601 - Richard Childress: The One Race I Can't Get Over

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dale Jr. Download – Episode 601: Richard Childress: The One Race I Can't Get Over

Introduction

In Episode 601 of The Dale Jr. Download, released on February 5, 2025, NASCAR legend Richard Childress joins host Dale Earnhardt Jr. for a deep and engaging conversation. This episode delves into various aspects of Childress's illustrious career, personal anecdotes, team management insights, and his enduring passion for racing. The discussion spans from historical racing events to modern NASCAR dynamics, providing listeners with a comprehensive look into the life and mind of one of the sport's most influential figures.

---

Economic Impact of Races and Track Preferences

Dale and Richard kick off their conversation by discussing recent races and their economic implications. They focus particularly on the race held at Bowman Grace Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

• Economic Benefits: Richard highlights the significant economic impact of the race on the local community.

  "I think the economic impact that that race brought to North Carolina, Winston Salem, I think it was a big hit." [02:21]

• Future of the Race: Both agree on the likelihood of the event returning next year, citing the successful reception and enhancements made to the track for safety.

  "They put the lights up there and put those soft walls. I'm friends with a lot of those modified drivers and man, they love it because it saves them. It's a safety deal for them." [02:50]

All-Star Race Considerations: Dale proposes the idea of hosting the All-Star Race at Bowman Grace Stadium, emphasizing the benefits of warmer temperatures and improved fan experience.

• Richard's Support: Richard is in favor of diversifying NASCAR events to include grassroots racing venues.

  "I think the All Star Race would be great. Any type of racing. Thinking just to go back to our roots." [03:08]

---

Ownership Insights and Team Culture

Richard shares his transition from driver to owner, emphasizing the emotional and strategic aspects of team management.

• Passion for Racing: Richard underscores his unwavering passion for the sport, which fuels his commitment to team ownership.

  "I just love it, man. It's just the fans getting to go out and see them that you." [14:18]

• Cultural Transformation: Discussing the offseason, Richard elaborates on the efforts to change the culture within Richard Childress Racing (RCR) to foster a more positive and motivated environment.

  "We've changed that culture now. You see people walking around with their heads high. We see people with that extra bounce in their step." [27:13]

• Long-Term Planning: Emphasizing the importance of grooming the next generation, Richard talks about preparing Austin Dillon for leadership roles within the team.

  "I think we're grooming Austin for that part of it." [30:00]

---

Future Plans and Championship Aspirations

Dale expresses his ambitions of entering a car in the Daytona 500 and seeks Richard's advice on navigating the ownership side of NASCAR.

• Advice for Aspiring Owners: Richard encourages Dale to pursue his dreams, highlighting the importance of passion and strategic decision-making.

  "Your dream is to have cup teams someday be a Cup champion from the side of owner. So just follow your dream." [09:07]

• Confidence in Team's Potential: Richard conveys his optimism about RCR's chances in the upcoming season, citing strong drivers and reliable engines.

  "I think you're going to have a heck of a good shot. And Justin really runs good there." [09:07]

---

Personal Relationships and Rivalries

The conversation shifts to personal dynamics within the NASCAR community, particularly focusing on past tensions and reconciliations.

• Phoenix Incident: Dale recounts an altercation with Richard at Phoenix, which Richard admits not fully recalling but acknowledges the underlying frustrations related to a previous deal at Richmond.

  "But the deal at Martinsville. I don't remember what you said." [17:25]

• Reconciliation Efforts: Richard shares how he and fellow racer Kyle Busch have moved past previous conflicts, emphasizing mutual respect and growth.

  "We put it to bed, and to me, it's history. You learn from history." [21:25]

• Family Bonds: Both hosts reflect on the importance of family relationships within the racing community, highlighting hunting trips and family engagements that strengthen bonds.

  "Blood's thicker than anything else. And you look after your families, and that's what we always try to do." [31:55]

---

Charter Agreements and Lawsuit Discussion

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing the ongoing lawsuit related to NASCAR's charter system.

• Understanding the Lawsuit: Richard explains the rationale behind not signing the charter agreement, emphasizing the need for fair treatment and increased enterprise value.

  "All we wanted was to be treated fair. And that's all these two guys are asking for now." [34:15]

• Charter Value Growth: The discussion delves into the potential appreciation of charter values, comparing them to NFL franchises and stressing the importance of permanent charters for long-term stability.

  "The charters are likely going to be valued at 25 to 40 million dollars... I don't see why the NASCAR charter won't continue to increase in value." [38:04]

• Future of Charters: Both Dale and Richard advocate for making charters permanent to enhance their value and provide stability for team owners.

  "If we all had permit charters, you'd see a lot different atmosphere everywhere." [39:16]

---

Bootlegging History

Towards the end of the episode, Richard touches upon his early history with bootlegging—a common background among many early NASCAR figures.

• Early Involvement: Richard confirms his involvement in moonshine running during his youth, explaining his role in delivering moonshine to various "drink houses."

  "Yes. But here's...I worked there. I didn't own it." [73:15]

• Cessation of Activities: He shares the circumstances that led him to leave the bootlegging life, including witnessing a killing that made him reconsider his involvement.

  "But I was there and I would take it whiskey...why'd you get roughest? There was a killing and I was in the wrong." [73:27]

---

Stuntman Ventures and Iconic Racing Designs

Richard reveals his stint as a stuntman in the 1980s and discusses the iconic design choices for RCR's race cars.

• Stuntman Career: To support his racing endeavors, Richard worked as a stuntman, collaborating with notable figures like Hal Needham and Stan Barrett.

  "I had to work there and run it at night." [73:15]

• Design Innovations: He elaborates on the decision to paint RCR's cars with black exteriors and orange interiors to enhance visibility of any issues during races.

  "I wanted something that if we had a crack in the floorboard or something that didn't look right, we could find it and repair it." [72:50]

• Peter Max Collaboration: Richard recounts the collaboration with artist Peter Max for a special car design, highlighting the blend of art and racing.

  "Peter Max did both of us. I don't know where his is, but he painted Dale and I car..." [70:17]

---

Closing Remarks

As the episode wraps up, Dale reflects on the enriching conversation, highlighting the blend of historical insights, personal anecdotes, and forward-looking perspectives shared by Richard. They express mutual respect and anticipation for future interactions, both on and off the track.

• Acknowledgment of Legacy: Dale commends Richard for his contributions to NASCAR and his ability to articulate complex topics with clarity.

  "I appreciate you. Thank you for always being so great to us." [76:12]

• Looking Ahead: Both hosts express excitement for upcoming episodes and the continued evolution of their respective roles within NASCAR.

  "Hope you all enjoyed it. I sure did. It's way good way to kick off the year." [77:07]

---

Notable Quotes

• Richard Childress on Team Culture:

  "We've changed that culture now. You see people walking around with their heads high. We see people with that extra bounce in their step." [27:13]

• Richard Childress on Passion for Racing:

  "I just love it, man. It's just the fans getting to go out and see them that you." [14:18]

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Future Planning:

  "I think as much as I know Austin loves to drive to race, to win and he can still do that... I'm hoping and wishing for Austin to also develop into that leader type of mentality like you." [28:07]

• Richard Childress on Charter Value:

  "If we all had permit charters, you'd see a lot different atmosphere everywhere." [39:16]

---

Conclusion

Episode 601 of The Dale Jr. Download offers an insightful exploration into Richard Childress's storied career and personal philosophies. From discussing the economic implications of racing events to navigating complex team dynamics and legal challenges within NASCAR, the episode serves as a treasure trove for racing enthusiasts and those interested in the behind-the-scenes workings of one of motorsport's most revered figures. The heartfelt exchanges and candid reflections between Dale and Richard provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of the passion, challenges, and triumphs that define the world of NASCAR.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You had a history in bootlegging, like a real. You were a real live bootlegger. Is that true?

[Richard Childress]

Well, it's a long story also, but when I was a kid, the question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is, did you run moonshine? Illegal. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's the guest segment on Wednesday, and our first guest of the 2025 season is Richard Childress. It's been about five years since Richard has been on the show. A lot's happened since then, particularly a incident between me and him at Phoenix that I haven't really talked about with anybody, especially him. He kind of chewed my ass on pit road before the. Before the 7 car went out, won the championship. We'll talk about that, hopefully, and also just kind of see what dude's been up to. I mean, there's a lot going on in the sport and he certainly got his finger on the pulse of nascar and he's got some opinions, so I'm sure we're gonna hear them and maybe some really cool stories. So let's get him on in the room. Richard Childress on the Dale Jr. Download.

[Richard Childress]

So I was your first guest.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, your first guest. Kicking it off.

[Richard Childress]

That's pretty cool, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we're getting the season started off with a bang.

[Richard Childress]

I know, it's good. How about that race the other night?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. I. We were just talking about it, me and T.J. do you think they'll go back there next year?

[Richard Childress]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go back. It was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I figured that they would have already. They, I mean, in a perfect world, they go to the, you know, they go to Coliseum and do it. And if they don't, you know, if it goes well, they come back, do it again. If it doesn't go well, which it really did in the second year, they probably stopped, but they have to probably put three. They have to probably have it like a commitment, right? With the city, the Coliseum. So I mean, for me and a lot of people, a lot of fans that are watching that are speculating, debating on whether they're going to go back next year. I bet NASCAR's already know the plan. They already got a commitment or an obligation, right? You can't do everything you did without some sort of a commitment. Obligation that the city gets from nascar, right, or the town gets from nascar.

[Richard Childress]

I think, I think the economic impact that that race brought to North Carolina, Winston Salem, I think it was a big hit. I think we'll be back at Bowman Grace Stadium next year. They'll Tweak on it some. But to put the lights up there and put those soft walls. I'm friends with a lot of those modified drivers and man, they love it because it saves them. It's a safety deal for them. So when NASCAR did all that, they'll be back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I think. Sure. Do you think that there's a way to run something besides the clash there? Would you run the All Star Race there? I thought that'd be a good idea because warmer temperatures, more comfortable for fans. Probably a better race because track temps will be better and higher for that tire.

[Richard Childress]

Definitely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Million dollars on the line. Maybe Debbie might move that chase out of the way for that. He didn't want to touch him.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. Yeah. I think if the All Star Race would be great. Any type of racing. Thinking just to go back to our roots. Hickory. You ran Hickory many years. Go back to some of the awesome route, you know, racing like Hickory, Bowman Grace Stadium.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Could you have, could you have that race at Hickory?

[Richard Childress]

I don't know that you could have it, but you probably could. Doing some work on it. Hickory. Smaller in my opinion, isn't it? Or about the same.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I worry about, I think the sizes of the track isn't in question. It's more about like the infrastructure facility, the fan experience. You got 17,000 people at Bowman Green. You probably can't get 17,000 at some of these other short tracks, right?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. Unless you put. Bring in temporary standards or something. But it, it, you know, I love grassroots racing. It brought back so many memories. I went over there, I got there about an hour earlier than ever, but I just by myself and I got up there to field house and just sit there and looked out across the. Looked out across the track in the grandstands and just thought about so many things that went on back in my career when I started. That's exactly where I started.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So we go to the Coliseum to get new fans, right?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you think racing at Bowman Gray like we did this past weekend. I know our current fans loved it. Me and you loved it.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you think that that is a way. Do you think that that also gets us new fans when they.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, I think once we take a look and see what our TV ratings are and all the people that have called me or text me or, or anything, I've ever, ever seen people come back to me, man, that's one of the greatest shows I've ever seen on TV for solid race. And that's old time racing and they loved it. And I think the fans, you know, you're going from a quarter mile racetrack to Daytona 2 1/2 mile, which is night and day. So with that, I think the fans will say, well, I wonder what Daytona is going to be like. I think it's going to depend on how our TV ratings. Yeah, those fans over there were real race fans.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. I can't wait to see the number on television in terms of the rating because I think that's certainly going to steer the Future of Beau McGray for the NASCAR Cup Series. When we sit there and watch that race. I thought the. The TV package was perfect, easy to consume. I watched it. So I was on a trip, I was working.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

With a new partner down in Florida and I was at a sports book and being able to see heat races the night before, I missed that. I miss being able to see any on track action right. The day before the race, qualifying practice, what have you. So for me to be able to sit down and go, all right, man, I'm going to get a taste of what's coming tomorrow. I'm going to watch these heat races and that's going to be a little idea. And I know it's Bowman Gray and it's new and none of us have ever seen it, and it might be a different experience if we were to go to a track that we've raced at a hundred times, but we were at Bowman Gray and I tuned in going, man, I can't wait to see how these cars race. And I loved. It was very easy to consume that little TV package on the heat races. And then the next day and the last chance race, of course, and then the next day we had the feature. And so for me, it kind of reminded me, it gave me a Speed Weeks feel. And I know we weren't in Daytona and we weren't, you know, we weren't down there for the traditional style of Speed weeks that we all remembered years ago. But it gave me a feeling that Speed weeks was back, which I've kind of missed. I've. As we've shortened up. And as we shortened up the schedule of Daytona, remember, I mean, I know a lot of our fans may not even remember going there for two weeks straight. It was a lot. There were. There was, you know, over 10 hours, 12 hours of cut practice throughout that whole process, you know, it was a bit unnecessary, but it also served a purpose that sort of teased and led up and built up the expectation and excitement around the Daytona 500. And I felt like the clash. The clash went really, really went back to Supporting our most important event and that's the Daytona 500. This bowman gray weekend, as exciting as it was, made me more, made me look forward to the 500 more. So.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which I think is really, really important in the grand scheme of things.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, I think, you know, I go back to many years ago, we'd have qualifying races even at Charlotte and yeah, you know, like on a Friday or something we'd have some Talladega, you know, they'd start so many and then they'd have a qualifying race that, that is something that's missed. But one of the biggest things today that NASCAR realizes and I think a reason we got to pull back is the economics of our sport isn't what it used to be. And we're all kind of adjusting and NASCAR's doing a good job of trying to adjust that. But we can't take away. I agree with you. We can't take away from our race fans because that's what we do this for. But I think that it'll be interesting to see after this event and see the reaction and the TV numbers and to see how NASCAR takes it and it could be something that we'll see more in the future. Yeah, like having that the quad, the heat races I think was really good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. We're going to Daytona and I'm going to join you this year trying to enter a car in the Daytona 500. What kind of advice do you got for me as a first time car owner in the Cup Series to try to attempt to make that race?

[Richard Childress]

Well, first off, you're following your dream. Keep following your dream. Your dream is to have cup teams someday be a Cup champion from the side of owner. So just follow your dream. That would be the first advice that's what I give people when they ask me, you know, about things and. But I think it's going to be, you're going to enjoy it. I mean you got the gut wrenching moments at Daytona, but you still making that race is not a, an easy task. But if qualifying the top two seems like the Fords have really got that down pretty good. But we've been able to put a Chevrolet in there, you know, so I feel good about your cars, our cars. You know, we do, I think we do in the 62 or something like that. But there'll be about four cars trying to make it. You got a really good solid driver, you've got good engines through the Hendrix deal. I think you're going to have a heck of a good shot. And Justin really runs Good there. And you're a good old owner. You. That's going to make a difference.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I've told everybody that, you know, I don't assume anything in terms of being able to make the race, but I'm going to, you know, get there early. I'm going to go in Tuesday, and I'm going to be up early Wednesday. When we go through tech with the car, I'm going to be in the garage. I'm going. I'm going to watch them. I'm going to be with them, pushing it out to practice and qualify. And I go through that whole process. I don't want to miss a thing because I think to. And you can speak to this like you've raced a long time, pushed a lot of cars out onto the grid, but when you were. And when you. When you moved into the owner's side of things and embraced that change in your life and you were no longer a driver, the confidence in, I guess, the pride, I think, in seeing your car and pushing your car out onto the grid to qualify for a race like the Daytona 500 is quite different than what it's like as a driver.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, 100%. I can remember back when I. When I become an owner with Dale, we run the first 10 races of 1981, the last 10 races of 1981, and to be the first one, I was really nervous. You know, I felt like somebody cut my arm off or something. How can they race without me? I found out pretty quick. The race went on and. But, man, it was so. It put pride in me and I wanted all my employees to know I'm. I'm buying in on this as well. And today I'm at the racetrack about every race when it opens, you know, as close as I can be. I don't push a car like I used to out there. I'm just like you. You put in some pride to walk out on that line and listen to the fans holler and cheer when you come out there, like I used to do with Deal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I am kind of surprised like that at your age. You're 79 years old and you ain't changed your. You ain't changed your routine at all. You know, there's. There's a couple exceptions similar to you like Richard Petty and I mean, there's these guys that have. That have been part of this sport. We see drivers that when they retire and I know you're an owner and you have that involvement, but, like, you know, we see these Other guys that will retire and you'll never see them again. I mean, they'll disappear. I mean, winners, champions, hall of Famers, Ricky Rudd's, you know, going to the hall of Fame, and, man, he. You don't know where he's. He's nowhere to be found. Yeah, you don't see him at the racetrack that much at all. But you. It's like you can't quit it. Like you can't give it up. And it's just, you know, and it's like there's never a weekend that you don't want to be there. You talk about getting there early for Bowman Gray, like you still have the same love and enjoyment and excitement for being there, even though you don't turn a wheel, you know, even though you gave up. Probably the best part of it, you know, when you. When you move from driving to owning. I would. I don't know how I think. I mean, it's certain at some point you're. You know, I feel like even I wouldn't be able to sustain that commitment that you have to it. How do you explain that?

[Richard Childress]

You know, I don't know. I don't. The biggest thing is I think I have a passion. And, you know, everybody says, why you get so wound up? You know, I got a passion, you know, for. For the sport. I've been involved in it. It's been really good to myself and my family and. But I go because I love it. You know, I was. I've been going since I. We counted up 57. 57, 58 years. Not count the days I ran the old bowling grace stadiums and three elevens and all the old dirt tracks, but I just love it, man. It's just the fans getting to go out and see them that you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You could be in on, you know, you could be in a vacation home somewhere, on a beach somewhere. Yeah, that ain't you.

[Richard Childress]

No, that isn't me. You know, I mean, I'd go to Montana when we had the ranches out there, and I'd only go when I'd head out to the racetrack and I'd stay and then head to the racetrack. It's just. It's just a passion I got and I love. I got for it, and I get wound up every now and then, but it's because I love what I do. And, hell, I wouldn't know what I would do if I wasn't what wasn't racing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I hear you. So you do get wound up.

[Richard Childress]

I still get a little wound up, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

I Do I get. You know, it's just. It just is part of life, man. If you. If you hadn't got a great. A passion for what you do and be. Feel. Feel good about what you're doing and decisions you make. And I want my people to know that. That I'm. I work with them. I. Nobody works for me. That's always been my sin. I want them to know that I work with them, and we're part of a team, and we win together, we lose together, we fight together, we do whatever it takes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we were. I do this show, and sometimes I don't get it. Sometimes things happen in the sport, and I don't get to choose whether I get to talk about it or not. I mean, if it's going on in the sport, it's something we have to damn cover. Right?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And look, last year, the Martinsville stuff went down, and I had some comments about that, and I knew that you probably weren't real happy with it, but we were at. This is who you are as an individual. We are at Phoenix, getting ready to run for the championship in the bush race, and your car's on the grid with Austin Hill, and my car's right behind yours, and you come walking through, and as. As I would any weekend. Right. I was like, hey, Richard. Because I thought we were gonna say. I thought we were gonna say, hey, man, good luck. Have fun. And you stopped and you said. You said basically. You basically chewed my ass. You were like, I don't remember. You don't? Boy, you were madder in hell. You grabbed me and walked me over, away from everybody and said, I don't appreciate what you said about that Martinsville stuff. And you were really. You were. You said a few things there, and I don't remember exactly the word. Dude, I can't believe you don't remember that.

[Richard Childress]

I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You were hotter than hell.

[Richard Childress]

I do. You know, I can get hot and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Be in that moment. Like, we're getting ready to race for the Xfinity championship, and you saw me and you're like, I got a bone to pick with you.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. Austin said.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I text Austin. Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

He said, what did you say to Junior? I said, I don't. I can't really remember. I said. But I almost called him before I come over here, in case you asked me, say, why was I upset with Junior? Because I hadn't. I ain't anything. I said.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're so mad and.

[Richard Childress]

But, you know, the whole thing that. That deal in Richmond cost us over $3 million. It's not always about the money.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, But, I mean, $3 million, a lot of money.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, it's real money. But those two things. And I'll never get over Richmond. Of all the things that's ever happened in our career, the Richmond race, I'll never get over that one, because I've seen it happen so many times. So many times. I've seen those things happen. And the same two guys that was involved in it are the two biggest culprits. But it come down to who had the most power that could get in NASCAR's ear the hardest, and they came down unless the hardest. And it just. It just disappoints me. And. But the deal at Martinsville. I don't remember what you said. I don't remember what I said. I can. I can remember seeing you, talking to you, but, hell, I don't remember them things. I do it all. I know I do it all the time. I just. I got a passion, junior, just like you. You got a passion. You. You get wound.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I text Austin, your. Your grandson. I said. I didn't really ask him anything. I just texted him. I said, hey, man, you're. Richard is pissed off at me. I was like, he just chewed my ass. And. And he goes, what? Really? I was like, yeah, it's about something I said on my show about. About the Martinsville thing. And I was like, because you've never really chewed my ass yet. That's the only time you've ever.

[Richard Childress]

I don't remember.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But.

[Richard Childress]

But you and your ass. I might have told you. I was thinking, no, that was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That. You. You. That was like my uncle or, you know, that was. That was like somebody in my family coming down on me. And I was like, hey, all right, I understood. I heard loud and clear.

[Richard Childress]

Let me tell you something about. I asked you, and you and I got together one time from your dad. Do you remember Japan?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do.

[Richard Childress]

And I loaned you a set of tires, and you roughed him up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

And, boy, he chewed your ass. Oh, he chewed my ass out. He chewed your ass.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know.

[Richard Childress]

I got.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He threw a shoot at me. He damn near took my head off. Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

I never will forget you on that bus. You sit there like this, and I was sitting. I think, next deal or something, both of us had our head down. We didn't say nothing for a while, but that's just passion.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, you. It's like 10 laps to go in this race. And dad, you were. I mean, you know, dad was like, yeah, I'm not coming down pit road. This race is over. My car, you know, he. He'd run like six, seventh the whole race. And he's like, yeah, we're just going to ride it home.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And Me and Tony Jr, like you said, a tire. Let's come on in. Let's get some tires. Let's keep digging. Yeah. We didn't know any better. And I knew I had to act fast when I got those tires. And so I run. I think I run dad up off turn four and squeezed him in the wall. And he tried to spin me out down the straightaway. And then he learned that I did it on his tires.

[Richard Childress]

Oh, yeah, he went. He went. That was an as. Give you an ass chewing. Yeah, I just. I never did, you know, but I.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Remember we had a really fun flight. 13 hours to Japan, and the 13 hours home from Japan was quiet.

[Richard Childress]

It was painful.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, you know, I. I wanted to bring that up because, you know, I. I had never. I'd seen you. I'd seen you pop off on some people. And we all know about the. The. The deal with Kyle at the. I guess it was Chicago or Kansas somewhere, but years ago, the whole watch thing. And so we kind of know you have that. That fiery passion that you talk about, and I. But I'd never been on the other end of it, man, that was something. I'm glad that you don't hold. I'm glad you don't hold that chip on your shoulder very long.

[Richard Childress]

Don't. You know. But Kyle's driving for me today, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want to know that, like, when did you and him. Did you and him ever really sit down and like, talk about that day?

[Richard Childress]

That was the first part of the conversation.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So how did that go?

[Richard Childress]

We walked in and we were at the airport and we sat down at a comp. I got a conference room there, and we sat there and, you know, Austin hooked us up where we could do it. And I said, you know, I think I don't forgot which one of us. I said, kyle, I said, start with, that's history. We're going to put all that behind us, and we won't never bring it up again. And we've never brought it up again. And I don't even like to talk about it because it was history. Just like you. That was history. Hell, I'm just. You're still like part of my family. You are my family. The Earnhards and. And Shoulders and Dylan's. All of us are family. That's the way I look at it. But, you know, it's kind of like jumping on you, brother. Every now and then, you got to chew him out. Talked about that on that race the other night with them two kids out there of ours. That's going to be a conversation that's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Still not had yet. Did Kyle seem eager to. You know, it was Kyle happy to hear that you wanted to put that behind y'all. I know that y'all have done went on down the road and y'all are racing together, winning together and having. Having a good time, but I guess he was probably excited to put that, because me and Kyle had a run in 08, I guess, and we didn't talk about it forever, and we really didn't, like, we didn't see eye to eye and didn't get along. But, man, when we finally sat down and talked about it, it was nice to put that to bed. You know what I mean?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. That's the way we are. You know, we put it to bed, and to me, it's history. You learn from history. I think his saying was. I think we've grown up a lot. I can't remember exactly what he said, but, you know, we both have a different attitude and thinking today. And let me tell you about Kyle Busch. He is such an amazing individual to start with. He has a passion for racing. He don't want to lose the. Before the race on Sunday morning, they went and worked on the simulator because he knew he wasn't good. And he's. He wants to win. He's going to do everything. But for him, we've had some tough. Last year was a tough year for him to work and still encourage the. The employees. He didn't come loose and start cussing and raising hell like some people would think he would be doing. He's trying to help us build that thing, and I still got confidence that we can win a championship.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

And that. That's just. That's the way Kyle is. And, man, I'm. I'm happy to work with him. He's just. I mean, like, the other night over there, we didn't have a really good car, but once he got it figured out, they kept adjusting on it, got their layup back. He took off. And he run pretty good then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I was kind of curious how he's handled. You know, the last season was a tough one for you guys and the old Kyle. Listen, none of us really know. None of us know exactly how Kyle is when the behind, you know, outside of the cameras, what we see on social media or what we've seen. On tv. I'm talking over the last couple of decades, Right?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it was all of our assumptions that when, you know, when things weren't going well, we wouldn't might, as one might assume that Kyle is kicking and screaming behind closed doors, fussing. Right?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But we all do mature and.

[Richard Childress]

And.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And maybe that wasn't even the case then. But I am curious as to what his per. What his attitudes like, what his personality is like during this past year when y'all have struggled. You talk about him trying to, you know, staying positive. You talk about his work ethic, trying to make sure y'all are making the right gains in the off season and trying to prepare for this coming year. How has he. How has he, you know, supported the team and been, you know, trying to be part of the solution to getting you guys back on track?

[Richard Childress]

He's. He's there. He's. He's working close with everybody. He don't come in. I mean, he has a right to. I mean, I get more wound up about running bad. I think. I know he does, too, but he has a. I think he's the word we use. We both matured a lot. And once he's got Braxton, his son, racing, and sees the young things, he wants him to do better. He wants him to have a different style. I think, coming out, he wants him to win, and he is a winner. He's a good little driver. But I think that those things mature, you know, different than Kevin Harvick. Yeah. You know, when he. Once his son got up, you mature and you just, you know yourself, you see things around you, how you've got to mature and life changes all. Yes. And age changes all of us. And I think that's one thing. That's that Kyle has. And he has a. He has a good, strong family relationship with his family, and I think he wants to show them the right way to go about things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. What changes? You know, there was a conversation. I listened to Austin's comments a lot in the media, and during the back half of last year, Austin made multiple comments about. We have a plan. We have some things that we're gonna do. We've got a few levers we're gonna pull. I don't know whether this was a hire or a couple hires or what that he was excited about that was going to change the performance in the race team. Can y'all speak to some of the things you've done in the offseason to try to turn this team, turn the performance around for rcr?

[Richard Childress]

Yes. About halfway through the season last year, a little past halfway, I said got everybody together. So we're going to change the culture of rcr. Our culture was not way I wanted to see it and we've changed that culture now. You see people walking around with their heads high. We see people with that extra bounce in their step when they're walking through there. And I think changing the culture, we've put a lot of new people in a lot of new places and we've got even, we're changing a lot even all the way up the board. And I think it's going to be for the good, you know, the results will say if we made the right decisions. I really feel good about a lot of decisions we've made. They don't come overnight. You can't turn. These ships are pretty big. It's hard to turn them overnight. But I feel really confident about what we can do this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, at your, your age you have to be thinking about the long term plan. Right beyond you. Yeah. And I, I, I've, I've said this out loud a few times that I think, you know, as much as I know Austin loves to drive to race, to win and he can still do that. He's got as many years as he wants. Right. To, to continue to be a successful race car driver. But in my mind I'm, I'm hoping and wishing for Austin to also develop into that leader type of mentality like you have that can have, that can steer that ship. Is that the plan? I mean is, do you guys have those conversations? I know that, you know dad and you know, if we were to sit around years ago, dad would say things like, this is for your kids, this is for your kids. But we never really talk details, you know, are y'all into the process of discussing some details or what this, you know, what the future looks like?

[Richard Childress]

Yes. And that's a good question. You know, we bought a PBR franchise.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

So I put Austin running it to get used to what it was like dealing with drivers, dealing with the sanctioning body. He is running that whole deal, the PBR Carolina Cowboys, and he is giving him some education. I never will forget after the first year he come to me, but he said, pop, Pop, I know why you hate these managers because all the riders today has got managers and they're, he's having to deal with that deal with the sanctioning body, the budgets. So I think this has given him a good education. Ty now has come back and says, I want to Be involved.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

In the sport. So who knows in life what will happen? It's. It's. Sometime I tell them, I'll say, I don't want to. I don't want to burden you guys with this because this isn't the easiest. As you know yourself, running a race team isn't for the faint of heart. You know, you gotta. You gotta be. You gotta make a lot of tough decisions. You gotta make a lot of decisions sometime that. That you say, what's gonna be the outcome of this decision.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

And have strong people around you that can help you make those decisions. That's what I look for. And I think. I think we're grooming Austin for that part of it. Mike Dillon's working in that. My daughter runs a winery for us. And the whole family is. They want to see that keep going on. I want to see it continue. And that's why we're trying to. And I've told them all it's for the family.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

I wouldn't be doing what I was doing today if it wasn't for the family.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure.

[Richard Childress]

And then as you get older on down the line, you're, you know, all your family gets behind you. You're going to say, this is for our family.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

You know, everything you're doing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have noticed in the past, I don't know, six months to a year, Todd has moved back closer to, you know, you. You see him and Austin hunting together, creating memories and sharing, you know, their families, engaging. What's been the instigation behind that? It's good to see.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Them two boys together and doing things. There was a time, I think, where Ty had kind of wandered over here and was trying to do his own thing and putting his own deals together. But it's kind of like you just mentioned, it's kind of like he's come back home.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, he has. I think he and Austin had some conversations. I had some conversations. And we all realize now that blood's thicker than anything else. And you look after your families, and that's what we always try to do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it's good to see. And I think I text Austin when I saw them. They had this hunting trip together. I said, man, that's nice to see you boys enjoying each other.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. And see them with her. Both of them have young kids. Yeah, Kids around. Boys around 4 years old. See them out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

That's what I'm. How to hunt and be out there. That's the way I. When I carried them, they were real young and they said, man, it's great to be able to carry our sons and do what you taught us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They need to be those kids. Knowing what I know, my opinion about it is regardless of how the relationship between the brothers may be or any set of brothers, the kids need to know each other. That generation, you got to put them together. You got to have them spending time together and making memories together. Because I think about this with my own girls. My parents are gone, my grandparents are gone in North Carolina. There's my sister, who's my age, couple years older, but there's not a lot beyond myself and Amy. Who are the people that my girls are going to gravitate toward when my leadership is gone or when my ability for me to advise them is not there anymore. Right. And so they got it. They got to have those sibling, those sort of cousins, and those relationships need to be. Need to be strong. So. But that's good to see. I wanted to ask you about the charter agreement. You know, we're all sitting here watching this lawsuit thing go down. I don't know that, you know, I kind of wasn't sure how detrimental this could be for the sport, but I'm not too concerned at this point. I think having conversations with some of the people in the industry, it's one of these deals that's just got to play itself out. Everybody's going to have to probably compromise when it's all said and done, but they'll eventually come to some terms and the sport will continue to move down the road. But your. You're. I'm not a guy that owns a charter. Right you are. Does. Does the lawsuit concern you at all?

[Richard Childress]

You know, I think. Well, I got to be careful how to answer this, because I could get eat up. I think that they had a reasonable a reason to not sign the agreement. We received it hours before, and we had a deadline to sign it, and they signed it. I mean, I signed it. I had to. I had no choice. I have sponsors. I have everything out there. But they felt that they had a reason and right to. There was only three or four things that we were missing on that. Every. Everyone was still trying to negotiate. And when those negotiations was over, these two guys went on their own, which I'm, you know, I'm glad to see them do it because they stood up for what they felt were right and they have the backing that they can. That they can do it. But I think, like you said, I think you end up working out, you know, what. What we were asking for wasn't going to Cost NASCAR nothing. And all we wanted was to be treated fair. And that's all these two guys are asking for now, is to be treated fair in it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And can you speak to the few terms that you wanted that can you. You don't have to if you don't want to.

[Richard Childress]

I think one of the biggest ones that. Just like the PBR, the first PBR franchise, their franchise sold for $3 million. They sold six of them. I bought mine for just a little more. The last two franchise sold for 22 million 500 apiece. And then we got split. The owners, those eight owners got split 50% with the sanctioning body, right? And that's how. That's all we wanted out of it. That's all I want to see for my family is I want to see the, the enterprise value of those charters should be 10 times where they are today, just like football or anything. That's all. I think that's what we're all asking for.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I mean, I hear what you're saying and I don't disagree with you at all. I've watched the, I've watched the charters go. You know, when BK Racing was trying to sell his and get rid of his for $2 million. And then, then this, you know, then somebody walks in the door and wants to sell you one for six. And then, you know, a couple months later a guy walks in, wants to sell it for 12. And then, you know, now they're valued or they're probably likely, if there were to sell on the market anywhere from 25 to 40 million dollars. And so the value is expanding. And I mean, if you had, I think if you're a company or an investment firm with that kind of capital, getting into owning a charter in the NASCAR world is a very good buy because I think to your point, it won't be very long where they'll be valued at 100, $150 million. Beyond, you know, NFL teams. I look at it like an NFL team or NFL franchise. I know Washington, when Dan Snyder bought them back in the 90s or late 80s was 800, 600, $800 million. Right. And then, you know, just recently it sold for 6 billion. So I don't see why the NASCAR charter won't continue to increase in value. But, and also, so you're telling me like, so if, you know, we've, we've myself at this table for the last four years have batted around all kinds of silly ways to get a charter or ways NASCAR could expand the charters. So if NASCAR said, hey, we're gonna have 37. We got a new charter. We're gonna create a charter. Right. And we're gonna give it to the team. That team's gonna buy it.

[Richard Childress]

But we're.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're gonna. We're designated, for example, Junior Motorsports to buy this charter for 20, 20 or $40 million, whatever the number is. Right. It would make sense that the teams would have to. For the teams to accept that new charter to exist. You would then benefit from that financially, that purchase of the chart. The teams would split some or all of that $40 million or whatever it is for that team to purchase. And so that was what you guys were trying to.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, just to build the enterprise value around a charter. These charters, no different. I keep going back to the PBR because we got rider. We're the same setup, the exact same way, sanctioning body, independent riders, just like we have independent drivers. Everything's the same. They. There was one team that just sold 40% of their franchise, Oklahoma, for a value of $40 million in four years. It's going like. We've had these charters for 10 years and they've gained 10%. Maybe.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure.

[Richard Childress]

If you go from 3 million to 30 million, you know, do you. So that's all I'm saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you think if they were to. If, if. Do you think if they mash the button and all of a sudden that charter is yours internal, eternally. You know, that creates that value? Because now, you know, because as it is, I guess the way we, we fans view it is like you. You have the charter for as long as the agreement.

[Richard Childress]

Yes. Seven years.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right, right. And then, you know, but, you know, like, like the PBR or, or any other sports team, you know, you would obviously want to own that charter outright. Do you think that that would absolutely kick into motion the, the increase in value? Because you would. You would then be able to say to someone who might want to invest, hey, this is mine and this could be yours not for the terms of this contract, but for eternity. Yeah, right.

[Richard Childress]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is that.

[Richard Childress]

Put it. Put yourself in and someday you'll end up with a charter. You'll figure out, they'll figure out, you'll get. Have a charter someday. So if you were going to pay $30 million today for a charter, you know, Junior Motorsports, and you look, in seven years, it may not be a charter. We may not have one. We don't know what it is. They've got seven years bumped on. But on top of that, it all's around the media. But we, we want to just do whatever it takes to have a, a real solid. That charter should be permanent. The word permit, they don't lack paternity or wherever they call them. Then you could say, I'll pay $30 million, this is going to be mine and I can pass it down to my family. If I have this and is, I know it's going to be here forever. RCR is going to own it till we sell it. Then just like the. You used NFL, same deal with them. I think seeing that my family is going to have a lot more value in it if, if these charters were permanent. And I think that's one of the biggest sticking points today. If, if we all had permit charters, you'd see a lot different, different atmosphere everywhere.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I guess. What, I agree with that 100%, but I just can't see. I am kind of curious as to why NASCAR doesn't want to make it permanent. Maybe because there, there's just not a, I guess there's just not a, an assured guarantee where the TV rights are headed with streaming coming in and all these different mechanisms. They're just uncertain about, you know, where they're going to be in 15, 20 years. But, you know, I just don't see a world where NASCAR is going to yank the carpet out from under you.

[Richard Childress]

No, no, I don't like, even though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Even though they won't agree to make the charters permanent, I don't see them getting to year seven at the end of this charter agreement and going, you know what? We've decided that this is just, we're just not going to do charters anymore because they do have a value today. They do have a 34, 40 million dollar value. I can't see them just going, yeah, we're just going to pretend that that didn't happen.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. I go, let me go back to what you said earlier when you said, you know, that NASCAR would, you know, if all the TV stuff went away. We're going to ride the same boat with them, up or down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

You know, but we just want the charters. And if, if the TV goes away, which I don't think it will in seven years, who knows what it'd be. We got streaming, we got so much new technology. And NASCAR is going to be a big part of that. There's nothing better right now on TV than live entertainment. And that goes from football, baseball, auto racing, nascar, pbr, all of these things are really big today. And that's where I think, you know, the team owners want to ride that boat. We're going to Ride it up or we're going to ride it down and we're going to support it whatever way it goes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Delanhart Jr. Chevrolet is your go to for commercial and crane truck solutions. Dillonhardt Jr. Chevrolet is located in Tallahassee, Florida and it's not just any dealership. It's a powerhouse in the commercial vehicle sector, particularly known for its crane truck offerings. We have unmatched expertise in medium duty trucks. And as one of the nation's top stores for medium duty trucks, we ensure that you receive vehicles tailored to your specific business requirements. Our store is the number one seller of crane trucks in the nation. A true showcase of the dealership's ability to cater to specialized commercial needs. With hundreds of trucks in stock and available for immediate purchase, we ensure businesses can find the right vehicle without delay. Plus, custom orders are available, allowing businesses to build trucks to their exact specifications. We also understand the importance of convenience and that's why we offer complimentary delivery anywhere in the continental United States. It's one less thing that you have to worry about. And we are part of the prestigious Hendrick Automotive Group, the nation's top rated dealer group for online reputation. Visit del junior chevy.com and click Commercial to explore the extensive range of available commercial vehicles. The Dellenhardt Jr. Chevrolet team is ready to provide a world class experience for your commercial needs. Chevrolet together. Let's drive. Well, let's talk about something that we both can agree on and that's Casey Kane racing in one of the top three NASCAR series. He's joining your Xfinity team. They went Rockingham to test and he's going to run that race. How in the world did that come about?

[Richard Childress]

You know, Keith Rodman is our. Oh yeah, Keith was his crew chief when he drove and he and Casey talk quite a still talk. And he came to me one day and he said, hey, if, if we can come up with some funding, would you, would you consider running Casey? We're going to run about I think eight cup races extra and we're going to run three Xfinity races counting Casey. And I said sure, man. I love Casey. I mean he was, he was a heck of a driver and just a great person too. I mean you worked around him, you worked with my teammates and really cool dude. I just think that have him dinner and have him in the car and see that smile on his face when he come to the shop. My talk to him, you could just see how excited he was and I think he's going to go down and really do good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. So he's just got the one race?

[Richard Childress]

Yes. For right now, we're just holding.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did y'all ask him about his. I mean, you know, he had some. Had some heat related health issues when he was racing in the cup series many, many years ago. Assuming all of that's behind him now. So. And we hadn't had a really chance to talk about him. But I do know that. So I inadvertently, indirectly have kind of kept up with Casey over the years. He's one of my favorite people and he still. He still looks exactly the same as he always has. And it was my hope that we've even teased a bit about him racing one of our late model cars at the cars tour. But this is incredible. I think there's so many fans out there. I think we don't appreciate or realize just how many people are going to be excited about Casey running that race and seeing Casey or any of our drivers that have been gone that still have a little left in the tank coming back. But I do know that somebody. This is totally. This is Casey Kane in a nutshell, man. This is exactly who this dude is. Apparently they went to test at Rockingham and he got there and said to somebody that I know, when did they repave this place? Did you know that? Yeah. He didn't know they paid.

[Richard Childress]

No, he didn't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's till he got there.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. And you know, it was one of them things, but he really did good. Them guys fired right off and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But he thought he was going to run on the old rocking old rock. He got there and he's like, holy, we're hauling ass.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, it was fast and. But he did good. I'm excited for him and that team. We put. We changed crew Chiefs on the 21 and put Chad Haney as a crew chief. Now we got Andy street is going to run those other races. I want to try to get. Andy broke in for another cup team. If we ever go to a full three team, you know, and try to teach him some of that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, for sure. Well, I think we're all excited about Casey coming back. You know, we wanted to dip back into the history. We had you on the Show 2019. We talked a lot about, you know, your. Your life and all of those. All the things that went on with dad and everything. But there were some. There were some things that we. We didn't get to. One of the things I think and I've heard this story. But you. You started racing as an independent in the cup series and originally Your number was 96. Why 96?

[Richard Childress]

I can't say it on you. Just like if I flipped upside down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, my gosh. Was that really. Why.

[Richard Childress]

That's true. So I ended upside. Damn. So we'll stop it there. Can you dig in?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why did you go to number three?

[Richard Childress]

You know, I wanted a low number. Pharaoh Hinkle was lettering my cars and he said, man, I didn't have a lot of money. He said, if you just get a single digit number. If you get a single digit number, I'll cut your cost in half.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

So that's how I ended up. And the three was available. I don't. I remember talking to Ray Fox and I thought I got it through them. Then I talked to Al Rudd. He said, we had it before. So I don't know how it all come about, but I ended up with the three knowing Ray Fox and how everything went down. The Al Rudd, they could have gave it to me. I can't remember. But we ended up with three. And that's why, because I only had to pay half as much to hand letter. So that's where. Good reason.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You ran your last cup series race in 1981, the season finale at Riverside. You started, I think, a starting park with Junior Johnson.

[Richard Childress]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So he just had. I think they were battling for the championship with Daryl.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, right. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But before, if we talk about that, that's fine. But I really kind of want to go back to. I know, you know, I know the whole story about dad and y'all putting dad in the car at Michigan. I want to know. You talked about, you know, I guess you kind of mentioned it briefly a moment ago. But how. How did you handle that emotionally? Not, you know, you decided you weren't going to race anymore. You're still. You're still, well, healthy enough to race. You'd always made it work. You'd always, you know, stretch the money and made it work so it wasn't like, oh, man, I'm gonna have to close my shop or I gotta do something else right. This dad come along with the sponsor. Junior Johnson got in your ear and said, you ought to do this. But I want to know how you felt emotionally when you went to that racetrack and you weren't the one climbing in the car.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. You can. You can kind of relate to what that let me go back just one step. Why I got out of it was I could see, you know, I had. I was running it as a business. I was feeding my family and all of us were living off of what I could make racing But I could see I could have some top 10 finishes, run pretty good every now and get a top five. And then when Warner, Hodgson, Harry Rainier, Osterlin, all of these people started coming in with money. Orc just kept going backwards, you know, I wasn't happy running in the top 15. And I said, man, if I don't do something soon, I got to get out of this car. So I. I knew your dad wasn't happy with the osterlin deal, and J.D. stacy, it was a whole mess right in there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you know anything about that? Because I'm so. I'm asking specifically about J.D. stacy. So he's an enigma. He's kind of this, you know, he's this gold miner. Yeah. The reputation around him isn't. Isn't an awesome one, I guess. At one point, you know, they. Somebody was trying to blow his car up. He and Harry Hyde had a falling out. Him and Neil Bonnet had a falling out. And I'm assuming that Neil got into Dad's ear when. When JD Bought the team and said, boy, you ain't gonna like that, but I'm what. And then, you know, he had his name on all them cars and. And eventually the money ran out and he wasn't, you know, wasn't paying everybody, and then he disappears, Right? Yeah, that was later on, a couple years after 1981. But he just seemed like a strange fellow. Right. There's not a lot of. A lot of inventory out there about him in terms of real stories. But what was the. What was the Garage's opinion of J.D. stacy?

[Richard Childress]

You know, I think. And it's hard. Hard to say because there were so many opinions and, you know, some locked him. People that he was working. Working for him at the time. Some of the drivers did. Some of the drivers didn't. But, you know, your dad, I never will forget. He said, I'm not going to be sold. And that was his reason. When we talked that Osterlin had sold to Stacy, and we. We talked about it, he and I were hunting buddies down in South Carolina, and, man, we talked about getting back together after those 10 races, but those 10 races, I met with Junior at the. I think it was a Motel 6 or whatever it was we're staying in. In Anniston, Alabama, and talked about it and then went that night we went up to the Downtowner, and it was four of us in there. I got. I got A.J. foyt's for deal for tires, and I got. I ended up getting. I think it was ten grand or something. From Wrangler A. Rice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tanner Rice.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, Tanner Rice. And when it was, when it was all over, I'll never will Forget when those 10 race was over, I was in debt $75,000. Why I was in. I was in trouble and. But I never will forget, I went over and talked to Mr. Bowman with. He ran the, he ran the Wrangler and I told him he added me another $50,000 and that's how I was able to survive is he paid me extra money for running for him because we ran good in some of those races.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why did y'all. So you ran this thing as a business, fed your family. How did you let it get upside down? You got out of the car and it's supposed to make some more money.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But it ended up costing you, you know, the. How did I get, you know, forgive me for not being more eloquent, but how did you. How in those 10 races did things get so upside down financially? Because thinking, you know, dad coming in, the sponsor coming in. Where was. Was it the having to pay dad also having.

[Richard Childress]

You knew what I paid him. It was very little.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well then you're building, you're building cars you weren't necessarily normally building.

[Richard Childress]

Yes, that and people we hired. We hired all. A lot of people from Osterlin. And that's where payroll went way up. Payroll went way up. Traveling with everybody around.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How'd you let that happen?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, because I'm a gambler. I've gambled all my life. And I knew this was my RCR's opportunity when we had a championship driver, a great talent, if I could make it work, we could get another good driver in there. And I was ready to go back in it. And it's a long story.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I could tell he's ready to go back in the car.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. If I had to, you know. And then we took. Oh shoot. Greg Sachs today.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

And we were testing. We were building those, taking those 115 inch wheelbase cars and turn them into 110. We were testing. Done or. I tested the car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You drove?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, I tested it and Daryl drove our car and last like it. Yeah, it was, it was. And you know, it's kind of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How did Greg wreck it?

[Richard Childress]

He coming off of four. It's a long story that I want to discuss on here. But coming off four, he flipped it, put it up in the air.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why don't you want to discuss it?

[Richard Childress]

I'll tell you later. Oh, anyway. Oh, it's a hell of a story.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, let's hear it.

[Richard Childress]

Hell, when he flipped up, went off the racetrack, went around the corner, there was this helmet. I said, oh, hell, his head's in it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Holy.

[Richard Childress]

That's how bad a wreck it was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I saw there's pictures of the cars. They're very grainy. But he destroyed this car. Yeah, yeah.

[Richard Childress]

Knocked his helmet off, knocked him out. He is in the hospital for a while, and I'll leave it at that. I'll tell you later on the rest of the story. It's always, where was that? Paul Harvey said, yeah, there's more. And you hear the rest of the story. But anyway, we did that. And at that time, I was going to figure I might get back in the car, but Ralph Seagraves and kind of hooked me up with Piedmont Airlines. I said, man, this is my chance. I'm a young driver. Young. They wanted young, up and coming driver. I said, I'm going to get me a sponsor now. I went and talked to peel up Bill up there, and I said. He said, no, we want a real young driver. I was 35 or 6, you know. So I got Ricky Rudd, and that's when we hired Ricky Rudd. And, man, it's so much history. One of these days I'm going to write that book, but I hope I get to because everybody says a live man's story is going to be a lot better than Dead Man's Ricky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had Ricky on the show. I remember when I. My mom's house burnt down and she gave custody of me and Kelly to Dad, and we went to Dad's house and we're living at Dad's at the lake. And I mean, I ain't been there. It don't seem like but a month or two, and Ricky Rudd and his wife pull up on the boat to the. To the dock at the house. We lived on the lake. And so I'm in my mind, I'm like, oh, Dad's friends with some of the racers, right? And they, they. Tim Richmond would come around, and I'm like, oh, man, dad and Ricky Rudd are friendly and they were pals, right? Ricky comes off, back slap and high five and hey, man, we're going. What you up to, man? Well, we're just riding around on the lake. You know, they were just buddies. And then after. But I had Ricky on the show, and he's like, yep. He's like. I felt like when Dale got back with Richard in 84, like he took what I worked on and what I built.

[Richard Childress]

He's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's. Ricky is sour about that. Yeah. And you know, he ends up going with Bud Moore, and, you know, then. Then they kind of raced each other pretty hard. And then, you know, Wilkesboro thing with Ricky at. When he's in the Quaker State car, and, you know, Ricky didn't. Ricky is still sour over that. With dad. He's like, you. You. He. He basically said in so many words, I was friends with your dad, but I didn't know what he was doing behind my back. And he. And he kind of rooted me out of that deal at rcr. And I'd helped. I felt like I'd helped made that team what it had become. And Dale was asked. He even said he's like. Dale was asking me in, like, 82, 83, what y'all doing over there? That thing looks like it's going pretty good. And he's like, I had no idea he was gonna ask me. And he was learning about the team and the progress y'all were making to. To go and root him out.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. Think back of what I said a few minutes ago. And 1981, when Dale was. I got together, and right after that, we were still hunting buddies.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

It's so much more to this story with Mike Curb, and all of you knew half of the stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So Mike Curb gets you guys together in. In the back end of 83.

[Richard Childress]

Yep. And we. We decided we didn't want to go that route, and we ended up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Curb called. Mike Curb called a meeting and said he wanted to partner. He wanted both of us and dad.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah. And it didn't work out. Dale and I rode together. We. You know, we stopped, had a cool one and talked about it and decided that we would just hold off on that. It just wasn't. It didn't feel right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But did that get the ball rolling in the conversation of actually getting back together?

[Richard Childress]

No, I think. I think yes, that was part of it. But the biggest part was we talked about it in 81, when we finished those 10 races, we both agreed I didn't have the money. I didn't have the money to run him. Most 10 races. I had to borrow everything I could borrow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did Ricky Rudd ever tell you that he was disappointed?

[Richard Childress]

No, but I could tell it. He never. He never said it, and I could tell it. I'm proud for. See him go in the hall of fame. But we had talked about this throughout. Dale and I had talked about getting back together, and opportunity came along with Wrangler for he and I to get back together. And so that's how Wrangler both. You know, I can't remember the guy's name. Right. I see him. But he. He ended up sponsoring Bud Moore and. Yes, and Bud Moore, I never will forget. He told me we was at Riverside west when we run Riverside. He said, boy, y'all won't last six months. Both of you is just alike. We made it 20 some years. 20 years or more. Yeah, but, you know, those were. Man, those are some prec. Memories. Some of the greatest memories of my life came out of that era, you know?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. You know, we've heard all of the. We've heard the stories about how. How it all happened, but the. The. I've. I've learned a lot on this in this room of the kind of behind the scenes in terms of, like, how. How the other players involved, right? And Ricky Rudd and all of that. And it's really fascinating to me, the dad. I remember when dad drove Bud's car. Bud would always tell dad, you know, dad liked to hammer the throttle kind of like Buddy Baker did. And Bud didn't like his car drove that way and didn't think the. You know, he's like, hey, motor's not gonna last. You keep racing this way, right? And they did have a lot of engine problems with the Ford back then before they figured things out. But when Ricky got in the car, Bud Moore and those guys had it pretty dialed in. Ricky had some really, really good runs. But when dad come over to drive your car, I imagine dad had free rein to drive the car however he wanted. Bud and even Suitcase Jake Elder, they like to control how the driver drove the car, right?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn Suitcase Jake and dad would go at it, arguing about how hard dad needed to be running in any particular moment in the race. Bud was the same way, you know, just kind of always reminding dad not to push that hard. Didn't need to push that hard. Did y'all have that common kind of conversation when y'all got back together, around, you know, how Bud liked Dad to do things and how dad wanted to do things?

[Richard Childress]

Not really. You know, I said, we want to go. When? Let me tell one. One story, one thing about your dad that outstands over any drivers that I've known. 1985, we blew 11 races, and he and Teresa would come up to my house, and they would stay, and we would leave there and go and have a little airport out of Lexington, fly out. We went to Pocono, and we blew up at any long straightaways. It was a long story how the. How we fixed it and everything, but we got back at Evening was pretty quiet. On the airplane coming back, we blew up. I knew that we wasn't doing a champion a good job.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Y'all were having some oil pressure issues.

[Richard Childress]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Long straightaways.

[Richard Childress]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What was it?

[Richard Childress]

If Lularosa was. Had a cigarette in his mouth. He was honing the lifter boards. I went in there myself with these guys. That's when I worked on the engines and helped build them. And we had the oil pan off and we. I said, we're going to watch this thing and see what happens. And it's blowing all the oil out around the lifters. The lifter bore. Well, we sleeved them in. That fixed the problem. But I told Dale that evening we got back, he come over to the house to get his car. And I never will forget. I lived on over there off of Gumtree Road. And he. I mean, hell, I can't remember it right now, but we. I remember the house and the wall we sat on. And I sat down and Dale sat down. I said, dale, you need to get you another ride next year. You've got a. You've got a. You're better than this. We've blown up 11 times. We can't keep. Right. You don't need to be here. I said, you deserve better. I never will forget the look on his face. And he turned and looked at me. He was sitting to my. On my left. And I turned. He turned and looked and he said, we started this together. We're going to finish it together. That's the kind of man he was. And he had all kind of offers to go other places, and he might have won a lot more championships if he had a. Sometime kind of wished he had a. But, you know, we had such a great relationship. But that's the kind of man your dad was. If he gave you his word he was going to stand up to it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

And. And I was the same way. We both agreed. And that's. That's how he was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You worked as a stuntman throughout the 1980s?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What in the hell? Why did you need to do that?

[Richard Childress]

Help pay bills. Really anything I could do being a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stuntman made that good.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, some of them did. They say, okay, who wants to wreck his car? I'd raise my hand when.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So you had a relationship with Hal Needham, who was a famous stuntman. Stan Barrett as well, Right?

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How did that begin?

[Richard Childress]

You know, Stan Barrett started driving for Hal Needham, and I would nobody get around him or draft? I'd say, come on out, I'll draft with you. We became friends. And then he got to telling me about doing some stunt work. When I had time in the week, you know, during the week, I'd take off and go somewhere hell out. Double Burt Reynolds. One time I put on his wig and his. His. Yeah, his shirt, sweatshirt, and wrecked a motorcycle. And probably the dumbest thing I've done was I slid a motorcycle down in front of a 182 plane that was landing. They said, he'll do this. Hell, he paid four or five hundred dollars to do it. And that was big money. Back in the day, Neil Bonnet and I, we were in a police car. We were playing policeman. And that was in Smokey and the Bandit, too. And I. So we pulled this lady over. She had her Earnhardt license on the front of her car, and she had a Camaro. And we was in that cop car. We spun that thing around, went after we pulled this lady over, we went, cops. But we pulled this lady over. And we're out there walking around looking at everything. He asked about that. Neil asked her about that thing on the front of her car. And I'm out there walking around looking. He said, well, if you're Earnhardt fan, we're going to let you go for this. Oh, it is so, man, I've had some great times. And that's what. That's what life's about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When did you decide you no longer. I mean, was the stunt jobs regular or just kind of. They knew they could call you when they needed somebody and it was typically.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah, I think one of the last ones that I did, the last one I did was the Super Mario Brothers. I don't know if you remember that movie down at Wilmington, we were filming it, and that's where they used to build concrete plants, concrete ships in this big building. And we were doing the stunt work down there, and the stunt coordinator in one of the guys ended up getting killed or really hurt bad. And I said, you know, I need to get done with this. But that. That was ended. My stunt career was watching that. I come back with some beat up knees and stuff. Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's crazy, man. So does it. I mean, a lot of people might not know this, but after running Wrangler Yellow and blue for the 84 through 87 seasons, you would unveil the black good wrench scheme at Rockingham. And at the tail end of the 1987 season, the final race with rocking Rockingham, one of the last races in the year, you roll this car out there, but there was a design that was blue. GM wanted the car to be blue?

[Richard Childress]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How did you convince General Motors? And I guess was. Were you even close to going? Yep. You guys write the checks? Blue it is.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How did y'all convince them that they needed to have a black race car?

[Richard Childress]

You know, the GM Goodrich, the brake. Brake boxes were blue and white, and they wanted that same color, blue and white. So we painted one left side of the car. We painted it blue and white, put the good wrench on. On the light blue. And then I took black duct tape and silver duct tape and taped the right side of the car and put good wrench on it. On it with the decals and the number three. And I told him, I said, Archie Long was running it back in that day for gm. And we had the car sitting there just inside the. Our old fab shop. And I said, well, here's the design you guys want. Here's the design that when this car is going around the track, it's going to be closer to what the asphalt looks like. You're going to be able to see this white good wrench, and you're going to see that white three. Then we started with silver three, I think. But I said, because I had silver duct tape, reasonably put it on as good as I can remember. But we ended up. We ended up convincing them that it would show up a lot better on the racetrack as a black car and number three, and the good wrench being white on the back of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Imagine an alternate universe where there was no black good wrench, number three car. It could have happened very close. Yeah. You know, the other interesting scheme that dad had was the Peter Max car.

[Richard Childress]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What was Dale's. What was Dad's reaction to that car when you all showed it to him?

[Richard Childress]

Well, Goodrich came to us, and Peter Max is a very, very famous artist today. And he, the head guy at Good Wrench, met with us. And we were in the old shop with the. I mean, the shop there, where we're at today, that's the museum. And so he brings this painting in there on it, and he had Peter Max with him, and he said, this is a car we're going to run. And Dale knew that we needed to do something to keep the thing going, but he. He says, come out here. They had a design of his uniform. He says, I drive it damn car. I'm telling you one thing, I ain't wearing it. I'm uniform. You can count that out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

So he didn't have to, but he wasn't about to wear a uniform. But that was good. And it was Peter. Max did both of us. I don't know where his is, but he painted Dale and I car, a full car and painted it and put, you know, the number three just like it was, and put Max on the back. He said, gave it to us. He said, here, you can put your kids in college with it. Oh, I don't know what it'd be worth. I don't know where his is, but mine's in my little collection. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The poppy red interior on dad's old Goodrich cars, where did that come from?

[Richard Childress]

You know, that was something that. That I wanted the car look clean with the black on the outside. And even back before then, I wanted car to really look clean, and I thought orange would really look good in it, and that's why we did. And you could see anything on the car a lot cleaner. If you had a problem or something, it would show up with that orange better than it would if you just had it flat black or something.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

For sure. A lot of teams would paint their car interiors black, trying to hide some, you know, things that probably weren't in the right place or, you know, trying to, you know, some chassis that might be offset or whatever, changing things around. And so a lot of teams would maybe paint the cars dark. So they were. It was difficult to see some of the things that might be happening with the. With the floor pan or what have you. But, yeah, the orange interior is iconic. And I think the poppy red paint code, though, is a Ford paint code.

[Richard Childress]

I'm not sure which one it was. We just picked it because I wanted something that if we had a crack in the floorboard or something that didn't look right, we could find it and repair it right there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, man. Hey, I. I've enjoyed talking to you. I know you got a lot going on. I wanted to ask you, though, right before we get off the air here, you had a history in bootlegging, like a real. You were a real live bootlegger. Is that true?

[Richard Childress]

Well, it's a long story also, but when I was a kid, the question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is, did you run moonshine illegal?

[Richard Childress]

Yes. But here's. Here's what happened. I didn't bring it down from the mountains. I was running a service station.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

11 to 7, 7 o'clock in the morning, and moonshiners would bring you on the station.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You worked there?

[Richard Childress]

I worked there. I didn't own it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Richard Childress]

I had to work there and run it at night. Now what? But 17, I think 16. 17. And these bootleggers Would park the car, come in there, give me some addresses. You know where to go. These drink houses, you deliver this there, you deliver this here and you deliver it there. And I would do that. Now I did move a couple down from the mountains but most of the time drink houses. Yeah, but I toilet with the drink house. A drink houses is right in the roughest part of town. And here's a 16, 17 year old kid and I'll tell you why I got out of it. But I was there and I would take it whiskey and I have to sup. Give them a case here, give my case there. Him guys would go collect the money and then they'd give me money to go do it. Yeah, but that's how I would do it. Drink houses where you go drink all night and party and raise hell. Everything. You know, back in the day. And why'd you get roughest? There was a killing and I was in the wrong. I was in the right room. I heard the gun go off and I ran so damn. So that's drink houses back up are off of old Patterson Avenue, the roughest part of town. And it was. It was. It was something I bet got. I could still see some of that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So is the. Are those buildings still around? Some of them.

[Richard Childress]

Now I go up there. I went up there a few years back and just every now and then I'll just ride around some of these old houses like Bowman Grace Stadium. I used to deliver meat to this community down there. Where Bowman Grace. I used to deliver more chitlins and salt fish and you could ever think about eating down through them houses. They're no longer there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You've done it all.

[Richard Childress]

I've seen a lot. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn. All right, man. Well. Pretty incredible. When you want to write this book.

[Richard Childress]

I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You better get on it.

[Richard Childress]

I keep talking about I know I ain't getting no younger.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The damn. It's going to take a long ass time to write.

[Richard Childress]

It will. Let me ask you a question. You talk about age. If you didn't know the day you were born, how would you be?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Huh? If I didn't know the day that you were born, I just had to guess. I'd say 35.

[Richard Childress]

There you go. So people ask me, you know. I said I don't. If you don't know when you were born, you do it. Know how old you are?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Richard Childress]

So I think I'm about 40 with maybe 39 years of experience. How's that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There you go.

[Richard Childress]

But I enjoyed it. Junior. Back up one minute. I'M not pissed off at you. I don't remember. I don't remember all that. I mean, I remember something, but I don't remember anything that was said. Well, I couldn't even remember what it was about. Almost called. Austin said, you remember why I was pissed at Junior? And Casey asked.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, so you don't put up with no bull. I know that. I appreciate you. Thank you for always being so great to us. And, you know, you've seen a lot, done a lot in this board and, and, and I can't wait to hear some of these, you know, some of these stories you're going to put in this book. I know you save a lot of stuff and there's some stories that you can't tell.

[Richard Childress]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, you know, anyways, thank you for everything you do to celebrate dad and keep his honor, his memory and. Yeah, have a good, have a good year. I'll see you in Daytona. Hopefully. Hopefully we'll get to run into each other out there and I can, once I'm learning how this ownership side of it works.

[Richard Childress]

Well, you're doing a good job. You've won some championships and y'all doing a great job and you're going to be there. You follow that dream and that's all you got to do. You know, if you say pay the price for it and go and follow the dream.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, sir. Richard Childress on the Dale Jr. Download. Well, that was a great conversation with Richard Childress and had been a while since he'd been on the show. About five years, I suppose. It's always a fun. I don't know if challenge is the right word, but it's always fun to bring on repeat guests and see what kind of conversation we might have. You know, when I'm not having a whole ton of experience as an interviewer throughout my life, it's a bit intimidating, I think, to bring on a guest for their second, third or fourth visit and, you know, because in the first visit I feel like I really try to go through the timeline of their career or life and learn as much as possible into that first episode. But it was a good conversation. I'm glad we talked about, you know, he talked about the lawsuit and charters and his experience at Richmond with the Austin Dillon deal. And of course talked about Kyle Busch. I mean, we covered quite a. Quite a bit. Had a lot of things that if you look at these pages that the team puts together, they do a really good job of kind of gleaming over the original conversation we had from the last interview. And Then going in and kind of filling some holes and stuff we didn't get to. And it was entertaining. So him being a stuntman in the 80s, I mean, he's a, a car owner and has quite a few obligations, I'm sure. And, and the pressure of trying to run that operation and keep it going and doing, being a stunt man on the side. And then really fascinating about the bootlegging. I didn't know that he was. There was a killing, he said. So that was the end of his moonshine escapades. But imagine 17 years old and the bootleggers bringing that moonshine over to the gas station and saying, I, man, here's where you need to take all this stuff. And you being the guy that has to go handle that. That would be kind of nerve rattling, I think. But yeah, fun conversation. And the dude is 79 years old. I'm impressed by his mental sharpness, his ability to articulate, and I think his final point about, hey, if you didn't know your age, if you didn't know the day you were born, how old do you think you guessed you were? Took me a second to understand what he was asking there. But I thought that was a really good question because I'm sort of at this sort of. When you turn 50, it's like you're getting the halfway mark, you know, Hell, if you're lucky, you know. Right. But it's like the halfway flag, the halfway flags, when they came out in a race is almost this sort of, almost an anti climactic moment. It's all, It's a, it's a, it's an acknowledgment of obviously the halfway mark of the race, but it's an acknowledgment of what's been accomplished, but also the fact that there's only that much left of the event. And a lot of times when I was younger, it was not, it was kind of like, oh, darn, the race is almost, you know, the race is half over. I'm having so much fun. And that's the way it is with life too, you know, And I think that that's a great way I might, might share that with some friends that I have conversations about this with. If you didn't know you're born on date, you know, would you take it, Would you take the fact that, you know, you're hitting these milestones, like 50 years old so heavily? Probably not. So maybe that's the way I ought to live going forward. So anyhow, hope you all enjoyed it. I sure did. It's way good way to kick off the year. We're gonna have a lot of fun. We've got some really, hey, we're working on guests that are coming down over the next several weeks and there's some good, good ones. So this is gonna be a fun year. And yeah, hopefully y'all enjoyed that. And yeah, I guess if you're listening to this on Wednesday, tomorrow will be great because we're gonna have our first episode of bless your heart with my wife and can't wait to kick that off and I really have no idea what to expect. So whatever we end up doing there, look, it's not planned and hope but hopefully it's good. We're gonna have some laughs, have some fun. So anyways, y'all have a good week and we'll see you tomorrow. Check out dirty Mo media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.