Jamie McMurray Tells Dale Jr. About Possible Concussions During His Racing Career | Dale Jr Download

you did run a race or two for Spire after you finally quit right um you finished yeah you finished eighth at Daytona was that the final one and you said to me it's harder than I remember mhm I was wondering I had sort of had this you know and I was I was having the same experience a little bit trying to run some Xfinity races and the exfinity races while it's fun to run good you go you expect to run good you put too much pressure on yourself and you're you're you know you do have those M miserable moments that you remember it's it it reminds me of all the reasons why I loved it but also why I don't do it full time right and I wonder in those brief moments that you did run uh a race or two at the you know after your career was you know done fulltime was that helpful was it helpful to like help you walk away 100% yeah I I kind of joked around about the story of running a cup car for the first time and going down the backstretch and feeling the acceleration when I went back and I don't remember if it was the first or second year R the Daytona 500 when I went back I remember leaving the pits getting about halfway down the back stretch all by myself like just going out to run some laps make sure the splitter is not going to hit the ground and I'm probably only going 160 and I was like man I'm going really fast right now like this seems this feels really fast and I know that when I raced I don't think it ever felt fast I mean like maybe at Bristol or somewhere you're like o going pretty quick today but for the most part like day till until tell it didn't feel fast you just left the pits and you kind of did your thing and I was like I don't know I don't know if I'm going be able to do this like I in my mind I'm like I don't know if I can do this and then you run a few laps and and I got around a couple cars and I'm like okay I I I'm more comfortable now now I would say the the scary part of all that is that when I got in the draft and I got around people I was a little scared I didn't care and I don't know if that's good or bad and I say that in that I was pushing people and I was loose I'm like good God about to spun out I'm I don't care because I want to win and and that kind of scared me in a way because I I think to be successful it has to be that way but I'm like I have pretty good career and I'm not hurt right now and and and I've had moments Dale that outside of the car where like I'm standing up somewhere and I I kind of get like laded and I get scared cuz I'm like is that from a concussion or is does Mike go through that and never had a concussion like I don't know I'm like I'm Doctor all of a sudden right yeah and so like in those moments like you think about when you're in the car you're like ah I don't think I want another one of these I'm good yeah do you do you know if you've ever had any problems I've definitely had a concussion I mean there's multiple times a matter of fact I wrecked at do uh late in my career Dan I don't know if you remember this Danica's rear imp plug fell out uh and oil went all over the race track in like the first lap of practice at do and you know you're running not wide open but you're just like SLE and I hit her oil coming off that actually she spun out hit the wall Tony Stewart hit it he spun out hit the wall and I hit the wall and I hit the wall where there was no safer barrier and I remember hitting the wall and I'm like I don't know where I am and my car stopped but I hit the wall like kind of flush so my car it didn't look that tore up and I was like I'm not real sure where I am and and I got out of my car and I was like boy my arm really hurts and I took my suit down and I had this like massive actually it was on this arm I had this massive knot on my arm about the size of a softball cuz my my elbow hit the side of the seat and I was like I don't you know I don't know I don't know if that's broken I don't know what's going on but I remember in my head because that's when they started doing those concussion protocols I remember in my head I'm like I'm going to lay low in that infield care center and I'm not going to look at anybody and and they didn't really know they they thought that I was just kind of part of the wreck they didn't really know how to direct and the doctor came over and I never looked him in the eye cuz I I was kind of crosseyed I'm pretty sure and he's like you okay I'm like oh I'm fine you know and I just kind of kept looking down I was like I gotta get out of here and he's like all right and they just and that was before they did all stuff and so I left and when I got on the golf cart I remember my PR guy looked at me and he's like are you okay and I'm like I don't know and and cuz he knew he could see he knew me right and I walked over I remember they were unloading uh the backup car cuz practice was still going on and I walked up in the trailer and and uh Matt McCall is my crew chief and he's like you all right and I'm like yeah and but I remember in my mind I was like I don't want to get in that car right now I know that like I I'm good yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean it's uh I imagine there there's moments for every driver in their career where they you know without the knowledge of what we we didn't have the knowledge back then you know and I I talk about it all the time when I had my first couple of concussions man you'd laugh yeah I I wrecked it I wrecked it Daytona in '98 and got dizzy and chuckled and said man I I'm I'm messed up you know it was funny for some reason which is silly you well before kids for a wife yeah right life's different yeah you thought oh Sunday I'll be fine I'm good this will be two or three days at most yeah I'm going to go drink it as a matter of fact on Tuesday damn right I mean like Yeah couple beers I feel fine yeah here's what I find interesting though is that like when you would come back and do those oneoff races here and there like um I think that that's a very real moment uh of feeling as you call it scared in in the draft but there's I think it's interesting that you went to Daytona to do those races whereas Dale you wouldn't be caught dead going back to do a restrictor plate track well that's a different like he's I went the my career ended because of concussions and so like I'm not going to go somewhere where that the 80% chance of crashing that's my point yeah right so he chooses to go there but he's not deal de with concussions as he's closing his career and that was the opportunities that like if they would have said do you want to do the Daytona 500 or do you want to do martville I would have chose Martinsville oh yeah or like a road course absolutely it feels sa I just enjoy that more than I got like I didn't I don't know I mean like I I mean it would have you know the thing that's enticing about the dayes 10 500 is that is the day 500 right I mean like and being able to win that's a huge deal versus winning you know at any other track really it doesn't it just doesn't have the same same meaning I think that's a good point though you didn't ask actually get to like go pick I was like Hey I want to go run that race okay fair enough right right right that's just kind of how the situation felt and and in all in all fairness when I flipped at Talladega my last year I remember in the race I'm like I'm never ever going to get in a super speedway car again I'm like I said it the whole race man there's zero chance don't all you guys go through that uh I mean like at the restrictor plate track it seems like once you've you know now gone through one of those nasty wrecks and if you do it long enough you you get in it right cuz Dale I remember the one time you were like this is this is not this is not even cool I don't enjoy this no yeah and um rrig plate racing changed a lot though 100% soang 100% I felt like in 2001 2004 2007 I could control my destiny and as more yeah as time went on I lost less control it was more about you you know there was just more D there's more potential for crashing just just well you could reckon the lead now there's a difference like I don't feel like that was yeah that wasn't as common at least I knew where to go to be safe before now I'm not sure where you go to be sa no go yeah nowhere safe there's nowhere to go right nowhere so how um you're 47 all right still in great shape obviously which we'll talk about for a second but um you you started biking running marathons and doing all kinds of wild crazy things um crazy crazy crazy yeah I mean you know you went head first into your your health you did um and you're in amazing shape so do you ever like think man I do I do X if it if the opportunity presented itself like you like that a oneof somewhere in a bush car or a truck or uh do you miss like for me it was like man I'd really love I had to go back and Drive Lake models again because I just got to I wanted to experience it because it was like 30 years ago you know and I'm like that was pretty fun but I was so scared and nervous I really didn't have fun so I wanted to go back and try it to see if it was really as fun as I thought it should be yeah and he scared and nervous I'm still SC I appreciate your honesty and all that because I I've listened to some of those comments and I think most people The Late Model races is like well he's not going to be nervous but we're all scared of failure I want to be embarrassed we're all scared of that yeah no matter what yeah and I yes I I would I would totally go back and do that but probably not for the reason you think I would go back and do it for my son because so he could see you compete I'm gonna tell you man that is probably the 50 to 60% of the reason why I run the the xinity races and I really was doing it for myself until I took my girls and then I was like oh man you know I got to keep doing this cuz she doesn't fig she does they remember yeah she doesn't get it she doesn't she doesn't know I'm out there cuz she thought she's like okay hey Dad yeah race car Dad and then the race starts and she's looking at Amy going well where's Dad he's in the car well where's he at you know she doesn't know there people in there right I know and so she's now five and she gets yeah and so I'm like got to run another one I got to run another one right well I had a team call me a few months ago about a really good team dang about running the Daytona 500 again and and I was like I'm like and my son's like you got to do it dad and I'm like Carter like somebody to your question I'm like I want him to call for the roal or for for like for like I don't know just the Coke 600 even right something like that because I would like to go but I'm like I don't want to do a super speedway again I'm like I think that time has passed yeah no I'm I Blame You Man my vision scares me a little bit too yeah like I see you have glasses on and I wear glasses quite a bit now because I can't see up close or far away and I I contemplate like you could I see you know don't wear contacts I've never tried me neither so your far away vision is not correctable I don't know I just they gave me progressive glasses and I didn't even know I didn't know I need them until we were driving down the interstate and my my wife like we're driving to Charleston and she's like oh we're 122 miles away and I said well how do you know that and she's like well the sign says it and I'm like what sign she's like that and like about 10 seconds later I'm like oh I'm like we are and so I went and got my eyes checked and sure sure enough it sucks I can't see anything past the gauge I can't I can't see anything from the windshield in so like outside looks great I can see a quarter laying on the track which which is way better but like looking at my little aost mirror it's blurry I could see there's a car but it's just blurry you couldn't see the like behind you do you wear your glasses nope see and so your glasses are for up close up close like for me but can you see through those glasses distance like when you look ACR so my my correct is just in the reader side ah so you just look at the top yeah yeah so at the top it's pretty much straight on it's a little blurry but yeah I could see pretty good and so but when I take the glasses off to race I like they're like hey what's the gauges who cares it's not red right not a clue I feel like I just want to give you both eye exams right now just I'm like I I never I spent 20 years never looking at them now you're asking me to read them [ __ ] I would get in cars I mean I've been racing I've been racing cars for six months the same car right and still not know which one was the water gauge where where's the water gauge at you want they ask you for the water gauge water T you're like which which one is that

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 81,115

Keywords: Dale Jr Download, NASCAR, Dirty Mo Media, Podcast, Jamie McMurray, Dale Jr, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Concussion, Racing

Id: 1bHTOK82Oq8

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 01 2023