The Dale Jr. Download - Doug Richert: The 20-Year-Old Behind Dale Earnhardt's First Championship

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr welcomes in his father's championship-winning crew chief Doug Richert for a special edition of the Dale Jr Download. On the heels of the Becoming Earnhardt: 1980 series, the two dive into Dale Earnhardt's sophomore season & first Cup Championship. Doug was only 20 years old at the time, but he has plenty of stories to tell. Doug's relationship with Dale Earnhardt went beyond the race track, as he shares stories of the two of them spending time waterskiing on the lake in between race weekends. The #2 team started the season swinging, winning the Busch Clash in Daytona. From there, the team won races at Atlanta & Bristol and were early contenders for the Winston Cup Championship. In the middle of the season, Crew Chief Jake Elder leaves the team, suddenly putting Doug in charge. He talks about the abrupt transition to the Crew Chief role and what challenges he and the team faced. Dale and Doug discuss the #2 team's main opponents and how they weren't afraid to ruffle feathers along the way. Doug also shares the story of winning the championship at Ontario and why he got in trouble for taking an unauthorized victory lap in Dale's car. If you loved the newest season of Becoming Earnhardt, you're going to love this.And for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaDirty 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 stuffFanDuel: 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.Arby’s: Arby’s Cheesesteak is Here! Use code DALE to redeem $0 Delivery on any order in the Arby’s app. 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.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey guys, I'm Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. And I got a special show for you this Wednesday for our guest segment. Doug Richard, part of our Becoming Earnhardt series was an interview with Doug, a long-form interview to sort of dig into the 1980 season. And we used some of those clips from Doug's interview to really help bring home the message of, the Becoming Earnhardt series that's out. All six episodes available now for you to listen. Well, this long form interview is something that I'm excited for y'all to see.

He was my dad's crew chief during that 1980 season. At just 20 years old, he was pushed into the role to be crew chief to help them continue their momentum on that run to the championship. We had a great conversation about him, dad's relationship, the championship run, all of the drama around the team. And we got to relive this famous pit stop at Ontario where dad almost loses the championship. Doug tells a lot of great stories, including the time where he took my dad's car for a victory lap around the track, picking up some girl along the way that day in Ontario, celebrating that championship.

If you haven't already, again, check out Becoming Earnhardt, 1980. The new season is amazing. All six episodes available wherever you listen to podcasts. and I learned a lot about my dad through making this series, the 1979 and now the 1980 season, and I know you will too. So here's my conversation with Doug. I hope you'll enjoy it. We did a Becoming Earnhardt, 1979, and I was working, wanting to work on and get to work on the 1980 year.

And it's really fun for me. I have these scrapbooks that I know I've told you about in the past, but my Aunt Kay made the 79 in the 1980 season scrapbook. And so I found these when Memaw passed away. We went to her house and we're looking around and with my aunts. And Aunt Kay's like, here, I got these I made. These been sitting in the closet in Memo's house that I've been at a million times. And I'm like, what the hell?

Where was this at? Right. Yeah. And this one, I redid the 1979 one because it was a little rough, but this one's actually in pretty good shape as far as everything's not falling out of it. Just jumping right in, man. You and Dad's friendship grew really quick. I remember y'all going and playing out on the lake all the time in 81, even after that.

You know, even after y'all weren't working on the same team anymore, you all were still around, right? Yeah. How did that friendship and relationship develop? Was that, he's just a bit older than you, probably about six, seven years, maybe even one or two more than that. But how come that, how come you, right? Why wasn't he, you know, what was the connection between you two? Well, I mean, we kind of like doing the same things, I guess.

I was new. I was learning a lot. So was he. We didn't have a lot of commitments outside of going to the track and stuff yet. It wasn't built up as big as it got. I grew up on dirt bikes. We decided to buy dirt bikes and we go ride in the mud through the dirt, the trails, over logs, whatever. Yeah, I remember that bike.

And that came about and, you know, skiing, we always water skied. He always wanted to pull someone on a tube. And that's why the videos and stuff are out there of that, pulling you out there. And I don't know. I don't know. We just, we did things together and I kind of accumulated up from there. Yeah. I can't really say that there was a path I took to become his friend.

Yeah. She came naturally. Yeah. I mean, usually it's personalities that work. And they like to do similar things. usually creates a friendship. Yeah. Right?

I mean, and how long that lasts is up to the two. Yeah. How much you want to pursue afterwards because lives get busy. Yeah, yeah. And it is hard to keep up.

The dad that I know, for the most part, is later in his career where he doesn't have a lot of time. Every day, every day, every hour is committed to something, right? And I'm not going to pretend that it was entirely different back in like 1980.

But you all did, you know, you'd get home from a race. I imagine, you know, you're going to be at the shop all week, getting, you know, cars ready and so forth. He's going to come by. There'll be that traditional, you know, relationship and professional relationship where he's plugged in and y'all are working. But how did y'all plan a day on the lake? I know they were racing 28 times a year,

so there's some off weekends and some opportunity to actually do those type of things. Well, a lot of that stuff came about at the point when his neighbor that was a pilot. Lee, or no, I know you're talking about Edwards. Edward, you know, when he started flying them, that helped a lot because we could leave like Dover, hop in the plane, land right near his house.

And we had daylight left to go ski. And we were together, come on, let's go ski. Okay. Right. Boom, plan. Yeah. I mean, if we would have got home later, it wouldn't have been a plan. So a lot of it was really spontaneous.

I can't tell, all right, well, Tuesday at 10 o'clock, we're going to be on the lake. His day didn't go like that about any time because he was spontaneous. Come on, let's go. Yes. You know it. It's like when you want to do something, go now. I ain't got time to wait. Yeah.

So dad would sign a contract early in the 1980 season or leading up to Daytona. And it's four days after Riverside. It's a five-year extension with Australand that was stretched through 1986. Like imagine had all of that. continued throughout all those years. Dad's quote is, we're building a team, and I think it'll reach 100% this year. When five years are up, we'll probably sign another five-year contract

to running through 1991. Long contracts were a rare thing. Oh, yeah. And so, you know, as we know, Australand would sell the team midway through the 1981 season, but this is beginning February of 1980. He's rookie of the year in 79, his first full season, his first real job. And now he's got this long-term extension.

Was that even briefly amongst the guys a bit of a relief? What has to be, right? I mean, because you build, as you're building something, you always got to think about where it's going to go. Obviously, if we didn't run well, it probably wouldn't last long. And when it did start happening and it's clicking, like you said, rookie of the year, he's got an extension. He's going to be staying. Now it's up to the rest of us.

So that's it right there. You just said that. He's going to be staying. So the – let's paint the picture for a listener that the – that the – There was always maybe this worry for everyone in the back of their mind that the person they're working next to could be gone tomorrow. Because there weren't a lot of contracts or binding agreements. Like Jay could walk out the door after the 600 in Charlotte.

Yeah, somebody could come to you and go, I want you to crew chief MC Anderson's car and you would be like, I can't not do this. Thanks guys, it's been awesome, but I'm going over here. Right? And that could happen at any moment. He was staying. You said that.

So that must have actually been a big relief for the team to know there was this plan. And that, you know, you knew. Who was going to be with? Yeah. If you thought Dale Earnhardt could get it done, and then you were glad that he was locked down, right? Right. Well, we all saw the talent. We all saw the success.

And we all wanted to be part of it. Yeah. I can't remember anybody that really wanted to lead. Yeah. why would you right going into detaana dad seemed to have obviously we know now that he's you know won ton of races there 34 career victories at daytona in different you know in 125s in july races and the daytona 500 and all that stuff but even in 79 in the buick um and then when you prepared the 442 ozelmobile for 1980 um he would have fantastic runs at detona and talladega what is he

asking for? What does he need that car to do? What is you go win the Bush clash in 1980? He gets out of the car and he's like blown away like that he's won this race. You can see already the thrill that Daytona is to him.

I think the biggest thing about that time in racing was it was up to you how far you want to to push your car. What do you mean? Well, we didn't have restrictions. Yeah.

Want to take a spoiler up? Take it off. I got to get a story for that too. But, you know, those limits. You could reach your own driver's limit. It wasn't you were working in a rules box. Yeah. And you had to make the best of it.

You could make the car fast as you wanted, but as long as he could drive it. Right. And what's the biggest speed was rear spoilers. Yeah. You know, you might have had a size of the spoiler. But you could lay it back. But you could go straight back if you wanted, whatever. That was your choice.

So during the week, that's kind of what we were. Playing with that. Yeah, how free get those brakes pulled back. Put springs on them. Put all the stuff to not create drag. What oils? All that was the same. But there was some bigger tools in the box that you.

still had freedom. He could change whatever you wanted. Yeah. So that's why y'all, I mean, that's why you needed all those days of practice because you were tinkering and toying. That's it. Because you could. Yeah.

Now they limit practice because they know they're just going to wreck. Man, there's nothing really changed anyways. So did he ever come in and go, oh, that was a little too much, a little bit too hairy. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Testin brought, this, you might have heard it, but we were at Daytona testing. And we're playing with the rear spoiler. You know, we were laying it back, laying it back, you know, got back to where you wouldn't even think it was doing anything.

So he said, ah, take it off. Okay. We didn't think twice. He said, take it off. and he left pit road going to the gears he gets over there and starts going in the third gear he's going to I'm coming in

it was too much it tires just come off the ground that was his limit if they started spinning you're not up to speed I guess it says go back in that's the wrong direction I don't think that you

I don't think that you guys start the season out going we're going to win the championship this year. It's going to be our year. You know, you're just probably thinking, we're going to run and win some races. We're going to try to win a race. Win multiple races.

Do you remember, I guess, where there was like a bit of a shift in the garage or the shop of, man, we're the favorites or we're contenders even for the big prize? I mean, I can see it, and I can imagine it,

because you never know, right? If you have four, or bad races in the year, you never recover. But we were good enough. Yeah. And I think there was a light bulb going, we're halfway through and we're leading the points. And I guess you really don't know you can do it until you actually do it.

Talk about the fear of those mechanical failures because people don't really understand. I don't, you know, today's NASCAR fan hasn't experienced the time when mechanical issues and engines blowing up was a regular occurrence. Kale Yarborough was struggling with this in the first three quarters of the season, a lot of mechanical issues for Junior Johnson and their team, and that cost him the opportunity to really win a championship that year. But, you know, it was such a common occurrence for a team to go out and blow a motor. There's a lot of attrition in all the races.

a lot of gremlins and little $2 parts, which we do not see anymore. I guess, yeah, having that points lead, sitting there a third of the way through the year, but knowing going to the next race, you know, something could happen. Absolutely. None of this stuff was as tough as it is today.

You know, the biggest thing was back then was, I don't know, you could say a lot of the quality of the parts and pieces, like spindles and, you know, we were welding spindles together to make them. We had a stock spindle, but you still welded steering arms on them and things like that. But the biggest thing I think was in the motors, right? And you say, oh, we had a lot of motor trouble. The perimeters of what you could do in the motor was also wide open as far as some of the rules go. So how far do you push making power?

and you hope it lasts. Yeah. There wasn't rod weight limits. There wasn't, it was just open, right? So you could build a grenade, but a grenade could blow. Right. And it was a balancing act. The rules actually helped everybody because it, well, this lasts now, but this is all I can do.

I can't go any lighter. You know, springs and valves. I mean, there's all kind of limits on it. Yeah, I guess that's a great reminder. of why the engines were so delicate. It wasn't, you know, my mind would say, well, it was the, it was, they were trying to push parts, production parts further than they were, were designed to go.

But that's not necessarily entirely the case. They were trying to take production parts and grind them down, make them lighter, and turning, you know, turning a crank into a toothpick. You know, that's not supposed to be ground down, not supposed to be so light to where it might break in half. And rods as well, you know, stretching rods. The throttle body shafts. Just, you name it. Everything was to get airflow, air movement, lightweight.

Yeah. Titanium was a big friend of people. Yeah. Yeah, I imagine so. lot of innovation. I've heard stories about, and this is during like 78, 79, 80, Darrow-Waltrow and Junior Johnson, or even might have been Kale and Junior Johnson having, or it was Darry Walter and DiGuard, dumped all the lead shot out of the frame rail and the jackposts.

And so, I mean, these teams, it might have been, I forget who it was, but, somebody, buddy paired or somebody, he's going to be pissed if I'm wrong, but somebody had a set of, oh, it was, what's his face was all the gold? Tim Brewer, yeah, Tim Brewer had a set of wheels

that had, that were full of lead. And they were like, had 40 or 60 pounds of lead in the wheel and that he would, you know, that's what you went through inspection. Yeah, they didn't scale a car after the race. So he'd go across scales with his That's why that was invented.

Right. It didn't weigh them afterwards. So, I mean, you guys ran well. Do you remember any innovation that you guys, you know, try to take advantage of or... Not from that aspect. Nothing like that. Yeah, that was... That's aggressive.

Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I learned some of that after the fact. Down the road. Yeah. I did. But, I mean, then...

In 7980, dad's cars... We were straight up. Straight up. No shit. Yeah. I mean, of course, we met limits, but we didn't take it out. Yeah. Yeah.

I figured, I mean, I just, dad, so dad went and raced Ed Negris car in 1975 and Dodge, a Dodge, his very first cup race. And Ed, Ed, Ed, uh, Ed, uh, Ed, uh, Ed, uh, Ed Degree's son, Norman said they had nitrous on the car, but everybody had nitrous. Like if you didn't have nitrous, you're, you know, you weren't, you definitely weren't going to make the race. Never used it. But they, they, you know, and guys, I guess the front row at Daytona in either 77 or 78, it was maybe Dave Marcus and Darry Waltrip. They, or AJ Ford and Dave Mark, they kicked them all. No, it was Darrell Waltrip and AJ Ford got kicked off the front row at Daytona because they had nitrous. And then in the same year, Dave Marcus and the K&K Dodge had a, they had some kind of a, uh,

removable uh block or you know some kind of a piece of tin or something blocking just the radiator to stop the air from trying to drag go through the engine compartment

and create drag so it'd go around the car kind of like what we do now with taping off the grills and stuff right when it wasn't allowed wasn't allowed you know so they threw him out I remember seeing people paint the screen

with clear oh really and that would block it off yeah damn um Well, it's interesting. I mean, you know, I've always, I figured that, you know, Jake had tricks, but they were all within the...

He was, he really focused on setup stuff. You know, that's what, that's where his expertise was. I mean, even if we didn't have a spring rater, he would grab a spring and squat on it and just kind of, you know, bounce it up and now, say, yeah, that's good. Yeah. That's good. Hey, TJ, you know that I got my own Chevy dealership down in Tallahassee, Florida.

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for him. But the green flag comes out. He started on the inside, let's say row five or so. And in front of him, I believe, is maybe the 47 of Harry again, and then Richard Petty's two rows in front of Dad. They drive down into Turn 1, and Dad is running into the door of the 43 car. He's jumped the inside, three wide, goes down.

Of course, no one. This is like a move, that no one makes. So I say that because I don't, no one's going into term one expecting this, right? And Richard goes on down to the curb and there's dad's car in his door. And dad jumps the curb, drives into the 42, they all wreck. Do you, and Richard Petty is so mad.

I think he goes up after the race and sticks his finger in dad's chest. And he's like, you got to do some, you got to change some things. Like, you know, hey, it's kind of one of the moments where he's like, you know, that's right there and you're going to work. You don't ever want to do that again. And they did. Yeah. And the rest of the day sucked. I've watched that race.

Like, y'all struggled. The toe was all messed up. And the car just didn't drive well. And y'all, y'all ended up just kind of, you know, grinding out the day. And Richard talked about this on the podcast, how he got. you know, got dad's attention at the end of the day. I wonder if you kind of recall much about that afternoon or just, you know, when dad goes down there, I'm sure y'all maybe didn't have a great view of what went down because of where you were in the pits.

But, I mean, it wasn't like we had a view that we're going to go over and fight them. No, sure. Right? Yeah. Like you would nowadays. Yeah. I mean, we all knew that there was going to be repercussions from that, right? Really?

If you're not, if there wasn't repercussions from that, that just said, okay, anybody can do that if you can make it. I mean, no one thought he was in the right. No. And did it take that for him to realize that, man, I can't do that? Yeah. I'd say yes. I think he did realize that. that's probably a good teaching moment for dad sure we were all learning and included yeah after that race

um dad's you know there was i guess there was a kind of a a flashpoint uh where you know richard petty's mad at dad uh after the martinsville race um what's this mean for dad is he going to make you know, how's that going to change his style, if at all? But he continued to race everybody pretty aggressively. All the veterans, you know, at certain points of the year would criticize Dad. At Michigan, for example, in 1979, he drew a lot of criticism from Darrow Waltrip and Richard Petty for his over-aggressive driving. and then the Martinsville thing with Richard Petty.

Cale would, Dad would win the Nashville 420, which the trophy's sitting right over there that you brought to us. Kale is beating on Dad's back bumper the last 20 laps or so of that race and actually jumped to the outside and Dad squeezed him off the corner and Kale gets out and claims that dad runs him into the wall. And Kale would make more criticisms later in the year about, dad and his aggressive driving.

When I look at 1980 from my vantage point, I don't think about aggressive Deller Heart. Aggressive Deller Heart and the intimidator and all of that kind of flew into the picture in 86, 87 and beyond. After. It got wild, like 8687 and in that black car in 89 and so forth. I mean, there were some hard times. We went in a lot of races, but there was some moments where you're like, You know, we damn pissed everybody off here.

But in 1980, he's just, you know, he's just a young driver with some flaws that, you know, some polishing that's needed. As this year's going on and K.L. and him are starting to, you know, Kail's starting to be a little vocal in the media and so forth about his opinions of dad's driving. Was any of that ever, you know, a topic of conversation? Alex, you guys. Well, you know, I think what was happening was,

the style of racing in that day was different than Dale's style of racing. And I say that is because I think everybody had races where they just kind of rode along. They were Biden time. They were saving their breaks. They were saving their time. Whatever it was, Dale wasn't. So his aggressive driving is actually now starting. to force other people out of their comfort zone.

Right? So now he's making these guys mad because now I've got to run this. I've got to run so hard to not let him get so far away or whatever. You know what I'm saying? It's just the way that the race plays out. Now everybody runs 100% every lab because they got equipment and talent and means to do it. If you don't do it. You can't afford to give up the spot.

You're in the back. Yeah. You know, so I think that's why, now, did I see that it was, oh, my gosh, and I'm scared going in here to this race, we're going to get wrecked, you know, because he did some. I don't think we really thought that. I mean, that didn't really bother us. Of course, if you go in there, you squeeze someone, they retaliate on you. Okay, well, we got what we had coming. Yeah.

Right? We started it. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a great way to describe it. if you watch, you know, the NASCAR races throughout the 70s, there was a, there was sort of this all, there was sort of this constant understanding that, you know, we're going to, we're going to get these vulnerable, big giant machines to the finish line, and we'll figure it out then.

And, you know, things would get testy at times. I mean, Richard Petty and David Pearson, 76, Daytona 500, crashing to the finish line. That was wild because it was so rare, right, when you saw any kind of contact and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That was wild to see then because it was so out of character. But to your point, Dad comes in off of the, you know, North Carolina.

Dirk Clay where he had to, you know, pretty much fight his way through every freaking weekend. And he, you know, he shows up and he's, he's just racing hard every single lap. And those guys are like, hey, that's not how we do it here. This is not how I'm comfortable with you. I think people that are comfortable in the car are successful. Some people aren't comfortable doing that. I mean, it's a deal. But you know what's funny, though, you talk about, you know, that was not the normal, right?

But even though, like, those wrecks all came from blocking. Oh, yeah. And what do they do today? Yeah. Block. Lots of blocking. I know. It's funny.

It is. So as we're moving up to the World 600, so going into the World 600 weekend, there are reports that Jake Elder is having problems with Rowland. And during the race, Dad cuts the tire on lap 276. And him, it's this really cool picture, unfortunately. Dad's wrecking, but Dad blows the right rear tire. Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Kell Yarborough. They're all running at the front of this race, having a great day, and then they all get swept up in this crash.

It's a really spectacular moment, right, as all the lead cars are crashing in the middle of three and four late in the race. this is the race where Jake ends up leaving. He's very successful, very respected, but cantankerous often moving from shop to shop mid-season. If he didn't want to be there, he was gone. And that's what gave him that nickname Suitcase Jake. So he cites that Jake would leave the team the day after the World 600,

and I will read some quotes to you. he had some differences with Roland and a change of attitude in dad quoted as saying Roland could screw up a five-car funeral Dave Marcus told me I'd never be able to get along with him and he was exactly right and says Earnhardt has got some money he don't know you he's as cocky as they come that's what he said isn't that crazy wow yeah you start the season dad signs a contract everything is looking awesome, winning some races. At this point, when you go back to the shop on Monday and you're learning of everything that's going on, is there any concern? Is there, is there, you know,

does Rowling come into the shop and go, guys, we're going to be great. Don't worry. I got it. Is there anything like that going on? No. Because, were you curious? Were you worried? Were you not worried? Our group was small anyhow, right? And everybody knew how Jake was. Jake was good. We ran good and all that. But there was also distractions that came along with Jake, right? It's not, it wasn't always gravy.

You know, winning's good. It's when you're down is when you realize how good your team is. And during some of those times, when you'd start throwing things and those are just distractions. We do it at the shop, we do it at the track. Nobody, it's kind of embarrassing sometimes when you're out in front of a lot of people and you do that. So I really felt like I'm not saying, okay, I'm glad he's gone. But there was a side that, well, we won't have these distractions anymore. Sure, yeah.

There's a silver lining. I mean, nothing of our choice, but you can find something good out of anything. Sure. And I felt like that was a good point for us to not have that distraction. And to take over a role like that or whatever in a transition day, I was like, okay, I always wore a radio. I always did everything except for push the button. Do you remember when you pushed the button and you're the man?

Yeah, next time I got to the track. Right. I know. So do you just, do you just, that came nationally? And I'm sure. I was... Do you have some anxiety? I'm sure I did. Yeah.

You know, do I remember like, oh my gosh, I was nervous? Right. I mean, yeah. I had to be. I'm trying to put you in the garage. I was 20 years old. I'm trying to put you in the garage when the car, when the dad's backing out to run the first laps and you're standing there and looking around going, all right, this handful of guys, they're all counting on me.

You know, that was, but that's always the case. It was definitely the case in. Very inexperienced. Right? And now I'm in this role. But you know, I always found that those were my most anticipated lapse of any time is when you show up with something you think it's going to work and you go see it and you go, or you go in and almost hit the wall. You go, oh my gosh. but Jake would subsequently be hired by the dieguard team at the request of Darrell Buddy Parent again is fired from the team

Buddy would say I'd die before I ever turned another wrench on a DW car A lot of NASCAR media basically count you and dad out after Jake's departure it's believed that without the experience of Jake on the box the team would fall off

um continue racing through Texas World, Riverside, and Michigan with finishes of night, fifth, and 12th. Are you solely in charge of the decisions on, like, cross, casters, cambers, all those things, springs? We always discussed it. Who's we?

Me and your dad. Right. And so you and dad together would formulate the plan for the weekend and what you unloaded, and then you would work on it. And there was lots of practice at these races. I mean, some weekends, you'd go into Charlotte and start practicing on Monday. I mean, it's crazy because, you know, it was just crazy to think about it. I counted it one time, I think in 1981, there were 15 or 16 hours of practice for the world 600.

That's a lot. There were full days the track would – it just said in the program, it'd give you a schedule. It'd be like, yeah, the track is hot at 9 o'clock, and it's closed at 5. And you're like, I mean, you could literally just go out at any point in the day, right? Now, you weren't running hours and hours and hours, but you'd be like, hey, we're going to run this run and then, you know, go take a break. A lot of times, you know, what we'd do is, well, these weather conditions aren't when the race is going to start. So we'd wait until, you know, around the same time the races start to get your final, you know, set up. So you and dad are kind of managing this.

do you remember if dad had any concerns about the lack of experience or Jake Jake not being there or was he kind of similar to you in terms of like well this we're just I don't I don't feel like it was a concern yeah I didn't I didn't take it as a concern yeah you know so we just started talking like all right yeah there's what we ran there before yeah here's you know but we ran a little better over here. You know, do we want to try this? You know, it was an open book.

Yeah. You know, I wasn't, how could I be strong-headed after a year? Yeah. Right. Right. Your role at the racetrack changed instantly. It wasn't, it wasn't sort of this progression. It's like, as soon as you go to the racetrack without Jake, you're the man on, you're the voice on the radio.

Right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, funny. Yeah. I guess I didn't have time to get, I didn't have too much time to get scared. Yeah. I didn't have too much time to think about it.

We just had to do it. Yeah. Right? And that's kind of like the same time when we showed up for the very first race. Yep. So you would go to Nashville and win. And there's some great photos of you guys in Victory Lane. The trophy sits here.

And I believe we've talked about this in the past, but getting a win together, was that a calming relief a bit of like, all right, we can do this? Absolutely. Our season is, you know, we're still on path toward this, you know, this championship goal after that win. Absolutely.

You know, it's like, well, it's just like the whole time we anticipated as a team. team to get our first win period in sitting in 1979. Yeah. You know, all of a sudden as a group's like, we won. Yeah. That looked like a very hot, miserable night. Middle of the summer.

That look on that, you know, there's pictures of Dad and Richard Lane squat down beside the car to take his photos just because of, I guess, the heat and so forth in those cars. Hey, everybody, you want the latest Dale Jr. download apparel? Visit shop. Media.com. We're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a t-shirt.

Again, check it out at shop.durdymo Media.com. So you survive this messy, crew chief change mid-season, y'all continue being consistent and winning races. There was an engine failure at Darlington. Dad has another little bone motor at Dover. You win Martinsville.

despite, and then you would go to Charlotte and win again. But then Rockingham, you have two crashes, broken tie rods and kale slashes, the points lead to 44. There was, in the back half of the year, there were a lot of mechanical issues. Do you think that that might have played a role in the, you know, coming to a... The pressure? Well, not so much that, but, like, was there, I'm just trying to make sense of, why they would cut rolling, or not rolling, but why they would cut the engine builder,

LaRusa, Lou, at the, you know, with two races left in the season. Why not, you know, just at least let the guy get to the end of year. But there must have been some boiling over disagreements, some differing of opinions leading up to that, right? Obviously, you know, that just don't happen overnight. You don't just walk in there in fire guy. But with all the failures and the engine issues, was there some, I would have to almost say there's something.

Yeah. Plus, Roland had a motor background to himself also. I didn't know that. Yeah, because he was always involved in the motor room, even though Lou was there, but that was kind of his cup of tea. Gotcha. You know, he did, for his modifies, he did that.

So I would say if there was anything, that was probably between two guys' motor thoughts of what way to go. Yeah. Right? What's better? What will last? What won't break? Yeah.

Obviously, somebody wanted to push it more than the other, and we had failures. I don't know what they were. I don't remember. Yeah. Were those becoming, you know, you're having these engine failures in the second half of the year that you hadn't had, you know, earlier in the season. Do you remember there being any concern about, you know, was there, were you sitting there going, what has changed? Why are we starting to have issues? Well, I would have to, so me not being a motor guy, I would have to think that rolling in them

are in their discussing like, okay, what's going on? Yeah. What are we doing different, right? Yeah. And I'm only assuming that because I always had my head under the hood. Yeah. Right? It was time to put the next water heater in.

Yeah. And so it's just one thing I've never done. Yeah. It's never mess with motors. Yeah. Well, that would make the battle for the championship a tight one going into the season, or season finale to Ontario. So if you're in the shop and you're preparing the car for Ontario,

did you find yourself like over obsessing with? Details? Every boat, you know, checking everything. Is this the best coil that we got? you know right is this all the best choices yeah this is the best rotor button we have because rotor buttons would break silly silly stupid things but the rotor button out felt out fell under the motor department yeah yeah i'm sure i already got it with a distributor in it yeah but i mean i'm sure a lot of that is something we did every week though really i mean because

we did build our cars from scratch there yeah which you know at the time There wasn't a lot of people doing that. Oh. You get to the racetrack in Ontario, but this is your neck of the woods. It's your side of the country. Mm-hmm. Does that add any comfort?

Does it matter? Not really. You've been on the East Coast a couple years. I mean, I came home, but I didn't have like a big group of people at the track, you know, my family. What was the vibe in Ontario like? Because dad drove by,

we're in the car together late afternoon after a day at the racetrack. And dad drives by and says, this is where Ontario used to be. That mound of dirt is turned. That was, yeah. That little mound was the front straightaway. Oh.

And there was still this little ticket booth box on the corner that was still there for the last, you know, that was one of the last like physical structures. But, and I'm like, my gosh, there's a racetrack here right in the middle of town. Like you know what you think? Yeah.

And so, of course, it was way less developed back then in the 80s when the track was there physically. But when I watch races, old races, there's people there. There's a crowd. It's not, you know, the track obviously isn't as successful as they had hoped because it did not survive beyond, I think, the 80, 81 season or so. And so what was the vibe inside the track and the garage? in the pits comparable to a Atlanta, Darlington. What was it like?

Because you're on the other side of the country. This is back before the sport was truly a national recognized deal. I mean, I don't remember it being as super focused championship weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, because TV coverage was not that old, you know, for racing.

the social media, the media period. I mean, obviously it was a big weekend. You knew it was at stake, yeah. We knew what we were after. It's what we built the team for, and we're there doing it in a position to capitalize, and I think we just kept going. Yeah.

Right? I mean, did something worry me? Of course, right? Anything bad thing can happen. Did everything go smooth, practice? qualifying. I feel like it did. Seems like, yeah. Nothing stands out. Yeah. No, nothing stands out on it, you know, other than

the one point in the race. Dad would follow lap down on 9th 71 when he'd pitted too early during a caution. He would go to 9th place. Kale continued to battle for the lead. Even took over the points lead midway through the race. During a caution in lap

at lap 146, dad battled past Kale to get back on the lead lap. And Junior Johnson protest that dad made some sort of an illegal move. Dad's final pit stop, the one that you'll recall came on lap 183, the plan was to take fuel only. And somehow there was a miscommunication.

You guys began to change tires, and dad would take off with only two lugs on the right rear. He's black flagged, comes back down pit road to get the lugs put back on. let's talk about it so you do remember like standing you mentioned you remember standing in the pits when australine comes up and says well that's it i guess it's over and then but everything played out yeah but i just i'm just trying to think you know the damage on the side of the car did that provoked something to go i mean a lot of times you go over the wall you see something you go oh my gosh you can't get tires because it's rubbing the fender yeah rubbing the dunders yeah rubbing the rubbing a tire.

Yeah, you got to fix it. And that's what's confusing. You know, if you can just remember why it happened that way. Who's changing fronts and rears? I was changing the front tires, so I was into that. And then Dave DeMbrosia was on the rear. Marvacton was on the jack. Yep.

And y'all, you get up and you're, I mean, of course you're not watching what's going on back there. And you think. I get done and I leave. That's my thing. Yeah, you got to run around and lose the car so he can leave. You got it on. Watch it.

This will be fun. Yeah. Look, Dave running around. Tire carrier's there. Look at Dad. He's waving you off. Then he's waving it off. He keeps looking over there at the rear rear.

Like, come on. What an idiot. Dad, damn it. I'd be interested to know, and I know you probably can't recall, but did, if the right rear tire changer comes over and goes, Oh, Doug. There's only two lugs on the wheel. You had to have, right?

He made a sh-h-h-ed-up. But see, at that time, the officials were always standing. We were the only one on pit road, and they're standing there. They're already telling you. You're coming back. Yeah, you don't have lug nuts. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

I mean, it wouldn't have made it. That's a goal. Oh, yeah. It wouldn't have made it more than a few more laps with this two on the right rear. Oh, no. Yeah, we know how that would work. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

So the race plays out. You end up fifth, a lap down. well in position to win the championship. Do you remember knowing when the car crossed the finish line that you were the champ? I think so. Yeah. Because we were standing there just.

Yeah. Not chewing your nails. Right. It was just one of those things where it was something you worked all year for. But I'm just saying like so all of this is going down and I'm sure y'all probably quickly did the math and said, all right, we're good. Nothing happens. Nothing changes.

Nothing breaks. Right. And he ran out the rest of the race. Finishing fifth, Kale finishes third. Benny Parsons using some really great strategy on pit road, wins the race. You guys also won the Krasman's pit crew championship, which you brought the trophy to us. And these are dad's comments. My heart really dropped when I got black flagged, but I can't say anything bad about

the crew as hard as they have worked this year. K-L won three championships in a row, so I don't see why we shouldn't try to do the same thing. We got a young crew and young ideas, so we're going for it. Crew chief reportedly took the car for a victory lap of his own on the way back to the garage. That was my first fine. Really? Yep, that was my very first fine.

What'd you do? $300. Well, the race was over. We won the championship. I just got in the car and I went out on pit road. and I was going down pit road and lo and behold there's some girl sitting on the wall

I said come on get in both shit did got in the car and I just went out around it wasn't fast I just running around and when I got to turn 4 there was trucks

nose to tail blocking you blocking the track and I just turned down went on the apron went up back on the on pit road all I was doing

just took a ride now wasn't fast You think bad? No. For a fun joy ride. That would only be like $3 million now. I know, but thinking about it. I'd pay $300.

$300 for a joy ride for the first championship. What happened to the girl? I don't even know. I didn't know her. He was just sitting there. Why did I pick her up? I don't know. Yeah.

Only in, I guess, Southern California. That's the moment. Yeah, that was the, yeah. West Coast girls. Yeah, the West Coast Southern California hospitality. Yeah. Yeah. It says Dick Betty wasn't amused.

Dad earned almost $600,000 in 1980, just shy of Al Uttler's record from 1978 to $591,000. Any stories about a hometown celebration? You and Eddie Jones, y'all were named Co-Crewchees for 1981, and you admitted to Rod,

that you didn't think you could do the job due to the new cars that were rolling out in 81. Is that true? That's when we switched to Pontiacs. Went to the smaller. The smaller wheelbase and all that. Did you remember? I don't see, I don't recall that.

What I was commenting on earlier was Dale Lemon came. I know. And they made him the crew chief. Yeah. Did you get to choose that? Or did you get a, hey, this is what we want to do? How you feel? I told them I was fine.

Yeah. You know, just because I was, you know. You were young. So was that comment, was that actually at end of season leading into 81 before they got Dale Eman? Yeah. What it sounds like. Yeah. Why would we become co-cru chiefs if Dale Eammy was coming?

No, yeah. Y'all were named co-crew chiefs leading into 1981. This must have been right after the championship win in Ontario. and that you, I guess somewhere in an article had admitted to Rod that this was a good decision you and Eddie partnering together to be co-crued chiefs because of the new cars coming in. It felt like that would be a challenge for you to manage on your own. Yeah.

So I guess, you know, that's something I wanted to ask you was the new cars coming in. NASCAR had talked about this. If you read articles from 78, 79, 80, there's this, the new cars are coming. Oh, what the hell? You know, auto manufacturers had a massive influence on the type of cars you guys are racing on the racetrack. I guess what was the celebration short for the all season knowing that you had all of this preparation in front of you? See, I really don't even remember a celebration. Really?

There was a deal down at the... Sergeant Pepper's? No, on the beach. Where? At Daytona was where the banquet was at. Okay. The banquet happened at Myrtle Beach or Daytona? Yeah.

Yeah, there's some pictures of that. You guys get your belts and all that's when we were all dressed up. Yeah. For the, in a wrangler coats and all that. Yeah. Did the banquet happen immediately at the end of the season, or do you recall? whether it was late. It was a little bit after.

A little closer. I think more winter time kind of thing. I just remember it being. You had to go all the way to Daytona. Yeah. Right back where we started. Yeah, it was different. Yeah.

Right. Big thanks to Doug Richard for sitting down and sharing those stories, hearing the 1980 season, all from the guy calling the shots at just 20 years old, adds a whole new layer to that year. It was cool to hear about Dad's run-ins with veteran drivers like Richard Petty, Kel Yarborough, plus the dynamics of the Australand team during that championship run. It was incredible.

Just so thankful for Doug to give us some time. Again, if you like this conversation, go check out the full Becoming Earnhardt-1980 series. All six episodes are out now wherever you get your podcasts. And now it's time for the white flag. The Teardown was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race. And Doorbumpur Clear dropped on Monday. with guest Michael McDowell. And Action is Detrimental also dropped as well on Monday.

Me and T.J. had a great episode of Dirty Air yesterday and also dropping today's Speed Street and Herman Schrader. And tomorrow, another episode of Bless Your Heart with Amy. She joined me in Sonoma, so we should have a lot of fun conversation around this past weekend. Hope you guys enjoy this episode today. We'll see you tomorrow. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.