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Becoming Earnhardt 1980 Vol. 4 - Jake Packs His Suitcase
00:43:05
Imagine being a sophomore, leading the NASCAR points with Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough breathing down your neck. That was Dale Earnhardt’s reality in May of 1980.
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Dale Earnhardt
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The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media this episode of Becoming Earnhardt is brought to you by Bass Pro Shops, North America's premier outdoor and conservation company. Plan your next adventure at a Bass Pro Shops near you or online@bass pro.com later in the episode, my sister Kelly shares her unique perspective on life with dad away from the racetrack. Now buckle up. Here's a brand new episode of Becoming Earnhardt presented by Bass Pro Shops. Richard got on me a little bit last year about Michigan and it was. I took it very well and it was very, you know, he was in the right when he said something to me about it and it's more or less like a father talking to his son. So it made me feel good if the man respects me enough to let me know what I do wrong. At this point in our story, dad might be second guessing the price of starting fans like him. He's an exciting new driver. He doesn't waste any time back in the field. Now he's fresh off a run in with Richard petty. Petty gets banged 2 car all of a sudden, Dale come in and hit me pretty hard. And the pressure of running well on a weekly basis is setting in. It is a tough break indeed for Dale Earnhardt and a bitter pill to swallow this afternoon after having one of the best seasons ever for a young sophomore driver on track. Mistakes, pit road blunders, engine failures. They've reduced his points lead to just 61 points. The team desperately needs a rally to finish the season on a strong note. Earnhardt is running 16th and he is 12 laps down. The car is running but it is missing very badly and that is smoke coming from the exhaust pipe. Roland Wallodica, the team manager Carter just throws his hands up. But dad and the Osterlin team are about to face their greatest challenge. And they're gonna get a grim reminder of why Jake Elder earned the nickname Suitcase Jake. I feel more relaxed, you know, because I feel like I got a driver that's got the spirits, and he comes in, tell me what the car is doing, and then I can go ahead and fix it. You know what I mean? And so right now, I think everything's gonna be all right. You know, if we can run competitively in the top five and win our Charlotte races this year, the points will come, you know, so we don't. We're not really worried about the points that much. It's nice to be leading them or nice to be up front, you know, in the top one or two. But if you're not. We're not going to worry about it until it gets on down and end the season. Then you can take a look at them because all the. You know, more what's going on with the last of. The last of the season and everything. So, right. Right now, we got races to win and run right now. And the points, you know, they'll come to him. Dad may be leading the points, and he's got a couple of wins, but it hasn't been an easy road so far. Just diving on the pit road a moment ago with smoke trailing from the car, Dale Earnhardt had to get in the brake to back off. Earnhardt slides on the pit road. We thought if anybody would come back in, it would be Baker. You may remember times when the pit crew came up short in crucial moments, such as the final stop at the Daytona 500. The crew. Osterlin crew swarms over Earnard's car, now back on pit road for left side tires, and they continue to fill the car up. The team also has had some engine failures, which wasn't uncommon back in the day. But if you wanted to win a championship, you had to limit those as much as you can. This happened in the twin 125s during Atlanta qualifying. They had some problems. And at Darlington in April, during the race, you speak of Dale Earnhardt, We've caught him here for just a moment before the green comes out. Dale, tough break there today. Yeah, it was. The car's running real good. I wasn't really pushing the car right then. And all of a sudden, it just some broken engine. It's really, really bad for teams. And then there's dad, whose aggressive driving style has annoyed the competition and at times cost the team some opportunities at good finishes. The bumping and bagging started on the opening green flag when Dale Earnhardt got a little hard into the first turn. They got into Richard Petty and eight cars went around. As we roll into the month of May, dad and the Osterlin team are looking for a reset after a rough April at Talladega. A rematch from the Daytona 500 is going to unfold. Buddy Baker and the Gray Ghost versus dad and his young number two Osterlin Oldsmobile. Well, good afternoon, everyone from Alabama International Motor Speedway. It's the Winston 500. It's fast becoming the most exciting stock car race in the and it's no wonder going into the Winston 500 today, it's a close one. Dale Earnhardt leads Darrell Waltrip by 61 points. Now, that sounds like a lot, but it could be wiped out this afternoon should Earnhardt have a bad finish and Waltrip have a good one. The fourth starter is the Winston cup point standing leader, Dale Earnhardt of Kannapolis, North Carolina. Outside front row position at number two, Buddy Baker. Charlotte, North Carolina, will start the Napa Regal ride Oldsmobile. And that is the starting field for the 11th annual Winston 500. We are 200 yards from the start of green in the Winston to 500. Here it is as they dive into the first turn. Buddy Baker, David Pearson lead them down into the corner. Now Yarborough will drop back into fourth place as Dale Earnhardt takes third. First lap. Baker goes all the way to the bottom of the racetrack, and he will lead the first lap with a Winston 500. Earnhardt scoots to second. Bonnet challenges for third. In turn one, we see them pushing Darrell Waltram's car back down pit road. So trouble for the Gatorade Oldsmobile of Darrell Waltrim. He has not been happy here all week. The car has not performed to expectations. Last year's winner of this race, Bobby Allison, is not going to be racing anymore today. Bobby, what's the problem? Well, a clutch tore up in the car, which is a very unusual situation. Richard Petty is on pit road. Let's go to Jerry Punch. Dale Lemon and the Petty crew are working around the STP Oldsmobile. They've raised the hood on the car. They also raised the deck lid. Now they've told Richard to cut the eng and they're pushing the car slowly back up pit road. And right now, Buddy Baker and Dale Earnhardt have set sail and pulled away from Cale Yarborough by about four seconds. The two cars fought tooth and nail into the Late stages of the race now on lap 155, both cars are going to make their final pit stops. Leaders are on pit road, Buddy Baker and Dale Earnhardt down pitting nose to tail here on pit road. Baker's crew going to the right side of the machine. They will change the right side rubber on the Napa Regal ride Oldsmobile as well. The Earnhardt car changing right side rubber. It is down and away. Baker's crew will change the left side tires as well. But Earnhardt is away 15.4 seconds. Jake Elder will elect to take two tires to win. Dad the race off of pit road and give him a lot of track position. Whereas Waddell Wilson kept Buddy Baker on pit road for a full four tire stop. Buddy Baker says, I gotta admit, I was a little upset about changing four when I came out of the pits and Dale was nowhere in sight. Let's go to the pits of Ned Jarrett. Barney, we're standing by behind the pits of Dale Earnhardt. And I asked Jake Elder, the crew chief on that car, why just two? He said, well, we can run as fast on the worn left side tires as we could if we put all four on. And he said, we wanted to break away from him, break that draft if we could. Says he can go the rest of the distance now without making another pit stop. And right now with Earnhardt holding the commanding advantage, should Baker be able to chase him down, there might only be a lap or so remaining. Standing by with Waddell Wilson the crew chief on that car, it looks like he's gaining a little bit on Dale at this point. Waddell, still time left. I don't know if we can continue cutting it down like we are or not, though. He chose to change only two tires. You changed all four after he went back out and you had that deficit. Did you think that maybe you made a mistake? No. If I had to do it over again, I'd do the same thing because I knew we could go the distance on four tires and two was questionable. And I'll not take a chance on a driver's life with the laps that remains. The question is whether or not Buddy Baker can run down Dale Earnhardt. You can throw the binoculars on the two cars and get both cars in the view right now as Buddy Baker cuts it to 15 car lengths. Make it 14 and now down to 10 car length on the back straightaway. And forget the interval because Baker closes at turn three. Youth versus experience. Earnhardt, a much younger driver than Buddy Baker, who's done this so many Times before. Here comes Buddy Baker. Buddy would come out 16 seconds behind dad, but he would track him down. And with two laps to go, pass dad to win by a few hundred feet. A challenge to the lead. Off the number two turn, Buddy Baker goes downstairs side by side with Dale Earnhardt. Midway down the back straightaway, still two abreast. Earnhardt is right there. Baker then Earnhardt by a car length as they go for the finish line. Buddy Baker will have to drive in the rear view mirror as much as he does in the front. Here comes Earnhardt down to the bottom of the racetrack as they come across the line. He's there, but he misses by just about a half a car length. Dale Earnhardt finishing second. Give this young driver all the credit in the world. He put everything he had in it. Just couldn't do it. Just about a 3ft separating first and second as they came across the line. Dad's gonna have to settle for another discouraging runner up finish to the Gray Ghost. Dale, do you feel like that you could have caught Buddy? I tried my best, you know, as he just had a little more horsepower. Reckon my car was working good as he was, but I just didn't have enough to get back by him once he passed me. Do you feel like you should have started your acceleration earlier and tried a little harder? I was accelerating all the way around. Or I never did let off of it. It's remarkable though that the Osterlin crew can find so much super speedway speed to be able to match Waddell Wilson's creation. Waddell has years of experience from working at Holman Moody and has built some of the fastest cars in NASCAR history. As we roll into Nashville the next week, it's another quiet weekend, if you will. Dad finishing sixth. Richard Petty would win again though, keeping himself alive in the points race. And then the teams are gonna go into Dover and Dad is gonna suffer another engine failure. Dale Earnhardt falling well off the pace, down to the inside of the racetrack. This is number four on the season. And this happens with 26 laps to go in the race. And that could be signal in the end for Dale Earnhardt. And to make matters worse, the King Richard Petty is going to finish second to Bobby Allison. Bobby Allison coming home victorious. Richard Petty will finish in second spot. It seems like Bobby Allison, Richard Petty, Kelly Arborough and Darrell Walter are able to capitalize on dad's bad days at the racetrack. And I know this probably is weighing on dad's mind as he leaves Dover. The final race of May is the world 600. It's a massive race because it's right here in our backyard. Our family all want to come and see what's going on and be a part of the weekend. So, you know, everyone in Kannapolis is bugging dad for tickets and trying to see if they can get out there to see dad perform. It's a great racetrack that I spent a ton of time at growing up. The Earnhardt family and its friends, the Uris and so forth, would always camp in the infield towards turn one. On part of the road course, there's a big, large hill that we would all get up on top of with our campers to be able to give ourselves the best point of view during the race. And me and all the other kids would race our toy cars down that hill. So a lot of pressure on dad, I think, as he's going into the Charlotte race. It's where he made his first start. All the families in town, but it's going to be a 600 weekend to forget. It's also going to have a major impact on dad's championship effort. The problems might have begun when the team elected to run the Meliella 300 sports race race on Saturday. Mechanic Larry Penn was supposed to work on this Sportsman car, and then Jake Elder, obviously is supposed to oversee it. Larry apparently never shows up. When Jake Elder asks where Penn was, Roland Valaka, the team manager, says he quit. But Jake says, larry Penn didn't quit. And he goes on to say, Roland lied. And I don't like anyone to lie to me. Jake says, I told Roland that I was going to try to win both races, then quit. After the checkered flag fell on Sunday. I had had it. Jake felt that working on this Sportsman car was a distraction from the cup program, which they desperately needed to get back on track. Jake was vocal with his frustrations, saying, there are too many good jobs around to have to pay put up with this frustration. I don't want to have a heart attack over this thing, but if I don't slow down, I'm going to be in the ground. You know, Jake was Jake. Jake gets mad. Jake throws stuff. That's Doug Richard. He would get something on his mind or just didn't like it, and he'd blow up. He went on to point out that the other major runners in the cup series, like Petty and Kale, they weren't running the Sportsman series race, and for good reason. Now, in the Saturday's Sportsman race, Dad's gonna qualify second and get swept up in an accident. Completing only 99 laps to finish 24th. So in Jake's eyes, he was right about that being a waste of time. Good afternoon, everyone. At Charlotte Motor Speedway. The cars are on the speedway, and just one more time around, they'll cut them loose for the start of the world 600 here this afternoon and what looks to be Mike Joy, the biggest crowd the speedway has ever enjoyed. Earnhardt really shining here at the Charlotte Motor Speedway this afternoon. And in the world 600. Dad's going to blow a tire on lap 276 and cause a major crash with Bobby Allison, David Pearson and Cale Yarborough trouble up in turn number four. It's Earnhardt and Allison as they spin and crash. Yarborough spinning. Pearson and Yarbrough both smash into Earnhardt. They run into the barrier right over the tunnel. Allison backs it right into the guardrail. At the entrance of pit road, four of the top cars have hit the wall and spun up in turn number four. Jake Elder has taken the crew over to the garage area. They had the car up on the jacks. They're using the cutting torches, cutting away sheet metal. I'd just like to mention that Earnhardt's crew, the Austrian crew, came up and down pit road and they were borrowing equipment. They borrowed a set of torches and tanks to cut away some of the sheet metal from the Junior Johnson crew that were going from crew to crew down to the Hoss Ellington crew borrowing, I think, a hammer or two or some pry bars. Now Benny Parsons and Darrell Waltrip would go on to have one of the most thrilling races for the finish in NASCAR history. This is absolutely my favorite finish in racing history in terms of swapping the lead and watching two cars sort of engage with each other. It was incredible. Back at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darrell Waltrip has been up, down and sideways all over. Benny Parts is looking for the lead. 13 laps to go. Trying to cross Benny up. It's Benny downstairs, Waltrip upstairs, side by side in turn number two. Now it's Waljip right alongside. It's an even Steven battle down the back straightaway. They are still side by side in turn three. Turn four. Here they come. There's absolutely dead even coming off the turn. We've been here six and a half hours, but nobody's complaining. Waltrip, though, just tagged Parsons a bit and got the car almost sideways coming off at turn four as he applied the bumper. Waltrip is right down on the apron. He is working up in the left rear quarter of Parsons. He's trying to move to the inside out of the corner, Benny Parsons leads Darrell Waltrip down to the start finish line and he will win the 21st annual World 600. Benny is going to come out ahead in the end and win the race. The bad news for dad, King Richard is gonna come home in fourth place. And the points lead is now cut to 45. It's the lowest it had been since Richmond earlier in the year. The next day, Jake Elder will pack his suitcase. He goes to the shop, hands in his keys and credit cards to Roland and he walks out. I don't feel like, I felt like there was tension about to the point of where he was gonna leave, right, because most people don't leave with success. Jake was old school. He played the kind of enforcer and you know, if he said, hey, you need to put this right front spring in there, that's what he wanted to do. This is Tim Brewer who served as co crew chief for kale Yarborough in 1980. At some point in time, I think Jake was just a little bit old school for the new regime. And you know, the young kids from California, they were, well, you know, well, you know, they can take care of this, they can do this and you know, they can still win. With Dale Earnhardt and Jake, he just, he didn't want to hear about it. The Oscheling crew are sorry to see Jake go. This guy's a legend, he knows his stuff, builds great race cars, makes them go fast. But the company, the team, they're optimistic that this is not going to disrupt their season. Dad's going to say I think the world of Jake and I highly respect him and I hate to see him go. A race car driver likes to feel stability in the team. He wanted people that he knew had his back. So anytime there's team changes like that, Dale was not happy, particularly if he had believed in that person and felt that person was essential to his success. Roland says that the problems had been brewing way back since the Bristol race in March. And he also says this is not a one man team. No one man quitting this team will make any difference. That's a strong opinion. Roland goes on to say, I like Jake, but he needs a break. Take six months off. He's worked awful hard. I can't say anything bad about him. This job got to be a little bit too much for him. The pressure was getting to him. We have a dynamic team. We're not backing off. It's full steam ahead. Roland is an SOB and very jealous of anybody that knows more than him, which is about everybody. That's engine builder Lou LaRosa. He come out of California and his profession was laying carpet, not racing. He come here and he found out he wasn't nothing and started hiring good people. Roland wouldn't make a pimple on Jake's ass. Unconfirmed reports to Stock Car Racing Magazine even had Jake being dismissed by Osterlin if Jake didn't quit. Jake, however, was far less kind, saying Roland could screw up a five car funeral. Roland is jealous because he knew if the car won, I'd get some credit. Dave Marcus told me I'd never be able to get along with him. And he was exactly right. And since Earnhardt got some money, you don't even know him. He's as cocky as they come. I wish I'd never gone there. They never appreciated a thing I did. Problems started back at Atlanta. No team is a one man team. I had three good people, but five who couldn't care if the car blew up. Every race, there are four things you must have to have a winning combination. You don't cut corners. You all pull together like a football team. If you get a good crew chief, you treat him like a human being. And if he doesn't do the job, you fire him. You don't mix alcohol and dope with business, not with somebody's life on the line. Man, Jake, he was an opinionated guy throughout the year. People have different temperaments. Once you figure them out, they're a whole lot easier to work with. Don't push their buttons. Don't do something intentionally just to make them mad. I think that's a big part of it. He was the backbone, so to speak. And when he came around Earnhardt, Earnhardt understood what Jake was telling him. And I mean, they made a tough combination. I found this part maybe to be the most fascinating point of the season. You know, Jake was very opinionated and didn't mind telling you exactly what he expected out of dad or what he thought. And he was critical, but seemed somewhat fair. But, man, when things got ugly, he got ugly. It was wild to see him making these public comments into the media. And Jake Elder and the crew have more concern about him kind of wearing himself and his equipment out and not having anything left for the last 50 or 60 miles of this race. Now, a week later, Jake's gonna walk back a lot of these harsh comments and even apologize to Rod Osterlin and Roland Vladka. Jake says, I called Rod Osterlin to apologize to him. I wanna apologize to Roland Vladka. Too. A lot of things I said were true, but a lot of them didn't come out the way I wanted. I'm man enough to eat those words, and I take back a lot of what I said. I was upset because a wheel broke, or we might have won the Sportsman race on Saturday and a tire exploded, or we might have won the World 600. The next week, Jake's gonna write a letter to the editor of the Grand National Scene. The Grand National Scene is kind of like the New York Times for nascar. And in that letter, it's gonna say the entire story was completely blown out of proportion. And that Gene Granger, who is the writer for the article in which Jake said all of those nasty things, owes Jake and Osterlin racing an apology. Jake denies calling dad cocky or mentioning anything about dope or alcohol and says his comments about Rod and Roland were twisted around. And then the next week, on June 19, Robert E. Griggs, the publisher of Grand National Scene, publishes an article defending his editor, Gene Granger. Griggs is going to write, jake Elder is a man whose character has been finely tuned by his experiences, both in his personal and professional life. His reputation is larger than life. The old cliche fits. The record speaks for the man. Nothing will serve as an excuse for Elder's letter last week in which in effect called Gene Granger a liar. The record of Jake Elder still speaks for the man. Shame on you, Jake. You're a better man than your actions showed. Man, that is just wild. So I'm going to go off script here for a second. You know, Jake, again, I get he's got a volatile personality and he leads with emotion all the time. We've heard it back when he and dad won at Bristol during Dad's rookie year. Jake's comments post race. He leads with emotion everywhere he goes, and a lot of times speaks on that emotion before he thinks about the repercussions from those comments. And when he was pissed off about how Osterlin or Roland Vladka were running the team and the decisions they were making, he just wants to up and quit. You know, I'll just quit. I'll just go do something else. That was his reaction to any type of situation that he was frustrated with. Thus the nickname Suitcase Jake. It was a fun nickname, but not entirely flattering towards Jake. No question he has an incredible record, and absolutely no question does he build fast race cars and win races. But, man, it just seems like back then it was just people just couldn't talk things out. We saw this with even the great David Pearson and the Wood brothers. Who knows what went on behind closed doors if this what was going on publicly? Who knows what was happening in the office when these all. When these guys got in there and got to cussing at each other. Just wild. But Jake's done. And this is a time of uncertainty for the Osterlin team. Who's gonna lead them? Who's going to replace Jake's experience? Now there's some rumors that the Osterlin team is trying to grab Travis Carter from Junior Johnson's championship operation. And without a seasoned veteran on top of the pit box, the NASCAR media have declared Dad's championship hopes to be over. We'll be back with more Becoming Earnhardt. Presented by Bass Pro Shop soon. But first, here's my sister Kelly with a little something about my family's long history with Johnny Morris. My earliest memory of meeting Johnny was around, you know, the time that he started sponsoring my dad's race car in 1998. We did the gold Bass pro car for the Winston, and I worked at Action Performance, which, you know, was the company that made all the die casts and T shirts and hats at the time. And so the Winston paint scheme was always a really big deal with my dad. You know, it started in 96, I think, with the silver car. That was a hit. And my relationship with Johnny really didn't start till later when we started having a relationship with him here at Junior Motorsports. I know that Johnny, you know, holds my dad in a really high regard. What is the story behind the man in Black? I mean, what drives Dale Arnold? Even most recently with this documentary, you know, Johnny called Dale and I and, you know, just told him what it meant to him to watch the documentary, not just about my dad, but about relationships with Del and I and relationships with other people. And, you know, Johnny is like family first faith and being outdoors. And so when you interact with him, it's very personal on a personal level. You know, he doesn't call to talk to you, really, about business or anything like that. And everything that he does has a very personal relationship connection to it. He just really holds my dad in a very high regard. I think that, you know, in the years that they were able to work together, they got to spend a lot of time together. And my dad was made up of those same things. You know, they had a lot in common in terms of the things that were important to them and what mattered to them. Johnny just is like a mentor. Interactions with Johnny are relational. He comes at it from a passion and from an enjoyment of things he does. So, you know, whether it's NASCAR or whether it's my son racing or whether we're talking about, you know, we, we go out to Big Cedar, to his place in Missouri or things like that, like everything is all the little details matter and how you're enjoying your time matters to Johnny. So, you know, he just, I tell him sometimes I just like to share things with him because it's almost like you're sharing it with your dad, so to speak, like he's a mentor and you look up to him and, you know, he's, he's just somebody that you're able to share, you know, some special time and special meanings because he makes you feel that way. The Earnhardt family has always relied on Bass Pro Shops for our outdoor adventures, and that tradition continues with me today. I grew up shopping there, and now it's a place I love sharing with my own family, gearing up together for everything from weekend getaways to fishing in the pond. I'm also incredibly grateful for the support Johnny Morris and the entire Bass Pro team have shown across our business ventures from the race team to Dirty My Media. They believe in what we're building and they've stood behind us every step of the way. They're not just great partners, they're great people. I also admire Bass Pro's unwavering commitment to those who serve our country. Their Legendary Salute program is one of the many ways they show Support, offering a 10% everyday discount to active duty military veterans and first responders. It's their way of saying thank you to the heroes who protect our freedom and way of life. To learn more and see full details, visit basspro.com legendary salute make Money moves easy with Cash App. It's fast, safe and all the tools are right there to help you cash in. Personalize your payments with custom text, stamps and backgrounds. Plus, if Cash App sees you might be sending money to potential scammer, they'll warn you before you hit send. I've used Cash App. It's real easy. Super easy to use when somebody needs to send you money or you need to pay somebody for a dinner tab or even any, you know, going out on the town for a night. Super easy to use. You know, with Cash App you can now customize text with stamps and backgrounds as well. So check out Cash App send your friends some money or have them send you some money for a limited time. Only new Cash App users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash for real. There's no Catch. Just download Cash App and sign up. Use our exclusive referral code Del Junior in your profile. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account. Terms apply. That's money. That's Cash App. There's nothing better than when it's sunny five and sunny out. You call up your friends to meet at your favorite restaurant. Even better if you can sit outside with a cold drink and good food. Now imagine not being able to enjoy this perfect day because of your own body odor. It's starting to get warm out, so the last thing you want to have happen is sweat. Nobody wants to have pit stains and now you're worried about lifting your arm so others see it. Dove Men plus Care Whole Body Deal helps keep your BO from ruining the good days. From pits to privates to feet, you can feel confident with 72 hour protection in all your odor zones. Dove Men Whole Body do goes on instantly dry with an aluminum free vitamin E infused formula for whole body freshness and care. Dove Men plus Care Whole Body Dio get everywhere Everywhere Care Even down there. Find it on Amazon or at Target today. This isn't the end of Jake Elder though. And soon after Dygard hires him to serve as Darrell Waltrip's crew chief. Now Darrell loved Jake Elder. It's just a deal where I know his abilities and I know what he can do for a racing team. I think Austerlin is a good indication. I think Jake built that team to the caliber it is right now. They had a great pass together, having worked together in the early to mid-70s. So once Jake was clear out of the Osterling garage, Darrell goes vocal to the gardeners who own die Guard Racing to make this hire. He's that kind of person. He's a hard worker. He wakes up at 2 o' clock in the morning thinking about a race car. He's called me in the past when he used to work for me at 2 or 3 o' clock in the morning. Said I gotta change that race car. I'm just not happy with it. That's the kind of person I like working on my car. He's thinking about it all the time. He's interested in it. I think it's going to be a beautiful combination. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season. You might recall that things aren't exactly peachy over at the Die Guard team, so a crew chief change was. Well in order to Buddy Parrott was already fired once during the off season, taking the blame for the 1979 championship collapse. But Darrell Waltrip convinced the Gardeners to rehire Buddy Parrott for 1980. So he's back on top of the pit box at the beginning of the season. But things didn't improve. And after the early engine failure in the Daytona 500, the first lap actually, when I took the green flag, it actually started missing. Darrell's quoted saying, all I can say is this team isn't any better than when I came here in 1975. Boy, that's a dig. That's four or five years. He said, they ain't any better in four or five years. Man, Darrell, he was rough. I know that. Darrell was very unhappy. That's Buddy Perrin, man. It was a job to me. My job was to prepare the car for the race and to try to, I mean, be up on that pit box and to make pit calls and win the race. That was my job. I wanted to go get a hat in Victor Lane, you know, maybe Darrell's not believing in me. All of a sudden I'm telling Darrell to please back off at a race. We had the field lapped and I'm begging him to back off. Oh, Buddy, this thing feels so good. Sure enough, boom. Hits the wall and takes us out of the race. Well, that was kind of the first of many problems we had. So after an engine failure and a 26th place finish at Michigan, Buddy Parrott gets fired again. And Jake Elder is now the die Guard crew chief. Well, that's the thoughts of Darrell Walthrip. And I asked Jake how he felt about being back with Darrell. Yeah, I feel more relaxed, you know, because I feel like I got a driver that's got the spirits and he comes in and tell me what the car is doing and then I go ahead and fix it, you know what I mean? And so right now I think everything's gonna be alright. Now. This did not solve Dye Guard's problems, however, they'd suffer another engine failure and a 31st place finish at the Firecracker 400. This is Jake's first race in charge. Jake Eller just threw up his hands. Told one of the other crew members he has blown up the first race I ever fell out of in my life. But I'm not upset about it or anything because I had the best car on the racetrack at Michigan in August, Darrell Waltrip would blow two engines in the two qualifying sessions and had to borrow a car from Joel Halpern to run the race. We blew two engines both times. We were trying to qualify and we had two engine failures and we didn't make the race. To this, Darrell Waltrip said that he was fed up with Dygard's team management and that he was no longer in spite of expired again expressing that he wants out of his contract. The situation continues to build and things come to a head at Charlotte in October. Darrell Waltrip is quoted as saying, if I don't get away from these gardeners, they're going to drag me down the tubes with them. Bill Gardner arrived at the track with Darrell Waltrips contract in hand, announcing that he was looking for someone to drive their car in 1981. But he insisted that he intends to keep Darrell under contract and he would put him in lesser equipment unless Daryl gets in line. That's wild. What in the world? Well, most of the drivers and mechanics and crew chiefs that are here for the national 500 this weekend have made the comment in the last couple of days how in the world can Darrell Waltrip came keep his mind on running a race here at Charlotte this afternoon. There's been such a tug of war between Waltrip and his two car owners, Jim and Bill Gardner. Bill Gardner's going to even do a interview on the broadcast pre race of the Charlotte race with Bruce Jenner, who is an Olympic athlete and also a amateur racer. Bruce had gotten a telegram sent from Bill Gardner inquiring about his interest in driving the 88 car for Dygard next year. A telegram also went to Johnny Rutherford and Paul Newman, among others. He has sent telegrams to world driving champion Alan Jones, Mario Andretti, Johnny Rutherford, Paul Newman, Bruce Jenner and California driver Joe Rutman. Now, I believe that this was a bit of a publicity stunt to sort of threaten Darrell Waltrip into getting in line. I had this contract, it was irrevocable and you couldn't put a value on it. When I would try to find out what do I got to do to get out of this contract. You can't get out of this contract. You are a rare commodity and there's no way to put a value on this contract. And so it took some finagling to finally get around to what it took to get out of that contract. The saga would be resolved though at Atlanta with a meeting being called and Darrell Waltrip saying, I'm a free man. I'm committed to running the final races for them, but after that I'm free. So it was $300,000 for me to get out of that contract. So we go to the, to the bank on Monday morning with, I had $300,000, which was, they're talking 1983. Hundred thousand dollars. A lot of money. So we go in, we sit down, we sign all the papers and we get ready to leave. Bill Guard said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you owe me 25 more thousand dollars. I said, for what? He said, are you in the bush clash? I said, yeah. He said, well, you'll probably win it and I want my half now. So I had to give him 25,000 more dollars. 325,000. So the dramatic saga of Darrell Waltrip and Dagard Racing seems to have an end point. And where Darrell goes from here we'll learn later in the story. All of this crew chief turmoil that we talked about with Jake Elder quitting the team really doesn't help dad all that much. At Texas in June, Cal Yarbrough is going to pick up another win and Richard Petty is going to finish second. Now dad was in contention at points in this race, but he suffered from some heating problems and had to settle for ninth. And it's going to cut his points lead down to just 18 points. Dad's going to bounce back with a quiet fifth place finish at Riverside following Darrell Waltrip and Kale Yarborough to the finish line. And at Michigan, Dad's going to lead at several points during the race, but he'd suffer mechanical problems and fall three laps down causing him to finish in 12th. He has the hood up on the car so he must have lost a cylinder or something badly wrong with that car. And he'd leave Michigan with only a 13 point point lead over King Richard Petty. At this point, Rod Osterlin is going to make a major gamble on the team's future. On June 17, he decides to promote 20 year old front tire changer Doug Richard up to the crew chief position. Leading is the Earnhardt crew headed by 20 year old Douglas Richard, a relative newcomer to the racing circuit. About the only thing anybody. Well, first of all nobody could figure out how to spell his name and then how to pronounce it. Who's this young kid from California that suddenly is Dale Earnhardt's crew chief? His personality was so opposite from Jake's. Roland Latka told Stock Car Racing Magazine. Doug's young but that doesn't mean he's in inexperienced. He was just a kid. If he'd have stood and learned from Jake, he'd have been a superstar too. He had the ability. I mean I learned a lot from Jake. You know, Jake was one of them guys that he had a lot of experience at a lot of other places, you know, prior to coming to us, so absorbing that kind of knowledge just by being around it. So there's 15 races left to go in the 1980 schedule and with the points lead at a razor thin margin, dad and the Osterlin team are going to need a major boost in performance to stay ahead of the King and Cale Yarborough to lock up this championship. Earnhardt takes a moment to look over the new situation and Cale Yarborough really put on a show here for the fans. Crew chief Jake Elder leaves dad and the Osterlin crew high and dry with a falling points lead and a room of broken engines. Jake Elder, Waltrip's Gatorade crew chief, is on the headset in communication with Darrell. Smoke from behind Earnhardt entering the turn. Earnhardt now takes the car into the middle groove. Hangs on tight with smoke billowing from behind. With half the season left left to go and no seasoned veteran to run the ship, Rod Osterlin makes a gutsy call to promote young Doug Richard to take over. Let's talk to 20 year old Doug Reichert who has done a beautiful job. Doug, congratulations. He's the crew chief on this car. Thank you, Ned. Doug, with just a handful of years of experience, will have to find a way to rally the Australand troops and help defend a 13 point lead with two of the greatest stock car racers in history. Charging in quickly, that's Earnhardt to the inside, heading to the outside. That's the way they work. Turn number three. It is side by side, but Waltrip takes the lead. Earnhardt tries to follow him, but Cale shuts the door on Dale Earnhardt. Becoming Earnhardt is a Dirty MO Media original podcast series. It is written and produced by me, Dalen Hart Jr. With Bobby Marcos and Colby Bass. Sound design by Alex Timms Production assistants Tiff Powers, Mike Davis, Micah Caldwell and Evan Vecchia. This project is in partnership with mrn, the Motor Racing Network and the Appalachian State University Stock Car Collection. Specific Special thanks to SiriusXM SilverTribe Media, NASCAR man and Bob Ellis. For additional Dirty Mo Media content, visit our YouTube page and follow us on all major social media platforms. Thank you to Johnny Morris and Bass Pro Shops for bringing us another episode of Becoming Earnhardt. They are such a great friend and supporter of everything we do. So remember to gear up for all your adventures at Bass Pro Shops, North America's premier outdoor and conservation company. Calling all daydreamers and date nighters, come immerse yourself in the rich culture of Texas and dig into our mouth watering barbecue trailblazers can explore our natural wonders. And beach lovers will wonder why they've never felt so relaxed before. You're invited to discover experiences you you can only find in Texas. Visit traveltexas.com and plan your trip today. 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