Ned Yost: Why Dale Earnhardt Sr. Didn't Leave RCR to Drive for DEI | The Dale Jr. Download

foreign [Applause] in Texas all right so we were driving we would go to this place called Encino Ranch and remember yeah whatever the name of that yeah he went there a lot a lot right so we would get on this High rack and we would drive around looking for deer so the majority of the time was spent having a beer and looking for deer right so t-shirt idea yeah yeah so we were sitting there one day and he was going through his negotiations on his contract and he was having a uh you know it was a rough negotiation about what year is this man Mike I don't know I can't really remember but it was before uh well I don't know okay but he was he was going through a negotiation right and to the point where there was a rumor or two that he might move to Ford what right so anyway he was like I ain't moving the Ford but somehow another when he went to the racetrack you know he'd get rental cars the only car left was a Ford and he showed up in a Ford and that it started it all right I got you so so he wasn't going to do that but anyway we're sitting there talking and he's telling me you know it's you know he's going to get it done but it's tough right now and I said to him I said hey so why don't you just go drive for yourself no we're not ready to win so what are you talking about because we're not ready to win he goes I'm not leaving let me tell you something he goes you never leave a winner to go to a loser RCR is a winner we're proving it Dei is going to be a winner but they're not a winner yet so you never ever leave a winner to go to a loser never well I'm sitting there and I told him I said hey let me tell you something I'm going to have to leave a winner to go to a loser and he goes no you're not and I said the only way I'm ever going to get a chance to manage in the big leagues is I'm going to have to go to a loser and that's the only way I'm going to get my shot he goes no you're not you're going to stay right there in Atlanta and you're going to take over when Bobby retires I said Dale Bobby's not retiring for 10 to 12 years he said I don't care I said let's I'm gonna have to go to a loser he grabbed me and pulled me over to his face and he said Ned you never ever leave a winner to go to a loser do you understand you never do it well I I was done with this conversation okay yeah I get it all right I get it so in 2002 is when this happened right so the first time I get this job I put on this uniform and all I can do is hear your dad in the back of my head like what in the hell are you doing right what in the hell are you doing and it went on like that I had a picture of your dad in my office and it was one of those pictures that wherever you are in the room he's looking at you right yeah it is one of those we would come in after losing a tough game I'd throw my lineup cards on the table and I'd look up and he'd be staring at me and I I mean if this happened once it happened 100 times like what the hell you looking at because I could hear him I could hear him right so it was it was a little bit tough for me to do that yeah but my goal was to go from a winner go to a loser and make it a winner yeah and we finally we were on the verge of doing that in Milwaukee and um you know it didn't work out but we we got there in Kansas City so when we made that last out uh in the World Series in 2015 all I can think about was your dad really that's it and it's a c Dale I left a winner I went to a loser and we made it a winner and I just knew how proud uh I knew how proud he was going to be and at that time so that speaks to the profound affected he had on you um and let's go let's let's learn how y'all met so when do you do you remember the first time you and Dad crossed fast yeah absolutely we uh I had lived in Mississippi and Jody Davis and I came up together in the Mets organization right Jody was a year behind me so Jody was from Georgia I'm from Mississippi or my wife's from Mississippi right and we love to deer hunt so we would talk about deer hunting all the time and in 1975 I get traded to uh the the Milwaukee Brewers Jody gets traded to the Cubs so we kind of split that way right well Jody's career was much better mine Jody was the first one catcher I was a second string catcher but back in the mid 80s or took the 86 or 87 right at in there somewhere Jody signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves and now I'm with the Braves right so we're kind of back together again and we're talking about hunting and Jody's coming to Mississippi to hunt and um I had this place uh one of my best friends um was a Timber buyer and the guy that owned his lumber mill was a guy by the name of Warren hood and he had a fantastic place to go hunting right I mean just a phenomenal Durham place I always wanted to go give it a shot found out the guy was a huge Dale Earnhardt fan right so I didn't really know your dad from Adam at that point so went to spring training and I'm talking to Jody and I'm trying to get in I want to hunt this place right so I said uh hey uh you know you guys got to come if you bring Dale we'll be able to hunt this place this was a really cool place right so he's like okay all right so he talks Adele while they set it up right so the winner comes along and Jody we're getting close and we're getting closer and Jody calls me and he goes hey okay we're coming Tuesday and I said okay cool we got everything set up we got Stan this is gonna be a blast man we're gonna have fun he goes hey uh let me tell you you know this guy he's a little different now you know he says if he don't if he don't like where he's at he'll get up in the middle of the night and go home he'll leave right so I'm like Jody to hell with it no forget it no I'm not playing this game no I'm not doing that uh-uh I'm not he goes no no it'll be cool it'll be good it'll be good right so I've got this mindset okay Who the hell's coming in here right so sure enough they fly the king they fly to King Aryan and we absolutely had a blast I mean we hunted for like four or five days Dale went home came back the next weekend and we hunted again and from that point on we just hit it off you know and we just became good friends and uh it was it was all for the love of the outdoors I think together and you know the cool thing about it was when you sit back and and think about it and I think this is why Jody was you know was such a good friend too the more you are around your dad it just seemed like everybody wanted to compete with him you know because he was the Intimidator you know they wanted to catch the biggest fish or shoot the biggest deer and you know I I made a point that I'm not competing with this guy you know we're going to be friends but if he wants if he kills the biggest deer that's fine he catch the biggest fish that's fine if we're standing in the urinal he pees longer than me that's fine I don't care right we're not going to compete and I'm not going you know to Deluge them with racing questions and he didn't Deluge me with baseball questions he was a praise fan yeah and it was just uh you know it was just a great relationship you know between the the two of us and I think the education watching him somebody told me one time if you want to be successful in a field find the person that's the most successful in that field and do everything exactly the way that he does and that made sense to me at that time now I knew that I wasn't a race car driver right but I knew that he was a champion a Champions champion and had to try to figure out what made him tick right so some of the questions I would ask him was like who's your friends on racing and this was early late 80s he goes I ain't got no friends what do you mean you ain't got no friends in racing you know they ain't got no friends in racing you you got to have friends in racing he goes let me tell you something I don't ever want anybody to look in their rear view mirror see the black three behind them and think for an absolute second that I'm their friend and that was his mindset you know back in those days it was that he was going to give No Quarter he wasn't going to let up to anybody he wasn't going to give anybody a break and I started to understand his mentality on um you know what it took to be a champion now his idea of what it took to be a champion was a lot different than mine right at this point uh and I thought it was cool because in baseball it's tough and and racing you you can probably understand too because I've I've thought about this the definition of what is a win you know and and in baseball you play 162 games all right you play every day it's a failure-driven sport if you're going to be a star you're going to get three hits for tenant bats it's the seven outs that drive people crazy it's the ability to handle failure that drives people crazy and makes a difference between success and not success so if you look at a contract and thinking through this in any sport soccer basketball baseball football whatever it is probably racing the contract States your name your address all right then it's got some stuff you can't do in there and ride motorcycles or whatever your sports and then at the bottom it says we're going to pay you x amount of dollars right so I ask my players all the time do you understand what the contract says well yeah I'm gonna make this much money I said yes but have you ever looked at it because the contract simply states that we're going to pay you x amount of dollars doesn't say anything and they're about hitting 300 doesn't say anything in there about hitting 40 home runs it doesn't say anything in there about 120 RBIs it doesn't say anything in there about 200 strikeouts with the contract simply States is we're going to pay you x amount of dollars for your very best effort every single day so if you give your very best effort every day that's all you can do so you get these kids that that don't understand that the seven outs are a part of the game and they think that you know I'm such a failure no the way that you learn how to handle failure is to gauge yourself every single day are you given your best effort at the end of the day and that was my one rule to my players at the end of the day when you walk into the bathroom you look yourself in the mirror eye to eye and you know if you've given your best effort every single day that you were prepared you were focused you played hard for yourself for your family and your teammates and if you can answer yes to all those you've done your job absolutely done your job right so go home get a good night's sleep come back and let's do it again tomorrow but your dad was different it was a different set of standards for your dad because when uh in 94 we went on strike and we'll talk about that a little later my first race was Darlington right so he ended up finishing second behind Bill Elliott for me second is really really good right really good we got in the truck because we were going back to his house man second place was really good he was pissed I don't know what are you joking and he goes no second what are you talking about second place is good second place is really really good it goes second place is the first one to lose he said there's nothing there's nothing great about second place and I thought it was a joke but the more I was around him it wasn't he lived it I mean that was his mentality and how he could handle that um the failure of not winning all the time but he was he was a different person you know I've met a lot of people I had the opportunity to meet five presidents and a bunch of different people I've never met anybody like your dad if you like that conversation with Ned Yost you ought to listen to the entire interview because the Dell Junior download is available on all major podcast platforms [Music] thank you

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 213,507

Keywords: Ned Yost, Dale Earnhardt

Id: jZMLUA8KuRg

Length: 12min 44sec (764 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 06 2022