Matt Kenseth's DOMINANT 2003 Championship Season Forced NASCAR to Change Rules | Dale Jr. Download

it sounds like he was trying to keep Matt to this on the racetrack so that their plan for Matt as a as a protege and a future for Roush would I would I think they were trying to get Mac experience so they can move them up to the cup series and and uh you know we were we were we were better than having having them to have a build a whole team to make it work so you drove Chevrolet's in 98 99 yep um how did you manage that for Matt who's signed with roushatt was that tricky at all it wasn't tricky because it was just a test deal and and Mark was kind of Mark Martin was pushing it to make it all happen so Roush wasn't really you know hardlining us they were just glad we were doing it yeah how much support did y'all get from Ralston 98.99 in terms of no engineering support no nothing nothing that was all in our own yeah so you when y'all would I remember going out I remember where your shop was uh and but so you Roush other than trying to assist in Partnerships and so forth physically had nothing to do with the team that's correct right yep the Riser Enterprise was on its own how how do you so what's fascinating to me man is that y'all run good I mean y'all you know you had two top fives in 97 with Matt but in 1998-99 you win seven races uh 17 and 14 top fives what was the what was the thing that got y'all to that point to where your cars got so good you know what was it ability to be able to you know hire more people heart hearts you got it I know but you got to build you got it you get the shock deal at that time you know the shock technology at that time was was critical you know who did the shocks Matt yeah I believe I remember that yes because I I was doing the shocks and I had one in my hand one day and I was I was working he was taught I mean that's what he did he came in and talked to talk to me and and would would bother me to the point where I wouldn't remember something and I I tried to uh pressurize one and I blew the top off it and the oil was all over the roof and and he was laughing he thought it was so funny I said screwed you you start doing the shocks then yeah I don't have time for all this yeah you know so who was who was who was navigating you know what Springs you're gonna run and trying to stay on top of spring technology because it was all kinds of crazy going on with springs you had to have this spring then then this company started making Springs and it was our it was just our team yeah I mean we I didn't really have any outside help I mean it was from Wisconsin it wasn't like I had a lot of connections I just uh it was just hard work I mean we just we just worked their way through it and did the best we could with what we had yeah pretty impressive it is impressive um what's the operation gets absorbed by Roush how does that happen what's that process well um what what happened was in 2000 they wanted to go racing cup and DeWalt want to go racing cup my dad wanted to go racing cup but but we we were we were I had to have a discussion with them and tell them Dad we were so fortunate to where we are here and then and then Visine came along you stayed with Chevrolet yes the the Riser Enterprise car got its own sponsorship and and Matt stayed with the team and just kept kept running yeah Matt ran a lot of races yes and then even as a rookie and cup he's still ran a bunch of Xfinity races yeah he he wanted to drive that bush car all the time yeah anytime we had it he wanted to drive it and uh then then uh Roush was poor I shouldn't say Roush Mark Martin was pushing for us to to come over so DeWalt and Roush got together and they put the put the deal together and then Mark pushed for us to for Matt to come over there along with me so Mark's the one who came and said Robbie would you would you be interested and I was I was uh you know I obviously was interested so you've heard of it so who's going to manage your bush team so what we did was we we uh at that time we hired Gary Coswell to oversee the bush team and kept Ross and uh and and that group together and then Dad was dad was going to help overseed it oversee the bush program at that time and I could go off and yeah and do what I needed to do everybody Roush and then they would just use me when I when I when I was needed it looked like it looked like in 2000 um your bush program or at some point your bush program was going to start developing new Talent uh you hired uh clay Rogers who I know really well Jason Schuler I don't really remember him Jason Schuler was from Wisconsin he was a kind of a matte Protege in a way so what what was that the intention is like hey man we're gonna we got an opportunity with these guys we're gonna start trying some young guys out um but then that was really short-lived what was the process it was short-lived because of sponsorship I mean as soon as we took Matt out then the sponsorship uh was hired to sell with the young guys yeah and they were willing to do it when Matt would run more races and we could we could bring in the younger guys now our Hope was that they would run well enough to to attract something else but at that time we were in able to put that together yeah and so what was the um what was the future of the Bush team from that point on I think it ran to 2003 yeah and then uh then Jack wanted to purchase it so it kind of got away you know so it got out of out of our hands yeah you're you're winning a Cup Championship at this point here your head on focused 100 on yeah he wanted us to be focused on what he was doing and he needed some help up in Mooresville so he was he was interested in my dad coming over and giving him a hand there he bought your whole team so so he purchased a lot of the stuff and then we sold some some off separately and then Dad went over to help him with what they had going on in Morrisville do you steal the shop no I have that today yeah oh wow yeah I'd still I have two buildings on it now and and the Triton trailers is the one side I ran out of front uh part and then I have my son who's got his landscape business running out of the out of the old Fab shop really yeah where is it it's in Denver what's the landscape business uh he's he's uh he's 21 years old he's got a a lawn care business and he started out driving around and cutting the neighbor's yards and he's throwing it to her to he's got basically three crews now and he's got three trucks that run out and and uh they they do lawn maintenance really yeah that's pretty interesting do you need his number um I got a lot of work I got a lot of yards yeah he ain't mowing it you ain't kidding about it so um all right so that at some point you pretty much are like hey man that that part of my life is now in the rearview mirror I'm no longer an Xfinity series owner 100 a crew chief in the cup series um let's talk about that championship year you know that was 2003 y'all win the Rookie of the Year yeah you're having great success right out of the gate um are you I mean I I was living this with y'all you know but so I I don't know that you're all that surprised to be honest with you I just remember watching y'all and you know with the success you had in the Xfinity series and the wins and then uh it seemed like when you won the championship it wasn't it wasn't an upset by that point because y'all had been the upset team that was your story winning in Rockingham in 98 right your identity was now completely changed once you got into the cup series um you felt I could see in your face this is what we're supposed to do this is what this is what we're we're Roush racing now this is this this success and this this is what we expect the goal was to stand on the stage at the Waldorf I saw you know Richard Petty and Cale Yarbrough or your dad I mean that that's what you grew up watching you know and I wanted the I wanted to experience that you know and uh I think Matt and myself are are you know we were a good team that way because he wanted to win races and I want to win a championship and I think in 2002 we won we won quite a few races but we didn't we weren't able to get up into points because we weren't consistent so in in uh in all three it was about being assistant it was about you know you know not Taking Chances and and making smart decisions and and uh you know there are some races we could have probably won if we would have stayed out on field or we would have did this or it did that well I never I didn't do that I I you know the the way the championship was set up was a guy with the most points wins so that was the goal and to get the most points that's what we're trying to do and that's the way we raced all year yeah back up do we we do I remember this right was your first win with Madden cup the 600 yes in 2000 in 2000. that was a big deal was it yeah Bill had one in Texas so we had to come back and win a race that's what I remembered this route both of these guys that you know their their careers are sort of you know parallel with each other from this I remember the series and then such a big deal made about that rookie season for him and then Here Comes Matt winning the 600 which was a huge deal I couldn't believe it he Matt reminded me that he won Texas right away yo he won Texas we're gonna have to do something here we were very competitive and me and Matt talked a lot in you know weekly almost especially through 98.99 um and we shared a lot of you know even in our rookie year Matt would come to me and go hey they're asking me to do this are you doing that you know talking about you know NASCAR and other other off-track requests and stuff like that and getting motorhomes and we'd go to each other's houses and hang out and party and uh we went to uh I won the All-Star Race the week before and uh and then we're running that 600 and we were running really good y'all were running good dad was running all right and they had a rain delay if I remember correct yes it was a rain delay you're right yep and I get out of my car and I go over and sit next to Dad and I think I'm I led some laps I'm up front I'm like yeah man what you think about you're seeing from this eight car man what about it old-timer you know we won last week I'm really feeling good about myself and we restarted that race and I'm like man I might win the freaking 600 tonight and we ended up running fourth and Matt smoked us after the rain delay I was like holy you know what I did the original I went and got I went and got everybody's sandwich and stuff because the race is so damn long yeah right everybody was hungry so I went and had sandwiches and all that brought down and and everybody had a lunch and I said okay now it's time to get back to racing here yeah that was a long night um but I remember I don't I mean I can't say what it was like on y'all's side but I do remember y'all's success was a good a good influence and driving force for Tony Senior myself Tony Jr we all got along really well yeah um but our successes I I think pushed each other because we both you know we braced each other for championships in Xfinity series we raced each other for Rookie of the Year title and then we're gonna you know there's a race to who's going to be the first to win a championship y'all actually did it I never did it um we did Skip all the way past the one damn time we that we actually only owned track accident we ever really had was at Dover when I wrecked us both but otherwise I mean we just we just always were like one up in each other if you will it was a really great relationship I mean it was it was competitive but it was a ton of sportsmanship you know and and respect even at Dover [Laughter] we had some laughs over that but uh you know and and uh Tony Senior I I told the story but uh you know I think the the real relationship between myself and Tony Stewart are Tony uh senior was when uh when that Dover crash was and and we fixed the cars and and uh we're getting ready to go home and and we walked I walked back to the truck and Tony was standing there and he brought me to the front of the trailer and uh we had we drank a beer together he had two beers sitting there he says let's just let's just have a beer and have a laugh he said he said I'm sorry it just happened and I I didn't know what you know at the time I didn't know who wrecked ooh I was just fixing cars and trying to trying to get the whatever points we could get out of the day you know and uh uh what an amazing moment those guys were you know for all the years that we raced together I I I will say that I had a lot of fun racing my late model in 90 in the 90s I had a really really good time racing the bush Series in 98 99 uh with with your group yeah you know with our team in our team and and even when we went Cup racing we got separated a little bit because of the way they set up the garage and the points were but it there it was always it was always fun it was always neutral respect it was all you know there was never a bad word it was always it was always a laugh you know I still remember your dad coming up and uh coming up on our trailer all the time and getting my mom's cookies and uh you know my mom you know Dale's up here taking my cookies you gotta quit taking my cookies here I gotta make more cookies you know and it was such a it was a really fun time I mean Tony Senior we had we had so many laughs and and Tony would lose his mind and Dale would tell you that Tony would lose his mind I watched him throw scales one day in the trailer and I walked over 15 minutes I caught him Rosie because he's turned red he'd get so mad he turned red he took those scales and sailed them in that trailer because they were in Wireless things and they never worked and he took and threw him in the truck and I walked over about 15 minutes later and he I said Tony you're all right yeah I'm all right these damn guys around here think this works and nothing works I've never even asked you this and I've forgotten about it but now it occurs to be I gotta ask Dale wasn't there like this magazine article where Katie Kansas threw shade at you called you like silver spoon or something like that I think no like in the ESP in the magazine like she was like mad at you for some reason well you remember that no I don't know the article you're talking about but um I made a mistake one time I did not know apparently I did not know what the definition of homely means oh Lord and so I thought that homely meant um a very natural looking uh like so I was trying beautiful without having needing makeup yes like a like that but also like man you like the like a like a very grounded um you know I don't know what I was trying to go for man whoops yeah homely I told Matt that so I said we were at Talladega and I said and Matt and her were getting really serious and we taught we how Matt would share with me what was going on in his personal life and I would share with him what was going on in mine and he's like I was like oh man you know you're getting he really liked her they he was telling me how excited he was how they were how he I remember him coming and telling me about the first time they got to hang out and he had went home for something a wedding or something and uh he's so excited and I finally get to meet her and hang out with her and I think by this point they were maybe even married and I was like I was telling I was like man you've got yourself a great match you and her you and her fit really well she's so homely and he's like what and I was like yeah man she's she's cool oh and I hurt his feelings I don't know what the hell I was saying and she he runs help Bill he he knew I screwed up and he runs and tells her and now she don't think it's funny she don't think that's a little you know the Miss she she knew I misspoke but she didn't think it was very funny at all she was pissed um and she and I proficially apologized because I didn't even know the definition of the word I was using but I do know now yeah but yeah she don't take no and she did get you back in an article I'll dig it out let's not do that let's just slip oh I'm doing it years ago man Just Let It Go all right we're back on the Robbie story here I just needed to know look that nobody has a problem if anybody has a problem speak now forever hold your peace you you spoke up no okay I stood up in his wedding you know like one of the brides or one of the groomsmen oh Jesus yes you were a groomsman that's not stand up you didn't give us that impression yeah well I guess maybe that's the difference between Southern and Northern yeah North you stand up you were a wedding you were a grimsman he invited you to be in his wedding yeah believe that I do y'all were freaking tight I think he knew that you were that you know you're such an important part of his success on the track and his you know keeping him grounded he's my friend y'all were close and you didn't call his wife homely that didn't call his wife Katie's a really great person it really is had a lot of fun with her she's amazing fantastic all right I've made my share of mistakes [Music] I will say this it was a lesson learned never to say a word that you're not too sure about the meaning so um winning the championship you know you've realized this dream um and the one thing that I think is interesting is you clinch the championship um in the last you know the the second to last race at Rockingham and classic style that man with Dad would win the Championships or racer too early that was a real Fu minute a moment you know like your middle finger through the rest of the series like y'all couldn't even you know we're racing ahead of y'all we don't even have to go to the last one that was a real badass thing to do um but you you know NASCAR goes and changes the points uh championship and you know brings in this playoff format everybody knows that you guys influenced that and I wonder if you does that is that like um a bragging point for you personally you wouldn't probably ever mention it publicly but among friends like is you know you ran you ran the championship system so well that you had you forced NASCAR to have to go change it I don't think that ever crossed my mind for that that part no I think uh you know I grew up we grew up winning races and championships by the guy winning the most points and I think that that was how you want them I mean I I didn't know any other way it's my favorite way to win them yeah I mean I I didn't know any other way to to do that uh that's how you did it in Wisconsin you raced from race one to to the end and yeah you were the champion if you had the most points and uh that's the way we did it here I mean I I understand where they wanted to go I mean they wanted to manufacture more excitement and do all these things but uh sometimes when you try to manufacture something you're you're depleting another thing you know and I think uh you know if I look back at racing traditionally uh and and be you know part of part of the sport that was that was something uh that that was you grew up seeing you know and the big thing was yeah you know at the end of the year you always saw everybody go to New York and you wanted to be a part of going to New York you know to stand on you know the stand by your Championship car down on Times Square and go to the White House and do all these things I never ever in my in my process uh throughout this without all this would happen yeah you know it was just yeah you're looking out the windshield all the time trying to get this trying to get that do this do that you know and uh I I never really thought about the the chase I thought about winning the championship and I guess I guess the thing that winning the championship a really didn't set right with me is when we won the championship the team wasn't even in the same room what and yeah the the team was off in a different room and I remember going to see my mom and dad and they were in the back of this room watching it on TV in the in the Waldorf yeah in the Waldorf and they're in a different Ballroom it just changed something in me I don't know what that did to me that day but it did something because to win a championship it requires everybody I mean it's a village to win you know I mean it takes it takes a full team and all the other people on the outside that are helping you to get there to do this and and to be a part of this and to have that separated yeah really took a lot of um you know air out of my out of myself it wasn't always like that was it no I mean I remember when Dad won the Championships in the 90s and and maybe I think the first one I went to was in the early 90s they were in the balcony that's right Hooten and hollering yeah but they only let them know on the balcony for like 10 minutes really yeah yeah and there was even you know I guess you know our guys had too many people and they even were gonna take some people and push them out of the balcony and and Jeff Vander was the car chief he said no we either all go or we don't go oh I see what you're saying you're saying that they they were gonna let your guys go up there for 10 minutes yes but yeah you're saying yeah yeah I always remembered watching those things on TV in the in the teams there you can hear them yeah they were definitely yeah only during their speeches though yeah they let him in there yeah they let them in there otherwise they they weren't in there and I and it really it really hurt my feelings when I my mom and dad weren't even in the room you know oh yeah all this everything you'd worked for in this dream you're realizing and yeah something like that that would have been probably one of the most important things about the whole process hey if you like that video like and comment below and don't forget to subscribe so you'll never miss another piece of dirty mode media content [Music] thank you

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 82,831

Keywords: Dale Jr Download, Matt Kenseth, Robbie Reiser, Dirty Mo Media, NASCAR, Podcast

Id: q8GlyaYUFV0

Length: 22min 4sec (1324 seconds)

Published: Fri May 12 2023