Danny Earnhardt: We All Looked Up To Dale Earnhardt

[Music] do you remember the first time you went to the racetrack probably not right no probably not what's your first memory of the racetrack coming forward going to concord the original track all 73 right off 73. so um do you remember when they were taking that place and tearing it down yeah what'd you think about that i didn't think it was a good idea why not because it should have stayed forever i guess yeah what was good about it i i never i only heard y'all talk about it well it's just a hometown hometown track like everybody else got was it like a quarter mile half mile a half mile half mile yeah had long straightaways i can see daddy going in the corner now throwing that thing sideways hauling mail who was his toughest competition stick elliott uh billy scott uh don bumgarner who was the guy that he got into who's the guy he didn't like to race who was the guy he didn't like to race anybody who's the guy that you didn't like watching him race billy scott probably why because billy had a really fast car and it was fast down straight away so when he got to the corner he'd slow down more and i was dead he was right up his butt and he would follow him the whole race and then that last lap there's daddy and he'd come down and he spun out every time not every time but a lot of times i didn't like it when dad and bodine got around each other so but ralph probably didn't have a have a bodine type character that well sticky other you know ended up driving for daddy when did he had heart problems but probably stick was the kind of guy he was like a dale earnhardt he was like he'd knock you out of the way really oh yeah did anybody knock ralph out of the way not many times i remember they couldn't catch him yeah this would have been before your time probably but we told that story at columbia speedway where bobby isaac and ralph had quite a bit of a rivalry and they got mad at each other and in the newspapers bobby isaac declared open war on on ralph earnhardt yeah do you have any recollections or or anything about that no i don't but i just hear i just heard stories for years about diddy going to hickory and being what 10-time champion or something and they finally barred him the only thing he only time he'd go back there was to run the championship race each year the only reason together because they borrowed him in the track because the fans quit coming because he won every week that's a fact being too good get your band from a track yes it did then did they ever do bounties on him yeah they did bounties on daddy all the time at hickory and metrolina they sure did when you were a kid and uh ralph was racing a lot of the racers would come to the house yeah eat dinner well not really but sometimes they come to ditty for props and stuff and help but he didn't help that many people it sounds like he did no he was selective yeah it was more selective i think for him what was it about those drivers he didn't mind just like ralph erie he didn't mind helping ralph i don't know if you could say it's because he knew he could out drive him maybe i don't i don't know but he didn't mind giving him equal equipment you know what i mean yeah but as far as anybody else that i remember he might help him but he wasn't gonna go overboard what did what did you do to race car to set it up to go race dirt in the 60s or 70s i have no idea like you when you was helping ralph with that car warming it up yeah what would the you don't know nothing about setting the car up no i just warmed it up did you watch him work on it yeah well he just done his thing and what was his thing police springs was big back then i don't know i remember having to go pick him up at least at the leaf spring place and a certain truck or springs that he wanted in that car back then you didn't have coil springs you had a leaf spring yeah and they had to be just right and that's what he want with okay well did was it just regular maintenance otherwise like packing bearings more or less regular maintenance and motors what about the motor he rebuilt them probably ever three or four races or something wow really yeah what else was he doing to supplement income and well in the winter he worked on some people's cars just to stream cars not much he wasn't like other people he just do odds and ends and he works uncle dub because he worked at turf shop in charlotte uncle dub did yes okay is that his brother no he's also done that's my mama's brother okay but they had a turf shot and had them big lawnmowers had i don't know what you call them had like blades going way out yeah so he got in this deal about taking those things in the wintertime and he had a drill press over there and he'd drill them out and put brass bushings in this all the more things and put them all back together or whatever and that's what he did in wintertime really for years so what did he ever what did you know of ralph's did ralph have any brothers and sisters well yeah yeah did you know gene uncle jean he lived in kannapolis i knew him and jay was in florida huh aubry he was in kanapas i knew all of them all right did you know their parents um did you know your grandparents no on ralph's side just no nope nope never had none they they were deceased before you okay and then mama's mama and daddy her daddy was dead and her mom was sick by the time i started knowing anything so yeah you came along late all right well you guys last one yeah [Laughter] so um when you're uh when you're carrying tires all these years so you carried tires for uh dad's xfinity team or his bush team all through the 80s every you know they didn't race every week yet uh but when you uh when you carried tires for dad's xfinity team what do you remember about that group why was that group so special you're causing you're dead why just because it really didn't matter about pit stops usually didn't matter ever fast no what about the people though that were on that team they were all good guys and they were more hometown guys you know not no athletes or nothing like that buddies yeah people you knew yeah anybody we would know any names yeah mike carmen he knows him oh wow mike carmen yeah well rick boss worked for you he jacked actually i guess you knew that back in the day it was a funny story about him jacking tell it well i think was that uh road atlanta and the radio went out in dale's car and we had a pit stop i think we changed maybe we changed less or whatever so it was going to pit again and we said was going to change the rights whatever he said i don't watch where y'all going but i'm going on left or something like that so it was funny you had to be there to appreciate it yeah then charlotte one time about got hit on a pit stop so the next pick stop we all got over and changed tires and rick ain't nowhere around he'd come around behind the car because he didn't want to get hit that's funny that was probably about his last that was his last jacking job i bet yeah rick did things his way he was his first employee drove the truck all that stuff yep been around a long time rick boss was dad's first employee at earnhardt racing hired him in 76 i think um and he worked till he retired from from here pretty much yeah for us yeah yeah so uh when you say that group of uh guys was a fan what kind of you know no athletes i look at that team as a bunch of buddies like rick they were you know rick boss but also like some of tony's buddies family relatives you um cousins and brothers and uncles and all that stuff uh and that team stayed intact pretty much all the way into the cup deal when i started driving yeah which is kind of remarkable considering when you look at race teams today over the wall teams all athletes all athletes but um so what was it like i guess to go when dad stopped driving the car and you all went full time did you think about were you still gonna do it did you have any thoughts about maybe not going full time going every single week because when dad raced y'all ran 12 races a year races now you got you know jeff green's gonna drive the car no i just they just let me they let me keep doing it so i just kept going you were happy to do it yeah how much was it paying i think when i started i was making maybe 75 bucks or something a race yeah we might not even got paid to start with i don't remember yeah but then it's probably like 75 or something like that and then later on i was making 400 500. a race yeah five or six hundred maybe at the end yeah and i still wasn't making what them tire changers making oh god no of course not now they're they're making stupid money now a funny story though your daddy well the first time they run new hampshire when they built that track [Music] they went up early i guess checked in and everything so we got there the day we needed to be there for a pit pit crew we walked up there and the guy that used to do tickets i can't uh marvin it's a marvin uh we walked up marlin marlin yeah he said hey dale said he's got y'all's tickets i already took care of him i said do what he said yep he said i know danny earnhardt gonna had over 20 in his pocket so he went ahead and paid for everybody i think it was 45 bucks or something because he knew i was gonna have enough money to get it that's funny so after that every week we'll go get our tickets back then you need to go in office get them i'd say marlindale's done took care of it he's known him start yeah that ain't true so um i was talking about earlier uh you and dad had a pretty good relationship um describe your relationship to me i mean he wouldn't he told you to hold off on hiring you dei yeah if you're his brother and you come to him and you're like hey i want to do this why didn't he do it why did he make you wait i don't know why but he's your brother why didn't you tell him damn it i didn't get her i just didn't get around to telling him again because i was still carrying tires and my job at the mill like i said had five weeks vacation i just sort of done what i wanted to and just didn't happen what would how would you describe your relationship with him it was good but you know i was all of us sort of like a race fan in a way because he was traveling all the time he was gone you know what i mean so actually people he traveled with at the racetrack or seen or talked to or went out to lunch with they knew more about him than i did because we didn't see him but maybe once a week if that even if i was going to the shop to change or practice pit stops and stuff you might not see him you know right so i had a good relationship but it wasn't buddy buddy i didn't hang out with him to go hunting and all that because i had a job so yeah so um you told dad that i you thought i could drive a race car after the after the myrtle beach race i appreciate that didn't know you did i didn't know you did that but um so when we're going to go race in xfinity series full time um what'd you think about that i thought it was great yeah yeah are you talking about when you went yeah when i was young yeah there wouldn't be no other solution that'd be great you thought was good oh yeah had uh when we went and flipped daytona and then i think we run crappy at rockingham um our best race i guess was the next one at vegas i think we're in second um but it didn't take long you know we kind of got going pretty good yeah we did um did the relationship with dad change at all i don't remember changing any because didn't think you saw him more no no no we saw him more in victory lane yeah which is the best moment well i mean there's some times when there's some victory lane stuff when i watched them old races he would you know he would always see you you would always see him in victory lane there was always a moment where you and him would backslap yeah um i mean he wasn't like that with everybody no i mean i guess i just didn't realize it or whatever but yeah yeah you had your nephew running for you jerry you guys are so interesting because uh dale jr shows up everybody has an opinion did you ever guys did you guys ever have conversations as you know nephew and uncle or was it literally always a team in a professional relationship you know it's hard to believe but we hardly talked it's not actually it's hard to believe i think it's our mentality or something i don't know yeah so nothing even when dale jr shows up with his hair dyed or or anything you don't have it's a single reaction no it's cool yeah they liked it they thought that was all right yeah i was all right well i got you what was the dynamics between tony junior and dale jr they were buddy buddy for a long time until he wasn't no no yeah we're not going there we're going like uh that year the first year of the uh you know 1998 yeah almost like buddies i would assume right yeah we're close yeah what about tony senior he was more like a daddy figure in a way you know he's the one to come down on him did you think that he kept everybody in check pops yeah so like this is the thing so we go you'll remember this atlanta yours i think jeff green's striving for y'all um when did you come in did you travel just race days all right so um how did you travel most time well i guess to begin with we might have been driving a lot yeah but then we started flying king airs yeah yeah you never came in early thursday night only would only when we did would be uh like if later on we were doing special carls for something and we'd go like i was a tire guy a lot of times for that or whatever yeah we'd go early what happened to atlanta i don't think he was there we go it was a situation where we went we go to the with me and carrie oh wait a minute why was there yeah okay so so we're me somehow me and kerry are going to go with the bush team they're doing they got green david or jeff green driving for him we're going to go with them just to go and we rode with them in a 15 passenger van all the way to atlanta and they were saying as we get closer and closer to the hotel they got a great bar in this hotel we're going to go in there since we get there we're going in there we're going to get we're going to start you're going to drink we're going in that bar it's great bar and me and carrie are here now we're like man that sounds fun we're gonna go upstairs and put our bags in our room first and settle in i'm not a drinker carrie wasn't much of a drinker either so we get to the ho we get the hotel and as soon as we get to the hotel we walk in the lobby they set all their bags down against the wall in the lobby of this hotel and walked right in the bar and left their bags i mean pile of bags right didn't even check in maybe they checked in but didn't go upstairs me and carrie like why ain't leave my bag laying here in the middle of the hall lobby all day so we take our stuff upstairs come back downstairs and they're in that bar and we sit in that bar and drink all night and then carrie threw up i threw up and uh carrie had some kind of you said like a spleen problem spleen yeah he had something taken out whereas uh whatever separates uh alcohol in your blood he had an operation he wasn't really supposed to drink a bunch and uh he passed out and i was worried about him but i was nate i was uh i could hear tony senior coming up the hallway and laughing and carrying on i'm like tony you got to get in here i think carrie's dead i remember that yep and he walked in there he goes he ain't dead he's just drunk he passed out so we went to sleep me and carrie threw up all over that hotel room and dad got the bill and it was a big trouble but uh-oh yeah because i dropped a little bar and all up too we drank all of it yeah anyways so when when y'all were with tony senior and all that on the weekends like that was he strict on all the guys or just me and tony junior probably just you and tom junior i was wondering yeah i think the rest of them just sort of done what they wanted to i know clark and scott daniels then they went on some adventures yeah they did but they didn't he didn't stop them no it's just if you hadn't showed up there's stories about them too like was doing a 12 race deal and going to daytona for freaking eight days or something yeah yeah oh they haven't seen i'm sure pops and tony junior stories too like laying up the top of the hall or sleeping oh yeah trying to get over the night before oh i bet they ran hard oh yeah yeah they had one guy win with us he never we missed him for days who pickle his name was pickle for a reason yeah it got him he didn't survive it no yeah he'd go with us and he he'd be gone i don't worry that happened to somebody else or was that the one story you're telling me where you were in vegas i believe and and somebody was it maybe your bus driver or that just showed up that's not safe it's not safe story is it it is okay yeah i guess it with y'all's crowd it wasn't that unusual for somebody not to show up for a couple days hit the racetrack he was a little looser back then yeah the racing was all things were i mean if you got a trail 12 race schedule and dylan hart's your driver maddest pops ever got when he went daytona i think he maybe run the first practice but then they had another one or something and they'll say i ain't running and he got so mad at him because he wouldn't run it you know oh so okay talk about pops in and dale they they they had a run in they was that common it wasn't common but it's just one of them things like you know pop's being competitive he wanted to be on track one as a practice he wouldn't go out when there's a practice you got to go out where did they get into that for that one in the garage yeah probably at the hauler or whatever i don't know nothing public no he just got mad but what does what does dale earnhardt say to tony senior when he goes after him he just tells him what he's going to do and that's when i see it you ain't got a little leg to stand on i don't know i ain't no argument i'm going to tell you that really because i feel like pops could hold his own in an argument with about anybody i don't think the kid was doing not really i don't think so you can ask him but i don't think so who could go toe-to-toe with dale earnhardt in an argument and and and he memo maybe memo really maybe but no that's that's the other thing when when when dad died we more or less adele he started being popular and everything was a race fan of course you know his brother and all but it was almost like another father figure in a way to me it was because we all looked up if you needed something you know whatever it was him 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 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Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 106,333

Rating: 4.950984 out of 5

Keywords: NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt, Danny Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Jr., Dale Jr. podcast, Dale Jr. Download

Id: MsvbyCu5w2g

Length: 20min 37sec (1237 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 23 2021