The Dale Jr. Download - The Best GUEST Moments of 2023

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

On today's episode of The Dale Jr. Download, we're counting down the best GUEST moments from this past season. We had a lot of great guests stop by the Bojangles studio in 2023. NASCAR legends like Donnie Allison, Tony Stewart, and Chip Ganassi. Longtime DEI employees Slugger Labbe, Richie Gilmore, and Steve Hmiel. Even WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes. Moments from this episode include; Hut Stricklin was Tom Cruise's driving coach? Chip Ganassi's surprising sale to Trackhouse, DEI memories, sponsorship-marriage hiccups, and heartfelt goodbyes. Enjoy! Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody. Producer Alex Tim's here from the Bojangles Studio. And today, I'll be counting down the best guest moments from this past year on the Dale Jr. download. We had a lot of great guests sit at the table here this year. Legends like Donnie Allison, Tony Stewart, and Chip Gannasi, long-time DEI employees like Steve Meal, Slugger Labby, and Richie Gilmore. And not to mention WWE superstar Cody Rhodes came to the same. studio. From laughs to cries to sponsorship engagements, Wednesdays on the Dale Jr. download were

filled with some memorable moments. So let's start off with our first moment. We've all seen Days of Thunder by now. But what if I told you Tom Cruise's driving coach for the movie walked into our studio, sat down at the table, and started talking for an hour before we even had a clue? Hutt Strickland, the Journeyman Cup series driver, came to the Bojangles studio and dropped a movie bomb on us. Moment number one. Hutt Strickland. on the Dale Jr. Down there. So when did you decide that you were going to make a change? I mean, how did you even find a new opportunity?

Well, we run the whole 89 season, missed a couple races, missed Daytona. I don't know, missed a few races. But anyway, you know, I kept in contact with Rod. He said, you know, do I have a ride for next year? You know, because not I need to be looking, you know. And tell me now, you know, nope, you got a ride. I said, well, I said,

Well, what about my contract? You know, I'm going to send it to you. I'm going to send it to you. And make a long story short, about four weeks before the Daytona 500 had friends call me. For 1989? For year two? For the, yeah. Right.

That was for, I run the 89 season. Okay, sorry, for year two, which is 90. That's correct. Yeah, 90. That's right. And I got a phone call from my in-laws said, hey, you know, might need a check on this, said, you know, we've heard on the news at an officer. and announced that Spencer's going to be driving the car next year, the Heinz car.

I said, really? And he kept telling me, man, you know, I'm going to send you your contract. And if my word ain't good enough and I don't know what he is, and I said, well, send it. You know, anyway, my claim the store is short. It was true. They pulled me out and put Spencer in the car. And I started the 90s season, didn't have a ride, basically. So you went to Daytona without a car to drive?

That was what it was looking like. Okay. And then, I guess, in TriStar needed somebody to drive their car down there. And I got in their car. Which car is that? That was the... I forget. Yeah, me too. 68, I think it was, number 68.

Was that the old, it was old? Countrytime? It was before country time. Okay. but we ended up we ended up qualifying second round fastest there in that car

then we got into a Schrader and somebody was in a 125 coming to the finish he spun spun and he got loose yeah yeah yeah and took me out and we was in the race and just won them things and so then I proceeded Rick Hendrick felt

really bad. So he brought one of the Days of Thunder movie cars over for us to use. And we brought it over there. It had no windows, no, no nothing, you know, no engine, no transmission. So all the guys went to went to work and got it in there. We ended up starting a Daytona 500 in one of the days of Thunder movie cars. Okay. And did y'all run the whole, was y'all free to race how y'all wanted to race? Or did that, because I know that those Dayton, those days of the Thunder cars had a script. That's correct. They were going to do a certain thing and then get off the track. But Rick basically handed you to that car and said, y'all run the hell out of it.

That's right. What you do? We had no restrictions. Of course, it was a, it was a different. Yeah, I mean, a handful. Yeah, you couldn't drive. I mean, it was just, it was a movie car. You know, the body was wasn't much better than a car.

No, no. It was, and you can imagine, I mean, just everything was pieced together and, you know, just a thrash. I bet that, yeah, I bet that was a bit frustrating. Yep. Hold up. You're saying that Rick did that out of just empathy and just kindness? But Ken Schrader didn't do anything malicious, did he? No, no, no, no.

I think it was more, I think Rick Hendrick would have done it, whether Ken Schroeder was involved or whatever. But, you know, Ken was, I guess he was coming to the finish line or something or towards end of the race and got loose off four in the 25 car. He was driving it. Yeah, I remember that wreck. And I remember the 68 car. He slid up in front of you and you kind of teabone him there.

And you ran for Rick in the Spring Darlington race and one of the Days of Thunder's number 51 cars. You also got to work and coach Tom Cruise during the making of that movie. So, yeah. So what was that experience like? Pretty awesome. Yeah. You know, it, you know, to be around that whole group, it was just, it was, I was in all. How does that even happen?

Like, how did they come to you? Or did you go to them and say, I want to do that? No. Carolyn Carrier Freeman, her dad owned Bristol Speedway at that time. She was the liaison. for NASCAR to the days of thunder people. She knew me from racing and what have you, obviously, and she had told me, hey, you know, we're needing somebody to go, you know,

drive a few of these cars from time and time and go to the racetrack. Pays really good, and so I said, heck yeah, I ain't doing nothing. Let's go do it. So I did that for probably a couple months, something like that. So that was your end to the movie scene there. And then you're probably one of only a handful of drivers that are actual race car drivers that is available to mentor, so to speak. Yeah. You know, we didn't, I'll tell you what, Tom Cruise could have made a heck with driver.

Really? What makes you say that? Just his demeanor, his focus, you know, he wanted to do things right. I mean, just, and he wanted to do it. I mean, you know, there's no, I mean, I know why his movies are so successful. I mean, you see how he is in person, just so focused and dialed in. And, you know, every scene he makes is, you know, it don't matter if it's on his 40th take. You know, it might have been right 30 takes ago, but, you know, no, I want to make it right.

So when you're, when you're helping them with that film, is Tom actually driving race cars? Because I know a lot of times they're filming with a car on a trailer, right? He's propped up in this trailer, in this car on a trailer, and that's typically how you would film most scenes in the race car. But he did drive, you did go out to, like, Volusia County, and he did drive a race car. Yep. You watched him, you know, understand really what that experience might be like.

Because I don't think I ever knew till right now sitting across from you today that Tom drove a car around the racetrack, right? So you got to witness him do that. Yep. That's pretty fascinating. It was. You know, I really couldn't believe that he was actually going to go out and do it. You thought he'd just be propped up in a movie car.

I thought so. Like in a prop, right? But no, he wanted to do it. Yeah. And, you know, when we went, it was funny when we went out funny, but we went out in the, well, we got ready to go out and he was buckling in and all that stuff. And I was kind of walking around the cars. I always do. Just kind of look and make sure nothing's, you know, getting ready to fall off or, you know, all lug nuts tight, hoodpins in.

You know, nothing. I looked always. front suspension, anything like that anyway. So I walked around and tell Tom, I said, now, I'm a warning on something here. I said, this car, they have a, what do they call a floating sway bar on it. I said, it's attached on the right side only, and the left side has a, has a rub pad. Yeah, it's clapper. I said, I know it don't mean anything to you.

I said, but, you know, when you go out, I said, you can't turn the wheels to the right. You got to, you know, don't, when you're warming your tires, go left and right. When you go left, you'll have a sway bar. When you go right, you won't have a sway bar. So you really have to watch or you'll wreck it, you know. So, man, the first thing he does is roll out on a racetrack and makes one lap. And so then he comes down the front straight away, and he starts warming the tires up. And immediately the car turns to the right.

He's got a $100,000 camera sticking out the right side about 10 foot, you know, on a pole and stuff. Kills the right side camera, kills the right front of the car, everything. I mean, that was it. He comes in, he says, man, I see what you was talking about on that sway bar. Well, I tried to tell you, you know, you have no bar when you go to the right. Was that the only time you ever saw him drive a race car? Yeah, that was a first time. Did he ever drive one after that?

Yeah, yeah, he did on the big track stuff. What? Yeah, he did drive Daytona, you know, just by himself. type thing. Right. I think I heard Rick calling a story about him going out there and running some laps, you know, 170 an hour or something like that. And Paul Newman maybe driving some laps as well in one of their test cars from the early

90s or mid-90s. It's pretty fascinating. He's sort of notorious for doing all his own stunts anyways. I didn't know that he was that way back then. I mean, that's early 90s and stuff. I guess late 80s, early 90s. But, yeah, I mean, I guess I'm not too surprised to hear that he would want to that himself.

For me, some guests come into the studio and you're captivated by every word they said. One of those this year was Chip Gannasi, and one of those moments was when Chip was describing how he sold his NASCAR team to trackouts. Moment number two, Chip Gannasi and the journey of his Cup Series team. I want to ask you about the merge with the EI. Yeah. So what made you want to do that? How did that come about?

Who called you? Who did you call? you know, Max, Max Siegel, you know. I think they were in a situation where, you know, as I look back on it now, they were in a situation where you had, you know, Max and Teresa, and they weren't operators of racing teams. You know what I mean? They didn't, they weren't operators of a team.

I mean, they could come up with the money or whatever, but they didn't know how to run a race team, I don't think, at the time. And that was right at the crash, you know, when there was like a financial crisis and a crisis. and, you know, and, you know, somehow Steve Lilletta, who was with me at the time, he got a hold. He was talking to Max Siegel, and Max said, you know, why don't you guys take over running our car? We have these contracts with Bass Pro and with Martin, and want to you guys just take that over and give us a little something for running that. And we'll take care of Martin. Martin had a huge contract at the time to drive.

And I said, I can't, I can't bring, take that on, you know. And they said, no, we'll take care of that. I said, okay. and they said, we'll give you the sponsor and you know, you just run the car and I was happy to do that because I just lost Wrigley's, I think. I think I had Rigglies at the time and Rigglies

was going away, so I needed a patch, fill in the car, you know, and to keep all my guys going and that's kind of what happened. You know, I didn't realize at the time I was getting in the middle of a, you know, like a family feud or something there or a family all of a sudden, I'm going, what the hell is.

Oh, nine. Yeah, yeah. The feud was over. I didn't know that, you know. I didn't know that. But like, yeah, what, was there more feuding than were even a one-off? Yeah, because I don't know. I mean, you know, it's like there was all these questions and everything all the time. I was going like, well, what about this and what about that?

You know, like, I just didn't want to be involved in any of that. I just wanted to go racing. You know what I'm not in. You ended up in a Jerry Springer episode and you had no idea. No idea. I had no idea. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, that was pretty much it.

You know, like I didn't, you know, we were just trying to, like, again, that was one of those periods. where, hey, I was either going to have to lay off, you know, 150 guys or something or 100 guys, or I was going to, you know, and that was the, that was the savior of that. Did you have to not, listen, I'm asking this question because I sincerely want to know. I don't want people to assume that I'm trying to dig. No, no, go ahead. Dig whatever you want. How often did you interact with Teresa?

I'll tell you. I've talked to you guys more in the last 15 minutes than I've talked to her the entire time. Really? Yeah. Man. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I had lunch with her a couple times, and that was about it.

Yeah. But did you need that? Did you need to be able to have a relationship or even conversations, meaningful conversations with her for that operation to have succeeded? No. Was Max Segal enough? Was the people around there? Yeah.

Max was enough. Yeah. Max was enough. And I did, you know, ten conversations with him, and that was about it. Was there a conversation with you guys on how to rebrand the race table? team in the name of it? Because didn't you guys change it to Earnhardt Gannasi racing? Yeah, yeah.

I think that was just a, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't so hung up on having my name. Didn't care? I didn't care. I just wanted to be, I wanted to make sure I was there. I knew I was running it, so it didn't matter to me. You know, it was my team and, you know, it was my team, my people. Yeah. So I didn't, it didn't bother me to put, you know, put the Earnhardt name on front of it.

Yeah. Did it help? Did it, did it contribute to anything competitively? I don't know. I didn't hurt. They didn't hurt. What did they bring to the table? I mean, I'm trying to remember, honestly. Well, there were some people.

There were a lot of people that came, you know, at the time. Like, there was a kind of a split there of the people. Some of the, I'm trying to remember. That's true. Steve Mill was one, remember? Steve Mill went to Ganes. Yeah, Neil came. There's a handful of guys that came over from DEI.

And then, you know, like... Bono. Bono, yeah, Bono. Yeah, he was amazing. Yeah, good guy. Yeah, good guy. Yeah, good guy. He did.

One in Indy for you. Yeah. One in the brickyard, yeah. So Rob Kaufman buys a stake in the team. How do you get teamed up with this dude? Yeah, I just, you know, I ran into him one day, and he was, he was all, you know, frustrated with his, he was involved with Michael, Walter first, if you remember. And, you know, he wanted to, that was kind of going away, and he wanted to stay in the sport.

And, you know, I could use a little injection of cash in the team to give away a, you know, a small percentage or whatever. And so he basically took Felix's position, and then Felix went down to like 5% or something. Yeah. And then Felix retired off in full. Yeah, and then he kind of, yeah, yeah. So when Felix retired, did he, I can't imagine Felix just not showing up. Yeah, right.

Yeah. Sure he still has influence and phone calls. Certainly. Yeah. No, I mean, again, you know, Felix and I were 80, 20 partners, but I think I treated him like a 50-50 partner. You'd never know. Yeah. Yeah.

You never known it was anything but 50-50. So in 2021, you sell to Justin. So you knew Justin, y'all raced together. Yeah, won a race. one at Mid-O-Hio. Y'all had a great relationship. Yeah. You had some frustrations.

You had made some comments about being NASCAR was mad about some protocols. You broke during the pandemic or something on pit road and said a little thing. And which I just want to say, like, you weren't ever scared. You were never, you know, muzzled in how you felt about things. If you felt like this is silly, I don't like this. why are we doing it this way? Why did this happen? You were always willing to sort of do that.

And I think that is a, it sounds a little bit like a race car driver and talk. You know, I know you're a successful owner and a smart businessman, but every once in a while, you talk like a driver. Right. And, um, like Denny. Yeah. Right. So, yeah.

But I wonder, you know, I'm, it's more than likely coincidental that, the frustrations from that and you selling the team are anywhere linked, but why would you sell? Why would you leave? You know, good question. It's not like the team was for sale. It wasn't for sale. And I'll tell you what it came down to, Del, at the end.

I'm sitting there, and he calls me up one day, and he said, hey, I'd like to buy your team. And, you know, I was going about my business that day or something, you know, and I kind of like, I had a wacky call, you know, like, what? And I started thinking about it. And he said, how about, you know, how about we? He said, how much you want for it? I said, well, I got this much money. I said, well, that's not going to do it, you know.

Think about it. Go away and come back. You know, you know. Come back with some more money. And, and, and I started thinking about it. And then I remember thinking to myself, you know, I had had that team for 20 years. And, you know, up and down and up and down and up and down. And, you know, and I just remember thinking to myself.

you know, in 20 years, no one's ever called and said they wanted to buy it. And I thought, man, I should look at this, you know? Like, I should look at it. You know, I got to look at it. If somebody wanted to buy it, I'm thinking, you know, I could, I remember,

I remember a couple things. I remember my father had a business and he sold it. And a guy from Goldman Sachs in New York, I remember sitting in my dad's living room one night, and the guy said, Floyd? you can sell your business today for this amount of money, or you can wait 10 years and sell it for the same amount of money.

And we can work for the next 10 years and sell it for the same amount of money. And he goes, well, you're going to feel good about that? And he said, no. And I remember I'm saying, I'm thinking, yeah? I could, and I don't know, but I just, you know, like, no one had ever called up and wanted to buy it, and I just thought, I got to take a look at that. Oh, because there's not, when, when, in this business is like,

if you ever have to sell, this is the other point I want to, to make. If you ever have to sell, there's not always a buyer out there. Right. It's not I mean. Eager to take it. So, you know, and especially if these days with charters, you know, and things, you get into a, you get into like a musical chairs kind of thing, you know, like, you don't want, you know, you might say, you know, well, your charter's worth this and yours is worth that and his is worth this. I'm going to take his, you know, because his is, you're, your, S.O. If there's one thing the DEI days were full of, it was stories. Here on the download, we love to bring in former DEI employees to spill the tea. Good, bad, or indifferent,

and they never disappoint. Here are two moments from Slugger Labby and Steve Meal's appearances on the Delgeneer Downland. When did you end up at DEI? You came to DEI, not to the cup deal, as people would know you as a crew chief for Michael Walker, but you came to DEI for a short spell to work on the Xfinity program, and I think maybe David Green was driving it at the time. Jeff Green. Jeff Green, I'm sorry, Dave. There's 91, yeah. So they hired me in 90, and 1991 is when Jeff drove full-time. They hired you in 90.

That's right. Dad was still driving the car. That's right. And then Jeff is the first full-time. You're going full-time race. They hired you and said, hey, man, we're going full-time. Right. And so I remember when you came.

I remember the very first day that you came there. Now, I don't remember like particular moments, but I remember. So forever it had been Rick Boss, Tony Seam. Tony Jr. Right. And that was it. And bugs. Bugs, right.

Sweeping the floors and carrying all. Bugs cleaning up. We, um, uh, you're like the one of the first, if not the first, you know, outside higher. Right. Um, and so I was like, oh man, they're getting serious. This is a, this is a legit race team now. An enterprise. Yeah.

They're really going after this. And so, um, you brought your toolbox. Like a mechanic, like we're moving from dealership to, dealership, right? When you get hired, you take your toolbox out of that bay and you take it down the street to the other dealership and that's, you roll it in. And I think I was trying to get something out of your toolbox. I don't remember why, but I was looking for something and I broke the drawer. Do you remember this? You're the one. Yeah. Nobody fessed up to me. I did it. It was you. Yeah. I'm going to send you an invoice. Do you remember? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I thought Tony Jr.

did it. No, it was me. Okay, well. Yeah. See? I don't know why. What, 30 years later, here we are. I need to get this off my chest. That's cool.

Yeah. I don't know what I was. I still have that toolbox. Do you? Yeah. Is it still broke? No, I fixed it. You fix it.

I don't remember what broke or how it broke, but it's something about the drawer, the locking system in the drawer with the lid up or down, right? And I was probably... I just fixed it this winter. No shit. I got the parts. I'm going to give you the broken part. If you wanted to break again, just let Dale Jr.

borrow something from it. It was a snap-on toolbox. and it was the top lid and it had a little lever you had to pick up to close it. And Bulmusa over here obviously didn't understand how it all worked. Oh, so you're talking about that little brace at the end. So now it wouldn't close all the way. It wouldn't close. Yeah.

Sorry. I didn't know it was you, dude. It was me. How did you do that? I don't know. I was over. He was checking. It was someone's had a new toolbox.

No one's ever brought a toolbox of DEI except me. I recognized quickly that it was not any of our shit, right? And I'm like, and then it, and it, and it, And I broke it and I was like, oh, I think I was trying to close it or something. I just fixed that this one. I swear to God. It's crazy. Yep. I'll take a picture of it.

It was me. I felt, hey, you know what? You guys would be teammates for years at Dillenhardt Incorporated. And you never said a thing about this toolbox until now. I accused Tony Jr. Well, he can be left hooked now. He probably knew, but never would tell you. Dang.

But good times, man. Well, look, I didn't know, I didn't know Slugger. And I didn't know how he would react. act. Like, this guy's going to go, he don't give a damn who I am, right? He might chew my ass off. And I knew, if I broke Tony's senior's, I knew what I was going to get. And I'm like, you know what, I can avoid this ass chewing. Yeah. And just pretend like nothing happened. It's the new guy. Yeah. Name slugger. Right. You don't want to break the sluggers toolbox. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. This guy's name is slugger. Right. What the hell's going to scoot on out of this shop. I'm not going to go tell Slugger. I broke his shit. Oh, that's cool, man.

So how long did you work there? It was brief. I worked there for a couple years. Really? Yeah. God, it felt like six months. It's because you never went back into the shop after. No, it might have been just over a year.

Yeah. Yeah. And so what was your, what's your memories of that particular experience? I bet it's hard to, I bet it's hard to compartmentalize the two because, you know, you did come back to DEI for a very long period of time. Right. That has to be saturating your memory. But being part of that little Xfinity team when trying to get that going full time.

It was a neat experience for me because just, you know, one, to work for your dad and two, to work in a shop that had deerhead and animals all over the place. It was crazy, crazy environment. But I'll never forget the parts room was upstairs. And Tony Sr. told me to go upstairs and go to top of the stairs and get this off the shelf up there. So I had walked upstairs. and I was just in awe it's like my second or third day there and I got to the top of the stairs

and I took a left and I didn't know what the hell it was I wasn't in the parts room and I found this duffel bag on the floor and it was full of cash so I went downstairs and I told Tony Sr. I said man I couldn't find that part you were telling me about but I said there's

duffel bag full of cash he goes you dumb son of a bitch I told you take it right he said that's where Dale's senior stuff's at so anyway he had a bunch of money wandered into the dead he's yeah I was in the wrong air I was like, I surprised that didn't get shot. But no, it was definitely a great experience working with the Uri's.

You know, we drove into vans to all the racetracks, had a good time. And that's something that I think we miss in today's world is that environment of just the bonding of riding in the vans. Yeah, driving to all of the racetracks, Dover, everywhere. Taldei, I got a 15-pasture. Were you there the year that me and Kerry went to Atlanta with y'all? Were you part of that deal? I don't think so. Yeah, we had a meet.

We had a great time in the Atlanta in the hotel bar. Oh, no. Yeah. So when, and you know this. So maybe you can confirm. Back then, not only did you ride in a 15-passer van to the racetrack, when you got to the hotel on Thursday or whatever, you went in, put your bag in the floor of the lobby,

checked in, got your room key, and walked straight into the bar. That's right. You didn't even take your bag upstairs. I've seen them do this, and I'm like, y'all aren't going to take your bag to your room. Nope, we'll get it after, we'll get it later. And I'm like, okay, and they go into the, me and Carrie, we run our bag up to the room, we come back downstairs, and they're on the damn gas in this bar until midnight. And they come out, grab their bags and go upstairs then.

Like, they weren't even, they were such a. But back then we didn't have it per die, and we had a credit card. We had Dale Senior's credit card, so we just let a rip, and it was definitely a good time. Just find that hard to believe he'd let y'all just do this. that but again that i think that's he's cut out of tony senior had some had some pull yeah yeah right right so we're are we talking about tony senior

tony junior is bug i mean like whoever is this the team shop for shop for him and she's not traveling he kept shop clean yeah right right right yeah but you know what i remember the most by working for your dad back then was like when you went to work every day you didn't know if you're going to work on the race car if you're going to be out in the farm

fence truck and beer yeah i mean you never knew what you were going to do yeah and your dad is actually the first guy that taught me to weld without a welding helmet because I would out there be I was building a fence with him out in a pasture and I'd always put my helmet on he said you're wasting damn time putting your helmet on so he would he taught me how to hold the helmet away from my head and weld so it's crazy thing yeah but some of the stuff you remember just hold just look through the helmet yeah look through the glass and not take the time to put the helmet on your head so it's just silly stuff okay then give us an

idea when you when you work out of the deerhead shop you show up in the morning at what time seven Okay, so where are you living at that point? I live 10 minutes away. So you show up. Is Dale in there to greet you guys? I were like, who's in there when you get there? Just normal guys working on the cars. So then would Dale just drop in and...

What are you doing? I'm just working on this. Well, come with me. I need you to do this. And you go out, work on the farm and do whatever. One time they brought on a Saturday, they brought a whole horse trailer full of dears that we had to... They were tranquilized and we had to drag them out in the pasture.

they would shoot them back with something to bring them back. Really? Yeah, you've never heard that? No, I never saw that. Yeah, so I guess he had got some deer from polkino or something like that, and they came in on a horse trailer. Yeah, so we would drag them out, put them on the ground, and they would give them some kind of shot or something to reverse the tranquilizer.

Fire them up. And they would, like, fall over on their feet because their feet went working. Yeah, I mean, this normal sh**. Yeah. I mean, it was crazy. Like, Tony Sr. will tell you a better story than me, but, yeah, it was. That's a good one. You just never knew every day, Mike,

what's going to happen today? Then I couldn't wait to get home and tell my wife. Like, man, we did this today. You can't believe this. You know, but I mean, it was an honor to work for your dad. It really was. I agree, man. It was fun to be around because you're right.

You never knew what was going to happen. And can we just appreciate the fact that, I mean, the most Dale Earnhardt, awesome story ever, add one to the list. There's just a duffel bag full of cash in a hallway that you just. I got yelled at it. Yeah. Yeah, of course you got yelled at that. But it's just, man, I mean, I'm just, we got to stop and appreciate this.

It's a moment. Man, we used to go up in the trees with nets and the deer would come by and we'd drop the net on the deer. I mean, dude, it was like all kind of crazy shit. I remember that. Yeah, you do? Yeah, they had the firing caps. Out in the field, they had this giant net on these poles and it had these firing caps at the end and blasting caps. And so they would put something like corn or whatever to get the deer to come under there.

And dad had particular bucks that he wanted to tag. Right. so that he, you know, he was managing his deer herd on his property. And he, you know, we would sit, you know, 300, 400 yards away, and they'd have spot and scopes and all, you know, all those guys are like drinking beer and like, oh, look at there. Here comes. Oh, here comes that buck I wanted to catch.

Here he comes. And they, oh, yep, right to the corn. Hit the button, blast the cap. The blasted caps go off and the net falls on top of the deer and they go hauling ass over there. And they climb on top of these deer. The deer are fine. They're just, but they're under a net. And they would tag it.

And then they're like, all right, man, we're going to peel this net back. Everybody get f***ing ready. Because that's something, you don't know what the damn deer was going to do. He comes running out from under there. He's going to hauling ass, but you didn't know if he's going to turn and haul. This sounds like an amazing day at work. Why do you leave?

I got paid to do it. I mean, you got paid to do it. Somebody's listening to this right now going, I am going to try this net thing. Yeah. No, it was cool. I honestly do not remember, Dale. why I left. You came on as a consultant out of the gate and then took on a bigger role in

01 when dad passed away. Is that how you would describe it? How would you describe your, let's, I want to tell me what you, how you would describe your role at DEI from the time you got there through probably around 0304. Because there were, there were times when it felt like, like, there were times when it, like you were always a good voice of reason. I could walk in your office and you can make sense of any kind of uncertainty or turmoil or disagreements, whether it, no matter who it was with, right?

Yeah. And I remember your shop being down the hall from Richies and Ties, you know, whoever the GM was at the time. And there were times when that was, who was running, you know, who was the GM that was. Ty. Yeah. But there was some times when that was difficult. You know, Tye's been here and talked about how things, We're hard with Teresa sometimes, and he was put in some bad situations.

After your dad's passed? Yeah. Yeah, it was bad. Yeah. But you seem to always kind of be like somebody that could kind of just see how this could go good if we all do X, Y, and Z. Yeah. That sucks, but this is good, and this is good, and let's do, you know. And so I would like to hear what you felt like your role was and how you feel like that all kind of played out.

I mean, I know when he got there, Dad's alive, everything. We got this vision. Yeah. He's going to hire all, you know, if Dad walked up to most anybody in the garage and said, hey, you want to come over here, they were going to come, right? He was going to get the best people for all of us. He was on the roof of your shop when they brought the heating and air units in with a helicopter, and he's up there, you know, no nothing, just, you know, cowboy boots and a snap button shirt, you know.

I mean, he was Dale Earnhardt, you know. But I don't know. I saw people cry a lot over your dad. And I heard a lot of people say they didn't think they could go on. And I said, well, I'm not part of the family. I haven't been here a long time. Love the guy. Go miss the heck I have him.

But we have to keep doing what we have to do. And that's when I just tried to round everybody. I'm not rah-rah kind of stuff. just to, you know, make sure everything went to the wind tunnel and make sure this was right and that was right. And we had the, you know, we knew what we were doing. All of our electronic stuff worked right and the cars ran good. We had good pit stops. And Ty was a lot of part of that until your dad passed.

And then Ty spent a lot of time being frustrated with Teresa. And I don't think he was, I'm not picking on Ty. I think it wasn't, I feel like it was a bad day when Ty left. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I thought Ty was. Ty said as much. Yeah.

Yeah. Ty said as much after Dale, I mean, I think his words were just, it felt like they lacked a leader. Yeah. And he didn't know what his role was. Like, am I supposed to be, nobody kind of knew. Is that right? I think Mike's in a bad situation right here because neither one of us, I think, are ones that are going to put a point of finger at anybody. Right, nobody.

I understand that. No, it was nobody. Yeah, it was definitely nobody. But yeah, but I'm not saying that some, well, let me, before I sit there and try to decide what I think, what, how would you characterize the time after 2001? What is it that when you think back to those tumultuous years, what is it that we don't know about that? Like, I mean, we all have our vantage points of what happened with, you know, all the way

through 2004, 2005, 2006, but like, what is it that stands out to you in terms of the challenges that DEI as a company had? And then what was your role in that? Like, how did you? Oh, I just felt like we'd been cast adrift. You know, we're just out here floating, you know, hoping a boat comes by and picks us up, you know? And Teresa had a group of ladies that she really enjoyed working with. They trusted each other. And it was her and Judy. and another lady and uh Teresa was I would say the biggest problem I had was that Teresa didn't make decisions in a timely manner it took a long time for things to come through took a long time yeah and we couldn't we could a lot of stuff needed to

we needed a yes or no yeah today yeah when it was gonna you'd get two weeks yeah and that's just racing you know I mean you got to go I mean it's fast you know yeah I didn't realize that at the time you know but after sitting down sit down and talking to you and talking to and Tony Jr. or anybody else that was a part of it, it's really pretty sensational that we were able to have the success that we had. Oh, it's incredible. Yeah, it's incredible. Because like you say, I mean, we lost our rudder, we cast, you out, lost at sea, all that. And it had every chance and every opportunity to fail and for everybody to lose hope, right?

We lost hope, right? I think it says a lot to all the individuals involved, you, Ty, everybody that had a critical and manager-style role, crew chiefs, car chiefs, people, anybody that had real, you know, skin in the game, being able to, you know, without dad, being able to kind of be the bumper for the alley, all those, all those different personalities. Yeah. Right. All finding some. Different backgrounds, different specialties. some synergy that put us on a good path. I mean, in 2004, you know, if I had any damn...

Is that one we should have won a championship with you? Should have won. Didn't the kid from Missouri? Carl. Didn't he turn you down the backstretched Atlanta? Yeah. I'll take a little responsibility for that. I won't because I was spotting.

No, no. He drove in the back of us. And then we broke the rear end yoke at Martinsville. Yes. And, you know, those two things together kind of. And then you custom victory land at Talladega, and they adopt your points for that. Yeah. But still, you know, six wins for me.

You know, I thought an incredible year for any team, right? So I was, and we come out of that year, and I'm sitting, I still don't know how this is happening. or how this happened or how I was how I asked for this to happen. But I remember sitting in Richie's office going. Was Ty gone? Yeah. Ty's gone, I think. Yeah.

I'm sitting in Richie's office. Me and Tony Jr., I don't remember what happened the week before, but we get the homestead and we're racing to finish third and points. Like we got a chance to run third, right? If we did everything right? Pre-chase. Yeah. Hell, I think you won at Phoenix the week before.

We did. You wanted Phoenix the week before. Coming off a win, naturally. Coming off a win. We get the homestead, and Junior's in a shit mood, and so am I. And we're in practice, and I can't figure this freaking track out. They just put the variable banking in. It used to be flat, and it was fun.

I didn't like the new homestead. You know, I love it now, but back then you didn't run the fence. And I couldn't figure this thing out, and I couldn't get the car. to go fast. We were struggling in practice and we got. He was basically like tired of my and we quit literally in a matter of an hour went from starting the day like any other crew chief or car chief driver combo to not even wanting to I'm not going up in that truck to even see this asshole. Oh really? Yeah we were so mad at each other in the more by the time the morning practice was over with. Remember the two hour practice before qualifying? We were so mad at each other

we couldn't stand to look at each other. Probably similar to some of the things that you experienced. I was immature, didn't realize I couldn't see how to handle that better and was too hard-headed to handle it in a better way. We go through the whole weekend and we leave the racetrack and we get home and I sit down with Richie and he's like, we've got to do something, man. This can't continue. I think we should, you know,

we've talked about the idea of switching to teams, and I'm like, that's a good idea. That, that shit. I'm like, you damn right. I'm going to prove them. I'm going to prove to Tony Jr. and Tony Sr., I can go with somebody else and do just as good.

Like, I wish that somebody would have grabbed me and said, do you know what the hell season you just had? Do you sure you know what the hell? You have no clue. what you're talking about. It was a huge surprise. Yeah.

And I was all for it. No question. And, I mean, it took me, I realized pretty early in that first year that I'd made a really big mistake. Pete lasted about 10 races. Yeah. Did you come right in? How did all that happen?

I don't remember. I don't either. I do. What happened? Well, yeah, it was 11 races. I know Pete was gone. And he was gone. And then you did, you took over his crew chief then.

up. Are you saying you were completely unaware of what happened at Homestead? Because you seemed surprised by what he was saying, like this friction that he and Tony Jr. had. And you said you were surprised when they made the off-season change or like suggesting it. But were you unaware of that whole thing? I'm sure I was aware of it, but in the past it went away really quickly. It worked itself out. Yeah. Yeah. It's just those guys. That's fair. You know, yeah. Okay. I remember you, I remember you couldn't drive at Darlington because you weren't a good race car driver. and the kid ain't worth a damn. And it turned I had a broken axle.

That's right. And I remember Jr. walking through the shop, holding the broken axle over his head. Like, hey, buddy, look at this. I don't believe anybody can drive this thing. You know, because so it was, I'm not saying it was common, but it wasn't, you wouldn't go, oh, man, we're going to, we got to step in right here. Okay. Okay. So then, then before we get into the crew chief stuff from 2005, then in the off season, you say you were surprised that this was even being suggested.

but did people even seek your opinion in this or did you have a nobody did well when i was told it was going to happen my first question was have you talked to junior oh yeah he's 100% for it which which taking it out of context you could say that you know but did anybody say junior come here for a minute you know let's go ride on the farm or go fishing or something and have a dog yeah i didn't think i needed that ride well i in my head in my head in my mind I was I was so far I was so lost and sure that I knew what I was doing but Ty would have taken you on that right yeah you're probably right Ty Norse yeah so Ty would have taken him on that right he would have told me not to do the get in the truck come on we'll go knock

over it's snowing we're going to knock over some mailboxes or we're going to go drink beer we're going to go fishing or something he would he would he would have June come on man you know did Did you have a gut feeling of what was going to happen with this change? Or were you hopeful that maybe they're right? This is going to work out great. And Michael and the Uri's are going to be fantastic. And Dale and Pete Rondo. Well, as I remember it, I think Slugger was the first choice.

Slugger Labby. Oh, yes. That's true. And I said, hey, man, you know, I remember him coming into Ritchie's office and Ritchie talked to him and said, hey, you're the guy. He's going to be junior's guy. And he's like, I said, maybe we got a lot of work to do, you know, because I really don't know what goes on in the eight shop that much.

Out of respect for Tony and Tony Jr., I wasn't going to go bashing in on their deal. The first day I came to work at Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated, my goal was to, there were some people that basically grew up with and under Dale Earnhardt. And I'm not going to be some smarty pants comes in here with shiny shoes on, telling you guys what you're doing wrong, you know. So I kept that the whole time. And so we'll get Slugger. Okay.

And Slugger said, because I just didn't understand what they had. You know, and they had some really nice, cool stuff. But I didn't know it. Slugger said, yeah, he said, I'm taking a couple weeks off and going skiing, but when we get back, we'll get after. And I went, oh, shit. And he left. And I said, all right, man.

And he left. And Richie said, what do you think? I said, I'm not sure that's the guy if, you know, if I had, you would, it's Dale Jr. It's DEI. You know, if they said, look, you've got to dig a trench from juniors double wide across the street under Highway 3 to get into work every morning. You'd start shoveling. You know, I mean, and I love Slugger.

And I hope he doesn't look at this and go, man, that guy just run me in road. Not at all. Slugger had the right attitude. I had the wrong attitude. Our next guest moment from this year comes from a guest with a different type of upbringing than the rest. Cody Rhodes is a WWE superstar and his two-hour conversation had us all captivated with his story.

Our next moment from the American nightmare, Cody Rhodes. When you were young, you talk about not having the athleticism of your brother but you were an athlete in school. Yeah. You wrestled. Were you great when you started? Oh my gosh.

The worst of the worst. Oh, come on now. Why did you wrestle if you were not good at it? I wanted to amateur wrestle or folk style what you see in college. I wanted to do that, again, very protective of my dad. This sounds crazy, but I was a weird kid. Those people who look down on him, nothing's more real than amateur wrestling. I mean, there's no teams, and there's team duels and there's teams involved,

but really it's you, this other guy, you got six minutes or when you're younger, it's just three minutes, and you're going to pin him, he's going to pin you. You got to get up, shake hands after. There's nothing more, I guess, real in my line of sight as a kid. And I wanted to be good at it because people looked at him and thought maybe he's not a real athlete. You know, he's, he's, we see all these promos. We see how he looks physically. They didn't realize he was a very gifted athlete.

He just didn't look like, you know, Frank Zane, but he was a very, very gifted athlete. But that was my driving force as a kid. I want to be really good, and it took forever. I was on the wrestling team from 8 years old, and then I didn't click until 16. Yeah. And once I clicked, I just never looked back. Yeah, yeah. Only got taken down twice.

101 and 2. 102. Two times eight champions. Yeah, I was very lucky. So lucky, but good. Yeah, no, I had to figure it out. It's a lot of the combination of you have the technique, like a double leg, a single leg, an ankle pick. it's all great but if you're a if you don't have the body strength if you can't be doing a pull

up you know if you're not the presidential fitness award or whatever it was going around you might you might not hang in there with some of those athletes so once those things came together I was uh I was cooking you said that you were doing that one of the motivations was protecting your dad how much was validation from your dad that drove you and did he get to come watch you so he because again semi retired he went to everything okay so he's there yeah so we have this pull my brother dustin have this polar opposite upbringing uh i love my brother dustin very important i i i don't say it enough i love dustin but my gosh his experience with my dad so different dad was never home he didn't know him how what's the age age gap between 16 years oh my god

he doesn't like me bringing that unreal well yeah but dustin you know they had an unbelievable like they had a different upbringing and then for me i got everything i i i know for sure I tell everyone I had the perfect dad. He was perfect for me. Sure. I know for sure he, trial and error. Okay, Dustin, Kristen, all right, my sister, Teal, I'm doing a lot better now. And then when I came around, it was like, I got this.

I'm going to make sure I'm there for him in every way. And he was at everything. And I don't think I knew consciously that I, again, you wanted him to be proud, wanted him to be in on it. I didn't think I realized that consciously. really until the, really until the end of his life. When it became a, when it became a just, man, like, you've been doing this so long, wanting this one thing, driving to get it, making these crazy left turns and decisions

and uprooting the business at one point. You've been doing all this. And a good chunk of it is just so that somewhere, someday he could be like, good, good job. I told you. He was very complimentary, always proud, always happy, but still you know those moments where you win them, where they see something like, you can feel pride more than you hear it. It's a subconscious thing, but I think that this is one of the things that you and Dale have so much in common. And you don't even, maybe y'all don't even realize it. But it's not just that you guys had famous fathers.

But Dale, I mean, I look back at your racing career and how, you know, the stories you tell. And it looks like just a kid trying to get validation from your dad. And we watch your documentary, which is amazing. Thank you. It's great. Cody, it's amazing. And there is this common thread all the way through it. And that's that your dad's role and you guys both trying to find your identities

that can honor them, but also be your own, right? And you also look for validation, I guess. So with the difference in age, right? and you got a big family. How often do you guys get together? Is there family reunions, Christmas, Thanksgiving, what are the roads doing? We, it seems like, only get together

when it's about wrestling. Yeah. You know, it's funny. We've got family in Texas, family in Florida, family in Georgia, family all over the place. But when it's wrestling, like last year, WrestleMania,

the main event, so-fi, I was making sure as get his men get the family together that's one of the things i like doing you know you try to take things from like i try to take something that might my dad was the master at keeping the family together he was a mess in a lot of other areas you know but as keeping a family together he was the centerpiece everybody wanted to get towards him so for me i'm the colder more logical distant i don't have the the same warmth he had, but I know with those events, like, it's important to me that they all come. And it was cool this year at WrestleMania, although I lost.

So they were, I can tell, they were like, we came all the way out here. I came all the way out here. You know, I'm like, what is the main event? Yeah, no, but wrestling brings us together. And I'd be completely remiss. I don't know if you've heard this before. But my dad was a monster fan. monster fan and your dad was his absolute favorite I can't I can't I don't know if

you know my sister heard that so my sister was so excited I was coming on this uh my sister teal because my dad sat there he watched every race and he had very specific taste he's a showman yeah so he loved your dad he loved that there's a presence yeah there's a there's almost a gimmick here and then and then the gimmicks backed up by oh he's that good oh my gosh and he had this odd not dislike but odd not into Richard Petty. Yeah. And I never was like Richard Petty's he'd always be he's a king you know but when he got to Dale

there's Dale Dale Dale Dale and then watching you he was him and my mom both big big big time fans. Damn that's crazy. And those races are guys these races are long. So when you're a kid and you're just like he's just he's plugged in on the couch he loved it so much. Yeah no so I don't know if you ever knew that but it's not he had this one moment where

at day time tone on when your father passed he was doing a show in carolton georgia a small independent show for our company and he was devastated and he didn't know do we say anything to the crowd this is a very carolton georgia this is a very they got roots in this they're loving this and he i remember that drive home with him just different different times he'd watched and how excited he was and yeah no so you've never been told that's it's as real as it gets he was a huge fan and by far your family was the the favorite because he I couldn't get him to like he didn't like Jeff Gordon yeah this is weird man he doesn't no way does dusty roads like no he had these like he had

specific taste and I remember one time he referred to he told me he was like I he's trying to explain it to me he said Richard Petty's a lot like George straight it's great yeah love George straight good comparison and then he was saying he's saying Dale's like Garth Brooks and he just he's it's everything, the show, the fight, like the grit, and that was his favorite, you know, so that was his big comparison to explain it to me, because I'd kind of needle him. He'd be watching racing all day. I mean, my sister would kind of like play with him and say, we like this person more, and so just to get him upset, you know, get us to kick us out of the room, a huge fan. I'm amazed by that because I, when I was watching the NWA and as a kid,

I didn't like Flair. Flair was kind of the bad guy, you know. He was all taught. Now, they were a bunch of Flair fans. I mean, you know, and obviously he's bigger than life, and especially here in Charlotte. And a great guy. But I grew up being, your dad was my favorite. Magnum was kind of like his protege or side kit, you know, as he was coming up. And it was them two against the four horsemen, you know.

And so that's, I mean, I'd never heard that. No, it's amazing. Yeah, pretty incredible. I still, like, so Flair, when you're so ingrained as a kid that he's the enemy, that him and Arne and Tully and old, these are the enemy. Yeah. That even when you get to like 15, 16, when you got to smarten up a little bit, you still, you know, still don't know.

I'd used Arne Anderson as a manager for me. Oh, my God. Really? Yeah, for when I was at AEW, I used him as a manager for two years. And it was solely to, I think this would be fun, to take one of his rogues. Yeah. I don't have him right now. You know, I don't have him to be there ringside with me.

So who better than one of these rogue gallery, one of these guys who spent their time beating him up, bloodying them up, but they made millions of dollars together. Yeah, Flair's unique. You mentioned Magnum, and Magnum's such a, I'd say it's a deep cut by today's standards and not the younger audience may not know. I mean, there's so many what-ifs about had Magnum not had the wreck. He was massive dude. Yeah. And he, so they did this, I don't think Magnum will mind me telling the story,

but they did a show at the forum in L.A., which was always a little tricky when Crockett NWA would go to the forum, but they had a great show. Why? Was it? Just because they were here, Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee,

you know, Florida, Vince up north. There was only two territories left, but some of these markets were up for grabs still. And like, that was one of them. LA can, they get TBS, you know, they'll watch it, had a great show at the forum, and it's, my mom went into labor, so they flew back. Again, one of the reasons that they ran out of money is they had all these private planes and they're, you know, so my dad's having a party in the sky to try and make my birth

on the other side here in Charlotte at Presbyterian Hospital. And Magnum is on the flight with him, and a wrestler named Mani Fernandez, the Raging Bull. Arne Anderson is also on that flight. I think at the time they didn't want anyone knowing that because you can't be in the fight. So they just they just get absolutely wasted just beyond hammered. And my aunt Bobby is with my mom. I'm basically popped out at this point, you know, beyond hammered. And my dad decided that he was going to pick my godfather in this moment.

So he, so he, it was up between the Regan Bowl and Magnum T. And he picked Magnum. But this is, again, one of these moments where they're just flinging it, you know? Like, who knows? There's a photo of me. I'll have to find it. When he gets to the hospital, he just, he's holding me. He had got there right when I got out and he was holding me.

And you can tell. Band-aid on his head. He had deep black circles under his eyes already, but they're even deeper. Just he looks an absolute mess. My aunt Bobby was always, she did all the work. And then he came in for the last moment. For the big for the picture. Presbyterian Hospital, the waiting room, they got a,

Arne and them ordered pizzas. There's pizzas stacked sky high. It looks like they had been wrestling out there and the couches are flipped over. I mean, they were just, this is 80s, wild, and they were on top of the world. But Magnum had forgot until I was like 20 years old, I think.

And I finally told him, like, you know, you're my godfather? Oh my gosh. Yes, I do. I was at the, he's at like the christening and all that. But he's one of the most complimenter. nicest guys about modern wrestling. And you don't find that a lot with the luminaries, as I like to say. Most of the time they're telling us how we're not doing it correctly.

He's one that just sees like, no, this is people are hot. This is good, yeah. Man, Cody Rhodes was such an awesome guest. It was great to have him in the studio. He came from a totally different world than what we're used to. But he sat at that table and didn't hold back. And that's what this table does. We say it all the time.

It brings out every emotion you have and you just spill things you never thought you'd say on a podcast. And that's exactly what this guest did in this next moment. Hank Parker Sr., the former Bass Master Fishing Champion and father of Hank Parker Jr., was also one of Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s best friends and hunting buddies. And this story will tear at your heartstrings, making this one of the best moments on the Dale Jr. download all year. Probably the funniest thing that's ever been said on this show was when you and Hank Jr. were talking about the, were y'all either, you're hunting quail or something

where you, God, yes. Oh my God, I laughed so hard at that story. That is one of the classic moments when you shot that thing and just rained feathers all over your dad. I heard that story from both Hank Jr. and Biggie. So Hank, so I was a little bit,

I would love to hear dad's side of it. I was annoyed because we're going hunting, Dad's like, hey, you know, it's a Remington deal. I had to go. He had to go. It wasn't like it was a son. I'm going to take you hunting. It was a sponsor deal.

But when we get there and we're splitting up, they're going to break us into two halves. There's about eight of us, I guess. We're going to go for a field. He's like, you're going to go with the sponsors. You're going to go with this guy in a suit. And I'm going to go with Hank. And I'm like, what the hell is? I wasn't too happy, right?

And so we were all hunting two different spots and then eventually kind of came together to go, okay, how'd y'all do? How'd y'all do? And it's right when in the middle were having that sort of conversation, one of them took off. And I was like,

phew. And dad's like, I thought you're supposed to shoot it. I was trying to beat dad to it. I thought you're supposed to shoot it. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm going to be the one that kills this one. Yeah. I was going to shoot it for anybody else, but none of them ever lifted their guns up.

And I was like, you know there's safety courses that have been inspired by a bunch of stories. I mean, whether it's loading, loading a gun or where you aim a gun with people, you're hunting in groups, you know that there's been inspirations done just from these hunts, right? Oh, man. Biggie's all about safety and he's all about being following his instruction. He is the leader in this thing. His gun didn't go up. Your gun should have never went up.

That should have been enough, right there. man. That's where me and him budded heads. Oh, man. I imagine. You know, let me tell you something

about your dad. He was, he was hard. He grew up hard. He didn't have an education and he was embarrassed by that and he never would talk about that but he was the smartest individual

I've ever known. Smartest businessman I've ever known. He and Hank Jones pioneered the souvenir business that NASCAR has the day. They built the foundation. Earnhardt was a brilliant, brilliant. Your dad was a brilliant man.

Smartest man I've ever known. It's crazy. He was very private, very, very private. It was a rare occasion that he would open up and you really see who he is. He got the intimidator because he was an introvert. He was never comfortable carrying on a conversation for a long period of time. And so he got some bad rap. about being short with his temper and his demeanor,

but it was undeserving. People didn't know him. He opened up to me at my farm one day, just he and I, we'd been hunting all day long, and I'd talked to Hank Jr. on the phone. That's back in the hardline days. We had no cell phone, and I talked to Hank Jr. on the phone.

And when I got off the phone, your dad looked at me, and he said, I don't know how to love my kid like you love your kid. And I said, well, we're different, Dale. We're different. You love him just as much as I love Hank Jr. You just don't know how to express it. And he said, well, you know, I'm in broken marriages

and I'm not married to the mom. And it's hard. I said, you just have to let go. You are who you are. And I know how much you love your kids. you just have a hard time expressing it. And he never was able to express to you how much he loved you. He never was able.

And you always felt like he loved you when you won and he didn't when you didn't win. And I could tell that. And I've always wanted somehow to get you and just grab a hold of your shoulders and tell you how hurt he was that he did not know how to express his love to you. And he teared up. and for Big E, the intimidator, just he and I sitting in the living room, to share that with me

showed me how much, how tight we were at heart as friends. Yeah. But it also showed me a side of him that was sad because he really wanted to have the same relationship that I'm outgoing, I'm free to talk, and I'm not intimidated to say,

I love you. All that didn't, fit his demeanor. But it was in his heart. And he expressed me that day, he said, I don't know how to love my kids like you love your kids. I said, oh, you love them just as much. You just don't know how to express it.

Dang. And that was heartfelt. I'd have loved to have heard that story a long time ago. Hey, he loved you. Let me tell you, we were in a tent in New Mexico, in Silver City, New Mexico. And we're talking racing, talking about how, Hank Jr.'s opportunity.

You were running the Bud car. And he looked at me and he said, that's the dumbest thing I ever did in my life is getting that boy, that Bud sponsor. He said, I should have went with Burger King. He said, that has not been good for him. Oh, man. That's not been good for him.

I said, well, it looks for me like he's doing pretty good. He said, that ain't what I'm talking about. I ain't what I'm talking about. He said, I don't have him in the environment I'd like to have him in. Dang. That was your dad. Yeah.

And he had a heart. and he loved his kids. He just didn't know how to express it. Wow. I, you know, I've watched a couple of your videos, something you did, I guess, in the last couple of years, where you genuinely have a, you know, thought about dad. And, I mean, I knew y'all were close. I knew y'all were so similar, you know, I mean, even just your looks when you stood next to each other, it was, it was interesting how. comparable y'all were your son's born two days apart and both juniors and um i felt a real uh in instant connection to hank junior that um that we were just be buddies no matter what right um but i saw this video a couple years ago uh or i saw it just recently but i think you made it in the last two years where you got really you know you're standing

at this tree stand. That was dad's favorite stand. And you're talking about how that you had no one ever had hunted that since, right? And that stand's been there. And there was a, I knew y'all were close. I knew y'all were, I knew y'all had conversations. I knew that you knew dad and had moments with him that not many people would be able to experience. he would open up to you and literally count on one hand the other people he would ever have

those type of conversations with. And so it's really fun to hear some of those conversations. You know, there's a million things I'd ask him if I could. But this is as good as it gets for me these days is to hear from people like you. But listening to you talk about that tree stand and how much. much you love Dad and how important he was to you, even all of all these years later, you still remember the value in that relationship y'all had. It's as valuable to you today as it was when you, when it was here, you know.

We tend to forget. When you get older, you realize how important people are in your life and all the trophies, they tarnish, the money's gone. and what you have is way more valuable than the trophies of the money is the memories of the people that you encountered. And your dad impacted my life in such a big way. He was bigger than life as a personality, but as a real person that a lot of people never knew. I knew a lot about him that a lot of people never, ever knew.

And he was a cool guy. He was a cool, cool guy. And he was different than what people. perceive him to be because his reputation was so powerful and so big that you tend to overlook who the guy was within that uniform. And he was a different guy than what a lot of people. And to me, the most important thing in life is Jesus Christ. That is by far the most important thing. Your dad was an intimidator in a lot of ways. And I've talked to him and shared my testimony and my relationship with Jesus.

But I never really buttoned hold him. I'd ask him from time to time. And the last trip we made together, Donnie Reeves was with us and his diabetes. He's a diabetic. His medicine was on the wing of your dad's airplane and his Bible. And so I was getting into plane. He said, watch out. Don't kick that.

That's precious. I said, what's precious? The Bible or the medicine? And he looked at me and he said both. and I got on the airplane. And so Dennis Fisher, who he brought over from California, built our engines, and I'm not long after your dad died, I'm sitting in a chair at dinner, Dennis Fisher,

and he said, boy, we miss our buddy, don't we? I said, Dennis, I can't tell you how much I'm missing. I cannot tell you. I had no idea the emotions down inside of me on how much I loved Dale Earnhardt. And I said, I'm missing. I said, but I don't know about Dale. I never buttoned hold him. I never had him.

Dale, tell me when you got saved. Tell me if you were saved. I never did that. And Dennis Fisher said, well, I only put you mind to these. He said, he was sitting in the chair you're sitting in. I'm sitting right here where I'm sitting. And I said, Dale, what's going to happen to you if they scrape you up off the wall? Where are you going to spend eternity?

And he said, Dennis, I'm going to heaven. And he said, Dale, why in the world would you go to heaven? and he said because I asked Jesus Christ to be my Savior. And I believe that's true. And I believe Dale Earnhardt's in heaven. And I believe I'm going to sit around with him, but now in the big campfire. And we're going to have stories for the rest of our lives. Yeah.

Yeah. No, I believe that too. You know, I've never, I never really, obviously didn't have these kind of conversations with dad. that you did or that Dennis did. But I always felt like dad had, you know, that was important to dad, you know, his relationship with the Lord and our dedication to that. I mean, those things, he incorporated that into his kids' lives.

That was important for him, that they understood that relationship. that relationship. But I feel pretty good about that myself, that I'll see him again. You know, I always, people deal with loss differently. People deal with that, however they got to deal with it. I really don't send, you know, give people advice on that, but you pick what you want to pick, right? What you want to believe.

But I think, you know, that I'll see him. I never really, I spent a little bit of time missing him. certainly there are days when even yesterday we were sitting here talking about something and I was like man I'd love to ask me about this but I just know that I don't sit I don't have this I don't have this feeling in the back of my heart that there's there's I don't have this sort of constant missing man I'm missing I miss him I miss him I miss him because I know I'll see him I doesn't know it I know that I'll see him I know he knows where I'm at I know he knows what I'm doing I know he knows we're sitting right here doing this and I'll see him again you know and I hope that I

remember all the things that I need to ask him oh you will you will it'll be good time yeah yeah but you won't ask if you'll listen I'll be listening he'll be there he's going to be in charge oh he's going he's going to be a jarred out there no doubt he is in joy he'd tell everybody where you go sleep Mike collier was his pilot and we go on that elkonts or where we're going is to put Parker in that tent, put him right there, put so and so on and so right here, put the campfire right there. No, don't put the catfire there. Smoke will get in the tent.

Put it right there. He's going, every detail. Now for a final moment, and it's from a fan favorite, Tony Stewart's going to tell us what the biggest hurdle in his marriage was when he proposed to Leah Pruitt, and I guarantee you can't guess it. You know, I didn't think that you would ever be married. Thought you'd be one of the rest of the English-speaking world. That's right.

what was the what changed your mind what was the moment when was that moment when did that moment happen when you thought I'm going to go down this route I'm changing my my approach or the way I look at it do you remember yeah but I'll go just the tick back before that don the snake per dome we were out riding in the sand dunes and he goes hey you need to meet this girl and I knew who he was how how did you know well because he said he said who it was he goes you need to meet Leah And I knew exactly which Leah he was talking about. And I'm like, I'm engaged. He goes, I don't mean that way.

He goes, you guys just would get each other. He goes, you guys just need to know each other. I'm like, all right, and got us on the phone one day. And we were talking. I was engaged. Leah was married. And just introduced us. And it was just casual conversation.

Just, hey, Snake says we need to catch up and have lunch sometime and just meet each other. So we were both on board with that. Nothing really happened. And then I canceled my engagement. Leah had got separated and was in the process of getting divorced. And we were riding again in the dunes. And he goes, hey, I'm telling you, you guys need to meet. Got on the phone, talked again.

And literally the Monday before COVID shut everything down, we went on her first date. I was running my sprint car. Had been in Mississippi and Alabama and was coming across Florida. And I was supposed to run Georgia the last weekend. Where did you take her? Went to lunch in Gainesville, in Gainesville, Florida. She was there running the baby Gators the weekend before the Gator Nationals. I just finished in Alabama, and she texted me and was telling me what was going on.

And I said Gainesville, pulled up the GPS. I'm like, that's six and a half hours away. This is 11 o'clock at night. I'm like, I'm on my way. She was, no, you're not. I said, yeah, I'm on my way. So I packed everything up, had the dogs in there. We start rifling down the road.

call or text an hour later she goes you really coming i took a picture of the spenometer i was running 90 and 48,000 pound motorhome running 90 mile an hour down the interstate heading that way i said GPS says i'll be there at 630 so uh i remember pulling in the the shopping center across from the hotel she was at and parked and uh at 630 on the nose she she texted me she was how you doing i said i got parked i'm halfway set up i said uh i got take a nap, though. I said, come beat on the door at noon and we'll go to lunch. So, I mean, punctuals can be 12 o'clock on the nose, beating on the door. We go to lunch at the campus there in Gainesville, and they're like, now what are we going to do? So she's like, you ever been to bike week? I'm like, nope, I always wanted to go to

bike week, never been there. She goes, I've never been either. Let's go there. So she orders us an Uber to ride two hours and 15 minutes to Dayton and an Uber. Holy shit. Because we knew we were going to get banged up. I mean, you're not going to go to bike. We could not get banged up. What a commitment right out of the gate. Yeah. That's love. Yeah. I mean, well, two hours in a Uber with anybody you're going to find out whether you're a match or not. Right. Right. But literally that whole night, we get back at like five in the morning. She's got to be on a six o'clock flight to fly to Vegas to do a trade show. And I remember sitting there because I didn't have to be anywhere until Atlanta that weekend. And I sat in Gainesville for a couple days. And I'm like, that was different. Yeah. And I guess that

was the moment where I said, you know, there's something different about this girl from all the others. And literally, you know, that next weekend, COVID kicked in. They canceled the NHRA stuff a day before NASCAR and IndyCar shut down. And I called her. I said, well, I'm going home to Indiana. I said, I'm going to restock the bus. I'm going to go up to Chicago and get on Route 66. And I'm going to drive the motorhome all across Route 66. 66. Because we never get two weeks off. We've never had two weeks off. Dude, I've been wanting to do that, like the original. Yes. Like the old two lane?

I've been wanting to do that. It's like goes from like Chicago to LA or something. All the way, yeah, all the way on a pier. Yeah. And I don't want to drive the motorhome on the pier, but I wanted to do the whole thing. I'm like, we'll never get this opportunity to do it. All those old diners and stuff? Yeah. And I was just going to go by myself. And she goes, well, I'm in. I'm like, that's even better. I'm like, we're going to be stuck in a motorhome together for two weeks probably doing this. And by the time I got to Indy, everything had shut down.

I said, I don't think this is going to work out. I said, you know, we might get going, and there may not even be gas stations open. Then we're screwed. So two days later, she was, hey, why don't why don't you come out to have a suit for a couple days? All right. So went for four days, four days turned into four and a half straight months. So you think riding in a two-hour Uber tells you whether you like somebody, live with somebody you don't know for four and a half weeks or four-and-half months.

months. She asked you to come out to like have a suit for a couple days. When we were out there, then the state of Indiana shut down for two weeks. And my pilot's like, I don't think I can, I don't think legally I can come out and get you. Yeah, he stayed for four months. Yeah. Together. Yep. And it worked. 24-7 with each other and it didn't take long. So this, this just kind of morphed along. And we got a call from Ken Block. And Ken and Leah are good friends. and, you know, he invites us to go out to place in Utah to go ride side by side. So we do that, and by the time that's all over with, we're like, yeah, we're going to do this. Yeah.

You know, we're going to date. Damn, that's cool. And then we had to sit there on the ride home and figure out we got, we got problems, we've got hurdles we're going to have to cross here. First one was she's sponsored by Penn's Oil. I'm sponsored by Mobile One. That's the first hurdle. She's sponsored by Dodge. I'm sponsored by four.

Oh, my gosh. then dodge and Ford. So it's like, man, what are we going to do? So no joke. I called my PR guy and I said, hey, this is what's going on because nobody knew we were doing anything together. Like there were two or three people that knew who I was with and where I was at. And I said, we got to figure this out. And so we were proactive. And I remember on the way home from Swingarm with Ken, I'm driving the motorhome. She's in the right side of the motorhome. And I'm on the phone with Mobile One, She's on the phone with Penzoil, and we hang up from that call, and I'm calling Ford, and she's calling Dodge at the same time. And we're three feet away from each other having these conversations, and not one of our partners had a problem with it and said, yeah, we'll work around it.

We said, hey, when I go to her events, I won't wear any branding. When she goes to my events, she won't wear any branding, and that's what we've done. And that's, it was very successful with that. Wow. Wow. So what, how long have you been married now? A year and a half. And she's still not filed for divorce yet.

It's amazing. It's crazy. Okay, hold up. So we kind of had a little bit of fun at Tony's expense a few weeks ago here. I don't know if you remember this. But I think it was Tyler Reddick that was on, and we were all kind of sharing our own stories about when we got married, what was the first thing. What was the first rule that we had? Yours is like the toilet seat.

I think Tyler's was, you know, he can't wear your shoes in the house. And we were joking about you said yours was you got to start a drag racing team. Yeah. That was the first one. All jokes aside, though, like, when did the drag racing thing start coming into the conversation? Like, for you to start a team? I mean, when we started dating and then once, you know, racing started coming back, the sprint car stuff started first, and she went to my races.

And it was funny because, you know, when we set up for a cup weekend, we park and we're there for the whole weekend. But guys got to get rental cars and go back and forth to the hotel. Sprint car deal is different. We were running two-day shows at the same time. track and we'd load up at the end of it and she's losing her mind like why are you guys packing up you're racing here tomorrow well that's their vehicle that's how they get to the hotel and they got to go to the car wash they got to get up in the morning they got to service the car in the parking lot and then they come back to the track she think about all that she couldn't wrap her head around it because it's

total lops of what they do in n hRA but i started going to her races shortly after and i fell in love with it yeah and i had been to a couple before with tony schumacher and don schumacher because of the U.S. Army Partnership. And I liked it. Austin Prock, that's a top fuel driver. He used to run his midget out of our shop before he got in NHRA. And so we would watch qualifying shows and stuff, you know, in between Xfinity stuff and all that.

And, you know, that's how I saw Leah, too, was on the same shows. But we were watching Austin and we would see them. But I just got hooked on it. I mean, I love the atmosphere there. You know, I think it's so cool that when fans come to a drag race, when they buy a ticket. It gets them everywhere, everywhere, but on the starting line. That's the only place you're not allowed to go, but they can sit in the stands, they can watch the runs, then they can come down and they literally can watch the crews, rebuild the motors, service the cars, talk to the

drivers while they're packing their shoots or mixing fuel, whatever they're doing. And it is a cool atmosphere and way more laid back than what we've been used to. There you have it. The top guest moments from the Dale Jr. download in 2023. I hope you enjoyed our list. But we want to hear your list. So reach out to us on social media, leave us an Apple review, and let us know what were your top guest moments from the Dale Jr. Download this season. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season,

and we'll see y'all in 2024 on the Dale Jr. download. Check out Dirtymo Media. On Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.