Dale Jr. Download: Todd Parrott's Low Point and Road Back to NASCAR

2013 started a lot of change for you and the ensuing years that happens is probably the toughest part of your life is that accurate to say you know you know from a personal standpoint absolutely tell me where walk me through to start walk me through this 2013 and from a personal level how things how you were managing things and how you were able to deal with it obviously it was well documented you know you you were suspended by nascar what happens and where's your mind at that point well 2012 you know they moved me over with eric you know amarillo and we had smithfield you know and it was 43 car 2012. um and then 2013 you know nascar took away you know changed some rules about some truck arm bushings stuff like that we had some pretty good tricks going on rear bar you know being able to set the timing on the rear bar and yeah you're still being innovative very very innovative yes and taking a 400 pound spring and making it think it's 1500 pound spring with just having a rear bar in it you know so 2013 we struggled a little bit um as we struggled as a team i just got to a point where i don't know i was just struggling personally you know had some things going on in the background you know and just got caught up at the wrong place strong time and like i said just failed the uh felt the drug test and went on to the um it was the day after um that that happened i remember the date october 17 2013 it was 10 o'clock in the morning i was at the nail salon with my wife and got the phone call number comes up it's 866 number one those numbers that you don't normally see you don't see it unless it's a bill collector or something like that right it's that number you don't answer these no but i i knew i knew that it was going to happen i knew what happened really yeah i knew i knew it was yeah i knew that i wasn't going to pass and when i saw that number come up i told my wife i said listen i gotta go out in parking lot and get this number she said who is it i said i just didn't go get it damn and uh that was it it was hard and that they they called me told me i had to go back inside and tell her she's getting her toenails feet done and you know she's like it wasn't pretty yeah yeah i could imagine you know and then the phone calls after that i made you know were to you know first folk all i made was to h.r lady libby gant at richard petty motorsports and um sammy johns was the competition director and they had already known about it because nascar already called them and um i called my mom so right after that the next phone call i made was to my mother you know i remember all this and and it was documented i mean like you were you were one of the top crew chiefs in the whole sport and now you're going through this so it obviously made news one of the things i remember though todd was that you seemed pretty determined right away to get back i mean like you weren't is that is that an accurate way of saying it i mean i knew i made a mistake okay i got caught up in the wrong thing i joined the wrong you know that's it just doing a bad thing people make people make mistakes you know they get caught doing stuff sure you know that aren't what you need to be doing when i went down to the shop uh i was down there that was ten o'clock i was down at the shop at 11 30 you know down in concord and uh i went in and saw libby saw sammy you know they explained to me what they needed to do you know turn my hard card in and all that stuff and as soon as i walked out that door as soon as i walked out the door i called john bobo who was john bobo yeah who was in charge of nascar substance abuse program and told him said listen i messed up i know but you tell me what i have to do to get back right because i'm better than this you know so so how did that experience go how was that you know getting back was it was it smooth was it successful was it yeah it was very very successful did it did it did it stick oh yeah absolutely you know it was it was something that i mean i mean i just embarrassed my whole family you know me as a person this is success that i've had you know talking about all the stuff um it wasn't me you know and um i knew i had to do it you know and you know i said i had classes and you know taking random drug tests and things like that i mean it was just you never knew whenever you were gonna have to go do it and um i think that lasted from [Music] let's say 17 so probably the middle of october all of november all of december and i think it was uh january 7th right before daytona testing that i got reinstated what's that feeling like good yeah real good yeah yeah so actually the uh the night but the night i got the phone call from john bobo you know that everything was good i was reinstated the next day uh me and my dad got in the car and uh drove to daytona and went to the january test at daytona and you know i wasn't gonna hide walked around the garage talked to ed lennywood um all my friends you know they're like man really yep happens the best of us yeah and um i saw tommy baldwin and he said hey listen when you get home give me a call and and you went to baldwin's yeah you that's where you spent 2014. yeah 2014 i was there and um working with reid sorensen you know back the whole full season and um end of 2014 it was right before thanksgiving tommy called me up shop we were thanksgiving holidays and uh tommy says i don't think i'm gonna be able to race next year i'm like really and he says no he said but i got some people that are really really interested in you and i said who's that he said um richard childers mike dillon eric warren i'm like at rcr he said yeah because we were getting cars and stuff from them and um i'll never forget the that night that i got home right before thanksgiving um richard called because um tommy gave me his number and uh he called him say listen i want you to come run this xfinity program for me i'm like let me run the xfinity program you probably want me crew chief said no i want you to come be the competition director for these four teams and i'm like wow okay that's got to be an amazing feeling i mean like it's got to be this if not more than even the reinstatement i mean now you've got legit guy i mean at the top this is richard childers this is richard childress this is finished program and you know because you've driven his infinity cars and i heard you talking about that oreo car and all that stuff his xfinity program the way he looks at it is means as much to him or more than his cup program yeah you know so i knew that and um went down there like i said and talked to mike dillon eric warren and they put me in charge running you know with all those different different crew chiefs and you know now i'm working with four different personalities you know at shane mike hillman jr danny stockman and um dick harrison four totally four guys yeah with totally different personalities and four totally different thoughts about how to make cars go fast and what they want to do so i was there 2015 16. um and then i went like i said mike went down why did you do that like okay so you get this opportunity at richards to sort of oversee this um xfinity program you talked about how important that program is to richard and this is a this is a really great opportunity for you to sort of establish yourself back into the fold in the industry what was the what did that opportunity go away or what was the draw to make you leave and go to levine family racing with mcdowell what was that draw well in 2015 things were going so good with the xfinity program i mean we were winning races and uh sitting on poles cars were all like all four of them in the top six or seven in points and um uh brian scott come along he wanted to go cup racing and richard says i want you to come crew chief this fit this car for for brian scott i'm like oh what about this other guy been here forever yeah he said no brian wants you because your relationship that you built with him with the xfinity program and just feels like your background the way you talk about things where you do things will really benefit it and i'm actually i think i ran so that was 15 actually went crew chief for aj at jtg um at the end of 2015 a few races and then with brian still driving like six or seven races with him and then 2016 ran daytona 500 with ty dillon so basically i was kind of out of the xfinity side of it and he brought gill yeah and you're just you were just feeling a feeling a role here yeah kind of doing the r d stuff yep you know pretty much for the cup you know the fifth cook car whatever you want to call it crew chief ty dillon um brian scott you know different things like that and then um i went crew chief for uh mcdowell bob levine called said you know told richards you know because we had a relationship so basically 2016 they made me uh they gave me a title as the uh the the rcr um [Music] competition liaison whatever for the um alliance teams yeah so basically i was in charge of that to give all the feedback you know from the setups and everything that was going on at the big house and wind tunnel stuff to these guys who don't have the money and stuff but to make sure that you know the alliance program they're all getting the same information you know with everything so um that was with uh jermaine and i think um uh casey casey mears was driving and then uh mcdowell was driving 95 car and then with jtg it was uh aj and then like i said at the end of 2016 bob lyon called richard say listen don't just guy come crew chief well he actually wanted me to come just crew chief the last few races and things went so well you know he said i'd like to have you full-time in 2017. so you did yep how'd that go great yeah my time with michael mcdowell um reminded me a lot of the time with uh dj how so that relates because it's like me and him built a relationship like here's the guy that's struggling and he might be at the end of his career if he don't start doing well i'm coming in kind of from a a bad part of my career and i want to make this whole program better which we did we ran fast in 2017. i can't help i ask you then seeing michael mcdowell fast forward to this year i mean like seeing michael mcdowell's success and winning the daytona 500. now you're an emotional guy yeah when he crossed that finish line what was your feeling oh it was a big it was big oh yeah yeah big cry oh yeah [Laughter] i was very happy for him yeah i don't even know if he'd got around to victory lane yet before i sent him a message i was at home watching it and um yeah told him how proud i was you know he sent me a message back he said man i appreciate it appreciate everything you did for me yeah you know because he left there uh in 2017 is when you know bob was going to bring in casey case came and they were gonna bring in a crew chief from hendrick to work with casey which was travis mack which we had time with here um so i was odd man out again yeah you know so from there kind of like been it's been hit and miss yeah but i'm still good i'm still passionate i can still make race cars go fast yeah i've wanted to ask you how how are you today how are you doing i'm good good yeah still emotional yeah but that's look i think i think that's i think that's an endearing quality about you man i really do and you know another thing i i think when it comes to people's legacies you know for the most part i can't speak for everyone but for the most part i think everyone's always looking for opportunities to forgive and show grace i think that's a human instinct for the most part and all people require is just you know own own your flaws man and and don't sit there and try to be perfect and sit there and deny and you know make excuses dude you've owned everything every part of you the goods and the bad i made mistakes i know that i mean yeah i i think that that's an you know a lot of people ask dale junior and i at times but you know you got a lot of these young drivers and a lot of you know seeking advice or whatever it is dale and i have gone and talked to you know a couple rookie classes a time time or two and i just wish i could tell listen you guys are just going you are going to screw up and you are going to do things that may be embarrassing just own it it's so much easier man everybody wants to forgive just give them the reason to i mean you got you got one here now that's the passion and the heart and the will to win and just drive a fast race car you know yeah in the last few weeks he's got a lot of criticism you must be talking about no yeah noah no no i've been listening to uh on sirius xm you know some conversations you know he's had and stuff i mean it's hard you don't want to take a guy with that much talent and just uh just raw talent to go fast you know you just don't want to put the reins on him and just and pull him back you don't you don't you don't want to do that yeah but you have to talk to him you know and you know be that you're that father figure that's the hardest thing to try to figure out how to do is to try to tell a guy like that how to do things differently without doing it without doing it slower right yeah don't because he has that fire tenacity in him yeah i'm just kind of letting him run this year it might be the wrong decision it might be the wrong decision right it might be the wrong choice to make but i'm for right now i'm gonna just let him keep going the kids will man he can drive i think he's got a lot of talent yeah and but he's young he's got it he's just he's got a bunch more mistakes to make sure and nobody's going to be able to tell him anything to avoid those mistakes he's got to go make them yeah right like all of us yeah he learn from them yeah if you don't learn the thing is in this book sometimes you gotta make it if you don't learn from the mistakes you made that's the problem that but it's not making the mistakes it's not learning from them sometimes well there's some mistakes you've got to make a few times before it really comes through yeah oh really yeah i mean not everybody is perfect i know and and it's going to make you make a mistake you're looking at one never make it again exactly you know you're going to make mistakes and continue to make that same mistake until finally you get it figured out uh but back to you man you you want to make it clear like you still got some left in you got something in the tank yep i do yeah yeah do you want to hear the rest of that conversation with todd parrott well you can by listening to the full podcast the dale jr download is available on all major podcast platforms

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 138,016

Keywords: Dale Jr., Dale Jr. podcast, Dale Jr. Download, DJD, Dirty Mo, Todd Parrott, NASCAR, Richard Childress, Brian Scott, Michael McDowell

Id: cZ62b2InDW0

Length: 17min 1sec (1021 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021