Why did Robbie Reiser leave Roush Fenway Racing? | Dale Jr. Download

[Music] and new becomes general manager at the end of those seven seasons you become general manager but you you felt like that was one of your worst career moves yeah so I'm so help me understand you you get an idea through the suspension of hey man I'm missing some things I got to make something's got to give got to make a change but you make the change and regretted it what would you have preferred happen well you know you get put in a job where you end up with a lot of responsibility but not much Authority it makes it tough and I think you know when when I took over that job I had a lot of vision to um build things change things want you know saw it from a creature's perspective I wanted to set it up so the other true crew chiefs had a whole different uh process and I wanted I wanted to do a lot of things that that not everybody wanted to do and I think that um I didn't fit in as well as I needed to uh or wanted to um that's fascinating man because you've been there almost eight years now won a championship you've got everybody well you know Dale it's like the first first thing I wanted to do is uh you know pit stops at that or today to say pit stops are still very important and you wanted to do something at that time uh you know I wanted to have our own Pit Stop area with our with with everything we needed to have in it you know so whichever team has today yes and I went back and and if you think about it Rush was one of the very first ones to do that so I went back and I put this whole thing together and I gave it to Jack and said here here's what I like to do and um you know as soon as we you know he would come in on Tuesdays as soon as we started with the bulldozers and moving stuff around Jack came in my office and foot the gasket that I was down there building this Pit Stop area you know and and you laugh about it I mean he he threw stuff around in my office and and uh hollered you know and it was kind of like this is the job you gave me you know I I laid it all out I showed you what it's going to cost here here it all is you okayed it now you're not happy with it you know and it was kind of like it's kind of like what am I doing this for you know and and to this day if you drive by that if you drive by that pit stop area it has Riser way on it because Jack put a sign out there and says Robbie Reiser gets the same way and that's why I put that sign out there yeah you know and and and you know and there were some things with the cars that weren't right and we tried to tried to change and it was it was expensive at the time but we were also able to recoup some of that money uh by by selling parts off and changing things out and and not everybody was happy with that you know and it was kind of like you know what do I do here am I supposed to be doing this am I not supposed to be doing this and I I just never really fit into that you know what I mean I didn't I didn't really uh you know and a lot of it's probably my fault I I didn't I didn't take on a leadership role correctly maybe you know in which way in in a way that I I didn't incorporate everybody I I probably uh didn't use the team as well as I needed to I probably uh I probably just you know in some ways uh you use you know like a bullhead you just go and get do this and do this and do this and this is how this will work and and you make a you make that happen and in a lot of cases you know this was a you know this was a company I was kind of in transition to you know you gotta look at it that way um it was driven by Mark Martin and Jeff Burton and it was a hardcore racing company yeah I mean and and and and it was if you came there you came to race what was the big start of the transition you know I think I think when when management you know one group of management retired and he brought in a new the new management I think that that New Management wanted a whole different culture than what than what was there and sometimes you can't be what you're not you know and I think so true I think that that hardcore racing company was structured one way and the management seemed to want to do it a different way and and obviously Jack was you know was uh had gone through some some injuries and and I think you know medically he was he was changing a little bit too and and that transition at that time I just I just didn't do a very good job of uh of of uh doing the right things and and building a team around all that I ended up doing a lot of it trying to do it a lot of it myself and uh and you just can't one man can't make a big difference in a big company like that what was uh what was how difficult was it to leave Roush not that difficult um I had I pretty much uh I was you know I pretty much had my fill you went from yeah from 08 to 16 you ran you were the GM I mean eight years that's a long time yeah in a long time and I appreciated all all the opportunities and all the things that uh were given to me I just uh I just wish I could have did a better job I mean uh you know I I I I you know I had to live through Matt not stand I had to live through Carl not Stan did they have um were they trying to um give you any parting advice well I think Matt like hey man I'm getting out of here no Matt was not like that and and if you need it and I think um you know Matt's situation he'd I'd rather have him talk for it because yeah sure it's really his his his uh his deal but I I think at the end of the day Matt didn't feel wanted yeah I mean uh I think he would probably tell you that uh you know to kind of his contract was up and they just didn't didn't uh you know maybe took it for granted I don't know but uh I mean I went I went to him three times separately and said hey we got to do something here we got you know this is you know you gotta pay attention to this and uh it was like you know at the end sometimes I think to my you know in my own opinion I think that that they thought I think they let him go yeah I really do I mean you just don't let that caliber driver sit right you know yeah and so um you end up uh going to work for Brad Keselowski I didn't even know you did that so you left Roush at 2016 Brad's starting this manufacturing company which is really going well yes he he gave me a call um I'm gonna have to I think it was the end of ninth or in the 18th he gave me a call around Christmas yeah and he told me what did you do for a couple years well he left me a message he said hey there's Brad keslowski I like talking about a job give me a call yeah but you you said 2018 or so you've been out of work you left your house and what'd you just do you just kind of hang out for a while I just worked on my own my own projects and did my own thing and then if you know somebody needed something contract labor or whatever I'd go do it and you know fire myself out a little bit like that but never not nothing racing related I just did Fab work and concrete work or whatever whatever it was somebody needed help with you know a little old lady down the street needed her her uh her uh chimney sealed I'd go down seal it for I did you know stuff like that and then uh then then when Brad called me he left me that message and I'm like oh there is no way I'm calling him back I do not want to do this go back yeah and uh so he called me again a week later and left me a message and was more detailed about what he wanted to do and I was like well you know my my background is all production building from from the trailer company yeah give him a call and see what he wants to do so I went up there and I saw you know a lot of innovative stuff with the 3D print training and you know a lot of different materials to Titanium and inconel and all that type of stuff and the Machine work that went with it and it was really interesting and I was like man I'm I want to I want to do this so I went up and uh worked for him for close to three years as a production manager helping them get the business started up and going yeah and so why'd you leave You're gonna laugh at me but uh when he came and and decided he was going to go work at you know be part owner at Roush I decided that I didn't want to be a part of that I didn't I already done that I have worked with that group of people and I is his manufacturing company gonna have any involvement with ralsto well he he started by telling me that it wouldn't um but I kind of knew how things work and I I thought that they would cross lines and I just you know Dale I just didn't want to put myself through that one more time I just you know if people lose confidence in you and and you aren't the you're at the guy why do it a second time yeah yeah and I just you feel like you're Bob you feel like that your feelings are still bit hurt by that um the fact that they you know they left that impression on you that I I think that I've stepped back and watched them struggle for for a lot of years so I think my feelings aren't heard anymore I mean uh I think that you know what I said before uh you know that it was a hardcore racing business I think that they should have stayed the hardcore racing business and kept doing what they were doing um and to watch them falter like they did and and have to go higher Matt or hire Brad to come in and and uh straighten things out I think it's uh you know you stand back and you stand back and say well okay yeah maybe maybe you got your experience that you need now do you think knowing Brad and haven't worked with him in the manufacturing business you think he's gonna be the missing piece of the puzzle to get that thing going in the right direction I don't know as much as you do but watching it from my perspective I feel really good about Brad's and influence yes Brad is is very good at getting getting the pieces and and uh everything organized to operate and I think he I think that Matt has a big or Brad has a big c in the company because he does understand the simulation how important it is because in the Machining business it's very important and it it's no different than stalker racing it's all all married together so I think the experiences that he's going through he understands them and and he's is able to take what they have there and direct it in the right places because when when I was involved the OEM was very involved in Roush more than probably any other racing business and that's that was a part I wanted to I wanted to change I wanted Roush to be its its own identity in in some of that and and they'll say people didn't want to do that and and uh you know that that I think Brad is going to be able to do that with what he's got going and and you know it was my decision not to be a part of what he had going there I mean I I think he really questioned me you know um we had a pretty good discussion he really questioned me and and I said I said Brad let me put you this way is there something in the garage you don't like he says yeah I don't like Kyle Busch I says okay I don't like them that's that's the way it is you aren't going to do something with him I'm not gonna do something with these and that's and and we left on good terms and he gives me a call every once in a while checks on me makes her you know that I don't want to come back and work yeah yeah right that makes sense that it does I wonder though um I wonder though Robbie you say you know you would tell you would tell Brad that you don't like them and you don't want to go work anywhere in their vicinity right but they're they're part of your DNA they're part of your story and so at some point right you have to we have to come some common ground for yourself right because think about like all if you know everything that happens for Roush going forward with Brad the Celeb you know the the success that they're liable to have more than likely to have the Resurgence right there will be and there'll be moments when they'll have you know they'll celebrate their own past which is you and you're gonna you're gonna if I'm there to if I was standing in your house on the day of those moments I would be kicking you in the butt out the door to go and be a part of that you know part of that memory yeah I mean so I think I mean you know you don't have to do it today but I think at some point you've got to figure out a way where that's comfortable for you yeah I think I I hear you okay but uh I would tell you that um you know uh uh growing up in racing being a part of racing as much as much as I was and to do all the things he did for a company for almost you know almost 20 years um the end should be different yeah sure you know well maybe it's not maybe it's the end's not there yet yeah maybe it's not there but at the end of the day I just uh you know that it just didn't end the way it should I'm with you Robbie I I I just don't agree with that I I I hear you and I mean I I if I was Robbie I certainly would probably feel the same way but I think they're you know gosh you can't go all the way to the you can't go all the way to your Deathbed uh with with that harboring that you know you that's fair but I it but I I don't know um I look at it as almost like a marriage and if you have now at some point it becomes so personal whether it's a company or something else that it's beyond just the it goes beyond depth and and I think that it was like a marriage that you got crushed because it's almost like your marriage fell apart because it changed so much and now it's gone so far a direction that now when somebody comes back to go hey can you come back and fix this marriage well no I I was there to try to fix it and you didn't want me then yeah and so I I'm I think it's just perfectly natural human tendency to just I mean you can still want them to succeed and you can still want Brad to succeed but I could understand not wanting to be a part of that I I think you know I I here's the thing I think when we started over there uh Mark Martin was a big part of what we did and Mark Martin really really championed us the whole time and uh you know when there's change involved uh you have to you have to either change with it or you have to or you have to get out yeah you know and I think in in my case I had to get out because it wasn't it wasn't what I it wasn't what I envisioned you know and and you know everybody was pushing so hard that it was the evil empire and it was you know so hard to work there and it was all this and all that well hell how hard was it to work there I mean you were running for a championship and winning races every damn week I mean it's it's what it is I mean you you want to work somewhere where where you're going to win you it's going to be challenging at times and there's going to be hard hard discussions at times and you're going to have to get faced with things I mean 2008 when you look at that company it had 14 race teams in it between trucks Xfinity and cop cars plus we also went and did cars for other companies there was a time in 2009 or 10. I can't remember what it was anymore but I but we shipped out 36 cars that week 36 cars go racing between all of the all of the backups and the primaries and and all of that so think about that that's crazy that's and that was every week that was every week you had you you know and that and and that group is all the way back to two teams now I mean it's and and they're smart by backing up and getting smaller because that way you can control it and bring it back yeah and and and that's that's a good thing but I mean this company was large and and I remember one guy saying to me one time he says man we seem to have meetings all day long well when you got when you got 14 teams yes you're gonna have you're going to have driver debriefs I mean from the truck race stuff the Xfinity race the the Cup race I mean it just it just snowballs 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 boat media content [Music] thank you

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 84,131

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Id: za-Z1LKHk-8

Length: 16min 18sec (978 seconds)

Published: Mon May 15 2023