since moving on from his racing career, including details about the legal battle he faced trying to use the rights to his last name with his Earnhardt Outdoors brand. Then the guys crack open some cold ones to end the show and promote the launch of Kerry’s new beer. 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.

This is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey, everybody, it's Dillenhard Jr. And this week's DJD Classic episode is our conversation with Carrie Earnhardt. Man, a lot of great stuff in here. We're going to talk about the first conversation that he ever had with Dad. And remembering the first time he met me and Kelly. We're also going to be sharing some anecdotes about his life and living with me in the double-wide trailer. We had a ton of fun.

There was a $460 phone bill. there were drums at two in the morning, and then the front door got ripped off one time by a pickup truck. So, yeah, you'll want to tune in. This is going to be fun. Thanks for coming, Kerry. And have you ever been on my podcast? No, I have not. All right, so this will be good.

It's a long time coming. It's a long time coming. I don't know. I'm jealous because I think Kelly has. Yeah. Oh, God. Probably even Del W. M&W has.

Mamma has. I mean, all right, all right. At this point. I mean, we lived together for how long? I don't even know. It was a couple years. Yeah. How many years?

I was wanting you tell me. Yeah. I honestly think that this is going to be interesting for all of us because of how you guys remember the past differently. Because I just bet you do. I bet y'all remember things differently and you have different interpretations on everything. I'm sure we do. So this is the thing. I wanted to talk about your childhood.

I wanted to ask you about your childhood, ask you about. ask you about what that was like for you and to start to set the stage. We met for the first time, I think I was around 13 years old. And we were at a family reunion. That's the first time we had ever met. All right. So you were how old? Actually, you may have been younger than that.

I was 16. Okay. Because I'd gotten my life. We'll get into that story. You were 16. Yeah. All right. So you lived 16.

16 years before we met. Yep. Before you met Kelly or you. We met at the same day. Exactly. And that was at a family reunion at Mammals. Wasn't it? Nope.

We were at Mammals. No, it wasn't. Was that the second time we met? Yeah. Where were we at the first time? At your house. What? I'm a lake.

What was going on? Nothing? Do we need to start from the beginning? I guess. I lead up to it. Sure. I just curious, I really want to know what we. Well, you know, I grew up.

My mom and dad separated when I was three years old, and she met a guy named Jack Key. Was dad and your mom's name is Latane? Were they married? They were married. For how many years? Probably about three, three and a half years. Man, he was young.

She was young. Yeah, they were 18. Wow. Whoa. Yeah. They were 18. Yeah. So.

But anyway. No, that's great. I mean, it's cool because, you know, I had a great life. My dad Jack, my stepdad Jack, he came in and adopted me and raised me. So dad and Latane got divorced and then... Nope. No? Yeah.

They did? I mean, how would she get married if they wasn't divorced? I'm spelling this out for the listener. So dad and Latane got divorced and then went how long until Jack came in in that picture? It was two years later. Two years later. Yeah, well, he kind of come in and have... hanging out and being friends and stuff.

And then about two years later, they started getting serious. And then when I was six years old, they got married and he adopted me. What was he like? He's cool. Yeah. He was a big into golf. I love golfing. And he had a pro shop where he built golf clubs and a driving range before you go hit, you know, golf balls.

Damn. So it was fun times. We, you know, done a lot of fishing and golfing. I didn't know he did that golfing. I remember him as a GM for Hardee's. They moved him around. Yeah, that was after the fact. It was after his golfing days had kind of dwindled down.

All these big courses coming in buying everything. So they came in and bought the driving range that we were leasing. And, you know, we had our shop there and everything building clothes or he did. And whenever that all happened, that's when he went to work at Hardee's, General Manager at Hardee's. So if you look at mine and carry street stock cars, they had Hardee's on the hood because we went to Jack and Jack gave us $500. Oh, that's right. I got a hardy's.

That was a big sponsor. That went a long ways. Yeah. So anyhow, so Jack is a great guy. I remember Jack being super awesome. What was, so what is your earliest thought about dad? Like, where in this whole process are you going, who's this other guy? Yeah.

Well, I was in, um, I was ninth grade. Ninth grade? Yeah. Had dad been? Well, I knew there was something, but I didn't know what. You knew there was a man? Well, I just knew that I didn't know about him. They didn't talk about that or tell me anything about that or anything.

You knew nothing about that. Nothing. Wow. Until about ninth grade and I kind of, you know, started asking questions about because I couldn't find out I was adopted. You know, they told me about all that. How did you find that out? Um, my mom, somebody, I don't remember. remember who it was, but someone had brought up the fact that, you know, Jack was her second marriage

and, and, uh, you started asking questions and, yeah. Holy smokes. What last name were you going by? I had, my name was Key back then, K-E-Y. Yep. And, um, so in the ninth grade, I started asking questions about, you know, how, where he came into my life, because I was older than what they were when they got married. Yeah.

So I'm like, I wasn't putting all this together. So I thought, maybe they had me. and then waited to get married. Yeah. And then, you know, Mama told me I was adopted and... Had that conversation go with her. Was she emotional or...?

Yeah, yeah, she was emotional. You know, she didn't tell the whole story. She just told me there was rough times in their life and they got married early and, you know, things just didn't work out. And then she met Jack and, you know, they were kind of settled down and a little more mature than what, you know, dad and mom was back when they got married.

And so, you know, he adopted me and we lived our life. and then in ninth grade, like I said, I started figuring it all out through conversations and started asking Mama about questions about my dad, who he was and everything. And so how old, what year was this? Oh, Lord, man. I'm sorry, brother. That's what this podcast is about. Yeah, we got to figure all this out.

So, like, if you were nine years old, nineth grade. We need to know where, nine years old. We need to know where dad was in his life at this point, like who he was. when you're in a ninth grade, you're probably 16. No, no, no, no, he's got to be about 14. Yeah, about 14 or 14. 13 or 14.

13. 13. 13 to 14. Yeah. And so. So that'd be a much. Well, what year were you born? 69.

All right. Well, anybody want to do the math at the table? 82, 83. So dad just, okay. 83. He's winning championships. Yeah. Dad won his first championship, and he's a couple years into his cup stuff.

Okay. So you ask her about your daddy. Yep. Ask my dad, and she started explaining things to me and then who he was. And, you know, it didn't hit me that who he was at a time, how, you know, successful he's becoming and everything. You couldn't Google. You couldn't. Nope.

I didn't even have a cell phone. Right. You know, we had a dial phone on the, still didn't know anything. A little rotary thing, you know. Still had nothing. No clue. And then, you know, I played baseball and football. and I played baseball over in Jackson Park in the Beth Page area

and there was this lady and three girls there, I noticed they're there every game watching. So after one of the games, I don't remember how many of they've been to, I was out there and this lady come walking up and she introduced herself as Martha. Holy smokes. And she says, I'm your grandmother.

And these are your number. nieces. It was Stacy, Jennifer, and maybe Ashlyn. Your cousins. Our cousin. Yeah. Holy cow. That's something to throw to the guy about right before his baseball game.

Well, it was after the game. Okay, still, I'm your grandmother? That's how that... Yeah, but it was really cool, you know, because... Were you really shy about it or... No, I started talking. We really didn't get any conversation about Dad. We just started talking and, you know, how she enjoyed watching me play ball and, you know,

and cousins wanted to get to know me and maybe get together and hang out some. Wow. So we only did that at the ball games, and I don't know if my dad, Jack, knew all this at the time. Okay. I know he saw me talking to him and hanging out with them playing and stuff, but I don't think he knew who they were for sure. How do you think Jack felt about the curiosity that you had for learning about your dad? Well, we kind of kept it from him for a while.

So after I found out who my dad was and me and Mama got talking more serious about it, she was good friends with Sherry, Earnhardt, which is Danny Earnhardt's sister, dad's brother. So we had worked it out one day where I went to their house, me and my mom went to their house, and we called dad, and I talked to him on the phone for the first time. My dad. Your dad. Our dad. You talked to him on the phone. My dad.

I didn't know if you were talking about Jack. No. You talked to him on the phone for the first time. I talked to him on the phone. Yeah. And it was a... Wait a minute. So who set this up?

Sherry, mom. And you're sitting there and you know that they're calling him? Yeah, I knew he was going to go and I was going to get to talk to him on the phone. For the very first time. Wait a minute, Mike. And actually, I've got, stop it, Mike. Yeah, we all got questions here. Wait a minute.

So where are, what's your feelings? Are you like? I was kind of nervous. Freaking, yeah, right? How kind of nervous? Yeah. I wasn't sure how it was going to go to call. conversation, what we was going to talk about or anything like that.

So what did he say? So when I called, he said, hello, I say, hey, this is Carrie. He said, hey, son. Hey, hey, how are you doing? We just got the conversation. I don't remember the whole conversation, but we talked about how we missed, you know, growing up in times him, he missed me growing up and I missed, you know, being with him and maybe we could work that out someday.

My gosh. So. What did he, did you? After the conversation, I mean, after that phone call, I was at, I was kind of just relief. You know, I got to talk to my dad, and I knew who was now. Was he, did he seem sincere? He did.

He did. Because he can be kind of awkward. You know, dad. He doesn't know how to do it. He was kind of just easy talking. Yeah. And he would, I mean, at that time, I didn't realize. I don't know what's like bad or good.

You didn't know what to expect. Yeah. Right. You didn't have a basis. So. You couldn't grade him. So after that conversation, you know, I kind of. you know, sat back and thought about what would be to my next step.

Yeah. So I talked to my mall at some of the games and, you know, about coming to see her and everything. Well, when you have a conversation with him, right? And you're talking about having these, you know, thinking about these next steps. Like, are you able, are you hardly able to be patient? Like, I would, if I were in your shoes, I would literally be thinking about this every second of my, of the day. And I did, but I knew I had obstacles to go through with my mom and Jack. Oh, yeah.

So. What are obstacles? Well, you know. Feelings? It wasn't talked about in our household. You know, Jack wasn't for me visiting with him or being in his life, and that's why I was out of it so long. Was Jack, why do you think Jack felt that way? Was he upset with Dad?

I don't know. I don't know, you know, because, you know, dad was starting his racing cricket. when I was young and, you know, he was all the time on the road and gone and just family time wasn't an option. Jack. He was, you know, outbuilding his career and not saying that he didn't want to be with me or around me. He just was building his career. And, you know, sometimes whenever you have something to chase like that, you kind of forget things back at home. But I was wondering, though, Jack, I know, remembering Jack like I do, I can't see him being jealous.

I can see him more like... I think he was more about me getting hurt. Yeah. Like, why now? Right, right. What's this guy's intentions, right? Yeah, I felt that. He never did say that, but I felt that's what it was.

So, after that conversation on the phone, you know, at the ball games, I was talking to my mom and my cousins and talking about, you know, getting us come over and visit sometime. and, you know, I kind of talked to mom a little bit about it, and she said, it ain't going to happen, you know, because Jack, he wouldn't be all for that. So I talked to my mom and told her, you know, the only time we get to see shows at ballgains

until I get my license. So when I got my license, I could do what I want. And I told her I promised her whenever I got my license, I would come over and see her. And if there's by a chance that dad was in the shop, which is right behind her house, Yes. Yeah, I might go see him and visit him for the first time.

Golly. So wait a minute, three years, the first time you talked to him? Yep. And you still didn't see him? Still didn't see him. For three years? For three years. I did get Christmas gifts.

Didn't you get pissed? I got Christmas gifts. At what point, though, are you like, what the fuck? Sorry. At what point are you like, what point of you, like, run out of patience? None? I was kind of, I took it easy. You were too nice.

I was kind of being easy with it. And you didn't want to run. it off? Well, I just didn't want to stir things up where it could never happen. Right. You were worried about running it off. Yeah. Ruining it. Who introduced the idea of arranging a meeting? Was it, was it, Dale, or was it you? Or is it, or is it like, Mamma? Well, I never arranged it with dad. I just, you know, we just talked about one day maybe we could get back together and just visit some, and it just never, nothing happened from that. But that was something. And after that phone call, I never talked to him again. After that one phone call.

Oh, my gosh. Like I said, I did get Christmas gifts from him. Every Christmas. Christmas and then oh my gosh man I can't believe this during that time I was you know talking to mom about it and talking to mom about it and just it just wasn't going to happen I knew that she wasn't going to do it and so the day I got my license we went got my license I had a 72 chival and we got back home and I told mom I was going to go just cruise around and you know just have fun driving by myself so the place I went was mammals yeah and I come in the back way and you know where you park in front of the house and you still can't be seen by the shop.

Yeah. And I walked into the front door and it was easy with Memo. I mean, I walked right in. We were hanging out, talking. And our conversations are about, you know, what I did in growing up, my hobbies and things I enjoyed.

And then we talked about, you know, I'll talk to her about going out and see Dad. Was he out there? Yep. He was out there. Well, at first I guess I asked if she was out there. Yeah, he's out there. How long did you talk to Memo

before you went out there? me about two hours. Whoa! What? Yeah, about two hours. He's out there just working in the shop. Yeah. Oh my God.

And, you know, Dad, he can leave any minute. Yeah. You know, how he does. It's jumping to take off. But finally, I built the courage up and walked out the back door. And, you know, the back door comes down and you're right there at the garage. So I walked in the garage. And it was, you know, everybody laughing and clanging tools and stuff.

Yeah. But when I opened that door, it got quiet. Yeah, I bet. And I remember. Remember Tony Sr. was sitting there on one of the suspensions of one of the cars. And Dad was under the hood. And he just raised up and went open the door. And Tony turned around.

That's when things got quiet. Yeah. And the dad's like, hey, son. So hey, dad, how you doing? He said, good? So we sat there and talked a little bit and he says, come on, let's go riding. So we rode around town a little bit just talking about things. And he mentioned about me coming to the house and visiting.

and get to meet you and Kelly. And I'm like, heck yeah, we'll do that. So, you know, we set the date. And I can't remember today or anything, but I came there. Was it shortly after that or? It was shortly after that. Yeah, it was like that following week. Let me ask you a question.

So you have this, you've met him, right? And when you're sitting in that truck riding around with him, are you, is it like surreal? Or you can't, you know, are you find, yeah. What's that feeling like? It was, it was just like, it's like we hadn't been apart, you know. That was a connection? It was relaxed. It was a magical.

I just had to be a connection because, you know, I wasn't nervous after that or anything. Right. I walked in that shop and saw him. I was just kind of just relaxed after that. You go, you go back to the shop. Did you go say buy to Mammal? Yeah, went back and said by to everybody. What did you tell Mammal?

I told her it was really cool that we got to spend time together and got to talk. What was the conversation, though? Not with Mamma, with your dad. It was just about, you know, things we did in life. And then he explained, you know, his life growing up and why he left and, you know, chasing his dream. And he regretted every minute of it, but knew that Jack had offense to us talking or meeting,

so he didn't interfere with that. He respected Jack for that. So we got done riding and everything. We had that date set up. So wait, sorry. Gosh, I'm going to get to this point. Well, we got it all day. So you get in your car, right, and you drive home.

Yep. Did you, how do you? Man, I was pumped. I was excited. I know, but did you, what did you do when you got home? How'd you, how'd your mom not figure it out? Well, Jack was at work. So I walk in and I went to mama's mom.

I said, I got to talk to you. She said, what's that? I said, I told you I was going to go riding around, just cruise around, get the field of driving myself. But I did go to Mammals. And she said, did what? I saw I went to Mammals and visited Mammal for a while. And I said, and Dad was back there in the shop.

And I went and saw him. What did she say? And she just started crying. She said, well, you know, what is it like? Was everything good? And, you know, we went through everything. I told her about all of it. And she was relieved that things went as calm and easy as it did.

What did you think was going to happen? Well, she didn't know. Yeah. You think about it at times as we had a part from three years old to 16 years old. So you don't see each other, just talk to each other. One time on the phone, you never know what's going to happen. You know, I didn't know if I would be accepted or rejected. Yeah.

I felt I would be accepted because when we talked on the phone, you know, he told me he wanted to see me and stuff. Yeah, I guess when you're walking out that door memo, house and walking toward that shop door, there's that moment, are you thinking about that in that moment? Yep. Of like, man, this is going one way or the other. It's going to happen. You know, we'll figure out what's going to go from here.

So, damn. All right. So I pull up in the driveway and you're out in the front yard play with a couple guys in football. Yeah. And Kelly wasn't out there. It was just you and a couple kids. Ryan and Nick Stutz probably. I don't know.

I was. But I walked up on the street and knocked on the door. and it wasn't dad that answer it was someone else and I said hello she says hey you can slam the door by it said hey and slam the door yep and then dad I heard him inside

you know a little loud and he come to the door and hey you son so sorry about that she wasn't expecting you and didn't know what was going on so yeah well who was that Teresa it's Teresa why you having a hard time saying it's

Well, I mean, you know, I just, everybody knows who it is. It could have been like a housekeeper or something, but I'd be Kelly. I doubt Kelly would have slammed the door like that. I don't know that a housekeeper would either. I know. I just needed to hear the name. All right. I was Teresa.

All right. Okay, keep going. So anyway, dad comes through the door. Sorry about that. So we wasn't expecting you and everything. So come on in. So I walked in. And we went down in the basement and sat and hung out and talked for a good while.

A good while. Yeah. The pool table in there. So we talked for a good while. Was that a comet machine there yet? Probably. He had that over in the corner with a barber's chair. I believe it was.

Do you know anything about Carrie at this point? Like, you have no idea you have a brother. Well, no. I've heard that we had a brother, but didn't know what that meant, right? So my first memory of meeting him wasn't at this house. it was at Mamaw's at a family reunion and we'll talk about that later but and I suspect he didn't think much about it

because he's out there playing football and I mean I wouldn't expect him to be watching for me I didn't know he was coming I didn't know and you had a route to run and the touchdown score so like you know you get your priorities yeah he and football how they are so goodness but so I we sit there and talk for a long time

and I don't I didn't yet you taught you or Kelly at that time we had talked about doing some stuff and you know just kind of building slowly our family and you know meeting each other again and then like you said the reason you don't remember that is because the first time we actually met was at the family reunion wow and you actually introduced each other and stuff you and Kelly both so I remember at the family reunion you came there and I was uh I was positive, I was in a positive,

I was excited about it, but Kelly hogged Kerry. Yep. Him and Kelly, she got it. We bonded. I mean, we bonded right off because she was a little older and, you know, closer to my age.

Yep. She knew exactly what this meant, right? The Carrie coming into our lives, Kelly knew exactly what that meant and told. And she latched on to him and they just sat, I remember y'all sitting in that middle room in Mammal's house, hours a whole damn day. Just talking.

Yeah. Just them too. Laughing. There's 30 people at this very reunion and them two sit there the whole time and just figuring it out. It was cool. I wish I had that conversations, our conversation and everything on camera or video or audio or something just to go back and listen to it. Because I don't remember everything that we talked about. I just remember talking about what I did growing up, you know, just kind of filling each other in on what

our likes were and our hobbies. Yeah. Hey, you might have said this already, Carrie, and I apologize if I'm asking again, but I don't remember. So Dale didn't know anything about you the time you went over to your dad's house, right? Right. When did you know that you had a brother and a sister? That first time I went to the house.

So you did not know. You didn't know that there was a Dale Earnhardt Jr. Or a Kelly Earnhardt at all. Well, I knew there were some kids, but I didn't know their names or anything. I just knew they were some kids, other kids involved. And that was the day. And that was the day. He told me about them.

And, of course, you know, the pictures are in the house and everything, so you see all that. And so he explained everything and didn't want to, I guess, introduce us at that time to kind of stir things up. Kind of like I said, he wanted to slowly grow into it. And I don't know what that meant or anything. Sure. I don't think he was worried about that person to answer her door getting along with it, but I think he was more worried about you and Kelly. how y'all were going to deal with things and accept things we were pumped i remember being excited because the the vibe in that house wasn't all that fun and so the idea of like man what does this mean what is

what could this mean um introducing this new person into the whole dynamic could make things better what's going to change how's you know how's going to affect you saw how Kelly like right didn't want to do nothing but talk to you that whole day because she was just thinking, man, this is got to make things better. Right. And so anyways, you, so feel, let's fill in the gap from that moment in the, at the family reunion where we all first got introduced to me and you, basically, living together being pals and buddies.

Yeah, I don't remember any fights. All that. Arguments. I don't want to say fights. Arguments. yeah I wasn't going to fight you something about drums in the middle of the day at night I remember like one or two in the morning

phone bills being $450 a week stuff like that but we'll get to that in a minute so after the family family reunion what is your I don't remember what was the what happened next like how how much more did you get to see dad

well I just started coming around to the race shop you know and hanging out and getting be around the guys and knowing the and y'all would be there in and out of there some and um i don't i didn't come and hang out at a house like you would think after that at the lake house so it was actually at after that visit at the house it was that christmas a fall of christmas whenever i was invited back to the house um he asked if i would come and stay tonight and i don't know if you remember that or not and i did and

It was really cool to wake up and, you know, celebrate Christmas with you all. You spent the night on Christmas Eve? Yes. We were downstairs in the hall in that basement. Was I down there? Yeah, your room was down there, wasn't it? Yeah. And I think Kelly was down there.

And there was another room down there, and I stayed in it. And we got up and done Christmas that morning. I can't believe you don't remember this. Of course, yeah, you were younger. but that's the only time I'd done Christmas as far as like staying in the night and getting up next morning so then after that it just kind of everything just kind of rolled and flowed right along after that

and you know we got to talk and hang out yeah stuff and then I'll you know end up getting let me think about this I was I ended up getting 18 had a kid Bobby yep and then two years later at 19 had another kid, Jeffrey. And I don't know if you remember them growing up or anything.

Oh, yeah. But then I separated from my wife, left her after Jeffrey was born. It was because it was like dad. My mom, we were too young. We just didn't jail after a few years. Things just wasn't right for us. It wasn't a good household. So I chose to end our marriage.

and, you know, give our boys the best life we could give because together it wasn't good, arguing and fighting and vicaring all time and, you know, things that she had gone in in her life that didn't fit for a family life too. So we did that, and then dad talked to, I can't remember if he just talked to me or if he talked to us together about us moving in together. At this point, I was 21.

So we talked about it, and he had to, double wide across the road from the race shop over on highway three and so we moved into there um i don't mean if you know if you remember all this but us moving in together and getting to hang out yeah we had that little console tv the old style console tv had the antennas yeah you know that had the rotary dial and the antenna would turn oh yeah um so we had a good time you know we did a lot of stuff together and of course you know living together you're always going to argue or fight or anything over food or you know the mess we leave laying around or whatever and then i remember you got your set of drums and i was working at the dealership and i would get up at six o'clock in the morning

go to work at the dealership get started because i worked in the service department and you know i was a service advisor and took customers in as they come in so i'd get there early to get the ones dropped off, I already checked in. So when the people come in to, you know, get the car service or whatever, I was already called up and take care of them. So, like one or two in the morning, I start hearing all they, like, to hell. In a double white, too. Jeez, how obnoxious.

I mean, I've never seen he's come in. And I thought, man, it's cool. You know, he's young. He's going to enjoy this stuff and everything. But I wasn't thinking at one freaking two o'clock in the morning. What hell was I doing? I was like, got up, man, damn, dude, I got to go to work. What the hell are you doing?

He said, man, I'm playing drums. I said, not now. So do it earlier or something. I don't know. You was out running around with your buddies before that. You know, you went home early to be playing drums. You had to wait until 12, 2 o'clock morning, whatever it was. But he didn't listen.

He didn't care. He kept playing them every night. And I was like, screw it. I just finally got used to it and just slept to it. This is a roommate from hell. Oh, God. So I mean, find me one worse. Come on.

I mean, I bet you can't. Somebody plays drums at 2 o'clock in the morning. And, you know, like I said, I was 21. So I kind of understood that he was young and enjoying life. You know, I've got two boys, and I've got to grow up and, you know, support and have a family life with my boys. And I don't remember if you remember, like, I would get them on weekends. Hey, you and the kids will be out in the yard playing, and I'm sitting there. I want, well, we go, hey.

because he was younger to me and they gravitated toward him so they were out playing football and stuff in the front yard playing around and had a lot of good times yeah we raced the streetstock so um we were over one day we me and carry were standing over in the deerhead shop at the picnic table and dad threw down a piece of newspaper from a charler observer they were starting up a streetstock series at concord Dad said, you ought to get involved in this. Here's a way for you guys to start racing.

You wanted to race, I wanted to race. None of us, neither one of us were doing any... I'd never done any racing. I think you did some carts to. I did some carts at 12 years old, like 10 races total. Nothing else. So you had a friend. What was your buddy's name on that junkyard?

Oh, gosh. Smitty? No, the only junkyard was Wayne's automotive, Doug Wayne. Smitty was the guy. He was like a backyard mechanic. I thought he had a junkyard. Oh, okay. I got that story.

He was just, he built hot rods and he knew about, you know, tuning the engines. He had a little pickup truck and he used to have, he had a little, you know, small toolbox in the back. And he slung that toolbox all over the back of that truck. I don't know how in the hell. The damn drawers even opened up on that thing. But anyhow, I remember him being one of the guys who he was running around with that. He would be at the racetrack with us tuning on the car as helping us work on and stuff. We got us a car.

Remember, we went to Wayne's Automotive and had this Monte Carlo. It was a 78. Yeah. So we brought it back, and Dad's like, walks out and he looks at it, man, this is really nice. Just don't mess with it while I'm gone. He would go back at the shop on the farm. Him and somebody, I can't remember who it was with him. And we were looking at each other and he's like, man, Dad ain't going to let us build anything out of his car

because he's, you know, got all the windows and lights, everything. I mean, his complete wasn't no dents or anything. It's a nice car. It's a junkyard. And I don't even know why it was in a junkyard because it had that 305 engine in it and it ran because that's what we started out racing with that 305. So I think we got worried about him not letting us race it. So we started like stripping things off of it and maybe busting the windows out.

I can't remember what all we did. But I remember we started working on it so he couldn't like take it from us and keep it. This is so asinine thinking right here. but, well, I mean, it was just fun. Well, okay, so keep on. I interrupt you. So, you know, he'd come back up there and he's like, what the heck, man? So we were racing.

We were afraid you're going to keep the car or not let us race it. He just, no, I said, I was wanting to do some of this with you. He said, I want to help y'all work on this car. And we're like, well, dang, we still got a lot to do, you know? Yeah. So we actually pulled it in the shop and cleaned everything up. And I remember cut the roof off to put the roll cage in. Yeah.

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he put the roll cage in it for us so he cut the he he he wanted to make sure as well to the to the frame real good and it was safe so he puts the roll cage in it me and you had gutted the doors we had the doors ready to well back on and he put the roof back on it and tacked it on there I come home from school or come home from somewhere and he is tacking the doors on and his, the roll cage was so wide that we couldn't get the bottom. The bottom wouldn't pack. The bottom wouldn't seal. And I threw a fit.

I was like, damn, daddy, you put this roll cage in here too big, too wide. Messed it up. Messed it up. And he was hot because I had complained because he's like, I meant messing with this car all damn day fixing this thing. You got to complain about that. I'm like, yeah, the door don't shut. You don't shut.

We just got to oak me in the bottom. We had to make a patch. We took us some metal and they strips and tacked it on the bottom. I was pissed. Yeah. Your delivery was off, but you did have a point. Well, I mean, think about it. You have a big old gap down there.

Yeah. You'll have all that junk flying up in there on you. He thought I was ungrateful. Yeah, I would have. But he still had a point. I was mad as hell. Yeah. But we had a lot of good times, you know, we race that thing, beat the shit out of it.

How did you decide who drives? I drove first. I don't remember why. I think I drove the first two or three races. Before Dale would drive. I don't know if I had my driver's license, and at that time, you couldn't. I think that's what it was.

You couldn't race unless you had a, you couldn't race in the series unless you had a real driver's license. Like they don't let them run 12-year-olds and stuff like that run. It was actually the first three races I ran, and then you ran the fourth one. You got, it got to where,

when you had your kids, I think, I raced. That's what it was. Weekends, I had my kids. Every other weekend. So when you had your boys, I'd drive it, and when you didn't have your boys, I think you drove. We alternated.

One way or another. And then we eventually built a second car. Yeah. So that's how we got started racing. As far as I remember, we beat, we all used to have the,

we used to burn the barons. Oh, yeah, we was always going through barons. We couldn't figure out how to keep the barons in the right front. We'd smoke them out. Smoke them out. Every race.

Every weekend. We had to change parents. We'd run about halfway through the race and slow down. So you'd say that damn thing. start slowing down, coming in the pits. I'm like,

what's going on? Bair, and there, bairns there, right front of wheel's vibrating. Yeah, about to come off. Yeah.

Yeah. What were y'all doing? What did you find out? We were using stock stuff. Stock stuff. We probably needed something beefier up there and we just didn't know any better. Did you guys ever win?

Nope. Nope. Come close? The coolest burnout show, maybe when we spun out. We came across. And out and getting back around. Yeah.

Maybe that. We ran in the top five a couple times. Yeah, we had some decent, We didn't have, we didn't cheat enough. No, I think that's what it was, because I remember them guys. They had some tricked out stuff. Yeah.

Had them, I have a mirror-model cameras. They had the unibodies on them. I never cheated enough. Yeah. That was my problem. Yeah. So when we, we was talking about sponsors. So me and Kerry went to Jack.

By this point, Jack is a-okay with everything going on. Yeah, he's kind of, you know, mail it out. So we went to. him and talked to him about, you know, getting a sponsorship. He's like, well, let me see what I could do. He worked it out. I can't remember how long it was. He came back to us.

He said, I got you all $500. And you'd come by and get chicken, because they'd done the box of chickens back then, you know. So you'd come by and get chickens before you go to racetrack. Get a box of chicken to take with you. So we did that every week. And so we had $500 all with Hardie's on the hood. We got $100. I think a week from Sports Simmons.

Sports image on the quarters. Yep. And then we got free parts out of the junkyard from Doug Wayne's, put that on the back. There was a little gas station that gave us 80 bucks to put their name on the back of the car, too. And remember we went and spent $80 on candy. Candy. It was good candy, though. I mean, with 80 bucks, what you could buy.

And Kerry came to the house and spent the night in the basement with me, and we ate candy all right, watch TV. Yeah. And that was like the first time that me and you really hung out. We really, we sit there and watch TV and it candy all night and made her belly hurt. And then we got the, I remember when we were racing the street stock. So the streetstock car, if you won, I think you got 200 bucks. Yes, 200. But we weren't winning.

We were running fifth or 10th or so and crashing every other week. I think we might have got 100 bucks one time. Yeah. Maybe. Well, it was even We felt like it was really unfair because PIP pass was 20 bucks whether you race street stocks or late mall stocks, right?

Yep. We're a lower class and we ought to be cheaper. Yeah, our PIP pass ought to be cheaper. So we had a box trailer and we'd pull over about a mile from the track and one of us would get out of the truck and climb in that box trailer and sneak in. It was one of them trailers, you know,

it was open in the back but had a little box in the front and had a tire rack on top. So the little box was probably, three foot wide maybe. Yeah. And, you know, the length of the whole width of the trailer.

And so, it was ordinating one weekend, I'd be in the box, and then one weekend, he'd be in the box. How long would you be in? Just for the mile. We just stopped down the road.

Just a few minutes. Yeah, we just stopped down the road and jump out and jump in the box and take off. Right before you get to the track, you climb in the box, then the other one would drive the truck in, go get his pass, pull on in through the tunnel,

into the track, into the track and parking the spot. when you parked in a spot you got out of the truck walked to the box open it up the person in there start handing you stuff hopefully it looked like he's just helping you unload the truck yep nobody ever seen anything and we never got caught never i mean it was pretty cool and we ended up having i think sometimes we had two people in that box really yeah try to push her look because we just you know i think we had three or four people down there helping us on the car oh yeah who would those people be Smithy was one

Walter Balls Walter yeah he was down there I think Uncle Danny came some maybe I think he came down and helped some

too but Tony Jr. started raising his late model senior and Tony Jr. would be around they'd be around next to us

if we needed any serious help yep that's funny and so you know after those years we end up going

into I actually went in the street uh Goody's Dash car and you went to late model I remember going up to your shop

when you were prepared for Daytona and Taylor'sville going up to the shop because by this time me and him are hanging out a lot every day. We've kind of gotten real close. We're riding. You're going to shop. I'll go, we know.

And so we're hanging out every day. I don't know if we're living together at that point because I was 16. I wasn't quite out of the house yet. No, I don't think we were. No, we went living together again. I moved in. We moved in to the double-out,

I think as soon as I graduated high school. Yeah, it was right. after your graduation. How did this street stock, though, end? Is it with that big crash? No. Didn't y'all wadded up? No.

Kelly drove our first street stock the next year. The 78 monocleone. Yep. And then I sold my car that we built to Hank Parker Jr. Hank Parker Jr. Yep. There was no big crash. Yours was 81?

I'm getting something confused then. I think yours was 81, would it? Malibu. Malibu. You're saying your first the Hardy's 08 car. Yep. Yes. Y'all never wrecked that? Oh, God.

Yeah, we wrecked. But like destroyed. No. Okay. So Kelly ended up driving it for about 10 races in the next year. And then it sits. It sits over at DEI right now out behind the farm. As far as we know.

As far as we know, it's still there. I know why I'm thinking this. Just last week I was at your house when we were going through pictures. And you showed me a picture of that car. And it was. Oh, it looked destroyed. Yeah. It looked destroyed.

And I just assumed that it was the end. You still erase it, though. I got it was in racing condition. Yeah. even then in that picture. I mean, it didn't have to be pretty like every week, these days, you know. We weren't cheaters, nor were we fabricators. Nope.

We could beat some stuff out, though. I remember we built, so the 305 motor that was in a 78 Monte Carlo, I remember rebuilding that motor in the shop, it has deerhead shop, and then we took it to the first race. And the motor started missing and messing up. You drove it to the pits up onto the trailer. We took the car home,

the motor out and a cam was broke, cam was in three pieces. Yep. And everybody thought that that was amazing that it was still running and carried it up on trailer. I still tell that story today. I'm like, yeah, we rebuilt that motor

because people think we probably got us a $2,000 motor. Somebody built us something cool. But we rebuilt that old junk, 305, probably had the smallest motor in the field. Yep. And blew it up to first race. Okay, so that reminds me,

because you have said in the past Dale that you knew nothing when it came to cars or anything automotive that that's where you sort of learn did you bring any carry did you bring any automotive knowledge to well i knew i knew how to like work on the engines and stuff so you you did because i had a couple street rides i had my first car was 65 in pala with the 396 hearse four speed transmission in it all right um so you know i had to rewire that one year because the wiring hornet's burn up in it so i'd rewired that put all new wiring in it and then i had the 72 chival and a 70 Chaville always also worked on street race trail.

I wish I had that Impala. Oh, do you? Yeah, I wish I had that Cs to Fahillah. Yeah. That was something my uncle, my mom's brother, bought brand new off the shirving floor and kept it in the family until I got it. And after I got the wiring the harness all done back, I had this guy come by and offer trade it even, the 72 Shavell even for the Impala.

So I called my uncle's, hey, man, so I got an opportunity to have a, Chavelle that is ready to drive on the street. I said, and Paul needs a little work. I said, you want it back. He said, no, do whatever you want with it. So I traded a guy even. And I don't think my uncle talked to me.

I think it was like six months before he talked to me. Yeah. After that. Yeah. And I understand now, why back then I didn't care. I was wanting something to drive. And, you know, run chase girls and race up and down the streets. So it was an opportunity that I take and go there.

So we moved in to go. to double wide we race street stocks a little bit you went and ran your dash car for a year I started running a late model with Hargett and then we moved in together moved in with that when the sometime right in the end of that well I think it was 92 when I ran the goodies dash car yeah and then 93 we started late models and we was living together then so we had a double wide trailer I played the drums late at night yeah yeah around 1994 papyrus came out with their first online racing game.

All right, Mike. The I racing team that you know now, they built their first game in around 94 they came out with it. You could race online, but you had to call Massachusetts. All right? With a modem, right? Like 14,400 or 2,800 or whatever it is, 20?

Do you remember? No, no. Anyways. I'm just taking the word for it. There were a couple different motives, right? So it does all the squelching and squealing and carrying on when it cranks up. So I started doing that. Me and Kerry split the bills in half.

We didn't ask questions. Right. When it came in, it was 80 bucks. I got 40. He's got 40. If it's $69, whatever, right? We split it. So this, I started racing on the internet, and I'm calling Massachusetts.

And I know what I'm calling long distance. This is long distance. Long distance called a Massachusetts that would last from, probably six o'clock at night to two in the morning. Yeah, hours. Sometimes, Kerry, I started working a dealership, because Kerry would get up in the morning to go to work, and I'd still be racing.

Yeah. If he picked the phone up, if he just picked the phone up, it cut me off. But anyhow. That's funny. Yeah. And so the first month phone bill came. Oh, God.

Our phone bill was like 20 bucks or something silly. And our first bill was $420. Some shit. Oh, God, almighty. Cary come in there and threw that damn thing down. And when we pay half, I mean, that was our agreement. So, you stuck to that? You still were going to stick it for half?

Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. You know, we're just learning about bills and stuff. We didn't know about that stuff back then. We just learned. But I knew whenever it jumped that high, I was like, I mean, I didn't have nothing to do with this. How am I responsible?

You're not. How did we work that out? I don't remember. We ended up getting it worked out. Yeah. I remember. Maybe I don't remember. And I think I think another, I think another, a couple more $400 bills came.

A couple more bills come in. I was like, yeah, this is done. And I think I didn't pay one time. Yeah. And I had met this gal from Virginia and had her coming down that weekend. And I don't know if you remember this or not, but she gets there and we go to the house and walk up, Kigo in won't turn.

The heck. Could not open the door. Wouldn't I lock it? Somebody had changed the lock or their doorknob. You don't remember that? And I ended up pulling the chain to my truck

and pulling the back door. You don't remember that? No. I can't, no. And it wouldn't shut back after that. Was I still there? Yeah, you were still there. Was I in the house?

I think you changed a lot. Was I in the house? No, you weren't in the house. because I went through it. Your truck was there. You had that little S-T and truck, and it was sitting in the driveway, and I went through that house.

His bedroom door was locked for a minute, maybe by the time I kicked it in. And he wasn't in his room. He didn't gone. I guess he's out riding with the buddy or something. Because I'm sure he knew if he changed that lock, I was going to be mad when I got home. And it was more embarrassing to have this girl down for the first time

that I can't get on my damn house. Oh, my God. You chained a... I remember dad coming over there, We had that thing propped it. I can't remember how we had it shut. The back door, yeah. The back door.

And dad'd come over there and raise and. We like. Kane about this door not being, you know, shutting it and how it got broke. So we were little sheds to each other. But like, I mean, the next day it was no big deal. I know. But why did you change a lot? I don't know.

Probably because I didn't pay the bill. Probably didn't help me pay half of the phone bill. It's his bill. I'm just guessing that's why. There could be a million things. I remember if it was a bill and. involved. And I'm pretty sure it was the power bill or the phone bill.

It was something that I didn't pay. And he said, you ain't going to pay it? You ain't getting in. I got out of show him. You are some roommate, dude. I'm telling you. He ain't that damn angel. I mean, what did I do?

I got up and went to work. Right. He had two kids. What did I do? I don't know. You probably did something. You got nothing. I mean, I brought the girl in the thing, wash her clothes and fold her clothes for her

clothes for us. You don't remember that? That's what I did for you. I mean, how devil could that be? That's angel, man. That's angel. I was good. I had, yeah, yeah, okay.

We always have food in the cabinets. We did. So, where were you making money? I don't know that anything I did. I worked a dealership. Like against you or anything. You didn't. You didn't do anything.

I tried to think I did. Y'all both worked at the dealership at the same time? Yeah. Well, I did. He's supposed to. Well, he got, didn't he get fired? I'd get there. No.

No, no. Go ahead. Well, he would always come in about noon. Horse! It was. I would be 15 minutes late. No. 15, 20 minutes late.

Man, by time you get off that computer, you would not drive up there to be in. One or two days, maybe I came in that late, but not like, I wasn't doing that every day. They were to fire the hell out of me. Well, they tried. And they did. I remember that day. He come in to work, and old Bill Kitchens was the service manager. And Jr. comes walking in.

And Bill says, Dale, come here, I need to talk to you. He'd come in there and talk to him. And I don't remember what y'all's discussion was, but I remember saying, hey, Bill, come over here. Let me show you something. He grabs him, arm runs shoulder and walks out. He says, see that sign right there? He says, yep, that's about two letters from getting your ass fired. Remember that?

I think that's when he was firing you. He was fired. It was. Yeah, that's a good story, actually, because you told him. Two letters. And then you went, and then you drove all the way back, right? You tell the story. So we had, who was our line mechanic?

What was his main? Oh, was that Brian? No. Oh, crap. He used to date Bobby's daughter. Remember Bobby Festerman? Didn't he date Bobby's daughter or married to her? I don't remember.

He was the line. Tony Reed. Yes. Tony Reed. He was the, yeah, the front-end alignment and all suspension guys. Yeah, they were married. They were married. They were married.

That's right. Yeah. Yeah, he was, yeah. Anyways, so he, there was a, this guy that we hired, had been an employee at the Chevrolet dealer. He had been an employee there before and went away. Yep. And he was coming back to be the service manager.

Kerry was a writer. And my desk was right next to carry. My bay was right next to Cary's where I worked and changed oil. I was a quick club guy. So, this new guy. So this new guy, Jimmy Kitchens, new service managers, coming in, he's going to turn this place around, right? It'd been a functioning shop doing just fine.

Could have been better, but he's going to come in, and he's got all these bright ideas, right? So he's going to have us stay after to have a meeting at 5 o'clock. At 5 o'clock, everybody's going in the break room, we're going to sit down, he's going to talk to us and tell us about some things. Well, I'm standing back there with Tony. And he's going, it's bull-h-b-h-we-h, we ought not have to stay here if we can't stay clocked in. He wants us to clock out and go to that meeting.

That ain't right. That ain't right. He's just prodding me, right? Pushing me. And so, of course, I go up there and I go, hey, it ain't right. Y'all making us stay. And I'm just repeating everything that he's told me. And he said, well, you know, do whatever you want to do.

I said, well, I got to go over to Canapolis. That girl used to cut our hair. I was like, I'm going to go over to Canapolis. I got a haircut. That's a long way drive. I'm going over her. I ain't going to miss it. He said, you do it everything you need to do.

So I left and went and got my haircut. Well, Tony and everybody goes to the meeting. We all go to meeting. Oh, wow. Even though they come. I mean, Tony even comes to me. One just pushed him to leave. Yeah, yeah.

He comes to the meeting. I come back the next day, and that guy that service manager is like, you needed to go home and think about whether you really like this job on it. So I went to the body shop down the hill, the one in the back. And I said, I called dad. And I said, hey, I'm getting sent. home, I don't, uh, you're going to turn me around and send me back. You know we would. Oh yeah. He'd see you and go, what day are you doing here? Go back on there. Well, that's 45 minute drive.

We ain't got, you know, I'm making 150 bucks a week maybe. And, uh, maybe not even that. But anything was that. No. So, uh, anyways, I called dad and I'm like, look, he's sending me home. He goes, no, just go tell him you're staying. Tell him you're working or you ain't. And so I wad up and I said, hey, I'm working there or ain't. I didn't tell him I called Dad because I didn't, that would just screw things up or weird, made things weird. And I said, I'm working or I'm not. And he goes, well, get somebody to help you load up your toolbox.

And so I loaded my toolbox up and I left. Well, I came back to get my check. Yep. My last check. That's what it was. That was the day. That was the day. He told him about the letters.

Yeah, that was the day he told him about the letter. I just remember you walking him out with your arm around the shoulder. So two letters, buddy. Yeah, he's an ass. He's gone. He was gone. you remember that guy when they hired that guy do you remember me

taking his he had they had a full page ad of him coming and becoming the service manager and I cut his head out of the ad and I put his head on the body of all these poses out of like a like a Rolling Stone magazine like I put his head on top of all kinds of people's bodies like in weird you know it's funny I don't remember that one yeah so like I I take his head

and put it on like an ad for like a jeans ad or something and then copy it where it was all black and white and it looked almost real. And then I posted them and hung them all over the service department. I don't know how. Remember that? That's funny. That's why he wanted to fire me

because I was effing with him so bad. Yeah, I'm shocked. I'm shocked it that it didn't work out between you told me. Do you remember when I filled up the arms of your jacket? You were a mechanic. He was a mechanic before he was arriving. Yeah, I was a mechanic. I just changed on the small stuff, belts and...

So the glass... So the glass cleaner would foam giant foam up when you've sprayed it. And I filled up the arms of his jacket full of that stuff. We went to put his jacket on to go to lunch. Oh. And all this stuff comes out to ends. We used to mess with each other all the time. Well, I think we've kind of like proven this point that you used to mess with me all the time.

I don't remember messing with you. But it was fun. I enjoyed it. I mean, I didn't get in fight over it. I didn't know how else to show my affection. I was mad about it, but I was laugh about it. I didn't know how else to show you. I loved you, man.

Yeah. That was it. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, if y'all did get in a fight, it would be probably validated, right? Y'all never got it. Never. Never put a hand on each other. Never did.

That day if he'd have been home, though. If he would have been home that day, I don't know what I'd have done. Yeah. I was mad. Like, I was embarrassed and mad. So that was kind of like double whammy. Yeah. Yeah.

I think, The cool thing is, though, that girl's still with me today. Yeah, there's my wife. Wait, wait. That was Renee that you took over to the double wide? Yep. Yep. When the door was lost, when we're not open, it was Renee. Did you know that?

I don't remember. He conveniently doesn't remember the things like that, but he remembers the... I remember her daughter would come over there. Yeah, Blade. And, yeah, her... She was three years old. And she... Carrie says...

they're all in the living room and talking, and Carrie told me this later the day, and she's like, they're like, she was asking like, who's that boy in that room? Who's that boy in that room? And they're like, that's, that's, Dale, it's my brother. And she goes, him mouth not work. Him mouth not work.

He didn't talk. I'm sorry. That's funny. I'll never forget. It's weird what you remember. Yeah. Can I ask you this? Y'all mentioned that you were going to run a Goody's Dash car.

Like, how did this... He ran that for a year. Well, how did these racing opportunities? You start running the late model. You start running a Goody's Dash car. How did these opportunities start? The stuff that Dad had worked with and lined up for us, Richard Mash was well known in the Goody's Dash series.

And his guy from Taylor's Full had a lot of success in the league and the industry. And so he lined me up doing that. I don't know why he chose me going from... dag on Concord Motor Speedway Streetstocks to run and get his dash at Daytona. That's a huge jump. Yeah. Big difference. Cars more power and more aerodynamic and all.

And so I remember like Dell said, we were up there and we looked at the cars and kind of looked things over and worked on a few things. And I would always go up there every evening after work and work on the race cars and then come back home and sleep, get them and go back to work. And that's a day. I'm still working at a dealership. and I remember we went to Daytona it was the black number three good wrench cavalier a Chevrolet Cavalier that I raced in the Goody's Dash and that was when they'd done the two-day qualifying deals

and so the first day we went out to qualify we've been practicing all week and then things got 13 gallon fuel tanks you know so we've been practicing I'd say all week probably three or four days you know just qualified runs and we go through inspection and everything to go to qualify, and I'm like, Richard, so we need to get some fuels. And if you say, no, we're close on weight, so you're able to try to go out as late as we can. All right, you know what you're doing?

So we go out there to qualify. I go out and, you know, off pit road and take off around, get the green flag, come around, get the white flag, going in turn one, right. out of gas. Oh. It's pretty embarrassed. Very embarrassing.

On a qualified lap. A qualified lap. So you had to come in and you come down pit road. I mean, I was worried about making it back to pit road because I'm going into term one when I run out of gas. So we come all the way back to pit road and you have to get out of your car, kneel in front of your car to be purdy and take the picture.

And, of course, it's hard to be pretty when you're pissed off. So I do all that. Anyway, we go back Saturday, qualifying. I qualify fast as a second day, which would have been on the pole. the first day. Oh. If we hadn't went in there, I guess. I remember being there with Kerry the whole week.

And so you actually spotted for me during the race in the beginning of the race. Why did I quit? Well, I come up on this one car and I asked for clear and you never did answer. And then the next thing I know dad's talking to me on the radio. Oh, he must have grabbed it off my head. I must have. So he spotted for me after that. I remember when we were.

I ended up spending out because I didn't know if I was clear. And I was coming up on this car pretty fast. I didn't want to hit it, so I ended up spending out. And, of course, you know, put me back. I think we ended up finished out for that race. Yeah. So. It's a good start. It's fun, man.

It was fun. I went down there with Kerry. I remember pushing that car around in the garage and just being a helper. And, uh... And I mean, I'm carrying a black and sewer color in the good rich car. Number three. I mean, it's like dream country. How cool was this?

It was. It was badass. It was. It was. You run out of gas on the car. It's not around that. Wow. And I remember.

remember that guy Tony Reggie talking about he made me a little trophy is that who made that it has a block of wood painted black and put a gas gauge on it well he made a gas gauge I have a bomb of a soda can with the gauge on it and it was on empty and says what is the dumbass award or something like that and that's what he give me from you go back to work yeah go back to work and get that which is pretty cool yeah so um let's skip so you worked at the dealership for how long oh lord Well, until 99. Yeah, until 1999. Actually, in 98, I'd started talking to a guy named Doug Taylor with the channel like car number 40 and Kevin LePage was driving.

And so I started going over and hanging out. He came to the dealership and got the service done all so he invited me to the race shop. So I started going over to a race shop and hanging out there in Denver. And, you know, just kind of tinkering with the car. cars and Kevin Pages in there and we talk a little bit here and there. And then one day Kevin was out there and Doug come out there talking and, you know, Doug Taylor, I don't know how long he'd been in the sport, but he owned the bus car and everything. So he says, Doug, you said, you need to give this kid a ride, give him a chance.

And I was like, what? He said, yeah, I think you need a chance. I think we could do something. So we go and Hickory Motor Speedway and practice. And Kevin goes out and, you know, he's practicing and then, you know, he's practicing and and when he gets done practicing, he's going to let me take the car a couple laps. So he gets some practicing. I jump in and kind of take the car a couple laps,

and I'm not far off from where he's running speed-wise, you know, in times. So in 99, it was 98 when he was working, you know, doing that stuff. And in 99 is when I ran my first race in the Bush Series. It was at Hickory Motor Speedway. And we qualified 13th and the Navisson-Chelock number 40 car. And we was up to fifth. and the axle broke in that race. So everybody was all pumping, you know, doing pretty good.

Kevin was actually moving on from that team to another, so he was kind of grooming me to be in that seat. So in 2000, I started racing full-time. I raced a few more races after that Hickrace, but in 2000 I started racing full-time in that car. Things didn't go well. Doug actually sold the team out to a guy. He was in the Tennessee walking horses.

I think he was up in Florida or somewhere. I can't remember his name. He was kind of a business guy. I wasn't really a racer. So he'd come in there and, you know, he changed a lot of things up and didn't go well. And crew members he got rid of and hired new didn't know a lot about racing, really.

So we ended up not running too good. And things kind of just dispersed from there. I, you know, quit driving for them and everything. And I remember going to dad and talking to him about my experience and how things happened and, you know, how crappy it was, that things happened like that. And I looked at him and said, man, I said, how about me getting an opportunity to drive for you?

Go-kart, lawmower, whatever. I mean, I just want to drive something just fun. And so he said, let me think about it. And we talked about it and started working things out. And that's when we put together the ARCA team. Yeah. So we started running, you know, some races. We didn't run the full season.

I think it's 10 or 10 races in ARCA. I won eight of the 10 races in Tal'Daga and Daytona's the two I didn't win. We went Pocono, Atlanta, Charlotte, Michigan. I remember we were going to Pocono the first time, and you had downshift. I'm like, holy crap, what's this going to be? Yeah. So we ended up having a good time, and I don't know. You wasn't at that test.

We had a good time, and Tony Senior was there with us and everything. And we were pretty fast. So we went for the race, and we lapped everybody. but second place, and I could see him in front of me by the end of the race. And that was a good time. So you win the, I got one of the bodies off one of your cars. So you, in the juck yard, when you get out, say what was your favorite victory lane celebration from that time?

It's going to be Pocanoe. And why? I got out and dad standing there waiting on me. Yeah. And I'm, there's many of pictures of me standing on the door of that car reaching down to dad. And him just looking up with the biggest grin that just made my world. You know, the happiness I've seen in his face and had a proud he was.

It was really cool. And so you moved on from that and had, you know, you raised a lot of different teams over the years? Well, from there, we had put the schedule together with Dellenhart Incorporated to run full-time bush, some trucks. and looking at practicing stuff in cup just, you know, to get the feel of it, not race any. And, you know, of course, things happened in 01. That's what was going into in 01. Oh, that racing with Delano Heart Corporation.

And still had some market races in there, too. And then things happened in 01. And so the evening of that day that things happened, Ty Norris calls me and says, hey, So I just need a call, let you know that your racing schedule is no longer going to happen. Wait, that night? Yeah, I'd ran an Arka race there in Daytona that weekend on Friday. We raced on Friday, and I come home.

No, we raced on Saturday, and then I come home. I drove all the way back. No, it's Friday because I drove all the way back. And Saturday, I kind of rested up on Sunday, you know, I was out mowing the yard and everything, and my wife comes running down. Hey, if you talk to Kelly, I'm like, no, I'm more on the yard, So you need to call her. And I call Kelly, and she's bawling and tells me what all happened.

So anyway, the story went, I got the call from Ty that things wasn't going to happen. That night? That night? That night. That night. I mean, that someone's thinking of Nixon that program. You know, he got orders to call. It wasn't, he didn't do it on his own.

So anyway. Geez. The next, that Monday, you know, we go into the race shop. you know things are way they are me and Ty sitting there and talk and he says I'm working on some stuff I've already you know made some calls and we working on put some stuff together and that's when the Mando Fitts and Terry Bratshaw team come about with the number 12 car in the Bush series so he got me set up and I ran that series and that went for a couple of years and I just kind of bounced back and forth with RCR and just some other teams just here and there just never fit you know RCR was pretty good, but... Do you remember racing together at Talladega? Yes. In the cup race.

That's pretty fun. Yeah. Yeah. And the big bass pro car. Yeah. We got to draft a little bit. Yep. Yeah.

Well, it was me bumping you and knocking the back bump loose and you going to the front and me ended up like fifth, I think I was. And then that's the thing I know. I'm spinning around after somebody hits me. It was fun for a moment. It was fun, though. We had a good car. I mean, it was fast.

and he was up front there and running. I mean, I ran in fifth for a while, and then I think it was Jeff Gordon, Michael Walter. Michael got into Jeff and turned him and he'd come down and hit me. You ended up over at D.E.I. working for a while. Yep. What was you doing there? This was after the racing stuff.

You know, after I retired from racing, you know, Teresa had called, talked to me about coming over there and just working, being whatever, you know, kind of the messenger. between and filling the employees out what might need and just trying you know delivering the news or message to at the time i can't remember who it was richie gilmore yeah yeah richie gilmore kind of run the gm the gm so i you know would relay messages to him about what employees would like to see to improve the place and all and stuff like that and i think that was the time i felt like that was time

It was an easy route to get me out of racing, which is good. I mean, I was ready to step out anyway because, you know, I missed my boys growing up, and I had two daughters coming up, and I didn't want to miss all that. So, yeah, I'd cut back races to like six races a year, and one, you know, I run two with children and then a couple bush races here and there was sort of like Rick Ware racing or somebody. So anyway, I went to work full time at DEI, and then things kind of, started dwindling down from there, you know, selling this team or merging with this team and doing this and everything kind of just going away from Highway 3.

And, you know, after that, it wasn't no job there for me. So, and at that time, I had another opportunity that came in my life with Schumacher Holmes with me and my wife. So it was easy time to get out of racing and get into designing homes of all things. So what is that, Schuiker Holmes? Schumacher Homes is the nation's largest custom home builders. They're in 14 states and 34 markets. They're based in Akron, Canton, Ohio.

And Paul Schumacher is the founder of Schumacher Homes. It's a very good business. They're more family-oriented. They're about customers. Whenever we went in to talk to them about doing their thing, they were actually looking for someone in the outdoor lifestyle that, you know, to bring in the outdoor lifestyle living to their homes. And they were looking at a very prominent guy with Michael Waddell who was in the outdoor industry.

And I had an associate that Schumacher's knew that mentioned that they ought to talk to me and my wife Renee. And so we met with them and Joe Hedrick. He was over at DEI doing all the stuff with that and everything. And so anyway, he got let go. So we kind of took him over to help do our stuff. And we all three flew up there and met with the Schumacher's. They had all their books open and accounting and everything for us to look at, didn't hide nothing.

Give us several customers to call if we wanted to call. And, I mean, they even give us one guy that wasn't even happy with their build process and kind of found out he was a contractor himself. So he was going to nitpicky everything anyway. So it was just a good fit. And we've been with them going on 10 years now. And y'all still do these Earnhardt collections? It's Unhart Collection homes.

Yeah. And they're just designs and how many do you have in the Earnhardt Collection? We were up to 23 and down to 20 now. There's two of them we kind of phased out and just kind of didn't fit. One of them we got a lawsuit against from, I don't remember for this, Southern Living magazine or something. They said it looked like their home, but it didn't. It just had a fireplace on the front porch like one of theirs did. And the rest of it didn't even look to say so.

But we just took it off just to keep from having issues. from having issues. And so, yeah, we've been doing that for, like I say, going on 10 years now, and it's been a great partnership and good family to, you know, be around. Can we talk about the battle to be able to use that? We can. All right. I mean, it's public knowledge.

Yeah. I don't know if you. So during that time, at the time of me, where's that at? At the time of me going away from Dollar Heart Corporation is the time we started talking to the Schumacher Holmes. and when we got talking to them, we talked about, you know, name it Earnhardt Collection.

And we've done that because we wanted to open it up to more than just homes, like maybe furniture or a little knick-knacks or something down the road. So we do that, and we go to trade market, and we get a phone call, or we get a letter in the mail from the lawyers,

and it's Tresa's lawyers. So if we go continue using this name, there'd be a law. lawsuit. So my wife being the strong-willed person she is, she says, fine, you want a lawsuit? Let's go. So we continued on and done our business with Schumacher Holmes and we called them and told them what all was happening and given them heads up just so they'll know. And so law story short, eight years later in this lawsuit, we won a lawsuit and she appealed it so it had to go to Washington or wherever it went. And they questioned,

why the board that decided we win, they questioned why they come up with that and they basically told them you know I was my name. So anyway, she ended up, she started out with the confusion of Del Earnhardt and Earnhardt collection

being confused. Well, some of her key people who've done depositions even stated that it wasn't a confusion. So then she went back to you can't trademark a surname, Dernhardt name. And so that's where it went and we ended up And neither one of us won, but we continue on to do what we want to do.

And we can still do anything, Earnhardt outdoors. I got it, and I got it trademarked. Why is that not a win for you? It's a win. Yeah. I mean, it's a win for, I mean, you're able to. Me, Del Jr. or Kelly, Taylor, or any of us. So, and, you know, the key thing is she can't trademark it either.

Tracy can't now. Because she's shown it, it can't be trademarked. She can't trademark the Earnhardt name. So is the Because it's a surname You can't trademark a surname So is all the legal back and forth over Yeah the legal back and forth's over

Yeah you move on Eight years later But finally over Yeah We have we continued on And now we're doing stuff We're doing stuff Turnhard outdoors

And you know Trying to build that brand now Yeah So I went the other day to What's the name of it Mike? I don't know what you said Oh the old

Old Ormer Old Or Bar Barber. Yeah. Old armor. Beer company. Downtown Canapolis. Right there,

right next to the ballpark. Where the Cannon Ballers play. The Cannon Ballers. And that's where I grew up. That's where you grew up. That was my hometown. I cruised that area every weekend and, you know, rode bicycles up there sometimes. So you are now in the beer business.

Well, I don't know if I'm in the beer business, but. Your name's on a beer, buddy. You're in the beer business. You're working with these guys. Yeah. We have created a beer business. It all started out The dad of one of the owners

Has been a friend of mine for years And he called me up Hey my boys got this Brewery they'd work with And they're about giving back to charities I want to know if I had a charity to get back to us Well I don't but I do work with a group It's from four years old, 18 year old

Rodeo Association And you know Then we got the high school association also that you know They do scholarship funds So say maybe we take us and do scholarship fund for the high school. So we met, talked about that, and it ended up growing into creating our own beer. And so now we have.

There it is. Oh, he's got it cold. We got some cold ones, man. Yeah, let's have one. Hey, Shane. I even got a spare. I haven't drank it out of the cane. Yeah.

It's different than on tap, just like all of them. So it's sort of like a bud, in between a Bud Light and a Pilsner. I like that. Yeah. Good. That is good. I thought it was kind of refreshing and something you could hang out by the campfire. A cold beer, man.

And then that would be it. Why have we not been doing this all along? Man, that would be great on a fishing or hunting trip, too. Yeah. It's cool. Anyway, so that's what we've created, Earnhard Outdoors with Adventure with an attitude. It's a Canapolis sale.

And you can only get this at Old Armour? Old Armour Brewer Brewery in Canapolis, downtown Canapolis. Beautiful place. Yes, awesome. I was a little bit. And actually, hey, actually Thursday, for the folks that are going to hear this before Thursday, we have at 5 o'clock, we're going to do a public release announcement. And I'm going to be there. I'm going to have some media there, people.

This coming Thursday. This coming Thursday. So that'd be the 27th. Yep. At 5 o'clock. Five o'clock. In downtown Canaple. Man.

So anybody come out and join us. Hang out. Yeah, they'll be there. Even you and Amy come on. You and bring your significance. Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm like I'm looking on. social media the other day and find out

all you family are out there at Old Armour. Yeah, my significant. So, what was this event that y'all did the other day at Old Armour? I mean, because I'm seeing I was at the ball game the night before. This goes away. So that was a friends and family event.

And so... Yeah, my friend's and family. I think I'd qualify in the first one, don't it? Well, we go way back. I will say that. We go back well before Dale Jr. I know. I know. I remember one time you needed fuel money. I don't play at home.

So anyway. That's right. So that was a limited seating event. So I got all the people that, but not that you're not important, but it's okay. You don't have to exactly. You don't have to. You don't feel like. But the reason I did that because, look, I know this coming Thursday, you can be there.

All right. It's a Thursday. Everybody's welcome. That's good. And we can have that place packed out and fill up some streets and stuff. I don't care. That's good, man. That's a great place to drink a beer.

It's a cool little place. And like I said, them guys, it's a veteran-owned company. Because whenever we first talk about, I talked about maybe I invested in being part of it. And I'm not a veteran, so I can't. So Kyle is the co-founder and general manager. And then Stefan, which has got the biggest beard and really cool guy. He's the co-founder and master brewery. Pretty awesome.

So pumped about that, man. I'm excited and looking forward to Thursday and having a good time. Yeah. Everybody needs to get out there. Come on out and celebrate. Well, buddy. So it's been a good conversation. Yeah, it's been a good one.

We got up here now. We just going to start drinking. I mean, I'm done talking, but we've missed so much stuff. So one time, Carrie. There is some stuff we could go back and talk about. One time, Carrie, we were cruising downtown Concord with our pickups. And Kerry, there was a little, we were parked. In McDonald's.

at McDonald's. And I parked on one side of the parking lot, and he parked on the other side. And in between us is a walkway. Seament walkway, probably four or five inches. It's raised about four or five inches. And you had your S-10. I had an S-10.

You had a... You backed into my truck. I wasn't in the S-10. I was in the truck. You're in a red S-T. Was I on the red S-10? He puts his car in reverse. I can't remember what triggered that.

You did something. And knocked the grill out of my truck. And so I back. I put it reversing back because when I was straight driving, he was automatic. We were horsing around. And I backed over that median walkway and rammed him. Yeah, see, he's telling some bad stuff to me. And then I put it in first gear and that is one thing I did.

I put it in first gear and took off. Well, as I'm doing it, I look at everybody in McDonald's and every face is just like, you know, like, what happened? My grill's in like 15 pieces. He gets out. As I'm driving off, I see him getting out and walk around. I'm gone. Yeah, that it definitely goes on the scorecard. We had to go to the junkyard and get him.

grill. We got another grill. We got one. Boy, that junkyard was an important piece of all's history. Oh, man, it's right down the road. It's so easy. I mean, three miles down the road? Me and Kerry would burn out the barons and we would bend A-frames and stuff, and we needed springs.

Like, we finally figured out, okay, we need a bigger right-front spring. Me and Kerry would drive our truck into the depths of that junkyard in the middle of the summer and crawl underneath these 19. 80 Cadillacs and Chevroletes in the middle of the dirt. No clue what no shoulders were crawling around. Didn't bother us then, though. We didn't care. We didn't care.

We didn't have to crawl with it. Yes. I think about it today, and I'm like, I don't know it. I mean, looking back, it was like the time of our life. We were having a blast. It was fun. Well, we were in there every week trying to get apart. Yep.

Because we broke something. I think we actually just, if we didn't need something, we act like we did, and just to go there and crawl around stuff. Yeah. Check all. cars out. So this is funny you like this. So we're riding, I might have told this last week, but we were riding to Darlington to take the Nova. And I had Uncle Robert Jr. in the car, and he's telling all these great stories, right? And every story he tells about dad is,

oh, your dad was this awesome thing. We did this together and it was amazing and he was awesome and he was great and he was tough and he was this and he was that, right? And never done even. wrong. And when Uncle Jimmy tells the stories about dad, he says that dad would buy, dad would go to the junkyard

for a $3 part and look around at all the other stuff that he was going to come back and get later in the middle of the night. I believe that. Yep. That's the side of it. I heard that story. One time, you know,

we have us gathering every year up in Pennsylvania with the LW. I don't, you may have been there one time, maybe not, but it's me and Robert and Jimmy and Seth. And, you know, we got sitting table and Robert's talking these stories. And Jimmy was telling that story. I remember him talking about that. So here's some good times. I'm just trying to imagine dad breaking into the junkyard in the middle of the night.

Hey, was he sort of like, I always, you're going to get upset with me saying this. I always like, I always appreciate the fact that you're sort of cheap, right? Like, you're sort of cheap. You know, you don't ever carry any money. around with you. Was your dad that way? Was he sort of like thrifty? And pretty tight, tight with his cash? Yeah, he was. Yep. I mean, if he's crawling around a junkyard, I guess he is. I mean, one time with McDonald's I had to buy with dad. You had to buy. Oh yeah. No, not McDonald's, water burger. He never carried cash. No, he never carried cash. No, he never

had a cash. Yeah. I remember, see, we went on an elk cut one time. Me and you. Me and you. I killed. Got his first elk. Only elk. Only elk. He didn't have no money on him for a tip or anything either. Oh, I didn't know. No, he was going to tip. I mean, no, he doesn't. Dude, you invited me on the hill hunt. I know. You should have told me this. I thought I did, but I ended up tipping him for you anyway.

Yeah, Kerry's like, you got a tip money? I'm like, what? He doesn't carry any money. And that guy was so pissed off because you had left and you got him a pair of sunglasses. I don't remember that. All I got is a pair of sunglasses out of this hunt. He's a cheap blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah.

Like, man, relax. Chill out. So when I got done, I tipped. Yep, my guy and your guy. I got to be honest, Carrie. I don't know where, like, taking Dale Jr. and an elk cunt, he just didn't, he doesn't seem very elk-unty. Dude, it took me.

He's going to be, he's not going to enjoy it. How many years I try? I mean, I try to get him going several elk cunts. Oh, I thought you meant how many years did you try before you got your first elk? Oh, many years I tried. I got mine in the first two hours. Let me rub it in. What, the first two hours?

It wasn't. The first morning It was first morning I'll give you that It was like 9 in the morning It was early How did that happen I'm good

It was the first time Put that way And it was with the bow That was really cool I know What? Yeah with the bow Oh yeah

So I've been trying to give him Several years To do this elk cut That's hard And he's like man I can't Truit It's talked about How you gotta run up

These hills And huff and puff and out of there And finally I'm like Man I've got this nice place In Colorado We're going to says, you need to come.

All right, I'll do it. I said, huh? So I called my connection and said, hey, said, we're going to do this. Dale wants to do it. He said, well, I got to tell you, you know, thing runs on generator and it cuts off at 9 o'clock at night. I said, oh, he said, they ain't no internet service, no nothing. Cell phone service, nothing up there.

So I'm like, oh, so I called Dell back, say, hey, man. I don't know if you'd really want to do this hunt. And he said, well, there's no internet, no cell phone, and power cuts off at 9 o'clock off the generator. what's wrong with that? Oh, hell yes. So we get there the first night we get there. We're out there hanging by the campfire and everything.

He goes in the house. And it's just getting dark and the bulls start bugling. So I run in and say, hey, Del, Del. If we get it in the room. So I go in the room and he's in bed. It's like 8 o'clock, 8.30. I said, man, the bulls are bugling. Come on and listen.

He's said, man, I'm getting up early. I'm going to bed. So I never known him. go to bed that early. And he was. Lank oxygen up there. Yeah, I bet. So we get out the first morning, we go, and we get on this pack, and we got two bulls in it

and a bunch of cows. And we're on this road bed, you know, getting up to the meadow where to rip, and one of the cows bust us. Gone. Dale Jr. He's like, man, that was cool. What would we do now? So we can find more.

So we go up on this big hill and looking down, just glass and, you know, looking for them. And we see these two down in the bottom in this little. opening small clearing just two bulls no cows and i'm like told guys man that's gonna be some easy ones there's and you won't get one of them deal he's like he's like he gets up like he's going to take us for him getting a truck we're gonna drive to them yeah so we drove down and got out of truck and before you know don't get right up on them but you get out of truck and go up them up on the hill but they're going up and he gets up and there and him and the caramane I didn't go with them but him and a cameraman they go up and there and get set up and a guide

and that he could that guy calls and that boy and that boy and he could that guy calls and that bull comes up the biggest one and he's 25 yards from you when you shot and then after you shot he run right by you like up the hill right by him he'd be terrified he was out in front of me in this little clearing and when I shot him he ran right past me probably about 10 yards that way way straight up this hill and stopped laid down laid down and we we walked up there quartered him right there yeah on the hill yeah and carried him out carried him out so like at 10 o'clock in the morning, I'm walking out with like 150 pounds or 100 pounds of elk on my back.

Yeah. It was cool. It was like a bad ass. I got down there just a brushing on his face. And I mean, that was pretty cool. Yeah, it was fun. Just to hear to him tell the story. It was everything you said.

It was going to be. But you ain't done it again. Wank good ass. Yeah, I don't think so. I did. That's if you're going to get back. Good. Got his one and done.

One and done. I'm a deer hunter. I'd go back. I'm a deer hunter. I like deer hunt. Yeah. Yeah. But it was cool.

He got one with the bow, and I tried. He left the next day. And I was like, man, you're going to jump on plane leave? He said, we'll hang out by the fire and drink beer. All right, so we did. We drunk beer that night, hung out, talked, down our little stories on interviews and for the cameras and stuff. Next morning, he gets up and leaves.

And I'm chasing Elk for the next three days and finally end up using my guide's rifle. to try to get one. I never did get one. Damn. Tough hunt. I didn't know it. I didn't know it went. But I was chasing.

I didn't know what it's so disappointing. But I didn't have two. So I was looking to get bigger than what I got on the wall. You know, if it was my first one, I was going to shoot whatever. I had plenty to shoot at. That's what I tell them every time.

I didn't get no deer this year. It was a big one. It's not as big. You're all right. Whatever. You had it control. The shooter came by, but I let it go.

You're out of control Oh man Like I said We got a rap He don't understand That well We're up All right, Kerry

All right well I appreciate you I have me on man It's been fun And we got to get you back We got a lot more stories We talk about Yes we do

Some good stories We can get into some Depend Like emotional stories too Yeah We should We should have an emotional podcast Yeah

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