Amy Earnhardt On Her Texas Roots, How She Met Dale Earnhardt Jr. & Being a High Profile Mom

Summary

Podcast Summary: Herm & Schrader – Amy Earnhardt On Her Texas Roots, How She Met Dale Earnhardt Jr. & Being a High Profile Mom

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Introduction

In this episode of Herm & Schrader, Kenny Wallace engages in an intimate and engaging conversation with Amy Earnhardt. Amy, known for her strong Texas roots and her role as the wife of NASCAR superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr., shares insights into her life, career, and the dynamics of being a high-profile mom. The discussion delves into her upbringing, her journey to meeting Dale Jr., and balancing family life amidst the pressures of fame.

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Apologies and Early Relationship

Kenny opens the conversation by addressing a missed invitation to Amy and Dale Jr.'s wedding, expressing his regret for not attending due to prior commitments. Amy gracefully accepts the apology, highlighting the strong bond between their families and hinting at future collaborative celebrations.

• Kenny Wallace [01:20]: "I want to apologize to you for not being there."
• Amy Earnhardt [02:12]: "It's totally understandable. And I love that you guys have such a big celebration on New Year's."

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High School and Cheerleading

Amy reflects on her high school days in Victoria, Texas, where she served as the senior co-head captain of her cheerleading team. She recounts the challenges and triumphs of competitive cheerleading, emphasizing the discipline and teamwork required to win the Universal Cheerleading Association National Championship.

• Amy Earnhardt [18:45]: "High school was scary and not so fun. Victoria High School was a really big school."
• Amy Earnhardt [23:00]: "If you really want something and you can have it as long as you really put in the work."

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Meeting Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Amy shares the serendipitous journey of meeting Dale Jr., detailing their first encounter during a professional engagement as an interior designer. Their initial meeting was marked by mutual respect and a gradual deepening of their relationship, eventually leading to marriage.

• Amy Earnhardt [32:50]: "I met him in a meeting at JR Motorsports, just looking over plans about the house that we're now in."
• Amy Earnhardt [33:14]: "We sat down and we hung out and talked all night and had the best time."

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Building a Relationship and Marriage

The narrative transitions to Amy's marriage to Dale Jr., highlighting the thoughtful proposal orchestrated during a family trip to Germany. Amy describes the emotional moment in a quaint church setting, underscoring the deep connection and love between them.

• Amy Earnhardt [56:15]: "It was surreal. He really knocked it out of the park."
• Kenny Wallace [57:04]: "That's wonderful. It is an incredible story."

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Career as an Interior Designer and Venture into Media

Amy discusses her professional background in interior design, her transition away from the industry, and her ventures into media and advertising. She explains how her roles have evolved alongside her family life, embracing creative outlets that align with her passions.

• Amy Earnhardt [31:19]: "I went to college for five years, ended up getting a job in Florida."
• Amy Earnhardt [47:11]: "Having kids and not working in the design industry anymore. It just gives me something that's just mine."

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Family Life and Motherhood

Balancing a high-profile marriage, Amy delves into her experiences as a mother to two daughters, Isla and Nicole. She reflects on the joys and challenges of motherhood, the influence of her upbringing on her parenting style, and the unique dynamics of her family life intertwined with NASCAR's demanding schedule.

• Amy Earnhardt [63:24]: "Nicole's pretty wild. I think Nicole looks more like me, and Isla acts more like I do."
• Amy Earnhardt [73:07]: "I was absolutely very proud and so upset myself for not, like, trying to stay awake."

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Reflections on NASCAR and High-Profile Life

Amy offers candid insights into the intense fan interactions inherent in NASCAR, contrasting it with other sports. She shares her initial apprehensions about the fandom dynamics and how her relationship with Dale Jr. navigates the pressures of public attention.

• Amy Earnhardt [70:32]: "It was weird. It's still humbling and surreal to go to racetracks."
• Kenny Wallace [69:39]: "NASCAR is edgy. We love every bit of it."

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Conclusion

The episode wraps up with a heartfelt exchange between Kenny and Amy, celebrating her achievements and the strength of her character. Amy's journey from a dedicated high school cheerleader to a pivotal figure in the NASCAR community exemplifies resilience, dedication, and the importance of familial bonds.

• Kenny Wallace [75:12]: "We just celebrated you, and we went all the way back to high school."
• Amy Earnhardt [75:14]: "I'm happy to do it, Kenny."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Kenny Wallace [01:20]: "I want to apologize to you for not being there."
• Amy Earnhardt [02:12]: "It's totally understandable. And I love that you guys have such a big celebration on New Year's."
• Amy Earnhardt [23:00]: "If you really want something and you can have it as long as you really put in the work."
• Amy Earnhardt [56:15]: "It was surreal. He really knocked it out of the park."
• Amy Earnhardt [63:24]: "Nicole's pretty wild. I think Nicole looks more like me, and Isla acts more like I do."

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Final Thoughts

This episode offers a comprehensive look into Amy Earnhardt's life, highlighting her Texas heritage, professional journey, and the intricate balance of family and public life. Through heartfelt anecdotes and candid reflections, Amy provides listeners with a nuanced understanding of the personal side of a high-profile NASCAR family.

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For those interested in diving deeper into Amy Earnhardt's story and her multifaceted life, tuning into this episode of Herm & Schrader is highly recommended.

Transcript

[Amy Earnhardt]

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[Kenny Wallace]

Back to Kenny Conversation, brought to you by jegs, the leader in high performance aftermarket car parts. Remember to go to JEGS.com for everything you need to fix your everyday vehicle up or your hot rod. There she is, Amy Earnhardt. Amy, you look good. Looks like you're sitting in a race car chair.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I am sitting in Dale's little cubby in his office. This is like the quietest place in the house. So I came to hide out in here with you.

[Kenny Wallace]

Well, thank you. We all have those rooms that are serenity. Actually, my office, my son in law, Jacob, he says, oh, I, I gotta get one of these offices. So we have a lot to get to. And Amy, as I tell everybody, Kenny Conversation is about celebrating you, your life. You've done a lot. And first of all, I want to apologize. I have carried guilt for a long time. Ever since you and Junior got married. You sent you and Dale. Junior sent me and Kim an invitation to come to your wedding.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah.

[Kenny Wallace]

And we couldn't make it because my wife has this incredible New Year's party and oh my God, it tore me apart. But I. We didn't come to your wedding because we had all these invitations out. I want to apologize to you for not being there and you do not.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Need to apologize for that. It's totally understandable. And I love that you guys have such a big celebration on New Year's. Maybe one day we'll join forces and celebrate that together.

[Kenny Wallace]

Oh my God, the work that my wife puts into these. You know, Kim's real shy, but boy, she loves partying. It's. It's a strange phenomenon.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Y'all are the perfect maths, then.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. You know what's funny? So I. I listen to you really well, because I agree with you. Because anytime Dale Jr. Makes videos, you're in bed sleeping, and he's out trying to tear the night away. So you like to relax, you and Kim.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I know when to fold them. Or I tried to learn, he just will go till the wheels fall off, but I can't do that. So I can't do it either. Put myself to sleep like a good girl. You know, when I feel like it's coming, I just don't even fight it anymore.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. Well, I'm sure you had a good time back at University of Kentucky. And you're like, I'm not doing that again. Those were crazy days.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Honestly, I partied harder when I first met Dale than I did in college. And that is no joke. You're carnage in college. But, you know, you went to sleep when the bars closed, you went home, you passed out. So, like, one or two in the morning was basically the latest. You were going to stay up.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Dale would stay out and watch the sunrise and then just keep digging. I'm like, wow, this is epic. And I. I don't know how you live like this. And he's just like a natural pirate. He really is. He didn't do that anymore. He'll sit down and I race for a little bit. But, yeah, he's. He's the next level partier. That kind of changed all that for me.

[Kenny Wallace]

Do. Was he nocturnal? A little bit. He just couldn't go to sleep.

[Amy Earnhardt]

He was completely nocturnal by choice. He played video games. I raced or did all of that in the middle of the night and then slept as much as he could during the day. So, yeah, that was kind of a pattern for him. Made partying all night a little bit easier, I guess.

[Kenny Wallace]

Let's celebrate you. It looks to me like you all just had a really good time. I love your Instagram and. But, you know, you. You have become a superstar in my mind on the Dale Jr. Download. Oh, you're so good at it.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Let's get really. And he teased me up, and I get nervous and I just have, like, word vomit. I just, like, start sharing and so the first episode, when I sat down and I told everybody about the candy in the couch, that was it. I'm so sorry. It just happens. It just, you know. And what's funny, I told him this the other day because I sat down with him this week again, I said, it's almost like this weird, you know, how have you ever brainspotting where they, like, do rabbit eye movement therapy and it like triggers memories. Sitting there and him talking about certain things, especially the way he remembers it versus its reality or the way I remember it. It's almost similar in that way. I remember things that I literally just put way, way, way in the back and, and it just like flies out. So I hope, I hope it's fun and funny and it doesn't offend anybody. But I do love him. I like giving him a hard time, but it's a lot of love.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. But pretty soon here we're going to find out. I know where this comes from. And we're, we're going to go to your, your high school days. You're a leader, you're a competitor, you're a badass. Last night, my wife and myself, we went to Texas Roadhouse and on the way up there, I, I told Kim that I was gonna talk to you. And I said, oh, my God, she's so funny. I said, but why did Dale Jr put those little, you know, fireballs? Why, why didn't he just put them on the coffee table later that night, throw them away?

[Amy Earnhardt]

I asked the same thing I asked him when we were in Anguilla. I was like, you know what, I have a question about that. Why did you wait till you got to the very tiniest little center? It was the tiniest little. And then why didn't you just eat it? He's like, well, that, that will hurt your teeth. That was his answer.

[Kenny Wallace]

I love this. Yeah. So I don't know when you were on Dale Jr. Download, and we all know how successful that show is. I mean, I don't know how many people watch it, but it looks like America watches at least all the race fans. When he first asked you or Mike Davis, how did, how did that start? When did you first learn? Who called you? Who asked you to say, hey, you know, would you start coming on here every month or so? When did that happen?

[Amy Earnhardt]

Well, I had a couple of small little sit downs with them. I think the first one was after he did the ice bath. Yeah, I shared that with Mike or I shared it on social media, I forget. But I did share it on social media. So Mike's like, we have to talk about that a little bit more. So I came in and just sat down for 15 minutes. And the stories and the camaraderie between Dale and I and Mike especially, like all the banter was just kind of a hit. So I think that they wanted to see where that would go. If I came back in and just kind of kept telling stories about how ridiculous our life is or things Dale's done that are funny, it's good to have a different perspective on him. And so they are just trying to tap into that.

[Kenny Wallace]

I think this reminds me of a hero of mine. He's gone now, but Dick Trickle was a really good race car driver, and he said to me, you know, Herman, you know why we get married? It was like this trick question. I said, no Dale or no Dick. Why. Why do we get married? He says, so we have somebody to witness our life. So, see, you're. You're a witness, and. And now you. Now you can. You can tell the stories, you know? Well, we. It goes both ways. He. He. Your husband is witnessing your life, too. That's cool.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I like that.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, me too.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Most people say to like to keep us in check, you know, most people are like, oh, you get married, so. So we have somebody to, like, you know, help you when you're old and then just keep you in check. And so I like Dick's perspective on that way better.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, we. We're here to wit. And it helped me, too, Amy. You know, I'm here to witness my wife's life, and she's here to witness mine. And hopefully when we're gone, she'll, you know, say, oh, he was. He was this way, and tell the stories. Okay, you just celebrated eight years. And like I said, your Instagram is awesome. How do you say this? Anguilla. Anguilla.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I think, Angela, if you want to try to get perfect or. Anguilla. Yeah.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. So you. You went there. You. I guess you just got back and. And you all talk about it on the Dale Jr. Download. And you. You both talk about going there, celebrating eight years of marriage. You found the Elvis beach bar. But. But Junior said, you know, the way I took it was, you know, him so good that he said when he walked up to this Elvis beach bar, he felt like you set it all up, he said, because it was too perfect. Tell me, tell me. Tell me about this time.

[Amy Earnhardt]

So we went. Girlfriends and I went to Anguilla. When for my bachelorette party. So there's like 12, maybe 15 girls rented a house, partied all over the island, and we found this little bar called Elvis's that we fell in love with, and we had the absolute best time. And it's literally just a boat sitting right there in the bay of this beautiful, sandy beach. And so if Dale and I were going to ever go back, I just talked about it so much. Elvis is beach bar and Elvis is the bartender. And it's just a super awesome laid back time. And so when he surprised me with this trip, he said, we're going to go to Elvis's. And I'm thinking in the back of my mind, I really hope it lives up to the hype. I hope it's still there. I hope all the things are just as perfect as it was for our experience. And so we roll up and it's this tiny little dirt road and you can't even see it until you get right up on it. And then we get out of the car and they're playing Nirvana, which is one of both of our favorite bands. And we sit down and it's calm, there's music playing, there's just the perfect environment, the weather is perfect. And he said it was almost like even though he planned the trip for, for us, it was almost like I had planned that day for him because he felt like it was just the absolute perfect scene.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, yeah. I guess as you said, you were worried because now you've spent all this time. But it lived up to the hype.

[Amy Earnhardt]

It lived up to the hype. He got to meet Elvis, we got to meet Brett who is the co owner and the dog that Brett owns that we played with eight years ago was still there blues. Oh my God. We just redid the whole day basically. It was really cool.

[Kenny Wallace]

Okay, now it's time to talk all about you. Fun. You know, just to start the show out with what's up. You know, we just saw you, you know, on the, on the Dale Jr. Download and we celebrated you being on there. Now you are a hit and that's why they keep having you back. But I want to start talking about Amy Ryman, you know, the girl from Texas. You.

[Amy Earnhardt]

You are saying that, right? Dale. Even Dale said Riemann longer than he should.

[Kenny Wallace]

I don't know. I don't know why I know how to say I'm happy because I always want people to say now correct me and I like it when they do that. But let's get down to, you know, all about you. So I go down these rabbit holes. I am not an investigator. I just read articles. And now I know why you're a successful lady. I read some good articles on you and. Is it Vic? Are you from Victoria, Texas?

[Amy Earnhardt]

I am. Y.

[Kenny Wallace]

Is. Are you a small town girl?

[Amy Earnhardt]

I'm a small town girl. Small family. The whole family was there, grandparents and all. So was. We had a really good small town, like quiet little Upbringing, it was happy. And we spent a lot of time with our grandparents. My parents were young. They were 20 when they had me. So we all kind of like, grew up together. How old were you guys when you had your first?

[Kenny Wallace]

Well, Kim and I got married June 23, 1984. We were 22 when we had our first. We. But we. Yeah, we were. We were done by 26, just the way it worked out. You. You can't time these things as, you know. But. But I think one thing that interests me, and I want to kind of go back and forth, you make an effort, you know, because you're so good on social media and Junior is too. But I see you going back and forth to home. I. I think it's awesome. And. And in one of the articles I read on you, somebody was bragging on you, and they say you come from a really good family. So it sounds to me like your whole family is well respected. Do you get excited when you go back home?

[Amy Earnhardt]

I love going back home. So I still have all my grandparents too. And so I go back home as much as I possibly can because I want to spend as much time with them as I can. And my parents. But parents are in different places now, and some of the grandparents are in Dallas now and some are still in Victoria. So, like, it takes a little more effort to kind of move around and see everyone. But I. I loved where I grew up. I love my family. Family was. I mean, we spent more time with them than anybody else, to be honest. We always had like a friend over or something. But they're the grandparents and everybody were always around. And I have so many good memories. Just basic everyday memories and then like, memories of traveling and, you know, really doing things together. So, yeah, I love going home and I love taking Dale home because he. He really loves them too. And it's just good, laid back, relaxed, and just fun. It's really a lot to like about Texas. They tell you that over and over again. That's almost like a little bit of the brainwashing that happens when you grow up in Texas. It's the best state ever. But it really is. It really, really is. There's so much to do. It's huge. There's different places to go, different vibes everywhere, and the food's so good. But of course, family is what always takes us back.

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[Kenny Wallace]

I don't mean to get deep, but, but I'm listening to you intently. I'm listening to you. When you kind of pause a little bit, do you think now I mean this with heart and love. Do you think because Dale Jr. You know, lost his mother and father that sometimes he, him going home with you is, is therapeutic?

[Amy Earnhardt]

I think so. Sure. Of course it is. Right? There's, it's a very well, he's very well received. He gets a lot of love and support from generations that he doesn't have around him anymore. He still has two aunts, but that's basically his grandmother, his uncles, his parents have all passed. So. Yeah, absolutely, I think so.

[Kenny Wallace]

I'm bragging on you and we're going to get to that later. But in that article, it talks. I, I thought it was really interesting how in an article somebody said she comes from, Amy comes from a great family. They're very well respected. And, and I do see you guys going back and forth. What, what is the vibe? What does Texas have that, you know, North Carolina doesn't have? What, what is the difference? I mean, I'm not putting you on the spot. I'm just saying what are some of the things that stand out to you? What is the vibe in Texas compared to where you're living right now?

[Amy Earnhardt]

I would say that anytime you go out to eat, hang out with the family, whether it's yours or someone else's, everyone is there to have a good time. Whether that's playing yard games or cooking out or, you know, even just helping grandfather feed the cows, pushing hay off the back of the truck, everything is done with this like laid back joy and it feels calm and fun. You know, we do like to celebrate everything too. So I don't know if that's just my family. Doesn't seem like it. But we're gonna make a party out of every little moment we can. I think that's another reason Beth's going home with me.

[Kenny Wallace]

I love it.

[Amy Earnhardt]

This is great.

[Kenny Wallace]

I don't know, it sounds to me like you go back there and you get centered and then you come back into the fire. Because we all know that living in North Carolina is, you know, I mean, it's. It's every. You can't go to a restaurant and, you know, they're all wanting to talk racing and. That sounds cool. Okay, let's go to your high school. This is going to be my favorite.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Wait, before we go here. Dude, please tell me you don't have pictures.

[Kenny Wallace]

You're very young. But there is a black and white one of you and it's. It's there and I saw it, but I'm like, ah, that, you know, you're fine, everything's all good. But it's just not a clear picture. And it is. The. The picture is there in the article. You're in cheerleading outfit. Yeah, you got the little kick going on with your leg and you're. You're a girl. And. Okay, you were the senior co head captain for the cheerleading team. And you know, Victoria High School. You were a cheerleader in Victoria, Texas. At Victoria High School. Just tell me what you remember about. I mean, was it fun for you?

[Amy Earnhardt]

High school was scary and not so fun. Victoria High School was a really big school. There were two public schools in town. And I actually graduated in 2000, which was the last year the schools opened. They consolidated all the schools and rebuilt and did the whole thing so that school is no longer. But cheerleading was really fun. I had a really good group of girlfriends and we worked very hard. I started cheering my freshman year of high school. I danced all my life. And so I was. My parents kind of expected me to do the drill team, which was like high kick line and the whole Texas thing. Like everything you imagine about, you know, like the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, the vibe with the kicks and all that.

[Kenny Wallace]

I'm just.

[Amy Earnhardt]

But I didn't do that. I ended up doing cheerleading because I just wanted this, like, smaller, less chaotic group of people to kind of compete with. And so I started go to gymnastics and tumbling as well as I could. I was not that great at it and. And just decided to cheer. So I was competitive already because we had done dance competitions for years and years, but cheerleading was like A new shift and a good one. I think it was a good choice.

[Kenny Wallace]

For me, Kim and I. This is a very boring time of the year for us, so we get hooked on Netflix specials and we watch the Dallas Cowboy cheerleading. It was. I was shocked that I liked it. I mean, it was so intense.

[Amy Earnhardt]

It was the personalities and the process. I love watching, like, the older girls and the. Just the energy and the vibe they had was so different. I loved it.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. The five. You can only be a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader for five years, and it's. If you don't kick high enough, you're not. You can't do it. If you're not nice enough, if. If you don't look good in makeup. Oh, my gosh.

[Amy Earnhardt]

So can you imagine those tiny little shorts? They're not real. They're, like, not a normal pair of a piece of clothing. Like, it's not underwear, and it's not a short. It's just this weird. I can't imagine having to put that on and just, like, be in public. And these girls look amazing at it, so.

[Kenny Wallace]

But one thing I learned about being a cheerleader, you know, to me, I'm embarrassed when I say this, but, you know, I love my wife. I. I like girls and. And, you know, the whole. The whole time I'm, you know, all of us men, you know, Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, man and boy. That special on Netflix put me in my place, and so I'm glad I watched it before I found out you were a cheerleader. I just found out you were a cheerleader last night, you know, 12 hours before. You and I are talking right now. But being a senior co head captain, that means you had to lead a little bit, right?

[Amy Earnhardt]

It did. There were two seniors. We split being captains, and we had. You know, when you're captain of a cheerleading team, you're basically just trying to help herd the cats. We had a really great director, Denise, and she was in charge and would delegate, and we would just kind of. You know, it's hard to remember all the little things that we did and had to do, but we, you know, help keep people motivated and organized. And we had to do a lot of extra practices, and if we didn't, we had to run. And so we just tried to keep. Keep the chaos organized, basically.

[Kenny Wallace]

I want to say this. The reason I'm talking about this is because my wife is. Is an incredible organizer. Kim puts together parties and. And so, from my experience, I've learned to know more about people. You know, it's like, where did this come from. So this the reason I'm talking to you so much about it and you know, and we're going to get to it later. But, you know, your husband brags on you, and I. I believe you changed him for the better. And I. And I, when I go back to your high school, I. I can see why. So here you were another thing. Stingarees cheerleading. Your team won the Universal Cheerleading association national championship. And the old saying goes, nothing's easy to win. So tell me about winning the, you know, that championship. How hard was that?

[Amy Earnhardt]

It was hard. We had. We had had cheerleading competitions. The team had competed for years. Our freshman year, we won second or third. And then my sophomore year, we won second. And then my junior and senior year, we actually won. And so we were very proud of that. They didn't win again the next year, but they had done well afterwards. We were part of. We were a small team. And some of these giant schools in these bigger cities, Austin, Westlake, you know, the base schools that had the good football teams. There's so many kids to choose from. They had cheer squads for their teams. And then they had a competition team, which we didn't do that. We had one team that did everything. So we were busy and we worked very hard, and we wanted to win so bad. They had white satin jackets. Of course you get a big trophy. But all the girls got this jacket, and it was like this thing you really wanted to have. And so we ended up. It was surreal, but, like, it just kind of proves that if you really want something and you can have it as long as you really put in the work. And so we were proud of that. I'm still proud of that. I saw my jacket. It's in the closet upstairs.

[Kenny Wallace]

I was going to say, do you have your jacket? And you just answered that. I want to comment on something you said that just shocked me. I, you know, I went to sports therapy. It was like, it cost, like. I mean, I didn't pay for it. Square D, one of my sponsors, they paid $22,000, and they offered it up to me because they're their sales force. Like, if you're going to be a salesperson, it can be very demeaning because you're trying to sell things and people won't buy it. So you got to have positive mental attitude. But. But I learned a lot in sports therapy. And another person that taught me a lot, and I bring him up every once in a while is the great Dick Trickle. He was a. You know, he won thousands of races he came down to NASCAR when it was too late in his life. But you just said something on your own that he preached to me and I've never heard it. You said, we won second and Dick Trickle preached that to me. He said, my boy, you won fourth. The guy in fifth was all over you, trying to pass you. Do you, do you know that you have that in your vocabulary? You said we won second.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah, I try to look at everything with a positive attitude instead of a negative attitude. You know, I, it's cold outside, but the sun is shining. So, like, I'm not going to be mad about it. Um, I'm not a cold weather girl, but, you know, I'm going to bundle up and be excited because it's, it's a beautiful day. I try to just like celebrate the good stuff and not even pay attention to the. You can only have so much negativity in your life before it just takes you over, right? So I just don't, I've always tried to just choose joy and live with that mentality. I think now it's just second nature. I don't know where that came from. That probably came from my grandparents, you know, spending so much time around people that like, knew what they're just knew what life was like already. And I've never really thought about it that hard except for that. I just don't like, I don't like when anyone around me is super, super Negative Nancy or Glass Half Full. I just like, okay, I'm not going to spend too much time around you because I don't want that rubbing off on me.

[Kenny Wallace]

I'm laughing because that's my new, that's my new deal. I, I, I. It's a long story, but okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and I have it. I always show people, you know, I have two pages on you and I had it, I had it at the bottom and, But I'm gonna move it up right here to this conversation.

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[Amy Earnhardt]

Easy. They're from DSW because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways, and all the styles that show off the many sides of you from daydreamer to multitasker and everything in between. Because you do it all in really great shoes. Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or dsw.comdale Junior is quoted.

[Kenny Wallace]

Your husband is quoted as saying you helped him grow up. He was immature before you and listening to you. You know, and before you and Junior got married, we did a lot of talk, and he felt a lot of pressure being his dad's son. Nothing was ever good enough. You know, I, of course, we had the Dale Jr. Conversation, and he talked about crying around you because he didn't qualify. Good enough. You know, all the way in the Mountain Dew car. I mean, I can see why right now, what you just said, being. Being positive. That's incredible. I just want to comment. I'm going to move that up in this conversation. He was immature before you. He married you, and he says that you helped him be more mature. And I believe it's because of your early days in cheerleading and choosing to be happy. Did you have to work? You saying that just comes natural to be happy?

[Amy Earnhardt]

I don't. I mean, it's. It comes natural to try to look at the positive. Of course, there's plenty of days where I'm in a bad mood or I'm unhappy, but all of us, I mean, yeah, there's so much going on. Life is chaos, and I'm. I'm a woman, so who knows? The wind blows and my mood can change at any moment. But I. I think dating Dale, when I first came around, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I truly didn't. I had never watched a NASCAR race. I remember my dad watching him when I was young, and that's about it. I knew, like, the Earnhardts were. I knew who. Who Richard Petty was because of his cowboy hat. And then I knew who Jeff Gordon was because he ran the dupont car. And my grandfather worked for dupont for years. So I think he said Jeff even came to visit them at one point for, like, a meet and greet. So, like, my knowledge of NASCAR was very limited. I didn't. I didn't pay attention to, like, the family dynamic or anything like that. I just was so excited about this feeling I had that, like, I was just hyper focused. On Dale the person, not the race car driver. So when I first met him, it was awesome. And he was. What time of year was it? I think it was off season. He was. So he wasn't like race car driver stressed. He was laid back. It was easy to talk to. And then when the first time he took me to the racetrack, I got to see that chaos and his, you know, the shift of his personality and all of that change. It really was eye opening. I didn't really know what to do with it. So I just watched and observed a lot. But I don't know, over the years, just going through all the motions with him and trying to figure out how to help him. Being strong, which was something that seemed to be easy. Some people might call it being a hard ass. I don't really know. It seemed to be what he needed from me. So sometimes I was a little bit of both, I guess. But just being there and being strong for him was something that was easy for me to do.

[Kenny Wallace]

I want to stay right here with you. Okay. But I'm going to talk about Denise Neal saying something about you, but. But while you got me on this subject, I. I gotta stay right in this moment when you first. Well, let me back up. Let's do this too. It says that you met Dale Jr. As an interior designer. You were working, you were designing his home, Is that right?

[Amy Earnhardt]

That's right. So I went to college in Kentucky. I was a wildcat. I actually cheered for them for a year as well, which was super fun. And went to college being an interior designer. I started out in engineering, then I went to architecture, and then I settled in interior design. That felt more in my wheelhouse. So, yeah, I went to college for five years, ended up getting a job in Florida and was in Jacksonville working at this architecture firm. Our director. This is kind of a little bit of a long story. Our director and the guy that Dale had already hired to build the house, he was building a house on the backside of the property here. And Dale didn't like how close it was to his, so he bought it mid build, ended up finishing it, and now our property manager lives in it. So he made a relationship with his builder through that process. The builder director grew up together in Florida, so we just happened to have that connection. And when Dale decided to knock the house down that he had bought on this property and rebuild, Dave the builder called my director, Mike, and he's like, listen, man, you. This is your dream. He's been in NASCAR fan his entire life. He's like, you have to put a bid in on this job. And that's how we got it. We weren't home builders. We were commercial architecture firm. We didn't do houses at all, really. We did apartment buildings, doctor's offices, walls, all kinds of stuff like that. So I don't know, I felt a little cosmic that we got the job to begin with. And I met him in a meeting at jrm, just looking over plans about the house that we're now in. Yeah.

[Kenny Wallace]

Do you. When did he first hit on you or did you hit on him? What was the. What. When do you remember going, oh, I think we like each other?

[Amy Earnhardt]

Honestly, the first meeting. And I wasn't looking. I don't think he was looking. He hardly looked up from the plans that at one point, I'm talking about something, I don't remember what it was. And he turned over, and then we made eye contact, and I was like, oh, what was that?

[Kenny Wallace]

I love this.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I, like, almost got a little truly choked up. And so in the car, we drove all the way up here from Jacksonville. On the car ride home, my boss was like, I think he kind of was a little smitten with you. And I looked at her. I was like, what was that? I don't know what that was, but he looked at me. And I just even know what to make of that. And so we didn't have conversations from then on for a while. He would kind of avoid meetings. He was busy doing this, that, and the other. And then it was probably, I don't know, six or eight months later, we had gone to eat dinner with Kelly, and we were all going to go down to Whiskey river down in Charlotte. He had the bar then, and I think Gary Allen was doing an opening or something. So we got invited to go hang out. And that night is when at one point, TJ Majors pulls me over because I'm just dancing, doing my own thing. TJ Majors walks me over to Dale's little booth and says, hey, come sit by my friend. And it wasn't, hey, come talk to Dale. It was, hey, my friend wants to hang out with you. Which is super weird. But those. Who knows those boys, the way they operated back then is really funny. So I sat down and we hung out and talked all night and had the best time.

[Kenny Wallace]

And you, you. Gosh, I don't even have to go by my notes because now TJ Majors, okay, he was. He was your husband's best man in the wedding. And now he's back. You guys just announced for the Dale Jr. Download that. TJ is back on the show. Yeah. So this. This TJ majors is a major part in your life.

[Amy Earnhardt]

He is. We traveled to the racetrack. He was with us every weekend. We were all very, very, very close. His teacher's on those people, too. I could call now if I needed anything, and he would be there. Our kids are really good friends. I'm really good friends with his wife. They're just. They're just good friends. They're friends, like lifer friends, you know, Very rare.

[Kenny Wallace]

Snoop Dogg. I know. I just did a 180. Snoop Dogg's got this quote out. He goes, my friends are real friends. When we get done playing video games, they helped me vacuum the house up, you know, and it sounds to me like. And I really like that Snoop Dogg saying that, you know, my friends are the same friends I had before I had a dime. And do you feel like TJ's like that? He's like a real friend.

[Amy Earnhardt]

TJ's like that. We have a small. We have a small group of friends that same thing. We. We play together. We look after each other's kids together. We can call them, call each other, we need anything. Yeah. TJ is one of those people. Tam was one of those people. We are very blessed to have, like, a good core group of people that we can count on, and he's one of them.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. That is badass. I like that. That's one reason I moved back home, because I felt like my. I know. I know. I had good friends in North Carolina, but I needed. I needed grounding. I. I didn't want to go into a restaurant and have somebody ask me, why did I run 15th, you know, in a race? Okay, so back to all you. And you just said it. You were not this dumb blonde that you know. Or are you blonde or brunette?

[Amy Earnhardt]

I don't know. It just depends. It's like a dark blonde now. I grew up, grew up blonde. I've dyed my hair dark a couple of times. I get bored, and I'll just, like, dye my hair dark, but naturally, like, this is it right in here.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. Well, my point is this. You. You worked hard. You know, you were a cheerleader. You wanted to lead. You danced hard. You went to University of Kentucky. You could have had mom and dad just flip the bill. Maybe. But yet you, you know, you're part of interior designer. Where does this heart. I mean, now you're married to the most famous race car driver in America and maybe the world. You're married to. I mean, he is the most popular Driver. There's no doubt in my mind, but, I mean, you could have took the easy street growing up. I think your work ethic is incredible. Where does that come from?

[Amy Earnhardt]

There wasn't an easy street growing up. So my dad had three girls and he was an only child, but we grew up around people that worked hard. And dad saved this much money for a car, he saved this much money for college. And if you wanted to do anything outside of that, you had to substitute the rest, right? So going to Kentucky, especially right after I moved out, 10 days after I graduated high school, I was so excited to, like, fly the coop and see the world, and I felt very comfortable doing that. I wasn't scared to leave home. I wasn't scared to not have mom and dad. I'm not saying it wasn't scary, because it was super scary once I got there. Just like not being able to turn around and drive home, that was a. It was too far. It taught me so much about myself. It taught me how to be responsible. It taught me what my flaws were, what I needed to work on. It forced me to just to wallow in my own failures, too, and learn from that instead of having someone to just like, it's all right. You'll be fine. Here's some money. Here's whatever. You're going to be fine. I had to really teach myself how to be strong, how to. How to live as an adult. So I think. I mean, I. I didn't grow up in a. In a house where I felt in need or in want of anything, but we weren't. We weren't coddled, and we were not just like, you know, dad wasn't going to give us a credit card and, And. And mess around with anything like that.

[Kenny Wallace]

And we got that in North Carolina. A lot of the driver's kids and. And the stories ricochet throughout Mooresville and Lake Norman. A lot of the kids got credit cards. Yeah, you're so. Do. Do you feel you're. Were you and your sisters tomboys at all? Did your. Did your dad. I know I guess he treated you like girls, but sound to me like you guys were in order. We were.

[Amy Earnhardt]

We did a little bit of everything. We. We have. My grandfather on my dad's side has cattle. There's two farms, and he's not a big rancher, but he does have cattle. So we'd go out. We've spent so much more time outside than inside. For sure, we danced and did ballet and were girly girls, but we also knew how to throw hay off the back of a truck, and we knew all the tools in the toolbox. Dad would have us out in the garage handing him tools as he was working on his truck or something. And I don't know, it just. We didn't. We just did whatever everybody else was doing, and we were surrounded by a bunch of activities like that. So we just kind of got used to. Get used to those things.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. Well, here I am, 61 years old and just finally learned. Learned that cheerleaders, yes, they're pretty ladies, but they're well grounded, they work hard. I learned all that watching, you know, the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. And now it's weird, right? I'm 61 and I'm learning all about these cheerleaders that actually those girls work for a living, you know, and cheerleaded sound. Sounds to me like you did the same thing. Is that a Texas thing, or do the cheerleaders do that all over America? Or is it just.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I would say that cheerleading is absolutely one of those things that will teach you a lot of self discipline. Any kind of like dancing competition will do the same thing too. There's a lot of time spent in the team organization and the team effort to win instills that in you. But I do think there's something about a Texas woman. I. I've been told that. And there's a stigma around Texas girls being tough, or if not physically tough, just mentally tough.

[Kenny Wallace]

You said when you went out on your own, you wallered in. You didn't say that. I wanted to help you. You wallered in for a little bit. And that you're saying that was good for you because you had downfalls.

[Amy Earnhardt]

It was. I learned. I just. You teaches you a lot about yourself to be out on your own so far away from home. First year of college, I signed up for classes at 8am every day during the week. And what a stupid thing to do when you're 18, 30. I'm like, I'm just gonna get it done, and then I'll have all day to play and blah, blah, blah. Well, I didn't make it to class half the time, and I get kicked out of English class.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah.

[Amy Earnhardt]

So that taught me a lot about my choices, structure, being on time, being responsible. You know, that happens when you're 18. You go through moments like that where you're like, oh, this is real. This isn't. We're not playing around anymore.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. So Denise Neal, okay, you. You leave school and they come back to interview her, and she says, Victoria cheerleading coach, said, Amy Ryman was driven, hard working, talented, and competitive where you wanted to kick some ass. It sounds to me like I was.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Okay to fail if somebody was obviously better, that's okay. But not if we didn't bring it. I'm not happy. I'm still like that. Like, don't half ass. Don't even try if you're going to half ass it.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. Okay. And we're going to get to that. So you were a Victoria Strutter. What is a strutter?

[Amy Earnhardt]

That is a junior, junior high school age drill team. So that was like a dance comp. A competitive dance team. And they were the Strutters.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, yeah. And I thought so, but I've never heard. Is that a Texas word? Why have I never heard that?

[Amy Earnhardt]

It was a play on us. Like strutting strut, you know, just like a fancy walk, you know?

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, look at me, I'm a badass. Okay, so they keep bragging on you. They even use your senior pitcher as a sample for graduate invitations. Your sample spurred record sales for pitchers on the front of the graduate invitations now, whether you believe that or not.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Wait, what?

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, that's what they said about you. They said you. Okay, so they, they made new invitations and you know, when you were a senior and you put invitations out to your family, I guess. Look, Amy's gonna be a senior. She's graduating. Did you, you know, they said they used your senior picture, put it on the front of invitations. So. And I'm just reading this verbatim, so I don't know if they do that to this day, but if, if your child is going to graduate, you know, and I get this a lot where people are, you know, somebody sends me a picture of their child, you know, with their graduation cap on and gown, and you send them $20, you know, and the kid graduates. And now the kids got a little bit of money to go off to college. But what they're saying is that. And I'm repeating myself and I'm just reading this verbatim off the article. They even use your senior picture as a sample to advertise that they were doing that and they felt like your picture.

[Amy Earnhardt]

The photography studio.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yes, yes. The Korzinski's. They were very, very good family friends. I mean, it's small town, right? Yeah. Yes. We had pictures taken with that portrait studio since I was very small. Like we would do Easter pictures. They have the bunnies and all the things. So we've got loads of awesome memories with them too.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, I thought that was cool. And that was in the article, you know that they use your pictures go, hey, here's, here's a, here's a graduate. Here's what our graduate invitations look like. And they said they feel like it really helped. Okay, now we're gonna, we're gonna go to what you talked about. Just gloss over it a little bit. So you go to the University of Kentucky and you get a Bachelor of Arts in interior design. I mean, you, that's badass. So, I mean, you, you know, before you get to Dale Jr. Is my point. Before you get to Dale Jr. You're successful because you got a Bachelor of Arts in interior design. Four. Four years. Did that take four years?

[Amy Earnhardt]

It took me five, but that was because I switched majors that first year a couple of times. So I graduated in 2005.

[Kenny Wallace]

Okay, we did it. We. We have celebrated. You were not done by any means, but we have celebrated Amy Ryman and now Amy Earnhardt. Congratulations, Amy. I mean, nobody, nobody will usually do that in life, you know, How'd you get to where you're at? And we just, we just told everybody how you got to where you're at. I think it's a wonderful story. So now let's come to present time. Okay. You know, we all follow each other. And this morning, you know, minutes before we start Kenny conversation, it's like you were preparing yourself because now you're, you're promoting AG1 a drink.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yes.

[Kenny Wallace]

And. And it appears to me that you know what the hell you're doing. You got the link on there. You're well spoken. And we're going to get, we're going to get to vodka in a little bit here. Do you ever remember coming out of University Kentucky and going, hey, I'm going to do any type of advertising. I'm going to talk about product.

[Amy Earnhardt]

No, honestly, I'm not super comfortable with attention in general, which is so it's hard. The transition of getting out of college, going to school was just so that I had a livelihood. And meeting Dale was this thing that was not planned at all. I didn't even, like position myself to meet him, you know, just working.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

[Amy Earnhardt]

So when this whole new life started and he wanted me to start doing this and that, like in a Hellman's commercial or whatever we did together, it was beyond nerve wracking.

[Kenny Wallace]

Like my palms are sweaty so hard.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Now it's gotten a little bit more comfortable and being able to do the ads on your phone and edit it and it gives you a little bit more freedom to mess up, you know what I mean? So those ads, you, you could film them in 20 seconds and do it in one take if you're really, really good at it. Or sometimes it takes you an hour and then it takes you three hours to edit it, depending on how much chaos is around you. So, you know, I love doing it because it's, it's a little fun. It gets me outside of my box and I only will support things that I absolutely, truly love or I've used before. And I get the opportunity to do that and it makes total sense to me. But I don't know, it's just like a fun little extra hobby to have. Having kids and not working in the design industry anymore. It just gives me something that's just mine, I guess that I can do creatively.

[Kenny Wallace]

I like it. I like it. They always say we need purpose. You're a great wife and mama. So another thing that I like, it was funny because I sat down at a Texas Roadhouse. But besides that, you are the co owner of High Rock Vodka. And, and you all sent me a nice little package. And I gotta tell you, it's very. High Rock Vodka is very good. Goes down very good. But yeah, so you go to Texas Roadhouse. You, you took, you know, when I, when I read what you're up to, you, you take the race team, you know, whether it's the cars, tour race team or whatever, Junior Motorsports. You take them in. Yeah, yeah, you take them in at the Texas Roadhouse. And there you see your picture with you and your husband, Dale Jr. Amy. There, there it is, the, the hard work. You're promoting High Rock Vodka. You're selling it, but you're working for it. You're doing the commercials, you're doing the pictures. What did it feel like to, to finally see that, you know, your marketing, you know, the little things that sit on the table. What'd your mind go. Yeah.

[Amy Earnhardt]

It's so weird. It's so weird. It's very cool, but it's so weird. I'm used to seeing Dale's face everywhere, but seeing mine there next to it is bizarre. I don't know, it's. It's one of those things I can't really quantify with words, but it's, I guess surreal is the best one.

[Kenny Wallace]

Then you then, okay, another subject. You do a four part series TV series. Renovation realities.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah.

[Kenny Wallace]

Now to me, this, you know, you're an interior designer, you're down in Florida, you're. You're fixing a house. It looked like a lot of work. To me, it was. What was your experience on Renovation Realities?

[Amy Earnhardt]

We had a great time. Doing that show was very eye opening too, about tv. I had never done anything like that before. I was newly pregnant when we started the build. I was actually so early on that I couldn't tell anybody, but I was nauseous. So nauseous. And it was hot. It was so hot. Dale was drenched in sweat. Every day we were physically doing the work. We had bought that house. It was right next door to our actual vacation home. And the lady that had it just needed to get rid of it. She had inherited the house and didn't want the house. So Dale bought it, let it sit for a while, we cleaned it up, and then we got the opportunity to do the show. And it was a lot of fun working with Dale in that environment and doing the TV thing. It was probably more fun for us to do that coupled with the renovation just so it gave us some light, you know what I mean? That choose the joy thing, because the build itself was really hard. But doing the design process with Dale and doing all those things together and with our builder Steve was a lot of fun.

[Kenny Wallace]

So when we do these things, certainly we're going to get in arguments. When you, and when you and your husband get into arguments, how do you, how do you put the fire out? Who puts the fire out? You or him?

[Amy Earnhardt]

Well, when we get, go through processes like that, we actually don't fight. We're pretty good. Um, I don't know what that is. We're. When we're working through something that's real versus just us fighting because we're in bad moods, it's easy to like work through it. Um, when he and I get fussy with each other, it's usually me going to him because he'll just get quiet and ignore me until I, even if he's the one that's wrong, which I'm going to go out on a limb, it's, I would say it's more 7525.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. The man is always wrong.

[Amy Earnhardt]

He's always scared. He says he's scared.

[Kenny Wallace]

My wife said he, My wife said she's perfect. And yeah, she probably is. I'm right. I'm right. Junior respects you so much that he's a little afraid to battle you. I love this.

[Amy Earnhardt]

As he should be, I guess.

[Kenny Wallace]

Well, there is a book years ago, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, something like that. So we are different. It is amazing that we, we can stay together. I, I, I, I'll be honest with you. I met my wife in high school. We've been married over 40 years. And you know, I'd probably be dead without Kim because, you know, I'm hyperactive and I'm crazy. But I know what's up, you know. Okay.

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[Kenny Wallace]

I feel like we've really gone in chronological order. And, and here we are now in your life, you go to Germany and, you know, you're over there in Germany and he. And Dale Jr proposes to you in Germany. Tell me about just that, that time of life. I mean, how long was the plane ride? You get over there, it's like, what the hell are we doing? You know? Did you tell me the whole story?

[Amy Earnhardt]

Dale had done a lot of work on his genealogy. Even when we were in the racetrack, in the bus, he had his iPad. He was doing the, the whatever it was. Ancestry. Yes. I mean, he worked diligently for a very long time on all of the facts and worked with an actual historian here in North Carolina to make sure it was all valid. And he really had this gigantic amount of information about his family in Germany. Well, he has a guy named Martin Friedrich who works for him at JR Motorsports. He's part of the IT department. Martin is German and was like, you know, if you want to go over there, we should go and I'll go with you. So that's kind of how that whole idea started. Well, we set up the trip. He's made appointments with people at the courthouse to look at more documents. We're like, we're going for ancestry, we're going to find his place in Germany. Kelly and LW are going along. They're going to see the whole thing. And so we're in this little tiny town in the middle of Germany it's called, and it is tiny. I think there's like 500 people that live there. Maybe 3,000. I mean, I don't think there's 3,000. I think it's like 500. And there have never been too many, too much fluctuation. So, like, people have grown up there and stayed there. And it's very quiet. So we get there and we. We're kind of hanging out and walking about town. We have some dinner in the pub that's right below our hotel. We're kind of in like a split level thing. We have a few beers and we go to bed. And the next morning we're going to look at the church. And so Martin has set up an appointment with the pastor of the church. And we're going to walk in. We are slightly hungover from the beers.

[Kenny Wallace]

Is the beer heavy over there? Is it different?

[Amy Earnhardt]

It was wheat beer, but we had a really good old time and hung out with some ripples. We couldn't speak to one another, but we all had a lot of fun together. And so head's a little fuzzy. The next morning we get into the church and we're walking around. It's super quiet. It's tiny. It's adorable. Like, the pews are even, like hand carved and just perfect. And so I'm walking around and at one point I turn around, I'm kind of close to the altar, and he is on his knee. And I literally just look at him like, are you sure? He starts, he goes through his whole spiel. Kelly's crying already. And then he gives me a ring. And then we have a few moments afterwards and Kelly and LW and Martin walk out. And I'm like, are you sure shirt? Because I mean.

[Kenny Wallace]

I love this.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Up until that moment, like, we had had so many conversations about not getting married that I never thought it would happen. And so. And I was okay with that. And I, you know, was just there for the ancestry to begin with. So it totally blew me away. But he really knocked it out of the park.

[Kenny Wallace]

First of all, that's. That's wonderful. It is an incredible story. A lot of work put into that. So Good job, Dale Jr. So, you know, I've got a friend that looks Indian. His family acts Indian and they don't have a. He. He was devastated when they did it. Don't have a stitch of Indian in them.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Really?

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah. So my point is, is the Earnhards are from, you know, Kannapolis, N.C. their country. Iron Heart. He listened to Leonard Skynyrd. So, you know, you know, America is, is a new, new land. It's, it's very new and America's awesome, but, you know, and we're having fun here right now. Is it Earnhardt? You know, is it German? I mean, you know, we, we want, we want to believe it's, you know, Dale Earnhardt Senior, the man in black, the cowboy boots, the black number three. But is he German? I mean, is he just dead ass German or what is it?

[Amy Earnhardt]

So when we did the, when we did the blood tests for, for him, and Kelly did it too. She's actually a little bit more German than he is. He's got, his mom was English. They were. And he was a little bit more English than German. Like, I'm talking 49, 51 right there. But, but yeah, mostly, I mean, he's very German. My family is also German and we keep in touch with our ancestors. There were two, two brothers. One stayed in Germany, one went to Texas. And so I replied that Texas lineage and my grandparents have kept up with them. And so I've gone over and met my relatives. They're literally like 150 kilometers away. They're right there next to each other.

[Kenny Wallace]

Oh, my God.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I know.

[Kenny Wallace]

Isn't that amazing about life where we, we, we want to think we're badasses, you know, and Indians are badasses. And my friend was so disappointed. I'm like, you're not Indian at all.

[Amy Earnhardt]

So what was you, do you remember?

[Kenny Wallace]

I don't know. But you know, I can, I can totally relate to you because I'm real fair skinned and Dale Junior's mama was fair skinned. The Wallaces are kind of like, I look like, like my mama. Me and Rusty look like my mom. Mike looks like my dad, Uncle Gary. But I, I, I, my point is this. And it's not a point. I guess it's just a conversation. I experienced the same thing where we paint this picture that, you know, here we are in Mooresville and you know Leonard Skynyrd, and I'm, I'm way older than you, so I know the, the Earnhardt, you know, he's a badass. And, but Germany, yeah, isn't that something? And yeah, I'm getting ready to go to Italy and we're gonna, you know, me and my friend are going to Italy. We're gonna go To Germany. And we're gonna check out the Nuremberg racetrack.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Okay.

[Kenny Wallace]

What was it like over there? Was it. Was it. What was Germany like?

[Amy Earnhardt]

Germany's great. Germany is. It's quiet. Like, the people are quiet. They're not loud. They're not very boisterous people. The food's amazing. You're gonna love Italy. I think you're gonna fit in Italy better than Germany just because everybody likes to have a good time. So you're gonna feel like it's a little easier to fit in in Germany or in Italy than Germany, but you're gonna love both. I think you go and appreciate just what it is about each place. And don't everybody speaks English everywhere, too? So it's easy, but I think especially in the small towns in Germany, you'll have a little bit harder time communicating, whereas everybody in Italy is going to know what you're saying.

[Kenny Wallace]

God, that's such another. That's such another subject. I just find it amazing that the oldest land on global Earth, they're made to learn how to speak English. Which America is the newest land on earth. You would think it would be opposite. You would think that we would learn to be more like them because they're the oldest. But, hey, sometimes, you know, things change. Okay. Awesome, man. What? I felt like I, you know, when I was listening to you, I felt like I was in the church with you. God, you did such a good story telling that.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Thank you.

[Kenny Wallace]

Even down to the. The. The. The seating. He said it was, you know, carved.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Out, those pews because I want someone to make a chair where it looks like this, like maybe a rocking chair or something. It's. It was like a storybook. It was just perfect.

[Kenny Wallace]

And I feel. I feel like you telling the story about the hotel was, like, real old, maybe.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah, Nothing's new. It was a family owned, like, boutique hotel that all the rooms were upstairs, and then the restaurant where you ate and then had beers was right on the bottom floor. And like I said, it's quiet. You just walk up and down the street, you hardly see anybody. There was like a big, giant poppy field right behind the hotel. I have a picture of that on my phone. It was just perfect.

[Kenny Wallace]

Was it one of those hotels where when it's so old, like a bed and like when you walk, you hear your feet, like a real, like, real old floor, you know, the clunk. Clunk. Yeah.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I think I ruined my hair. My curling iron, too. I got, like a couple of pieces down on one side and burned it up. And so that was the Morning, too. Kelly knew that we were going to get engaged, and she was like, oh, no, use mine. Hopefully she was very concerned, too, with what I was going to wear. She was like, so when y'all travel, do you kind of coordinate yalls outfits so that y'all look good together in pictures? And she's like, what are you wearing today? And like, 20 minutes later, once we got through the whole thing, I was like, now I get why she was so concerned with my outfit and my hair being perfect and all the things.

[Kenny Wallace]

Oh, that's awesome. So now here we are. It's. What is it, 20, 25, and you're settled in your life, but it's still exciting. I see you do lots of things. You and Junior have two daughters, Isla and Nicole. I see you say that maybe Nicole's more like you. Tell me about those two babies.

[Amy Earnhardt]

So as a child, I was kind of quiet, reserved, and I was, you know, whip by the rules. And Isla is more like that than Nicole is. Nicole's pretty wild.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I think Nicole looks more like me, and Isla acts more like I do. Isla definitely looks like her. Mimi. I think Dale's mom gotcha. Like, physically, I think she, like, reminds me of her. So we'll see how that develops. But I don't know, like, there's just. Genetics are so cool watching them do anything as they grow. Like, you're going, oh, wow, that's something I do. Or that's absolutely Dale. And it's every time I do anything that's like, stinkery. I just tell Dale that's his genetics. And that's what's wrong with your kids, you know, that's you.

[Kenny Wallace]

Isn't it amazing? You know, like, if we can drive a race car in circles, people think we can solve world peace, which. Which is silly, right? But it is unbelievable that when the babies are born and they get to be 3, 4 years old and they do stuff, I mean, with the same. It's like, oh, my God. How does God do that? So you. You see your babies like they're you.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah, we talked about this yesterday. I think Dale. Dale has this gate, has a stance. He'll stand and have, like, one leg out, and he'll just sit there like his arms crossed. His dad did that. There's so many pictures like that. I'm like, oh, my God. You stand just like your dad.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yes.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Was he loved? Because anything that, you know, makes him like his dad, he loves that. Well, Isla's born, and literally at one and a half, two years old, she's Just walking. She starts. Just relaxed. Just will stand the same exact way. That one leg out with her arms crossed. And like, genetics. That is so weird. That's not a learned thing. That is, like, in her DNA, to just naturally just stand just like her grandfather.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, that. That, that. Yeah. I. I find. I find it fascinating. My. My middle. My youngest daughter looks like me. My middle daughter's got my brain. She's. She's. They're all awesome. Okay. I think the last thing, you know, I want to ask you, when you came to this new world, the Dale Earnhardt Jr. World, and we talked about it a little bit, but I wanted to hold this question. Toward the end, when you first went to a function, whether it was the racetrack or wherever, and you watch the people mob rush him, and you're like, holy crap, this is Elvis Presley during that. That time in your life, you know, 15 years ago, whatever it was, you've been married eight. So if you've been married eight, you know, what. What went through your head when. When, you know, clearly you were with the most famous race car driver in the world, what went through your head?

[Amy Earnhardt]

Honestly, when we first went to the racetrack and were in the environment around race vans, I didn't really know what to expect, but I was blown away. I was blown away, and I was scared at the same time. Scared of misstepping, scared of getting lost, scared of. Of. I was just, you know, being the wrong place the wrong time and getting stepped on or pushed out of the way. I don't know. He was always like, head down, ran through the garage, ran through people, unless he was planning on signing autographs, and he would stop and do the whole thing. And I would. I very much would. And I still do this. Just kind of get as far away from that as I can because it's got nothing to do with me. And I don't want. I don't want any extra attention. But when I first saw that, I just. I had never seen anything like that in my life. That kind of, like fandom and passion from people. I didn't grow up going to, like, football games or anything like that that were professional. So being around any professional athlete was like a new thing in general. But race fans can get right in the mix. I mean, y'all have a very unique environment for fans in general. And so when I saw all of that, I thought, holy, what have I. What have I gotten myself into? And this is gonna be quite the ride. No matter how short or long it is, like, this is gonna be quite an Amazing person to be around. He seemed, like larger than life. Even though I met him and knew him as this, like, kind of vulnerable, shy, sweet guy, that Dale was like, a totally different person. That whole environment, like, it makes. It forces you to, like, be a different person. Did you feel like that?

[Kenny Wallace]

Oh, yeah. It was a listen. And for all the race fans that are listening, you're loved. We love you. We love it that you love us. But Amy and myself are just talking about that moment. We love every bit of it. But I want to say this, Amy. Baseball players, football players, you know, even the nhra, even the drag racers, I hear. I hear those fans brag, oh, we can get right up to the car. That's fine. But we got to get out of our cars and we go somewhere and.

[Amy Earnhardt]

And.

[Kenny Wallace]

And it's awesome. We love it. We're not complaining, everybody, so calm down. But I know exactly what you're saying, because I would see Dale Jr. Get out of that car, you know, the number 8 Budweiser, you know, or the 88 Mountain Dew, and the head would go down. It's like, I gotta go. Because here's the difference. Nhra, you know, you're in a contained area. You can be right there. But the fans in nascar, they can tackle you if they want, because you get out of the car and you got to go to your. Your hauler.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah.

[Kenny Wallace]

Nhra, they're at their hauler.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Right. It's different. The dynamic between the two, even though they're both racing oriented, are very different.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yes. Because, you know, you got to get to your holler, and that's when the fans are going to come after you between getting out of the car and going. And it's funny, when I just listened to you say head down. Yeah. You would see it. Head down meant I got to get to the hauler and talk about this race car.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah.

[Kenny Wallace]

Or if you stop, you're never. You'll never recover. If you stop, then. Then there's 100 fans around you, and we are in this working environment. I think NASCAR is edgy. I think, do we owe it to the fans? Okay. But it can be. You even said, I mean, he is the most famous race car driver in the world. It had to be scary when you get. Get a mob coming after you.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah. I've never been around anything like that in my life. It was. It was weird. It's still humbling and surreal to go to racetracks or be anywhere where he's doing his thing. It's always good to see people show someone that you love, love and support. So that is always great. But, yeah, I just never really know what's going to come out, come at us. It's always new.

[Kenny Wallace]

You're like, you just said, it's good to see them love your husband. That's your man. You're standing back full of pride. That's my man. Yeah, that's right. So let's. Let's end like this. You went to Florence and Isla and Nicole, you know, they're. They're getting to where they can see things now. And what was. You went to Florence, brought back the number eight Budweiser. You know, he gets all the way up. I mean, you're seeing your man challenge, know, starts dead last, Comes through the field. I mean, just. I'm getting goosebumps right now talking about it. Comes through the field, patiently gets ready to challenge for the win. Of course, you know, the. The motor broke, but what. What was the girls, Isla, Nicole, you, the whole deal. Did they get a chance to see this? Their dad is. Is somebody.

[Amy Earnhardt]

They got to watch him qualify. And we went to the garage, we still on top of the hauler, and they got to watch that whole thing. They're in, literally Vi Bud 8 gear that Kelly had saved. We dug things out of this bin that she had. They had the coolest old clothes on. We all did. But race time was kind of late. We started watching the race in the suite. We got two laps in and the wheels were falling off, the kids, I mean, melting down. So I take them back to the motor coach to put them to sleep, and I fell asleep, too, and I missed the whole thing.

[Kenny Wallace]

Well, it's exhausting being a mom.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I missed the whole race. I Woke up at 2 in the morning when it was over, and so I texted. I was like, what happened? And he's like, are you.

[Kenny Wallace]

You're honest, though?

[Amy Earnhardt]

You're honest?

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, but that's. That. I get it. You know, I was at Martinsville and I was leading the race. Won a couple races at Martinsville. The caution comes out and, you know, we got our tires on, and I'm down the front straight and. And I look and, you know, everything's calmed down. I'm done talking to my crew chief, and we're going around the track and I look in and there's my daughter. And Brookie had to be eight, nine years old. And at that time, you think it'd be on the back. We did have a tractor trailer, and there was my daughter doing a headstand. Put me right in my place. It's like, dad, dad, why you keep going around in circles?

[Amy Earnhardt]

You're just making use of our time.

[Kenny Wallace]

To this day, my daughter Brooke, that is burnt into my brain where I'm out here. I'm the most. I'm gonna win this race. I'm the most badass person, and my daughter Brooke did not care.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Oh, my gosh.

[Kenny Wallace]

Well.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Well, I hate. I missed the race. It was like when I woke up and heard how well he did, I was absolutely very proud and so upset myself for not, like, trying to stay awake.

[Kenny Wallace]

But you're a mom. You're. You're a mom. It's. It's a lot of work. My wife has done an incredible job with our, you know. You know, women. Women know how to handle those kids, and we do. Us men, we do our best. But, Amy, this was fantastic. Did you have fun? Was it.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I mean, I had fun. I always had fun talking to you, and we don't get to see you very often, so this is great.

[Kenny Wallace]

I have never. Have I. I don't think I've ever seen you in real. Have we ever seen each other in real?

[Amy Earnhardt]

What?

[Kenny Wallace]

Where have I seen you? Oh, at the party. Why, yes. Like, in real. When was the last time I saw you?

[Amy Earnhardt]

I've spent a long time. I mean, a long time since everybody was racing, I guess.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, well, we were all focused. I get into that garage area, and I become laser beam. You know, people tell me how crazy I am, and I'm like, well, just don't come around me in the garage area, because I. I don't. I don't know that guy.

[Amy Earnhardt]

People, when they call me crazy, I'm like, well, that makes you stupid, because. No, crazy. You can't be dumb to call a crazy person crazy. Right?

[Kenny Wallace]

We're always defending ourselves. Yeah, I love it. Well, I had so much fun, and. And thank you so much. And I do want to let everybody know I. I called Dale junior First, because man to man, inside Junior, I'd like to interview Amy. He goes, that is badass. I said, well, I. I don't have her phone number. And he immediately sent me your phone number. So I want to. I want to thank your husband for letting me at least, you know, get your phone number. And I want to thank you for saying, yes, of course.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I'm happy to do it. Kenny.

[Kenny Wallace]

We just celebrated you, and we went all the way back to high school, so. All right, everybody, remember, like, Kenny conversation. You can watch us right here on YouTube. Here we are. And you can see Amy. But now there's two ways to watch Kenny Conversation. We are on Dirty Mo Media and we are on podcast so you can put your earbuds in and you can listen to Kenny Conversations with Amy Earnhardt right there on the Dirty Mo Media podcast or YouTube. So until the next Kenny Conversation, we'll see you next time everybody.

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