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#1196 - Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a semi-retired American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and is currently an analyst for NASCAR on NBC. His new book "Racing to the Finish: My Story" is available now.
hello ladies and gentlemen this episode of the podcast is not brought to you by Netflix but I just want to let you know there's a lot of Netflix shit that's out right now from our friends Joey Diaz has a new special out right now on Netflix called the degenerate as well as Christina pazsitzky yesterday's gas hilarious Christina pazsitzky she has a pod she hasn't scuse me she has a podcast called your mom's house she does with her husband the Great and Powerful Tom Segura but she has a Netflix special out right now and I have one out to mines called strange times and it's I think it's my best one it's if it's available right now this episode of the podcast is brought to you by the cash app you probably heard me talk about the cash out before it's a fucking amazing application for both Android and the IOS operating system and what it is it's the number one app in finance but it also is attached to something called the cash card to Cash Card
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is a very very cool guy famous race car driver son of a famous man and just an all-around cool motherfuker so please give it up for Dale Earnhardt jr. The Joe Rogan Experience
hello Dale hey how you doing thanks for doing this man appreciate it yeah I'm glad to be here nice to meet you man and nice and found out that not only your race car driver you also a bow hunter yeah yeah I saw your archery equipment all that stuff but me and a buddy of mine on some land and and I try to get out there and at least go twice a year I just love being in the stand sitting in the woods just thinking about what's going on in brain Clemson right everything before the shot really is what it's all about that's a lot of the right that's that's a life changer I don't know I've got a golf simit the house so I got to figure out where I can put that golf the one I've always avoided I've always avoided golf because I just saw it suck away people's time
time in the patience to really block that whole day off to go play Outdoors but to go over there and just hit the driver for 30 minutes on the simulators so fun Imagine with what you do for a living with I think what you do is one of the craziest wildest most demanding things a person could do for an occupation where I don't know it's right up there you don't know other than being Soldier firefighter a cop or I don't know how many fighter fighter in bullfighting in in bull riding those type of things are those boxing fighters that's on another level that's another level of crazy crazy people to be able to climb onto a bull yeah they have a certain energy about the right that they got that I don't give a fuck energy up the tabs have you ever been in Vegas when they have that the bib
everywhere they're all crazy and I know they are really I know a lot of gas and I passed across several times and it's every time you're around on me like are we going to end up in jail tonight cuz I just got the real possibility yeah I mean their Throwbacks a real throwback legit Wildman agree yeah I mean but what but driving a race car I mean you have a giant engine you're strapped it to see your hurling down the road at extreme speeds right next to other car doing the same thing and everything being on nine it all times like that is a wild way to make a living sir when I was thinking about you I was my father was really successful in the sport so I would go to the races and I would watch him race and see him win and watch him go to Victory Lane and in celebrating all those things and
I thought man this is what I got to do I got to do this this is this looks fun just looks exciting people are people are in all of the drivers the race my father that personalities and I just wanted to do it real badly but I knew that the odds of making it or tough so there's only 40 guys in the field every weekend so there's 40 guys in this in the whole country they're going to get the shot to do it you know in the odds of me even with my dad being a successful as he was I got a lot of doors open to me but the odds of me actually getting there be able to stay had to stay in power in the success and talent I just knew were tough so I didn't know if I had ever get that chance
but it is you know I remember the first time I went to a two and a half mile track its Talladega and you hold it wide open I was working at my dad's dealership changing oil on the Chevy store in Newton North Carolina and the phone rang and he said my dad my dad was on the phone and he was in Talladega for a test and he said get your helmet in your suit meet me at the racetrack the next day you going to fly into key near to the to the track don't know don't ask questions just do it and so I got there and I knew I was going to tell me I must be driving me crazy I'm going to go around us two and a half mile to track speed in a hundred 90 miles an hour I've never done I never went faster than 90 or 95 on the racetrack before never drove anything bigger than a 1/2 Mile
and I got there he's like his car get in get ready he puts me in there and he's like you got a whole wide open if you don't hold it wide open the motors not going to work it is the motor you got a hold of the white Aid in the motor to run wide open it has to run it it has to run at Full Throttle if you tried to go around there at half throttle to burn the Pistons in a run to lean all those things so he was saying that and I thought of myself as he just telling me that just to make sure I hold it wide open cuz he thought I would I would I would be a pussy and not do it and so I was like man that I'm a little nervous I doubt it wide open but I pulled out on the track and I mash the gas for throttle and I'm going down the back straight away and I was like I'm looking down the back straight away into the next Corner this long corner and I'm like
how's it going to stick you know how's the car going to how's the car not going to fly out of the race track like it I'm going so fast I don't feel like it's going to stay on the track and then I kept running to get running through my head about my dad saying I got a hold of wide-open of Michael that's it at all it'll it'll go wide open around here so I don't think he would I believe everything he says and you going to Corner you turn into the corner and there is
more grit than you can imagine like the other so much grit that you could a car is stuck to the track with such grip that you never felt this before in your life that's the best grip like you can't slide across that track the trip the tires in the car hold of the track so tough and tight that nothing's going to make it it just goes around there like it's it's the craziest thing and so now today when I tell people when I got like we got the car we take people for rides and they get in there and pay attention to the grip you're not going to believe how much grip this car has like it's you're just not going to believe it and stick to the track the way it does so pay attention to that and pay check it out but it is you know you drive a Cadillac or any car down the street will its 6/8 inches off the ground
it's going to feel nice you know when it's little bumps are cars are rigid insect of the ground and don't have much traveling to suspension and you know it's just it's it's built to hand it to go fast not to feel good you know when it's going to it's rough as hell and shake shake the hell out of you and that's what I remember about that and
and as soon as I got over that initial fear I think that was the only time I ever had any real fear of driving a car as soon as I was like well alright anyting nothing else is going to be as scary as that was right driving a car in flipping and when I flip for the first time and I'm in the car stumbling and flying Parts flying off the air thought to myself
that I wasn't scared or I never was scared of flipping my thought was I just did something a lot of people never going to experience you know I did something that
that only a few people know what that's like and I feel safe I've always felt incredibly safe inside the car you know with especially with the I mean in the last 20 years this the safety stuff is really been focused on and improved and better and better and better but I'll look at the interior of our cars today versus 20 years ago and it's not like I can't believe some of the stuff that we used to climb into butt so you felt calm while I was flipping oh yeah I always will I've seen cars flipped right I've seen it for years right so I know it's possible so I get in there and I got turned around at a race in 1998 as racing at Daytona
and I got turned around and the car is on flipping for the first time in my life and this car is like over 3,000 3,000 pounds so it's it's but it flies up in the air like it's paper man it's the craziest thing in the world it's so you weightless you know and what it felt like to me cuz of the car rolled on its side and came down kind of on its side it felt like somebody wrote a prop wall of grass up against the car you know I'm saying when I was on my side and I can see the ground I felt like I was right side up because you're flipping this the force pushes you down in the seat so you feel it turn Ali you feel gravity all the time like your you know the cars flipping your you're pushed into the seat so you feel great you feel weight of yourself in the city that never changes you never kind of come out of the seem like that you know and so it's like some I rolled a prop wallagrass up against the side of the car and then against the rules against that side and then they kept doing that
I'm like is this the weirdest feeling and you feel completely safe you know how you feel like nothing's going to harm me but this one of those things you always get your hands on to something because the spinning makes your arms just go like this and if you watch a lot of old Rex from the sixties and seventies you'll see the guy's arms come flying out the window and they just kind of flopping around they can't put you it's spinning so fast you can't pull it in and that your arms go like that so as soon as you know you're going upside down to grab the bottom of the steering wheel and just kind of you know watch but the flip my pickup truck one time on Christmas Day and I wouldn't hold on the steering wheel and my arm went out the window you know for like a split second it bang around in the window seal
and I was like man you know I got it back in and grab a hold of steering wheel with both my hands and so ever since then I've like now I know like anytime I'm in a crash you got to have your hand to hold of something cuz that's the one thing that you can't control your you're strapped in with your seatbelt and everything but your arms are you know can go anywhere and in that moment when the car is rolling a barrel roll in your flipping it's so fast like you can't your arms just go this way craziest thing in the world that's the only fear I guess is that your arm could get outside the window and get crushed or something cuz he hasn't had that happen how do you flip when you were on Christmas day my sister
she knows this is she just want me news to her but it's probably not fun for her to hear every time I tell it but I had a pickup truck with the tape deck in it and I had she got me that Walkman CD with the adapter for the tape tape deck that you stick into you you know you can set adapter and she bought me to Walkman cassette adapter and I'm in my I'm in my truck I got extended cab S10 I'm driving from my house to my my Mamaw's house where family Union is my dad's there everybody's their whole family is there I'm a little late and I'm driving down the road and I got the messing with that Walkman and I drove off into the ditch and I had a driveway culvert pipe drainage pipe in the driveway and went like 7 flips and destroyed his truck in the middle of flipping I remember that happening and everything all my change jacket anything that was loose in the car ended up down in the one corner like flowboard
everything soda collects into that one corner is spinning and it crushed the windshield down the mirror was down into the radio you know it was Rusted Root Down real bad I was really lucky I had my hands on top of the steering wheel in the windshield kept slapping my Knuckles and knocked all my busted on the knuckles real bad and so then I let go and my hands went this way and then I finally got him back in here at Obama steering wheel
it broke up the tires were flip a broken and busted off the truck and this I got out of truck and I was fine didn't have any injuries other than just the knuckles, being scraped up this this newly married couple that just either got engaged or just got married or driving the other way and saw the whole thing and they stopped and they were like you and of course there's a line of cars behind me stopped on the road and this one lady pulls up and I was like I need to borrow your cell phone
call my dad you like you're in shock you need to sit down I was like no I'm not shocked I just need you by myself Barbie cell phone so she and I got a cell phone from this person I call my dad and I was like Dad I was like man I flip my truck I had paid I had got financed the same for 5 years of paying $100 a month is perfect I was working at dealership changing oil probably making $130 a week and I mean just got this truck for probably 2 or 3 months and used truck but it was it was good
it's John I called Dad and I'm like man he's going to be mad take me to mad cuz I'm paying for the truck but I think you be mad at me cuz I'm screwing up family Union in Christmas
he comes to get me put this truck real close to our where our farm was so he ran over to the farm got this flatbed truck and he pulls out there with the flatbed truck and he pulls up as soon as he pulls up state trooper pulls up in the state trooper guy and Dad talk for a minute and the state troopers like the other one single car accident you okay everybody's okay dad daddy you going to put this on the flatbed take home yeah okay okay you know I ain't going to investigate everything everything's cool I'll just go back to being so you left so you did as a solid there and didn't give me, traffic ticket and so me and dad put the truck on a flatbed and we're driving back and he started laughing
and I was like man I expected you to be really mad cuz he was a fiery kind of dad you know and then pull the belt out and go to town you know but he was a rough strict tough tough dude and so I thought I was going to get a good cussing at least but he started laughing and I said man what's so funny because I was 18 when this happened it goes when I was 18 years old I flip my car he's like I can't get mad I'm just glad you're not hurt I'm like that's nice so we drove back I took pictures of it and got me a surance for a guy like 11-12 for the insurance to be to buy another truck so it'll work that was the first time you ever flip something or nothing in the race cards it's not as bad as it passed your car you only got that strap you know you're moving around and banging around in there and in the race car you're in there.
yeah I would you feel weird when you're in a passenger car to is for the lack of support support because compared to the race cars are now I'm at work turned in there the seat and everything headrest you got six seven point harness I mean in A Streetcar you really just got the strap on and it's I certainly you know
and more much more cautious as I get older on the highway and how do you do it how you drive on how you drive a race car and then go 4555 on the road and it's really easy actually you know just kind of chill is it get all your fast driving out of the way when I was younger I was getting something takes all the time but as I got older I just didn't care to be in a hurry anymore I would figured the way you drive for a living and you just get it out of your system I got was plenty of I had plenty and plenty of high-speed action and hijinks on the racetrack I don't I calm down the road what kind of car do you drive and realize when it's funny I am I just bought a brand new Silverado I haven't bought a truck in a long time I had I still have my old Silverado ball is about 04 or 06 but they sent the new one I like a lot of new ones are bad I didn't like the ones that much they just look so
about that but my what I was driving before that I got a 48 pickup truck and it's all rough as hell on the outside and the original fade it all messy and ugly looking but it's got a Vortec motor and good drivetrain in it drives good but it's easy to work on and I just love Fool Wit I took the original big bitch see it out and put these old bucket seats in from a 80 Chevy Blazer and some comfortable and just the way I wanted it so I drive I drove that a lot this summer until I got his new truck and I got a 76 Chevy Laguna that I love to drive that thing just kind of floats floats down the road man and it's the dark midnight blue tinted windows in just a really cool, I love the seventies in the stock the cars in the 70s even though kind of bigger ones like in the late 70s like the 442 Oldsmobile Cutlass
does big big big cars there's something about those guys that I really did was that your car right there yet man I got a 1973 Chevelle that reminds me of that kind of body style that's it I got a 4:42 to sort of the sister that Oldsmobile 442 that's red and kind of the same tinted windows same I did the same Wheels same Tire st. Anselm's I put a spoiler like a NASCAR style spoiler on the back of the front kind of look because those cars were big in NASCAR Carswell will get there I think as we get older the what school gets older than I thought I had a 69 but like 255 shit all those things always hold their rightful place in in history but these cars like that car right there that wasn't very cool
1520 years ago no but as we get older that car becomes cool you know and then and one day we'll be driving around in like a 85 pickup trucks going man to think so too awesome so well drilled think so I don't know. He's old character lines man I really like it does have old cat you know what's interesting I was I was just talking to a friend of mine about this in 1970 my mom bought Barracuda and when I was in high school in 1981 I was a freshman in high school and she had this Barracuda news like a classic car and there's like a classic muscle car right but like that's only 11 years old like if you had a car today from 2007 but you're right it's weird is weird it is weird like a 1969 when I was in high school
was amazing I love we would stop and stare at it that 69 Camaro 88 S10 that was the first pickup truck I owned or had that was like what the car I got when I was 16 years old and I got one restored it and which was a terrible investment but it makes sense for me because it you know because it was my first truck and I didn't think anybody would give a shit about it right cuz it's an S10 it's like the the bottom of the barrel and pickup trucks for Chevrolet in 1988 and and but I drive that thing around people are like when it says 10 I've seen you in 15-20 years that's it right there any of them left I mean for good reason but what was your first car my first car was a 73 Chevelle that one but it does
I love she's so would you buy us so would you get a 73 and restorative would get us 70 years I go back and forth yeah I like those really looks like a smaller yeah I like that right there is classic and American Muscle Cars you get its a 1970 with silver with black stripes, I used to race Nova's dad race to Nova yeah I know but I like no because they're like he has a light car and cuz you know you put a bigger engine in it and a new suspension you know I have
a wagon that I just bought a 6600 wow that's my next project about somebody for 5 grand and it's in pretty bad shape but I'm going that's my next project soon as I get some time I've had this little girl holla and she's 6 months so it's kind of made it tough do any kind of problem with that so I got graduation and thanks it's awesome but does he have a lot on the side right now I decide to call and check on them it's awesome though no one can explain it to you so they can explain to kids they just go we'll talk after the kids
yeah I've had people everybody tries to tell you this is what it's going to be like man you ain't going to believe it the greatest thing ever you just don't even know and it still does it doesn't help you know it don't sing until you go to the experience when you go to text me if you like and they were right and this is the best thing ever it's a different kind of love it is just it's just it's hard to explain doesn't doesn't make any know when mind if I come home my daughter's run up to me and jump in my arms and I catch him and they give me a kiss and I'm hugging them and there's a kind of love that doesn't exist in any other way you could have ever felt before with anything or anybody else says differently I can't wait I can't wait for that she's 6 months and everybody's like and it goes fast goes bad we're sorta in that moment where ever like come on like can't wait for her to talk I can't wait to hear her voice like what is her boys going to sound like when I what kind of voice is she going to have what is she going
like and what do we want me to do with her and then I'm going to go hunting this year I was I was going to go I usually go in October or November 1st November and you guys have a spot in Ohio buddyman Martin Truex Jr he races too and no he's been buddies long time and he's hardcore he's heavy duty into the hunting and so I we got I wanted to hunt but I'm not going to be going every week but I knew he was probably interested in probably buying some land and US managing it together and learn and how that process goes so we bought this land and we've put the crock we put the put the food plots in not perfect ourselves but we've managed to land on how he want to change it and soda managing to her and you know
it's been a really educational experience and I got a lot of people don't hunt don't even understand what we talkin about the whole process especially if you look at like it's a bunch of organizations that you know teach classes and how to manage a giant piece of priority but laying out food plots and and people buy these big chunks of property specifically for Whitetail Hunter yeah yeah so we have about a thousand acres and and that's awesome all we do is bow hunt for Whitetail that's it was like twice a year maybe at least once a year for turkey and I feel like we ate we killed we got a turkey last year and was eating it that night I mean it doesn't have ever touched the freezer never goes in the frigerator just straight from the Harvest Right to the grill and it's great it's incredible
and we frying turkey nuggets and stuff like that I mean it's pretty cool that's awesome where is driving distance so cuz I love road trip I mean if I wanted to I can fly up there but I like to the road trip the whole thing for me really is everything before the shot that you take him to you on the deer it's the drive up there with your buddies talking about what you going to do when you can't wait to do what's been going on with everybody getting up there and getting everything laid out looking at the map on the wall you know they did that big laminated map on the wall be like man is biggest and which way is everybody has
you know everybody gets their hands into cooking dinner that night so not you everybody gets a side or something they're dealing with and managing and it's just fun you know just a lot just spending time with your buddies cuz you don't never know we don't take that time anymore we don't really mix time anymore and it's that kind of you got you going to go do that for two days so you going to make time to be with each other enjoy it I like taking my buddy I'm taking friends of mine that help don't Hunter having ever hunted and letting them sort of understand what that experience is like and it's pretty cool it is cool but it's tough to get someone who's never hunted before who is in Anaheim sit in a stand about bills and sitting here in the chair move all you want about your scent too bad or anything like that she won't even go sit in that I'm hoping though I love you want to go so we'll see
she doesn't go I need a little place where you like if you Gary likes if she wanted to go every time you were going to come I know you like it too much I would imagine against you do for a living having something that's peaceful and quiet now nature would be very important kind of bounced out though just the wild hectic nature of race car driver sit down and I'll look out across the field and look at the land and everything
man you ain't got to worry about no answer no email or or getting back to this guy or setting up this appointment or answering this question or you know it's just
it's even better it's better than going on vacation like we go on vacation with my wife or my buddies or whatever you still can't disconnect from everything you do seems like there when I go hunting I can completely get rid of Technology you know if I want and you know it's it's just sitting in the woods is is peaceful it's good for you it's therapeutic even though nothing's happening it's kind of cleansing in a way things have a certain amount of requirement for time and nature and you don't realize you have that requirement till you're out you wouldn't even people that go to Central Park in New York City they go to that park and sit down by a tree and they just feel better yeah exactly that's exactly what it is I mean in your your work environment is a concrete
slab you know that you're driving how fast was the fastest you go to 15
when that when it passes you more I realize how fast to 15 really is like it long enough you forget do you have apprehension about the horsepower Wars with just modern consumer cars cuz I look at some of these cars that they're putting out that are amazing like the new Corvette ZR1 right 700-plus horsepower Rife in the factory the Dodge demons like 800 horsepower like they're putting out these insane race cars the cash I go to a Corvette dealership and pick one up and I'll sign them on the highway I don't have a problem with it until I don't know how to manage what they're doing behind the wheel something like that but until until that's like a common issue I don't know that you don't need regulation necessary
I wouldn't be surprised though that one day it may be regulated because everything gets covered it's a ride maybe too much right we should just appreciate it I know I mean I want to be able to build whatever I want to build whatever they want I agree but I feel like I feel it the same way I feel about guns like I'm very pro-second Amendment feel like I am a responsible gun owner and have a lot of friends that are responsible gun owners of used guns for hunting I think you should have a gun for protection. Because everything wrong with that but I don't think it would be to have some sort of course that you have to go through so you understand all the aspects of safety and precautions you should take an how to correctly load a gun and clean and gods and that but this is not really the case right now you know what I did it's not necessary I'm not talking about gun control as much as I'm talking about gun safety and responsibility I feel
the same way about car I feel like if you're going to go out and buy a Corvette ZR1 that means the kind of body mashing acceleration the g-forces you can get from something like that right from the factory 0 to 60 in under 3 seconds that's an insane automobile like maybe someone should like take you on a track little bit that's a great idea I guess that would be the case if you were going to buy something like that are getting the car like that you would need some kind of a trainer course they have to pass through 3 hours on a tractor if you have to have a license to drive a 18-wheeler you know there should be a style or type of license that you need to cheat to have a certain type of yeah you want to go buy a Viper ACR and take it on the road those crazy race car vipers you can't drive it's probably know how to drive that those things are all around it
you just go by that are found on the road now Johnny Nash V10 in it it's pretty crazy it's awesome do you drive fast cars on the road ever or do you mostly are you just like just mostly driving normal relaxed on the road
I got a lot of speeding tickets when I was younger that's a shocker yeah and I
and it seemed like it would just never failed any time I got behind the wheel of a Corvette or anything like that I will get pulled over for you know rolling through lights or rolling through a stop sign or reckless driving or whatever and I kept I mean it happened as recently as two or three years ago I got pulled over for rolling through a stop sign and speed
and the guys like me and you don't need these tickets like what are you doing and I was like you're right I don't know what the hell I'm doing I don't need to be driving this damn car is what's up I need to get out of stupid car I don't need no Corvette with all this power so
and I got this original
I got this original 65 Impala that's been in my family since it was brand new and it's kind of been the community car was passed around got banged up on the corner corner it right front corner cup crashes your car crashes are you just got needed the car cuz his is broke down so he used it for a while and such and it's just Pat and I finally got it I bought it for two grand for my dad and I've fixed it up Scott a two-barrel 283 wow doesn't go anywhere right and I just as much rather drive that car is a little of power is it has no and I won't get myself in any stupid trouble hurry or being impatient and so that's that's that's what I that's what I try to do I actually I don't care about is much what kind of power the car has as much as I like a driver
I want to I like nice cars I like in a frame-off restoration but I'd rather have a driver that's reliable and easy to work on and I think that's why I like that 48 pickup truck it's got the Vortec motor which is just so you know so it's it's not a powerhouse it's just dropped in and out of a out of a junkyard crash and it's it's easy work on me and a buddy of mine put electric wiper motor in it cuz it had a vacuum on it and it just didn't work and and it's easy to put the seats in it we put a we got all the ammo box for a console and shit like that do you just enjoy it because it's also it's it's it's something that sort of related to what you do for a living but then again not in town just a project automobile
I think the reason why I like to work on cars is because I don't know makes you put it it makes you a little invested in the car and there was a there is pain and there's a point in time where I was just kind of like that's cool I want to buy that I'll get that I'll drive that a year and I don't like that anymore well that's cool and by that I'll get rid of this one get this one and that got old real fast for me and so I started to that's when I start that's when I put a little more time at 65 Impala and fixed it up and and I'm like that's I never I never selling that car never going to sell it that 48 truck I'll never sell it just because of the work I put into it the time the time that I spent with it I've had it I mean I've got the people that are helping me work on these cards I got a buddy of mine it that actually helps me work on these cars but when I finish that Nova wagon
I'll probably never sell it even though it's probably nothing special with someone else were to look at it but it's what I am is what I put into it yeah you've got sweat in the more you work on these cars the more confidence you get in trying to do more getting into the jobs that you didn't think you were capable of doing every thought about a build up straight from scratch that's probably it's little wagons going to be I wanted a nomad so my dad had a nomad and
it was this thing had polished aluminum on the underneath floor pan and mirror a parking on a mirror in the shop so you can look underneath it you know and look how good the damn thing was it was about it was frame-off Harley ever seen the road I mean just plain is it could be from end end and I love road trips the Nova wagon I mean The Nomad is the perfect road trip car
but I just don't want to spend the money on it light on the Nova I mean Nomad chassis and body is there just ridiculous to buy and
I want to build the car I'm not an expert modder so this Nova wagons perfect it's a wagon it's not a nomad but it's a little smaller with the light and if I screw it up it's okay if I screwed up a nomad build I'd be pissed too expensive I don't know they're just rare and it's like that now it's like that it's like the whole 55 Chevy wagon I'm trying to put into my head with a nomad looks like what year did that to me is not ultimate car
but damn man I mean they're just so I that's a beautiful car oh that's a different error you know what can you look at the muscle cars of the 1960s and then you go to something like this like that's a whole different world it's a different kind of thing I'd like to get there was this one Nomad this guy chopped up and narrowed up and he made one of those things like a rat rod that was that was an idea for this Nova wagon but I think I'm alone with him will chop it up then we'll keep it as it is when I was in high school there's a man in the neighborhood when I was a kid that had a 55 Chevy and it was the greatest thing anybody has ever seen in their lives and we would all wait why this guy drove by as 55 Chevy we just couldn't believe it was a real car that someone can own this it was black and mint it was a beautiful car manual transmission he would just drive by and nothing boo dogs have our jobs hanging out when I was a little boy had Hot Wheel
is my favorite Hot Wheel was the 55 white black 55 Chevy that would had the flip Hood if the flames on the front is like an original Hot Wheel and ever since then you know that's kind that's kind of been my car but I went from the regular no sedan to the wagon I think that knoweth at Nomads pretty awesome do you have like a full garage setup but you do repairs on things it's kind of a farm shop so it's it's dirty we fix lawn mowers we do some modding on our cars whatever needs to be done in their apartment apart my bus in there I got a bus to take to the racetrack and some he's kind of time just a big building
we just got a sandblaster in there we got a big ol we get
Shear in there we can do anything whatever man shot yes so tell me about your book you want more things that was surprising that I had heard was your experience with concussions and now tell me about that so I've had concussions in that flip I was talking about 1998 Daytona I got a concussion from that crash I had concussions throughout my career at many different points and didn't think anything of them I thought when you know when you got a concussion your joke about it with your buddies about how I made you feel and you just rested until it was gone and erase through it and eventually go away and you were fine you know it was just something it would go away and you never thought anything about you never thought about seeing the doctor you never thought about getting treatment you didn't know there was even Treatment available for a concussion you just thought it was something like a bruise he knows
this is going on throughout my whole career I was racing that I was testing at Kansas Motor Speedway 2012 blue right front tire hits wall 185 miles an hour and it screwed me up and so that was a really not him
that wasn't a typical crash not something that drivers deal with usually in their career this was something that was unique to me and it was just a terrible impacted a bad at a very very fast rate of speed and
I got out of the car and I knew something was wrong with me and I couldn't you know I couldn't
I felt you know just like I've been hit in the head with a bat shocked and Shell Shocked in a way or just couldn't I couldn't
shake it off you know you just kind of want to shake your head and get it out whatever it was and you could that's why I'm at my field immediately immediately after that crash we went there test was done cuz the car was killed so we went over this place to get some lunch and we're sitting there and I start getting sick nauseous before we ever we just ordered we just sat down and I started I'm sitting with my teeth all my guys and I'm starting to throw up right there in front of them and I'm getting nervous I don't I haven't said to them that I feel this way you know so I don't want to tell him I feel this way but my crew chief Steve letarte it's like my like a brother I'd like Steve I am getting sick and something's wrong with me I don't know what's wrong way but I got to get out of this room it's a busy lunch hour full of full people noises talking chatter
shit going on and I got to get the hell out of there and as I was getting up to leave my wife can walking in neighbor she was coming to get me we were going to watch the Redskins Monday night game in a sitting on a box with Dan Schneider and whoever else there so
we had them plans to go I said I'm going to go lay down in the car I just got to lay down the car for a minute
and I lay down all the way in a car all the way to the airport this is this is bad but hopefully we get we with the Redskins game we watch the game did that whole thing
and I went about four weeks of feeling bad and sick for about 4 weeks and finally went away
and I was I knew that was unusual for it to be that long but in my mind I wasn't thinking doctor I wasn't thinking treatment I wouldn't think anything like that it didn't cross my mind to tell anybody or did I really needed I thought you know I thought that I had been dishonest and not
you know I hadn't I hadn't been honestly Everybody by the way I was feeling but I didn't ever think that it was going to cost me anything so I thought alright I'm feeling better I'm good go to this race I've been racing the whole time right finally 4 weeks later I'm great I go to another race I'm racing a crashed
and it all came right back like as bad as it was if not worse and that's when I said I got to go to the doctor this is bad I can't I can't even you know
I can't keep crashing like this just putting these concussion so close together is a bad deal is dangerous and my I couldn't bite my tongue like my attitude in my emotions and shit was out of whack like I couldn't control my anger and I was like me baby anybody say something I want to tell him to fuck off you know and that's just not like me I couldn't I couldn't like he keep myself calm and
everything that I heard like made me angry craziest thing even people just talkin about stuff but just get under my skin on my
really patient and there was some new symptoms but I finally went to the doctor and and I went to the surgeon Charlotte dr. Patty he's like I want you to meet this guy in Pittsburgh names Mickey Collins he works with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Penguins
and I'm like I I go up there and I'm thinking I'm going to make this guy that works to works with the penguins in the Steelers and he sees no players but he's a he's a doctor that sees anybody and everybody like those kids in their you know that got hurt playing on the playground there's workers comp Carpenters Housewives everybody's in that damn waiting room to see this man he sees about 25 people day and
she's an expert on head injuries and he's got you know he's just he's on The Cutting Edge of whatever the hell the new shitt is he knows it and he's on his team and his people are investigating it and said he fixed me so I go there and I'm like this what happen does that happen I crashed I hit it I didn't tell anybody about it I was sick for 4 weeks I got better I crashed in this race I feel sick again and he was like wow these are two different injuries if two different part of your brain the first injury you you bruise this right front edge your brain when you hit the wall he said the 2nd crash you twisted the base of your brain and injured some things in the back of your brain and that's why you're having the emotional and different things like that so but we will he went deeper into it than that he was like you know we did all these tests and visual tests and all kinds of stuff and I'll go back and we did this thing
the whole day of doing test and then I went back every week before I clear
and so he
he took an injury that I he did and took 4 weeks to heal and healed in 2 weeks what did he do to him
he gave me I never took any medication on this particular issue he gave me home exercises and eye exercises there was I had problems with focusing and making my eyes work tracking an object like a bird flying across the sky or anything like that I couldn't my eyes couldn't stay on it if I look at you my eyes with bounce off of you and they just wouldn't stay you know if you said hey man I'll take a picture and you held up a camera and I tried to look at the lens and smile my eyes would want to jump off of that object they would they didn't want to look at what I wanted them to look at and track anything going anywhere and what was the cause of that
the brain has
the ocular stuff I mean you can have injury to that part of your brain or you can have an injury to the vestibular part of your brain that that that may like if you have bad balance than your eyes in your balance work together and so if you have a vestibular issues that can create ocular issues and that can create that that can affect your anxiety and depression and things like that so all these you can have an injury to one part of your brain that affects for other areas and so and we talked about that in the book Mickey comes into the book and I'll talk I'll say this is what I was feeling this is what I did and make you will come in behind me and say this is the medical science behind out in this is how we treated it white but
I would have an injury that One Singular area my brain but I would have four different symptoms affecting for different parts of my brain or different senses and
you know he would have to hone in on the one that was broken and then know to fix it and when he started fixing it all the other ones would start communicating together the brain would start working again balance and visual and all those things start to work again and anxiety and all those things when you know begin to come back in 10 fix it like what is he doing so he gave me physical exercises to do I had some balance issues basically if I was if I turn my head or look up and down I'll get dizzy and sick like my stomach would turn if I turn my head left to right if I looked up and down just sitting there like the best thing for me was to sit on the couch and not move and so like literally not move and not feel fine then but if I moved an inch man it was like make it make your stomach nauseous
and so I did a lot of motion I did a lot of exercises that created a ton of motion with my head lifting heavy balls up and passing them over my shoulder this way or that way taking a ball and turn around and headed this way taking the ball turn around and that just doing that for hours and hours and hours and so I would train basically I was training myself to the balance again you know training my mind training my my body to balance itself again and is
my if I couldn't see a horizon or a flat surface I couldn't tell which way was up and yeah it was so bad and
the visual stuff
there was these I had a string with these balls on it and I would hold the string on my nose and hold it out here and I had to look at all those balls and it would my my my eyes are focusing it just it all it's doing is really just making my eyes change Focus from one to the next to the next me back I wanted next next back and there was a size chart on the wall and had all these letters and all these numbers on it and I had to I had to look at that hour chart and turn my head back and forth this way but look at that eye chart and count and count dude from A to Z backwards do the alphabet so I'd have to look for the letters where's the you know and go backwards or 11220 you know all why you shaking your head what is this doing to your mind like how does it how does it fix your mind what is the mess the process I don't know what
it's the I've had the problem with me was my vestibular system so my ability to understand balance and understand Horizons and
so I was putting my mind in a perplex
in a complex environment or making my mind do complex things that don't do every day and it's just firing up and it starts yeah it's kind of like they used to say when you would get hurt to go into a dark room and hide and no no no electronics no TV just sit in the dark room and wait and what they're what they believe today is that exposure is what helps pushing yourself into these complex environments and doing things that are really challenging for yourself even doing that if I put you in front of eye chart made you turn to head back and forth and walking walking two steps forward two steps back and doing it would be difficult for you
so but for an injured person is super difficult it has to be really challenging but it just sort of tunes The Miner three trains the brain to do ballinton to balance every change the eyes to the track on objects in the lock on objects and stay on them and what's crazy is it sounds like physical rehab like physical think about that when it comes to the mind that we usually think of the mind is like something that needs to be healed with medicine probably 85% of the work that I did was Physical Therapy change your diet or anything like that they say inflammatory causing Foods or information causing Foods strictly drink water I didn't drink anything other than water and I Incorporated bananas and things like that into my diet that I never ate before it in clear potassium in what effect does potassium have on
recovery I just hear that it's good for your brain and see how good for your brain is her yeah. My doctor didn't say start eating this stuff I was just you know like when you go like that you're going to get people texting you and give you the information here and there are you kind of take what you want and go out and I don't know about that but did you ever mess with CBD at all CBD you don't know what that is no interesting CBD is a non-psychoactive form of hemp and it's a radical inflammation fighter in a lot of people that have some pretty significant injuries to the brain a lot of Fighters take it when right after fights it used to be it's still questionable federally like they're trying but there's some pushes try to make it illegal just because of pharmaceutical drug companies kind of putting pressure on that doesn't do anything in terms of like get you high or anything actually actually read a little bit about that
just a couple weeks ago because it controls anxiety and helped a lot of people with that one of my biggest one of the problems that I face just regular everyday is is where my anxiety is is that because of being famous
I don't know I think it comes from like a child just things that you experience in life about
just general social situations I would I would just rather not bother you at school whenever you are I mean that shit's feels great but it was more about like except not seen is I don't know I just always had a lot of anxiety over anxiety about whether or not you're going to be fit in an outside when you're younger sorry I don't know if I still feel
I don't you know so it goes away hard took so long time for that to go away my wife likes ashwagandha ever hurry off so yeah so she she likes and I'll take that every once in awhile and I think that's it works pretty good yeah can I keep calm and yeah but I've never tried about what I was reading about ashwagandha is when I read about that stuff you're talking about I'll get you some alright it'll help CBDs amazing and that work really good on sore joints and stuff mean but like nothing I've ever used before better than anything CBD just gets right into the muscles and just relax is all the information and the best part about it is it's a hundred percent natural and no side effects is nothing right but in terms of like there's a bunch of different CBD oils you can take he just stayed they chilly out but they don't get you high or anything you're not weirded out but they just just call me down right and I will
how much that call me down is because of inflammation just reducing inflammation and just it just it seems that your body has your body knows what to do with it yeah yeah yeah let me know I got Ted Nugent into it really Man Ted Nugent before I came on here he was telling me how is all anti-marijuana this and that and we had this conversation about it but makes me lazy I like how to get does man I think people just lazy and I told him because I know he's got some serious knee problems heading to all his knee surgeries he's he's a Madman he said jump off the top of the fucking stage and land on the ground pool is meniscus Albion I got them on the CBD bomb now and then he text me that they said there's not a thing I've ever used to tell me like this before really yeah so now I have in case it sent to him like every week he loves the shit and he's he wants in Dorset which is hilarious like the Motor City madman Ted Nugent super anti-marijuana wants to enjoys endorse a cannabis product
top Disney yeah but it doesn't do anything to you psychologically it does not in effect yet calm you down doesn't have that part of the sun has it's a type of epilepsy Brendan chop and he started giving his kid CBD oil and stop the epilepsy in the tracks. Where they are it's been used for that for years yes yes yeah yeah
seizures Jess for seizures yeah it's it it's a radical information decreaser to figure out a way it does it does some sort of interaction with your body were just reduces inflammation but it's just like I said it also calm people down alleviate anxiety and no side effects that's the most important one but I think it probably take it too much or maybe it's expired or something like that yeah I've never had those issues but I'll get you something to look into that too right yeah so what else did they do with you did you do any cryotherapy or anything like that that also would reduce information and physical therapy and therapy I I tests and different exercises
and in two weeks I was back in the race car I raced for
thousand 2012 erase all the way to 2016 two weeks he felt a hundred percent yeah that's amazing so with all these crazy exercise you're doing when did you feel like it it's settled in like wow this is really working
pretty I mean into if it's a two-week. It wouldn't is a day or two I guess you know I remember I can't remember that far back the day or two days I have to I don't know I mean I don't know if it affected me right away or but I know I was by time we have to take an impact test which is basic kind of measures memory and things like that all kinds of different stuff and my measurements and come back to my normal you know my basic
your you know the kind of make it take the impact test beforehand so that get your your blueprint of how you are and and then whenever you get injured you take it again and they line that up against against and say okay you're deficient here this is a problem maybe it's not diagnosing a concussion but it won't it's asking us to look in this area and so you have a Baseline and then you have whatever your injury your post crash Baseline is so I was matching all my normals on that impact test and that was kind of the trigger for them to go man if you feel good you look good here all things are saying that you're back you know and I wanted to go race so I feel pretty good is it a
a strange feeling knowing that you can't see what the damage is like a brain injuries a strange one try because it's affecting everything in your body but you don't you don't see I give you have a broken arm you're looking at it you know it's in a cast gets fixed you not you you're aware that you're doing Rehab on it you're looking at it while you're doing it yeah something about the brain where it's all like you can kind of mind fuck yourself and say I think I think I'm okay that's why I would get sick and I wouldn't tell anybody and so I started writing these notes in my in a journal in my phone and from 2013 all the way to 2016 I had this long Journal of crashes and how I felt and I would crash on Sunday and I'd write in the journal on Sunday night Monday morning Monday at lunch money at night you know every three times a day every day until whenever I felt
which is usually there Wednesday or Thursday of the day that week and I was writing these notes because I couldn't tell if I was getting better than the brain injury or any type of head injury if you said how's it feel Monday and then you ask me again Tuesday I really don't know man it just sits there I don't know if it's better I just feels bad and so I would try to write as detailed as I could on a day on a Monday and then try to write a detailed as I could on Tuesday is it better I can see you in the comments or you know I can't really remember exactly what I was feeling Monday but in the comments it seems better and I would write these notes right and so I kept doing this and I thought I was treating myself eventually caught up with me like I had about a dozen concussions in a. Of about two and a half years and I got to where I could walk and call my owner and I was like man I need to talk to you I can trace this weekend I can't hardly walk
and my balance is so bad that I can't get up off the couch without holding on to something and walking across the room without grabbing stuff as I go and he was mad he's like you know what are you fucking doing at the doctor aren't you at the doctor and as I can ride I need to go to doctor I mean I can cuss person doesn't have good judgement self-awareness you know that you're right you're just freaking you're in a it's like being hungover yeah the worst hangover you can't make decisions
and so I went back to Pittsburgh so I'll make it again and I had to stay out the entire whole half of the year in 2016 to get better it took me 5 months to get well instead of 2 weeks wow and that time I was on they put me on medication that would drop my anxiety levels so the anxiety levels would stay down so that I could concentrate on the injury and what medications I had I don't know exactly the names but it was a it was very very small doses and it would take about 3 weeks for it's kind of kick in I had to take it for a while before it start working but it just made me real chill and it made me not analyzing myself every single day when I got up when I got up I wouldn't go is it still there is it as bad as it was when you walk across the room and see how I feel
and maybe stop doing that cuz I was driving myself crazy and he gave me a lot more Physical Therapy basketball movements anything that got my head moving
I do those exercises for about 2 weeks some of them would stop triggering symptoms I go back to his place and Pittsburgh we go through about 30 more exercises and I take home about 15 that made the symptoms trigger and I do them for about 2 or 3 weeks and some of them would stop working I go back to him would go through more physical exercises to him kept in that process over and over and over I took the medication for about a year-and-a-half
I had a lot of they gave me this computer program for my eyes and I was wearing these I would wear these 3D glasses and this computer program would try to take these 3D objects and go to 2D and back 3D in my eyes would literally tried it would fit like it's trying to rip my eyes apart it hurt like physically hurt when this object with try to go from from 3D to 2D it was going very very slowly and it felt like it was trying to rip my eyes apart and imagine your eyes are tethered together so when you look left they both go there right and they both go wherever you look to go together like they're supposed to am I didn't want to do that mine you can physically see my boat out or going the wrong way you couldn't see that but when I try to look over here they both didn't go to the same place and that was that action or that that computer program was strengthening that activity of my eyes trying to do something together and
I would walk so if I got these buffalo on my property and they're across the field waiting on 200 300 yards out across the field out the back window of my living room and if I walked across the floor every step I took would knock my eyes off of the Buffalo like their way out there and I can look at them but if I took a step my eyes was shake and I couldn't I have to find them again you know and so that would step computer program would strengthen my ability it's called gaze stabilization it would make it to where when I walk I don't know if I'm walking or bouncing across the room and I can still look at you in the eyes and no like an old person and if I when I was in my wallet at my worst I couldn't do that
and so but I took a long time to fix and the book basically is me admitting making those mistakes I should have went to him as soon as I got sick again the first time instead of trying to document it myself and and hide it and and manage it myself and trying to get to whatever the end of my career was whenever that moment was and retire thinking I was going to walk away without anybody ever knowing
and I had to retire after that after that 2016 year missing half of season and going through all that I didn't want to go through it again I had one more year on my contract in 2017 so I finished that season and I was at where you at Branson while you're finishing at yeah I didn't want to get hurt I didn't want to go back to the whole process again I didn't want to get sick again me and my wife just got married on New Year's Eve 2016 17 so we are newlyweds we're getting she's pregnant we're going to have a baby you know I didn't want to go through any of that stuff sick you know what I told my doctor like this since now we know each other so well when I was Ill in the hospital or when I was with Mickey in Pittsburgh as my wedding was on New Year's and I was this is probably around October or write this was probably in August I said I need two things as like
I need to be able to go through my wedding
on my wedding day and my wedding night and at home experience I want to do it with a completely clear head I want to be able to remember everything I don't want to be on any drugs I don't want to have any symptoms I don't want to even be thinking about my head reminded about it one any moment during that night I want to my wedding to be perfect
and I want you to climb up in my deer stand without feeling like I'ma fall out of it and he said he'd fix it and I was hunting that I was hunting that October November you were doing his exercises and then fixing the issues that you were facing will you will you will concern though about long-term effects absolutely over the last 5 years it's it's it's been hard for me to turn turn my back on articles
stories about NFL players and their history and these guys in the whole lawsuit brought up so many stories about what these guys have went through with their families went through it's been impossible not to read that stuff and fear that is that you know is that something that's going to happen to me if I do I need to be worried about my you know a long-term Health sending and you know I would it took me the longest time to watch that concussion movie because I just didn't want to know what he had to tell me you know
eventually I got to a place where
I thought after I talk to Mickey you know when I wasn't hurting 2016 I said Mickey why aren't you shut me down like he he shut down some player I don't know the guys name I don't know whether he was a hockey player of football player but the guy was making millions of dollars and he was in his mid-twenties and Mickey had to say you can't play anymore
and I want to make you to tell me that I didn't want to have to go out there and say y'all I'm retiring I don't want to do this anymore I wanted to say y'all Mickey said I got to retire but he wouldn't you know you're not where that guy is and I don't see what's going on I don't see anything going on with you that tells me you can trace if you want to race I said well what if I get hurt again he said you hurt again I can fix it if it's up to you if you want to go to that he said you're just as likely get hurt as you were before the injury you're going to racing racing and races dangerous you got to make up your mind whether you want to go out there and risk getting hurt again and if you do I'll fix it and come right back here and we'll fix it all over again and ice like and I was like all right if you're not shut me down then you must not be worried about my long-term Health any like oh I'm not worried about your long-term Health there's nothing going on here that I see that would make me concerned about your long-term health
but all that said I got married I had a little girl I'm sitting there on them days at home with them and I'm thinking to myself what if I'm sitting here worried about seeing me or my mind you know going away and it never happens you know I'm not going to wait am I going to sit here and worry about that at 44 all the way through my fifties and sixties and seventies and then one day wake up at 80 and go damn I live pretty good life why did I worry about all that why don't I enjoy what was in front of me and so
the other day so I'm going to enjoy what's in front of me not going to worry about CTE not going to worry about my long-term health
and there's another thing to the that conversation by concussions is really just skyrocketed in the warp speed of the last 5 or 6 years and the way they treated me in 2012 to the way they treated me in 2016 was completely out of 80° because they know so much more in there so you know they understand so much more about treating the injury and so if I do have any problems whenever that is I'm confident that they'll be something there for me if they'll be something there to give me a good quality of life I've had a hell of a run I had a lot of fun I raised hell I partied I won I lost and if it all ended now I wouldn't be I would have missed out on anything other than my wife and my little girl and so
I'm content with you know where I can come content with where I am all I want to be able to do is just you know be a good father and be a good husband and I think you know I think I'm going to have that opportunity but if anything does happen to me I think that they'll be some technology some information some medicine something that would give me a good enough quality of life that I would be able to enjoy those things I think you made a wise choice Inn in retiring from miliar with head injuries I jump I'm around people that have had them all the time and I think it's it's something that we're understanding now more than ever before but someone like you writing a book about this and your experience with it I think it's really important for people I think it's going to help a lot of people it's going to help a lot of people understand it and the more we talk about this more this gets out there in the public the more it it helps just regular folks that have had concussions understand what a significant thing this is
this Thursday this book is to not discourage you from doing what you want to do if you want to race race if you want to fight fight if you want to do whatever it is play football I'm not discourage anyone from doing that I mean couraging it I'm just saying that whenever you two are hurt wherever you if you ever do find yourself with Andrew don't make the bad choices that I made that's really all I'm doing here is to share with people the mistakes that I made I never would have known about Mickey had somebody not taking me to him I would have never even considered the fact that there was treatment had I not met Nikki I mean there's people out there today that that don't know there's treatment that they're living with these injuries are veterans that don't think that they can be healed there's people in my timeline all the time saying man I'm glad you're talking about concussions I had one and I'm dealing with it all the time boy it's just nagging me everyday and the truth is you don't have to even live
there's better and there's a better quality of life with the information that they know today even if this injury was 10 years ago or 15 years ago there's their stuff today that can help give you a better quality of life and so that's what the books about it's an amazing time and when you think about the fact that 2012 you had an injury and they treat you one way to 1016 later date Advanced Techniques and I'm sure they've Advanced even more now in 2018 its it's amazing stem cells as well and you know there's a guy named dr. Neil Riordan that I've had on the podcast before that he did wonders from Mel Gibson's danso Mel Gibson came on and went to talk about this they they have to do treatment in Panama because they can't do a lot of the treatments here in the United States cuz they're not legal yet but the fact that they're having on people that are there bringing down to Panama and it's just mine
you know when I'm hoping that's going to also help people with traumatic brain injuries and CTE and some other things as well to take CTE in the living human being and they already have figure out ways to do figure out a way to do that now it's very very recently then started to do that but you know it's it's a major concern obviously for Fighters but I would imagine that someone in your line of work it's not thought about the same way I do people think about it with football they won't they don't think about in terms of they don't fit directly associate boxing with head injury directly Associated race car driving jobs that will raise their lives without it you know without ever having that experience and I'm glad for that but for the guys that have I've got I've had veterans retired guys call me Samantha
doctors number to so many damn people ever since I've spoken up about this in 2012 to now in this book Mickey says there's there's at least three people we could come in this office talking about me and that's why they're there and so that's the whole mission man is too cuz Mickey game my life back twice I'm telling you man it's 16 I was in bad shape and I was I was it was out what my that my wife and without Mickey I don't know that I made it out there then and this book or anything else out and this podcast anything I'm in your opportunity to talk about this is only to push more people to Mickey said he can do the same thing for them he did for me that's amazing there's a guy named dr. Mark Gordon that's also been on this podcast before that it does a lot of work with TBI and soldiers in football players and stuff like that so there's there's a lot of other doctors out there that have specializing in this when we were asking this is a significant issue is so happy that those people are out there they're getting some good
you know they're getting some opportunities to actually you know get up get up there and speak up about it and make it known and I know there's got I have Mickey there's a bunch of Mickey's out there and there and there's a lot getting learn right now was just so many people that are silently suffering that don't want to open their mouth cuz I don't want to appear weak that way that's part of it to find a lot of people don't want to there's people there some people that just don't know where to go you know I don't think that they can afford it or don't think that they're they're going to get that out you like when I when I first went to Mickey I thought I was going to go in there and see just feelers in the NHL players were right about it and you know he sees every man
that's awesome now do you mean to be in a race car driver is such a wild exciting powerful way to make a living do you ever get the itch now yeah sure I am I ran a race in about a month or a month 2 months ago at Richmond Virginia and it says we have an Xfinity level we have an Xfinity series that's it's a sponsor by Xfinity and it's basically our college-level they race on Saturdays before the Big Show on Sunday at the same track and it's a it's a abbreviated race and I got a couple a couple cars that racing that every week and so I ran in a race at Richmond to scratch the itch a little bit and had a blast we ran great little all apps had fun, everything we wanted to accomplish I'll probably run one more next year at another track and probably do that every year
chill I just don't feel like doing it anymore just for fun but no more than that I never go back to the Cup Series so the cups that people talk about it like man you can just go back it's like you can't just go back it's like
it'll be like gum me like one of the fighters you know just taking a couple years off and then jumping back in for the championship match you know you just it's to Elite you know I'm saying that just happened Conor McGregor just came back after 2 years off if I could be there by the house and got smashed guess that's a good point he probably would have just a Monster yeah but who knows you might not if I would go back I wouldn't it would take me 6 months just to get up to speed I even really even get competitive just to get up to speed physically an n and mentally for yourself to a game yeah it's such a man if you take a week off you just get so behind what is it that you get behind what
Quail darts or sport we're going to talk about this with a friend today and he made a good point he said there was a guy that he says our sport is the only one where the where the ball is governed in the ball is inspected like the race car the car right the physical car itself so technology is one of the things that is what's fast today will be Obsolete and slow 6 months from now he wouldn't even think about running it and 6 months
yeah I mean it's it's it's constantly evolving and somebody next door the guy next to you in the guy next to him and the guy next to him is always costly trying to build a better mousetrap and everybody's in what's new and badass today is going to be okay and not very good 6 months now and they're constantly so the teams are constantly working and if you're not in those cars and current and in that flow in that changing in that cycle in that wheel
then you can't your got your behind like when you get in the car and you get around the team like you're behind on on what's what's what's in the car what's happening with the car and
I don't know it's just not something you just jump in and out of cuz you're not the you're not really them
the key component like your body is your body is a fighter it you know your body and your body is the tool a football player same thing quarterback his arms the tool right in racing at the car and so if you're not in it and around it every day you will be behind on technology understanding what's happening what teams are doing what your what you need to be doing a damn Dash is full of switches with all kinds of shit going on and this needs to be on this needs to be awesome this needs to be back on and off and on and there's levers there's brake levers some drivers have for fucking brake levers there's like a you can shut off the left front the right rear the right front you can put all the breaks from the back to the front from the back from the left to the right I mean that's just the brakes and yeah I mean there's just so many there's there's just a lot going on
it would take you awhile to get back up to speed if you were to take some time off it's not it's just not as easy as it used to be I have no idea there were that many brake options on then
I mean you can have as many as you want or as little as you want some guys really think that that stuff's a good tool for them to be able to adjust the brakes and change how the brakes work on all four corners of the car
and some of them do they move them during the race while they're racing you know they're changing him a fool with him you know the IndyCar you know you can just the roll bars and all that stuff and those cars and stuff like that so I mean there's a racecar driver there's there's a ton of stuff going on in that car that people don't even know about ya
so it would just take you awhile to get all that stuff automatic ya mind I would get in the car and forget about those tools and forget that I had those adjustments and knowledge in be getting beat by guys that are using it everyday
now how would it look how much time are you in a car in a race
3 hours probably three and a half hours do you do any saying or do do you take anything to keep you concentrating at your full potential during that time vitamins are in I never did I just mix water and orange Gatorade for electrolytes yeah 50-50 sings lot of Gatorade and stuff Gatorade to sponsor for Jamie so he's going to have the Gatorade Chews or whatever you must be sweating like a pig in those things right you sweat it sounds erase it's all just water weight and you just put it right back on in a day or two is a really hot in the car as it was in Chicago this year in the car we have sauna during the in-car camera
Chevy pointed at that temperature gauge in all of the guys cars were a hundred fifty degrees inside all the drivers and it was miserable doesn't say it so is there any fear of people black and I don't smoke show that something that I've always got
I think that we don't have that concern today but it is coming and we need to like if we have a 150 degree in car temperatures I think that we need to think about how to try not to have that you know try to do something to where man is that really necessary that we put the drivers through that is it because the engines in front of you as you drive in the heat from the engine is blows in the driver's compartment makes everything going to be a thousand degrees on the calipers and that heat radiating into the car the drivers can open up these Naknek Ducks that's down cars out so much that there's not a lot of air moving around in the car and it's so low to the ground there's not a whole are moving around under the car either so that are under the car just got baking in there and sitting in there
so if they're miserable miserable miserable miserable car I bet that's when I watch races and I'm like you know I'd love to get out there and do that for a few minutes but damn running 3 hours and 50 degrees race car it's miserable it is the worst experience I can't imagine being in the sauna just sitting there for 3 hours you never mind driving your car around a bunch of other cars. Everyone's going to hundred miles an hour and the worst part is when you slow down like the caution comes out cuz that it gets hotter 8 or 10 Pace Labs at 50 miles an hour you're just that's when you get to think about it you know that's when you're sitting there going to do it right and doesn't bother you as bad strikes you know
is there anything they can do to cool you off with your suit does your suit at you plug into a little machine that pumps it until I get to get out of the car those work really well on the last year my career and very comfortable so there's some stuff out there they have a cooler that plugs on top of your helmet that blows some air in there it's a little bit cooler but it dropped those two things draw so much ants that the teams don't want to use them I use them but the karrueche's don't want your drawing that many ants are the right out the alternator they want to use Ant-Man now when you think back of on doing all that stuff that you did do and and think about those kind of races and think about all that the endurance and all the other different
specs of it did it ever seem kind of crazy that you did it
yeah but that I raced yeah we now that you're not racing like well what up wild way to make a living yeah like I can't believe it happened to me
my dad was sort of this
invincible hero and I wanted to do it he did I didn't think I was going to get to do that when I started doing it I was thinking to myself I can't believe this is happening to me when I started to win I want a few race I never man I never so when I was in when I was 20 years old I wasn't thinking man I'll Be A Champion I'm going to win 50 races I'm going to kick some ass I was thinking I sure would love to do this and pay my bills I would love to do this just for a living not have to work changing or was it the best wasn't where I wanted to be working in the service department was fun but damn I want to be race car driver and so when I made it I didn't really
I wanted to win but damn I just want to be able to make money to afford to do it for a living and that's all I ever wanted so the wins Daytona 500 and all that shit was about and when I look back on it now I'm like man I think I was so lucky holy cow was I lucky to do what we did and do what I did and when what I did and
very lucky do you think you had such great success not just because obviously you're your dad is on the greatest of all time but also because your love for it was what propelled you it wasn't trying to seek fame or Fortune it just you just truly love racing and that's why you became so great at it at my dad's the link to my father opened up a shit ton of doors open up so many opportunities for me
all even today it made my past much easier than some other fellas that I know but I think that my my passion for it in my my love for it my love for its history my wanting for it to be healthy the sport all those things is what probably made me make good decisions as I went along you know when I get in a position to make comment or say something I always try to think about how that would represent the sport I didn't understand what building in my career good in such a hard-ass and hard to work with a lot of times like there's been there were some sponsors I loved and I did everything they wanted and there was some that I just weren't is I wasn't as good as I should have
you know I wasn't going to have regrets but
so I'm just saying like I didn't want as I was going through this career I wasn't thinking about me me me I didn't even know how to build my own brand I didn't know what that meant I was thinking about to do this I can't believe I'm here I can't believe I'm racing here racing this person doing driving this car got the sponsorship noticed everything everything was the best of the best you know I had to add great sponsors awesome awesome equipment everybody always nice like I buy some nice how is this but there was so nice she goes everybody's nice to you you know she can see is so bent out of shape and that's normal people we we don't get everybody nice yeah you live in a different world that is interesting you live in this world where everybody's happy to meet you like a hot chick
, yeah right me like you're a hot chick I'm ready to go so hot chicks don't have any idea what the world's everywhere they go everybody loves them yeah people super super excited to see everybody is very friendly though right but a large lady was unfortunate looks so different view of the world yes
how much did you learn about racing from your dad
Harley nothing man I mean we I will get asked all the time what your dad talk to you about X Y and Z and we never talked about racing never yeah we never talked to Mary Yvonne you started racing we never did he was always
don't you know finished he was so worried that me and Kelly wouldn't finish school then we would give up on school he gave up on school as an 8th grader at 16 years old he was 16 and 8th grade and quit and never will finished high school never got no GED nothing and people would come up to him and say or people would talk about him even though I was live and ever since and say look what this guy made of himself having quit the 8th grade that's awesome and he always hated that that was embarrassing for people to he was embarrassed that he quit he knows how bad it disappointed his own father so
he was always like worried about where I was who I was hanging out with whether I was you know doing my homework and then even when I started racing it was who I was hanging out with what I was doing with my free time what I was focusing on whether I was you know thinking about you know what I was what I was on time sponsor appearances and never is a dry this corner as I get around this race track he never talked about this stuff it was always the person being a man being right being good to people being on time being ready to work looking your best
general you know
morals and values he didn't we never sit down and talk about racing like I'm going to show you how to get around this corner and just how you shift and shit like that well in that respect is probably Brillion of them cuz look the Championships came and you also turned out to be a great man thanks I appreciate you saying that I I don't know I always felt like that when I was younger I kind of let my father down because there was this one time I was probably 12 years old and there was this me and my buddy we were going to play outside outside my dad standing over there and there was a bucket full of shit and he's like hey and I went over there and try to pick it up and I was like I can't lift it
and he got so pissed off at me cuz you know I didn't try and he said my buddy Ryan he was Ryan come here pick the bucket up take it over there and he turned around and gave me this look of pure freaking disappointment and I felt like that set the tone for our relationship wow one-bucket I feel like that was the relationship in a nutshell for most of my teenage years you know he looked at me as you know I don't know what he's doing now too I don't know what to say I don't know what skills he has or was he going to ever get his act together or what is ever going to figure himself out you know
and I probably didn't give him much reason to think different but damn we got
when I started racing when I started racing it late models I ran a hundred and fifty nine races and he never came to one
do 94 95 96 97 I raced at Myrtle Beach South Carolina every weekend and he never once came down there to watch me and so he didn't know whether I was a good race car driver or bad race car driver he didn't know whether I was you know
working on my car or understanding how they know what what how how to build the car fix the car and when I would do good I'd come home and I'd have a trophy and I'd say hey man who wasn't there
and I'm like shit
he really did the first time ever coming home in a trophy and I could not wait till he what he would want I kept my car in this in this building that was his and he put all his. Up there called a deer head shop I'm talking 3540 Mountain this place couple elk and he come in there every Monday morning before lunch and I have that trophy sitting up we brought it home and it was right in view soon as he walks in
I Got a Car working on my car and he comes in there and I'm like and like he's like so you want to see the trophy I was like yeah we did and he's like such a must not been there cuz there was this one guy when did Robert Powell used to beat us all the time and he goes Robert bus not been there is like no you wouldn't you wouldn't Hershey right I was so pissed off man I finally want to Dam race and I thought he was going to come in there and slap me on the back and manly yo give me a give me a good talk give you more motivation that you didn't do that I don't think so I think it made me want to it did not make me want to win more but then so
right around the end of 1997 I was out of money he was like Hey you know you're out of money in your race house like shit my life's coming in as far as I know it you know you're not going to use my racing career this is it it's coming to an end 1997
she was sitting down talking to he had a car that races in the Xfinity series that I told you about
on Saturdays and his driver was leaving to go to a cup car
and he's talking to his best friend Tony Senior is the guy's name that actually crew chiefs that car he's like who would drive is think we should we get we got hired for driver and Tony singer said why don't you put Dale jr. in there he goes what you serious you really like so he's like to spend a little money on this car won't you spend it on your own kid Tony Senior says so
and so they made the decision to put me in this car in the Xfinity series you think that Dad would come tell me or we would have press conference not be a press release at least I walked into is the month Before the Race season starts I think I'm out of I think I'm at erasing right I ain't been I ain't talk to anybody about what I'm racing to get some racing in a couple months I think that it's dried up opportunities are gone I walk into the shop to get something where Tony and seniors card Tony Sanders race car was in my name is on the roof
and I was like I thought was a joke like a mean joke a prank and they were laughing Tony Senior in and some of the guys in the shop or laughing and I'm like man that's messed up our Dicks name on there to say no money in there and they were like is Truman as like you mean I'm all Races car
I'm releasing this car and they're like yeah I was like really I mean obviously I was thrilled like man I couldn't believe it but this is the way I found out not from her own dad
and I'm like Dad I'm racing the car yep I mean not days later when I see him I'm like so I'm going to race that car anyways yep yep sure they're get ready and I'll sit and I mean it was a it he was the strangest when it can't he didn't he didn't really
but once so I started racing that car and I had had great success we won set six or seven races the first year we won another six or seven races the second year of championships in both seasons so I mean the choice to put me in that car worked out better than he probably ever imagined ever and 159 late model races that I ran from 94 to 97 I 1/4 and 159 late model races I want for so he put me in this car on a whim and prayer and we ended up winning Championship so he is thinking damn
Bissell can drive a car and that's when our relationship completely changed that's when his arm around me we were doing shit together we were we were doing we had sponsor deals and promotions together we were doing photo shoots together I saw him all the time and we talked about all kinds of and we talked about life girls and everything the racing and we didn't talk about racing much but just fine but it was awesome and so 9899 and in 2000 I went back up
he's able to cut came around me we had Budweiser come in for 10 million dollars a year which was a big sponsorship anybody had in it at that time and so he got killed in 2001 it started the season Daytona 500 so there's three years 98 99 2000 or as good as it can get
that must have been amazing what's been amazing for you to turn that corner yeah it was like a light switch he went from he went from not really engaging with me me not comfortable around him feeling ashamed not me not measuring up cuz he's 10 ft tall cowboy boots black hat covering shit Intimidator that was his nickname and I was blonde pale short as hell not a muscle on me and had accomplished nothing you know right and so it but it overnight it was like completely changed when we started running great and people were coming up to me like you're freaking awesome and you know and he's and he was he was real happy with that he was pretty proud
it's crazy that you never talk to you about race now that's just so strange damn I can't imagine there was one there was only one time that he did that we were to track call Bristol Tennessee track in Bristol Tennessee it's a half mile high Banks Racetrack and we run 15 second laps around there it's really fast and it's it's kind of Technical and tough to get around and I've been race I'm out there practicing
and I wasn't I wasn't doing it right and he got up on the he got up on one of the hollars and got on the radio and started talking to me and he was like hey man I'm going to tell you how to drive it and so this one day one time in this one practice for about 5 minutes he's like to drive his track so I'm out there driving and he's like I lift right here getting gas okay turn the area and you just tell me how to drive the track and that was the only time he ever did that just think how much it would have approved you I know I mean it like his back when he told me how to do it I'm like holy shit this is what I would have never thought of doing it this way and this is way better than some things come on man
that's a task to be so crazy cuz that's your profession that your dad is a superhero well I think that I finally made it to Cub I think he would have been in my ear all those years best decision today so maybe he just didn't know he was going to be around for it I know how hard was it to race after he was gone
I thought about whether I should quit or not
you know right I probably if there if it had to pay a lot of money and I didn't have partners and people that were depending on me or counting on me I probably could easily walk away from it but
we had a great partner in Budweiser that was incredibly supportive
I had a lucrative opportunity in front of me personally to be a be a racecar driver for as long as I wanted to
which I wanted and I just had to go through missing him really bad for a few months you know I had to I had to go to the racetrack and everywhere I looked you know there's Dad there were people fans morning
there were signs and paintings and things you know there was just markings and acknowledgements in this shit everywhere for like a year and I appreciate it and I knew why it was like that but it took awhile for me to
so to get to where I didn't
I was aware there was a period of time where I was real self-destructive and just like
you know it everything and
took me awhile to calm down and get to work you know for for for a while there it was just sort of going through the motions
you know I mean you must have always known mean everyone knows there's dangers involved in racing cars but when it hit someone so close as your own father that had to change what racing felt like to you
yeah I'm sure it I'm sure it would have completely been a different experience emotionally had that not happened had me a racing for me would have meant something completely different
you know I just was he was in he was he was this invincible
got it you know wasn't supposed to get hurt one supposed to I mean he was he was he was supposed to get hurt and drive her and be tough and he was supposed to get killed and leave us all you know you let the whole sport you know in and no one knew what to do like that was like the whole sport was in there going what are we do for everyone and even in the even the competitors and I looked up to him like he was D I like that that's that's the man
sport big giant board for the whole sport
but I am
we just cuddle together me and my team in our company we all rights for my dad's company so that whole company, just kind of held held at self together and everybody kind of pulled pull together and work their way through it that first year in 01 just that the year you know that he was killed that was just a kind of a tough year I don't even really remember anyting much about what happened that year
Monica prices but it was otherwise you know the races where we didn't win I can't even I don't even remember much about me no just retaining too much from it was just kind of a days you know oh for was a great year I think we kind of finally we're coming out of the funk you know around 2004 kind of coming out of the cloud of that
I would imagine that being a racecar driver and have your dad be who he was always carried a lot of weight but did it carry more weight after he was gone with the more eyes on you I thought so you know I thought he he was tough
he knew who he was so this morning he knew that you know he carried he carried a big massive fanbase and he knew the people listen to when he can all those things and so when he was gone I think some people some people kind of looked at me to try to carry that same load and even be that same person and I just wasn't going to do it I was like man I'm going to be me I'm going to be like I said he was he's just 10 foot tall black hat and I'm I'm in short scrawny pale kid I was I couldn't be who you was out of been faking it and I couldn't be the Intimidator you know so I just have always ever since then
Ben me in if that's good you like that great I think I've been relatable honest genuine
and the fanbase that I gained he passed away I thought we nurture dad and grew that and I think we did a lot of great things and outside the sport II to do that
some kind of proud of all those things I thought I handled that well considering they're a lot of different Avenues to go at that time and I think I chose some good ones and certainly probably could have made some different decisions and and and have regrets but for the most part I was able to you know add to his legacy a little bit that was something that was important to me I didn't go out there and when 90-day and races I didn't win 7 championships but I didn't hurt his legacy I added to it made a lot of people happy
there's an Earnhardt on the track you know that was good for a lot of people
tell you got a great perspective but thanks you really do any book it's called racing to the Finish it's out now go get it folks appreciate appreciate you being here thank you
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