Dale Jr. Download: Rick Mast - "I Was Dying"

[Music] he had to end your career early because of carbon monoxide poisoning mm-hmm what like still today like I've never really dug deep into the you know the any kind of information about how that happened to you and and right so I'm hearing it for the first time across this table what were you experiencing inside the car March 24th at Bristol Friday morning get out of the motor home right can I feel bad just feel bad you just don't feel good yucky I got a virus for something so I get through the weekend so we practice qualify run the race Saturday Sunday you know still feel bad every day Monday to feel bad cheese to feel bad we get next week I feel bad and it's starting now to get just a little worse every day I just feel worse and worse and this went on right up through Charlotte the all-star race it got when I got to the all-star races for to that preliminary deal around the 40 laps and it was all I could do to get out of my race car get over the Motorhome I got they got me over the motor home I said Sharon let's get tell anyhow we were with Airport hopping the plane with home and by this time doctors are already running tests on me a lot of a lot of stuff right a lot obscure stuff and a lot of bad stuff and when I got home then I laid in bed 31 days I mean if I could keep it bowl of soup down or get from a bed to the couch that was a good day ain't right it was it was all far I was dying there's no doubt and each time a doctor called Rick I got good news he'll come back negative last time you called me some tests they did got good news Ricky's come back negative because they were checking for cancerous and all this right the normal stuff he nothing doc I appreciate that but he misses something I'm still dying finally there's an ER doctor with NASCAR that worked Mayo Clinic so he got me in Mayo Clinic so I felt decent enough at that time flew down to the Mayo Clinic I was down there three days I think before when they were done they said we suspect the link to carbon dioxide poisoning what our monoxide boys okay now what we don't know all right so my wife actually gets online or not online but whatever the deal was and fines are foremost expert dr. David penny in Warren Michigan on this stuff I get with him go over this thing with him he since we took clinic in Colorado Springs that specializes in this and multiple chemical sensitivity and all this I'm out there five days and they get it all figured out in all diagnosed and almost symptoms and all the stuff I was going through and all the unanswered questions I had you know I mean it gets it all figured out basically there's nothing you do for it you know cause what happens carbon dioxide displaces that the blitz red blood cell on your hemoglobin okay you got hemoglobin claret carries red blood cells when carbon dioxide gets in there it throws that oxygen sell-off and grabs hold of the carbon dioxide and that's what pumps the body oh that's why that's why it cramps so bad to people oh man it's replacing it's replacing the oxygen he got with a poison that's yeah that's problematic so my deal was being exposed to it since I was a kid in shops and painting racecars and have cars running and in there so this was a lifetime of exposure that yes yes issue yes not like a you know a race where you knocked had some bad episode no and everybody's different you know I had Bobby tell me what about gabbana he's it requires it we run bristol bristles one of the bad ones he said it would take me wizzy before I feel like I'm over hung out of a hangover and that's car that's effects carbon dioxide and terror get out the car and comb his hair and smiles he will draw for you boy for being a wuss and I said well I asked the doctors that and they said right you take him take a set of twins the born one day put him in a glass bubble the living that glass of over 50 years one day they wake up one gets cancer the other one does it there's a lot of nose we don't have I tell what was cool a lot of older drivers were calling me guys I didn't even know what Blackie Wayne burns and things like that what's called me thanking me for answering their questions we never knew I never knew what was going off me I would feel like we just thought were out of shape and all that you know what I mean for a week and a lot of losses I surprised number guys did that so you ended up having to make a decision to quit entirely yeah yeah was there ever a conversation of man I'm gonna take a couple years all for Dale I was so deathly sick at that point there was I didn't care yeah yeah I just glad to be alive that's no joke gently it got so bad I just glad to be alive in that I thought about doing the TV stuff Pam Miller remember Pam they kept trying to get me do TV stuff and I said just leave me alone let me learn yeah she called me on him in March and they had a Busch race in Nashville and I forget who it was couldn't be there it was emergency she begged that's it all right so were then I sold there playing a soda motor home so anyhow I go down catch a flight out of Roanoke Thursday night go do the gig have fun at it good at it come back get home Sunday night about midnight next day Ricky my son he's 7 years old having a birthday right now ask Sara so when he turned 7 he was just born two weeks ago all right all right turn 20 I'm sorry 20 years about my daughters were running my twins they were 7 at the time and I remember taking my foot and just drawing a line in the grass that I'm not going by I'm not doing this I'm not gonna miss the girls groan he play like baseball like 4 years you know and I saw like two games yeah yeah so you know a four spot if I hadn't got sick I'd still be right here with you guys doing something right if I was transition yeah I'd still be in the sport because it's my life is it Bryson is my life my whole life yeah good you got to a point when you were spending a lot of time at home it's you realized that that's where you wanted to be mm-hmm right that's right that's right and you ended up becoming comfortable with that decision and that's right that's right the only thing I hear people ask me all the time do you miss it here's what I miss I miss when they say gentlemen start your engines and I'll tell you why when I was so sick throughout that day I remember getting in a car manner that's Papa's vinaigrette what you shouldn't have been doing you know it's a whole nother deal that he'll tell NASCAR about and drug-tested they need to do but anyhow I'm sitting in the car and strapping into felt like crap I remember thinking hard I got to pass these two cars to get into transfer into the big race right and the race started and I'm sitting there digging I remember when I got a car I'm thinking you know what that's exact same feelings I had 30 years ago or 35 years ago my dirt car Oh yummy Wow so that part never to its like when you talk about the demise of our sport it's contacted we've said that time the great baseball player you play the game for the game well Racing's the same way that part doesn't change I tell people this all time when you're strapping in that car that part never changes no matter what goes on outside of that car everything that's going on it doesn't matter when you're in that car it's still the very basic simple thing you're doing and that's what Speer about our sport and that's why our sport will always thrive to whatever degree because of that you know and but yeah I didn't miss the travel you know I didn't miss the politics although I got good at the politics yeah all those years well they're all these years and never won a Cup points race and still viable people still want you to drive for ya so I'm curious though how long after your the diagnosis where you were able to put an identity on what it is you were feeling how long did you go before you start of feeling better because I would imagine if you're feeling sick he asked you know did you you know regret it well you're not gonna regret it when you're feeling sick when did you not feel sick anymore though it was it finally it started easing up some after those 31 days I felt good one day all right then it started easing up I was probably out of 100 out of 100 percent I was probably at 30% feeling good or before I 0 yes I 30% feels good you know that that got me feeling good enough to go to Mayo Clinic and go to Michigan and go to Colorado Springs right and then after did all that you know there's no way a treat you do hyperbaric chamber maybe but that's really when it stuffs in you to purge it out of it but you know 24 hours stuffs all gone but yeah so my body and my body had used up its reserves it's kind of like when Neil got killed dr. petty told me one time he was telling him Neal Susan he's wife don't get in the race car gets a deal Susan's gonna spike you beside the head and kill you you don't mean because you you've used up your reserves on hit injuries right that was his take at that time you know more about it at this point and you know Neil wrecked that day is kind of like they'll say geez it wasn't that hard but anyhow my body to use up reserves reserves of fighting off the effects of what the carbon dioxide and my blood was doing and that was my brains way of telling my body that what your what your body's doing is killing you so the brain shuts your body down that's why you get definitely sick No Deal alright so anyhow after a period of time the next winter you know remember sometime at fall woke up one day man I felt like 80% right next day I woke up 30% o hit-or-miss next day maybe 50 cent and then one day I woke up was like 90% the next day I was like 50% and this went on for about eight months okay eight months it just kept getting better and better and better - finally I what 7 days in a row feeling good and like an idiot I went down or local deal up there I went was Grand Marshall in a parade and it jumped over the back of us Oh 62 Corvette in front of me alright I'm sitting on the back.this convertible I breathing that crap my mic I started to jump off the car like these people think up crazies anyhow the thing was over I ran to my pickup I ran home at time I got home I hit the bed man there was seven days you never got out of the bed so you just yeah you you don't have the capacity to actually deal with that stuff even now I do over time I don't purposely go in the garage full of cars running right sure you know I but I can for time if it got on my skin or if I breathed that it would trigger my body that Quinn but now it doesn't trigger you know the man okay and I don't I don't sit in garages and stuff like that with cars I was getting at is it like you know I don't think it ever really gave him a chance to want it back yeah because if your even for eight months if you're going like this as far as your recovery to it that's not there's not enough to give you that man I miss racing right now and maybe that was a blessing it ultimately because well I tell you when the cool deals came out of all these tests they did a colonoscopy on me right we know what John Andretti just went through 47 years of AZ they just did a colonoscopy trying they did every test you can think of guys I had done to me believe me I had three stocks or force some boxes of metal so anyhow when a doctor has done he said Rick I got to tell you he said I just took out the larger group of polyps I've ever taken out at any human being in my life right I'm like he said they're benign they're all benign but you're lucky I'm sitting there later on yeah I got to thinking you know what if I got sick I wouldn't had a colonoscopy and knowing me supposed to do it at 50 I know me I probably would have done it I probably did but now down now did long ago because of that you know me and like John Andretti's deal brings it more than the forefront center you know I mean it's life guys do what you got with you got with Hilton and NASCAR and helped help them understand how to improve situations for drivers going forward yeah explain they I had a buddy worked at NASA and he called me and he says Rick I think we got a product something help you guys I said all right he explained it to me so when I went to helping and Gary Nelson still there then they they set up a lab there over here at Concord at the desk our headquarters lab just for this thing so what basically what it is the catalyst is all it is a catalyst like your Calot converter in your car and so when the carbon dioxide hits it it changes it to carbon dioxide which is nothing but least it's not bad right so but the Catholic converters on your car or they're set to activate at certain tips like nine hundred or thousand degrees so when you first start your car if you're getting pure carbon dioxide until its heat and it then converts it the NASA deal the way they did it they could when they make that catalyst they can make it activate it whatever heat they wanted to okay so that's the deal I give to Gary Nelson don't R&D center so they would work on the thing and the first thing that come out with of the little box over the electronic box and they put it in putting that deal and smoke used it at Martinsville and he called me that night after Martinsville and he says wreck I'm gonna tell you since I've never felt this good after Martinsville this is the best I've ever felt that because Martinsville sometimes can get that crap on yeah right you're saying smoke is in Tony's Tony yeah yeah yeah and he said man this thing is gonna be the ticket and here's the neat part guys that that particular system was only like 28% reduction oh and that and that was that big a difference yeah so then I yeah so then after that I think wicks and some other company I can't think the name of took it thing over and developed it where the filing heat up to 99 nice I tell you another story about that deal a guy that was you know this guy I thought will say his name I'll get him in trouble he was a crew chief mmm he was a Hendrick for a long time he called me that winter talk to me about that he says Rick you need go over Hendricks take carp take apart one of those cool boxes I said huh what's in it he said I'm just telling you go to Hendricks and take apart I said no how the hell am I gonna go walk into recanting shop they don't really do that he says I'm just telling you do whatever you got to do to do that so I go straight down there to Carrie Nelson I said Nelson here's what the band just called and told me I don't know what it beats I'll check into that he went over there they had a system in the cool box alright crude all right and what he finally ascertained was those guys over there how sharp the hint guys are you know they're just sharp man and they're just phenomenal but those guys had figured out that this was a driver performance issue at the end of these races with these fumes affecting guys so somebody and that group had decided to come up with this catalyst and they put him in these boxes unbeknownst to the driver unless Terry lied to me he had no clue he was in this car and it was you don't say so I mean that's why Terry would yeah that's it that's how terry labonte one is championship nine years later cool these dear old pitchers in Major League Baseball man just get that second line half our 40 year old nickel box it's weird stories in our sport man weird stories you know what I'm hearing this I mean like these guys racing today have you to thank and they don't even know it I mean like and maybe they do maybe they don't but I'm telling you I mean all you guys racing has just been one big progression in safety and and there was a lot of people that you know learned the hard way and that's just that's that's not exclusive for racing obviously there that's life and that's just you know technology and whatnot but man you know you had a pretty big price to pay to you know for people to wise up to it you had a big price to pay in the concussions and stuff I mean think about just in between the two of you guys there's a lot of people that have to thank safer barriers you know after you know 2001 Daytona 500 and then the head neck restraints you guys I mean it's it's amazing how safe it's if it's come you know and then you still have the situation at Daytona when you row you you remember oh wait we're still not yeah it's still dangerous poor right [Music]

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 222,421

Keywords:

Id: LXx8naKtoW8

Length: 16min 11sec (971 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 29 2020