The Dale Jr. Download - Rick Allen On NBC Exit: "I Was Crushed"

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomes longtime NASCAR commentator and his former NBC co-worker Rick Allen to the Download this week. The two discuss Rick’s upbringing, time together in the booth, and Allen’s departure from NBC following the 2024 season.After growing up as a track and field collegiate star in Nebraska and competing on a professional level internationally, Rick first found his way into a commentator’s booth through boredom. Rick explains that during track and field events at the University of Nebraska, he began picking up the microphone and saying traditional phrases such as “quiet for the start please” and “the event is about to begin”. He found that he enjoyed the experience and asked for more opportunities, which began with a women’s gymnastics meet. When the hired commentator for the university’s football team didn’t show up, Rick was in the right place at the right time and became the voice of the Cornhuskers for ten years.Rick’s journey into auto racing came thanks to a University of Nebraska alumni and donor, who purchased nearby Eagle Raceway. Despite having no experience in racing, he invited Rick to call the races through the summer. While there, Rick caught the ear of longtime NASCAR official Tom Deery who recommended he send a demo tape in to FOX and NBC, who were getting ready to take over NASCAR’s broadcasting duties. After a rocky start, Rick became the voice of the NASCAR Truck Series and went on to become synonymous with the sport until leaving NBC at the end of the 2024 season. The interview covers Rick’s rise to becoming the voice of the Cup Series, working with Dale Jr. in the booth, some of his iconic moments behind the mic, and what he’s up to this year.  Dirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Dale Jr. Download merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuff.And for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaMust 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.

It hit me like a ton of bricks when we were at Michael Jordan's golf course. The first thing that Jordan says to me, what'd you do, man? How come you aren't announcing the races? You're NASCAR. He goes, why aren't you announcing races anymore? Oh, wow. And I sat there and I was like, oh, my. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.

All right, everybody. So Rick Allen is out in the lobby here at Junior Motorsports. waiting to come in here. And I asked him, I said, hey, man, you know, want to bring you on, want to tell people about what you've been up to. People are probably curious as to what you're doing with your time now that you're not broadcasting or doing play with playing NASCAR. And how did all that happen?

You know, what was that experience like for him? How did that feel? I think he'll be surprised by his story and reaction. He's a friend of mine, somebody who I think it's the kind of guy that, like, if you got something going on in your life or you need some really serious advice that you could trust with just one person he's that person he's just aside for being a great playboy play guy he's one of the best people that i've met in our industry there's somebody out there that's going through something rick's always trying to reach out and assist however he could and just a great heart and a hard

worker and looking forward to seeing what he's been up to. So let's bring him on here. Junior knows that I swear a lot. Can I swear? Yes. Okay, I just want to make sure. You don't swear at all. I'm talking about. All right.

So this is a funny story, this chair. So Rick is a carpenter, and his business is barn shop creations, custom woodworking. And this is his hat, which I'm thankful to have. Beautiful. Love the color. but he made this chair for Ila when she was born six years ago. Actually, Amy told me that she said, Isla gets put in timeout and sits on her chair.

And I thought, well, thank you guys. Now I'm the timeout chair guy. For Ila, yeah, for Ila, it's like, oh, great, you gave me the chair back. Now I get to go in time out. That's not exactly entirely true. Okay. A lot of time they spend time out on the steps of our staircase. Okay.

Yeah. And that's kind of a quiet spot for them to think about whether they want to start behaving. Yeah. So Rick Allen, man, I am glad to have you here. We have, you know, we've become great friends over the years working together with NBC. And the first thing I see right here, 55 years old. No way. That's just five years older than me.

Why do you feel like you're? How do you think I want? I feel like you're like 10 years older than me. Okay. Is that because? You just have this very mature. Oh, not being nice. You sound mature.

You handle yourself a certain way. When I have a beard, it's all gray. So that's probably why you're fine. But anyways, a young 55. That is. I feel 60. So maybe that's what it is. My body's wearing out.

Man. Well, so we're here today to talk about, talk about your career, what you've been up to. The broadcasters in our sport have, it's funny for me to talk about this to you because you're literally a pro at all of that. But the broadcasters in NASCAR and in most sports become so synonymous. Yeah. And for you to have done this as long as you had and to, for lack of a better way to R2,

articulate it, disappear. You disappeared. Like, this tends to happen, right? Drivers retire, you didn't retire, but drivers will retire, and then you just don't see them, right? And there's no reason for you to, you're not going to go if there's no

reason for you to be there. But, and so people may be curious, I think, to find out what you've been up to. I'm sure. But I want to talk about your story and your path to get there. Okay. born in June 17th, 1969 Grand Island, Nebraska. Yes.

No water anywhere nearby, so have no idea why the town was called Grand Island either. Really? An accomplished track and field collegiate star. You want me to expound on that? Or are you going to give some kind of credentials or something there? You were a walk-on at the University of Nebraska, and you would become a three-time All-American. And you won two Big Eight Conference decathlon. titles. Yes. I was in the Olympic trials in 1992.

Damn. Competed for the United States in 93 internationally. Really? Previous life, yeah. That was... Isn't that wild? Fun time? Exactly. Yeah. It's like you had no idea, which is fine. That's okay. I don't talk about a lot of things like that. I knew that you were an athlete in college and so forth, but I didn't know details. And no one in listening, no.

Yeah. A decathlon is a 10 event competition. Running, jumping, throwing events. What are you throwing? You throw the shot put, the discus, and the jettler. So you had to be good at all this shit. They're decent. Yeah.

Yeah, you have five events a day. And you had to be pretty good. Yeah. So I wasn't great at anything, but I was pretty darn good at everything. Gotcha. Yeah. And when did you learn, man, I can do this? Because that's.

It's kind of like with woodworking and with everything else, With television, it was when I set my mind to something, I can accomplish it. And I think that's just what you did as a kid. You know, you set your mind to being a great race car driver and you put the work in and you are a Hall of Fame race car driver. So, I mean, that's kind of what I did is when I found out that I had some success and some athletic abilities, I just focused on being the best I could be. Now, this sounds exactly like the most Rick Allen thing ever. Rick, you would get bored during the meets and grab the public address microphone instructing the crowd before races, quote, quiet for the start, please.

That was the first thing I ever did, quiet for the start, please. Just like that? Exactly. Yeah, because you got to get the crowd. Did you have that voice as a college? I did. I had it in high school. You had this voice? This voice, yeah.

But in English class, we did a speech or something. And I remember finishing the speech and the teacher just sat there and she said, stared at him and she goes, you're going to be in radio someday. She didn't care about the speech or anything else. She was like, you sound like you're going to be in radio someday. Okay, maybe. And so this is the start of

your announcing career. So, yes, when I was bored in between events and track and field, grab the microphone and I would say, you know, quiet for the start or the long jump is about to begin, just things like that. And

And then one day I asked the sports information director at the University of Nebraska. I said, is there a sport that I could announce? I mean, I'd like to announce. I think it'd be fun. And I did a women's gymnastics meet. Very first time you ever did anything. Very first thing I ever announced as far as a sport was a women's gymnastics meet. And I didn't know anything about women's gymnastics.

And so a guy sat next to me and told me everything to say, and then I would say it. Oh, wow. And then it got to where they're like, oh, you're pretty good at this. You might want to keep going. So then I did baseball and then I did some other things. And it ended up where I said, okay, if you had a job where I could announce every sport, the University of Nebraska, I would take that job. They're like, you know, we've got people in all these areas.

And so the spring game of 1994, I believe it was, came up for football. And the announcer couldn't be there. And so they said, would you do? the spring game. I'm like, of course I'll do the spring game. That'd be great. So I did the spring game and when it got done, they were starting to do renovations to the stadium. They were putting in big screens and a new sound system and all that. And the athletic director got all of this praise. He was like, you know, we love that new sound system. It sounds so great. You know, we can understand and hear everything that was being said. And the athletic director was like, we actually haven't put

the new sound system in yet. That was just a new guy. Oh. That was there. And so he said he pretty which had to hire me then. But that's how it all started. They ended up hiring me. I was the voice of Nebraska football for 10 years. 10 years? Yep, from 1994 till 2003. How do you decide that you're done being an athlete?

Well, like a driver, you don't really decide. And in track and field, it's way different. Because I was a professional athlete as a track and field athlete, but all I got was apparel. Glasses and, you know, shoes. You didn't make any money. So I had to have a job outside of being an athlete.

And they I was it was called USA DeCathlon, Visa DeCathlon. They'd sponsored like the United States decathletes. So we would all, the top 20 in the country would come together twice a year and you would train

and they would kind of tell you this is how you need to train, is what you need to do. And so I would do that. And I realized that there was so much work going into it. And in the end, it was like, okay, you could be an Olympic athlete, but you're still not going to really make any money at it. And I thought, I don't know if I want to put all that work into being an athlete and just saying I was an Olympian and then not making any money at it.

So I thought, I'm going to start doing something that I can make money at. So that's where broadcasting and I worked with the big screens at the University of Nebraska. That was kind of the first real job that took the step toward becoming a broadcaster. The broadcasting for Nebraska was a paying job. You made a living. Yes. $6 an hour. Oh.

And everybody in the state of Nebraska was like, wait a second. Hold on. The voice of Nebraska gets $6 an hour. So he gets $18 to call a football game. Yep, that's what I get, $18. But it was a position. What did you do the rest of the week? Edited videos, did things for.

I was also, I emceed every event that our coaches and things did. I got to be really good friends with Tom Osborne. Tom Osborne is a very good friend of mine. Who's he? Tom's the head coach, or was the head coach at the University of Nebraska. He's Hall of Fame coach, 255 wins over 25 years. So averaged over 10 wins a season in college football. That's pretty good.

Where's Eagle Raceway? Just outside of Lincoln, Nebraska. Did you know anything about racing? Not at all. Not one thing. And how did you get connected to go over there? The guy who bought it, Craig Cormack, bought Eagle Raceway. And he was going to put money into it.

And a avid, avid race fan. He's still an avid race fan to this day. good friend. He bought the racetrack. He was also a donor at the University of Nebraska. And so he called me up and he said, hey, I want you to announce at my racetrack. It's like, I don't think I'm your guy.

I said, I don't know anything about racing. I'm not sure that would be a good fit. And he said, you got a great personality, great voice, love your demeanor. I want you to call my races at the racetrack. And I was like, okay, I'll come out. And so he goes, what's it going to take for you to call these races? And I said, I went home to my wife and I said, okay, this is every Friday and Saturday night

of the weekend during the summer that I've got to be out at this racetrack. So we've got to make it worth it. You know, I can't leave or do anything. So, you know, what do you think we should ask him to pay us to do this? And she goes, well, I don't know. Maybe go high, like shoot high and see if he'll, you know, and negotiate or whatever. I said, okay, what do you think is high? And she's like, well, what about $200?

And I was like, that's pretty high. I don't know if they'll go for that. And sure enough, he said, oh, yeah, I'll pay $200, sure. So I was making $200 a weekend calling races at Eagle Raceway. And that's where a guy named Tom Deary, it was a NASCAR sanction track. And Tom Deary came in 1999 and said, hey, there's going to be some new partners, TV partners. that are going to take over NASCAR, and they're looking for talent, you know, different people. And he said, send a demo tape in.

And I was like, okay, whatever. I didn't think of it. About two weeks later, the owner, Craig Cormack, he calls me. He said, hey, they're looking for your demo tape. I said, I don't have a demo tape. I don't even know what a demo tape is. They said, well, send something that has you announcing. And I said, I don't have anything to be announcing.

And so they took a video of, you know, one of the night's races. where you could hear me over the PA and sent that. And then I had done a cellular phone commercial with Barry Switzer and Tom Osborne, and I sent that. And sure enough, I got phone calls from both Fox Sports and NBC at the time saying, you know, we'd like you to audition. And so that's how I met Daryl Waltrip and came to Charlotte. And, yeah, in 2000, your dad passed away in 2001, right?

So in 2000, May of 2000, I came and auditioned with Daryl Waltrip and a bunch of other people because this was with Fox. Fox was looking for new announcers. They were actually looking at me as a play-by-play announcer right away. And I thought that was a little bit odd because they originally said something about maybe a Pitt reporter. You know, don't want to throw me into the deep end right away. But they said, no, we'll look at you as a play-by-play announcer. and so when I sat down to audition with Daryl, you know, I'm 30 years old or something. I'm a kid, don't know anything about racing, nothing about NASCAR.

I'd studied, but, you know, nothing. So I sit down next to Daryl, and I'm like, hey, Mr. Waltrop, my name's Rick Schweger, nice to meet you. And he's, you know, shakes my hand, and he's kind of looking, he's got some papers. And he's, you know, he's going to be new, but they knew he was the Fox guy. And so he kind of sat there a second. And he looks back at me, he goes, Schweger. He goes, I ain't no Schweger's in NASCAR. And I'm thinking, oh boy, this ain't going well.

This is my audition. And the guy that's going to be a part of the team just told me that there ain't no Schwigers and NASCAR. And so camera rolls and there's a big script on there. And it's, hello, everyone. Like, you know, an extra three-time Winston Cup champion, Daryl Waltrip. I said, I'm Rick Yarborough. And I, you know, start keep going.

And Daryl just starts laughing. He's like, wait a minute. You can't change your name in the middle of a show. and so we did probably three or four or five takes and I just kept changing my name I was Rick petty I was Rick Allison I was probably Rick Earnhardt I just kept changing my name pulling out the most famous names in NASCAR and so Darrell and I hit it off immediately and we had a great rapport and so he was wonderful I came back in December they said you know you're too green during that audition I came back in December and they said maybe the pre-race show host will

have you, you know, audition for that. So I met with Jeff Hammond and Darrell Waltrop again. That was in December. And then at the end of that, they were kind of like, yeah, we'll call you. And then they started in February and your dad passed away in that wreck. And I immediately text Darrell and I said, I'm so sorry. You know, that was a friend of yours that, you know, had lost his life and didn't hear anything back from anyone. for two years. Damn. And then in 2002,

David Hill of Fox Sports, he was a chairman of Fox Sports, David Hill called my cell phone and was like, if you're still interested, we may have a spot for you. And so they had me fly back to Charlotte in 2002, and I auditioned with Dorsey Shrader

and Barry Dodson. Yep. And I became the truck series Play-by-Play announcer. So it started in 2003. When did you change? name? Right before that. We were sitting in a big room with all these people, Rick Minor and Keith Delisandro. It was his first producing. And they were all like, you know, what name are you going by?

I was like, I don't know. Does anybody got any ideas? And I'm like, well, no, you need to choose something. And I said, well, my middle name's Allen. So it'd be easy if I'd just go with Rick Allen. They said, done. Perfect. Done. You're Rick Allen from here on out. I was like, okay. How does that work the rest of your life?

When I'm at a racetrack. You're Rick Allen. Anybody that calls me Schweigs or Schweiger, I know they're close friends. Everybody else is like, okay, they know. But it hasn't created any kind of interesting hurdles or complications at all? None. None whatsoever. It's been good, actually.

an anonymity to it. Do you know, do you watch enough today to have any idea of who in your mind is somebody that you see as like a star on the rise? The guy sent behind me. Or to my side over here. Andrew? Yeah. So we talked about it before I came in here. He's been doing some radio. He has. And that's great. And everybody I have, I've always talked to, I get, and you get it all the time, I'm sure too, but people always ask, you know, how do you get your foot in the door? What do I need to do to get into broadcasting? I know everything about NASCAR and I just want to be a part of it. And I just say, you know, immerse yourself and make yourself available to do stuff that maybe

somebody else won't do. And that's volunteer and go and just help out at your local track and do that. And so Andrew was a guy who, I don't know, maybe he was 13 or 14 years old when I first met him at the racetrack. He came and interviewed me. I was like, that's pretty cool. You know, this kid's passionate enough about it, that he's taking those steps. And so when I saw that you guys had him here

and he was handling the Dale Jr. Downline, I thought that's pretty cool. So I like seeing that. I just think there's, you know, there's young talent all the time. And I knew that, you know, because I was that guy. 22 years ago, 23 years ago,

there's going to be new people that come into the sport. And that's just, it's cyclical. and it's going to happen. And so picking one or two people out, I wouldn't say I know who those one or two are, but I do know that Andrew's very talented. In the Cars Tour, I put together a little booth for the Cars Tour a couple years ago with Eric Brandon and Blake McCallis.

Yeah. So Eric is... I've heard Eric, and I think he does a great job. He does. I think he's getting some opportunities in ARCA, which is fun to see. But I'm going to have to find the next Eric. Once Eric goes up, there'll be another

Well, if there's a spot. Harvick, you're going to do a car tour race. Why wouldn't I? I don't know. I'll be willing to do anything. Geez.

I'm making tables right now. I'm making chairs. You're still working for $6 an hour? Maybe. Maybe. For friends. Harvick found, Harvick has,

texted me the other day about some, he was at a ball game, some kid in the booth. He's like, kid's awesome. Yeah. I don't talk to him if we got a spot, pit road, whatever.

That's good. That's where you find it too. You just, you know. Just like you. Ultimately, I have regrets in the fact that probably two big regrets in racing. I never met your dad. I would have loved to have met your dad. And I never met Bill France Jr. And Bill Francis Jr., I have come to learn.

He was the one who told Fox Sports and NBC, he's like, I want this kid announcing my race. my races. And I had no idea until he had passed away that it was him that said, hey, I want this kid announcing my racists. Hey, everybody, you want the latest Dale Jr. download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.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.dardomomedia.com. You would become the quickly like I mean it just thinking back over the years when you were doing the trucks you quickly become sort of this this trusted voice for the truck series and you worked

alongside Phil and Michael Michael and it seemed like that was like a decade how long did you do that 11 years 11 years yeah it was over a decade over a decade so yes it did I know maybe a It felt like that because it was. Yeah. So it's just hard to imagine that all this got packed into 55 years. But, you know, the, I think the fans truly enjoyed the work you did in the truck series. And the truck series was sort of coming into its own as well. Yeah.

And it had this dedicated booth, which I thought is very important. Yes, I agree. And it is, it's proved out, right? As we're seeing the Xfinity series now have its own dedicated booth as well with the CW. But talk about those years or working in the truck series and sort of, yeah, learning the sport. Right. And that was, I have so much respect for the late Bobby Hamilton. Bobby was so generous with not only his time, but also he let us get.

into trucks. I mean, we went to Nashville the fairgrounds. And he let us get behind the wheel of trucks. Ray Dunlap and I are out there running around in race trucks. And I was loving it. I was loving life. I was thinking this is great. And he was very, like I said, generous

with not only his time, but with equipment and such. And then everybody, that was the one thing I learned early on. I'm an outgoing person when it comes to meeting people and especially in my profession or what I'm doing. So I had no problem walking up to anybody.

You know, Ron Hornaday, Jack Sprague, Bobby Hamilton, whoever it was, I mean the stars, Todd Bodine, all the stars at the truck series, I would hang out with them. I'd just sit in their stalls. I would do whatever and learn and absorb as much as I could about everything. And Phil and Michael were wonderful as well. got to just spend time with the stars of the sport at the time of his truck series

spent a lot of time actually not a lot of time but got to spend time with Benny Parsons before he passed away just because of being Phil's brother and at the racetrack together and he would always critique us which was always fun to hear Benny he's like well I really you guys had a great broadcast you know that was wonderful and so it was awesome to hear you know what would he was what could he be? be critical about? Oh, he could have been critical about everything. I want to know. It would have been, it would have been easy for him because he's, you know, he was so great at being a broadcaster. I mean, not only a racer, but a broadcaster too, but, you know, we would,

we would ask him things like, you know, are we, have we told the story of the race? Did, did the race unfold and we tell everybody why this guy won or, or what happened to put, you know, this guy back into 10th or something. And he's like, yeah, you know, you guys, you guys told on. That was, that's a lot on a producer. But it's also, as you know now, it's a lot on the broadcasters. Because when you're calling a race, there are so many things that are happening because you have so many different players on different strategies, different ideas, different

agendas. And to be able to tell why somebody who you didn't talk about most of the race came up and finished fifth, like we need to be able to tell that. and sometimes you can't see it and you don't know it unless you have the right people that are there that can say, well, this guy, you know, he did this. You know, he didn't change tires. You know, just fuel only. And he jumped up here because he knew that it was going to go caution, caution, caution at the end of the race.

And he, you know, ended up making up a lot of spots. So it's those types of things. And that's one of the things Benny would be critical about. He said, you know, did you guys tell why this guy finished where he did or why this guy won the race? or why this guy was back in a wreck, those types of things. And so that was the fun part, and that's what I loved from you, from Burton, from LaTart. Everybody I've worked with, you guys see races different. I mean, you see a race different than a spectator would.

Like I came from stick and ball sports, and I didn't see the things that, when I was around Darrell Waltrip, the things that he saw blew my mind. Like he would see things and I'm like, wow, okay, didn't think about that. He would see brake dust on wheels and say, you know, he's got, he's got a problem with his front brakes. Or he'd do this or he'd say all these things. I'm like, how did you know that? How do you see those things? And it made me look at things differently, you know, look for things that I wouldn't have normally looked at because I was a casual viewer watching a race. And all of a sudden now I learned, okay, there's a lot more that goes into why this guy is, you know, he's loose or why this guy is tired or whatever. And you can see different things. And I would learn that from you guys because

you're watching those things and you're pointing them out. And, you know, to me, I'm like, wow, okay, that's why. And as a viewer at home, we love that. That's what I loved. And so that's kind of what I took on as my role is I'm a viewer watching with everybody else learning from you guys. Yeah. What are some of the biggest moments or memorable moments from that experience kind of, you know. With trucks? Yeah, being in the charge of the truck series, being the voice of the truck series. Yeah. One of the early, well, my very first race, the very first race I ever called was the Daytona race. And it was the Daytona 250. And I was so caught up in the moment.

I'm at Daytona. It's the mecca of all motorsports. And I'm calling this race, and it comes down, and it's a photo finish. There's three trucks, side by side, coming across the line, and Rick Crawford wins the race. And I say, Rick Crawford wins the Daytona! And I'm about to say 500. I'm about to say it because it's like the biggest thing. And I paused of like, 250. And I thought, wow, okay, I got to focus on this stuff because I get caught up as a fan.

So that was the first race ever did. Dorsey Schrader saying that they were going to be five white at Martinsville. That was one of the funnier things because I remember after he said it, Michael Waldrop goes, I don't think so, Dorsey. I don't think they're going to be five wide. All the finishes at Atlanta. Like for some reason the trucks, and this is before it was the previous configuration. Yeah.

For some reason the trucks put on. on a phenomenal show there. And that was where you would see guys sliding through the grass sideways, finishing second. You know, it was like, okay, this is awesome. It just, I mean, I guess just earning the respect of all of the drivers and the competitors and the teams. Did 10 years feel like it flew by?

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. How did you put yourself in position to get considered at NBC? Didn't do anything. they just called you. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's the way it's been, I'll say that. I know that we're probably going to get into how all this ended. But that's the way it's been almost my entire life. Like I would get a phone call, like the dirt track. Guy called me. I want you to announce it my dirt track. Fox calls. We want you to audition.

So I've been called almost for every job I've ever got. And so when. Cup racing came around. An executive at NBC called me up and said, hey, we're going to take over the broadcast in 2015, and I want you to come have lunch with us, but I'm thinking that you're going to be the play-by-play guy. And I went, okay.

And so I flew to Connecticut and had lunch, and they were pretty much like, yep, we wanted to make sure you're a good guy. And so let's put together the plan. plan and well you're the guy did you know about um so how do you go back to tell fox and they're like well yeah we can't stand in this staying in your way they didn't have a cup opportunity at all for you no because mike had mike was entrenched uh in fox and phenomenal mike said he's synonymous with broadcasting nascar i mean he's the voice of naskar he's been wonderful and the joke there at fox uh originally when i came in mike would always say because the executives at fox

David Hill, like me and those people. And Mike would always say, hey, just let me get a couple more years before you take over. Let me get a couple more years. And that was always the joke. But we always knew it was Mike's timeline whenever he wanted to step away. He will do that on his own timeline. But so, yeah, NBC said we're not going to negotiate. So it's not going to, we're not going to get into it like a bidding war.

So a Fox comes back and says, you know, they're going to give you this or whatever. he said it's either you're going to be the play-by-play for us or you're not and so I just I contacted an executive at Fox Sports and just said hey you know this opportunity is there that's what I've always wanted I always want to be at the elite level the highest level of whatever I'm doing and I said NBC's giving me that opportunity and so they were like they're like okay but just just remember that you know you're still you're still you're You could still be a part of the Fox family at some point in time. And I went, okay, great.

I appreciate that. Did you know who he was going to be in the booth with you right away? Initially, yes. But we had to keep it a secret. So it was kind of funny because I went up to Jeff Burton and I was kind of like, hey, how are you doing? He's like, hey, you know, we're not supposed to be seen together. And I'm okay. I'm sorry.

All right. Really? Yeah, oh yeah, and on pit road, too, LaTart. I would see LaTart and he's like, no, we can't, you can't, we can't talk. Really? Oh, yeah. It's like, we can't, we can't talk. I'm like, okay, all right, I get.

So, yeah, I knew it was going to be those two guys. I was very excited about that. We got together way before anything, I went golfing, way before Burton was actually a good golfer. Is he a good golfer now? He's a good golfer now. Wow. He's gotten way better. Like, incredibly improved.

but so anyway yeah we went and spent time together which is kind of how you and i spent a little bit more time together because once we knew that you were going to be a part of the team i think i can't remember did i drive or do you drive when we went to martinsville thank you drove i think i drove we were in my jeep but yeah we drove to martinsville i came picked you up and drove to martin's but i just like i like to get to know somebody not as you know dale junior the driver but the person and that's what we did with LaTart, Burton. I've done that with everybody.

The first race is the play-by-play for NBC. Pretty memorable for you. July Daytona. Yeah, I won the race. Austin Dillon ends up in the grandstands. We thought he was dead. Yeah. We did.

And that's probably one of the more memorable races that I've ever called because it was exciting, obviously, you have such great success on Super Speedways and at Daytona. and you win that race and as I call you winning that race we see Austin Dillon into the fence you see Austin Dillon in the fence in your mirror and kind of like oh my God

and immediately now that's the first race that Burton and Lattart had ever done ever ever so they it was kind of funny and it's a visual but you won't be able to see it if you're listening to this but they creeped back like that Simpson

episode where you know Yes, he goes into the bushes. They creep back away from everything and sit down. Like when that happens, because they didn't know what to do. They didn't know what to say. And at the same time, it was so bad that, you know, that car's going 200 miles an hour to zero. And it's like, okay, this is bad. This is really bad.

And I've always just, I have always been able to take things like that. and not be overwhelmed by stuff. And so I knew, in my mind, I knew that I was getting ready to say that there was a serious injury and potentially a fatality. And the somberness of that broadcast happened immediately. So we were elationed.

You had just crossed the finish line. And then all of a sudden it was, we're transitioning to, this is the worst thing that could possibly happen. And then the crews went down there and were giving you the thumbs up that he was okay. And it's like, wow. So, yeah, the motions that happen in literally, you know,

30 seconds are you're at a high because, you know, the adrenaline you get of calling a race and wow, a big win and, you know, Dale Jr., the biggest name of the sport, just won. And now all of a sudden, oh my gosh, here is Austin Dillon and his car is just a square now. There's nothing on it other than just the roll cage. And we think he's passed away. And then all of a sudden he gets out of the car and he waves.

And you're like, wow. Okay. So that was a crazy race. And it ended up where that race ended at like two in the morning or something too, I think. It was because it was rain delayed. and we were hanging out with the execs eating pizza afterwards in the hotel and they're like, okay, that was a pretty good start. They're like, that was pretty good start.

So that was first race. You know, I think that's important to understand how to handle those kind of moments. And they talk about that. Silence is sometimes better than saying anything in a lot of moments. but when there is an accident, we're told to never assume. And I mean, I think as an analyst, I would have probably done the same thing.

I would have stayed quiet, let you sort of handle the introduction of the moment, right? This is what, okay, we just saw this. This is what has happened. We're waiting. But all the while, if you open your mouth and say anything in that moment, it can't ever be

speculation and it's hard not to you know not not to speculate even for the for the beds toward the positive right right right

and you can't right because you don't know any facts I and I had an incident happen early in the truck series and it involved Darrell Waltrip and David Ruderman so David I think it was Kentucky I can't remember exactly but I think it was at Kentucky

he was in a bad accident bad and they get the ambulance out they put him in the ambulance and they're sending him not to the infield care center they're sending him to a hospital and so we're doing the broadcast and I'm friends with Darrell Waltrip and so I get a text on my phone oh he says Darrell Waltrip says hey I've been talking to David he's doing fine they're just taking him there to evaluate him but everything looks good and so I'm sitting there and as the green announcer, as was early, not knowing kind of what you just said about speculating.

And I thought, well, it's not speculation because here's team owner. Team owner just said, he's fine, he's talked to him and he's on his way. So I start this announcement more or less with, we have somewhat circumvented NASCAR on this one. I said, Darrell Waltrip just texted me. He's been talking with David Ruderman. He's doing well. He's on his way to the whole, or on the,

the way to the hospital, but they're just going to evaluate, but looks like he's going to be fine. Well, Mike Elton immediately calls to the speed people. He'll never say that again. Let's just make sure that those words never come out of his mouth again. We've somewhat circumvented NASCAR on the front. So I learned a lesson very quickly. And Mike never actually talked to me. It was just our producer and all the heads at speed at the time. But he was like, don't ever do that again. I'm like, okay, all right. I learned my list.

But it was just so easy because it pops up on my phone. Here's Darrell Waltrip telling me that the driver's fine. He's on his way to the hospital. I thought all the fans are going to want to know. I know. Yeah. It's funny because we'll be in the booth working and there's times when like that happens, right?

You get preview information or you know something and you're like, is this something I can share? Right. Can I say this? And one of the things that One of the things I think LaTartre's really good at And I've worked And it's something that I've had to sort of wrestle with

Or try to improve on with this show Our Tuesday show mostly When something happens in the sport I was like, damn I was like Sometimes I'm not Sometimes I'm not sure which shot I'm on You know?

Yeah Sometimes I'm just not sure what shot him on Right Like I need a little more time a couple more days or a few more looks at a replay or I need to hear that driver's explanation before I can confidently say that was right or wrong. And Steve's like, well, in the moment, sometimes you can just ask the question. Yeah.

And I'm like, damn, I don't think to do that. Just, yeah, just pose the question. Pose the question. Yeah. You get it out there. And then it becomes a conversation. It becomes discussion. Yeah.

And then you discuss it. Yeah. last weekend. But I'll pose the question to you. Do you still feel that this is the way a race should end? And then two hours later, the fans go, what? Wait a second. What we just saw isn't how the race ended?

Do you still feel that that's the way? Because I am on the other side. I'm like, once they pass inspection to get on the racetrack, they should never penalize them again. Yeah. Now, I could understand that. I would be fine with that, what you're proposing, if they were to increase inspection. Yeah.

But that's a problem because to look at what they found, to look for what they found, would take so much time for every single car that come through tech in the morning. It's more reasonable to say, all right, we'll take the top three and we'll look at everything. right and we don't know who the top three are until the race is over right um what let me let me pose this to you what if what if the race ends love is the winner they break it down an inspection they find something and they say all right here's the deal you will not race next week unless you can convince us or you can do go through the the process of telling us why that was legal when it's not but if you can't then you don't race next weekend

but at least the fans get to see the guy who won and they get to remember it. I mean, Sammy Smith didn't get a picture. He doesn't get a picture with the trophy. He doesn't get all of that celebration and everything. I think they stole it from him too. So it's like that's disappointing for me as a fan. Yeah, I suppose.

I think though your idea of when the checkered flag falls, the winner's the winner, is doable to a certain. extent there will be a day where there's something so egregious. Yeah, you're right. That it will, the court of public opinion will say, no, don't like this. He shouldn't be able to keep the win because that's just too egregious. But I don't know.

I, it's certainly not the best way to finish a race, but it certainly does get some conversation started and I think now Jesse Love can go to Talladego with arguably one of the best cars in the field and get his redemption. Oh yeah. And then that's a great story, right. Oh yeah. And we don't know what the appeal process. I mean, RCR's going to appeal and we don't know how that goes. But yeah, you're right. Yeah. We'll have the conversation now, I guess, about me coming into the booth to work with you guys. So from my perspective, I was out with concussion in 2016. I got an opportunity to get in a booth with you guys at Martinsville and do an hour.

I had a blast. I had been listening to Ken Squire, but mostly Barney Hall in the 80s, playing with matchbox cars and stuff in the floor and mimicking everything they're doing and doing my races and talking like they were talking. You put a notebook to you. other of Squireisms, right? I did. Yeah. I had a little one sheet of Squireisms. Basically, I pulled every single one of them from the 79 Daytona 500, and I was going to take that one sheet with me, and I was going to use one of those every week. Every race. And that didn't last very long,

but I got a few in. So. And you changed a couple of kids' names. I mean, yeah. Yeah. So, whatever. Yeah. I, so I got out of that, I got out of that booth at Martinsville, and I got a text from a friend of mine, Marty Smith, and he said, man, you know, I don't know if you want to, but I think if you wanted to do that, you could do it. And I was like, you think? And I was like, I don't know, man.

I don't know. And I never considered it. But I just did it because I wanted people to see that I was okay. The only reason I went there in Martinsville that day was to make, to let people see that I was not laying on a vegetable. Yeah. You could talk, you were coherent. Yeah.

And you were with your buddy. I mean, Steve was there. Yeah. I think that helped a lot. Certainly. Yeah. And, but it ended up turning into a conversation around getting in the booth. Eventually, I ended up getting to work with you guys.

And I will say, man, it was fun. Yes, it was. Yes. It was so much fun. And y'all, and it, I was nervous. about y'all had this thing y'all been doing it for a couple years and it was a you know you all had the

you know you got a buddy system and it was what it was and I was like hey you know I want to I want to do this with y'all it's going to be fun but I don't want to mess up nothing y'all are doing and I remember I was so I took so serious

I which I mean you have to but I would say it's so serious one of our first races we get to Pocono and I mean this is like like two or three races in it felt like. And the race starts. Now, so the first couple of weeks, y'all handled me with kid gloves. Y'all like, you get away with this, you get away with that.

But you got to figure it out. And then we get the Pocono, and it felt like that. Kid gloves were off. Game on. Hey, we've taken the rookie stripe off. You're in. So the, and I don't know if you were even aware of this, and maybe it was all in my head. But we started that race, and we get to the end of stage one, and I was standing there, and I was like, I ain't said four words.

I didn't said 10 words, maybe, in the whole stage. And I was so mad and frustrated, and our booze are right side by side. Burton standing there next to me. and he could sense he elbows me and goes we ain't going to step out of the way you got to get in here he's like you've got to force your way in here

we're not we're not going to stop a wait on you to you know to say whatever it is you want to say we're not going to always we're not going to always pause and look over at you and go what do you think right because I had teed you up a lot junior what do you think or Dale you know I had teed you up and it was kind of like we're not doing that anymore no more teeing him up

He jumps in when it's his time and when he feels like he wants to jump in. Yep. And, man, I was struggling. And so then I think stage two and three, I just like. You were in. I just took off. And I think you took over my job a little bit there. You were calling the races.

You were like, I'm coming in. Yeah. Yeah. So that was one of the things too. So that was one defining moment for me in my career as a broadcaster. and then there was also so the kid in me that played with those matchbox cars is still very much inside of and and I admired as I said Ken Squire and we when I was sitting in a I was sitting in the top of this sky scraper in New York City with Marve and all the executives and I was stupidly naive. enough to look over there and go, hey, you know, I'm glad we're all doing this, but I just want you all to know, I kind of want to do a little play-by-play, you know, just, you know, in the

middle of the race, like every once in a while, just be like, hey, you know, hell of a battle right here. And they're like, yeah, yeah, whatever. And I was like, I don't even know what I'm asking. I don't even know what I'm saying. And I got, and I think back to that moment, I'm like, God, it's so stupid. It's just kept my mouth shut. But I was really lucky because I did like to play. I did like to pretend to be a play-by-play guy during the races.

And you didn't mind. And that was one of my, that was one of, that's my favorite thing about you is you knew that I badly wanted to be, I badly wanted to bring that to the booth. And you would step back in the middle of some of these green flag runs and kind of just let me kind of have some fun. And I think that, you know, because, I mean, there's tons of work on your plate in those moments. And there was enough to go around, I suppose. But.

Now, can I interject a little bit here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you, at some point in time, either it was in New York, whatever, that seed got planted in one of our bosses' head, and they decided that you would be the play-by-play for a race, where I wasn't even going to call the race. And so, again, I felt confident enough in my abilities that I wasn't going to lose my job to you. Not to me.

in that instance. But I also, I remember thinking to myself, I wonder what Junior would say if Rick Hendrick came up to him and said, you know what, Rick wants to drive this race. Would you just sit out and Rick's going to drive the car for this race? What would you have said to that?

I mean, like, of course not. Exactly. And I thought, so I wonder why I sit back and go, yeah, Junior can drive the, he can do the play-by-by. play. I thought there and I thought, I wonder if he would do the same thing if I said, Hey, can I drive your car? Yeah. I didn't know. I mean, that was a, that did create some for some awkward. We never talked about it. It wasn't awkward for us. And I never had, like I said,

I wasn't worried. Yeah. I never thought, oh, I knew it was. I knew it was a job. But it became. That was a thing. There was a known. I knew it was not ideal. It was. It wasn't. it wasn't the way you would have it. Yeah, it was my job. But it wasn't, like I said, I had no problem because I consider you a very good friend. And I had no issues with you. It was how the public would say things and do things. And I'm thinking, okay, it looks like I'm being punished for being out of the booth.

And that's what people are seeing. And I thought, okay, I'm just being nice and not. saying anything or whatever. Yeah. And I don't know why it should be negative. Yeah. In the social world. Yeah.

And I will, I'll admit right now, I looked at all that stuff. Too much. Way too much. Yeah. Way too much. And it hurt. Like, I'd read stuff where, you know, people would say how terrible. And I think, oh my gosh.

I don't think I'm terrible. Right. I think it's pretty good. Yeah. So I think it's funny. I'm glad you bring that up because I've always held, even before I had any experience or any knowledge of how broadcasts happen and what a play-to-play guy's role is.

And I always held the broadcast to a really high standard. Like, really? Yeah. You know, and just I had, you know, I felt like that every broadcast ought to be, you know, the best broadcast I've ever heard. And, you know, I had certain opinions about the Fox Booth or, you know, and Darrell and Larry and those guys. And I thought they had good days and they had bad days. And then there were things that they talked about that I thought, that's not important.

And then they were spinning yarn and creating things that weren't real. Right. And as a driver, I was very narrow-minded about it. You know, oh, man, this is what's important. That's what you should focus on. Stop worrying about that. Yeah. And, you know, but I had no idea that there were production meetings and all kinds of things going on that had created these conversations. People had worked all week long to put stuff together.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had no clue. I knew your job was challenging. But I did not really appreciate not only how. how challenging it was, but also how good you were, until I got the chance to do plug-bo play.

And especially, and I did a couple bush races or Xfinity races, but then the, I think the Eric Almorola, New Hampshire race, that was when I basically, I walked out of that booth and was like, that was freaking insanely fun, but I don't never need to do that again. Right. And. Oh, yeah.

I was, I, I think it was, because of who I am, because I'm Dalyan Hart Jr., because I have all of these, have some leverage, I was able to shoehorn myself into that opportunity where probably most people wouldn't have. And I got to really look behind the curtain and go, holy smokes. Yeah, I can't, I can't do this every week. Like I got a long way to go before I can. get to where I could do that job consistently. And I was thankful that I got to see that because honestly, man, I mean, my friendship with you was great. But what it did do was make me have the respect for you as a play-by-play that you deserve.

And that a lot of people, as you say, on social media, didn't give you at times. And so, because, I mean, I'm reading it too. I'm reading the shit for me. I'm reading what they're saying about me, right? And, like, there's, I was coming out of the gate, I was getting some really good positive stuff. And certainly I went to where I thought the positive stuff would be. I could probably find all kinds of negative shit if I went looking for that too.

And, um, and I saw how critical people could be of you, of me, of Jeff, of Rick, I mean, of Steve. Yeah. And it was at times very brutal. And what they say about the other side was just equally as bad, right? And I went from, I wonder why they're, I wonder why they had this perception of Rick to going, damn, they don't know how good this guy is. They don't know how hard this job is. And they don't know how good he is. And do you remember the race that I handed you the pre-race?

I think it was the pre-race rundown. And I said, you need to know this. Because if something happens, you've got to know what's going to happen up there because you just never know. Always be prepared for anything that could possibly happen. And I remember you after that race, you were like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad you gave me that. Because what ended up happening was there was a weather issue and the people that were doing the pre-race couldn't do it.

And you had to do it. And I think it was Michigan, actually. And it was kind of one of those where I was like, okay, I think I gave him all the information that I could give him, you know, to best prepare him for this. But I remember after that race or the show, you were like, man, I'm so glad you gave me that. Because I would have never even thought to have that. Yeah. I would, as an analyst, try to prepare, but I would always watch you. And even Jeff and LaTartre to an extent.

And, man, every week I thought I had all the things I needed and I'd see you. you and I'd go, what, I didn't even think that I would even want that information or have that. And you're like, you know, it was just like second nature to you. And, but I really became a big fan of yours. We were already friends. We were already colleagues. We're already working together. But going through that process and getting to do some of those play-by-play days. And there was, I remember there was one, I was, I really got to appreciate you. for people just don't know how good you are at making something that is very complex in terms, just talking about the pre-race, everything before the green flag, right?

The 15 minutes or the half hour, the hour, whatever it is. You just run through it as smoothly as anyone I've heard. and every week it's choppy and different in the notes in the in the process and the production and and the noises going on in your head the people talking to you but you just kind of you never you never you never got flustered you never got up on the chip you never got nervous like it's obvious when i get nervous i can see when steve's nervous i can see when burton's nervous i can see when any of us are flustered but it was never obvious when you when we were having a tough moment or we were having or something wasn't the way it was supposed to be whether it was weather

or a delay or a problem on the track or a you know some monitors would go out yeah monitors or any or a tragic moment or whatever right it was you were always that was one thing that was so nice man as we were being at booth and it was like well as wrong as ricks here we're never gonna be in a bad spot because you were just always going to be um able to handle it but it was also me having enough trust in you and Steve and Jeff that if I did get into a corner, I could get out by asking you guys a question, you know, or get us somewhere where we needed to go to continue that story. I remember one race where you called and talked to us about how odd it felt

to not be in the play-by-play booth. It was Darlington. Yeah. So there was a... Well, that was throwback. Yeah. we would have you and me and Petty and DJ but we only did stage two right and I think I guess the rest of the race for that whatever reason you did to pre-race and then they put you on your

motorcycle and you rode home I rode home that was really weird you were like and I could I you put us in on you put us on that motorcycle with you on that ride home and you're like y'all don't know man I'm riding home uh through South Carolina head north while the race is happening I'm supposed to be in the booth. Yeah. And I don't know why I'm not. And I was like, damn. Oh yeah.

It had been, I called every race or, you know, had been a part of every race for probably eight years or so. And it was just like I remember leaving before the race started. And I thought, what, what's going on? You know, this is really weird to not be a part of this. And I let you guys know. I was like, yeah, this is kind of odd, guys. Yep.

One of the moments I wanted to talk about was the slide job, Chicago. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Got a new guy in the booth next door to you. It's you and Burton and then me and the tartar in the booth together. Very first race. Yeah, we're very close together. Y'all, again, in the first half a dozen races, you all kind of didn't, you kind of gave me a lot of grace.

As I got to understand how things worked, I really. you know, and adhered to this idea that, you know, as we approach to white flag, there's some, there's a job that Rick's got to do. There's an ad by on the white flag itself. Right. The last lap. Sponsorship. Yeah. Got to say it. All those things have to get handled. And as, and when you're given that baton, you're more than likely going to pick up off of that ad mention to talk about that driver. If it's a, if he's on his way to assure victory, you've got a, you've got a, you've got something prepared there but if there's a battle to call that's your moment to call it and now it we're we were encouraged that if it made sense by all means jump in jump in yeah just don't like climb on top of

what you're doing and saying with the same but like if there was something to add yeah and so what a lot of people i don't know if they know but as they go as we're racing at chicagoland and we had not seen a slide job in a cup race ever. That I remember. No. Carl Edwards tried it. He did. At Homestead. Yeah.

I think it didn't work out, but yes. So Larson drives down in there and as he's coming up the racetrack, I was telling you, I was looking at you saying slide job, slide job. I'm shouting it. Slide job. I know. Slide job. And I was like, Rick, say it. Yeah.

It's so funny, too, because that was my, that was my racing background. Dirt track racing is where Eagle Raceway, it was a slide job all the time. A lot of people think I was just shouting it to the middle of distance. You're telling me. Say it. Say it. It's a slide job, Rick. He was pulling the slide job.

There goes, oh, almost. Yeah. Because he got it right at the very end. And that was your very first. He just fails out. Yes. Right. If he had kept on coming up and it put Kyle in the wall,

And he probably Larsen wins He wins a race And I'm like Oh Yeah And then I can't remember That was your first race

They made T-shirts Yes The NBC production people Made T-shirts And there was a video Of a dad And his daughter That they

Emulated us They kind of reenacted What we did But the daughter's yelling Slide job Slide job And it was so fun To see stuff like that

And it was immediately, I think we were like, okay, this is good, this is good. We're going to have a good time. Yeah, it was awesome. You know, there was a, there was, my bosses at NBC, our bosses at NBC, always kept telling me, just be you, just be you. And I was like, man, are you sure? Like, does just be me, right? Okay. And, you know, because I thought I was going to get in there and like polish my voice and get sharp and start enunciating and get

everybody's name correct and just, you know, be perfect, right? Right. And they were like, no, just be you, just be you. And there was really that vibe. Like you, you know, you had to give other people room and everybody was going to have something important to say every minute. And we all weren't going to be able to say those things. And I knew that there was some things that I badly wanted to share in the moment,

but couldn't because somebody else was in, you know, at the microphone. And you just had to be patient. You were in a difficult situation, too, though, because we had two. separate booths. That's not normal. That's not a normal. I didn't know any different. Exactly. So normal to me. It was normal. Well, it was normal to you, but you're going to see, and you have seen before. I mean, when you have everybody in a booth, it's easier. It's easier because you're, you can grab an arm, you can, you know, look at it, just the way you look at somebody, hand signals, all this stuff. It's easier. We had, I, I believe that was

a mistake. I think we should have been, if they wanted four people to call race, we should all been in the same booth. We should have been there because then there's a conversation that continues to go on because that's really what we're doing when we're calling a race is having a conversation about it. Why is this happening? You know, I call something that's exciting or happens and then you guys explain why. And there's a conversation that goes on. And that was difficult to have that when you have two people in one booth and you're separated and you have two people in another booth. Sometimes we could see each other. Sometimes we couldn't. Well, I'll say this. The other thing that really surprised me about working with y'all was how much time we spent together

when we weren't working yeah like we it felt like now there were probably some some moments that it weren't wasn't the case but it felt like we traveled together we rode in the cars to the track together we hoteled in the same hotels we we were always together yeah and when we weren't working in the booth. We were sitting in a trailer or working, yeah, wherever. Sitting around both-h together. Talking about what we were going to do and how the work was going to go. That's always been my philosophy with anybody I work with. I don't want it to be when the green light comes on the camera is when we start having our conversations. I want to know about you. I want to know about Ila, Nicole and Amy and everybody. I want to know about everything that's going on with you.

and I wanted that to be that way with everybody I've ever worked with. So I've always been like, hey, don't go hide somewhere. We're going to go hang out and do this or that together. And hell, we've vacation together. I mean, we've done all sorts of stuff together. The friendship that came so easy with Lattart came just as easy with you and Burton. And to your point, we would end up taking our wives and all go on vacation together. Right.

Which had, we had our, one of our best vacations with y'all. It was great. Zero drama. Everybody having fun. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Nothing. Good times.

Yeah. Let's talk about a couple more moments in the booth. Yeah. The hell mailing. Hell mailing. Yeah. Which is, which is really fun. We had a, a friend of ours that was behind Steve and I in our booth at Martinsville.

And for some reason, I don't know why. but he had his camera and he videoed Steve and I call that last two laps or whatever it was. And so I got to see from a different perspective what that ended up looking like. Because I knew, and you're well aware of this, that you have to know every scenario, especially in that situation because that was an elimination race. So we knew that somebody was getting eliminated there and it was really coming down to Ross Chastain or Denny Hamlet. And Denny had enough positions that we're like,

there's no way Ross can catch him because he's, you know, three positions back and there's only one lap. And it's like, okay, so, you know, I end up calling the winner of the race and it's, you know, happening. And all of a sudden, LaTart is tapping me on the shoulder and pointing.

And he knows that, you know, he doesn't want to jump in because I'm calling, you know, this big part of the race, Christopher Bell wins, automatically going to get him into the, you know, playoffs, and this is a big deal advancing. And LaTartre is doing this and pointing, and I see the one go across the line right next to Denny. And I'm like, and the one, you know, Ross Chastain is going to advance and, you know,

makes the passes or whatever. But it was that teamwork that I probably wouldn't have noticed or remembered, because in the moment I kind of get lost in all that stuff that's happening. But it was that moment that I got to see. where La Tart is tapping me on the shoulder, pointing like, okay, you've called this part of the race, this is big two. Now watch this. And we didn't know what was happening.

You immediately were like, that's like a, you know, that was a game move. I mean, he was a video game move that he just pulled there. And so you were watching Ross on the wall. I was watching Christopher Bell, and then Steve was able to kind of make sure that everything got put together. Yeah. Yeah, that was teamwork at its finance right there. That was a lot of fun.

I think Burton saw it immediately. Burton did? Yeah, like Burton was on top of it. And that was like a moment where the work felt real special, you know, because we did see something we'd never seen before. And it was very similar to the slide job moment. We were seeing something that we thought we'd never seen before. And I felt like we did a great job.

We were on it. With it. Yeah. That's what I think. That's, I guess, as far as when I think back, to 22 plus years. Yeah. I think over 600 races I've called.

I think that's the one thing that I've been the most proud of is that I don't think we've missed like anything big. Yeah. Like the moment has never been bigger and been above what we have been able to deliver. Yeah. And I think that was the one thing that I've always been very proud of is that we rise to the moment. And I think I've just worked with people that are, you know, you guys saw that. And we were able to explain exactly what happened. So, yeah. So you were part of some other memorable

iconic moments. Jimmy Johnson's 7th championship win, Kenseth Wrecking Lugano. Yeah. And the crowd goes wild. Yeah. And let's talk about how you got to where you are today. All right. As a woodworker? As a woodworker. So I have known for years that, you know, you're had a hobby as a carpenter and you've built, you the house you live in today, you built the entire thing yourself and you did all

wiring and everything, right? I mean, but the quality of work and the meticulous design and patience that you have. to woodworking and building things, and you can literally pretty much build anything anybody wants you to build. It's really impressive, really, really impressive. You have a big old barn with a workshop and all the right tools to be able to fix all the right problems. Yep.

A couple years ago, when the market was booming and house prices were crazy, we decided my kids had already been out of college or out of the house. thought we have too big of a house let's sell our house the market was great we did we moved into an apartment and i immediately was like okay i've got to have a shop no matter what wherever we look it has to have a shop we have to have enough land that i can build a shop or whatever because i missed that i love woodworking it's therapeutic for me very relaxing and so we stumbled across a piece of property that this barn was on and i thought that'd be a pretty good shop and the house was terrible and so I got an excavator and six hours later the house was leveled and built a new house there on that property.

But really it was ultimately the barn in the shop that sold me on the whole property. So it's always just been a passion of mine. My uncle was very instrumental in that. In college, I would go to his place. He had a shop and we would build anything and everything. And just, it was great to just kind of use your hands. And you mentioned meticulous. I like, I don't know, I just like just creating something out of nothing.

And when you take just a raw piece of wood and you make something out of it, you're like, at the end of the day, that's pretty cool. We talked about that so much that I was starting getting, I was starting to get wood making posts and reels in my algorithm and Instagram. And I would be like, oh, man, that's pretty neat. he built that. I wonder if Rick knows about that. You said it to me. And I shared to you. Oh, yeah. And you've built a few things for Amy and I and our kids. You're building some swings. Swings right now. For us right now. You have this hat with this business. Barn shop creations. And you're not, you don't have a website? No. Not yet.

I don't know anything about the website. I know, but you need and you have enough work? You have more than you can do? No. No, probably not. I don't. I don't. I don't. I I could use more work. How do people get in touch with you? It's been word of mouth right now. It's been, you know, you guys, you guys wanting to swing. I'm a holler from down the driveway. What am I going to do?

Well, I actually do have business cards actually, too. Really? Yeah. Okay. They say Shweger on there, though. Is that okay? I'm sure what that's okay. We can, we'll post some information.

Yeah. Folks to reach out. Cabinetry, furniture, anything and everything. Yeah. And I don't know if that's ultimately what I want to do. I love broadcasting. So if... Well, let's talk about that.

So just in the past year, you went from being the play-by-play guy at NBC to not being the play-by-play guy. And there was a big cycle of hiring. T&T and Amazon came in, and there was options and CW and all that. And first off, I suppose, how did you learn that things weren't going to continue

at NBC. I know that there was the 10 race playoff that they put Diffy on. Yep. And when did you learn about that? I found out about that the day before the Hall of Fame in January. I think it was like the 18th or something. The Hall of Fame, January 19th, and I found out on the day before at a lunch. That you're going to do the whole year, but not

the playoffs. Well, as a matter of fact, at that time, They said I was going to do up until they didn't know exactly how many races, but they were going to have Diffy do the last, however many races. And I didn't understand that. I guess I didn't know why that would be the way you would transition somebody in and me out. I didn't think that was, I didn't know why. I went into that lunch meeting not having a clue that I wasn't going to have my contract renewed because a couple months earlier, you were in the bus with me when we were told by an executive that we were going to have long-term deals. And we were going to continue.

And our team, our four guys were going to stay together. And then they didn't renew your contract. And I was told mine wasn't going to be renewed. And so it just, it was very different from what I had been told earlier that it changed dramatically. And it was scary and it was weird. And so I immediately started, you know, and I will say I was almost a zombie at the Hall of Fame. I was the MC, you know, and they told me the day before. You were heartbroken.

I was crushed. And I remember in the middle of that. The award ceremony, I got a text from you. And you said, hey man, I want to talk to you. So before we leave, let's talk. And that was very, very nice of you. And it was wonderful. I needed that at that time.

You and Amy found me backstage. And we talked a little bit, bullshit. And that was reassuring. Because I think at the time when that news hit me, it was kind of like, what am I going to do now if my first. friends aren't if I don't get a hang out with my friends. Yeah. You know, the, my friends go away? What, how does this, you know, how does this affect my life? And so it was, that was a crushing blow, um, again, that January day. And then I carried that with me,

you know, the news didn't get out other than you guys knew about it until later. And they told me that they, you know, there was nothing going to come out. And then it all of a sudden it did. And then they told me not to do, don't do any release or response. And, um, uh, So you said I kind of disappeared. I did. I was told not to say anything initially, and then I kind of just thought, you know what? I'm just going to not say anything. Would you have done it different?

I think so now, looking back on it, because I think it looked bad. Like, again, public perception was that I'd done something wrong. So I disagree with that. Really? I know that you won't believe this, but when they would pluck me into the play-by-play, I was looking at public perception. I never looked at it like they're punishing you because there was no motive for punishment. And so I didn't read, in reading all of the temperature of people's opinions about why this might be happened,

I never heard, oh, Rick's in trouble or Rick's being punished or anything like that. Really? I didn't. It was just like, oh, but Dale's, you know, shoehorned himself. into this opportunity or Dale's asked for this and he's getting this little fun one-off or they're calling at the driver's booth and it's just going to happen once a year at this race and it was never really a oh Rick's f***ed up and he's getting punished for it and I never and I didn't feel like that that was what the perception was this past year really uh-uh

what the perception was is that you might have been you might have been okay with it that was the only the one thing that I thought might be going wrong is that you were all right with this and that you were just going to go on and do something else and I knew that wasn't what you thought right but I was afraid that that was the public perception is and maybe that's what it was I don't know well all I know is and I'll I'm going to name drop but it hit me like a ton of bricks when we golf with a bunch of guys we were at Michael Jordan's golf course and I didn't I had never met physically Jordan at any given time I've been around him a couple times but never talked to him the first thing that Jordan says to me when I went up to him at his golf course and I was like I was going to say hey thanks for letting us play and you know appreciate it

the first thing he said to me was what'd you do man and I looked at him and I was kind of thinking I don't know what he's talking about here and he goes how come you are announcing the races you're NASCAR he goes why aren't you announcing races anymore what'd you do? Oh wow and I sat there and I was like oh my so not only does Jordan know who I am

which I was like wow okay but he thought I had done something wrong and that's why they put Diffy in and so immediately I was like it would I was like crushed because I thought here's the most famous athlete on the planet I think one of the greatest

athletes ever and knows me but is like what'd you do yeah and so and he was very see how you could come to the conclusion that people thought you'd done something wrong yeah i mean so that's why by me not saying anything and the way NBC did it where they didn't make any announcements they didn't say why or whatever it i think it looked like that i had done something wrong and that's why I wasn't, and so I would, I would have been more vocal. Yeah. Just so the people understood that it wasn't my choice. You know, that, I did not want to not be back with NBC.

I want to still call NASCAR races. I wanted to be a part of the CW or Amazon or Turner or, you know, Fox, anybody. I wanted that badly. And it didn't happen. Yeah. It, you know, never came to fruition with any of the other broadcast partners. And so it was, you know, it's been, it's tough. But, again,

I love doing what I'm doing. So, I mean, that's great. But at the same time, I think I'm still pretty good at a play-by-play announcer. So I'd love to still do something in that area. You, during the process of, I talked to you a little bit during the process when the hiring started happening for the new partners that coming in, you didn't have an agent. Not initially. Yeah. And then you ended up getting some.

some representation. Yes. The hiring cycle concluded without you finding a role in a position anywhere. Yeah. What is your, what do you know, I guess, what your best foot forward is? If this is, because I know you still want to broadcast. I know you still have a lot left in the tank. I think you're as talented as anybody.

You have more experience than most. you'd be a great addition to any team. What's your foot forward? So I did start off with a friend that was kind of kind of help because I didn't think I was going to need an agent. I thought, and again, I probably had too high of an opinion of myself. I thought, you know, I've been announcing at the highest level of NASCAR for 10 years, somebody's going to pick me up. You know, one of these people I'm going to be a part of.

And then after like the first couple communications with people where it wasn't a, yeah, we want to talk to you, I thought this might not happen. Like there's a possibility that I might not be in NASCAR. And so that's when I had been contacted by an agent that said, hey, you know, I'd love to represent you. We love what you do. and she just she reached out and then she said okay we're going to focus on you know the NASCAR because you've done it forever you're a voice of that you have a reputation there we're focusing on that and so she focused on that and we got down to where all the positions started to be filled and the music stopped and there wasn't a seat yeah and i'm kind of going okay we need to look at other

sports now. I've done track and field. I've done college basketball, done different things. I said, I think now we're going to have to broaden our horizons here a little bit. And so we've done that to the point where we've looked, but I think we focused so much on NASCAR for pretty much the whole season. And once all those spots were filled, we were behind as far as looking at other sports too. So So that's why it was like, you know what, I'm going to, I like building stuff. So I'm going to start a company. So barn shop creations began. But are you still hopeful that there will be another opportunity?

I would love to talk to anybody about the cars tour. Hey, if you pay more than $6 an hour. But I don't want to tell. Brendan's really good. He's fine. He's going. He's great. And I don't want to take anything away from a young guy and all that stuff.

the rising but at the same time I do feel like I'm still very good at what I did. And it's harder than most people think. It is. Especially racing. Now I've done other sports

and they pale in comparison as far as speed and things you have to know. Racing is really difficult. Very, very difficult to broadcast. And so you're I always felt like. You've experienced I don't think, I've not broadcast another sport,

but I always felt like that we got, we were off the hook as broadcasters in racing because once the green flag dropped, anything could happen and it would. Yes. And so we could just be as surprised as the next person. We weren't expected to know. Like, I mean, I can analyze a little bit of guess what a guy might do

going down in a corner, but you listen to the football broadcasts, they're telling you what plays coming, what defense they're in, what play they're going to try to run, why they audibold or what they're audible to do. There's a bunch of here's what's about to happen. Right. And that's LaTart.

Yeah. I mean, LaTart is thinking about four different opportunities that a crew chief could come up with. And he's got that in his head. That's why he's great. That's why he's so good at what he does. You, as a driver, you know the feel of what a car feels like and if it's, you know, you can see what it's doing. So you know he's crying about this. You know, he,

watching his hands, he's doing this. He's going to be telling the crew chief he needs this. And that's where you guys are great at that. But as a play-by-play guy, I'm supposed to call what happens. And when it happens in a split second, I'm supposed to know exactly what's going on. And I digress a little bit. One of the first arc of races, not one of the first archer as I called, but early on in my career, Danica Patrick's first race was at Daytona. David Hill is there, the chairman of

Fox Sports, and I'm relatively young. Danica Patrick is in her first stock car race. I'm calling it. And we're watching the race. A wreck happens. A green car is in the wreck. And after we call the wreck and everything happens and whatever,

we go to commercial. David Hill comes in during commercial break and he's like, Rick, You got to tell them that wasn't Danica. I was like, I don't know what you're talking about. He goes, a green car was involved in the accident and everyone might have thought it was Danica because it was a green car. And I was thinking, no, nobody was not.

Her car is completely different. But he saw it as somebody watching for the first time may not have understood that it wasn't Danica. And so they might have been tuning in because it was Danica's first race and all this. And he told me, you've been. got to say that, those types of things. And so I was learning on the fly, you know, and that happened early on, but it's just little things that you don't think about, or I didn't think about at the time, that I did after, you know, he comes in and tells me stuff like that. But it

happens that fast, that, you know, within seconds, you've got to be able to explain who's in it, who's involved, why, and all that, where you have a little more time in other sports to explain all that stuff. But in racing, you know, like we know, we know there's no brakes. Yeah. There is a, you're a big time golfer. I wanted to talk about another business opportunity that you're involved in. Yes. The 500 Club. Yeah. What is that? It was a golf course that, some of our buddies that play golf, one guy happened to look and saw there was a for sale of a golf course. And the real estate listing, he sent it out to a group of us and was like, anybody didn't want to buy a golf course?

And I was like, that sounds pretty cool. That seems fun. So we went and played the golf course. And after about six holes, we're like, this is a great golf course. We need to be serious about this. And so we ended up, I'm an investor. I'm a small investor, but I bought a golf course. And so it was kind of cool to say, I own a golf course.

But it's really, we put a lot into it, redid all. all the buildings and the interiors and the bar and everything about it. Refurbished and I did a lot of that or helped with a lot of that. And it was just fun to be a part of. But yeah, I love golf. It's a great sport. It's fun. Yep.

It's also a restaurant that you can go and have lunch and dinner. It's called the 500 Club. Yep. And where? A lot of pictures, by the way. Can we say? Yeah, sure. Say whatever you want to say.

So, Jr., I went to you because we wanted to race. theme. And so I came to you and I said, hey, do you have any, you got any pictures or whatever that I could put up. And you immediately take me back. You had so many pictures that were almost warehoused, I guess. And you're like, pick them out, put whatever you want you want. So literally there are some very unique things in the 500 Club inside the restaurant. And I will say in the men's restroom upstairs, there's a picture that you gave us. And you said this needs to be in your restaurant somewhere, and so it is. But if you are able to visit in Statesville, the 500 Club, and you're a guy, you can go

into there, and that's one of junior pictures. The other neat thing about this is if you win a Daytona 500, you're an automatic member. That's correct. So I'm a member. You are a member. Yep. And they have the best buffalo chicken wings. They're really good.

The food is delicious. The food is delicious. Yeah. And that was initially, you know, we were thinking golf is going to be. People are going to want to come to this place because the golf course is really nice. It's beautiful. And our superintendent does a great job. But ultimately, we ended up getting some chefs that are just amazing at the things they cook.

And so we have great, great food and live entertainment and lots of things that I think the whole community, kind of that state's full, troutman, that area, they've very much embraced it. But also, you know, kind of the Lake Norman area, too, is enjoying it. The 500 Club in Statesville, go check it out. They're putting a lot into it. Great restaurant. Again, some of the best buffalo chicken wings that I can find around here. Man, it's been a lot of fun talking to you.

Thank you. I appreciate you bringing me on. One of the things that I wanted people to know was, and some people do know this, but some might not. You're incredibly talented. Thank you. I appreciate you saying that. You have a lot.

of years left in the tank and I know that you the message might not be out there that you still do want to be a play-by-play guy especially in NASCAR and I wanted that message to be clear but I also wanted people to know that you're doing well you're happy I am you're having fun yep you're busy yes and I'll get those I'll get those swings you got finished for you yep I hope so you got a son overseas playing professional basketball ball. So you have a lot going on in your family. Another son works in the movie industry on the West Coast down in the Hollywood area. So yeah, my kids are about as far apart as you can get.

For sure. But still very proud of everything they're accomplishing. Well, we're thankful to call you a friend. Glad to be able to spend some time with you today. Thanks for bringing Alice chair. She's going to be excited to have it back. I had no idea how connected to this thing she was. She loves this chair. She was in tears. And there's countersink bits. Yeah. So if you ever get to the point where you need that,

and a hat. Got my bits in my hat. There's numerous things. So thank you, Rick Allen. Thanks for being a friend here at Dirtymo Media. It's been a lot of fun. Appreciate you, buddy. Rick Allen on the Dell's Union Download.

Rick Swigger. There are no Swigers. Swigar. So it was great to catch up with Rick Allen. And I worked with Rick for seven years. There were a couple of contracts during that period of time, was always a bit nervous. There was always some nervous energy around the time when those contracts were being

negotiated. And Rick was the kind of guy that, like, he's, we were his friends. We were his inner circle. And so when anything was going on in his life that had concern, he would come and talk to us, me and Burton and Lartre, and probably more Burton and Lattart because of the, how long they'd been together. But it got pretty tough in that. final year. I was dealing with my own negotiations and how that didn't really work out the way I think

NBC and I wanted. And then Rick was dealing with his own as well. And so it was, it was tough to see that happen because, you know, we'd all kind of really gotten to where we enjoyed working together and you know I was uh I was if I ended up staying at NBC I was I was looking forward to working with Diffy too because I'd work with him in the past so um you just kind of know you just kind of go with however things are going to go and I don't get to make those kind of decisions on who's in the booth and who's not but um I did think I did want the opportunity I guess today to let him uh share with everybody that he He wants to be in this business and still wants to be doing that job, right?

And that he's not willingly, you know, sort of taking this new direction or path. He kind of would prefer to be calling races somewhere at some point. And maybe that opportunity still exists down the road. But with the way the hiring cycle works, you know, the contracts are three to five years. And so it's going to be some time before. he might get another opportunity, but I see him as one of the most talented guys out there. And like I said, in the show, I didn't really appreciate his talent until I tried to do the job he does. And then I was like, oh, man, just incredible.

And, you know, it was fun working with him. And he's a great friend. Really, one of the, one of the best. best guys. Like if it's, when you had something going on, and he did this for everybody, anytime anything was going on

that was challenging, whether it was somebody in the production team, he knew. And he would, he would always go to that person and be like, hey, I'm sorry about this,

I heard about this, what can I do? How can I help? He's one of those kind of people. They kind of knows anytime anybody's going through anything challenging, he's going to be the guy

to speak up and offer some assistance. And I think as critical as people can be about the broadcast from time to time, I think it's a pretty confident assumption that me and Rick and Burton and LaTart together in that NBC booth was some good work. And I felt like we always did a great job and had fun doing it. People would say that it was like a couple buddies just sitting around watching a race. That's hard to replicate.

but it was tough to acknowledge that those days were going to be over and we have to kind of work through the awkwardness of that process and even in this new hiring cycle you know I wanted to be a friend to Rick and tried to you know tried to introduce him to the right people so that he would also have the right considerations for certain operations for certain And I really am not entirely. I'm not probably as, I probably don't understand the landscape as much as a lot of people might assume. But, yeah, I was kind of disappointed that he didn't find a place to be able to continue forward.

But hopefully, again, that opportunity exists for him somewhere. If not, and he finally, like, closes the door on that, I think that he will be insanely happy building because he's real good at it. And I think if we you know if the world were to know the quality of work but also

the way I'm not sure he's totally ready to like say hey this is what I'm doing come come see what I got and can help you with because he's kind of like he's bull's bullshit about the website stuff not knowing nothing about that He just, I don't think he's ready to like, closed one door and completely open the next one.

But I think once he does, if he ever did embrace the wordworking business, he would more than, I think he'd probably be more, he'd make more money doing that than he's doing as a broadcaster. Anyhow, awesome to catch up with him. I know there's a lot of people out there that have, you know, good and critical opinions of him and his work. over the years, but everybody's absolutely curious as to where he's been and what he's been doing. So I think for that reason alone, it was great to have him on and see him catch up with him.

So appreciate him coming through. It's time for the white flag. All right, for this week, there was no race in the Cup series, so the tear down, action's detrimental, and door bumper clear all will be returning next week after the Talladega race to give their critical thoughts on everything going on. I'm curious as to what kind of race we're going to see. I'm sure it's probably going to be more of the same, a lot of fuel mileage and savings.

We'll see what the conversation is when we leave Talladega and what everybody's thinking. Yesterday, me and T.J. had a fun episode of Dirty Air where we talked a little bit about Rockingham and a couple different things in our going on in the industry. The Hall of Fame is getting ready to nominate or vote on the nominees for the next class. and they did announce that Homestead will be the championship final for

2006 but then it will start to rotate from track to track and unknown what those tracks are in the future but we can debate that. We had a great dirty-mo dough segment where we I believe made some pretty reasonable picks going into a race that's quite unpredictable at Talladega. So you'll have to listen to those. I wish I could bet, man, because I feel pretty good about this week's. but next episode of Bless Your Heart will be recorded tomorrow.

Me and Amy always had a lot of fun doing that on Thursday, so we're going to get right back to it. We're coming off of vacation in Texas. A lot of fun to be had. Amy's grandmother gave her a hard time about her work on Bless Your Heart. We'll talk about that. Yeah. And so, yeah, I guess Speed Street's got an episode this week as well.

Connor Daily, brain great content every week. and then Herm and Schrader. That's a great podcast. They'll have an episode as well out today. Still wish they'd have called that stacking Kenneys. That's the week. And make sure to visit shop.dirtymoomedia.com. I think you're wearing a sweatshirt.

I am. I got a dirty-modea sweatshirt on. We got a lot of great apparel at shop.durtymomedia.com. If you're a favorite of any of our podcast, there's a shirt, a sweater, a hat for you. and there's always new designs being put on there, so keep checking at shop.dirtymodea.com. If you got an idea of something you'd like to see, a t-shirt or a hat that you won't made,

let us know down in the comments, and we'll see if we can't drum that up for you. Everybody, have a great week. We'll see you tomorrow for Bless Your Heart, and on to Talladega. I'm going to Orange County, where the Cars Tour is going on Saturday. So I'm going to go help them.

folks out. We'll see you. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.