Dale Jr. Download: "We Just Lost The Greatest Driver We've Ever Had"

[Music] getting back to dad real quick there's one one thing that you know I wanted to talk to you about it's a bit of a difficult subject to discuss but typically when people come on this show and they have any kind of connection such as you do with my dad and that that the day we lost dad we've never sat down and really went through that I don't we're not going to do that right now that's for us to do another day but a lot of the world and industry fans alike were introduced to Mike Hilton the day you had to get up on that podium and deliver that news that we had lost dad if you can't tell me when you have that information you know our great friends did you realize I guess in that moment what you had to do what you were about to do and was I mean obviously I imagine that might have been the hardest thing you've ever had to do can you kind of help me understand I guess what you went through to go through that process and even maybe what the hours were like after that what all that you know you know I think you might have been living in Daytona at the time so you didn't it was one like you had to get up and go home like we did or the rest of the industry you drove down the road to the house at some point in the day but you've got to go up there and deliver that news how did you do that how I mean that to me you were to me that was the toughest thing to do for anyone that whole day was to go up there and tell everyone what had happened I don't know how you did it and how did you I'm not sure how I did it but the the the sequence of events got us to the point where okay we you know a lot of folks had already assumed what had happened but we had to authenticate it by but by making an announcement so we're we're we're back from the hospital into the garage area there and Bill jr. if you remember it's going through cancer and so he was what he was on his toes sort of speak but that he didn't have the energy that he didn't want to do it in Brian and Paul Brooks and myself and Bill jr. and and others were sitting and saying we you know we've got to go make the announcement and and so bill just kind of pointed to me and said you go do it and I said well what do I say I said you know we just you know we just lost the greatest driver we've ever had what am I supposed to say and I think it was Brian or Paul Brooks both at the same time step and said just say that you know just say we lost him and I I still think that the the the realness of all that hadn't sunk in I still I still thought that there was part of me that thought well I'm gonna wake up here before I have to go do this and I never got a chance to wake up I just had to go do it and walked in and said what I said and I don't know that it was scripted or it just came out the way it came out and and then you know we we went from there and did the best we could to figure out what next add your I don't you remember the rest of the day I so at the hospital Teresa was in Tate over staying on the boat the Intimidator down at to chart house and and so when we knew the final results of things then I told Richard and Judy I told Teresa I said if you don't want to stay on the boat you can come stay with me and Linda because you dad had stayed down there during the 24 hour race yeah and and she'd call her up and so they he knew that that connection anyway so we we sent a car with her and Taylor down to the boat and then they went to the house and I had I left my car at the racetrack and there was there was two other people with me I think it might have been Michael and Richard maybe it wasn't Richard I think Richard and Judy came in a little bit literal so we all kind of just gathered at my house that afternoon Taylor and Teresa stayed overnight somebody else did too but I can't remember exactly it wasn't Michael and Elizabeth or Richard and Judy but we kind of operated out of there and that's and it just all kind of flowed there wasn't any with any plan or design or anything it that evening just kind of unfolded because obviously there was a lot moving every step of the way and and and staying close to Teresa and Taylor was was important to Richard and Judy and I remember we got to the house and I got a phone call from the track security guy and and he said do you know where Teresa Earnhardt is I said yeah she's here with me won the president United States wants to call him and that was George Bush and and so he ended up calling the house and talking to Teresa that night and there's the strange little things that you kind of remember and I I'll never get into all the other details that I remember but we didn't sleep much and you guys didn't sleep much at night and it was I don't remember nothing about after legal hospital I member going to the bus and talking to Tony senior Tony junior and don't remember nothing after that I don't remember how we got home or what I did that night or where I was that did you I mean your for me I had I had to you know I had a lot of emotions about going back to the racetrack and and Rockingham was the next race we had a great win with Steve Park and it was a interesting very emotional positive day with it you know with the pre-race everything everybody was walking around there three hats on what was your emotions I guess going forward like you know as in the industry I mean you guys had to have a plan for the sport and had to make decisions for the sport and the betterment of the sport but personally did you have doubts about your future did you did you think man what are we going to do what did you have doubts about the future of the sport I mean how did you guys as an industry pull the pieces together going forward yeah and and I don't know that that you know bill was was sick and and I worried a lot about him yeah because of his relationship with you dad but the the mechanics of it all you know between Daytona and Rockingham the service and and it it from an industry perspective and personally - I thought it was almost kind of a relief to go back to the racetrack yeah he didn't feel right and that may not been exactly what you wanted to do but there was some there was some relief to getting back it was like putting the pieces back together and keeping going but at the same time being very understanding of what happened and and I don't think I ever worried about the future of the sport and I never questioned my job in the sport at that point I think we were more focused on finding an answer to how these things happen you know because if you remember in 2000 it was it was Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper in very similar situations and so we had a series of things going on which is what established the R&D center over here at Concord Regional Airport is is a focused effort on finding out why this is happening in our sport and stop it and then we were working with Tony Georgian in Annapolis group and building the safer barriers and we were in the middle of developing all of those things and so while while we were finding the answers because the world won't and say hey what happened here you know yeah we we lost one of the greatest drivers in the history of motorsports so what what what the heck happened you know so we had an obligation to figure that out we had to go through that and that took us two longest I think it was before we were able to get in front of everybody and say here's what we found and we used experts from all over the world to get those answers in in the meantime it was how do we stop this from happening again you know we can't we can't go back and we don't have a time machine so the best tribute is to be sure it doesn't happen again and so we turned the wick way up and everybody in the world wanted to play a role in it we that was the most concerted effort around making race cars safer that that ever happened and still exists today because of that and and when I think about that day I always land on the fact that that you know hopefully we've done good from that oh yeah I mean it saved countless lives with the innovation and the safety that we have in our cars today you talk about Terry Labonte being a man of few words I've probably had about 30 total with Terry Labonte and I would say about 75% of those are about safety and what I had in my car what he thought I should change and all that I think the whole sport was in a Mahmood of trying to improve and trying to be better and and sort of eliminate those issues I know that you would not want that to be a defining moment in your life but it is it was you going up there to that podium to deliver that news I can't think of anyone else that I would have wanted to do that and you know you always protected that our family you've always protected me as a friend you're a friend of many people in the garage many drivers and you know we appreciate you and appreciate everything you've done I know you're gonna be around for a long time and and be a big part of the sport you're around longer than I ever thought you'd be that's for sure [Music]

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 578,022

Keywords: Dale Earnhardt Sr., Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR, Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Jr., Mike Helton, Dale Jr. Download, Dirty Mo Media

Id: sCIY-K1HO6k

Length: 11min 5sec (665 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2019