Dale Earnhardt Wouldn't Let Richie Gilmore Leave DEI | Dale Jr Download

so we're at Talladega October race and uh everybody was Bench racing and Dale senior was there and Ty and Ty said hey we got we're gonna we're starting another deal how many we got 19 guys now or 20 we need how many more do we need to start another deal and uh I said it was me and Jeff Andrews you know we said probably four and and your dad pointed at us he goes well this too and and Ty said would you you guys mind would you be interested coming over and talk to us and I thought for a minute I don't know no even though you were not happy with the words and I sit down and I said why not I said man I've been next to that guy and garage my whole life I don't even like him all right man you know he's been my competitor going all the way back to the 80s and and then we went back to the shop and we were talking about this deal you know me and Jeff Andrews were talking about deal how it's going to be laid out and Jeff goes man you really don't like this deal I'm like nope I said I'm gonna call Ty so we called Ty and we went over oh sorry so you're looking at the HMS deal yeah HMS you're telling him man you know I just ain't feeling it I ain't feeling it so you decided then in that moment man I might call time to learn a little bit more about this yeah I want to ride over there okay so we ride over there let me ask you a question yep we know that Jeff Andrews has had a great life he is in a massive uh position in HMS he's a he's one of the best dudes that I've ever met awesome great person um he was asked and he never considered it to go to the uh he was appointed at right Dad right here YouTube but Jeff was never in never considering it he was 100 percent plugged in to HMS I'm asking Paul though he we both came over and both of y'all came up oh he did consider it yeah yeah I didn't know that yeah well he was he was he still had a year left on his contract and I didn't so we both go over there we both yeah we both stopped by Target at Walmart or whatever change shirts change shirts and um but Jeff was probably only halfway right considering yeah because Jeff had a really good opportunity ahead of him right you know he was gonna Randy was moving up to take a what higher position and Jeff was moving into a really good position and um so he he went and you know talked to Randy and and wrecked and they said hey here's a path forward for you and and he called me and he was going to the banquet and he said man I I can't do it and I'm like man I understand um I want to do it he said man he just he said I understand but we got this we you know you ought to you ought to reconsider and I'm like so I went and talked to Randy for about two hours you know Randy's a was a hard guy to say no to you Randy and um but I had my I had especially after spending time with your dad so talk about that yeah what the hell was his name yeah it was you know spent time with my guys he didn't like him yeah he weren't a big Earnhardt family at all I I would say it's probably two two coolest meetings I had with your dad was that one with him and Ty and I loved working with Ty too I mean Ty was and meeting with Ty is he's a hard Guy saying no dude he's really negoti good negotiator but your dad was it was a trip around the farm you know and he's like he had and I tell people they say what do you think about working for Rick and working for Big E h i mean they're a lot alike in a lot of ways because they know the next 10 years and I tell people that all the time with like working for Rick Richard and your dad but your dad had 10 years planned out I mean the engine shop where he was going um and when he talked about what the future looked like he knew it it was amazing what he he could lay out for you and there was no saying no to him um and it wasn't from intimidation and it was how much he had planned out and I mean he pretty much told me the first night man I know what you're going to do for me and where we're going um it was just really special uh his vision and we we talked about things and uh you know from plate racing to how he was going to build a Speedway program I mean he just knew where he was going and so you left there pretty confident what you wanted to do yeah no question and so what year is this this was this was the end of 97 and uh so you're coming over to di they're they're because they're going to go Cup racing I guess right yeah Parks going Cup racing in the one car yeah well I that's let's see I talked to him now this is 98. yep so they're getting ready to start tonight the eight car yeah I'm gonna run five races yep um and that's the new that's the other deal they're talking about starting up um oh okay I I misunderstood that then so the new the deal the new team referenced they needed four days yeah was the eight not the one yeah one is already one's running one's running already got it yeah they were just moving into the big shop yep the engine shop the car shop was already in there that is well in advance if you're talking about 98 I mean you would you didn't even hardly know you were getting the uh the bush Series right at the time and then you get that you win the championship but if if what you're saying is right then obviously he was looking in advance he knew that there was a cup path that he was going to put Dale Jr in he was he was just winning kind of went in his second Xfinity championship in 99 okay we're going into 99 though and you're feeling some buyers remorse you're feeling like you want to go back to HMS yeah so in the spring of 99 this second deal that's the bud 18 is in the middle of their five races they're going to run that year in the cup side I'm finishing up my Xfinity career full-time going full time next year in the in the cup series um what was wrong why did you want to go back um I got there and um the end of it 80 let's say 98 and we were we were testing with the one car uh went testing and which worked out good I mean my main deal there I started building carburetors and going testing with Steve and uh part Steve Hart and he's like man that's awesome and even built the carburetor for your dad which uh and um then they they said okay you and Bob Burham we're going to build eight car engines so that that basically went through Christmas and into New Year's and um I got got working on just your stuff me and Bob um and I was like man I'm a very much a perfectionist and like systems in place and Mark Isle that was in charge and Mark and I are good friends now and he you know he works over at Hendrix and but he was going through a lot of stuff to um you know not to blame him for everything was going wrong at the time but he was going through a lot of stuff personal in his life and he had just come off running him in uh Jimmy gamash running a business I built high performance boat engines and got thrown into this cup deal and they they had a half hour lunch for all the guys and you couldn't even go to somewhere and eat you know at that point in a half hour yeah and all the guys were like miserable in the engine shop and they were all like man a lot of them are going to leave and I was like man I just came off a place winning championships and ran like a clock um so I was like man this ain't for me um what did I get myself into I liked the idea of you know Building engines for you but engines were failing you know the ones for the one car um and I was trying to help but I didn't want my help so I went to Thai and I was like man I don't know if I can help you um so I said I call Randy and Randy said man we'd love to have you back yeah just give them a notice and we'll work it out so I went in till Ty I said man I got to give you my notice this ain't working out when I said I've never quit a job it just really bothering me was this in the off season this was in April oh this is just kind of got the season going just got it going tonight and I've never left a team during the season okay and um we're we're coming up on the first eight car race right Charlotte oh crap in May at the end of that yeah so I'm like man you know I said I ain't feeling good about this so so he caught he said I'm gonna tell Big E and um so he was in Bristol at the race at the racetrack and I'm like this ain't gonna be good and uh I was living down Brawley School Road you know and we've been working like one o'clock every morning you know and uh you know and didn't have cell phones at that point I don't think I had one so I think I got a call I think he called me at my house and probably School Road took you 45 minutes to get down sure at that point he calls me and he said hey meet me at the shop in 30 minutes come on how's he going to do that so he helicopters back from Bristol and uh so I meet him at the shop I pull in and he had that remember that orange painted truck he had just got it brand new truck and had that big Saint Menard Saint Bernard in the in the back yeah with a shotgun and a 12-pack a beer let me say just to set the scene here orange truck St Bernard shotgun and beer yeah God Almighty I'm scared for you and he and he just looks at me he says get in I want and that tone like get in all right he's gonna shoot me bury me out back [Laughter] so exactly so I get in we ride around the farm and he's like man tell me why you want to leave me so I told him I really don't but you know this is what's going on and I didn't throw a mark under the bus but I just said it's a different atmosphere and he said listen I've been no I've been know this has been going on for a couple months he said I apologize and I should have made a change earlier but he said I got some things I'm working on and um well looking at somebody come in and take over the engine shop can you give me a month and I'm like oh he said I'll talk to Randy tomorrow I'll work it out okay whatever you need but this was like two hours driving around out back scared drinking beer you know I probably drank more beer and them two hours and I had in a long time he's going to shoot you might as well yeah I was scared to death and but it was great talk you know and I'm like so I'm thinking I'm going to work you know a couple more weeks three weeks whatever he needs and go back so next day I come uh or Monday I come in or everybody's working normal about 10 30 I'm working because I'm the only one me and Bob Building engines for him to go to Charlotte and uh getting the engine ready and all of a sudden I look around there's nobody in the engine shop they're all gone so then uh I think Steve meal come up said hey you need to go upstairs having a meeting so I go upstairs and um Biggie and Ty and Don Hawk were talking to the engine group and he said hey we just let Mark go um I just told everybody you were taking over an engine shop then asked me didn't talk to me about that damn didn't say a word and uh and he looked at his looked at his watch said Hey I'm I gotta go to Napa for a parent so I'll be back tonight about 7 30. we'll talk about it then I said all right he said everybody good and everybody went yep everybody got up we walked back down me Steve Mill hot and tie into the trophy room and he said um hey you'll be all right then left and then Steve Mill said hey you know everybody was good with it and he said he's going to come back 7 30 to talk to you about it and I said all right and I walked back downstairs and he started running the dyno and uh engine for that week we started scuffing pistons on the dyno it was like the worst week I mean everything we did was that's not a good thing Mike yeah Pistons was going going bad yeah so everybody's like it was it was Unreal it was like it was like a bad week but it was a good week it bonded everybody together because a week before that we were I don't know if you remember but Steve wrecked it what really let it off I think why I wanted to leave we we blew a freeze plug out and I wanted to pin all the blocks um the freeze plugs in because what we did at Hendricks and Mark disagreed he went didn't want to do it we blew a freeze plug out going in the corner of Martinsville and Steve wrecked and I marry your dad coming over after the race looking at me like hey what are you guys doing down there yeah and I'm like well this what we should be doing but you know I'm not in charge you know and didn't want to throw a mark in but I said we got some stuff to work on and then got back Monday and Mark's like I ain't doing that and then we'll go get ready to go to Texas and I'm like we record freeze plug there we're going to hurt Steve again so that was all the stuff we were up against but we started fixing stuff and I mean everybody there chipped in and we had a really good group of guys oh yeah but wait a second nobody's yet asked you if you were on board for taking over the engine shop I mean I can't get past this here in fact it's almost like Dale Earnhardt has some sort of force sensitive Powers over everybody to tell them what they feel and it's like everybody's good with it well what about the one person that they're putting in charge is anybody going to ask him yeah so did you ever speak up for you he came back that night I think it was about eight o'clock 8 30. you know and I was still there working and he came in and he goes hey you good with this okay well and I'm like well maybe some time to think about it how nice I'm like man I've never run an engine shop or or people and he's like I'll tell you what if you agree to do it I'll be in here every morning after I feed the cows and I'll help you and I'm like all right then he goes well we'll find somebody and I don't think he ever looked but he said listen and and employees hired me a plaque got me a plaque later for Christmas and he what he said and he said it to all employees later he said you can hire good leaders but he said the best leaders are born leaders and they all bought me a plaque that said that it was really cool damn that's bad and I always tell people that um that's probably the coolest thing anybody ever said to me in my life especially to come from him hey if you like that video you'll love the entire podcast the daily download it's available on all major podcast platforms thank you

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 237,610

Keywords: Dale Jr, Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR, Podcast, Dirty Mo Media

Id: JatQXmVZVxo

Length: 18min 53sec (1133 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 14 2023