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Danny Lawrence: The Goodwrench Shirt is Better Than a Tux
Danny Lawrence: The Goodwrench Shirt is Better Than a Tux
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About this episode
Danny Lawrence, longtime RCR engine builder and current Xfinity program manager, shares stories that blend hardcore racecraft with family-style loyalty. The conversation covers how the team worked “like junkyard dogs,” why they stayed focused on winning, and how Richard Childress’ intimidation translated into real mentorship at home. Danny explains his motivation to stay involved despite others stepping away, details the evolution from engine-shop work to car-side tech, and debates the future of Xfinity rules (single lug, parts availability, and keeping cars simple). The episode also includes anecdotes about Daytona/Talladega preparation, rule-bending myths, and Danny’s own path into racing.
Topics:
rcr xfinity program leadership
engine building to car-side tech evolution
daytona and talladega preparation focus
team culture and “junkyard dog” work ethic
richard childress mentorship and intimidation
staying involved after heroes retire
debate on xfinity future rules and single lug
parts shortages and affordability concerns
daytona/talladega template and compliance stories
austin hill and driver development mindset
As Dale Earnhardt Jr. begins a new season of the Download, he welcomes longtime Richard Childress Racing employee Danny Lawrence into the studio for an in-depth look at the past. Having recently celebrated his 40th anniversary with RCR, Danny currently holds the post as vice president of the team’s technical alliances and director of their O’Reilly Auto Parts Series program. He first came into the organization assisting his friend Bobby Moody in the body shop, and before long, he was hired full-time, assisting Lou LaRosa in the engine department. Danny explains that when the team expanded to a two-car operation in the late 90s, Dale Earnhardt Sr. expressed that he wanted his own, separate engine shop. Danny was promoted to Chief Engine Builder in 1998, and his first attempt in the position was the historic Daytona 500 win.
Danny had a unique perspective on Dale Sr. and is full of incredible stories and firsthand accounts about the Intimidator. He shares anecdotes about Dale’s attention to detail and knowledge of a racecar. Dale’s leadership drove the RCR team to operate at the same meticulous level, which made them virtually unbeatable in the late 80s/early 90s. The interview also talks about RCR’s current-day O’Reilly Auto Parts team, and how much of the team’s preparation and approach hasn’t changed over the years.
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Select text to request an explanation
You were going to tell another story. So Andy Petrie shows up at RCR. He's going to be the
crew chief. He comes in and he's been there for about a week and he says, okay, now show me all
stuff. But what are you talking about? Are your tricks, your magic, your, your, all the things,
all the cheating stuff that y'all did. So we'll, we'll grab, hold up and carry some over there.
See that seat right there? That's where all our magic is. The guy sits in that seat.
Following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey everybody, it's Dillon Hart Jr. and welcome
to the RB studio for the new season of the Dale Jr. Download. This is a guest segment
and we have a pretty incredible guest coming in here. I'm pretty excited about this to kick
the season off. It's one of my favorite people that's in the industry today, Danny Lawrence.
Danny Lawrence was part of the RCR, black number three, Wrangler number three. He was part of that
group, part of that team. One of the engine builders at the track working on the car.
He's been in my life and a part of my life and an influence on my life for decades. And even today,
he's one of the few guys that I still see around that was part of that team. And I see him every
time I go to the racetrack. He kind of runs the Xfinity program for RCR and a lot of the partnerships.
There is not a moment if I see him that we do not talk, that we don't walk by each other and wave
and nod, none of that. Every time I see this man, we stop and we shake hands or we pat each other
on the back or we say, Hey, how's it going? You doing all right? And I love it. And I love that
relationship. It's important to me. He's meant a lot to me, still does today. And I wanted y'all to
get to know Danny and hopefully we do a good job of that in this show. So excited about it. Let's
is here. And you've been working for Richard soldiers forever. Currently, you manage the
Xfinity program. And all right, you got you got other responsibilities. Yeah, I look after the
all of our technical alliances. We have what you have. We have a lot of those. So it's a it's a lot.
Yeah, but you've been you were part of the three team. And I want to we'll get in all that. But
the reason why I was excited about bringing you on here is over the past couple of years,
I had Kurt on here and it was a lot of fun to talk to him because back in those days, you know,
I was just in awe of you guys, you know, so I knew it then and it's and it still feels it's
one of the things in life that never that's felt exactly the same today as it felt then
my dad to me and you can appreciate this. My dad to me was like a superhero and just this
this crazy, crazy cool special person, you know, and and he was made that way more so
because of the people that were around him. I remember when we, you know, he was driving for
Budmore and I knew he was rough and tough and tough as leather and noble, but he really didn't
get to become who he truly wanted to be until he found all of you guys and y'all found him,
you know, and the match of him and y'all and how y'all went about y'all's job
and how y'all looked at y'all's job was as perfect as it could be and, you know, y'all
strengthened his ability to go out there and really put his foot down, you know, and
push people around and be aggressive and stand his ground and nobody was not many people really
were willing to push back and they knew it wasn't just Dale, they were pushing back against
because y'all had a reputation as a team, you know, the junkyard dogs, the flying aces,
and it was a lot of fun as a kid. Y'all were almost like, you know, heroes in a comic book,
almost. So you got to live that. Yes, very, very, very fortunate. Yeah. And I'll tell you
part of the reason that it you're right. It was it was for us. It was also your dad used to say all
the time we're making history and we'd win a race and we'd be in victory lane and he would be like,
all right, let's go. Let's go. Let's go. That was all about what he wanted to win everything
that everything he did going to the restaurant where I mean, you know, you know,
every, everything. And when he got to the racetrack, it was strictly business. And so
I heard the comment one time of you say them guys would kind of mean to me a little bit.
Well, we knew everybody had a responsibility. You got to remember back then that we not just
change engines, you know, practice like we go to Daytona, we show up with a practice engine.
And it the same guys that were the pit crew guys. I mean, and the garage stayed open for
11 hours. We would show up, put a practice engine in. All right, we're gonna make a qualifying run.
All right, pull that out. Not just that you have to put the gear, the transmission, the head, you
know, all, all this and that go make a run, pull that engine out. I mean, we worked a lot. We worked
like junkyard dogs. Yes, we did. And they'll never let us down. The neat thing was, is that
he knew the cars really good. We would go to a test. He hated the test and he would go,
oh my gosh, man, tell me how fast we need to run so we don't have to test anymore. Give me a number.
If I can run this fast, can we stop testing? I mean, it was, it was, and he, he would just about
do it. He, he ran at Talladega that Mike Thomas's wife wanted to ride. And back then, you know,
you didn't have in the car. Yeah. He got a helmet put on her and he went out and he, he, he ran
within two tints of what the pole was with her in the car. She was holding on, scared screaming
like crazy. Nope. Nope. My God. How many people did that? But he, did you ever go for one of those
rides? I did not. I did not. I did not. But it was like, he was in control of every situation.
I mean, I'm even, even when you go get on the plane, you sit here. Oh yeah. You sit here.
I mean, it was, it was like, I've got a, I've got a picture of my truck I want to bring to you.
The, we went fishing in San Salvador with him. I know I'm getting off base. That's fine. But
that's the first time I'd ever seen anybody eat sushi. We caught a tuna and I don't,
and it was in the live well for about an hour and a half. He pulled it out. I got a picture of him
filleting this thing and him eating it raw. And I was like, this was, you know, this was 30 years
ago before it normalized. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, you're going to eat that with it without
being cooked. He goes, here, take something like nobody. All of us were like, no.
Yeah. Like he was very misunderstood. He was bad. He was bad ass and determined.
And he knew how to, he knew how to make stuff happen. Everything from the souvenir side to the
race side. People, people misunderstood him because he was, he was really brilliant.
He'd come out there and go, hey, these hats aren't selling. Y'all put these hats on. And then,
the next day he goes, all those hats are sold out. I mean, he knew how to, he knew how to work
every deal. Yeah. And it wasn't just on the right, but he wanted to win everything. Yeah.
I, you know, he was intimidating. People, people would maybe wonder what he was like as a dad.
He had this persona on the racetrack with his competitors and in the marketing and so
forth. And his fans tuned in to watch as the intimidator, the man in black and
he certainly earned it. And I thought it was a, I love the way he drove and wouldn't have changed
the thing he did, but he was exactly the same way at home. Very intimidating. You know, and he,
I think he wanted to have that type of control over the situation because he wanted you to do
what you were supposed to do. He wanted you to do well in school. He wanted you to have initiative
and want to try hard and find something you're passionate about and go after it. And he felt
like having that control of that intimidation was a way to sort of hopefully keep you in line. And
so he was really similar at home as he was on the racetrack. Now he had, he had moments where he
would soften up a little bit for sure. And y'all, y'all certainly saw that. And I would go to the
racetrack and get around y'all and I saw you guys in the same way I saw him. And I don't think that
I mean, I don't think that I felt like y'all were mean to me, not in a way like y'all were rude
or like get out of the way kid, you know, none of that went on, you know, y'all were, y'all, y'all
were, y'all were just so, like I would stand, if I was standing around, you know, y'all were,
y'all were going to get that other engine or y'all were pulling another motor out of y'all,
y'all were always doing, getting the car back to tech and going back through tech. And there was,
back in those days, there wasn't any standing around or waiting. And there was a job to do
all the time. And so it was kind of like when you would go to the racetrack back in those days,
the majority of the time, it felt like you're standing at an intersection of a busy street,
you know, it was just people moving all the time. And y'all didn't really have time to,
to be nice. And y'all, y'all did have your, y'all were really like Uber focused on the prize,
you know, and the responsibility to, to, to, to go win the race that weekend. There was no,
there wasn't a ton of joking around. I didn't really see you guys like mucking it up with each
other and being silly, like some of the other teams, you know. And so that was kind of what I
meant. It wasn't so much, I loved being around y'all. There's videos that we shared with each
other on our phones of, of, you know, canned stuff of us standing in the garage and me kind of being
around and going, holy, I can't believe I got this shirt on. I got a damn GM Goodrin shirt. I'm
hanging out with the boys and y'all are fine. That was how y'all were. Y'all were just, you know.
So one of the things about race, race weekend was we never had a list of who was responsible.
Everybody knew who they're, who the, what they were responsible for. Richard, Dale or Kirk,
and nobody ever told us, all right, we're going to be there at this time. We were always early.
We were always the first ones in the garage. When we got there, you know, it's so much different
now. You had to unload tires off, off of the, where the lounge is now. You had to unload the
toolbox. You had to set everything up. We, we had, it was a, I'd say well orchestrated machine.
It's like, you didn't sit there and go, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to, we did the same
thing every week and we, each guy was responsible for the same part. So there were, there were not
a lot of talking or playing. You knew what you had to do. You, you absolutely, and then during
practice session, um, Earnhardt would call for a lot of stuff. Like I need more gear. I need less
gear or this or that or what and why, why he was coming in. We would be getting the gear off. We
would be ready to go and, uh, he drove us to a lot of that because he was always prepared. He was
always ready. He always showed up ready to go. And so we, we, uh, you know, we, we just pushed
really hard with him and we were, we were the, we were a real team. We all felt like when you
won a race, you felt like you contributed because everybody had a part in it. Next thing I was
thinking was you're still, uh, you're the reason why, like, I love you, man. I gotta tell you.
I love you too, bro. I love you and you're like family to me and I would do anything in the world
that you asked me to do. Like you, you were, you're one of those people that when I, when I see you,
I know that your reaction and, and you're, you're, you're glad to see me as, as genuine as can be.
You care about what I got going on. We compete, right? We compete against each other. We got a,
I got Xfinity and, and you got Xfinity and, and sometimes we, you know, our cars bash into each
other. You, there's, you know, that's never changed the relationship between you and me. And
you've always been one of the few people that always say, man, your dad would be proud of you.
You're always, um, going out of your way to, to tell me those things and make sure that I'm in a
good, you know, headspace with those things. I, you know, that's just a, that's just, just your
nature. Um, but the, and your, the, the kind of, the question I wanted to ask you was, I saw Will
lend the other day and, um, and Kirk's been on the show and, and we know where, you know,
we know what chocolate's been up to. Um, you know, and, and unfortunately David's passed and,
and there's a lot of guys that were part of that program, um, that are off doing, you know, and,
and, or, or gone and, uh, but you're still boots on the ground. I see, I see you on pit road,
pre race, you know, managing, overseeing, shepherding. What is the motivation for you
where these other guys, right? And have, have sort of decided, you know, that's, that part of my life
is over. Like I saw Will and he comes into, uh, he was over by the drag strip where our late model
program is getting something for old hot rod. He's working on and the person that I kind of
threw another person said, Hey, tell Will, stop in if he wants to. Sure enough, he come walking
in the shop about 20 minutes later and I'm like, what are you been doing? I'm just working on hot
rods. He's like, I don't have nothing to do with racing. Nothing. He's like, I'm, I'm doing this.
This is what I do. And I, it's, it's, it's unbelievable for me that that person, even with
Kurt, like that person that I saw so rooted and, and welded into the industry and into those roles
is completely separated from it today. While you have remained as, you know,
kind of involved as ever, um, that's, uh, for me, that's emotional. For me, that's, it's like, you
know, you never, I, I never want to see my heroes retire and one, you know, go off into the pasture.
Right. Right. I don't, you know, but they do. And that's something I think we all learn in life.
You know, we go, we have heroes in sport where, you know, they retire and you're like,
I remember when the guy got drafted feels like yesterday. Now I've seen his whole career. How
in the hell did that happen? Um, but you know, how has that, has that been interesting to you?
And why do you feel like that? What drives you to kind of steal want to be so involved?
There's, there, you get that feeling when you win these races and you make a difference. Yeah.
When you know that you had something to do with it and you, um,
how hard is it to see your friends, you know, not have that feel, you know, I, I've got a buddy,
you know, you might have a buddy one day walk up to you and say, man, you know,
I'm gonna go do something else. And you're like, why we're having fun? Why do you want to go do
that? Uh, you know, and, and, but that's what they need to do. You know, and you kind of have to,
that's one of the things you learn early in life is like people are going to kind of come and go
and it's out of your, it's out of your hands. One of the things that Kirk and Will both,
one of the things that changed their lives, I believe was the grandkids. Will told me
that he is having such a good time with the grandkids. He's being, he's being a grandpa. Yeah.
And the way that we had it and the way that we are, you can't halfway do it. You know, Will was,
Will or Kirk, neither one, we're going to sit back and just sit in an office.
Our world's changed 100%. And that's why I'm not in the engine shop no more because our world's
changed it. Back in the day, we would order six camshafts and run them across the dyno and then
actually lay everything out and look at everything and go, okay, this one looked a little like,
then we'd order three more. Yeah. Now everything's done on the computer. And the engine shop got to
be where, just to be honest with you, they didn't even want my advice. In 90, in 98, one of my claim
to fame is, is that your dad wanted his own, he wanted his own engine shop. So Richard separated
Skinner's engine shop and his engine shop. That's crazy. And he had his reasons because
Skinner liked different engines than your dad liked and this and that and what, whatever. And
I got named Chief Engine Builder 98. And our first race was the 500. And meaning we worked,
me and Bonance and Greg and then we worked, we worked night and day to make sure we had the
best engine we had. I have a picture in my office that where your dad has his arm around me and
we're looking at the engine and we went down there. We'd run good in every race and we put the
race motor in for last practice. And the race motors for the 500 are always brand new blocks,
brand new that cause you, you don't want to have an issue. And it was a little off and he's like,
it's 365 days before I get a chance to win this race again.
I can't win with that engine. It's not good enough.
When we have one on the truck, it's got roller, he's actually got roller can bearings in it.
We've never raced at 500 miles and this and that. He's like, I'd rather blow up leading than I would
be. So we put that engine in, took out 119 and put in 122 and ended up winning 500 with no practice.
And that's, that is your, your dad's like, it's on me if something happens.
But it's a year before I can win this race again. And people come to my office and show them that
picture all the time cause it's absolutely, he's got that look on his face like, what are we doing
here? And you know, you've been down there 14 days. You had a lot of practice, you know,
and he just went around about three or four laps and said, boy, it's not good.
Really? He knew he was so amazing in the car. I know I'm getting offside. I got so many,
so much to tell you. That's what this is all about. He, we broke a crank at Michigan in practice one
time and he shut it off and didn't hurt anything. It, it, he felt it. He would call out on the radio.
Flywheel just broke and he was right every time. Not just that.
We were at Bristol one time and he said, there's a seven, 16th snap on wrench and turn three up
against the wall. And there was, I mean, it was like, like you talk about details. He knew,
he knew all the details, but, but getting back to the question. So when I moved over to, to do the
O'Reilly's Xfinity, you know, whatever you, whatever you want to call it, got to go to the wind
tunnel and see Chevrolet develop the new car. This is in 2018. Got to start doing stuff. Got,
got to start doing stuff that I'd never done before on the car side. You know, we're, we're
testing brakes. We're testing transmission gears and it revitalized me because I felt like I brought
some of the engine stuff to the car side. Back then, we, you know, in 18, we measure everything
with a tape measure. We started using micrometers and now you know, you can, you know, you're
setting these things up with Roma arms and this and that. And it revitalized me because I felt like
that was making a difference. And we go win these races. And then when we, you know, I've never had,
you know, never had a thought of when am I going to retire? I'm going to do this till I can't do it
no more. I'm going to go down swinging. And one thing about your, your company here is we do race
like crazy. We race hard, but Mike Bumgardner and you and all your guys, we've got deals that you
don't even know about. I'm sure the Justin Allgaier two years ago wrecked at Chicago and we,
we were there to get your car off the truck because the trucks are so far away. And, and there's been
times when, all right, Bumgardner, I need a transmission. And if I need a transmission
during the race, he goes, well, there'll be one in the hallway of the seven truck. If you need it,
you just go down and get it. And we've got, we've got a deal. If you, if you use a backup car or
two, you can have our backup car. I mean, it's like we will, we've got deals cause I love seeing
you win. I love, you know, we're part of the Chevrolet family and, and, um, we had a lot of drama at
Martinsville and, and you guys won the race and both of our cars are wrecked and neither one of them
made it to the playoffs. So, um, I'm like, you know what, what in their fault? I'm going to go over
there and congratulate Bumgardner and Justin and Pullman and all that. So I go over there
and I hear Danny, Danny, Danny, Danny. I'm like, look, and it was my high school sweetheart.
My high school sweetheart was actually, um, she's all guys, nanny. Oh crap. And like I hadn't seen her
in 30 years. I had not seen her in 30 years. And I went over there and talked to her and her husband.
I've known them forever and ever and ever. And I'm like, uh, they're doing great. They got grandkids
and this and that and what, and I'm like, man, it's, it's, it is, it's a small world. I'm like,
ah, how come you didn't tell me? And he's like, I know about it, but I didn't, you know, whatever.
But we, we have, uh, we're family as well. You know, if anything, you know, if anything ever
happens, the, uh, back in the day when Richard said, Hey, the juniors going to drive our car,
I'm like, everybody was so excited. And I heard you made a comment one time about that was the
easiest thing we put in a lot of work because we, we, Richard said, don't embarrass us.
So built a brand new car, did all the stuff. I mean, we had two or three things we needed to do
and we rolled with it. And, um, when you got, when you, you won 10 races last year, we, we,
we loved it because we, we are a part of the family. And, um, I, I, I feel like that we do
so much stuff together. I mean, uh, my bum gardener is one of my best friends on the road and we
don't, we help each other. Yeah. And it's because of the relationship we have with you and your
family. And, um, it's, uh, it's an extension of RCR. Yes. Richard loves you like a son as well.
Yeah. Yeah. I've had the same, I have the same feeling about Richard and the RCR
connection is more, is more than just the relationship dad and, you know, had with
Richard and the success they had on the racetrack. Um, dad and Richard were like brothers and
brothers that fought from time to time. They did, of course, and that's perfectly natural.
That'd be a problem if they didn't. Um, and so I've always maintained in my mind that,
you know, while we do compete on the racetrack, the, that, that is so small and singular compared,
you know, compared to the history and relationship we have and the, the trust and,
you know, that, that is a bond that would be very, very challenging to break. Um,
I will say this though, the, um, going back to driving the car that I raced, uh, the Oreo car
in the infinity race at Daytona, I was pretty excited because I knew that, you know, y'all had
good stuff and that was going to be, it was just kind of going to be, um,
nice to see some of the, you know, some of the familiar faces, uh, that I would run into,
work driving the car. I'm over there running my cup deal. It's the Daytona weekend. You're kind
of back and forth and it was, uh, it's a hustle from one garage to the next. So I go over to
Xfinity Garage, get ready for the first practice and, uh, y'all were like, um,
we're just going to go out and make a run and, uh, come in and check something and then go back
another run. And I was like, all right. So went out, ran, came back in, ran another run, 15 minutes
we're done. Still another hour of practice left, but we're done. And then we had happy hour and I
went out there and ran and I was like, you know, it's, it's pretty good, but it's just, it feels
like it's got a lot of wheel in it and it's a little tight, especially off turn four. And we
would always, that was back in the old bumpy Daytona days. And if the wind was blowing in the door
off of two or four, wherever the wind was blowing in the door and made you tight and
y'all were like, oh, we can fix that. And so I believe, I never saw my own eyes, but I believe
that y'all had a pan or the radiator pan. Y'all could open it up. And so it was just maybe,
I don't know, I'm just guessing maybe like a five by eight hole that y'all just opened up and it
would create like a vacuum and sucked a nose down in the racetrack and golly, it fixed all of the
tightness and made that car pin to the corner on exit where everybody else is kind of struggling
tight off, tight off. And that was going to get worse as you get made the right front mad.
We didn't have that problem in the race. And that was literally the only thing we did.
And again, like in happy hour, happy hour is the last practice, your last chance to make sure
everything's right. We ran 20 minutes of an hour and stopped. And I'm like, you know,
how dad did it? This is the, y'all always recovering y'all's car up early. You know,
if y'all were always messing with the competition, putting the cover on the car 30 minutes before
then to practice and I'm like, man, this is neat. It was like I was kind of seeing it through the
lens of what dad would experience with y'all. And we went out and ran the race and it was
effortless. The car was, he knew what he wanted just like you did. Well, speaking of car covers,
87, we go to Daytona and that's back when baby was, was the crew chief and they,
uh, back then I'm like, well, we did, we never cheated. And I want to tell you the Andy's
Petrie story right after this, but so, but we pushed everything to the end of the rules.
And back then they had, you know, a long template and a side template and this and that. So
at Daytona, you needed a totally different car than you needed at Talladega.
Really? You needed the racetrack was rough. It would get hot, this and that. So you needed,
you needed a car to be able to handle for the long. So the back end of our car was
four inches longer. The spoiler and all the back deck and all that stuff was longer.
So, and our car looked different and they came over the speaker and they said at 12 noon, anybody
that wants to see the templates put on the three car? What? Because we were the champions. So we
had the first stall. So all these people came over and put all the templates on the car. Everything
fit perfect. So we're covering car up at the end of the day and the car cover won't fit
because the car covers made off of a regular car. We couldn't get it over the back. It was like,
like, oh, well, this is one thing that we missed on it, but, but it was, it was, it was fine. It was,
it was, it was good, but we weren't the only ones. There was, there was some of those cars look alike.
I know that like Darryl knows guys, you can go, there's a, there's a Walltrip car
in the museum at Talladega and it's like four inches narrow. Yeah. The, the junior Johnson Bud car.
You go in there and you can look at it and just tell it's like super narrow. And so, yeah, they
were playing some games before because we, at that point, I think around 85, 86, you didn't have,
you had the long tip and that was it. Yeah. You know, they weren't measuring the width.
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You were going to tell another story, Andy Petrie. The Andy Petrie thing. So Andy Petrie
shows up at RCR. He's going to be the crew chief. He comes in and he's been there for about a week
and he says, okay, now show me all stuff. But what are you talking about? Are your tricks,
your magic, your, your, all the things, all the cheating stuff that y'all did. So we'll,
Glenn grabs hold of him, carries him over there, set up plate right in the middle of the room.
And he goes, see that seat right there? He goes, yeah, that's where all our magic is. The guy
sits in that seat. We don't have no nitrous. We don't have no movable this. We don't have no,
we weren't doing any of that stuff. It was all, it was all, all basics. And that was,
that was the truth. And Andy was like, you don't have no trick spoilers or no trick cows or no way
to move the tenders or take lead out. I'm like, no, we don't have none of that. You don't have any,
you know, five-speed transmissions or, or what? No, we don't have, we don't have any of that.
You don't have any aluminum panels or any way to cause a caution or no, we don't have anything.
He goes, oh my gosh. I'm like, and he couldn't believe it. He could not believe it. But so,
Andy's thing was, we're going to have some of that stuff. And then, then Richard was like,
Andy, you embarrass us and it's on you. So, so I don't know if Andy had all that stuff,
the other, all the other places he ran and you know, hitting this and that, but, but he brought
that damn spoiler from the Skoll car. I have it with the wires and the retractive where the
spoiler laid down. He said they let, they, they used it in qualifying and they're scared to do it
in the race. I can imagine you could see it if you were behind him, but I, I kind of always
wondered, we talk about that all the time on here with folks about ingenuity and cheating and all
that stuff. And I got this big old lead radio right here that, that Gary Nelson, he brought that
over. That's from like 1978. Got you. Die guard, there Walter. I think it's tungsten, it's not lead,
but, you know, that I was telling, I was in Nashville yesterday, speaking
at the Cattleman and beef association and telling them about the Daryl Walshup story,
where they had lead shot in the frame rail and it come out the jackstop and every, every time,
every time NASCAR would go look for it, they couldn't see the hole because the jack was jacking
the car up on the jackstop. But so y'all never, y'all never know. I mean, how do you believe,
how do you get people? Like I, this is my question to you is, I believe you. All right,
I believe you when you tell me that you wouldn't bulls***, but in a, in a, in a garage that is,
that is like, like in, like cheating or, or bending the rules or whatever is rampant. I mean,
it was like a badge of honor. Everyone in the garage, like felt like they had one over the next
guy, you know, they don't know about what I'm doing here. And every guy in the garage, you'd
look at all, you'd look in the eyes of all of those crew chiefs back in the 80s and all of them
had something they were hiding. And it's hard for me to believe that you guys were 100% up and up.
So there's a picture floating around in your dad with his foot underneath the car. That's
I want all those races. I like it. I like, he would, there's a, that picture. I see it every
now and then, probably every six months on social media. And that picture makes me think,
you know, I kind of do want people to think dad was smarter than the technical inspectors. I kind
of like, cause he was, you know, he thought he was smarter than everybody else. And that's,
that's an image of him in his mind, but what he's truly doing in that picture,
and y'all aren't weighing the car. I mean, that would be, you know,
lifting the car with his foot would go against the minimum weight.
You know, one of the things that dad did that a lot of people don't realize
is he walked around like back in, back in the 80s and the 90s, the front valence height on the car
was, was critical to, to, to speed and how, how competitive your car was going to be.
And he would walk around and he wanted to, he wanted to, if he could take a tape measure to
every car out there on the, on the grid or in the garage, right? But instead of doing that,
he'd walk over and slide his foot under there and see what shoe lace, cause he had them racing
shoes on it, laced all the way up to the ankle. And he'd see what shoe lace that valence hit.
And he would then walk off and go, well, that went up to the seventh shoe lace. That's a little
higher than the last one. That's exactly what he's doing. And that's what he's doing. And that's
what he's kind of doing in that picture is like measuring the valence with his foot. And that
was kind of his way of kind of seeing if he was where he needed to be and where the competition
was at. You're exactly, exactly right. He knew a lot about those cars. And, and when you, when you
and Kelly and Carrie and all were going to start driving, he came in the truck one day and he said,
I'm going to make them work on those cars or they're not driving. I want them to be able to
realize what it takes, what the, what you guys go through and what it takes to race. And I know he
made you, I know he made you work on the cars there so that, so you could appreciate what it is.
Doesn't just happen and how easy you can tear one up weeks and weeks and weeks of work and you
can tear one up in just a minute. Oh yeah. He was, uh, when you were winning all those races,
he was so proud of you. He'd come back in, you know, he'd beat like happy hours right after our,
our races in the bus series. And I didn't get to see him. He might pop into Victor Lane. We
went over, right? 98 or something. I think he pops into Victor Lane. He's got a suit on. Yeah.
Right. Cause he's getting ready to get in his car and he's there for like a minute.
Hug, high five, slap on the forehead, whatever. Right. That's, that's about what you're going to
get. Then he's gone. I'm like, damn, I wish he was hanging around. You know, we're going to take
all these pictures and I want to hear, I want to, in five or 10 minutes, if he had hung out,
I might actually get to hear what he's thinking. Right. Yeah. But he jump in his car
because he had to be first out or one, you know, did one, you know, it was a competition. He was
back in his mode. Yes. 100%, 100%. But tell me what he would do when I would win races in these
years. He would come back and he'd go, get you some of that Dale Jr. And he would say stuff to us
like that you didn't think about till later on. He'd say, we're making history or this or that,
let's get our picture made. He'd say that all the time. And you could tell,
like most of the time when he walked to the car, he was strictly business. He was like, he didn't,
you know, it's time to go to work. And you know, as good as anybody, a lot of people out there
don't know, he wouldn't get out of the car. He would just lay over there and take a little nap,
even if it's for five minutes. It's like he was focused and dedicated to try to make that car
as good as it possibly could be. He'd go out and run one lap one time and go, can't drive it. You
know, need, you know, put a shim in the front or, you know, change rear springs or this or that.
I'm like, how do you know in one lap the tires aren't even warm? But he did. He knew what he,
he knew what kind of feel that he wanted. I mean, he, he was an amazing race car driver. And he
also knew the cars really good. Yeah. If mechanically, oh yeah. Like, like he could build a gear,
he could build a transmission, he could build, you know, it's, it's like he knew how to wire the car.
I mean, he knew you wouldn't, you wouldn't bullsh** him on anything because he knew what was right
and what was wrong. Yeah. What, one of the things I wanted to throw out there was he was the best
ticket to anything that ever happened. So he would come up like, Hey, George Straits going to be here
in a little bit, hang out with us or, you know, or this guy or that guy, you would go, Hey man,
I want to go see the Eagles. No, no problem. He would call anywhere he could get you tickets
anywhere he could get you into anything. You're like, these are her heart's boys and they would
put you backstage. And I mean, it was, it was like an open door. He was bigger than life for
anything that you, I know you, I know you know what I'm talking about. It's like whatever it was,
he could get you in. It was, it was really amazing. Will then used to say all the time,
that good rent shirts better than a tuxedo, that good rent shirt is better than, I don't know why
you want to go back and put on a nice sweater or anything. You leave that good rent and he said,
that right there is the ticket. Yeah, I bet so. Alright, so you were born in Clemens,
North Carolina, graduated high school, 1980. What drew, what was, how did you get into racing?
All right, so this is crazy. This is really, really crazy. So back when I was a little,
I took the telephone or part of the team. I was a tinkerer. I always wanted to,
did you have trouble taking it? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I had to get it. My mom was soft. My dad was
tough. You're like, you better get that heel to him, be here in a few minutes, you better.
I was just a tinkerer. And then so in 1969, I got 150 and it wouldn't go, it was a three speed,
wouldn't go fast enough. So I worked on it and I ended up messing with it, you know,
worked on the carburetors, just self-taught. And then I got a SL 70 and that thing would go,
it was four speed and then, you know, worked on it and this and that. And then I got to be where
I hung around some, some guys that worked on engines and this and that. And I started,
had a 70 Camaro that I tore apart at my house. And there's a guy that works for GM now. He's
lead, lead engineer for General Motors. He's in charge of the Formula One and all,
Patrick can not, but lived on my street. So Patrick said, oh yes, Patrick says,
you know, at three o'clock in the morning, my mom and dad were not happy with you because I would,
I would do stuff and I'd run up and down the street, you know, open headers. Yeah. Yeah. And
they knew it was you, by the way. And I'm like, I laughed about it. So I got to be where
I started tearing engines doing. And then I had a friend of mine that, that raced back in
78, 79, he raced at Careway and he wanted to run a Buick V8. And so I built this Buick V8. That was
my first race engine. Bobby the Bonnie was down there learning how to drive and this and that.
And that kind of got me, I got intrigued by it, kind of self-taught. And then
I was helping Bobby Moody at RCR and in the body shop. I'd come in, I'd go to school,
I'd come in at night time. You're here in what grade? And I was senior. All right. So
they let you just start coming by? Yeah. Bobby, Bobby was a friend of mine that he worked at
Modern Chevrolet when I did and he was the paint guy at a Chevy store. Yep. And he got hired by
RCR. Yep. Bobby was from Mount Air, North Carolina. And he was, he was a paint body guy. And so
Bobby worked all night long. And so I would get out of school and I'd go, Bobby's like saying this
or this or that or just kind of got to helping him and then helped him for about two years.
And then when you were helping him, do you know where you were? Did you, were you in all of being
able to be around those cars? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, this is what year? So this was 82. 82. So
dad's not, it's Ricky Rudd. Yep. It's the white, it's the white Piedmont car. Yeah. So then 84 comes
around and Richard says, we got some funding and we've had some issues in the engine shop.
Can you help tear engines apart? And I'm like, I need to finish my school and this,
I had a record back then. My dad bought me a record. You're going to Technical College? Yeah,
I was going to Forsyth, Forsyth Technical School taking business administration and I ended up
going to Davidson Community College as well. And did you finish? And yes, I did. And I got business
degree and I got an auto mechanics degree. And so at the end of 84, Richard's like, I want you to
come on full time and work in teardown. So in 85, I went to work there. This, this is my 41st year
at RCR now. And tore engines apart for Lula Rosa. And there were three people in the engine shop
and clean parts and this and that. And then Lou was like, okay, I'm going to teach you how to fit
bearings. Okay, I'm going to teach you how to fit rings. I'm going to teach you how I learned how
to cut pistons. I learned how to balance cranks. I learned how to, but I did that for seven years.
And then he let me start putting a few engines together, qualifying engines and practice engines
and this and that just kind of progressed as it went back then. You remember when you had,
how might have you felt when the engine, you actually had the most involvement in putting
back together when it went to the racetrack? Yes, I do remember that. What was that like? I was scared
to death. Yeah, because so a couple of engines I put together, we used them on a dyno to run cams
and cylinder heads. We beat it. So that was a good way of getting some confidence up and seeing your
motor on the dyno not not blowing up. So while Lou was there, Lou never let me build a race motor.
He built everyone up. Sure. But I built to practice motors and some qualifying engines.
And then when Eddie Lanier came in, I mean, me and Eddie built them together. Eddie,
Eddie was incredible as well. Eddie, Eddie, he pushed everything to the limit before
when Lou was there. Lou was a great engine builder, but the main thing was
make sure they don't blow up, make sure they run all the race. But he, you know, and to his credit,
he had come from the 70s. Yes. And that's when you were breaking lots of engines. Yes. And that was
the end of the, you know, you blow motor and that would be detrimental to the shot it went in the
championship. So he kind of had this sort of different, you know, he had a different,
you know, feeling about, I guess, mindset, mindset toward the long, you know, the
this is a little technical, but back then we would run the pistons five down in the hole.
And what does that mean? And so, so where, where the, where the piston,
where the piston comes up, it would be down in the hole and Eddie gets there and he wanted
to run everything at zero. And I'm like, Eddie, man, it's going, I'm afraid it's going to,
when we, if we miss a shift or hit really hard because he goes, we got 43,000s of gasket. We're
good. We're good. And we, we'd come back at some of those races and pull the heads off and you
could see where they just, where they were basically clean, where they were, everything
was so close. And didn't have any buildup. Yeah. Didn't had no buildup. Yeah. And it was like,
and that's more compression, more power. And it was like, let's put a little safeguard in there.
But that's going to cost you a little, but Eddie brought us a little power and it showed up. Yeah.
And so, then, so I learned a lot from both of those guys. And then, you know, Chevrolet was
heavily involved with us and, and being our automotive machine, Ronnie Revs and Ken Bingham,
they were, they were doing, a lot of people don't know this. That's, that's what started
Hendrick engines. And then Hendrick ended up taking it over, but we were a small group. Every,
all the Chevrolet people worked together really good. You know, we developed camshafts together,
not the camshaft itself, but the material it was made out of. And this and that. And it was,
it was an inventor's time. I mean, it was, they would, there was always something new coming. And
you would, there were, there were, there were times when you pick up 12 or 13 horsepower through the
year. Yeah. And now half a horsepower or a horsepower, you're lucky, you're lucky. But
it was, it was amazing times. It was, it was, it was great. Very, very, very fortunate to
be in the situation I was in. You know, I had, I was at the right place at the right time. And
for my job, we were, you know, how hard we work and you know, how hard, you know, we're down,
you know, we get down on the ground and we, whatever it takes. But man, I wouldn't have it
any other way. You also know the feeling you get when you go and you win these races.
That's why I continue to do it because I love to win. And your dad was the same way that he was
mad. If second place was nothing, he wanted, he wanted to win. I mean, there's a couple of times
when we were had a 12th or 14th place car and he would end up fifth and he'd still be pissed off.
And he, I'm sitting there going like, that's not that bad. And he's like, no, that sucks.
I came to win these races. We won 11 races in 87 and he's like,
it's not enough. He never, he never laid down. He wanted to win every single one of them.
I believe you. When did, when did you go to the racetrack?
So 86, 86, early. Do you remember the initiation on the road?
You know, was it, what was it like being one of the younger sort of new guys in that whole group?
So mine was totally different than everybody else's. So I've never had any alcohol. I've never
drank nothing. Never. Never. Never in life. Never, never had a, had a drop of alcohol. And they,
still, yeah. And they found that out. Why? So even today still because, because they push me
to try. Well, that was a personal choice. Yeah. Yeah. Because my mom and my dad back in the day
had a friend that got ran over by a drunk driver and my dad told me early on, he said,
if I can raise you not to be a drunk or not to be a druggie, I've done my job. And I'm like,
no problem. So I never smoked a joint. I hadn't never drank any alcohol. And then when we get
into the racing thing, you know, we, we worked hard at the racetrack and hard to party with
them guys. I was the designated driver. Yes. I mean, I probably love that. Yeah.
They, I've drove with them guys around a lot. I bet. I like. Oh yeah. How hard, how hard though,
was it to resist? I mean, I'm sure there were some moments where they were like, oh, you know,
they really put the, put the, put you in the vice. Yeah. Your dad is like, come on, man,
just drink one champagne. We won the champion. I'm like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not doing it.
I am not. Even in those moments. Yes. I'm not. They pushed really hard. And then, you know,
hey, I'll get you a drink and you smell it. You got, oh, that's not it.
They tried to trick you. Yes. Damn. But so we were really tight. We were never mean to each other.
We had David. David was strictly by the book. David, I should say David was
very religious and practiced his faith often and was, which I felt like I liked that about David
because it seemed like that y'all needed that. Cause there was as loud as y'all were on the track
and off the track. It was cool that he was a balance. Just like, you know, you had your big
guy chocolate, right? The big teddy bear. Everybody was terrified of him, but he was absolutely
the softest guy the whole bunch. Yes. It was, I mean, I swear it was like cast for,
it was like a cast for a movie. You couldn't have done a better job if you were literally
casting it for a movie. Yeah. We had, we had the good, the bad, the ugly. We had, we had it,
we had it all. I mean, it's a, it was, and it just kind of happened that way. Just by chance.
And, and your dad was right in the middle of it. He would, he was the ultimate team player.
Your dad would come over and every, every weekend he would give somebody else.
He would either be me, chocolate wheel. Here's $500 take the boys out to dinner,
you know, but don't tell nobody. And we, we, I mean, he always took care of us. He,
um, I was at Pocono and he's like, what's wrong? Cause he could read people really good.
What's wrong? I said, my grandfather's not doing good, man. What's wrong with him?
He got cancer. He goes, why are you here? I'm like, cause we gotta win this race.
So he flew me home to be with my grandfather and then he had this pilot's weight and the
doctor said your grandfather's going to be okay through Sunday. He flew me back to Pocono.
And I'm like, thanks man. He goes, don't thank me man. He goes, I can't believe he came back.
I'm like, we got an opportunity to win this race. But he's like, don't tell nobody. I mean,
he did so much stuff for people and he didn't want people to know. And I mean, remember Lucky
the pilot? Oh, I do. Yeah. Lucky was like, I'm here for you. You just let me know what we're doing.
We were at Martinsville one time and just mentioned like
motocross races in Charlotte. He goes, y'all want to go? I'm like, love to go. He goes,
take my helicopter. Like me and Will and I'm like, really? I have a car over there for you guys.
So Saturday, we flew out of Martinsville. He flew us in his helicopter. He's like,
I'm not using it. We landed right beside a shark motor speedway. And he goes, oh yeah,
by the way, me and Jeff Gordon on all that property over there. And like, we had no clue.
There are big lot right beside, I think it's where 10 tents is now.
Your dad and Jeff on that together. And it's like, won't nobody say anything to you. We on that.
We had no, I mean, there were so much secret stuff that he kept. Oh yeah. And then he's like,
helicopter's coming back up here, but I've got y'all suburban there. And like, he just don't be
late tomorrow. I mean, it's like he made stuff happen. I mean, you know what I'm talking about.
I want to talk about some of the rivalries that dad had. I suppose starting with Jeff Boudin in the
87 to 90 range. There was, I don't know why it was just Charlotte, but they wouldn't hardly,
I mean, they'd run each other like, but they wouldn't wreck each other until we got back
home to Charlotte. And for some reason, I don't know whether it was because dad was in front of
his family. And I mean, everybody in the family was at the race. Right. And
Rick's got, you know, Rick and his businesses are in Charlotte City, Chevrolet and all that.
My granddaddy Robert G that does the bodywork on that car lives freaking 150 yards off the
turn one at Charlotte. And for some reason, they would get around that race and have problems.
And it'd be in the bush race and it blend over to the cup race. And I know the answer to this
because I've asked Kirk about it and talk to Richard and different people about it. But
in all of those moments, there was one or two times where, for example, there was one weekend,
they ran into each other in the bush race. I think dad spun Jeff down the back stretch
off of two running for the lead. And nothing happened. And I believe the next day in the cup
race, they got running into each other and dad wrecked him in the middle of three and four.
And that's when I think he got penalized, brought into the penalty box. And I was sitting there
in the, I'm just a kid, but I'm thinking like a freaking adult. I'm sitting there going,
man, what are we doing? Like, dad, can you not like control yourself enough? This is,
this is, we're trying, you know, I'm always, I was so consumed with him winning the race,
but also the championship. Right. Like we can't, you know, y'all broke a cam
that year. Rusty, I think, beat y'all in the shed. Y'all broke a cam at Charlotte. Dover.
Was it Dover? Yeah. I mean, I, that, that was devastating for me. I know it was for y'all,
too. I'm sure. But I mean, I live this so damn hard. And when he, when he gets, when he does that,
I'm like, damn, we didn't have to do that. And then they penalize you. And I'm like,
crap, dad, you know, this is kind of your fault, you know, and, but he's, you know,
he didn't sit that way. Did y'all, did you, I guess, not y'all speak, speak him for yourself?
Was there ever a moment where you were like, girl, and in your tea's going, did we really have to?
There was a few of those, but, but the thing about it was, I believe with bow down, it was more
personal. It was so personal. It was the, it was the things that was said and the things that, you
know, I'm not going to get away back or whatever. He was all over the racetrack and he, he's just
like, you know what? I'm not messing with you. I'm not. And it, it just kept getting uglier and
uglier. It was like an ugly divorce almost. It just would not stop. And yes, the answer to the
question is yes. We were at Bristol one time and we got penalized and Richard walked over to the
NASCAR trailer and called up to the tower to speak to Mr. France. Oh, how do you do that?
There's a, there was a telephone in the NASCAR trailer and he could, and they chewed Richard's
ass for that one and he was like, yeah, we won't do that again. But it was like, we were for our
team and there were so many times when Dale took an average car and won with it and it,
I mean, we, we had to roll with whatever, you know, we had that, we had to say in
back in the day, you know, today people think Dale Earnhardt wrecked everybody. When he did not,
he did not, he was rough. I loved every freaking second of it. That was all that was he to me.
I loved that, you know, he was physical and he backed it up. He walked the walk.
You knew what you had if he caught you or if he, you know, it's what he, it's what he was,
but we had this saying that he wasn't selective either. No, no, he wasn't.
I don't know whose fault it was, but it wasn't his. That was what we used to always say. That was
the deal. Like I didn't see exactly what happened, but I know what news fault I think about things
like, like that, like I would have loved having all this opportunity over the last 25 years to
reflect on, on his career, having the chance to sit at this table and talk to so many people that
if we've been able to kind of relive stories that we knew, but get a little more context and,
and even hear stories we didn't know. And there's so, I mean, there's a God of my pile of I would
love to just sit down with him and go, man, what was going on there? Why did you do that? Or how
come this happened? And what would you've done here? If he, if he was sitting here, you know,
what was, what is something that you would share with him or want to know or want to let him know?
Your dad? Yeah. Me and him were really tight. Sure. We had a, I can explain to you how he was
exactly. He's building DEI and he's like, what are you doing? Like come down here. So we're walking
through the place and the walls are up and he says, I'm going to make this the show place.
I want to have the, the engine builders boosts where, where we can give tours. I'm like,
no, you don't want to do that. You don't want the engine builders need to be able to concentrate
when they're degree in the cam and they're putting the engine, you don't want people walk by and talk
to them. He goes, well, that's what I'm doing. I want to have these cubicles because I'm bringing,
I want the fans to be able to see exactly how this thing goes together. I'm like, you're opening
yourself up for an issue. And he goes, well, that's what I'm doing. So when he finally got it built,
he had those cubicles, but he went in and put rooms right across from him on the other side.
He never said he was wrong. So he's like, when they get to that point, they can take him in
the room. But so then he goes, Hey, I want to appreciate you helping me come back here to the
deer head room. And he pulls this gun out and he's got a scope on. He goes, I cited this in. I'm
like, the thing's bad. As he said, the DE was a serial number. It was a Remington. And he goes,
here, I want you to have this. That was a, that was a 280. I want you to have this 3032.
So it give me two guns with the serial number started with DE that Remington made. And he had
a whole, he had piles of, I mean, he wrote them down and don't you tell anybody I give you those
guns. I mean, it was like all the nice things he did. He didn't want people to know it. But he,
he always, he always appreciated it. I would ask him that if he was sitting here. Why did,
why did you always say don't tell anybody? Yes. Yes. I mean, he did things for the churches
around here and this and that. Oh yeah. It was, it was like, but also I knew, I knew when,
I knew when to talk to him and when not to talk to him. I knew, I knew, you know,
you could tell real easy what kind of mood he was in just, just by,
as soon as he walked into room. Yes. Yes. Like a room changed for whatever, you know,
what a move he was in. One of the funniest things was,
so GM comes in and they, they're like, okay, we're going to take you to the next level. We're
going to, we called it charm school. They sent him to this deal to make him where he could learn
how to talk to people. What year was this? This was, this was, this was 86, 87. Yeah. And we want
the crew to go too. So they, they filmed him talking. They say, okay, read this. I wonder
where this shit's at. Yeah. And so they would show it to him and say, this is what you look like on
TV. And this is, you don't say duh or, uh, or this, you know, they're, they're teaching him. Oh yeah.
We called it charm school. And it's like, I hate to hear myself talk. I hate to see myself on TV.
I hate to, and it's the little guy that was doing the classes is like, we're going to make you famous.
And he said, I already am famous. I don't need all this, but, but he did pay attention to it
because he never, he was good on camera. He was good on TV. I mean, you know, but in 1998,
right before Daytona, they sent me to a same thing. I was, uh, I don't know what you would call it,
but I remember it being in downtown Concord and I was literally in a classroom and there were
people in there that were like mocking, um, interviews with me and we would go over like,
you know, a fake conversation and they were like, man, you've got to work on stop. You know,
gotta stop saying, um, and, uh, between every four or five words and we would do an interview,
no mock interview, watch it, go do another one, watch it. And I'm like, man, this is awful. And
it was like two, two or three days. That's what that's. So we called that Charmsville. He did one
day of it. I got sent to it because I guess he appreciated it. He did, he did, but he took all
the films and he did get a lot better. Um, he was, you know, but he didn't want anybody telling him
how he needed to act or how he needed to talk or how he needed to do anything. Cause he, I've got
this video. We were talking about this the other day, but I got this video and I found it. I've
got a ton of VHS tapes and I don't even know what's on half of them, but I was going through some of
them and it's dad and he's in the deer head shop and he's doing an ad for mattress, a mattress.
And it's talking about how good asleep he gets and he's in his uniform and I'm
at, I'm, I'm in the shot off to the side dressed in the good years, good rent ship, wiping the top
of this car with a rag and Rick Boston, Tony senior off in the back, working on two, you know,
stuff in the background. And, uh, I had forgotten, I had forgotten how, how he was some like the,
I had forgotten like the, the, the real texture of being around him, right? In the exact detail of
what his temperament was. And he is fricking miserable trying to read this. Uh, and he's
reading off a cue cards over the, over the top of the, the, um, the camera and Tresa must be in
Tresa's in the background and there's a bunch of people in the background and he does about two
or three reads and he's getting pissed. He's messing it up, messing it up and he's talking to
himself and he's talking to himself. And he finally says, and Tresa says something like,
well, it sounds really good. And he goes, hush. And I'm like, I'm like, I forgot that part of him,
you know, that would just like, you know, it's not like a dog. And he says, everybody behind
the camera out, y'all go outside, walk around. And so everybody leaves the whole damn room,
set for the guy that says action and the camera guy. And then like 10 minutes later,
he looks over at me and he goes, you want to do this? Like he's so annoyed at himself. Now he's
like yelling at me. I ain't done. I'm just wiping the roof of the scarf 15 minutes. And he goes,
you want to do this? And I go, hell, I've heard it so many times. I probably could.
And I'm like, Holy s***. I like had, I've got this in my mind. I've got this idea that I was
always like, you know, oh boy, don't say anything around dad. You know, he was, he was this tough
and rough guy, but you know, I must have walked around on eggshells. But there I was snapping
back at him, being a little smart ass. And, and that little video, it's 25 minutes of him trying
to figure out how to read this, this line and get it right was exactly what it was like to be around
him. Like 90% of the time, you know, he was good at everything. And when, when he had, when he
struggled with something like that, he would get so annoying. Yeah. Oh, he get frustrated. He didn't,
he didn't like, you know, there was nothing he didn't know about. Yeah. I mean, he knew he didn't
like not being perfect at something. That's great. And but he was good at a lot of stuff too. I mean,
it really, really finished product, I'm sure was just fine. Man, it was so funny. And he also didn't
want to do what he didn't want to do. He wanted to do what he wanted to do. Yeah. And I'm sure
that they're like, Hey, you got to do, he probably said, Yeah, I'll do it. And then the time
time is like, I was supposed to be doing this. Exactly. That would, that would be, that would
be him. Oh yeah. I suppose we could move on and get into the Xfinity stuff. You know, you guys
want to championship this past year. Y'all have had a lot of success over the, over the course
of the, I don't know how long you've been sort of shepherding that, that program. 18 since it's
18. Yeah. Um, you know, y'all's specifically y'all's speed and ability at Atlanta, Daytona,
Talladega, it's as nothing has changed for literally 30 years. Y'all take a ton of pride,
I suppose I'm assuming because of how good your cars are in running well at Daytona,
Talladega. Am I right? Yeah. We really do. And it is a lot of effort put in and
and we're working on our short track programs now and we're working on, you know,
all this stuff happens on purpose. It's, it's, it's a lot because the cars haven't changed that
much and which is good. Yeah. Which, which is, which is good. I love, I love these cars
being able to have a little bit that you can do to them. Feel like you're doing something. Yes.
Even if you're not really, you do feel like you, you know, you know what I'm saying. Oh yeah. Yeah.
I feel the same way. I, um, I've been around some shops and, and some people in the industry and
they'll, you know, when I, when I, when I started racing with Tony senior and Tony junior,
they, um, they didn't, I don't know that they emulated RCR, but they adopted the focus that
you guys put on Daytona. They adopted that and, and, and I know it was industry wide that when,
in the off season, everyone probably spent three months on the Daytona car and a month or two weeks
on the rest of the cars that, you know, you, you just, that Daytona car, you, you'd go to test in
January, you'd rip the body off, you'd put two or three bodies off on the car before you actually
got to the racetrack and ran the 500, but there was just an ungodly amount of work put into that
one single race car for that one race and, and, and Tony senior and Tony junior and them guys
were no different. And so when we started racing in the cup series, same thing, we just, man, they
they put everything into the Daytona car and y'all were doing the same thing. So it was a lot of
teams in the garage. Fast forward to like 2014, you know, we weren't, I don't think industry wide
quite as, you know, focused on the Daytona cars as, as, as we were. And I actually went to, uh,
working with, I don't think he'd mind me saying this. I started racing with
LaTarte and he's like, man, I can't wait to get you in our Daytona car and what you do,
what you do, man, we're going to be great. And I, we go out there to run around a little bit.
And I was like, man, this thing's not good enough. I was like, we're, you know, I do need a car to
kind of help me and I can't get it to be on the offense. And here's a couple of things I feel
like I feel. And, uh, and he was like, and, and we had a couple guys in the shop that loved
the details in the arrow and they were ready to like go to work and they were some of the old
school guys. And I was like, um, so we, we went and Steve went back and we went and made, we,
we turned over every tiny little stone. It didn't matter if it was a, maybe just might help,
we're going to pile it all on this car. Right. And it was, and it was remarkable. I'm like,
all right, now we got it. I can do everything I want with his car. And, um, and I feel like that
y'all still do that. I feel like that y'all still, that mentality isn't alive in every team,
even in the Xfinity series today. You know, that, that same mentality and preparation that you have
going to us, you know, a plate track like Daytona or Talladega that you had 30 years ago, that's
still alive. And it's very evident by the ability that your cars have and what your drivers can do
with them. Yeah, we, um, we do spend a lot of time, a lot of massage, a lot of,
and, you know, uh, Jay Bourne is, he's, uh, he's our, our lead guy that, that hangs all of our
bodies and does all of our stuff. And, and when he go, when we go to these races, he pays attention
to every template, every, you know, so that, and we make a list, even if you win the race,
we make a list of like, what can we do better? You know, where was our heights? What about this?
What about that? You know, and you never stop working on it. You just continue, continue,
continue to work on it. And, um, you know, you know how it is. If you go in the 500 or you win
the 300, your year's pretty good. Yep. I mean, no matter, no matter, no matter what happens.
And there is really something to that momentum to where you roll in, you start to season off,
you go and you qualify 17th and you run 17th. It's hard to get it going. And you start to season,
you know, everybody, if there are new stuff, you go down there and you look good and you,
even get a feeling. I mean, I know, you know how it is when your cars are leading that race,
you see them come by with all the fans, you know, all the TV stuff that's going on, you know,
you have all your new sponsors there. Man, it, it, it's just very satisfying to be good and
we push as hard as we can push and we go as hard as we can go. And, uh, Richard and your dad both
taught us that, that it's never good enough. Just keep going, going, going. There's,
there's a couple of times when we won, won races with your dad and your dad would say that car
wasn't very good or this or that or whatever. I'm like, we just won the race, man. You know,
the motor wasn't good or this or that. And like, but his whole thing is he wanted us to continue
to be better and it was never good enough. What do you think the Xfinity series looks
like in a couple of years? There's, so I, you know, and I'm, I'm not, I'm not a, I'm not all knowing.
So, you know, I'm going to be educated a little bit because you, you and Bummy and those guys are
definitely on top of what's going on in the, in the, in the series. But as I understand it, we are,
you know, we're, our parts and pieces, uh, are harder to get, um, you know, and ever since the,
ever since the cup series were transitioned away from the type of parts and pieces that we run,
suspension wise and so forth. It's been more, it's going, it's going to continue, I guess,
to become more of a challenge. Um, what are the, um, what I guess, what are the hurdles in front
of us as a, as a series? How long can we sustain? You know, I mean, you both love this car. We love
how this car works. When look at it, it's familiar. How long can we sustain running this car? Is it
not a problem? Is it going to eventually come to a head? Well,
what do you think the future looks like? It's a double-edged sword to start with.
They would love for us to run what the cup guys are running and it took them years and years to
get the cup cars to where they are today and they're still tweaking on them. They also don't,
do not want to put a bunch of teams out of business. That's right. And we need 30 cars there, 35. We
need to have full fields. Yes. The other part of it is they really need a single lug so that,
so that your pit crews on Sunday can do Saturday. That's becoming an issue. That's becoming an
issue. And then when you do that, there's less, I guess to explain it to the person listening,
like there's less five lug guys. There's less guys willing to do a Saturday car. There's less
cup teams wanting to allow their guys to do the Saturday car. They get confused. They can't be as
consistent and is sharp on Sunday. It's getting too important to be perfect on Sunday, right? You
can't. You're exactly right. Right. So, and there's some old school guys that are, that are decent
Sunday guys that are very good, that used to be, or still very good five lug guys, but they'll age
out. There'll be a day, I guess, in five, 10 years where everybody that's doing pit stops is a single
lug guy. Yeah. There won't be any five luggers anymore. They, in today's world, you can get a
really good athlete and teach him how to do a single lug. He can be on a pit crew in six months.
The five lug thing, it's years. Yeah. In years and years. And also with that, you have the bigger
breaks. Everything's getting harder to get the rear end housings, the brakes. This NASCAR is not
going to have, they can't continue to keep running what we're running, but we, we have input. Me,
Junior Motorsports, RCR, and all the other teams have input with NASCAR. And what I would love to
happen is for them to continue to let us build cars, but to their specs, go to a single lug.
I don't like the spec engine because I like knowing what's in the engine. And,
but there, there's, we can't continue with what we have. Yeah. And, but we also cannot put the
Mike Harmans and Joey Gases. We can't put those guys out of business. We need them to be there.
If you, if, if they came in to Junior Motorsports and they said, okay,
this car is going to be $300,000 or $250,000, it would be, it'd be devastating. Yeah. They'd only
be 14 teams out there right now. Yes. And we've seen that before in other series. So they have
some challenges, but the one, the one really good thing about NASCAR is, is that they talked to Dale
Jr. They talked to Richard Childers. They talked to people like me and they, they try to make a
plan that everybody can get along with us. It's not like it used to be NASCAR like, all right,
this is what we're doing. This is it. So, so they, they, they do understand our battles and that's
why they haven't already went to what the cup cars have. I don't think, I think we'll have something
that's close to that, but I think that it'll be, I'm not going to say a cheaper version,
but a more, a more affordable version. Yeah. I don't, I look at the cup car and I'm not,
here's a couple of things that I guess are, if you're saying, if you were to come to me and say,
okay man, you're going to, we got to make some changes. We just, we just can't sustain going
down this path and there's a, there's a shortage of, of brake parts or calipers and, and, and
spindles and hubs and this and that and other. And so I would do everything I could to keep the
nine-inch rear end. Yeah. I would do everything I could to keep the trailing arm style points,
like what that arm looks like can change, but the points themselves, all the pivot points.
So I would leave the back of the car as is, but maybe you've got a new, you've got a new company
that's the single source for the trailing arm or the rear end housing, right? But it really is
unchanged in terms of how it functions. The front suspension, I feel the same way. I would be very
weary of like improving our braking performance. Right. I think that was a step in the wrong
direction for the cup cars to shorten braking zones and take away opportunities to charge and
beat people into the corner. If anything, I'd make the brakes worse. Our racing is really good.
It is. Yeah. Like I don't want the brakes to work better. I want them to be
long braking zones and, and that being a tool for a driver. And so, and the underbelly, like I don't
want, I don't, I don't want any arrow underneath. Totally. No diffuser and all that. We, we don't
need any of that. We don't have, like there's, when you start doing that stuff, it goes very,
very deep on the aerodynamic side. We don't have but 15 hours of wind tunnel time. Yeah. And we,
me and you share it together. I just don't want it to be part of how the cars operate and function
on the racetrack. Yes. Like I don't want oval racing, stock car racing to me is, and diffusers
don't mix. And so, you know, that's, that's GT sports cars. That's left and right. That's a
global part, you know, for sports car racing. So I think, you know, I'm hopeful. I know that
eventually we've got to accept and be ready to adjust and make changes and pivot. And to your
point, I hope it's an affordable route for our team so that we have very, you know, we've got teams
that can survive. But I think it's simple to stay simple and stay very close to how we're
operating now and how things function physically, how literally the car's function is important.
I am 100% with you on that because it would be really easy to miss our racing up. Yeah. And
I don't want the damn tires to change either. Yeah. I'm with you. And if you don't put the
brakes on it, you don't need the wheels. You don't need the smaller tire, all those things,
you know, because I like our tire. I like our sidewall. I like how our tires function and
the, um, our fan base grew a lot last year just from the CW. Yes. And if you pay attention to
what the fans are saying, the racing's really, really good. Racing's really good.
Personalities are good. Yes. A lot of, you know, a lot of excitement. You got a couple of strong
personalities, uh, in your team, Austin Hill. He's went through some things this past year,
had some, had some, uh, learning teaching moments, I suppose is the best way to put it. But, um,
you know, what kind of, what kind of person is he? We've had him in the room and I've had the
chance to talk to him. Y'all, I know that like knowing you and y'all's track record and your
loyalty and, and support, like when he's going through those things, you guys got your arm around
him. Um, so how do you navigate that with him to help him? So, so the, he's misunderstood a lot
like your dad was. If you, if you could see him with his two daughters and his son, he's an incredible
he don't want to be pushed around. Yeah, I know. He, he talks about how he was bullied when he was
younger, I think, and that was something that's kind of still sticks with him and he doesn't
like to feel like that's happening and he wants to, and sometimes it comes off as, is him being
the bully a bit. I wish he would like, listen, I love the busses chops. I like to, you know,
give him a hard time and I wish he'd loosen up. Like I'm, that was pretty big last year and I
know it was and I'm not minimizing what he went through and I know it was probably, it wasn't fun
for anybody, right? But, um, went from for y'all, one fun for anyone. Um, but I wish he would call
loosen up a little bit. He will. He needs to smile a little bit. He's done, he's done great
through the off season. Yeah, I don't want to look at him like, uh, damn it, you know, everything
we're going to have to deal with with this guy is going to be problematic, right? I want to,
I want to have some good races. We will, we will, we, we, you will. Yeah. I'm 100% believe
that, um, he's lighten up a bunch. He is, he is not, he is, I don't want to take his edge away.
I don't think you can. No, you're, you're, you're, you're not, you're not going to take his edge
away. And, uh, he is, he is, he's misunderstood a little bit. He is, he is all about his family.
They, uh, they told him at work, like, okay, you need to start growing your fan base. He
don't care about none of that. All he wants to do is drive. He wants to race hunt and race.
Sounds like your dad a little bit. And, uh, so you got to build your media platform. And he's like,
all I want to do is race. I don't care about that. So it's probably his wife. They've been sending
a few pictures out of, of the kids of the family. It's like, I don't do anything unless I'm doing
it with my daughters or my wife or that's, that's, or I go hunting and, um, he's at Disney right
now and he's probably kicking and screaming because you, that's part of the deal is, is he can go do
what he wants to do, but he has to do some family stuff too. And I'm, I'm, I'm soon to do a Disney
cruise. That's going to be something. Yes. Yes. Um, but so I, I think you'll see he, he has learned
a lot from that. And, uh, you know, in the heat of the moment, the heat of the situations, a lot
of times you don't think about the ramifications and, you know, and, and, and this, this and that.
All track stuff, you know, I think he, look what happened on the racetrack and what happened in
in the result of that, I, I personally am good with it. I think, you know, I'm not going to sit
here and argue with you about what I think happened in Indy. I got my opinion, everything
that went down beyond that. I felt like NASCAR handled it. I want him, I want to, I know I'm
going to have to race him. Yeah. Right. And I don't want every experience with him to be
a bad memory. It's not going to be, right? Cause I want him to go out and win races. I want him
to race hard. I don't want him to not win, not do well, but I want him to, I just love to get out
and go, damn, that was a good race and go slap him on the back on pit road and say, you got us.
That was bad ass. That was fun. But um, Jesse love.
So Jesse love, a lot of people don't realize you could almost throw a rock to San Francisco from
where he was raised. Okay. And he, you would think he was raised in Morrisville, North Carolina.
He absolutely loves it here. Jesse's head, his head is down. I mean, you know, his best friends
Connor and I, I think it got in his head a little bit that Connor won all those races last year.
You know, he, and he's worked really hard over the winter time because he wants to win 11 or 12.
You know, Connor won 10. Uh, I love them both. They are totally different. Austin is, is the
family man. He's a little more abrasive. He's not going, he's not going to sugarcoat anything. Jesse
is the fun loving kid pretty, pretty much. I mean, he is, um, he's never had a bad day. He is living
the dream right now. Jesse is, he don't even know how good he's got at me. He has, he has no clue.
And so he called me yesterday and he says, I can always tell him he wants something.
Look, I really, really, really need state for the day tone of 500. I'm like, okay.
Why does he have to ask that? Yeah. It was just rental car, room, this and that. Yeah.
We're on a budget at our house. Yeah, I know that. I know. So I'm like, okay.
All right. No problem with that. Like, so then he goes, I can sleep on the floor and Connor's coach
if you let me stay. And I'm like, all right, that's the deal. I'll keep, I'll pay for your rental car.
You're not having a hotel room. And, uh, it's like, I can remember those days, but he's like,
I'll do anything to stay. And I love that. Yeah, I love that. He, uh, he wants to run,
he wants to race everything he can. He wants to run every sprint car race. He wants to run
every dirt race. He wants to run every late model race. He wants to, and, um, he just had that talk
with Richard about, okay, I got a chance to win, to run some, some dirt races and some midgets and
this and that and whatever. And Richard said, okay, just, just be careful. I don't know who,
if you get hurt, who are we going to put in the car? Yeah. But Kyle Larson's doing it. All, you know,
all those guys are, all those guys are, are doing it. The, the, the opinion now is these days is
it's more, more you're driving, the better you're getting. Yep. And, and Jesse does, he studies
the craft. He studies the pit roads. He studies when the shift he, he's been working on a little,
he's been working, you know, him and Connor since kids. Yes. They've been talking about,
you know, how are you that good on the road course? Help me be better. And they're not,
they're not even go-karts do it. They're just talking about, this is what I do. This is how I
do. And, and, uh, Jesse's, Jesse's like, I feel like I'm going to be way better, you know, and,
and Connor's a good kid too. I'm, I'm really glad that they're friends because he could definitely be
with a lot of worse people, but they, they're all about racing. They're all about, you know,
and, uh, see those kids come up. I think you said it one time, it's hurtful a little bit on one side.
You, you get Jesse, you get Austin in and they're, you know, you, you kind of love up on them, but
we're just a pass through. That's right. And you got to let them go like, like they're your kids and
then hope that the next ones you get, you know, are respectful and can drive and this, and sometimes
it's good and sometimes it's, it's not so good, but, but we're trying to promote people to the
cup side. That's what, yeah. And my issue is I get really, really close to them. Yeah. But I mean,
that's also one of your greatest attributes. Right. And as a person, as a, as your character and
how you do care about people. And I have noticed how some of your drivers, how you have tried to
promote them out of here, how to get them really, really good rides, even though they were winning
a bunch of races here. And that's what we got to do. You know, we got to, I can't, we can't hold them
back. Yeah. I would love, I mean, I'll be honest, it's, it's a bit of an ego thing. I love looking
across the cup garage and seeing people that worked here. You know, I feel like if I can't,
you know, if, if, if being in the Xfinity series is what we're going to do, then the greatest reward
and the greatest success for us, isn't winning the trophy on, on Saturday. That's nice. That's
second or third. It's seeing your people go into the cup garage and be valuable quality individuals.
And them, they spread the word. Yeah. JRM is a great place to work. People start coming in that
door. I was told this is where I, where I need to be. This is the best place. My buddy, he's in
the cup garage and he said such and such, you know, and we get a ton, you know, it's hard to find good
people these days, but we, I think have a better opportunity to do the most because of the, the
reputation, you know, 100%. So, so your dad called me one time and he goes, he, you know, he always
like, where are you at? Or what are you doing? It was never, it was never, you know, yeah.
That's what I do. I call it a W and he picks up phone. What are you doing? Tell what you,
this was 92. I had bought a truck from Delano, North Chevrolet 92 Chevrolet truck and he had a truck
and he goes, need you to come to deerhead shop, bring your truck. I'm like, okay, you couldn't
tell him, no, I showed up, pull in. He's got his truck in there and bumpers off of it.
He was looking at something and he ran into hay bale around hay bale and messed the bumper up on
his truck. So we took the bumper off of my truck and put it on his truck and he's like, I'll get
you, I'll get you a bumper. He said a, Marchville was the next weekend. He goes, I got to drive my
truck in Marchville and I don't want anybody to know that I, I mean, around the farm, that's crazy.
Yeah. Around the farm, he was amazing. It was like, he knew every deer. Oh yeah. He knew every
little bitty, you know, anything that went on. He knew about it. He and you know, he wanted to say
he was a farmer. He loved the chickens. He loved this. He loved, he had, he had a lot of stuff
going on. I mean, he, he was, he was wide, wide. Oh yeah. And you talk about getting up early?
Four in the morning, five in the morning, every day. I made a, I made a joke. They said, Hey,
can you be, we want to start filming at 830. And I said, is Dell Jr going to be up by then? They
said things have changed, brother. Because it used to be, you would sleep late and stay up all night.
Yes. But your dad was always, man, it was four o'clock in the morning. And you, you know,
he was, I don't know what time he went to bed, but I know he always got up early. His bedtime
was all over the place. You know, if they're what, if the, they used to, at the deerhead shop,
you know, they'd work all day. He'd get up four or five, get out, feed cows, and get up in all
the graph rooms, sign autographs for a couple hours or whatever. And for everybody got there.
And then whenever I got there, he's running around doing, and
at five o'clock, they'd pull, you know, a fifth of vodka and, and, and beers and they'd start
drinking. Somebody would order some pizza and they just bench race and bull. And talk about what
they, you know, what they needed to do, make plans, you know, and with Tony senior and all
them. And that might end at nine, that might end at 12, whatever, right? And then next day,
same thing, four o'clock in the morning. Some, you know, sometimes they didn't bench race after
five, but most of the time, you know, he enjoyed doing that. He, they always, that was something
that I always appreciated was, so they had that shop of, uh, they had that bus shop next to Mamma
House in the 80s. And I mean, he, they raised a lot of hell back in the day. Yes. And when he moved
that all over and even got, you know, the big cup garage and all that stuff built and they still had
that damn pal around five o'clock happy hour. Everybody come over. Everybody came over. The
guys that were on the road crew that had real jobs for the Bush car, Scott Daniels and all
these different guys, they'd come on in after they got punched out. They'd start driving in.
Some guys got a damn bowl full of chicken wings and this guy's got this and this guy's got that.
And we just kind of, everybody just started laughing and sitting around and drinking beer
and having fun. Those were the best times. Did your dad ever tell you why he does his autograph
like you did it? Richard Petty. So he told us, I heard him tell the story one time. He said
that he, he used to sign his autograph. He couldn't even tell what it was. And then
somebody asked me, why do you sign your autograph like a girl? And he said, Richard Petty told me
that the fans is what makes us, makes us or breaks us. He said, so Richard Petty takes his
time and he signs his and Richard Petty taught me that they need to be able to read my autograph.
So he changed it up early, early on. And so he made it to where you could actually read it.
And if, and today, if you look at Richard Petty's autograph and you look at your dad's autograph,
anybody else's autograph, you can't even tell who the, who they are. But the reason he did that
is because Richard Petty told him like, you know, he paid attention to stuff to all the details.
And, and Richard's are and your dad's D is, I mean, they're all, oh my God. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Dad
had a lot of respect for Richard. And, you know, I was doing those 1979, 1980 podcasts around the
becoming Earnhardt kind of series. And that's kind of one of them deals where like if dad were
here, I'd love to sit down with him for like 18 hours and talk about 79 and 80, you know. And
when he was in the race, when he was in NASCAR in 79 and 80, he was different. He was a young guy.
He was the guy that Richard Petty was stick his finger in his chest at Martinsville and go,
what the hell did you do that for? You know, and, you know, Kale Yar, Burl and, and
Bobby Allison, all those guys were, were mentors to him, you know, where in six years it flipped.
He was the mentor. He was the, he was the lead dude. So it was kind of fun, I think, to go back
and, and study and try to remember dad in a completely different, with a completely different
personality almost and mentality and outlook on things. He wasn't the top guy in the garage,
right? And that was a lot of fun for me to kind of see him becoming who he would become. But
man, this has been a lot of fun. I, we, I didn't even look at these notes, really.
But I had a lot of stories I was going to tell. I want you, what you need to do
is I want you to come back. And when you start, do you use your notes app in your phone?
So start a notes app for the next time you're on the show and we'll do it this year. We'll get
you back in here whenever you feel like you're ready. Every time you think of a story, just put
us a little brief and bring those because I sit down here and God, I'm driving for the last 24
hours. I've thought about this show and I've probably thought about 12 things that I wanted
to ask you that I can't remember sitting here right in this moment. And the way I prepped for
this show, I should do a little better job, but making that note. We have a lot of, a lot of
stories that are, that are non real, non racing stories that are really, really, really good.
I mean, you'd be surprised at the music that your dad listened to. I was, I was surprised a few
times when a damn door, he'd come pulling up and the door would swing open and black velvet and
like that would be playing. And I'm like, all right, we went to the store and in Daytona one
time, faith Hill. Yeah. He, he love, he love faith Hill and he would be in the classical section
and get this and he'd be over in the hard rock section getting, I mean, it's like, and he liked
Delbert McClinton, which I didn't mind Delbert, but I wasn't like, I wasn't going to pull Delbert
out and listen, put it, you know, put his, he had a, I remember going on his boat with him,
which freaking super rare. This is literally the only time I ever remember it be me. It was me
and him and the CD case. Yeah. Right. He had that little fold open CD case and probably 50 CDs in
there and it's me and him and we're drinking beer. And I honestly didn't know what, how freaking bad
ass I had it in that moment to sit there with him and bullshit. And he's like, play some music.
And there was one CD in there that I would have played. If I was, if that was my case, there was
one CD in that thing that I was like, yeah, I'd listened to this and it was Brooks and Dunne.
And, uh, so we listened to a lot of Brooks and Dunne that night for the rest of that
shit. I'm like, I, this ain't shit I listen to. He would, you know, he did Dale's day off,
which would the lake at the lake, you know, we had, he would have parasails, this
thing. T-shirts, man. Oh my God. Yes. Just for us. Yes. But there is a lot of,
there is a lot of stories that we, that we need, we, you know, stuff you'd love. Let's tell them.
Let's tell them one day. Make a note. I will. I will. We got to get this on tape so it lives forever.
I got you brother. You're the, you're, you're got an important responsibility. Yeah. I'm the old
guy. I got to get the stories out. I would really do miss, you know, Kirk and Will and all, all the,
all the guys, you know, and talking about this stuff brings back all the, all the memories and,
and we were, uh, we were not just a team. We were the, we were a family, you know,
Richard it. And I'm glad you were a part of it. I'm glad you were right there to be able to see
all that because your platform reaches a lot of people and your dad was way misunderstood.
He wasn't just a hard ass at rec people. He was a bad ass. Everything he done, he was incredible.
If the people knew what kind of business person he was and what kind, I mean, all the things that
he did and all, all the, all the people that he took care of. And that's why I said I was proud
of you whenever, whenever he passed a lot of those people he took care of. I know you brought them in
and you looked after a lot, a lot of his people because you know, that would be the right thing
to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I tried to, um, I think I don't know if I do it as much today,
but man, right after he passed for like the next five years, I think everything I, every kind of in,
you know, heavy decision I had to make, I always like chose the one I thought he would choose,
you know, whether I wanted to do that or not. I'm like, I better do it this way. He might be
watching me or I felt like he was judging me, you know, still cause I've been, I felt that way
my whole life, you know, like, you know, he's a son, like any child is, you feel like your,
your parents always like watching you, you know, but man, I told you at the start of the show
that, you know, you've, you've always been so good to me and you, you know, people like you
that have done that and went out of your way to check on me and, and, and, and give me important
advice and let me know just by, just in brief passing, you've, you say things and do things
that are always like building me up and, and, and making sure I'm, I love you, man. I mean,
we're, we're, we are family. I can't tell you how valuable that is for somebody like me and there's,
you know, that's so important and that has really helped me and it really has. And so even today,
even at 51 years old, seeing you on Pit Road is one of my favorite things. I love it too.
And I will tell you what, the way that you take care of your girls and your wife,
your dad would love that too. Yeah. He, they'll love kids. I mean, you know, you have that picture of
Chase L, that was not a photo op. No, that was a real deal. Yeah. He, he, he loved kids and, and he'd
be really proud of you, how you've taken care of your girls and all the things that, that, that
you've, you've done. Well, he was teaching the stuff and we didn't even know it back in the day.
Yeah. No, I know. Yeah. That's a good point. Well, I appreciate it, man. I appreciate it. It's been a
fun conversation. I knew it would be. And I want you to come back this year. Let's tell some more
stories. I'm going to make my notes. I've got my homework to do. I'll start making my notes.
It's easy. We call it flagging moments. Like when we're out and about, when me and Amy do our
podcast, she's super nervous because we don't ever talk. What are we going to do on the show?
What are we going to talk about on the show? I'm like, we'll sit down and start talking.
She, but she's like, man, we need to flag some moments. So we got a little notes app.
And when something funny happens, somebody says something silly or that makes, you know,
something we think everybody get a kick out of. We, we jot it down, but go flag some memories.
You've, you've made, you've done an awesome job with this thing. I love doing it with, with all,
all of it. You've reached a lot of people and it's, it's, it's great. I love
bringing up the memories of the past because a lot of that is, a lot of that's forgotten.
Yeah. Well, hopefully this is how it can kind of be remembered, you know, and, and I know it's hard
for people that have never experienced it. There's a lot of people that never saw dad race. And I
know it's hard to like put them in the room with you guys in the eighties, right? It's hard to
like help them understand what's standing around that garage door at the racetrack was like watching
y'all work, but it's, it's worth a try, right? It's fun. This is a super rewarding thing that I do.
And, and I'm glad that I found, you know, kind of this platform because I've been able to sit
down with you. I would have never had a chance to really get down into it with shimmer Dean.
And, and, and I've had the chance to bring some people in here and apologize for things that I
did, you know, that maybe I'm not so proud of, which is, which is good, you know, and reconcile some
bad memories or tough moments. So it's, it's been super rewarding. So I love it. Do you want to
see what's in the box? Yeah. Okay. You're going to love this. All right. Oh, hell. Here we go.
Open face helmet. Open it up. All right. So Bristol 99. Bill Simpson and your dad were really,
really tight. Yes. And Bill Simpson have been wearing your dad out about, I want you to wear a
white helmet. I want you to wear a white helmet, blah, blah, blah, you know, because nobody sees
the black. I need to sell helmets. So your dad is like, I'm not wearing it. He your dad
stuck those stickers on it. Doesn't even have the Chevrolet stickers with the 76. He put it on
for 10 minutes in practice. Yeah. And then threw it out. And he said, here it is. He, your dad
gave me so much stuff. I kept it. And that's yours now. You know why I know that he wore this helmet
is cause the front lobe is carved out because he would get, you know, back then they didn't,
they didn't mold helmets to your head and he has taken a hammer and a little, he's cut some of the
foam right there because he would get, I just had my head measured the other day for a hat.
And this guy was like, I bet you when you wear a helmet, you feel a lot of pressure right here.
I'm like, I do. And I was thinking, I was like, you know, dad did too. And he would,
he would take a little ballpoint hammer and just ever so lightly kind of tap in this one little
spot right in the front to get it to where it kind of fit better. And you can see him. So that's
the white helmet. He wore it Bristol, doesn't have a radio or anything on it because he won
practice. And then he told Bill, I wore you damn helmet. Was it a test or race weekend? It was race
weekend. It was so, he give it to him for his birthday. So his birthday was the 29th and that
was on the Thursday. And then Friday, the 30th, we practice. We won that race actually. And so
he gave me a bunch of stuff. The coolest thing that I have. I was going to just ask you, what do
you think is the, your prized possession? And there may be a couple of things. It's very, very
first Nike, Nike shoes. Oh, the black ones with the red check or the head, like a red, the very,
very first one. Yeah. He, they made them for him. He practiced with them at Daytona. He was like,
these things are too narrow. They're junk. He threw them in a trash can and I said, I'm keeping
these things. So the, the very, very first pair, I got them. They say demo on them. Oh man. I'll
bring them and let you see those. I'm not giving you those. I'm giving you this, but I'm not.
That's fine. But he, he would like, he wouldn't keep anything. You know, he, he's like, give, give
these goggles to that little girl or this or, you know, that, you know, he, he, he made sure that
he spread it to love. I wonder how many pairs of bubble goggles he wore. Oh my gosh. And he had
this little thing he had to go through where he would time up. Just they had to have not just
to write about pressure. Yeah. Just take them off and he just be just exactly right. Yeah. One time
he took it, he goes, check this out. He took in and put underneath. I know it looks silly. And I'm
like, that looks stupid. And he's like, he wore him like one or two races. And he's like, but he was
not going to be wrong. It ain't stupid. Yeah, it ain't stupid. And then they're going the next week.
Yeah. But so that is, that's a, that's a, that helmet is from the nineties. Yes, sir. And this
only time I ever know I've been wearing a white helmet. And I'm like, you know what? It's yours
now. Got the box, got the, and I just, I just figured that this is kind of stuff that needs to,
people needs to see instead of being in my closet at my house. We'll put it up here in the room.
This is all my, you know, most of it anyways. You got some stuff. I got some stuff.
Some old trophies. Man, I appreciate you, brother. I appreciate you. Thanks for giving me some time
today. I know this was a, we jumped through a lot of hoops to make it happen. You're a good man.
Thank you, brother. Thank you. I appreciate you, buddy. Thank you, brother. All right. Danny
All right. So that was great to have Danny in here. And
you know, I hope that you realize or, or, or understand why he's such a special person
in my life and a special part of the RCR earn heart connection. He was heavily involved in
all of that. And just one of the few guys from that era that's still heavily involved and around
the racetrack today. So, you know, I said it once, I said it twice, maybe multiple times,
but it's just, I love seeing that guy and we walk up to each other on pit roads always
wishing each other well, wishing our teams well. I know we're competing against
them on the racetrack, but I certainly want to see him succeed and RCR succeed
because of the connection. So just great to be able to have him on here. Hopefully I'll
enjoy getting to know Danny and what he's all about.
All right, everybody. It's time for the dirty mode dose segment brought to you by fan dual.
We've got the clash tonight. Correct. Yes. Um, this show comes out today. So yeah,
the odds own favorite to win Ryan Blaney with and chase Elliott, both they're going to cross
the finish line tide at plus six 50 followed by Denny Hamlin at 700 Kyle Larson, 850 and William
Byron at 900. I mean, I'm not going to argue with that. I think that's pretty accurate.
Chase Elliott seemed to dominate last year. Ryan Blaney was relatively quick.
Um, I don't know, you know, I feel, I feel pretty good about chase again. Yeah,
he's pretty good. Yeah. Him and Danny kind of ran the show I thought last year for a little bit.
Is this a dumb question? But with the race just keep me in postpone. Do you think some
drivers are just going to go out there and kind of go through the motion or when they get in the
car? Does that change? I think you might. Um, this is a very, this is a personality question.
Right? This isn't like this is not every driver does the same thing. Some guys look at this as
like an opportunity. I bet a bunch of fools are going to lay down and not take this seriously.
Here's my chance. Other guys may go. Hey, you know, this, this ain't even serious.
Look at how we're, you know, look at how they're, look at how the weather's affected this. And now,
you know, we don't know who's going to, you know, not even that many people's going to be paying
attention. I don't, you know, you, you tell yourself whatever you think you need to tell yourself
only really to suppress anxiety and nerves or like pump yourself up. Right.
Um, I would get, we would get a rain delay and man, I would be like,
everybody's checking out. I'm checking in. You know, that was, I was, I was like, man,
we're going to be racing at midnight tonight. That's my time. I'm up. Everybody else is ready
for bed at nine o'clock. My ass is still going. I'm, I'm, I'm a night owl. So that's perfect for me.
Even though maybe I don't know whether it's true or not, but in my mind, literally I'm
racing around a bunch of guys that are like, I'm so tired right for bed. Right. Yeah. It's a mindset
thing. It is a mindset thing. So that, that could, uh, that could play a role, I think, in, in how
they act and feel leading up to the moment they climb into the car. I mean, as soon as you climb
into the car and you buckle in your, your inner, like your race car driver just kind of dominates
your inner competitiveness, you can't allow yourself to like not walk in and go for it. Right.
So I think, you know, once the, once the engine's firing, you kind of get, you're like, all right,
here we go. I'm doing this shit. Um, so I think that the, uh, the betters or the odds makers have it
correct. Um, I feel, I mean, yeah, Denny, Denny could be, Denny could sneak in there and get it,
but you guys, do y'all want to bet a winner? I kind of just, with your mindset thing, Joey
Lagana was, I don't feel like a guy that's going to roll over. I don't know if he was
even good here last year. Don't have any stats for it, but he just seems like a guy, if there's
chaos and there's postponements, he's a guy that always kind of rises to the top. He's plus 1000,
so he's not on that list, but he's right there. It's not a bad bet. No, it ain't. I don't know. I
feel like that, you know, they went there last year and it was their first try and now they have
notes, right? Now they have information. So what we saw, I guess I won't be surprised if we don't
see a replication of last year because I think teams go home to get smarter. That's not really a
very common style of racetrack they race on. They don't have a ton of, uh, they have better
understanding, I suppose, of what they should have brought to the racetrack. And I bet you a bunch
of teams have made some big changes and pivoted away from what they brought last year to try to
be more competitive this year. So you could see, you might see none of these names leading the race.
Yeah. Might be someone out of, not on this sheet, you know, so I'll be honest, like Josh Berry was
pretty good last year. Yeah. Kind of, you know, he had some great speed, but, uh, and so I feel
like that, you know, the Penske cars with Lugano, Blaney, possibly Barry can get up there and make it
race, but, uh, Josh Berry plus 2700. Yeah. I mean, I, he was looking pretty good last year,
but, uh, and Blaney had to drive from the back, right? I believe so. Yeah. So if he doesn't have
to do that, is he got a better shot at it? Yeah. Not having to work all the way from the rear of
the field. Such a hard place to pass. Hard place to pass. Yeah. Had to use up a lot of race car to
get there. Yeah. Um, we also have the season, win total bets, Kyle Busch at, uh, over under a half.
So does he win? Does he not? Right? That's the question. Yeah. Um, new crew chief, Jim Poliam
over there. Dude, I feel like they can sneak in and get one. I don't, you know, not that,
not that the crew chief change is an upgrade. I'm just, I just felt like he had a really good
crew chief to begin with, but I just feel like that Jim can, Jim comes with his own ideas to
add to what they were already doing. So I would be surprised if they didn't like improve some,
and that might be enough to like put him in place a few days on the calendar year to, to, to, to grab
a win. Um, I would bet Kyle over what's the odds on that? Uh, yeah, that's about a chance.
I think it was like 115 each way. Yeah. Okay. Denny Hamlin at three and a half.
I feel like he's motivated. Yeah. I think he's good for four wins at least.
I think that the change in the point system has now given Denny kind of new life.
Yeah. There's no secret that he didn't love being in the framework that we had in the past
because his, his style, uh, and he's just steady, consistent. He's a winner.
You know, on an average year, he's going to win three races. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And so
he's a, he's a little long game and he can tool it together. And I think he's more motivated than
ever to go out there and, and point, you know, point, point, point here and there and win races
and make it happen and put himself in that situation late in the season to be in the top
three going into the playoffs or going into the chase. So minus 110 for the over for Denny.
I'd take, I'd go over on that. Ty Gibbs, I don't, I don't see him doing it. No, me either. Yeah.
I mean, I want him to, I don't have nothing against the guy. I just haven't been convinced.
So I wouldn't put my money on the over. Um, William Byron at three and a half.
He's so consistent though. It's, I have him over, but because of that,
listen, Chevy's got a new body. Yeah. Less drag, more downforce. I don't know how you do that,
but it's happened. I'm sure they're going to improve engines. Um, I would expect the Chevrolet's to
actually, I mean, if I'm hearing everything about the bodies, if that's all correct, I would,
I would expect the Chevrolet's to be pretty good. Yeah. All year better. Um, the, the,
the, the body should better serve them, I guess, for all their drivers. So why not?
Plus money. Yeah. Go for it. Plus money. We're going over on Byron. Brack has a lousky
at a half. So one win. Does he win? Does he not? Um,
starting the year off a little bit. I don't love it. Yeah. I'm going to bet the under
chase Elliott at one and a half. I'm betting the over. That's over for sure. He was the most
consistent driver last year. If you could get a alternate line, I would even go to two and a
half. I'd go to three wins. Yeah. That's a great bet. Yeah. Connor Zillich, does he win a race?
I would have fun with this. The lines at a half. I, I would bet it over. I would too,
just for fun. Yeah. I don't, I don't know, but why not? I mean, you've gone, you,
this would be one of them deals where you, you put, you know, put a dollar or five dollars,
something on something like that on this Connor Zillich. And so every time there's a road course
race course, Connor's going to go out there and try to win the ovals too. But every time there's
a road course race, you're up on it. Yeah. Like you're more invested because here's your, you know,
you're pulling for this guy to come in there and cash the bet. Yeah. That's what that's what's fun
about the whole process. Right. So yeah, I'd put a, I'd put money on that over. Um, we got Super Bowl
Sunday, uh, happening this weekend. What's your thoughts? I like the Seahawks. They've been blowing
everybody out. They've been, they're, they are, they feel like the most balanced, like if they,
if they can't beat you here, they got this. Yeah. If they can't get the, if this ain't working today,
they got these two other things, you know what I mean? Yeah. They are defense. So good. All, all,
the whole units, the roster, they all play the same way hard and they're just going to punch
you in the mouth. And that's hard to beat. Let me ask you this, the intention, because there's
a bet that I had in my eye on, uh, largest lead of the game under 14 and a half points. It's minus
130. Yeah. Like, I don't, I just don't see in a big game like this with good defenses that Seattle
is going to just go out there and like get a 20 point lead. Yeah, but I do think they're defense
though. Like I have one of my fun bets is Seattle defense for a touchdown. Like I think they could
run a pick six back and they could dominate Drake May. Does that include special teams or is it just
defense? Okay. Yeah. I feel like, you know, um, I've been watching all year. We do fantasy and
all that stuff. And yeah, I don't do it. I didn't do a ton of betting in, in, uh, the NFL this year,
but I mean, I was watching, of course, trying to wish my commanders alone, but there ain't enough
wish in there. Drake May is in the same class as, as Jaden Daniels. And so there's, you know,
you're watching and I had Drake as a quarterback on my fantasy team
and I'll be honest, man. I know there, I know, I know, I don't know how I don't realize I don't
appreciate how good the Seahawks defense is. But in every game that I really watched Drake and
those guys play this year, they're good enough to go out and score 21 points minimum. Right? Will
that be enough? And against a very tough defense, can they go do that? So I'm seeing this as like,
you know, Seahawks 28, Patriots 21, a game similar, something like that, right? Yeah. You know,
31 to 24, 31 to 21. It's, it's not going to be like edge of your seat close at the end,
but I don't see it being a more than a 10, 11 point margin victory. I'm not saying that the
NFL tells the refs don't, but you know, the refs don't want to call. So like a little looser,
they're going to keep the flags in their pockets, going to help the offenses move the ball a little
more. Yeah. The Dirty Modo segment is brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination
of the United States. Man, it's great to have Danny Lawrence in the RB studio to kick off the
season. I want to tell y'all about something going forward as we, as we move toward Daytona.
There'll be a live show in Daytona on Thursday, the 12th. We'll be down in the fans on. We've
done this before. We've had a lot of fun. Dirty Modo media. We're going to be live on SiriusXM
from three to four. I'll be on stage with Jeff Gluck, Freddie Kraft, and Ryan Blaney is going
to join us. Then from four to 430, there'll be a little bit of a crossover show. Do we know who's
going to be on that show? It'll be Jordan Bianchi and a slew of rotating drivers. All right. A slew.
And then from five to six, SiriusXM Speedway with Dave Moody. This show is going to drop on
podcast and YouTube later that night. That's the 12th in Daytona from the fans on. If you're
there, I hope to see you. There'll be some, I'm sure, some fan engagement during the show. We also
have a new merch that's came out, the new Dirty Modo media merch. I saw this post on social media
yesterday. Hockey jerseys. Hockey jerseys. Yeah. Well, it's pretty awesome. Go check it out. The
green flag collection is what it's called. And it's just dropped where we've also got a Valentine's
Day line. It's perfect if you're buying something for somebody for Valentine's Day or maybe you're
just treating yourself hoodies, t-shirts, flags. We've got it all. Go see it at shop.dirtymodomedia.com.
Check out Dirty Modo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok.
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