Dale Jr. & Kevin Harvick Finally Discuss Hurtful Comments from 2017

[Music] hey good for you and the fact i don't ever remember you having dust ups that were small frankly i i mean everything you if you're not jumping off somebody else's car but look in 2002 jumping off somebody's car that was probably the only thing you remember that happened good that year right no no i i uh the only thing that good happened in 2002 sometimes you have to keep yourself relevant and that was your attempt to keep yourself relevant i mean you did it it was in race four that year xfinity race yeah at bristol bristol's a big track for you man that's right okay since we're here talking we now know that what the situation was at junior motorsports you say it was all but dale on why you wanted to go out gracefully 2017 then the comments that you make about uh and in fact i think that i'm i'm i'm curious it's not even aware i'm curious if you're even aware that you're one of like maybe two or three people that we said probably would never be on this show i have never listened to the show no that's fine i'm not i'm not saying that i'm not i'm not saying that but i would say that there's a lot of people when you said you came in through you know by passing fans i wasn't even sure if they might have said like that it's been kind of let's just call it a a topic of conversation the narrative over the last several years i did get a heads up i did get a heads up that you that you have um a lot of um a lot of this topic of conversation i i did get did i me personally you personally oh well i'm not the only one in the room yeah you know so let's just since we're just airing it out let's here's how all that started so for for me you had retired i was in the middle of nowhere in the middle of retirement so the the way that all that started it was all over i was in the middle of a contract negotiation that year and it all started over the comment about driver salaries and at that particular point i don't know that i'd actually gotten over all this to be honest with you and you think yeah and you were still a little bit come on it's still a little bit better oh yeah you have not gotten over yeah you know i under i believe that and it's still a little bit bitter about that and then and then for for me i was like man i i thought he was on the driver's side and then talking about salaries going down and i'm like i got to change the narrative of the conversation we had the happy hour show at that particular time and the narrative about driver salaries was gone at that particular moment because of of everything that was that was said on the show and you know i think as as you look at that definitely not the right way to to handle to handle all that and and by dale no no no by me yeah just just in in the way that it would have all went down and you know i think as as as you look at that you know taking a dig at the drivers and their salaries and and everything that that was was said at that particular moment that was just something that i didn't want in the news and didn't want that to be a topic of of conversation and and you know said said the things that i said and and then um you know you have to you have to live with those right so you're saying and and i think that if if we're doing podcasting right which we never pretend to know what we're doing is that what we're i thought we were doing a tv show whatever it is yeah there's a few cameras but i th the the comments were basically that and i'm paraphrasing here but the comments were that you said that dale jr is stunting the growth of the sport in so many ways and i'd have to go back and look i don't remember what it was and because he's stunning the growth of sports something about because he's not winning but he has a lot of the fan base so he's not like a lebron james or a tiger woods or something like that but he's stunning the growth of the sport yeah so you know i think our sport is is very interesting right so you know you look at you look at dale and chase and and a lot of the traditional nascar racing families and the heritage that they have in this sport our sport is a very much of a a family sport and i think when when you look at all of that right and you take all that in there's just a there's just a there's a heritage that that lives in our sport with with um you know families and the traditions that they build forever and you know i think for for me um it's always been very interesting to me as to why and this doesn't this doesn't have anything to do with with his popularity that's always going to be there but why jimmy johnson was never more popular than he was do you not do you not wonder that sometimes well if you listen to this show we talk about it all the time oh you do yes i i feel exactly the same way you do about jimmy knowing the guy he is the person he is i mean why is he not why is he not more i mean he's celebrated but why isn't he he's all american he fits the mold he's perfect he's the atlanta braves of nascar why isn't he the most popular and that's really how this conversation got started because no no no i think that i think that that there was a piece or an element if i remember correctly i'd have to go back and and figure all that out there was a piece or an element that that had started with you know the the popularity of jimmy johnson and and and it it developed into what it developed into with with talking about taking a dig at him because of the fact that um you know he wasn't the winningest driver that jimmy johnson was none of us are um and and why jimmy johnson wasn't the most popular driver when you look at other sports you know you look at lebron james and you look at uh football and it's i don't even know who it is who would it be in football yeah i guess it'd be tom brady you know and it's just it's our sport is different in in a number of different ways and and you know we'd even we even talked about it at one point i believe when you when you talk about jimmy johnson when you pair him up with with jeff gordon and dale jr it's impossible for him to ever capture those two fan bases because of the fact those fan bases those fan bases were developed but they also started with us you know a huge magnitude of people and things so wrong way to go about it was it the wrong way wrong way when did you when did you think it was wrong um you know i i i thought it was you know after after you get after you get a year or two probably into that it was probable i knew it was wrong when you called josh and he did i call josh absolutely oh i don't remember he said what the why is he why is he doing this and it sounds like something i do yeah yeah and you know i think at that point you um it's kind of like getting out of the car you're you're mad about what somebody says and then you fire back and then you're like well can't take that back so i'm not gonna i'm not hiding from it but not to not to minimize my comments but um it was 2017 i was in the middle of my retirement year and so every weekend they would take me into the media center to do whatever they were going to do and they would always ask me about current topics and everything coming in and out of the sport every week and we were they were asking me about matt kenseth and why he's getting shuffled out of gibbs and how he's probably not going to have a ride or how well who will hire him right and so i was thinking well matt's got to bring his asking price down and you got these other drivers coming in like byron and these kids that'll take nothing to take his job right take his he'll hit if i'm an owner i'll pay uh you know christopher bell or or william byron half or way less right than than hiring bra or matt and uh not knowing that you were in the middle of a contract negotiation and you weren't the only driver that came to me and said i had a problem with what you said yeah you know and so i just want you to know i guess that i probably could have had kept my mouth shut about that yeah me too and that would have done the same that was definitely a hard time well you go i go into that media center every week and they're asking questions and you just answer them right yeah and you tell your truth or whatever you feel like you believe and but that was that was probably a conversation that you're probably i'm i guess i understand absolutely why you were upset about that well here's the other problem to that piece i had i had a radio show and a producer and you get fed yeah this is this is what this is what was said and it might be half of it or it might be three-quarter and then you're like well that yeah yeah oh yeah yeah so he gave you the he gave you the ammo and yeah and then you turned you right up oh yeah and so you know but i still said it i can't blame it i'm not trying to blame it on somebody else i text you after us after i heard about the comment and i said damn that sucked and you you said it yeah it probably made you feel the way i feel about your comments yeah and so i oh kevin said that to you yeah i mean like a day a day later and uh and so i'm glad uh that you know we've i've used this show and you know for a long time to to talk to people that you know that i have these differences with or if you you know my feelings are heard or or i've had a fight or an argument or me accomplish somehow or another got into that studio over there in that booth and had a conversation and we get along okay he dropped beer to be clean i wouldn't say we're best friends and we don't go to dinner but we're good right and uh you know with your history i mean i've known you for a long time oh yeah and uh and i want to talk about that you know but i um and that hurt my feelings so bad when you did that and um i knew that you didn't feel that way like i knew that you weren't just having a general conversation i knew you were it was a hatchet job because of what i'd said and so i but i did want to fix it yeah at some point and so i hope that you know beyond today we can both agree that uh we it's regrettable and and get back to being friends yeah no i i agree because that's the one thing about this sport that most people don't know right you have to be around people and you have people that that you have a lot in common with that sometimes and i think for for me i choose i choose to almost be silent and just go away from things and and just not talk about them and and just not be around them um and that's that's probably you know all the time not the not the right way to do it and i think for for me i say stuff that you look back on and you're like oh my god why why in the world would you say that and i think as you get older you start to you start to you know i'm the same way it's good to fix those things because you know for for us we've obviously been around this for for a long time and and i think for for me i i feel this the same way i'm i i wish that things would have went different for the xfinity deal and yeah i i'm i it frustrates me to know that you uh felt that went the way it went and you you were frustrated by that for a good period of time because you deserve better than that and uh you know just because we were friends you deserve better than that but also for what you did for this company and uh and who you are is is your stature as a as a driver in the sport at the time you deserve better than that um but uh you know let's let's just bury the hatchet like you said earlier let's bury that hatchet that's the point i guess mike you ain't got any more to talk about on that do you yeah i'm not i'm just getting started no i'm kidding i would i actually wanted i think you guys are sort of addressing it but i was always curious with kevin again we live such we have such different vantage points and perspectives and i was always curious if there was this if if you detected a palpable tension between you and dale after the in the aftermath of that like did you did you or were you just completely oblivious to it well i i think i think there was you know i have this i have this ability to just block things compartmentalize yeah yeah i think that's a common trait that all drivers have and i think um the unfortunate part about what we do is you can you can stay so busy and you can get so consumed with your little bubble that you can ignore everything else okay until you are in a setting like this right and i think in the end everybody had to agree to come to this setting and say okay i mean i think we all knew what was what was this was going to be talked about today and i think everybody wanted to just get it all out there and bury that hatchet because of the fact that i want to be his friend i want to be your friend we had a lot of well even before this place we had a we had a lot of good times of of things that that um that that had happened leading up to this point and you know i think i think for for me when i came to to this particular organization for the xfinity deal i felt like i was coming into something that i was going to be a part of to to help progress and run and and just somewhere that that you could have fun on saturdays and and yeah really really be a part of it and and um you know i think when that when that all went down uh the second year you were like well this that sucks that's really not what i had pictured in my mind but in the end it you know all that is all that is in the past and i think it's it's good to be able to to hear it from all angles because knowing how much it hurts is it hurt his feelings and and you know makes me really realize you know how detrimental the things that that you can say sometimes you know well hurt other people and and i know you're mad but you probably have heard it from different perspectives you've probably heard it from a different perspective than you've ever heard it from today with things that you that you've never talked about too so i think that's always good and healthy to to get all that i'm glad you filled all that out and i'm glad you brought up the relationships because you know it's funny people will go at us and and i don't know if you see it because yeah i don't think you're as drawn to social media but like you know people your fans will be like oh kevin said something mean to me i'm so hurt i wish he was our friend he said meanie now and i'm just like all right all right i got it maybe we have that coming but here's the thing y'all don't understand like how much how much we like kevin like that was the thing it's like it was like yeah yeah he's just that he was that guy and there's been a lot of drivers come through here i don't give a damn about i ain't gonna i'm gonna lie i couldn't tell you half of them to be honest with you i can't even name them but but you were special here you were special that time here i was not even aware of all the other stuff that was happening in the second year the the the reason why we would have taken that personal and i've thought about this is that you got a guy who has already announced his exit like he's hitting the exit he's going out so the timing of it and now i know what the source of it was which i'm not even saying i disagree with you on that i i know what the source was your intention i don't think was to be personal right to dale the thing is is that what i wish people would understand is that like ultimately as humans um there's a lot of like you know name-calling stuff you couldn't give a damn about it doesn't matter but like when you sort of go at someone's legacy especially as they're trying to leave the sport well that is that might be one of the more insulting things that could be said and i don't know if that was even intentional or if you would have even realized it but that's how i took it is that wait a second he isn't you know 75 years old petering around the racetrack you know in everybody's way like he's already had his retirement press conference he's leaving the sport it kind of felt like kicking a man while he's you know down a flight of stairs or something as he's trying to leave what but but ultimately it was like the timing what we got to do for the next several months in retirement was defend a legacy that's what you know and you know he's talking about going into the media center you know he could think of 10 other what places he'd rather be than answering questions in a media center and yet here he is now answering questions about well was kevin right was kevin right i mean because that was the debate over the next month at least was kevin you know you'd hear it like well he ain't wrong dale ain't won he ain't winning yeah and so it was just a constant reminder that oh yeah we're not winning yeah oh yeah we could we could be hurt in a sport and i don't that's that was the only reason why it became personal i think and i know that and i certainly kevin i not once do i ever think like you should care about what i think about anything i'm too inconsequential to all that but sort of like your producer would egg you on i probably did the same thing to dale yeah i'm gonna lie well that's that's the other thing is i get it right like like listening do you talk and everything that you say is is 100 true right you know and and everything that that you feel and and say is is probably um not exactly the the way that i would would feel um but i have i have feelings about it too so my point is you know when when you hear it from from your angle it's like i get it i hear it from your angle i get it and and it helps me realize it helps me realize the things that i could have done better or different and how much it actually you know hurt the situation and and hearing it from your angle i i don't ever like i don't listen to josh so i don't definitely wouldn't wait a second but i would listen to you today i would listen to you today and because because and and really any day just because of the fact that that you have to have those those perspectives because you guys everybody sees it from a different a different light and it's you could take that and relate it right back to the car you have to be open-minded to listening to other people's opinions because of the fact that everybody looks at it differently and there's there's 39 other cars that are that are in this garage with a whole different group of people and and there's people running businesses and doing shows and and so those feelings and and those conversations and those opinions they matter um but you know up until this point we've never heard each other's opinions uh you know since since those days because of the fact that i don't know i'm stubborn i know that all right guys i know a little bit about cars so believe me when i tell you that tire pros they're the real deal they've got great people great service and they can take care of all your automotive maintenance needs plus there are spots for this show so you know they got great taste in podcasts so check out tire pros follow them on facebook and tell them that i sent you did you enjoy that conversation with kevin harvick we ought to listen to the entire interview it's full of great stuff the dale jr download is available on all major podcast platforms

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 860,921

Keywords: NASCAR, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Jr., Dale Jr. Download, Dale Jr. podcast, DJD, Dirty Mo Media, Dale Earnhardt

Id: lc0S8ctvlYk

Length: 19min 19sec (1159 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 02 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/justBusinessbb]

Harvick flat out said he didn't handle it well, and explained what he was mad about.Dale Jr. said he himself probably should have kept his mouth shut about the salary thing.They all handled it like grownups, including Mike, got us a nice friendship-mended moment.

I did think it was funny how the episode started with the talk about the tiff with the current most popular driver, and Harvick mentioned at some point after he pissed off the previous most popular driver's (Dale) fans, they were literally waiting at his house when he came home. Guy must be getting pretty sick of dealing with the "most popular driver" fans lol.

[u/moomoomistacow]

Get the impression Kevin doesn’t think what he said was wrong just wishes he didn’t say it out loud. And he’s probably correct in that assessment

[u/supremegnkdroid]

What’s the story with the xfinity ride? I looked it up but just got that he was pushed out.

[u/Canadaguy11]

I really enjoyed the whole interview

[u/KWeber94]

This was the best episode so far imo. Great conversation between the two of them. I really enjoyed the end too when he talked about Keelan and how his racing is going. I’d imagine we are going to see Keelans name coming up through the ranks in some years

[u/Letsgoobrandon]

Kevin was not wrong

[u/krel08]

Harvick is a prick, but he is our prick.

[u/dooldebob]

Old man Harvick kinda looks he could be Colin Cowherd's sibling

[u/HandsInMyPockets247]

Great conversation.