The Dale Jr. Download - Kevin “Two Beer” Pennell: Wild Stories From Working DEI’s Early Days

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr. revisits some of his glory days in NASCAR as he sits down with longtime friend and crew member, Kevin “Two Beer” Pennell. Kevin’s journey into the world of Dale Earnhardt Inc. came through his friendship with Tony Eury Jr. and their short track endeavors.Kevin recalls his first encounter with Dale Earnhardt Sr., which came while he was working underneath a late model with Tony Jr. When he was finishing his high school education, Dale Sr. encouraged him to stick it out despite teasing from his shop co-workers. Kevin says that the day he finished school, Dale hired him full-time.The guys also chat about the inception of the AC Delco Busch Series team, Dale Jr.’s path to becoming a full-time racer and the Bud-8 team’s rookie season. This interview is chock-full of incredible memories and never before heard stories, and this is just the beginning of the discussion. Expect to see Kevin back on the Dale Jr. Download soon. And for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaReal fans wear Dirty Mo. Hit the link and join the crew.👇shop.dirtymomedia.com/FanDuel: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, we go to Daytona for the first race. It got off to a rocky start by coming overshot the pits and hit you. As a jack man, you got to go first. You're committed. Obviously, we went to the Airfare Care Center, you know, watching the race on the monitor. I watch you and trickle down the backstretch flip it. And then they haul y'all in. And when they haul y'all in there, you know what I mean, and drop y'all off in there,

you come walking in and look at me. And you're going, what are you doing in here? And I'm like, I'm in here because you're here. hit me like 50 laps ago. I didn't hit you, and I'm like, yeah, you did. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey everybody,

it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download, and we got a great guest for you today. His name is Kevin Pennell, but everybody knows him in the racing industry as two beers. We're going to learn how he got that nickname. You can imagine how that might have came about, but this guy, Kevin, two beers, whatever you want to call

him, has been part of the DEI circle for a really long time. He was working with the AC Delco crew when I would come in and drive that car for two championships in 9899. He was with the Bud guys back in those days. And we've just always been together, one big family, and he's still in the racing industry today. So we're going to try to cover as much as we can. This will be difficult because there's a lot there. But let's get going, get this one started, and bring Two Beer into the room. So Two Beer, Kevin Pinell. It's been a while.

Yeah. So Kevin Pinell, a lot of people are going to wonder who you are. And that's what we're going to talk about today. You are, you've been a part of a lot of things, but most notably for me, you're Tony Jr. married your sister. Right. you became kind of part of the family, and then you would work on the Xfinity stuff with the A.C. Delco car,

and you were there before I was, and you would be on the Budcar for years. You were a jackman, mechanic, all kinds of different roles. And then you still are in racing today. You went with SHR once that, basically the 8 team kind of, stayed together all through those years. We're going to talk about all that. So I know Tony Jr. and Tony Jr. Mary and your sister was a catalyst to getting you

kind of involved in racing or around racing, right? What is your first memories, I suppose, of getting near a race car? First memories probably would have been the, you know what I mean, just getting his late model. Him and his dad was working on that deal, you know, out of the deer head shop at the time. I approached him, because he spent a lot of time at my house, I approached him about, you know, helping out. Yeah. What could I do? What were you into at that point?

I mean, you're in high school then. I was in high school, you know what I mean? Football, baseball, wrestling, just school sports, you know. Actually getting ready to get into high school, you know, actually eight, like eighth grade junior high. Yeah. What could I do? How could I, you know what I mean, you know, be a part of, you know, helping you and your dad out? and he's like, you know, just come up.

He said, we'll go and work on a car on Saturday. You know, just come up and hang out. So I did. You know, I mean, of, you know, going with him on Saturday morning. And that's where I, you know, actually met the first time, you know, I guess we were talking about it. But I met your dad and Pops, you know. Tom Senior. Yeah.

And that was that was the kind of the shoehorning of the deal. Yeah. So what was that like being around them? I mean, you probably knew who dad was, but. Yeah. Never met him. Never met him. Pops.

What was your experience around both those guys? Pops was really quiet. You know what I mean? If Pops was talking to you, you better be nervous. Right. Because he's usually getting your ass chewed. He was really quiet, but he was also, you know what I mean? You know, also won't know a lot about me, you know, who I was and, you know, and all that.

But the deal with your dad was I actually was laying underneath the late model at the time in the deer head shop. and Tony Jr., Pops wasn't there at the time, but Tony Jr. walked out and said, I'll be right back, I got to go grab something, and your dad came in because it wasn't, it was the cowboy boots walking on the floor that walked over the top of me to land underneath the car and grabbed me by my ankles and drugged me out from underneath the car.

And I've never seen him in person, never, just never been around him. And the first deal was looking straight up at him. And, you know, his deal was who the hell of you? And I, you know, got, you know, the kind of the clammy mouth, you know, stuttering going, you know, Kevin. And he kind of looked down at me, you know what I mean? He says, well, I'm glad to meet you.

And he started stutter and going, cuck, cag, Kevin, you know. And that's how we struck things off was like that. And then obviously Tony Jr. come back in and we, you know, eased the things up a little bit, you know, and went and rode on a farm. Oh, yeah. Checking the fence line before Tony Sr. got there. And that whole deal in experiencing itself was just me as a young individual, you know, seeing deer, you know, riding this farm with Tony Jr. in the middle in the old farm truck, you know, and I'm sitting there pointing out deer to him like a dumbass, you know. And he's sitting there, you know, looking over there at me, you know, like this.

And I'm like, y'all don't see that deer, y'all that damn blind, you know? and he's sitting there, you know, the whole time he ain't saying a word. Yeah. And about halfway through that ride, he kept looking at Tony Jenner going, I don't see no deer. I don't know what he's talking about. So we ended, you know, obviously ended the fence ride on the farm, pulling back up to the deer head shop.

And what broke the ice was he looked over there and asked Tony Jenner, he said, how many deer did you see today, Tony Jenner? I didn't see no deer Dale. And he looked over there at me and he started stuttered. He goes, Kevin, how many deer did you see? And I went, and I didn't see no deer. today, Dale. And he said, that's what I thought. Yeah. And that was right after I'll say to the 93, incident with a guy jumping the fence doing out of that crap. And that's why he was the way he was.

Yeah. And I, and that was our introduction together. And I'd say after that, you know what I mean? It was, it went good, you know, or as good as you can expect. Man, I can see all that playing out just like that. Um, you know, how did you, how did you, you know, you, I remember you running street stocks. Right. You know, you were 16 years old, I guess, right out of getting your license. Actually, I was, actually I was 15 and my dad signed. Signed for you to be able to do it for 60.

This is the year after I quit running street stocks, Kelly was in our street stock car. Right. How did you, what made you, or who convinced you like to do, to drive? Like, you hadn't, you hadn't been around. grew up around it, hadn't known it, and here it is on your, you know, you just walked through the threshold, just the, you know, of being around a race car for the very first time, and then months later you're in a streetstock car at Concord. Well, I think it was a lot, no different, you know, than you or Tony Jr.

It was like, why would you want to work on them when you could drive them? Yeah. And I was, you know, you're just talking about that age of being able to attain your driver's license and you get to drive a car by yourself. And I'm like, you know, and I come home from being, helping Tony Senior, Tony Jr. out on these late models and going to do a couple races with them. And I'm like, hey, what if we build with a car? You said that to who? My dad.

Yeah. So you got a Nova. Yep. Where does you get to Nova? Junkyard. They're in Canapolis. So I asked him about, you know, doing it. And obviously he's like, you know, let's just go down and watch one.

So we went down to Concord and watched and got us a rule book, which was about that thick at the time. and went to the junkyard and pulled us one out. And actually, I drove at home from the junkyard. Really? Yeah, and he was in front of me just running a blocker, so I wouldn't get pulled. Holy sht. And, yeah, pulled it into the actual backyard. I had a one-bay shop in the backyard.

And my job during the summer was, you know, stripping it. Seats, cut and bolts. So that's how, you know, I obtained, you know, mechanical sites. of working on them, seeing how they were put together and all that. And then once I got it to a point where me and him put a roll cage in it and painted. You did the roll cage? Me and him. Did Tony Jr. come over and see what you're doing?

That's the thing about him and pops come over. And they would bring supplies, we call them, you know, and help out, you know, and like MSD boxes, distributors, they wouldn't use them. And, you know, a lot of – dad was in canned meals at the time, so, you know, pipe cutting and bending and stuff like that, they would do for me. at the shop, you know, Kenna Mills and questions I had, I would ask Tony Jr. And if he couldn't answer him, he'd ask his dad, you know, and that's how the car really got put together. And from there, you know, I mean, we went racing.

Yeah. Man. I remember I was over at the shop one day. We had a friend of ours, Todd Savage, that ran a Ford street stock. And it was like Friday morning. And I'm like, Todd, you ain't working on the street stop? He's like, no, I ain't going to go this weekend. The Tonda Jr. and Senior, they were running Exfinity somewhere, the Bush car somewhere. It was quiet. And Kelly was going to run. And so I think that's why I was over messing around.

And she had our old car, me and carried tore up. And Todd's like, I ain't going to do it. I ain't going to go. I ain't going to go. Or I'll take it. He had a good little forward. that he had running pretty good. And I thought, man, I'll go drive it damn thing.

You mind if I take it? He's like, I don't care, take it. So I go over there, and we went out and practice, and then it's time for us to race. And do you remember what happened in the race? I vaguely remember you going, but I can't recall. They must have, I don't know what we did for qualifying. They must have drawn or something.

We didn't have heat races or anything. And you started in front of campus. Kelly, and I started right behind Kelly. Okay. And Kelly's car, we had a damn railroad tie, a railroad tie iron to the, or welded to the rear of that car because we'd crashed and tore the bumper off a bunch. And so we just put a big old square, it was like big giant angle iron tubing on the back of this thing.

And we got going and you missed a shift. Kelly lifted, and I didn't, and I run through Kelly, and knocked the radiator ride that Ford. I didn't get a lap. I can believe it. Yeah. And I took that car back to Todd, and I was so sad. I was like, man, I'm sorry. I didn't even finish one lap with your car, and the damn, old front end's knocked out of it.

What do you remember from racing streetstocks? I mean, I know you didn't, you ran it, what, a year? Two years? Two years. But the thing about that, and I will tell you this, So originally all I had was an automatic. So I had to shift it. Oh, there you go.

I had to shift it first, second. No shit. Yeah. And then it was drive into column. Yeah. And so if you went past drive, it was neutral. Yeah. That was that.

And until dad actually said, all right, we'll put you a four speed in there. Yeah. And we'll cut the floor out. And it got better. But sorry for that. No, that's all right. I didn't know him. But yeah.

No, I mean, you know, I remember a lot, you know, and I still, you know, what brought a lot of that on was like when you made the movie with your dad and everything and done that whole deal. There were some pictures of, you know, me, Kelly and Hank Parker Jr.'s sitting on the wall. Yeah. And it was like, wow, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? Those days down there racing with them three and even Todd Savage was priceless. You know what I mean?

And we still talk about them, you know what I mean, of just, you know, how things were back then and how simple it was. Yeah. you know, how enjoyable, but, you know, tore up a bunch. Oh, yeah. I tore up a crap ton of stuff in industry stocks. And I think that was one of the reasons. Dad, my dad approached me about, hey, you know what I mean? This is becoming pricey.

You know, you need to find your job. And he started poking me and like, you need to get yourself in up there at Arnhearts and start, you know, work and making some kind of money. And then that's where, you know, I started approaching. approaching, you know, Tony Jr. about going up and helping more on the late model to try to get myself around those people to get myself in the door. Yeah. You know? That's a great, that's a great, that's a great thing to talk about because a lot of people always ask, why, you know, how do I, I have kids, we're at the technical NASCAR Technical Institute is right here.

We get kids, it'll be kids out there, I bet today. Right. Hey, you know, you got any advice. Yep. You know, and I tell them, and I told a group of kids last week out front, I said, man, you might have to go somewhere and work for nothing. Yep. You might.

I was like, if you want it bad enough, you've got to be willing to go somewhere and do it for free. And you bring up a great point right there. You know what I mean? That was the exact words that I received from your father was, you know what I mean? When I started, it was for cash money. That's how I started. And I would not see him for months on, maybe a month. Yeah.

Because he was off racing or deer hunting or doing his deal. But he was your sole. But he was my paycheck. Yeah, he was the one of pay me out of his pocket. And he told me, he says, you keep up with your hours. And Tony Senior looked at me and because that's kind of how Tony Jr. started. He looked at me and he says, you get you a book. You know what I mean?

Or a little piece of paper writing down. And he said, make sure you keep up with him. Because he'll ask you, knowing that he was. wasn't going to be there a bunch. Yeah. And then he come, you know, missing a couple days or weeks at a time. And so I was like, man, this dude don't want me around here. Maybe I don't need to come here, you know, because he ain't here to pay me.

So I missed like a week. And he showed up when I wasn't there. Yeah. And he asked about me. Where was I at? And then Tony Jr. quizzed me in on, hey, Dale asked about you. And I'm like, oh, shit, you know what I mean?

So I showed back up. and obviously he was there and he looked at me, you know what I mean, walked through the shop and kind of gave me the cold shoulder and just kept walking, and I was hoping he was going to ask me about pay and everything else, but that wouldn't want he wanted to talk about. And he, you know, finally he walked back by a couple more times and says, where's you at last week? And I was like, well, I said, I didn't come.

He said, why don't you come? Well, I figured, you know what I mean, that you didn't need me up here. You know, you haven't paid me in four weeks. So you didn't need me. And he says, let me ask you a question. He said, you do this because you love it? He said, or you do it for the money. And I'm like, that was kind of a, you know, a deal to me.

Like, I didn't understand. And I'm like, no, I love to do this, but I have to have the money too. And he said, well, you'll find a way to make money. He said, but you got to love this stuff. You got to love what you're doing. And I'm like, I do love what I'm doing. He's like, no, you don't. And I'm like, yeah, I do.

You know what I mean? And then it becomes one of them deals. No, you don't. Yeah, I do. And finally, you know, he said, well, how much I owe you? Like that? And I flipped open my book, and he said, I was keeping up with it. And I told him X amount of money, and it turned up to being somewhere near $1,500 at the time.

And he goes, that's too damn much money. I knew it. Yeah. And so he started raking his hundreds out of his back pocket, and he got empty. And he says, and he owed me like 400, you know, more. And he looked over at Rick Bossed. He goes, bossed. He goes, he looked at me.

And he says, you need a set of tires on you. car. I was like, yeah, he said, boss, take his car down a punch. He'd put us a tire on his car. Yeah. You know, he said, will that do for the extra 400? I'm like, yeah, that's fine. Damn. That's hilarious. Yeah. And so I took the money and obviously I didn't miss another day, you know, but. Golly. Dad gave you your nickname, too beer. Yeah. How'd that happen? I've always wondered this. Well, obviously, the late model racing, you know, we went to the beach and raced with you on some of the big races. And we went down there and everybody wanted to go out to some establishments.

Oh, yeah. I went out with them. Figured I was going to get in, but I didn't get in, got thrown out. Damn. Too young. Too young. Sit out there in a dully and there was a cooler beer. So I sat out there with cooler beer by myself until they decided to come back.

I was passed out. Damn. I done sitting there and got sick. Yeah. Oh, no. messed up all over the side of it. I threw up. Oh, shit.

So they were like, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? You can't drink. You don't need but two beers and all this stuff. And then they got back to the shop. And, you know, your dad was like, you know, told me I could, I could go with her, but I couldn't, you know, get into trouble drinking and all that else jazz with them. Got back to the shop and the story time he had on Monday nights. Yep.

He went down to the house and came back. You can't, if there's a story to be told, and then boys in that shop know it, you ain't surviving. You can't hide it. You can't hide it. It's coming out. Five o'clock, the damn beer cooler came into the shop and the five alive and the absolute vodka. Or Jack and the Dice and yeah. All that stuff came out of the cabinets and it was story time.

So he went down to the house and came back and he had a Stein and it would only hold two beers. And I didn't know it at a time. and he sat the Stein on the table. And he says, two beer. Like that, you know what I mean? And I didn't answer. And he's like, he goes, Kevin, like that. And I go, what?

He goes, I got a mug right here. And this mug will only hold two beers. Whenever you think you brave enough to drink another beer again, you can have it, but this is all you can have. And I'm going to put it up here in the cabinet. Yeah. And he slid it up there in the cabinet with all the pictures where they were and all that stuff. But that's where it's set for all in years.

Damn. And it was just a, it got exposed on a Monday night. Thunder Night, you know. Man, you, we, your nickname, Too Beer, has followed you ever since. Nobody, yeah. Nobody calls you Kevin. And that's the thing about it, you know, people, you know, you get in uniforms and you get Kevin put on there and they're like, Kevin, when did you get that name?

You know what I mean? But, you know, mom and dad, they're not really proud of it, but in the same stuff, you know what I mean? It got me to where I am today, you know what I mean? I mean, your name is your name, but hey. Yeah. I'd much rather get it from who I got it from than someone else. Yeah.

You worked for Dad on the farm for a while? Well, and that's the thing. You know, I wasn't able to travel because I was in school. So when your dad got out of the Bush car in 94, and he hired Jeff Green in 95, 96, they run full time. They run full time. So that would leave the shop to Bugs and Rick Balls to me. Yeah.

What are we going to do? You know what I mean? They're sitting, you know, and so I would go to the farm shop and hang out with, you know, Savage and Cook and Cliff Cook and all them guys back into the old days. Yeah. And they would, you know, be bell in hay pushing cows or whatever. And I'd go climb a tractor with one of them and just ride on the farm and spend the afternoon with them after school every day. And that's kind of where I met with the farmers, you know, on that side of things. and then when the bush cars would come back home,

if I was able to go to the bush race and there was enough room on the King Air, I'd fly to them on Saturday morning with the weekend guys. But I had to either ride home in a truck if they wasn't enough room because you race Saturday. And you, you know, I mean, you had Sundays off, so I'd ride home in the tractor or fly back home if they had room.

Yeah. And that's kind of how that deal worked out in the whole 95 to right at 96 era. Yeah. what was your um what was the process of you in terms of being a better mechanic how are you how in those days you know how quickly are you learning on the job you better want i mean i say you better learn quickly but i was making a bunch of mistakes you know tony senior made sure that the mistake you made you didn't make it again and that's you know i mean you know there was never

you know nothing that they wouldn't allow you to do you know but there was always a teaching principle to it. If it was going to the boat bin and grabbing boats or parts running, going to get certain parts in town, whatever it may be, you know what I mean? It was a teaching principle back then and that day from Tony Sr. Yeah. You know, Tony Jr., yeah, you know what I mean?

He was in the learning stage with his dad and everything of following in his footsteps. But me, you know what I mean? I remember your dad approaching Tony Sr. one night and asking him, is he going to work out pointing to me? And I was kind of nervous on how he was going to answer that question. You know, and Tony Sr. said, he's fine. He's okay.

And he was like, all right, you know what I mean? Just making sure that I was not getting in anybody's hair around there. Yeah, man. A lot of people find the deerhead shop to be this sort of mythical place. Me and you both spend a lot of time in there. Area 51. Yeah. China, right?

Hey. You know, it's my belief that the day dad died, that door got locked and, you know, maybe there's a person who's been in there every now and then to clean it up, but from what I know, it's untouched. Yeah, 100%. I thought the Monday morning afterwards, you know, I felt really, really lost, like, you know, no different than you would have been. You know, me and Tony Jr. looked at each other and kind of, you know, like, what are we going

to do? what do we need? What do we mean, we just didn't have an answer. Yeah. We walked across the street and walked in there and sat down. In the deerhead shop. And the deerhead shop at a picnic table. Opened up and had a yoo-hoo and a pack of cheese crackers.

And, you know, everything was left or was laying in there just like it was two weeks prior that I seen. Yeah. And walked out and I've never been back since. Yeah. That was where you worked during those early years. Oh, yeah. Three bays, kind of a small shop, three or four, full-time people with you, Tony Jr. Tony, Sr., Rick Boss, Bugs, cleaning up.

Gold Window office outside. Yeah. Dad had that little office in the... Yeah. Some good memories in there. Very good. Yeah. Hey, everybody.

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Together, let's drive. When you got out of school, you know, what was your, did you consider maybe not graduating high school? Was there a moment or time when you thought? No, no. It was never a question. Never a question. It was a conversation. And your dad was near.

Oh, really? The conversation, we were, we just, I think we just received a new trailer. for Jeff Green. And we were outside working in the park lot, getting it ready for Daytona, obviously. And he was out there inside of it. And someone said something to me about schooling. And, you know, it was late that night. And you worked with those guys who they were done.

And that was the deal. And it was late that night. Somebody said something about the schoolboy homework. And why ain't you at home doing your homework? And I'm like, I'll get to it, you know, once I get home. You know what I mean? And they're like, what are you? what do you know i mean you end up you know quit in school you know what i mean you're you're you're gonna

fail and your dad overheard it yeah and it went ballistic on up from him like that ain't a question that ain't even uh possibility and it was you know one of them from here pulled over and it was like you will graduate or you won't step on this concrete right here in this facility yeah you will not work for me. And it was a, it was a deal from him that it hurt him that he didn't graduate. And he, you know, he let it be known. And I never experienced that, you know, one-on-one right there and took every bit of it. Yeah. And the day I graduated, and I will tell you this, the day I graduated, we went racing that weekend in South Boston with the Bush car. And the next Monday morning, And he was sitting in his truck waiting on me to pull up.

And the promise from him was kept. He took me straight into that little house right there on the highway. Yeah. As you pull into a brick house, that's where he kept all the office people. Yeah. And pulled right in there and walked in there and said, put him full time. No shit. Yeah.

Just because I kept my end of the bargain. And it was a deal where, you know, I was just, I was wondering why he was sitting in. truck and it was just he was waiting on me yeah you know that's pretty cool did you think about going to school college not at that time because i've done spent so much time up there and invested so much effort into that and it was like racing was going to go on forever yeah uh the style of racing these guys um you know and i remember tony senior asked me one time he goes you know you you better be sure this is what you want to do the rest your life and i was like yeah it is Yeah.

You know? And I mean, it's been a great ride, but in the same sense, there's been some hairy moments in the sport. But at that point in time, there was no question. I mean, it was. Great opportunity. Oh, it was incredible. Yeah.

I mean, you got a guy that sits there and said, all you have to do is graduate and I give you a job. You're going to take it, especially from him. Oh, yeah. You know? Let's talk about the AC Delco days. They hired Steve Park to come drive the car in 97. Right.

Jeff Green, great little driver, for whatever reason, didn't work out. And we've had some conversations with Jeff on this show. I think the year with Steve and what Steve was able to bring to the table, I know Steve was influential in building some of the, you know, some of the Red Hat of Step Childs and all those cool little cars that I got to drive the next year. Yeah. There's a lot of people, too, and I'm one of them that believe that had Steve, for whatever reason, stayed in that car, he wins those races, he wins those championships in 9899.

Everything that y'all did in 97 was Steve. Right. Sort of teed that team up for what we would accomplish the next couple of years. You know, how much, I felt like the team really kind of shifted in, and when Jeff Green drove the car, it was still the black good wrench car. Right. And there was a, there was a heaviness kind of hanging over the team because of that car. What it looked like?

Yeah. a lot of, on harsh cars. On heart expectations. Yeah. And when we shifted to the A.C. Delco car, it felt like that team's, that team was like kind of released from some sort of, you know, gravitational pull that wasn't very favorable. Did you experience that? What was it like having Steve come in and y'all start to do kind of some of the things

y'all did together? Yeah, I think when Steve came in, Steve brought a bunch of short track knowledge. that we didn't have at the time. I mean, they ran good day. You know, I mean, obviously. But I'd say 75% of your races back then were short tracks. And Steve brought in his style of short track knowledge, what he knew. And that's where stepchild came alone.

Yeah. Was, we need to buy a chassis that's an inch and a half drop. You know, we need this. We need that. And Pops was like, you know, weary on doing them things because he was a, you know, Ronnie Hopkins guys and a set belief of his deals, which is great. You know what I mean? His foundation of race team was just strong as ever.

And I never forget, he had allowed us to get one of those cars, but it's sit over in the corner, and that's why it was called Stepchild, because it set off to the side, no one would work on it. None of us or nobody. And Steve was in the shop working with us, and that's back when the driver came in, and, you know, he turned wrenches with us when he had it. did not have to do appearances. But he asked me one day, he was going to hang out suspension on that car,

so I got a suspension ready. We hung it, and he started putting steering columns and stuff like that in, and your dad came in and wanted to know what that thing was sitting over there in the corner, and Steve walked him over. My office was showing him everything about it, and your dad was quizzing him on the steering column set up. And he was like, you know, I got this lightweight rod in, you know, on this column, and your dad said, that ain't going to work.

It ain't going to fly. and he was like oh yes lightweight it's better than he's over here and your dad climbed up on the doorbars I remember breaking it kicking it with his cowboy boots and kick the thing off to roll cage and he goes and he goes that's what's going to happen to you in a damn wreck

you know what I mean we don't build shit like that around here you know and that was the end of some of that stuff but in the same sense obviously you know stepchild from there and that race team you know we took it and tested it at Nashville to the fairgrounds against a standard car and it just performed flawless, you know, 30 laps into racing on. And that's where that car shined.

And it won us a lot of races. And, you know, obviously, you know, went through a lot of drivers there. Yeah. But race team wise, you know what I mean? The E.C. Delco days gave us a new look, you know, away from the Goodrich car. Yep. That was racing on Sunday where people still looked at us and expected us to run good, but in the same sense, you know what I mean, we were still the same team.

Yeah. Yeah, it was a lot of fun driving that car in 98, 99. I remember when y'all had a car, I remember a couple things. So the drops now out red chassis, we had two of them. And stepchild was one. Step mama. Step mama was the other. They were both amazing every time I drove them, cut in the middle.

and we had a car number one that we took to Atlanta and Texas and that was the car I won my first race in and that car was badass. Every time it was loose as shit until we pulled the tape off of it. We pulled the tape off it. It would haul us. Here it comes. A whole man.

And then we had this other car that we didn't run a ton, but y'all gave it to me in 97 to run Michigan. It was car number five. And I liked it. y'all didn't it was like a car y'all were kind of culling out of y'all's little line up there yeah and uh i liked it and when y'all when i got asked to come over there and drive i convinced tony senior to skin it and keep it and keep running and we took it to bristol run second to hermy or elliott sallor and then uh i think i run it we i wrecked the car and practice at

darlington and we ended up pulling that car out as a backup and running second to trickle i think but you know you kind of get hung up on cars because because we, you know, you had names for cars, you had cars, you ran a lot and you loved, you knew their tendencies. Right. It's a little different than it is today. Y'all had pretty decent success with Steve, one at the Fairgrounds in Nashville. Richmond.

Had some good races, yeah. And then dad announces that he's going to do this cut team. They'd been putting together this kind of cut program, which y'all had some, you had your hands on. We ran Jeff Green in that number 14 car. racing for kids. That car, that chassis for that car sit over at Doug Wayne's junkyard forever. I don't know where it ended up.

But the, you know, so the cup idea had been kind of brewing. Right. Finally, dad's going to put it together and he pulls Steve out of the, out of the A.C. Delco car. Yep. For all, you know, for what we know, Steve probably could have used another year and y'all would have been hell on wheels, but they ended up putting me in the car, which was. was a big shock to me. You know, I didn't even know. Dad never came to me and said, hey, this is what we're doing.

He never even mentioned it. Like, hey, what do you think? Tony Jr. or Tony Sr. called me and asked me to come by the shop. And y'all were still down by the chicken houses. Right. And I don't know why they wanted me to come over there. And they rarely asked me to come over there. so I wasn't sure what was going on.

And I walked in there and he said, and the name was on the roof of one of them cars. Right. And I was like, damn, is this some kind of joke? Because I didn't, I thought, they were laughing like it was funny. It was weird because they were laughing like it was funny. And they were laughing at my reaction, really.

But I was like, these guys, this is cruel as hell. They put my name on this car just to pull my leg. And they're like, no, you're really doing it. What was everybody, I guess kind of, What was the, I know there's a lot of people on this race team that are family. Right. To all of us, right? You and I got the connection with Tony Jr.

And Tony Sr. And then there's Danny Earnhardt and all those guys on this team been there forever. They all knew me. But I hadn't ever really worked with y'all or worked in the shop. I hadn't really paid any dues. So what was the general, and be honest, but what was the general like feeling in the shop when Steve gets pulled away. He's going cup racing with the pencil guys,

and y'all are going to put me in that car sort of unproven. So from what I can remember on that deal, your dad never told us. Like, you're all going to get a driver swap. Yeah. I think probably Pops told us what we were going to do, and this is the way we're going to do it. And I do remember, and maybe you do too,

we put a car together and took it to Charlotte Motor Speedway. Yeah, right to be at it. And with Steve Park and you to put you in it and to get some laps. By ourselves, nobody there, just us. You know, vague racetrack. I mean, just empty. Went there, Steve shook it down. He climbed out.

You climbed in. And I can't recall the amount of laps, but all we heard was tire squeal. and we jumped in the van because you wouldn't answer us. We drove down there and you're laying on the racetrack. You don't got out of the race car. And we walk out of her, we're like, are you okay? And you're like, yeah, I'm fine, but Daddy's going to kill me.

Yeah. Daddy's going to kill me. We're like, dude, you're fine. You know, you're good. You know, we'll make this work. Yeah. You're okay. And that's the memory I first have of you climbing in the race car from over there.

You know what I mean? but I would say the tendency was you're going from Steve Park winning all the time and then you know we're going to go shake this car down with you know Dale Jr. and then it goes out there and it's gone. Yeah. You know what I mean? And we're like, this is what we're receiving. And I'm not saying there was never no, oh, my God, and this ain't going to work, you know what I mean.

But we were tight-knit race team family-wise and work-wise. that, you know, Pops is, you know, behind a stern going, we're going to be fine, we're going to make this work. You know, that's what we, the way we approached it. Yeah. And, you know, I can't say I never doubted it. You know what I mean? I would be lying if I sat there and said, I doubted it. Yeah.

You know, not working. But I never, there was never no thought. It was just Pops had us working so much and going in that direction of winning all the time. It didn't matter who he put in. but in a simple fact you know, I mean, you got put into a car and it turned out to be two of the greatest years ever, you know? Well, we go to Daytona for the first race.

It got off to a rocky start for the first couple weeks of the season, but in Daytona, we go down there. I'd never qualified at Daytona before. I pull off pit road, just taking it easy, thinking, oh, man, we'll just get up to speed, go through the gears. I qualified third and come in, and I'm thinking, hey, that's pretty good.

Tony Sr. says, what the F. were you doing? You didn't even get up to speed. You got to go off pit road like a maniac. You'd have qualified on the pole. He was so mad. In the race, we had these really tough first gears trying to get out of pit road, and I tore the yoke off to rear-enhausen, trying to get out of pits in our first pit stop.

We had to go behind the wall, change of gear, come back out. During that pit stop, I come in, overshot the pits and hit you. Right. Through you over the hood. That jack and everything goes flying, and you had a damn jump up And what was that? Do you remember much about that? I do.

Yeah. I remembered the actual jump to this day was, you know, I mean, this ain't going to work out great. Yeah. You know, I was on, I was on, when I jumped, when I was supposed to jump, it was just, the car was going faster than it was supposed to be coming. Oh, yeah. But in the photo or in the picture and the videos or whatever, everybody else is like, look at this dumb. You know what I mean? They're still standing on the wall.

Oh, yeah. They didn't jump. They knew. They knew. But you, as a jack man, you got to go first. You're committed. Yeah. You know what I mean?

And when I was fully committed, I launched out through the pit road and knocked the crap out. I mean, you know, finished the stop and done the stop. What I wasn't waiting on was when the stop was over, you know what I mean? Obviously, you leaving the pits and breaking the yoke off the drive shaft, you know, off the drive shaft was, you know, pulling behind the wall, working on the car to get it, you know, all back together to get it back out there quick as we could. but to be, you know, grab a Tony senior after working on a car going, you know what I mean, this is all your fault being slow. You know what I mean? You were slow riding a race car and Tony Jr. is trying to tell him why I was slow.

Because you got run over. Because I got run over. He never had a clue that I got hit to this day. You know, he didn't even know. And Tony Jr. is trying to explain to him that, you know, you just wipe me out on pit road. And then obviously, you know, throwing a drive shaft out was just principles of everything. else saw all the commotion over the radio of leaving. Yeah. But

obviously went to the Airfare Care Center and I did. Yeah. I did. So they they were standing there after I climbed up from underneath the car and received my butt chewing from pops and they were asking me, am I okay? And I'm like, yeah, I'm fine. They were like, we've seen a video, you need to come get you checked out. And obviously

the PR girl at the time, Trees under down, she was like, you need to go, just get checked out. So I went and they you know, I was like, well, I got to jack the car, we'll find somebody else. So I went. And obviously, sitting in the airfare care center at the time, you know, watching the race on the monitor, I watch you and trickle down the backstretched flip it and land. So I'm sitting there going, oh, crap, you know, now I've got to go fix the car. I need to get out of here and I'm looking for a doctor.

You know, hey, I need to leave. And then they haul y'all in. And when they haul y'all in there, you know what I mean, and drop y'all off in there, you come walking in and look at me. And you're going, what are you doing in here? And I'm like, I'm in here because you hit me like 50 laps ago. I didn't hit you. And I'm like, yeah, you did.

So it's me and you. And I'm like, you know, and the doctor comes over and he's like, you're fine. You can leave and looks at you, you know, and checks you out. And you're like, hey, wait on me. I'll ride back with you. So me and you ride back to the garage. You know, I mean, from that whole incident. Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. We go to Rockingham and run like crap. I was terrible at Rockingham. And I'm sitting there after that race, I was pretty worried. You know, I'd had a couple like glimpses the year before driving a car that I'd borrowed and driving for Ed Whitaker and so forth. But I knew that I had a lot to fucking learn. And I knew that I wasn't sure whether I was ready.

for what I was doing and ready for y'all, like y'all deserve better. But we finally go to Vegas, and, you know, I hadn't really ever really run many mile and a half, so I think Michigan, I had one Michigan race under my belt, which went really well the year before. And we go there and run second to Spencer. Spencer, yeah. Coming down to the finish, like I had every opportunity to move him up to. the racetrack.

Yeah. And I was nervous to do it because it was Jimmy Spencer. He's a big boy. And we get the race done. And so Tony Jr. comes up to me and he goes, man, I can't believe you didn't move him. He's like, I bet on you. I bet on us to win.

We all did. And I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, I taped the freaking ticket to the dash. To the dash on the right side. Yeah. Yeah. I got in that car and ran the whole race. and never saw that bet slip.

Yep. Y'all had bet for us to win the race. We put like 200 down. Well, with the odds, I don't even remember. Couldn't have been too good. No, it was... I mean, it was well over 400 to 1. Right.

Oh, it was... Yeah. We were going to make some cash. Yeah. But that's how much belief that we had. You know what I mean? As a race team, we knew we could get the job done. Yeah.

You know, we knew we had great race cars, you know, and we were going to stick behind you and motivate you. Yeah. And, you know, through pops and do what we had to do to win races. And it didn't matter who we had driving a car. Yeah. But, yeah. I've watched that race back, and we kind of, that race itself, in a way, is a big day for me

because we start out kind of, you know, backside of the top 10, doing okay, not really too flashy. But as the race goes, it's like I start to get it, right? Better and better confidence and the understanding. them what the car can do and pushing the car to that limit and really getting the most out of it. And then we go to Bristol, or Bristol, run second to Sadler, which I was really proud of because I ran Bristol the year before with Ed Whitaker. Ed Whitaker.

And I had a hauled ass, but I wrecked a ton. And that's where I remembered you from being, I knew you, but in the same, got to see you drive. And I knew what Ed had as a race car. Yeah. And it was like, you know, this car just settled. a pole outqualified us and what we had as equipment and I'm sitting there looking like all it takes you know what I mean is the right four springs the driver you know what I mean and the shocks to get around here but in the same fact you're on the pole and we were sitting in like third or fourth and it just

you know what I mean pops is like wonder what they got in that car you know what I mean it burned it burned him up you know what I mean yeah I remember we had we didn't have a ton of motor which actually made the car way easier to drive. And we had very basic linear shocks. I actually think we leaned on y'all for some of them shocks. But that was those two weekends, right, kind of having a good run in a big unfamiliar place like Vegas and then going to Bristol, which I thought would chew me up and spit me out and getting in and out of there with a good finish.

That week, it was on from there. felt like everywhere we went, by time we got to the midpoint of the season, our attitude, at least mine was finally, there's no better team here. No reason why we're not going to win every race we show up to. Right. But that's what we were asked to do. That was the expectations that was presented,

and there was no question. You know what I mean? For us from Pops, you know what I mean? It was like, we knew your dad was behind us. We knew, you know, at the end of the day, his expectations. Yeah. And they were really high. But Pops' expectations were very, you know, very much right there in line.

And it was like, you're not going to just go be mediocre. Yeah. You know? Man, Tony Senior and Tony Jr., what I learned from them, the things that stand out to me, I mean, there are two of my most favorite people. And I know they're absolutely top of your list. Oh. but Tony's senior and Tony Tony, Tony senior more so than junior,

they didn't, they wanted to be at the top of the board in every test, every practice, every, any session. Yep. Any session. They did not know why that that car that they took to the racetrack wasn't on the left side of the board and toward the top. And nothing better fall off. Uh-uh.

You know. What, you know, we had 13 wins, two championships. in 9899 with that AC Delco team. What are some of your favorite moments? I mean, both years. I mean, there's not just one. I mean, we won it that first year, and you're supposed to win it the second year.

You know, but to come back to second year and run just as many, or win just as many, and just sit there and have a rival like we did with Matt Kenseth. You know what I mean? Tooth and nail. And if we were to win, won the race and he would finish second or vice versa. And there was races that we were wrecked out together.

Yeah. You know. It over. Yeah. Yeah. Just there was never no one. It was just everything, just the whole, what I take from two years with that race team and with y'all was priceless.

You know what I mean? It was so much learning in everything that we'd done, but we were victorious doing it. and it was so enjoyable. And even when we weren't victorious and we finished second, it got to be no fun. You know? Yeah.

Because your expectations was to win. And it made you who you were. Yeah. You know? Hey, everybody. You want the latest Dale Jr. download apparel? Visit shop.durtymomedia.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 out. it out at shop.dirtymoomedia.com. One of my favorite races when I think back on those couple of years was there's a lot of moments, but one of them was with the year in 99, I think it was pretty sure it was 99, they announced that Jeff Gordon was going to run that Pepsi car

out of the Hendrick shop. And I thought, man, you know, it was tough enough as it was trying to beat Mark Martin when he showed up with the Wind Dixie car. That brings back another memory as well. But we go to Michigan, and I am chomping at the bit to have a race with Jeff Gordon. And we all, me and Jeff kind of were the two best cars in this race, and we would swap the lead. And the arrow balance on the Xfinity car in 1999 was as good as any race car I'd ever run

in terms of how you competed with each other. if you got the lead you got loose and you needed and if your car was handling great you really didn't want to lead because it was too much of a handful it was easier to run in sack it took him behind him you get behind them and the balance would get perfect the balance would go from free to neutral

as you got a little bit of that air off the nose but man it was so much fun and so the guy that would get the lead would get up there and go hell yeah I'm gonna f*** drive away and then he'd run about three laps to go I got my damn hands full why don't you lead a little bit. And me and Jeff sit up there and kind of passed each other back and forth on the early part of that race, but ended up, we drove away. We got our, you know, we made a couple

adjustments, locked the back down, and we went on. And I was so proud of that. The other moment that I thought of, and I can't remember exactly it was 98 or 99, but we passed Mark on the outside of Richmond. Yeah, that's what I was getting rid of to tear you. Like, Mark, you couldn't beat him. Nope. Like I, I would wreck trying to keep up with Mark at Charlotte and all these other places if you could even see him. You know, they were just so fast. But for whatever reason, man, we kind of figured Richmond out. We were good there in the Exfinity car and the cup car.

We'd win some races there as well in the Bud Days. And it was so similar to the beach in shape and how you race the car and race the track. I think that that helped me a lot racing at Myrtle Beach all those years to go to Richmond. but man we we passed Mark Martin on the outside at a you know which is hard to do it anywhere

but the start of that race I never forget Jeff Burton was driving the nine car and Mark was into 60 and I'd never forget one of the crew chiefs on the nine car at the time asked Popps about because we won

maybe the first race or a year before there at Richmond and asked us about springs and, you know, what do you got in the car? You know, you got the same stuff and pops just like, you know what I mean? No, you know what I mean? We made some changes. I think we blew a motor maybe or something.

We were changing engines before the race. And the reason I remembered is because I had an ingraw and tow. And I had to go to the infrared care center and get it cut out. Jeez. Came back and we were changing the engine. Tony Jr. rolled a motor hoist over on my toe. And that's how I remember this race. But in the same sense, we started out to race and we just, you know,

we were up front with Mark and the nine car. And we passed a nine car for the lead, and Mark was like second or something. And then Mark obviously had to lead, and then you passed Mark right towards the end of the race on the outside to win the race. And it was just like, Mark was like,

couldn't understand how he just got beat, you know, by someone on the outside. Yeah. You know. Yeah. And it was. I couldn't believe it either.

I couldn't either. To this day, you know what I mean? But when it was happening and I was doing it. Those are the same of the things I remembered about that car. Is somebody else in his car? Yeah. Is it not Mark Martin in there?

But like you say, I mean, those were some great, you know, memories of racing. I mean, Walkins Glen, you know what I mean? Yes. Oh, beating Ron Fellows. Beating Ron fellows of all things. Ron, Ron was having some pickup issues on his fuel, but we also, our transmission, so I wasn't a great road course racer, and I'd knock a ball. There's dog bones or something in the transmission.

You know more about that and I'd do. But I'd wore the transmission out, and it wouldn't stay in gear. And so I had to drive the whole last eight, ten laps holding the thing in third and fourth and whatever, right? Because it just popped out of gear down a straightaway. But he was having so much trouble I could still kind of keep up with him, driving it with one hand. So the funny thing about that race, Joey Myers, your pilot, we'd all fly up on the King Air, and he wanted to help out on the car. So when we were changing rear gears or doing whatever, we'd let him pull axles, take the caps off, do whatever. and he ended up leaving the dust cap on the outside of the axle loose and you slung an axle

out of the right side going through the asses and you had to coast all the way back around and you missed pit road I guess coming down the front stretch so you went on down the hill and turned down at the bottom of the hill at the glen so we had to run all the way down to pick you up because you kept telling on the radio I'm down here I'm down here and one so we had to run all the way down there push you all the way back up that hill and we were like just living on Joey. Oh, man. But Darby, John Darby, he brought the axle back over and gave it the pops and gave it to him. You know what I mean?

He slung out and said, there's somebody in a camper over there that wants to sue you because you penetrated their tent with an axle, you know what I mean? Just joking with him. But we played a joke on Joey, you know what I mean, and gave him the golden axle award. Yes. And he has it on his wall in his house. You want to talk about Axles. We went to Darlington when I, in my rookie year.

This was a tough day. We had, we're coming off of two championship races or seasons. And, I mean, it couldn't have been higher. And we went in, we're going to talk about that rookie season. There was some really incredible, incredibly good moments early on. But we go to Darlington. And the, every day in, every day, in every day. in NASCAR, at least in that rookie year, and it was like this most of my career, you could be

on top of the world one day and literally thinking that you needed to quit doing the job the next. I mean, literally thinking, like, I'm not, I don't deserve to be doing this. It was so wild how the swings of high and low. And, but we go to Darlington, and we're running seventh or eighth in the race, and I'm getting freaking crazy loose. Like crazy, crazy loose. And, you know, cars have built balanced free, and I was like,

man, I'm in over my head. Like, this cup, it's really hard. And I finally busted my ass off a turn two and nose the car into the inside wall. Pull it into the garage. And I'm like, man, it's going to really suck now because

I've got to go out with this car, no fenders, and ride around and stay out of the way all day. We got $200. some laps left. I get out there and I can't go. It won't accelerate. It's just broke. And I don't know how to explain it.

And I pull down and pull into the garage. Tony Sr. is like, bring it up. He's madder in hell. And I'm like, I'm going to the garage. This thing's broken. Something's broke in the drive train or something ain't right. And I get out. And I walked away.

Like I didn't wait for you guys to come over there. and didn't wait to debrief with Tony Sr. And I don't know where I went, but I let, maybe to the camper or the bus to change clothes or whatever. But I was like, I ain't getting back in that thing. And Tony Sr. was furious, livid from what I remember. And dad finishes the race, and I meet up with him,

and I'm going to walk with him to outside the racetrack and get in a helicopter and go home. And on the walk over there, I said, Dad, give me a desk job. I'm like, I ain't cut out for this shit. this shit's too hard. If that's how the cars drive and that's what I've got to do,

I can't be as good as y'all. And he's like, he's just not even answering. He's just not even saying nothing. He'd ran all day, run eighth, and he's back slapping and talking to everybody and not even listening to me. And I'm literally at my lowest point

in my entire life, in my mind, right? Right. And we go home, and I am hiding from Tony Sr. I'm so ashamed I don't even want to go over there. And it's like Monday morning or so noon. Tony's Jr. calls me. He goes, hey, what are you doing?

I'm like, I'm just sitting over the house. Found what was wrong with your car. And I was like, really? Like I was like, man, you know, they're going to take it back and whatever's broke. they're not going to find it, and they're not going to believe me, and they're going to think I quit.

And Tony Senior had already said it, I think, in the 12 hours, like, quit. Little f***. And I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to, I don't know how I'm going to gain back his trust, because what's he's done?

He's done. And Tony Jr.,'s like, found what I was wrong with the car. I was like, what? He goes, stripped the dry plate out of the axle or stripped the axle out of the dry plate. I was like, one or the two of the axle failed or the drive plate.

I think it was the axle. And I was like, no, shit. I knew it. And he's like, yeah, you only have one axle. And so I went over there. Happy. Happy. I came in and he showed me the axle.

And I had that. I walked around the entire shop with that axle. Yeah, yeah, doing that there, everybody. Do you remember that? I remember that because I'd done all suspension. I was so glad that there was a reason for what happened. Yeah. Because I was like, man, all these guys think I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, candy ass. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. They think that I just couldn't do it, so I parked it. And I'm like, man, I'm so glad that we found, I hate that we found an issue, but I'm glad we found an issue. Right. You remember, um, that's a, darlington testing there. I never forget we were, you were making some runs out there. And you were like, you know, these tires suck.

They suck. And then we, we look out towards the end of the garage and there's, white smoke. I thought something was on fire. And you were down there doing burnouts. Yeah. You're just doing loops, circles. Down in the parking lot.

Yeah. And I look at Tony Jenner, I'm like, what the hell is he doing? And Pops and you know, all of them. Finally, you get done and you pull in there and you're like, I don't want to run any stars no more. Get them off here. And Pops is like, nah, you're going to go run them. Yeah.

You know, they only had like five laps on me. You wouldn't have to act like a duff. But it was just stuff like it's comical all the time. But, you know what I mean? but we were, we still were serious, but it was fun. Darlington, Darlington was a tough racetrack for me. We had some times when we'd show up and haul ass, but it was hard for me to figure out how to finish a race there,

Rockingham as well, rough. I never, you know, I grew up racing at the beach, which was abrasive and old, but I couldn't transition into like the cup level and make those tracks be my expertise. You know, I kind of, I fared mostly better on the newer, more recent repaves. But we come into the Cups series, and I remember we built a car, and we built a couple cars and ran five races in 99.

We did okay. Yeah, ran good. Yeah, we run 16th or something in the 600. Right. uh we went to we went to i remember we went to uh we didn't run a uh switch for the rear end and the infinity car the bush car we went to new hampshire and we're running like 12th dad's 15th i'm like hell yeah we're freaking d'all and heart and uh i didn't flip the cooler the switch on the rear end up halfway through the race um we went to japan japan oh yeah and

that was awesome. So do you remember taking that first car to Homestead? I do. And that's something that no one realizes about Park. You know, all the hits he was taken back in that day. And the concussion side of things, we did not recognize.

And I think even as you went in your earlier career and was wrecking some stuff at California in different places, and we would test, you know, like on a Tuesday or Wednesday or somewhere in Homestead, excuse me, Lakeland or somewhere. And you were like, you know, I don't feel good. I feel sick. You know what I mean?

Pops is like, you just been out too late, you know what I mean? And all that. But that being said, you know, taking that car down to homestead and shaking it down, you know, I remember your dad bought us one of Shraders' cars. Yeah. Good car. Good car. Road in a shop, Pops overlooked it.

We scaled it and everything, and he didn't like it. You know, we can do better. So we were going to skin it, putting a new body on it and do stuff like that. But he ordered a Hopkins car. You know what I mean, to replace it to build. And we did. And your dad was like living that he went spent the money and built a brand new cup car. Yeah.

And we were going to show how good we were, you know, as a group. But we put this car together and we were like, hey, let's just take it to homestead and shake it down. We were already down there testing our bush car for the season finale. Yeah. And Steve going to take the car out and run it. And he, I mean, his first run, four or five laps in, he got busted his ass into three and backed it in. I remember him sitting on the back of the hall. And we walked over there.

And he's like, give me a minute. I don't feel good. And he went and laid down in the lounge for the rest of the day. Well, I remember walking through there to grab something, you know what I mean? And he looked at me, you know what I mean? I said, Steve, you're all right? And he goes, I'm a little chilly air and cold. I'm like, we're in a homestead, bud.

It ain't cool down here. It's hot. You know, and I said something to pops about it. You know what I mean? Him not feeling good. Well, they brought his helmet back over there and I laid it in there, and there was a crack in the back of it. Oh, shit.

Yeah, there was a crack in the back of the helmet. And it hit something. Yeah. You know, I don't know what it hit, but he hit something. And that was my first visions of a driver getting hurt in a car. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, what this can lead to. I remember that, too.

We ended up having to take that Petrie car, that Schrader car, to Japan. I remember they said that the front clip was bent and you couldn't change the sway bar. So the sway bar that was in it was the one that was in it. But we go to Japan, and we are, I remember sitting up in first class with Daddy, and I'm thinking, this is going to be badass. I'm going to ride 13 hours in the air with Dad, we're going to catch, you. we're going to hang out. He didn't want to talk.

So I went back and sat with y'all with us, played cards. Yeah, he was like, Daddy, I don't want to have no fun. He ain't. Yeah. We were like, you kept hollering, he don't want to have no fun up there. That's why I'm coming back here in the back. Yeah. You know?

Y'all were playing Rummy. Playing Rummy and sit back there just having a fun. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so 13 hours, I think, on that plane or something like that. But we get out there and, man, it was awesome. Like, I was one of my favorite experiences, and I didn't really appreciate what we were doing. I didn't appreciate what an opportunity it was to travel to that country, to stay in the hotels and experience, you know, everything that there is to offer.

Right. The food and all that. I didn't appreciate it. And, man, something I've wanted to do over again is go back to Japan and really dive in. but, you know, we tried to lean it. We lean toward the more Americanized foods, and, you know, we just really didn't, like, I didn't really embrace it. But I remember we stayed in these hotels that was like an hour, hour and a half is a long bus drive. Yeah, I know it was like three hours or four hours from Tokyo.

Yeah. Where we stayed. And then once we got there, it was another hour to get through the racetrack. Every day. Every day you had to ride in a bus. And a bus. Yeah. And the room was like the size of this table.

Yeah, the rooms were. for tiny. You'd walk in and you climbed onto the bed. There was no floor beside the bed. Everything, it was very minimal, but I mean, it was neat, you know. I remember that bus ride, and I remember having

an MP3 player loaded with music and just listening to like all kinds of stuff all the way back and forth. And you were driving through these very royal sort of it was farmland and all these shanties and and patchworked homes at these people.

I'm like, this is like blowing my mind, like how different life is here. And what it must be like to be that person that lives in that house every day and what their experiences are. And finally, I think somewhere near the end of the trip, Dad moved me into that hotel cross right next to the racetrack. And I ended up standing in there the last couple of nights. But we run that race. I remember practice.

I remember being, you know what, I took a fun-saver camera with me. And I remember walking around in the, during tech, taking pictures of like Jeff Gordon's car and Dale Jarrett's car. And I go back to Tony Jr. And I'm like, getting all these pictures, man, of their cars for next year. We're going cup racing, man. I got all these photos of all their cars and how they're building their fenders and apos and all this stuff. Not really knowing that everybody takes like their worst car to Japan. So do we.

Yeah. And I remember when we started to do our first practice, I'd never been on the racetrack with Dad. And I told Tony Jr., I think I let Tony Jr. know that I was very excited to be on the track with Dad. And so we pull off on the pits to sit there and wait for the track to go green. And the track goes green, and Dad goes, and I'm like, gassing it up real fast, trying to catch up with him to try to go out on the racetrack and practice with him. And I think he ran like two laps and pulls in, and I'm like,

and so we but anyways we had a good weekend it come down to the end of the race we had a we had a i was driving my ass off like way over my head and we're battling for the lead with with uh jeff gordon and i think it was uh skinner and i slapped the wall off a turn four and i f*** car up yeah but we were doing all right up into that point we were going to be like a fourth or a fifth place car and just got to to do too much. We come down at the end of that race, and I think me and dad are sort of backside of the top ten. And we don't have any tires left,

but Dad had to sit in his pit stall and they're side by side. And apparently Tony Jr. hollers, there's a caution. Ten laughs to go with some shit. Tony Jr. hollers at Richard Childers on the pit box. Y'all going to use them tires? Richard's like, now Dale's ready to go home. We're not going to come in and get them. and Tony Jr. said,

we're coming to get them. We're going to bar your tires. We're coming to put tires on. And we restarted and drove up through there and ended up beating Dad. That was the whole thing. It's like just beat Dad. Beat Dad the whole time.

We ended up running 6th or something. And that's the same time, like you said, you come back over there after the race, you know, getting debriefed with Dad or getting changed. And you were like, I can't believe this, but Dad threw a shoe at me. You know what I mean?

And I'll sit there and we're all just like, well, fuck Dad. You know what I mean? the hell with him, you know what I mean? Just that was our mentality. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know. He was, you know, we got, I was trying to get by him off of turn four and we're

coming to like four to go and I'm passing him easily. But coming up off a four, he's hanging on my right rear quarter panel and I can't finish the throttle because he's in my way. If he's, if he lets me go, I can get in a throttle a hundred yards sooner, get down a straight away and try to get the next guy. And I'm trying to pass everybody on pass one of these tires while they're good. We had a stupid arrow package, too. It was like six inches on the nose, on the front splitter.

I mean, six inches on the valence and six inch rear spiler. And then you're terrible in traffic. Often. And so I'm like, I got to get this while these tires are giving me somewhat of an advantage. And I just drove, I just gassed it and clipped him on the left front, you know, and he had to jump out of the gas, but he picked me up down the straightaway almost wrecked me down the front straightaway. And that's what he threw the shoe at me for

because I throttled up. But that was a pretty cool deal. We go into the Cup series. Off of that experience and that attitude you're talking about, we go into the Bud Days. And we are coming off of two championship runs in the Xfinity series thinking that we are the... And we go into...

We ran those five races last year. Seems like we can figure this out. We literally win a... into that season unchanged. As far as I know, there were a few additions added to the shop, you know, we brought in some of the crams. You know, there's some good people put in different spots, but for the most part, the nucleus of that team really didn't change. And we went into the first year thinking that we absolutely could go in there and beat them. And we did. You know, we go to Texas and win that first race, car hauled ass.

And the one thing that, the one thing that impresses me the most is that we, we were a new team in the Cup series, but we were as forward thinking on our technology springs, where, what we had, what we had to get the arrow down, the left front down. We weren't the last person to figure this out. No. And that was one of the days, like at Texas, we had a little 400 in the right front and a thousand in the left, I mean a 400 in the left front and a thousand right front and a big sway bar, so I'm like, had the left front pinned. And I remember, you know, I remember thinking like, how does Tony Jr. and these guys know how to do this, right? We didn't run any of this stuff really that much in our, in our bushcart.

Right. But we're only a few races into the cup season, and Tony Jr. and those guys, I think you can speak to this. They could look around in the garage and identify and see. Like if they saw a guy with his pivots in a unique place, or if they saw a spring that looked a little different, they could see it and know what they were trying to accomplish and do with it. And they would go home and like sit around that picnic table and go, man, I wonder what they're doing there. I saw this, I saw that. There's one missing piece. What is the piece?

If we figure that piece out, we'll know what they're trying to accomplish. Yeah, there was a lot of that, you know, I mean, drawing it out in the shop. Yeah. On Monday nights, Tuesday nights, whenever, prior to going through the next week of what we should try. Because there was a Bush notebook, but that was a 105-inch car. Yeah. Versus this 110-inch car. Five inches is a lot.

You know what I mean? Qualifying motors, you know what I mean? Just everything in itself of trying to. to get, you know, a balance underneath you to drive competitively against them. But in the same fact, you know, just us, you know, the unknowns that we were dealing with at the same time of looking around through there, you know, we had some people, you know, that we could lean on if we got lost, you know, to RCR guys and stuff like that. But even with your dad's stuff, you know, it didn't always work in our car. You know, hey, I'm running this. Well, I can't run that. And I

never forget we were at Bristol and I ain't saying you were out to lunch but dad was like I'm going to teach you how to drive Bristol yeah that was the one and only time got on a radio and I'll never forget that day as long as I live to hear that voice of you know off on off on oh you know throttle you know and I was like he is hollering off at the flag stand I know what I mean and it was like I'm looking at Tony Jr. going you really he wants you in the lift right there you know me saying this crap, you know? Yeah. But when it was pick up to throttle, it was like before the center.

Yes. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I'm like, we're getting ready to get a backup out. But, hey, the times were clicking. You know what I mean? And it was just, you know, times like that of having him to lean on. And then after, you know, he was gone, didn't have that time.

And it was like, hey, we have to fend for ourselves. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. And we have to figure this out or we're not going to make it. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

Well, Tony Jr. and those guys, they were incredible with staying, they were kind of on the front edge of the curve in terms of as guys were figuring out how to get softer springs in the front of the cars and how to get the arrow platform better and even the Super Speedway stuff, which you're still plugged into today. I mean, Tony Jr. and Tony Sr. would, I don't know that there were many people in the garage doing as much time, hours, cutting, replacing. never go stone overturned. No. We'd go to the racetrack and test for Super Speedways for three days

and Tony Jr. would have 60 different puffs to put on this fender, that fender, that quarter, that A post, that B post. You know, we tried everything. I mean, we went to a December test down there in Talladega,

come home, cut the body off. Yeah. Went to the July test. Come home, cut the body off to go back to Talladega before the 500. come home cut that body off to put another one on. And you start sitting there thinking in the back of your head, you know what I mean? What are they trying to accomplish?

You know what I mean? What are they trying to do? But, you know, with Tony Senior, it was always a vision of what he knew he could do, you know? And it was, like you were saying, never know, stone overturned. I mean, there was the back door going up on the trailer and we'd pull the car back off to just get a little bit more. Yeah, pretty incredible. Your career spans, you know, where we are today, I suppose, we're sitting on top of this rookie season, which I want to talk more about.

We had the bud days together. You would stay at DEI. Yeah. When Tony Jr. would go to Hendrick, you would stay. Right. Be a part of that program. That whole team eventually would move to SHR. And I want to get to all of that.

Yeah. We're going to have to have you come back. Yeah, 100%. To do a part two, maybe even a part three. There's a lot. There is. There is. And I don't want to miss any of it.

I don't want to rush through any of it. No. There's just so many good times. We've been sitting here talking about our hour in 15 minutes. It wouldn't feel like it would it. No, this is like me and you at the old trailer, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

your involvement and part of our, you know, some of our greatest memories, and I know there are yours too, your loyalty to Tony Gibson, I want to get to all of that, I want to discuss all of that, all your experiences at SHR, got to get you to come back and let's finish us out. Let's do it. Yeah. It's been a lot of fun, buddy, catch me up with you. Anytime. I appreciate you, man.

Yes, sir. Love you. All right, buddy. Two beer on the Dale Jr. Download. So it was a great episode with Kevin Pinell. beers. One of the guys that was part of the DEI days and, you know, obviously he has so many awesome stories. And I want to get him in for another episode soon because I believe after we got up

from the table, I realized that I think in the next show I need to get out of the way a little bit. he has a lot of stories and and it's more than we will be able to fit in a second episode honestly so I'm going to try to get him back in here ASAP and try to step out of the way and let him go

had a lot of fun catching up with him hadn't seen him in a long time and thankful that yeah he's got the memory he does because he had a lot of great insight on on his experience kind of as he was introduced to DEI and being around dad and working at the race shop and some of the early days. But we had a ton left to cover and we got to get him in here and get right back to it.

So that'll be pretty fun and getting two beers to come be a part of this again soon. The tear down was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race on Sunday. If you haven't, go to DirtyMove Media's YouTube page and hit subscribe and turn on your notification so you don't miss anything that we're putting out all week long. Doorbubber Clear dropped as well Monday. The Tuesday show with T.J. Majors, Dirty Air, dropped as well. Tomorrow, another episode of Bless Your Heart with Amy. And on Friday, as usual, another episode of Dirty 30, the kind of catch-all highlights of all of our shows we put out every Thursday,

30 minutes. Catch it and tell us what you think. We'll see you. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.