Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Brother: I Knew Nothing of Our Dad

you lived 16 years before we met yep before you met carolie or are you we met the same day exactly and that was at a fan family reunion at mammals wasn't it nope we were at mammals no it wasn't was that the second time we met yeah when was where were we at the first time at your house what on the lake what was going on do we need to start from the beginning kind well you know i grew up my my mom and dad separated when i was three years old and she met a guy named jack key and was what was dad and your mom's name is latoya they married they were married for how many years well probably about three three three and a half years man he was young she was young yeah they were eighteen whoa yeah they were 18. yeah i mean it's cool because you know i had a great life um my dad jack my stepdad jack he came in and adopted me and raised me so dad and latine got divorced and then nope no yeah they did so when how would she get married if they were spelling this out for the listener so dad and latin got divorced and then when how long until jack came in it was two years later two years later yeah well he kind of come in and hanging out and being friends and stuff and then about two years later they started getting serious and then when i was i was six years old they got married and he adopted me and what was he like he's cool yeah he was um he was a big into golf loved golfing and he had a pro shop where he built golf clubs and a driving range for you to go hit you know golf balls and so it was fun times we you know done a lot of fishing and um golfing so i didn't know he did that golfing yep yep i remember him as a gm for hardee's they moved him around yeah that was after the fact it was after his golfing days have kind of dwindled down all these big courses coming in buying everything so they came in and bought the driving range that we were releasing and whenever that all happened that's when he went to work at hardy's general manager at hardee's and so if you look at mine and carry street stock cars they had hardy's on the hood because we went to jack and jack gave us 500 dollars oh that's right hardy's that was a big sponsor that went a long ways yeah so anyhow so jack is a great guy i remember jack being super awesome what is your earliest thought about dad like where where in this whole process are you going who's this other guy yeah well i was in um ninth grade ninth grade yep had dad well i knew there was something you knew i didn't know what you knew there was a man well i just knew that i didn't know about him they didn't talk about dad or you didn't mean no nothing about it or anything nope you knew nothing about nothing wow until about ninth grade and i kind of you know started asking questions about because i come to find out i was adopted you know they told me about how did you find that out i don't remember who it was but someone had brought up the fact that you know jack was her second marriage and you started out ask questions and yeah holy smokes what last name were you going by i had my name was key back then k-e-y and um so in the ninth grade i started asking questions about how where he came into my life because i was older than what they were when they got married yeah so i'm like i wasn't putting all this together so i thought maybe they had me and then waited to get married yeah and then you know mama told me i was adopted and how did that conversation go with her was she uh was she emotional or yeah yeah she was emotional and you know she didn't tell the whole story she just told me there was rough times in their life and they got married early and you know things just didn't work out and then she met jack and you know they were kind of settled down and a little more more mature than what your dad and mom was back when they got married and so you know he adopted me and we lived our life and then in ninth grade i could say i started figuring it all out through conversations and started asking mama about questions about my dad who he was and everything and how old what year was this oh lord man i'm sorry brother that's what this podcast is about yeah we've got we gotta we gotta figure all this out so like if you were nine years old you're nine years old ninth grade we need to know where you don't even know where dad was in his life at this point like who he was in the when you're in the ninth grade you're probably 16 no no no he's got to be about 14 yeah 13 or 40 13. 13 to 14. yeah so that'd been what well what year were you born 69 all right well anybody want to do the math at the table 82-83 so dad's just okay he's winning championships yeah dad won his first championship he's a couple years into his cup stuff okay so you asked her about your daddy yep asked my dad and she started explaining things to me and then who he was and you know it didn't hit me that who he was at the time how successful he's becoming and everything still had nothing no clue and then um you know i played baseball in football and i played baseball over in jackson park in the beth page area and there was this lady and three girls that were there i noticed they were there every game watching um so after the game after the one of the games i don't remember how many they've been to but i was out there and this lady come walking up and she introduced herself as martha holy and she says i'm your grandmother and these are your nieces it was stacy jennifer and maybe ashland your cousins our cousins yeah yeah holy cow that's something to throw at a guy about right before his baseball game what was after today i'm your grandmother that's how that yeah but i was it was really cool you know because were you really shy about it or no i i started talking we really didn't get any conversation about dad we just started talking and you know how she enjoyed watching me play ball and you know cousins wanted to get to know me and maybe get together and hang out some wow so we only did that at the ball games and um i don't know if my dad jack knew all this at the time okay um i know he saw me talking to him and hanging out with them playing and stuff but i don't think he knew who they were for sure how do you think jack felt about the curiosity that you had for learning about your dad well we kind of kept it from him for a while um so after i found out who my dad was and me and mama got talking more serious about it she was good friends with sherry earnhardt which is danny earnhardt's sister dad's brother we had worked it out one day where i went to their house me and my mom went to their house and we called dad and i talked to him on the phone for the first time my dad your dad our dad our dad you talked to him from my dad i'm just trying i didn't know if you were talking about jack no so you talked to him on the phone for the first time first time on the phone yeah and it was a wait a minute so who set this up sherry mom and you're sitting there and you know that they're calling him yeah i knew he was going to go and i was going to talk to him on the phone for the very first time wait a minute so where are you what's your feelings are you like i was kind of nervous yeah right how kind of nervous yeah i'm not sure how it was going to go to conversation what was going to talk about or anything like that so what did he say so when i called he said hello hey this is carrie said hey son i said hey how you doing and we just got the contract i don't remember the whole conversation but how was it we talked about how we missed you know growing up sometimes him he missed me growing up and i missed you know being with him and that maybe we could work that out someday gosh after the conversation i mean after that phone call i was a i was kind of just relief yeah i got to talk to my dad and you know i knew who he was now was he uh did he seem sincere and he did he did you know he can be kind of awkward he doesn't know how to do it he was kind of just easy talking yeah and he would i mean at the end of the time i didn't know real life i know you don't know him you didn't know what to expect yeah right you didn't have a basis right you couldn't grade him so after that conversation you know oh wow kind of you know sit back and thought about what would be to my next step yeah so i talked to my mom at some of the games and you know about coming to see her and everything well when you have a conversation with him right and you're you're talking about having these you know thinking about these next steps like are you able are you hardly able to be patient like i would if i were in your shoes i would literally be thinking about this every second of my of the day and i did um but i knew i had obstacles to go through with my mom and jack oh yeah so what are obstacles well you know feelings it wasn't talked about in our household you know jack wasn't for me visiting with him or being in his life and that's why i was out of it so long why do you think jack felt that way was he upset with dad because i don't know i don't know if you know because you know dad was starting his racing career when i was young and you know he was all the time on the road and gone and just family time wasn't an option he was you know out building his career and um not saying that he didn't want to be with me around me he just was building his career and you know sometimes whenever you have something to chase like that you kind of forget things yeah back at home but i was wondering though jack i know remembering jack like i do i can't see him being jealous i can see him more like i think i think he's more about me getting hurt yeah like who's that like how why now right right where are you and why that's this guy's intentions right yeah i felt that um he never did say that but i felt that's what it was after that conversation on the phone you know except at the ball games i was talking about by all my cousins and talking about you know getting this come over and visit sometime and you know i kind of talked to mama a little bit about it and she said it's gonna happen you know because jack he wouldn't be all for that so i talked to mama and told her you know what's going you know on time we get to see joe's at ball games until i get my license so when i got my license i could do what i want and i promised her whenever i got my license i would come over and see her and if there's by chance that dad was in the shop which is right behind her house yes yeah i might go see him and visit him for the first time kylie so wait a minute three years the first time you talked to him and you still didn't see him still didn't see him for three years two years i did get christmas gifts didn't you get pissed what i got christmas gifts at what point though are you like what the i was kind of terrified i took it easy yeah i was kind of being easy with it and you didn't want to run at all well i just didn't want to stir things up where it could never happen right you were worried about running it off yeah ruining it who introduced the idea of arranging a meeting was it was it dale or was it you or is it or is it like mama well i never arranged it with dad i just you know we just talked about one day maybe we could get back together and just visit some and it just never nothing happened from that but that was after that phone call i've never talked to him again after that one phone call oh my gosh um like i said i did get christmas gifts from him every christmas and then um oh my gosh i can't believe this during that time i was you know talking to mom about it and talking mom about it and just it just wasn't gonna happen i knew that she wasn't gonna do it and so the day i got my license we went got my license i had a 72 chevelle and we got back home and i told mom i was gonna go just cruise around and you know just have fun driving by myself so first place i went was my malls yeah and i come in the back way and you know where you park in front of the house and you still can't be seen by the shop yeah and i walked in the front door and it was easy with memo i mean i walked right in we were hanging out talking conversations about you know what i did and growing up my hobbies and things i enjoyed and then we talked about you know i'll talk to her about going out and see dad was he out there yep he was out there well i asked at first i guess i asked if she was out there yeah he's out there how long did you talk to me before you went out it took me about two hours what yeah about two hours he's out there just working in the shop yeah and you know dad he could leave any minute you know how he does just jump big and take off but finally i built the courage up and walked out the back door and your back door comes down and you're right there at the garage so i walked in the garage and it was you know everybody laughing and clinging tools and stuff yeah and when i opened that door it got quiet yeah i bet and uh i remember tony senior was sitting there in on and from one of the suspensions of one of the cars and dad was under the hood and he he just raised up when i opened the door and told me to turn around that's when that thing and things got quiet yeah and that's like hey son say hey dad how you doing he said good so we sit there and talk a little bit and he says come on let's go riding so we rode around town a little bit just talking about things and he mentioned about me coming to the house and visiting and getting to meet you and kelly and i'm like heck yeah we'll do that so you know we set the date and i can't remember today or anything but i came there was it was it shortly after that or it was shortly after that yeah it was like that following week let me ask you a question so you you have this you've met him right and when you're sitting in that truck riding around with him are you is it like surreal or you can't you know you find you yeah what's that feeling it was it was it was just like it's like we hadn't been apart you know there was a connection it was relaxing the magical i just had to be a connection because you know what no i wasn't nervous after that or anything after i walked in that shot and saw him i was just kind of just relaxed after that you go you go back to the shop did you go say bye to them all yeah went back and said invite everybody and what'd you tell mama i told her it was really cool that we got to spend time together and got a talk what was the conversation though not with man with your dad it was just about you know things we did in life and then he explained you know his of life growing up and why he left and you know chasing his dream and he regretted every minute of it but knew that jack had offense to us talking or meeting so he didn't interfere with that he respected jack for that so we got done riding everything and we had that date set up so you get in your car right you drive home yeah did you what how do you you know i was pumped i was like i know but did you what did you do when you got home how did you did your mom not figure it out well i jack was at work so i walked in and i went to mama's mom i said i got to talk to you she said what's that i said i told you i was going to go riding around just cruise around get the feel of driving off um but i did go to mad malls and she said what so i went to memos and visit them all for a while and i said dad was back there in the shop and i went and saw him what'd she say and she just started crying she said you know what is it like was everything good and you know we went through everything i told her about all of it and she was relieved that things went as calm and easy as it did what did you think was gonna happen well she didn't know yeah you know you think about it times we had a part from three years old to 16 years old you don't see each other just talk to each other one time on the phone you never know what's going to happen you know i didn't know if i would be accepted or rejected yeah you know i felt i would be accepted because when we talked on the phone you know he told me he wanted to see me and stuff so yeah i guess when you're walking in when you're walking out that door memo's house and walking toward that shop door there's that moment are you are you thinking about that in that moment yep of like man this is going one way or the other it's going to happen you know we'll figure out what's going to go from here so damn all right so i pull up in the driveway and you're out in the front yard playing with a couple guys in football yeah and kelly wasn't out there it's just you and a couple kids i walked up and knocked on the door and it wasn't dad that answer it was someone else and i said hello she says hey you slam the door i said hey and slammed the door yep and then dad i heard him inside you know a little loud and he come to the door and hey you son sorry about that so she wasn't expecting you and didn't know what was going on so yeah well who was that theresa it's teresa that's why you had a hard time saying it well i mean you know i just everybody knows who it is and it could have been like a housekeeper or something but i mean [Laughter] kelly would have slammed the door like that so anyway dad comes through the door sorry about that she wasn't expecting everything come on in so i walked in and we went down the basement and sat and hung out and talked for uh on orange county good wow yeah yeah the pool table in there so we talked for a good while do you know anything about carrie at this point like you have no idea you have a brother well no i've heard that we had a brother but didn't know what that meant right so my first memory of meeting him wasn't at this house it was at ma'am i was at a family union and we'll talk about that later but and i i suspect he didn't think much about because he's out there playing football and i mean i mean i wouldn't expect him to be watching for me i didn't know he was coming i didn't right and you had a route to run and touchdown score so like you know you got your priorities in football how they are so good but so i we sit there and talk for a long time and uh i don't i didn't actually talk to you or kelly at that time we talked about doing some stuff and you know just kind of building slowly our family and you know meeting each other again and then like you said the reason you don't remember that is because the first time we actually met was at the family reunion wow and you actually introduced each other and stuff you and kelly both so i remember at the family reunion you came there and uh i was excited about it but kelly hogged carrie yep him and kelly uh she got it we bonded i mean we bought it right now because she was a little older and you know closer to my agent yep she knew exactly what this meant right this the carrie coming into our lives kelly knew exactly what that meant entailed and she latched on to him and they just said i remember y'all sitting in that middle room at mamo's house hours a whole damn just talking yeah just two laughing there's 30 talking there's 30 people at this family union and them two sit there the whole time just you know it's figuring it out it was cool i wish i wish i had that conversations our conversation everything on camera or video or audio or something just to go back and listen to it because i don't remember everything that we talked about i just remember you know talking about what i did growing up you know just kind of feeling each other in and what our likes were and our hobbies yeah hey you might have said this already kerry and uh i apologize if i'm asking again but i don't remember what so dale didn't know anything about you the time you went over to your dad's house right right when did you know that you had a brother and a sister like how that first time i went to the house you didn't know that there was a dale earnhardt jr or a kelly earnhardt at all well i knew they were some kids but i didn't know their names or anything they were some kids other kids involved and that was the day and that was the day he told me about them and of course you know the pictures are in the house and everything so you see all that and so he explained everything and didn't want to [Music] introduce us at that time to kind of stir things up kind of like say you wanted to slowly grow into it and i don't know what that meant i don't think he was worried about that person answered a door getting along with it but i think he was more worried about you and kelly yeah y'all were going to deal with things and accept things we were pumped i remember being excited because the the vibe in that house wasn't all that fun and so the idea of like man what does this mean what is what could this mean in introducing this new person into the whole dynamic could make things better what's going to change how's you know how it's going to affect you saw how kelly like didn't want to do nothing but talk to you that whole day because she was just thinking man this is got to make things better right so feel let's fill in the gap from that moment in the at the family reunion where we all first got introduced to me and you basically uh living together being pals fights and yeah i family reunion um what is your i don't remember what was the what happened next like how how how much more did you get to see dad well i just started coming around to the race shop you know and hanging out and getting getting to be around the guys and knowing them and you know y'all would be there in and out of there some and i didn't come and hang out in a house like you would think after that at the lake house so it was actually at after that visit at the house it was that christmas follow christmas whenever i was invited back to the house he asked i would come and stay tonight and i don't know if you remember that or not and i did and it was really cool to wake up and you know celebrate christmas with you all you spent the night on christmas eve yes we were downstairs and in the hall in that basement um was that down there yeah your room was down there wasn't it yeah and i think kelly was down there and there was another room down there and i stayed in it and we got up done christmas that morning i can't believe you don't remember this of course yeah you were younger um but that's the only time i've done christmas as far as like staying the night and getting up next morning life is best lived in motion and that's why tire pros gets you ready for all your driving adventures whether it's along corners and curves across city and state lines because we're more than just tires we're auto care too tire pros so you can focus on the road [Music] ahead you

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 1,163,084

Keywords: Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kerry Earnhardt, Earnhardt Family, Dale Jr Download, DJD, Dale Jr. podcast, Dale Jr., Dale Sr., NASCAR, Kerry Dale Earnhardt, Martha Earnhardt, Dirty Mo Media, Dirty Mo, Dirty Mo podcast

Id: GVA_uk6KW8k

Length: 23min 55sec (1435 seconds)

Published: Thu May 27 2021