Becoming Earnhardt Vol. 9 - The Dust Settles On 1979

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dale Jr. Download

Becoming Earnhardt Vol. 9 - The Dust Settles On 1979

Air Date: December 20, 2025
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Guests: Kathy (Aunt), Kay (Aunt), Doug Reichert (crew member, 1979)

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Overview

This episode serves as a roundtable and reflective wrap-up for the "Becoming Earnhardt" series covering Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s transformative 1979 rookie season in NASCAR. Dale Earnhardt Jr. invites his aunts, Kathy and Kay—key contributors to the family scrapbooks that inspired the series—and original crew member Doug Reichert. Together, they reminisce about the pivotal people, moments, and behind-the-scenes experiences that defined Earnhardt's first year and set the tone for his legendary career.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Origins and Value of the Earnhardt Scrapbooks

• Purpose: Kathy and Kay created detailed scrapbooks chronicling Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s debut year, collecting clippings, credentials, and memorabilia each week.
• Motivation: "We knew it was a big thing, hoping this was going to be his start to something wonderful. It just seemed like the right thing to do to document it and remember it." – Kathy (Aunt) [03:46]
• The scrapbooks provided not just statistics but the emotional "temperature" of the season, with quotes and articles, offering an irreplaceable, first-person perspective of the team's journey.

Family Pride, Sacrifice, and Perspective

• The aunts discuss the sacrifices and family spirit that buoyed Dale Sr. through the tough years leading up to 1979.
• "We watched him sacrifice an awful lot in the Sportsman series and dirt tracking and following in Daddy's footsteps and giving up so much that when he finally got this break…" – Kay (Aunt) [04:00]

Team Dynamics and Jake Elder's Influence

• Doug Reichert describes joining the team at 18, absorbing knowledge from veteran crew chief Jake "Suitcase" Elder and earning respect through action.
• "You have to earn your respect from the elders… I was learning from Jake. He's the one with all the experience." – Doug Reichert [08:20]
• The unique relationship between Jake and Dale Sr.—Jake insisting on control, referring to Earnhardt as "the boy," and being frustrated when his advice was ignored.
  • "Jake liked to be able to remote control the driver… all the other drivers, like Cale and Benny, they all knew when to go and not go. None of them went out there and just ran hard as they could like dad tended to do." – Dale Jr. [12:59]
  • Memorable story: Jake’s quip to Dale Sr. complaining of a tight car—“I can do a lot of things, but I can’t stop the wind from blowing at turn four. That’s why your car won’t turn.” – Jake via Doug Reichert [14:18]

The 1979 Bristol Win: Memories and Traditions

• Family recollections of Dad’s first Grand National win at Bristol—where Kay attended, Kathy listened from home, and family celebrations commenced at home and the local shop.
• The champagne celebration with "those cups" at Ralph’s old shop, marked by laughter and family pride.
  • "He has this bottle of champagne. He says he's gonna crack the bottle open when he wins his first race." – Dale Jr. [24:23]
• The go-kart tales: a cherished, rugged family relic tied to those victory celebrations.

The Logistics and Grit of Small Teams

• The "Bozo bus"—the team's yellow/blue van used for cross-country travel, reflecting how grassroots NASCAR teams operated before the private jet era.
• "Everything else, you were in the car. Yeah, van." – Doug Reichert [22:24]

Health, Injury, and Grit: The 1979 Pocono Crash

• Deep dive into Earnhardt’s injuries: more than collarbones—a broken jaw, concussion, hospital stays, and IV feedings acknowledged through research and family memory.
• Family’s struggle for information due to era's limited communication.
• Use of relief drivers (Lenny Pond, Bill Elliott): a behind-the-scenes glimpse at 70s/80s racing culture.
  • "One of my favorite things to talk about... is the relief driver situation. Back in the 70s and 80s, pretty much every damn week, somebody got some relief." – Dale Jr. [55:05]

The Rookie of the Year Battle and the ’79 Rookie Class

• The significance of Rookie of the Year for Earnhardt and the team—carefully managed eligibility, constant weekly tracking of contenders like Joe Millikan and Terry Labonte.
• "The only reason we ran only five races in 78 was so he was still eligible for Rookie of the Year in 79." – Doug Reichert [32:52]
• The class’s legacy: future stars Terry Labonte and Harry Gant, and why Rookie of the Year really mattered in the late 1970s culture.

Reflecting on Earnhardt's Rookie “Flaws” and Growth

• Dale Jr. highlights how Earnhardt Sr. made frequent rookie mistakes—overdriving, accidents (like the infamous Martinsville incident)—but learned quickly and seldom repeated them.
  • “In 1979, dude was flawed. He made mistakes…stuff he wouldn’t do five or ten years later down the road.” – Dale Jr. [37:14]
  • Even legends need room to grow and stumble; the family recalled his resilience and self-belief despite setbacks.

Personal Artifacts: Preserving Memories

• Dale Jr. redid the original 1979 scrapbook for posterity: “I meticulously reconstructed it into a new book. Just so, you know… I wanted it to last another 40 years.” [29:53]
• Doug presents original, unopened “Rookie of the Year” shirts, underscoring the enduring connection and pride from that era.
  • “This shirt is kind of the holy grail of vintage racing shirts in NASCAR.” – Dale Jr. [59:57]

Family, Community, and Relationships

• Stories about bringing the win trophy to daycare, Earnhardt’s first public appearances, and inviting crew/family for true off-track bonding.
• The importance of community—Rod Osterlund’s visit to the family home, Roland’s management, and remembering absent voices (Pearson, Marcus, J.D. Stacy) in the wider saga.

The Passing of the Torch & Looking Ahead

• Dale Jr. frames 1979 as the end of the Petty-Pearson rivalry, and the birth of the Earnhardt–Waltrip era (“Looks like I'm gonna have to be racing this Earnhardt guy for the rest of my career.” – Darrell Waltrip, paraphrased [64:59]).
• Hints at future episodes: anticipation for a deeper look at Suitcase Jake Elder, more family stories, the dramatic splits and showdowns of 1980—a year with more wins, bigger cars, and another Earnhardt title run.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• "I learned so much just by listening. I mean, back then I was the kid, I just kid that left California with a beanbag and a suitcase." – Doug Reichert [07:01]
• “Jake…he’d go over and pick a spring, and he’d squat on it. He’d put that spring between his legs and kneel down and go, 'Yep, this is the one.' … Oh, yeah, that was me. I was the doer.” – Doug Reichert [12:15]
• “If we win, I’ll quit [smoking]. And right there in the middle of victory lane, you tore up your cigarettes and you never smoke since." – Dale Jr. [18:14]
• "I have one specific collection of all 1979/80 [photos]...for the longest time, I couldn't tell you which one was which. Now after doing this, I can." – Dale Jr. [34:47]
• “Dale was always bigger than life, even when, you know, he never thought he would fail.” – Kay (Aunt) [40:37]
• “...as soon as they crack the door, he's leaving. Which says a lot about the injuries, because he was there as long as he was right.” – Dale Jr. [54:40]
• “We are the seniors in the family, so we're depending on you to be the person that keeps the stories going…so that scrapbook is there for a reason.” – Kay (Aunt) [58:48]

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Memorable Segments & Timestamps

• [02:38–04:49] – Creating the iconic Earnhardt scrapbooks
• [08:20–14:18] – Crew dynamics and learning from Jake Elder
• [17:14–20:27] – The Bristol win and family celebration traditions
• [23:12–24:39] – The champagne toast at the old shop
• [29:53–32:51] – The reconstruction of the 1979 scrapbook and Rookie of the Year context
• [35:44–39:01] – Mistakes, learning, and resilience in Earnhardt’s rookie year
• [41:24–44:05] – Family time, Earnhardt's first home, and Osterlund's visit
• [48:01–57:17] – The Pocono crash: injuries, recovery, and 1970s relief driver culture
• [59:24–61:24] – Original team shirts and the passage of artifacts
• [62:13–64:58] – Reflections on shifting eras: Petty/Pearson to Earnhardt/Waltrip
• [64:58–end] – Hints to future content and untold stories (J.D. Stacy’s exploits, Cale on Dukes of Hazzard, Pearson’s relief drives, etc.)

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Tone and Atmosphere

The episode is steeped in warmth, nostalgia, and humility, blending Earnhardt Jr.'s insightful curiosity, the family’s heartfelt reminiscences, and Reichert’s crew-level technical detail. The conversation jumps fluidly between laughter, amazement at “forgotten” artifacts, and a genuine sense of legacy—never shying from the tough moments (injury, mistake, and fear), but always emphasizing growth, togetherness, and the making of a champion.

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Takeaways

• The Journey Matters: Championships may headline history, but it’s the detailed, lived-in moments—the infield tailgates, the secret scrapbooks, the post-race karts and trophies—that truly craft a legend.
• Rooted in Family: The Earnhardt legacy is as much about family as racing, with each relative’s contribution integral to NASCAR lore.
• Preservation & Perspective: Artifacts like shirts and scrapbooks are living testaments; telling and retelling these stories keeps their spirit—and their lessons—alive for future generations.

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Looking Forward:
Dale Jr. promises even deeper dives with the 1980 scrapbook, foreshadowing major storylines, evolving relationships, and more family/crew insight as the journey “Becoming Earnhardt” continues.

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Transcript

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Dale Jr.]

Every toughness, growth, sacrifices life to focus. This is where I think deep. Everything you got all damn day. The attention to detail is like none other. Be physical. Keep playing. We are the winners. Tulane takes on Ole Miss followed by James Madison in Oregon. It's time to bring it first round coverage of the college football playoffs presented by allstate today at 3:30 Eastern on TNT and HBO.

[Announcer]

Max, are you ready?

[Dale Jr.]

Let's get em. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. The sensational driver from Kannapolis, North Carolina, Dale Earnhardt in the Osterlin Racing Oldsmobile. Earnhardt continues to show the weight. You can't say enough about this young driver. He made the veterans sit up and take notice of his driving style. Alright, so welcome to episode nine of Becoming Earnhardt presented to you by Chevrolet. The first eight episodes of Becoming Earnhardt encompass the season. And this is a round table. And I have some guests with me today. My aunt Kathy is here and my aunt Kay, who actually helped make the scrapbook. How you doing?

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I'm doing good.

[Dale Jr.]

And y' all have been featured in the show. You've done some, does some extra work for us to help sort of promote the series, but we'll talk about that. And also with us is Crew member in 1979, Doug Reichert.

[Doug Reichert]

Very good. Thanks, Dale.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes, sir. Thanks for being here. I'm thankful that y' all are here and I kind of have a lot of questions, but basically when we started out the series, we explained how I get these, these two scrapbooks and you made these. And back when the moment was happening. Right. Going through the turning season, you make the scrapbooks and they were, they just literally just laid around the house for. Under my bed for 40 years or whatever.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

For, for years, yes.

[Dale Jr.]

When you made them, do you remember making them? Do you remember those?

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Yes, I do. I mean about blue and yellow because that's the car Dale was driving at the time, the Wrangler car. And each week, you know, articles would be in the paper or either somebody would give me an article, I'd cut them out and I did not wait. I went ahead and placed them where they go. Yeah. So Anytime I had anything, I put it in the scrapbook.

[Dale Jr.]

Do you remember this, Kathy?

[Kay (Aunt)]

Well, credentials, anything we had extra, we gave them to Kay.

[Dale Jr.]

Gotcha. Because they're in there, too.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Yep, yep. She kept all credentials tickets.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I kept my own credentials and tickets, too. I mean, for the first year or two that we went to the race, we always got passes and we all kept everything.

[Kay (Aunt)]

But mine's in a tote somewhere. They're not in a scrapbook, you know, they're still up in a tote up in the attic or.

[Dale Jr.]

So this is Dad's very first year full time. Why did you want to make the book?

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Because we knew it was a big thing, hoping, you know, this was going to be his start to something wonderful. And it just seemed like the right thing to do to document it and remember it.

[Kay (Aunt)]

So, you know, you got to realize that we watched him sacrifice an awful lot in the Sportsman series and dirt tracking and following in Daddy's footsteps and giving up so much that when he finally got this break, I mean, I don't. I can't speak for Kay. She's the one that made this awesome scrapbooks, but I know how we all felt as a family just watching him sacrifice and try so hard, you know, try so hard to be something and make something of himself.

[Dale Jr.]

So the. The great thing about the scrapbooks is really when you open it up and you start going through them, it's perfectly in order. Like, you know, you did it just like you said, as the articles came out, they went in the book. And so that it's a good thing.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I did it that way, or they would not have been.

[Dale Jr.]

They would have been all over the place.

[Kay (Aunt)]

It's a history book.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And that made it easy for me really, to come. I'd been talking to Mike for a couple years about doing a show around a story. And so I had this article around the boycott of the Talladega race that happened in or whenever that was. And I wanted to do a podcast around that story, you know, and really tell it in detail. But this was a better idea, right. Obviously, put right down in my lap that, you know, had this scrapbook and I know about. I can look in, you know, a website or I can look in a magazine and find the finishing order and find the statistics and. But the scrap. The scrapbook had the quotes right from the articles. It had Dad's own words, it had other drivers, and it really gave you the temperature of the moment and how funny it was how, like, at the start of the season, Dad's Very. I just want these guys to respect me. I'm just trying to earn their respect. I'm just trying, you know, they seem to be okay with me racing up there front. They seem, you know, he's worried about the veterans, right. Getting annoyed by him or whatever.

[Kay (Aunt)]

You can hear his voice, can't you?

[Dale Jr.]

You can. And then at the end of the year, he's like, we're going to win a championship. You know, he totally changed. He flipped from. He was now a veteran in like a matter of like by the end of the year, nine months, he's like, oh, yeah, I got this. You know, we're here to kick some ass. Doug, when you're. I know you. I mean, how often do you really get a chance to, to think about those times? How often do you allow yourself to go back and, and really with the new. NASCAR's got that new NASCAR Classics out so you can go watch these races. You know, they're interested a lot. Right. All of this stuff's right at your fingertips. How often do you ever dive in?

[Doug Reichert]

And I know on a few of these shows it's like, you know, we always talk about, we're talking about in the lobby, like somebody will say something and it just triggers.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

You know, and it's like, oh, God, yeah. Let me tell you about that. You know, what happened? And you know, just. I learned so much just by listening. I mean, back then I was the kid, I just kid that left California with a beanbag and a suitcase.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

And I came this way and I was like, we're going racing. I didn't know what racing was going to be. It's like elevate. What do I supposed to do? I just did it. Yeah, right. And we all did it and learned together. That's what was kind of cool.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm fascinated by how you were 20 years old and maybe even younger than that during the 79 year. I don't know exactly how old you were in February when they started.

[Doug Reichert]

19.

[Dale Jr.]

Okay, so you're 19 years old. The team has some veteran members on it, older crew guys that have probably been in the series or the sport. They weren't all 19 year olds from California. Jake Elder, you know this, you know, been in NASCAR forever. He knew all the, you know, he'd been in every ditch there was. Right. To, to get through the sport. How were you able to establish yourself in such a way at such a young age to be depended on? Right. How are you? How did you acquire the respect and the, the camaraderie with the other guys in the team that allowed you to eventually, in the 1980 season, get the crew chief opportunity. So, I mean, it doesn't make sense. Like the numbers don't make sense. So how did it happen?

[Doug Reichert]

I mean, I did leave awful early and actually going back and looking or thinking about 79th season birthday was in June. So at the start of the season, I was only 18. Oh, so that'll knock that down a notch. But it's like anything and throughout my career, you have to earn your respect from the elders. In my case, I was the sponge. I was learning from Jake. He's the one with all the experience. We started, first race was out in Ontario. We showed up, we didn't know what we were doing. But how do you learn? You do it. And that's all I did. I worked alongside of Jake and we were hand in hand, the good and the bad, you know, the temperament. He had his temperament. So do I. But I tried to be. I'm probably more of an outgoing guy than Jake was. I was probably happy, go lucky. And he was serious. He was. That was racing. That was his life. But I learned a lot and I.

[Dale Jr.]

Just took it all in early in the scrapbook, I'm reading an article right out of Atlanta. Atlanta is the first race with Jake. It's like the fourth race of the year. Whatever. Jake has a quote during the post race, right? So had this good run. And I was trying to figure out a way to talk about his temperament. Talk about. It's their fifth race of the year. And so I was trying to have a way to discuss Jake and share with people what he was about. And he had these. During the race or after the race, he goes. He kept calling dad, the boy. They're asking him about, you know, they're asking Jake about Dad and he's like, well, the boy listens to me. I stick with, you know, the boy. The boy's got talent. The boy listens to what I tell him. The boy. And he never would call dad by his name. And so we will one day, you know, when we do the next episode reveal, when we do the next series in 1980, we're going to reveal really how they felt. You know, Jake falls apart. We'll easily get into his temperament during that conversation. But before then, in 79, you know, he does come in and he's like, you know, he's, he's, he's like, I've seen it and done it. Just do what I tell you and we'll be fine.

[Doug Reichert]

Right, Exactly.

[Dale Jr.]

And He. But he seemed like, you know, there's these moments during this, during the season where, like, Dad's racing at Charlotte for the 600, and he's like, well, I'm telling him to slow down. He's talking to the media. He's talking to Ned Jared on pit road, and he's like, Dale's overdrive in the car. He's running the car too hard. Well, tell him slow down. I tried to tell him to slow down. He don't.

[Doug Reichert]

He, you know, wasn't in his blood.

[Dale Jr.]

They were. There was this weird thing where I felt like Jake would. Jake wanted things just to prove He. Just to prove and show that he had the control. Is that really kind of how it was? Because, like, you know, he would, you know, if. If he said, hey, Dale, I think if you slow down, you know, we'll save a little race car for the end of the race. And plus these, you know, the new payment in three and four guys are having some problems. You know, they could have had a conversation or whatever, but he would get frustrated when dad wouldn't just do what he said without context. Right. Slow down.

[Doug Reichert]

Why?

[Dale Jr.]

Right. And then when he didn't do it, Jake would get frustrated and, like, because he every. He was just used to everybody listening to every word he said to do. Right. Was that kind of. Was that kind of true? Was Jake. Was Jake that. You know, was that the way the relationship was with dad and Jake?

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah, because he. He's the one that had all the experience.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

You know, and it's. It's hard to beat experience. That's why we do it so long. The better we go that we have something for the next team. Yeah, well, he had something for us. We needed that. I didn't know other guys on the team that came, you know, Dave and Jeff Prescott and those guys that came out with us, we didn't know what we needed. He did. He's been there. Like when he told us to pick a spring, right. He'd go over and pick a spring, and he'd squat on it. He'd put that spring between his legs and kneel down and go, yep, this is the one. Didn't matter what it was. You don't. Don't matter what it is. This is the one. Put it in the car. Oh, yeah, that was me. I was the doer.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. So when dad didn't listen, which he didn't listen at times on. Especially on the racetrack, Jake liked to be able to, you know, remote control the driver. All right, time to push I don't push right now. Okay. Back it down a little bit. And all the other drivers, like Kale and Benny, and they all knew when to go and not go. You know, none of them went out there and just ran hard as the. Hard as they could like dad tended to do. Did you see Jake get frustrated at times with dad? Oh, yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

Staying standing there with him, of course. You know, even though he might not say something on the radio, but we could see his. We can see the action. He might not have heard it.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. But. Yeah, and so did they. Did Jake and him have conversations at the end of these races about it?

[Doug Reichert]

Sometimes. Sometimes they'd have it during the race. I have to bring this up because it's a beautiful quote, and I think was at Charlotte, and Dale kept saying, car's pushing. The car's pushing. I can't get off of four. The car's too tight. Too tight. He said, dale, listen to me. Is. I can do a lot of things, but I can't stop the wind from blowing at turn four. That's why your car won't turn.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

He knew it.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

And it was just to hear stuff like that, you know, it's like, okay, I got it. Drive through it.

[Dale Jr.]

Right. I. I think, you know, Jake was great for the team, you guys. That was, like, the only part of the whole team that was really missing was like, that crew chief Roland was doing some of that stuff at the start of the year. I suppose we talk about in. We talk about Dave Marcus quitting because of the. You know, the team going to two cars and how that was kind of taboo back then. Drivers didn't like the idea of having a teammate. And then Dewey Lavengood was fired, which I guess pissed off Dave Marcus a little bit, too.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

But while all that's happening, Dave buys a couple cars from Osterlin to race the 79 season. So the cars. I mean, even though there was a fallout and disagreement, still, like them. Still liked him enough to buy and sell some cars back and forth and wheel and deal. Hey, call. I guess Dave had to call him up and go, man, you don't sell a car, too.

[Doug Reichert]

Dave just really didn't realize that that was the model. Yeah. Up and coming.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Right.

[Doug Reichert]

Why didn't you want to learn from someone else? You know, it's just. They all say, you don't want to be on an island by yourself.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

Having a teammate to. To roll stuff off that runs the same car. Why wouldn't you? That's what we do now.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. One of the frustrating things about this whole series was when we get to. When we get to the Bristol race. So there's a lot of information that we learned that existed and a lot of audio of all these races. And so, you know, we know MRN today, right? And we think MRN did everything forever. But there were other. There was another publication or there was another entity or property. It was. What was it called? The UR or something. There was another group that was broadcasting a lot of the races in the southeast. And all of that. All of that material is now at app State in the archives. And so we were able to get a hold of a lot of these races in the 79 season that were on, you know, the broadcast radio rights to it. And so unfortunately, there's not a. There's not a lot of video of the Bristol wind. There's this. The very short, like sort of five minute reel of dad going around crossing the finish line a couple laps at the end of the race. And in one little clip of that, dad ramps up the wall. And I'm thinking, I want to think that this is like in the last handful of laps when he's trying to run away from Daryl.

[Doug Reichert]

Do you remember where he climbed the wall? Some coming out. It was out of four. I do remember that. Now you triggered something.

[Dale Jr.]

I triggered it, Right. Was that late in the race?

[Doug Reichert]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Damn near wreck. Damn near took a step out, right?

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah, but that's. See, that's what Jake had always envisioned, man. Boy, don't run so hard. Right, Right. You're leading. Savor it. Well, no, that's. That. That wasn't Dale's model.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

You know that wasn't in his DNA.

[Dale Jr.]

No. Yeah. I was watching that clip and I'm like, damn, it looks like he climbs the wall right there. That's so wild. And then those cars were tough enough to handle that.

[Doug Reichert]

Oh, gosh, they were tanks.

[Dale Jr.]

Right? So you talk a great story that came out of the show is you tearing up your cigarettes and not smoking anymore. You're 19, 18, 19 years old smoking cigarettes like any kid was at that time. And Winston's told your boy, you told the crew, you said, if we win, I'll quit. And right there in the middle of victory lane, you tore up your cigarettes and you never smoke since.

[Doug Reichert]

And to this day, yeah, from that day and that time, I have not had a cigarette, period.

[Dale Jr.]

Another thing that I thought was interesting is right in victory lane is where the car got teched. Like there's pictures of the roof, the hood up the Car, the engine getting gone through. They didn't even pull it out of Victory Lane. They just put it up on four stands. You just brought your stuff, did the tech right there. Victory Lane? Yep. That's hilarious. Where were y' all at when dad wins Bristol?

[Kay (Aunt)]

I was in Nanville.

[Dale Jr.]

You were there.

[Kay (Aunt)]

I was there.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I was not.

[Dale Jr.]

So there's some pictures that I have with you and Danny, and it's from that race. So you were there. You were not. Where were you at?

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I was at home.

[Dale Jr.]

Did you want to be there?

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Well, of course.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, you certainly didn't know Dad's gonna win. No. Yeah.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I had a husband and kids, and things just prevented me going.

[Dale Jr.]

So how do you learn that dad wins the race? You listen.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Well, I was trying to. Well, if. If it was on the radio, I was listening. If it was on T. I was trying to remember how many races. So, yes, definitely. Probably 103.7.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Okay.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so you're there.

[Kay (Aunt)]

I was there. I had Shelly and Stacy with me.

[Dale Jr.]

And you had the girls.

[Kay (Aunt)]

We tailgated and Kelly and y' all were there.

[Dale Jr.]

I was not there.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Y' all were in the infield in 1979. No.

[Dale Jr.]

No.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Yeah. All the kids. It seemed like all y' all were there.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. No, I wasn't. I would. I mean, there's no photos of me there, and I don't remember being there.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Well, I just know that there was a bunch of kids, and we were all in charge of the kids in the infield. Mom was there, and we had pictures. We made pictures with Darrell Waltrip and Tim Richmond, and we had food out.

[Dale Jr.]

Where are all these photos?

[Kay (Aunt)]

At my house. Kelly's probably got a copy of him somewhere.

[Dale Jr.]

Damn.

[Kay (Aunt)]

I'll pull them out and get them to you. But, yeah, Mother got to go to Victory Lane. Dale didn't let us come up to Victory Lane until after the tech and all that was over. Then we got to give him a kiss and a hug. But, yeah, it was. You know, it was just a dream come true. It was just so awesome to see him up there and just want a heart. Heart was so full for him.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Do you remember one of the pictures that's in his album, our shared album of his trophy? And I'm standing beside of him with curly hair. He brought the trophy to the daycare and showed it to all the kids. And there's another picture with all the kids around him, but he brought it up there to show us the trophy.

[Dale Jr.]

In Kannapolis.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

In Kannapolis.

[Dale Jr.]

You were working at the daycare and that I was a guy, I went to that daycare. And so he brings the trophy to the daycare.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

He brought it to the daycare.

[Dale Jr.]

There was another thing that he did later in the year was like at the Jackson School. What's the school around there?

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Jackson Park.

[Dale Jr.]

Jackson Park. He went to Jackson Park. There was like a Dale Earnhardt day at the second Charlotte race in October. And he was doing. Doing appearances was like a brand new thing for him. Imagine doing anything, you know, where he's being kind of recognized. Had to been like a complete 180 from where he was just 12 months ago. Before that. Right.

[Kay (Aunt)]

He did an autograph session in downtown at a dealership that year as well. And he had, you know, had quite a line. But it wasn't anything like later.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Kay (Aunt)]

As he got more popular.

[Doug Reichert]

But he didn't get a chance to go to Disneyland or anything like that after his win.

[Dale Jr.]

No. So do you remember what y' all did? I guess you drove home. Drove on home there in the articles, it says that him and Jake were in the car together on the way home, just laughing like kids.

[Doug Reichert]

Could have been.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

I think then. I think we actually called it the Bozo bus. Oh, it was the van that we all rode. It was yellow. Yellow and blue and all that. Yeah, that's what we wrote in. Yeah, that was our bus.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Driving to every race.

[Doug Reichert]

Oh, yeah. That was before we unheard of airplanes, private planes. Right.

[Dale Jr.]

You might have flew to Ontario otherwise.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah, those.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

But everything else, you were in the car. Yeah, Van.

[Dale Jr.]

I know it happened because the cars got there, but it always kind of surprised me that the teams could get to Riverside and Ontario and go out there and race like hell and get everything done and get back home. And it just seems like as the smart was, the sport was so small back then. I don't know how they. How they traveled all over the country like that commercial.

[Doug Reichert]

But as far as the cars go, even then we had to have other cars. Right. We had. Couldn't go out with one car, so we had spare.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

You know, at the time we were building our own stuff and, you know, I think we were kind of ahead of the time and that era too. And so we had bears. We had them ready, had to come back, turn the trucks around just like you do now.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Oh, and Dale to get back to Bristol and the celebration that we had in Kannapolis in the shop.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Think in the previous one of the previous episodes we talked about Dale and Mike bought a. Got a bottle of champagne. He Kept in the refrigerator at the shop. And we all gathered there, and I brought you cups.

[Dale Jr.]

Those are the cups.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Those are the cups that Connie put in her china cabinet. So I guess they're 50 years old or right there at it. And wanted to give those to you.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. There's a picture with dad sitting there on the go kart with the cup. One of them cups next to him.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

So let me ask you about that. Were you there? All right. So I got the pictures. Have seen those pictures all my life. Really didn't know zero context about them until, you know, get a little bit older. And then obviously doing this little series, they. They definitely come into focus and what was happening. But. So he has this bottle of champagne. He says he's gonna crack the bottle open when he wins his first race. Does he? You know, Is this the night after the race? When is this?

[Kay (Aunt)]

It was. It was a few weeks.

[Dale Jr.]

Few weeks later.

[Kay (Aunt)]

It wasn't the night after. It was only a few days. It was at least a week or so. It wasn't the night. It wasn't that week.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I don't remember it being that far out.

[Kay (Aunt)]

It wasn't that far out, but it wasn't that week because he was really busy.

[Dale Jr.]

Did he call y' all and say, hey, everybody.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

We all knew he was coming, so we come to the shop. All five of us were there.

[Kay (Aunt)]

He said, who else was there? Well, it was me and Mike, and.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

All five of us were there. I know the five brothers and sisters.

[Kay (Aunt)]

I don't think Terry, Randy's wife, came. I know that. Sherry, Danny's wife, came.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I don't think my husband was there either.

[Dale Jr.]

And Mama. I seen Teresa in the picture.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Teresa was there. Mama, mother, and Connie Goodman and her husband, of course. Connie's the one that made the pictures. He actually said, call Connie and ask her to come make pictures. And I did.

[Dale Jr.]

And so this is Ralph's shop. Shop dad been racing out of next to Mamaw's house and. And running his little sportsman car. And so it looks dark. It looks late.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Yep. It was at night time.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep. Y' all eat?

[Kay (Aunt)]

Nope.

[Dale Jr.]

Nope. He just walked in. Y' all cracked the bottles.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Well, we. He.

[Dale Jr.]

We all had the trophy out there. Yeah.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I swear. I really think it was, like the next night or something.

[Dale Jr.]

There was a pick. There was a pool table.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

It was not weeks out. I don't think that.

[Kay (Aunt)]

That it wasn't weeks, but it won't believe it was that night. I mean, the race was Sunday, so it may have been Tuesday.

[Dale Jr.]

I think that night either way.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I mean, it doesn't matter but anyway.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Connie said she wish she dated the cups and had him sound. It would have been cool, but.

[Dale Jr.]

So there's a pool table sitting there. I don't remember a pool table being in this.

[Kay (Aunt)]

It's always been.

[Dale Jr.]

It was always been there.

[Kay (Aunt)]

And that refrigerator was dad's refrigerator that sundrops were kept in long as I remember.

[Dale Jr.]

And so y' all drink the champagne. Then what?

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I think we just hung out a while and then went home.

[Kay (Aunt)]

He got on that go kart and laughed about. About daddy building it and riding on it and how Danny got on it and went up in the hedges when he rode at that time because there was a little track out there on the side lot beside the house and Danny couldn't get it to stop and ended up in the hedges. But yeah, just goofed around.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, that's the same go kart that Kelly and I got on when we were little. That thing, I wonder where it's at today. It's somewhere.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

I have no idea.

[Dale Jr.]

It's got to be somewhere.

[Doug Reichert]

Did you end up in the hedges?

[Dale Jr.]

I ended up driving up a guide wire on a telephone pole. But yeah, they said. They said to mash it wide open and I'm. Yeah, I mashed it wide open and speedway and it just was going. Wherever it was going is out of control.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

We need to investigate that, find out where it is.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, yeah, it's hiding somewhere. I mean not nowhere. I don't think it's anywhere where we're going to find it. But that thing was built like a tank. There's no way. It's not really.

[Kay (Aunt)]

He may know where.

[Dale Jr.]

There's no way. The frame's not still laying somewhere because there's no. There's. It would have been impossible to cut it.

[Doug Reichert]

You can't rust through that.

[Dale Jr.]

No.

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[Dale Jr.]

Podcast. Indeed.comdalejr Terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the right way with Indeed. So the scrapbooks, the 79 scrapbook I redid, the book itself was coming apart and the pages were bad, but I meticulously reconstructed it into a new book. Just so, you.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Know.

[Dale Jr.]

Good. Yeah. The 1981 is still in the original.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Book.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Right now. But, yeah, I wanted it to last another 40 years. One of the characters that's kind of prominent in this whole thing is Joe Milliken. And so I've watched a lot of old races and I remember, you know, in my mind, Joe Milliken, you know, raced. He would. He worked for the Petties and the Petties let him take a Dodge to Daytona and he'd go run the Daytona ARCA race or the Daytona sportsman race in the 70s and do well. You know, outside of that, I didn't really know much about the guy. I knew everything about his cup career. Right. But before that, just the only thing I knew was those races he ran. Reading and learning about this, you know, in this document, I realized that he raced short tracks at Caraway and had a lot of little local short track background. More of a foundation in driving and racing than I expected or knew. He gets the opportunity to race the dewitt car. My perception of that team is it's not a really strong team. A lot of people have left that team in after 78, when Benny left to go with MC Anderson, the team got. Didn't get better. Right. They lost engine builder and a crew chief and a driver, and so. And the owner, L.G. deWitt, is sort of now, you know, sort of backing out of the sport in a way and not quite 100% dedicated or sure about his ownership of a car. He's got the racetracks, Rockingham and a couple of speedways he's got to take care of. And the one thing I will say about that car is, you know, Benny Parsons wins the championship in 73 and every year after that. That car was probably the most dependable car in the circuit. You know, it didn't run as strong as Junior's cars and the Wood Brothers, but he outlasted a lot of them most often, and they always got really, really good results. And that's actually how they win the championships in 73 was just. They never broke. And this was basically the story of Milliken. You know, he would run 5th, 10th every week. You know, when dad was in the races, dad could, you know, usually outrun him or show more speed. But if dad didn't crash or break his collarbones and miss races and all those things, you know, Joe Milliken was always going to run in the top 10 or somewhere around there as this season's going. Dad talks about it in the articles that the Rookie of the Year is important to him. Does the team care about the Rookie of the Year? Is it. Are you getting the idea that it's important to dad? Is that something that y' all are working toward every week? Are you watching it in the. In the Winston cup scene or the grand national scene? Are you looking at the.

[Doug Reichert]

Score? Yeah. Every.

[Dale Jr.]

Week.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah. I mean, when you think back to 78, the only reason we ran only five races in 78 was so he was still eligible for Rookie of the year in 79. And, you know, that was always big. Everybody. That was always everybody's focus, you know, for the longest time. Yeah. Of.

[Dale Jr.]

Obvious. And so when the season begins, do y' all handicap, like, you know, you got Gantt Labani. I mean, I don't know if you took Gantt seriously or took Lobani seriously because we don't know Terry Labonte that we, you know, we were looking at this through a different lens. Right. Right now we're looking at through 20, 24 lens. Terry Labonte is a two time champion and damn hall of Famer, but in 1979, he's some guy from.

[Doug Reichert]

Texas. Just another.

[Dale Jr.]

Car. Just another car. Right. You have no clue that he's going to have any kind of the career that he ends up having. But I guess the one car that you do know about and you do have a history with and understanding with is the 72. Maybe not you specifically because you're so young and coming into this whole deal. But the season gets going 10, 12 races into the year. Milliken's hanging around. Did y'. All. And dad and him seemed to get along okay. Did y'. All. Were there any unique moments, I guess, with, with the Milliken team that stand out or any kind of memories of, of, of that battle between y' all two throughout the, throughout the.

[Doug Reichert]

Year? No, I don't think it was a very bad battle. I mean, I don't remember anything, any fights or any confrontations. You know, it was a little different back end. Yeah, you know, we were all new, so we're not going to go start a fight. But, you know, he was competitive though. We all realize that. And if we had to make sure we did our jobs right, you know, I was a tire changer and, you know, had to go through the motions and we had to do our stuff. Right. Otherwise we could lose it just as easy as he could make a mistake on the.

[Dale Jr.]

Track. Right. Yeah, that was. I what, you know, when I've got this giant scrapbook of, of photos and I've sort of cat, you know, I've sort of divided them all down to where they go. All right. And I have one specific collection of all 7,980. And for the longest time, I couldn't tell you which one would be 80 and which, you know, if you, if you pulled a picture out of there and said, all right, is this 80 or 79? It take me a few minutes to really look into the details of it and go, yeah, I think that, you know, that that must be this race. Right. But most of them are one or the other. And I couldn't tell you the between them. Now after doing this, I can tell, you know, I can look at a picture of a car on the racetrack, Dad's car, and say, yep, that's Rockingham, second race. Yeah, that's, that's Riverside where the fender fell off or you know, Nashville.

[Doug Reichert]

Where he tore it off inside the.

[Dale Jr.]

Truck. Right. So I, As I'm reading, you know, as I'm learning all this, I will say, you know, sometimes dad got swept up in some stuff that was none of his doing. The Rockingham race, like the second race after Daytona where the Kale and Donnie get in another wreck and they spin in front of the field and Dad t bones Donnie and everybody gets wrecked, right. Kale, Richard's mad, Daryl's mad, everybody's out of the race and tore up. There was some races like that in the season where dad just kind of found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. But there were some other races where he just was hard on equipment like Martinsville.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah. Hitting the curb, taking out half the.

[Dale Jr.]

Field. Yeah. 3 wide on Richard Petty, the.

[Doug Reichert]

King. At the.

[Dale Jr.]

Start. At the start. End of term one, you've got those pictures. Yeah. You know, I, there's. It's just funny to me because again, looking at, look, looking at it, we don't ever, ever, we don't ever talk about dad being flawed because in our eyes he was this crazy seven time champion that was great at everything and just incredible. But in 1979, dude was flawed. He made. So he made mistakes, Right. Almost every race there was a moment where he screwed up something or did something he shouldn't have done. Stuff he, you know, he wouldn't do five or 10 years later down the road. But 79 is his rookie year. You know, he's going to do rookie things. It when he, you know, when he gets out of the car after Martinsville, for example, right. He T bones Richard in turn one and crashes a bunch of cars out. And I'm surprised, like Harry Gant gets out and goes, yeah, Dale turn Richard and this and that and happen. He's not even that mad about it. He should be really mad. Fury. Yeah, he should be furious at dad. They said that Richard got out of the car at the end of the race and stuck his finger in dad's chest. And it's like, don't you ever do that again. You better than that, right? Do you remember those moments when dad gets out of the car after a race where he might have not made everybody happy? He might not have made everybody happy, but he also might have, you know, he made mistakes, right? Does he get out and there's pictures of him, right. Sulking or her head hanging, sitting at the back of the holler like Damn. That didn't go well. You know, do you remember those.

[Doug Reichert]

Moments? Well, yeah, of course. We. Us as a group, we're all a team, you know, we're afraid of what's going to happen. Right. We. We know these guys are going to be mad. They're not happy. I mean, you can't make everybody happy. But also, I think people understood that because he was a rookie. Yeah, that's what rookies do. You learn. And if he did it two or three more times, like someone in the past years that did a whole pattern of wrecking people, and then, you know, then you get that, oh, my gosh, you know, is he ever gonna learn? Yeah, but he learned. We all.

[Dale Jr.]

Learn. Yeah. When he's going, I guess, for the sisters, as he's going through this year and he's making. You know, you're wanting this to work. You're wanting this to. You're wanting dad to have the success and this be his career. And these races, you know, obviously, you're not able to watch races on TV like we are today, so you can't see detail. Right. You just hear what the radio tells you. And so, you know, but is. There's. There's some. He obviously would go into 1980 and he wins a championship, but 1979 was rookie of the Year champion. But he also, you know, had a lot of struggles. Not, you know, even aside from the injury. You know, you guys, you know, do y' all get a chance to be around dad or spend much time around him during that year and get his sort.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Of. Not a lot.

[Kay (Aunt)]

But. First of all, I'm an Earnhardt. This is hard. But Kay was right. The toast was Monday night after the Sunday.

[Dale Jr.]

Race. There you go. I figured it.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Was. It was. That's so hard because I was wrong. She was.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Right. Well, I knew it wouldn't have been.

[Doug Reichert]

Weeks. I.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Just. In my mind how many days her pictures. And I asked in my.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Mind. I knew it was right. He did it right at some.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Point. Anyway, what.

[Dale Jr.]

Was. Do y' all remember what Dad's temperament was when you were. So y' all are around him in little chunks, right? You're gonna. There'll be. Yeah. There'll be a month where you won't seem. And then, bam, you're.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Together. Honestly, Dale invited Mike and I. He. And when he was hurt, Dale invited Mike and I over to dinner, Teresa's apartment. He had his brace on. You know, he was upbeat. I mean, Dale was always bigger than life, even when, you know, he never thought he would fail. Dale Always was a winner in his mind and his actions and his personality. You know, he came at Thanksgiving, he always brought y' all on Christmas. I mean, we were just a family then. We really never talked racing. If he talked racing, it was with the men, if they walked out, out of the house or in the shop or something. But when he was around family, he was always upbeat. He never, ever really showed the.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Pressure. Well, I know. And this has to be when he was hurt, too. He had the lake house, didn't he? We all went out there because we were all up there and all the kids laying on the dock. There was a picture of them laying on the.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Dock. So, yes, he invited us all up as a.

[Dale Jr.]

Family. And so that was one thing.

[Kay (Aunt)]

I learned just here and.

[Dale Jr.]

There. That was a neat thing that I learned. So in one of the articles that he writes, I'm assuming. I'm just assuming. Right. I don't know that he's writing this article with.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Whitlock. I have no.

[Dale Jr.]

Idea. He's not writing it by himself. So he's doing. Somebody says, hey, yeah, somebody has says, hey, you should do these bi monthly articles. And he's like, all right, so it must have been Whitlock. And so he talks about in one of those articles, while he was broke, while he's out with the, you know, six weeks with the collarbone issue, he moves into the house. So you remember him being over at Teresa's apartment in Charlotte with the.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Collarbone before he had the.

[Dale Jr.]

House. So like, literally a week or two later, he's got the house. And so. Which is still. And they still own it. It's down there in Mooresville. And that's the house we ended up moving in in 81, 82. And I remember 1981, this old YouTube video, you can find it on YouTube. One tough customer, where you're pulling dad on a tube on the lake out from that.

[Kay (Aunt)]

House. He would have gatherings with the.

[Doug Reichert]

Crew at the lake, all the parties, even after the.

[Dale Jr.]

Races. Yeah. And so being able to really get timeline of things right, hearing Dad, I knew he bought the house, but I didn't know when. And I damn sure hadn't heard a word about his feelings on it. And so when he's talking in the articles, like, man, I love it. It smells great. It's new. It's awesome. I love this house. I got a lot.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Of. Well, I never do that.

[Dale Jr.]

Either.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Right. Because he never talked about it or talked about.

[Kay (Aunt)]

It. But, you know, he brought Rod Osterlin, Mother. We cooked a meal at Mother's House. And Rod, he brought Rod for dinner up there. Really, in 79, that first.

[Dale Jr.]

Year.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Wow. And, you know, you think about someone with Rod's kind of money and prestige that would be able to own a race team. You know, again, we're just from small town Kannapolis and never been anywhere or in that kind of. In that kind of world that you would expect him to be different. But Rod walks in the house in blue jeans and a regular shirt and, you know, talks just like a regular person. Fit in, ate mashed potatoes with the rest of us and was just a wonderful man. We just had the best time that night. I have a picture of that night as.

[Dale Jr.]

Well. Yeah, that's one of the people. That's one of the characters that we really didn't get to hear from. And he played such a prominent role in this whole thing. So he did seem very calm and quiet and well spoken. What was Rod like for a.

[Doug Reichert]

Boss? You know, we didn't really. I mean, let me try to remember. Right. My boss was more rolling. You know, Roland had to answer to Rod, but most of my dealings with. Was with rolling all the time. But when Rod came around, I mean, you know, we all met Rod because his daughter went to high school with.

[Dale Jr.]

Us.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah. You know, so it was. We kind of started knowing each other even way before the.

[Dale Jr.]

Thing. Yeah. Way before the.

[Doug Reichert]

Racing. Yeah. And then with. With. With Roland working for Rod and some of his projects, and then us running at San Jose Speedway, knowing Lana, the daughter. And then finally when they start talking about merging. Well, we merged with it and, you know, it's just kind of a. A fit. Right. I mean, I remember traveling in the motorhome with them down to Daytona one time and different things. It wasn't my motorhome, it was his. But just stuff like that. Yeah, he was a good.

[Dale Jr.]

Guy. He seemed like.

[Doug Reichert]

It. I mean, he gave me my.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Start. But one thing I don't think any of us really thought about because it wasn't our world, was he was a businessman and had to make those kind of.

[Dale Jr.]

Decisions.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Yeah. As a businessman. And so that affects a lot of people's world, as we all know from.

[Doug Reichert]

History. The part we don't always.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Understand. The part we never.

[Dale Jr.]

Understand. Yeah. Hey, everybody. Dale Jr. Here. Let's take a minute to talk about Chevrolet. As you know, the Earnhardt family is a Chevy family. I own a Chevrolet dealership that I'm very proud of, and there's sure to be a Chevy dealership near you. So do me a favor before you buy your Next new or pre owned vehicle. Check out Chevrolet's lineup of durable, innovative, award winning performance focused models. You'll be glad you did and we'd be honored to have you in the team Chevy family. One great option you should check out is Chevy's factory lifted trucks. These lifted trucks help you tackle the trails. The first ever Silverado ZR2 Bison offers the extreme performance and capability you need to to make easy work out of the most difficult terrain. Featuring a 13 inch touchscreen display, the versatile multiflex tailgate, 33 inch mud terrain tires and multimatic DSSV dampers, this truck allows you to stay connected while taking adventure to a whole new level. Dare to be different. With the first ever Silverado ZR2 Bison Chevy find new.

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[Dale Jr.]

Everywhere. Toughness, roles, sacrifices, life, your focus. This is where I think everything you got all damn day. The attention to detail is like none other. Be physical, be quiet. We are the winners. Tain takes on Ole Miss followed by James Madison in Oregon. It's time to bring it first round coverage on the College Football Playoff presented by allstate today at 3:30 Eastern on TNT and.

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[Dale Jr.]

Ready? Let's go. All right, so let's, let's move on to, to dad's injury, right? So in the episodes we hear about Yalls experience learning about that and, and you know, wondering if that was okay and learning that he's okay and he's got these injuries. So all my life I thought, you know, he wrecks at Pocono and breaks two collarbones, right? Digging into the articles and reading all about other things. It's, it's more than that. He broke, he hurt his jaw. He was, you know, eating foods through intravenously for a week or something. These are in these articles, right? There was, the helmet was, was scuffed and that he was dealing with a concussion, that they kept him in the hospital for a week. It took him a whole week before they released him from the Pennsylvania hospital. So the injury in the crash was a whole lot more.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Significant. He may have been there A few days. But I know mother and Randy went to Pennsylvania and he checked himself.

[Dale Jr.]

Out. That part two doesn't make any sense to.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Me. For that.

[Dale Jr.]

Happened. Why would y'.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

All. They got.

[Dale Jr.]

There. What my first reaction to that is, did they not call dad and say, we're coming up.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

There? We didn't have cell phones, for.

[Dale Jr.]

One. Well, you had a.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Rotary.

[Kay (Aunt)]

True. All I know is mother was hell bent on going. Randy said, if you want to go, I'll take.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

You. They.

[Dale Jr.]

Went. So they drive up there, and then while they're driving up there, dad's checking himself out and flew home and.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Got on a commercial.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Plan. That may have been a few days. It could have been a.

[Dale Jr.]

Week. It was a.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Week. I just remember that hearing about how horrendous pain he was in on an airplane. Commercial plane, flying.

[Doug Reichert]

Home.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Yeah. But he was hell bent on coming.

[Dale Jr.]

Home. Yeah. Well, they checked him out, and he goes home. And so, you know, there's a lot of articles that really detail the. The car, the damage to the car, the helmet, the window net was. Was busted and dad's own injuries and doctors and all these.

[Doug Reichert]

Things. And there was a hole in the.

[Dale Jr.]

Net. Yeah. Where it scraped the wall.

[Doug Reichert]

Right? Where it scraped the.

[Dale Jr.]

Wall. Yeah. Where the helmet in the wall. Yeah. So it must have been this really very brief, like, bam, bam. Quick. Like. I mean, obviously, if he's. If he crashes and he makes contact with his helmet to the wall, in most cases, that's going to be a near fatal injury. Right. I mean, that. That's. That's a bad deal. But it must have been this very, very brief contact with the wall that his helmet makes. And when I've actually got some pictures of the car sliding down the racetrack after it made contact with the wall. I'd never seen a picture of the car post the crash. It's not up close. It's blurry. It's bad. There's no pictures of the car in the garage after the race. There's no way to look at this thing. There's no way to really know, like, okay, what hit first? How did it hit? Where did it hit? You hear its driver's side. You know, you're just piecing together very, very limited piece of.

[Doug Reichert]

Information. If I remember right, it was really from going into the corner, Poconos. Fairly.

[Dale Jr.]

Flat.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah. And it was back at the tunnel that. The tunnel turn, which is flat, and he went in and got loose, and it just slapped the wall driver's side. And at that time, technology. I mean, you know, he had Those van seats in.

[Dale Jr.]

The.

[Doug Reichert]

Yes. In the car. No side, no head support.

[Dale Jr.]

Nothing. No. Nothing on the left side of the.

[Doug Reichert]

Seat.

[Dale Jr.]

Nothing. Yeah. So you slide.

[Doug Reichert]

Right. Never anticipated hitting the wall on the left.

[Dale Jr.]

Side. No. All right. You thought you're always gonna hit with the right. Yeah. So looking at this image of the car after it's made contact with the wall, there's very little damage. Their backs, the tail, you know, the back is fine. The deck lid's good. There's no wrinkle. Been there. The hood's fine. There's no big bend or wrinkle in the hood. The left front. The front's not knocked over. It must have been just a real flat pop. And what's I can't understand is, how do you break your collarbones? I mean, he must have had them damn things so damn tight. I know he was pretty bad about tightening his seatbelts up to a ridiculous.

[Doug Reichert]

Amount. Well, I think. I think the biggest thing what happened in that case was there was no support on the left, and he just was able to move so much further. Yeah, well, your neck's going to stretch. That was before neck restraints and headrest. And all he had was his bubble goggles and his helmet. Yeah, right. Well, that weight of that helmet just wink.

[Dale Jr.]

Snap.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Yeah. And the sad part for us was, you know, it rained it out, so they had it on Monday. I was on my way home from work, listening on the radio, went to commercial, came back from commercial, and he had.

[Dale Jr.]

Wrecked. Yeah.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Yeah. I don't tell you how bad it.

[Dale Jr.]

Is. No. Well, they.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Can'T. You.

[Dale Jr.]

Can'T. Yeah, they don't know. They don't even.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Know. And I think part of the. Part of the thing with mother was she couldn't get any information. Every time she'd ask, well, how's Dale? You know, you call. Oh, he's fine. He's fine. Oh, he's fine. And after a day or two maybe of that, she thought, I'm tired of this.

[Dale Jr.]

Crap. I'm going, I wonder. He never like how he doesn't get on the phone from wherever he's.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

At. That part I.

[Dale Jr.]

Do. So weird, you know that. No, I.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Mean. I mean, if I'm dad world, I.

[Dale Jr.]

Don'T. If I'm dad and I'm sitting in a hotel room for at least at the minimum, three days. I mean, by. If we go by the articles and hospital room. I'm just saying if we go by the. If we go by the articles in multiple instances, it tells us he was in this hospital for A week. If I'm sitting in there in the hospital room, I'm calling somebody at some point, right? Yeah. And, you know, Teresa knows where he's at. She's right.

[Kay (Aunt)]

There. She's sitting right.

[Doug Reichert]

There.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Right. And answering the.

[Dale Jr.]

Phone. Yeah, but, I mean, she can call people. Surely there's Somebody got a.

[Doug Reichert]

Call. Someone had to be.

[Dale Jr.]

Communicating. I know. I don't understand how mama and Randy drive all the way up there and dad doesn't know they're coming and that. And dad, you know, inadvertently leaves because he gets checked out and goes home and misses and dad and Randy and mama get up there and they're like, where's.

[Doug Reichert]

He. Come on, let's.

[Dale Jr.]

Go. He's gone. Oh, he's gone. That's.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Strange. And there's nobody.

[Dale Jr.]

Else. That's comical part of the whole thing, I.

[Doug Reichert]

Guess. Anybody that knows Dale, as soon.

[Dale Jr.]

As they give him a word. Yeah, as soon as they give.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Him. Oh.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. As soon as they crack the door, he's leaving. Which says a lot about the injuries because he was there as long as he was right, you know, he's gonna leave at the first.

[Doug Reichert]

Opportunity. He had to be feeling.

[Dale Jr.]

It. Yeah, he must have. He comes back and. One of my favorite things to talk about in. In. In old racing, I. I don't know if the drivers are. I don't know if the young drivers today are as wowed by this as I think they are, but one of my favorite things to talk about is the relief driver situation. Back in the 70s and 80s, pretty much every damn week, somebody got some relief. And as we'll learn in these articles, sometimes the drivers get back in. Richard Petty would get out for 100 laps and then climb back in. Right. All right. I feel better. And so we go to Richmond. Dad sits on the pole. First race back, and Lenny Pond falls out of the race. They put Lenny Pond in the car. You guys did. Great idea. Because Lenny Pond and Richmond are. That's, like, his best track. He goes out there and finishes top five, scores some rookie points for dad. Then you go to Dover, which is probably not a great track with broken collarbones or collarbones that are healing. And I called Bill Elliott and I said, hey, I said, you, relief drove for dad at Dover. And I was like, you know, you're not on the entry blank. You didn't. You didn't race. You didn't qualify. How did you get there? Why were you there? I know he raised some races for Roger hamby in the 17. Roger was in the race, so I thought Maybe he just went along with Roger and was just standing around. Well, he said that Jake called him midweek and was like, hey, can you go? Just be good. Just go. To be there if we need somebody, just in.

[Doug Reichert]

Case.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep. And so I thought, wow. Okay. So Bill goes up there. They're running, running along in the middle of this race, and dad spins out and doesn't hit anything. And then just a dozen laps or a couple dozen laps later, he spins out again. And I think after the second spin, he's talking about being tired, and Jake's like, come on in. Get out. And so he gets out, and Bill Elliot gets in, and then a hundred. With a hundred laps to go, because they ran 500 laps at Dover back then. It's like a long race. Dad gets back in. I just think that's so funny that they are like, y' all are like, eight, 10 laps down, running in eighth or 10th. And dad's like, yeah, I'm good. I'll get back in there. Like, once you get out, you just think you'd just stay.

[Doug Reichert]

Out. Yeah. There was no reason to get back.

[Dale Jr.]

In. I.

[Doug Reichert]

Know. Got the points for.

[Dale Jr.]

Starting. There's no point to get back.

[Doug Reichert]

In. Right. That was the only reason he.

[Dale Jr.]

Started. Just. It's just interesting to.

[Doug Reichert]

Me. But.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Stale. That's.

[Dale Jr.]

Dale. I would think Jake would be. You would think. Finally, now he's in the pits like you were with Jake, and Jake would be like, yeah, no, you're not going in. What's he.

[Doug Reichert]

Doing? What's he saying about the.

[Dale Jr.]

Car? Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was pretty interesting. But he ends up, you know, coming back and finishing out the year pretty good. Pretty decent. So called back into the rookie of the year battle, which, you know, Milliken led multiple times throughout the year, but he climbs back in his best 15 finishes, and he put together enough points and with the win at Bristol to rightly win the rookie of the year. Yeah. So that's. I want to thank UK for having the idea to even create those scrapbooks in the first.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Place. I'm glad I.

[Dale Jr.]

Did. I'm. I'm much. I'm very thankful. I was thankful first that you thought enough to give them to.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Me. You know.

[Dale Jr.]

You. Y'.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

All. You were making plans to come to.

[Dale Jr.]

Mom's.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Yeah. To see. To see what you may want to take.

[Dale Jr.]

Home.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Yeah. And I got to thinking about them, and I thought, they're just laying under my bed. I knew how enthusiastic and passionate you were about it, and I thought, well, he may appreciate them if he doesn't want them. He can give them back to.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Me. And we are the seniors in the family, so we're depending on you to be the person that keeps the stories going. Keeps the stories going and talks to the babies and tells them about our brothers and our family. So that scrapbook is there for a.

[Doug Reichert]

Reason. But I also heard you talking earlier about scrapbooks and you know what was inside those scrapbooks and all that. Well, this was the rookie of the year that we've all been documenting. Right. So what else could I not.

[Dale Jr.]

Do but to have that shirt that looks like a damn.

[Doug Reichert]

Original? That is an original that's not been.

[Dale Jr.]

Open. Bull crap, Dale. Here you go.

[Doug Reichert]

Man. Ah, it's like, what more appropriate thing. We've been talking about.

[Dale Jr.]

This. Now why do you. How do you have this. How do you still have this sitting here.

[Doug Reichert]

Unopened? Have you haven't been to my.

[Dale Jr.]

House? Have.

[Announcer]

You? I have.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Everything. Have you ever been to his.

[Dale Jr.]

House? So this shirt is. Is kind of the holy grail of. Of vintage racing shirts in. In nascar, at.

[Doug Reichert]

Least. And in the.

[Dale Jr.]

Bag. Yeah, in the bag. Good lord. One of these things in the. On a hanger is going for 150, so. I can't believe we have one still in the bag. I bet it's the only one.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Left. Not.

[Doug Reichert]

Really. Might even have another.

[Dale Jr.]

One. Oh. Oh, my.

[Doug Reichert]

God. Takes.

[Dale Jr.]

Two.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah. Don't you have two.

[Dale Jr.]

Girls? I.

[Doug Reichert]

Do. Well, wait a minute. Those could be the two girls that carry on the rookie of the.

[Dale Jr.]

Year. Yeah, that would be.

[Doug Reichert]

Sweet. Number.

[Dale Jr.]

Two. All right. Damn.

[Doug Reichert]

Dude. That's pretty incredible, you know, I tell.

[Dale Jr.]

You. Oh.

[Doug Reichert]

Man. That was because, you know, I got them from my.

[Dale Jr.]

Mom.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah. You know, we always finished up in Ontario. We won the championship there. I'd always get my mom's stuff. Right. They were the biggest fans. And she had the scrapbooks of all the San Jose paper articles and all that stuff. I wish I would have dug those out. They're probably.

[Dale Jr.]

Somewhere.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah. But, you know, I always got. She always wanted stuff, so I would take the truck home to. And I park it in front of the whole house. Take the whole.

[Dale Jr.]

House. The whole hauler thing. Yeah.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah. The whole.

[Dale Jr.]

Rig.

[Doug Reichert]

Yeah. And I'd bring her home. My dad even rode home with me one time. It was like. That was cool. Those are I. My family things. They were really into the racing. They love Dale and. Yeah, they had.

[Dale Jr.]

A. Well, I appreciate that, man. That's pretty amazing. I will make sure that these are probably just going to stay just like they.

[Doug Reichert]

Are. Been in that bag a long.

[Dale Jr.]

Time. Yeah, they have. I want to leave them in that bag. But thank you all for spending some time with us. I want to thank y' all from all the listeners for giving us your time to help make this series what it is. You guys bring a lot of great insight and information into that season and make it kind of jump off the page, if you will. And when we start leaning into the next installment of becoming Earnhardt, the 1980 year, we will need you to come back. And we.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Will. We may study a little bit before.

[Dale Jr.]

That. You guys go ahead. Y' all go ahead and go home and start thinking and getting your notes together. And we're gonna all get together in a big, big room full of full, big table and come and put. Put together a show that'll. That'll be even better than this.

[Doug Reichert]

One. Maybe we could spark some more.

[Dale Jr.]

Stories. Yeah, for sure. I'm certain we will. Now that we have a blueprint and an understanding of what we're trying to do, I think 1980 could be even, you know, be much, much better. So thank y', all and until then, till I see you.

[Kay (Aunt)]

Again. Thanks.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Dale.

[Doug Reichert]

Enjoy. Thank you.

[Kathy (Aunt)]

Guys. Thank.

[Announcer]

You. The College Football Playoff is.

[Dale Jr.]

Everything. Toughness, growth, sacrifices. Life's a focus. This is where I 50 everything you all damn day. The attention to detail is like none other. Be physical, be quiet. We are the winners. Taine takes on Ole Miss, followed by James Madison in Oregon. It's time to bring it first round coverage on the College Football Playoff, presented by allstate today at 3:30 Eastern on TNT and.

[Announcer]

HBO. Max, are you.

[Dale Jr.]

Ready? Let's go. As awesome as it is to be able to talk to Doug, Kathy and K, you know, as we wrap up the last show or last episode of Becoming Ironheart, I kind of wanted to touch on some of the key people that were part of this storyline. Rod Osterlin, the car owner for dad, you know, we. We know they win the Rookie of the year in 79 and championship in 1980. Rod would actually go on in the middle of the 81 season and sell his team to a man named J.D. stacy. Pretty sketchy character, this J.D. stacy as we talked about him in some of the podcasts over the years. But either way, Rod would leave NASCAR but then re enter the sport with Huss Strickland in 1989 and Jimmy Spencer in 1990. If you remember, the Hines number 57 Pontiac. Yeah, that was Rod's car. As far as we know, Rod is still alive in Southern California. Now. Roland Velotka who was the business manager for the team, would continue to work in the sport with drivers like Buddy Baker and Rodney Combs and Hut Strickland even worked around the truck series, even briefly worked with Kevin Harvick. Roland was well respected by dad as far as I could tell. And I thought he, you know, considering what they accomplished in such a brief, brief period of time in 79 and 80 with a new team, Roland must have done a great job. Roland unfortunately passed away at the age of 81 in 2020, but it's been fun sort of getting to know more about him in this series. Jake Elder, also known as Suitcase Jake. Not going to talk about him much right.

[Doug Reichert]

Here. You know.

[Dale Jr.]

Why? Because he's going to be a big part of our next season of becoming Earnhardt. The 1980 season. Yes, we, we want to do the 1980 year. And I have that scrapbook ready to go. And so we'll get into that maybe in the next installment of the coming Earnhardt. What happens to Suitcase Jake Elder and the racing team? We do know that far beyond the 1980 season, he worked for Robert Yates and was actually fired by Robert Yates and replaced by Larry McReynolds. And he passed away in 2010 after some, some health issues. He dealt with Doug Reichert, who is here for the roundtable, continued to crew chief in the sport for a long time, winning races as recently with Greg Biffle at Roush. And he continues to seek out opportunities to work in the sport. Still feels like he has something to offer. He's also an incredibly good handyman carpenter. If you need something made built, he can do it. One of the things I think we talked about, maybe you don't recall or maybe you missed, Doug showed me a copy of his wedding certificate and dad had signed that as a witness. Dad was his best man also in Doug's wedding. So they were really close. Even after Doug and Dad split up beyond the 1981 season, Doug would go to work at Junior Johnson's with their Waltrips Mountain Dew car and so forth. But they remained close enough friends that dad was his best man. During the wedding in the mid-80s. You know, we talked about the end of the Petty Pearson era where, you know, those two had ran nose to nose, tooth and nail. So many first and second place finishes between Pearson and Petty. All of that came to an end in the 1979 season. That to me, kind of that set that story. I know it, you know it, we've heard it many, many times. But reading through it and living Sort of living through it. I say it really hurt. Hit me on a personal level how I never thought about it like that. You know, you've got these two incredible professionals, no matter what sport, battling each other in so many great matches. And finally it has to end, right? You never love to see it when your heroes, you know, have to hang up the helmet. But not that Pearson was retiring, but that rivalry that had been so good for NASCAR was over. David Pearson would continue to race, but, you know, with very, very limited success after that. He won a few more races and then eventually decided to hang it up for good driving. You know, he's at the end of his career. He's driving cars that really just couldn't get the job done. This was, though, the beginning of the Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt error. And Darrell says as much during the show multiple times. Man, it looks like I'm gonna have to be racing this Earnhardt guy for the rest of my career. And man, they would. It would really come to a head around the, you know, 1986 season when dad and Daryl would wreck Richmond in a, in a massive crash that would give Kyle Petty his first cup win. I have the car that Daryl crashed in that, in that wreck in the, in the race car graveyard. Dad and Daryl would account for six championships throughout the 1980s. The rookie class obviously goes on to be incredible, except Joe Milliken. You know, we'll talk about Joe Milliken a little bit in the next episode of Becoming Our Heart or the next season of Becoming our heart for 1980. But he gets, he gets a few part time rides. One with Ramock in 1981. He eventually gets a ride in the car that would become Rick Hendricks number five car that team would, would end up getting sold to Rick. He makes some sporadic starts though, all the way up until 1987 when he was out of cup altogether. He never had really another full year of competition. From 81 on, where he was in the same car throughout the year in a steady ride. He returned to the late model ranks back at Caraway and some of the weekly race tracks. He had a scary crash at caraway in the 90s and then went on to work for race teams driving transporters and doing things like that for teams like Roush. Actually was involved in a transporter crash in the 2000 and tens with Roush and he's still out there roaming around. We tried really hard to get Joe to come sit down and talk to us or just be able to really pick his brain a little bit about this series, but it was really difficult to make that work. But we are so thankful for his career and his effort in battle through the 1979 season. Terry Labonte, we know is going to go on and win championships is as recent as 1984. I mean, literally five years removed from this season. Terry's a champion. Harry Gant wins a ton of races, obviously becoming a household name. And also, I think it's a little fascinating to me how much the Rookie of the Year deal mattered. Yes, of course, we're embellishing it. We're blowing it up. We're making it a big deal in the show, but it really was that big of a deal back then. The Rookie of the Year battle was something people were so excited about because this really was where there was such a small group of veterans, you know, capable of winning every week, half a dozen, maybe ten cars at times. But there were really a half a dozen good winning cars on the racetrack. And those rookies were exciting. That Rookie of the Year battle was, you know, was always compelling. We lost a little bit of it, its identity over the years, but every once in a while, we get a really good crop of rookies. That fires up the excitement in that Rookie of the Year battle. Obviously, we talk about J.D. stacy now. One of the stories that got cut from the show is about J.D. stacy. He owned the car that Neil Bonnet drove in the late 70s. And they got into dispute with crew chief Harry Hyde. And Harry says, we're parking these cars. I'm not taking them to the racetrack anymore. JD Stacy would go over to Rod Osterlin in 1978. Dave Marcus is Rod's driver. Dad's not there yet. JD and Rod would cut a deal to where Rod Osterlin would put cars on the racetrack that Neil Bonnet would race to be able to finish the 1978 year. That really ticked off Dave Marcus. When Dave Marcus quit, it was as much about the next year trying to share a ride with Dale, with my dad. It was as much as frustration over that. The firing of Dewey. Live and good. And also in 78, he's. He's having this great year. They're running well, and all of a sudden, now they're going to start preparing cars for JD Stacy and Neil Bonnet. Well, that wasn't in the plan. JD Stacy eventually resolves his conflict with Harry Hyde. But in the off season that year, J.D. stacy works in coal business. In the off season that year, J.D. stacy's limo was parked in the parking lot of a Concord hotel. Police found a Bomb underneath that car rigged to explode as soon as the car backed out of its parking spot. And they happen to be just walking by this car. They weren't even, like, looking for this, right? They see the car and they're just like, oh, look, that's a nice limousine. What is that strapped to the bottom of the thing? They get in there and inspect it. They don't know whose it is, whose car it is. J.D. stacy would say this is the second attempt on his life. At that point in time, JD Stacy would lurk in the shadows, if you will, of the NASCAR circuit through 79 and 80. And then in 1981 and 1982, he would buy Rod Oschelin Racing. Dad, obviously getting all this information from Neil Bonnet, says, yeah, I don't need to drive for this guy. I'm quitting. He would quit in two weeks and go drive for Richard Childers. Mid season. In 81, JD Stacy will go to the racetrack and start paying everybody all kinds of money for just to put J.D. stacy on the side of his car. There's like seven or eight cars out on the racetrack with J.D. stacy on the side. And eventually check starts bouncing. People aren't getting paid, and J.D. j.D. Stacy just disappears. Quite an interesting character. Another great story that got cut from the 79 show was Cale Yarborough appearing on the Dukes of Hazzard. Now, this is something that I was a little bit confused by, because I recall when I was a kid, I believe it was in the 1984 year. I remember Cale Yarborough being on that show. And I remember it was right after he had won the Daytona 500 in the Hardee's car. And they actually used a little bit of the clip. Clip of him winning or the in car camera footage or whatever in the. In the Dukes of Hazzard show. Now, I don't know if Cale's been on the show twice or what, but in 1979, in articles, Cale talks about how he's so nervous because he's got to go to Hollywood to shoot an episode of the Dukes of Hazzard. So maybe Cale Yarborough was on there twice. He eventually went to Hollywood, shot his episode in the middle of the 1979 year. And then during one of the final races of the season, the episode ran on like a Friday or Saturday night. And imagine all of the industry probably tuned in. There's probably only like three stations on the television. They tune in to watch Cale on Dukes of Hazzard, do a terrible job of acting, even trying to play himself and then go to the racetrack the next morning and give him a hard time for it. You know, that happen. We also have a interesting thing that we kind of missed. Now I've got this picture, so I apologize for letting this slip. David Pearson drove dad's car in relief for dad while he was injured. They go to Bristol and I made a big deal. Like, man, David Pearson racing at Bristol. He hasn't raced here in a long time. Yeah. And he was older and running a limited schedule. Why would he run this race? It's definitely gonna wear him out. Well, he did get worn out. He got relief driving from Lenny Pond. Lenny was popular for a relief driver back then, but Lenny gets in the car. We've. I've got pictures of this on my phone and I just missed it. And it should have made the show, but pretty cool to know that, you know, Lenny was climbing in everybody's cars back then when they needed help. So during this show, you and I learned more about dad's crash at Pocono and the injuries he dealt with than I even knew. Right. I thought it was broken collarbones. It was much more than that. Well, let me read you an article from the Winston Salem Journal on August 3, 1979. This is a Friday. Rookie Earnhardt out for at least a month. Dylan Hart will be transferred Sunday to a Charlotte hospital from the East Strasbourg, Pennsylvania Hospital, where he's currently in the intensive care unit recovering from injuries from Monday's Pocono 500. Earnhardt, the hottest rookie on the Grand National Tour in several years, has several bruised, several bruises and one broken collarbone, one cracked collarbone, an injured jaw and a concussion. I didn't know about the jaw. And he is expected to be out of action at least until the Capital City 400 at Richmond. While they had some foreshadowing there. And according to Jake Elder, the team's crew chief, because of his jaw injury, Earnhardt is being fed intravenously. Dang. So busted his jaw, I guess. He's got a jaw sewn shut and he's getting fed through a tube. Is that what I'm reading? Sounds like it. But depending on relief driver David Pearson showing here Sunday and the talks next week between team manager Roland Velaka and Pearson of Spartanburg, S.C. the veteran will likely drive the team's cars at Michigan, Bristol and Darlington and perhaps Dover. So Elder says, I went over and saw Dale Monday night. His neck and shoulders were all swelled up and he could only lift his hands just a little. The first thing he said was, I hit Hard. I said, no kidding. And then he asked me, when can I drive my next race? Elder didn't have the heart to tell him. Not for quite a while. This is another neat little tidbit. Bruton Smith, that's Marcus's dad, who's been on the podcast many times, and the owner of Charlotte Motor Speedway, sent his personal plane to Pocono to bring dad back. That's from Elder's mouth. Now, our, you know, the sisters said dad got a commercial plane home, so we really don't know. We could ask Marcus, I guess, but Elder is telling this article that Bruton Smith is sending his personal plane to bring dad back from, from Pocono. And dad will probably check into a hospital for a couple days and let the doctors run some more tests. Darrel saw the crash and he said the tire exploded into a million pieces and the wreck smashed the driver's seat all to pieces and tore the steering wheel clear around and it smashed the roll bars almost clean, metal to metal flat. Now, I don't want Dale to come back too quick or come back too soon, but I do want him to get back in the car as soon as he can. Like getting back on a horse that's thrown you. I know he's going to miss four races. Heck, you can't even run Bristol when you're actually. Well, that place will really get to your neck. In Darlington, Dover's, those are where you plumb out. I figure he ought to be ready to run Richmond if he's able. NASCAR grand national competition director Ray Hill conceded there's a possibility his head brushed the wall based on the crew's review of the accident. A hole was torn in the car's safety window net by the impact, which Doug Reichert, the crew chief, backed up. Earlier in this show, Elder said that Earnhardt has been complaining of pain in the back of his head. So there you go. That, that's just some more information, you know, I mean, you know, we're all still just speculating really what happened in the crash. But dad hit the wall. We do know this. He had to hit the wall flat, driver's side. I thought it was a head on crash or somehow. How did he, how did he move forward in the seat? Did I just assume. The shoulder straps broke the collarbones, but apparently he went to the side, to the left side and without anything on the left side of that seat to stop him from moving toward the door bars and toward the left side of the car. That's when the shoulder harnesses really Kind of just broke the collarbones and did that damage. But he got move. He moved far enough to actually hit his head on, on the wall briefly get him a bad concussion and somehow broke his jaw, which I'm maybe guessing, guessing that he hit his jaw or something on the, on the door top. But you know, just a lot more injuries than, than I'd ever considered. So what is the next stage of becoming Earnhardt? Well, we have the 1980 scrapbook, all right. And we, you know, when we wrote this episode, 1979, I sat down and threw the script together. We did this, as Mike loves to say, we did it backwards. And this came together well and I'm real proud of it. But I think if we do this the right way and write the outline and then bring all the information together and the audio from the races and everything else, it could be so much, so much better as a product easier for you to listen to. So we're excited about that. We're going to do it. The 1987 is going to happen. The 1980 season is going to happen probably next year. We're coming off of the rookie of the year. 1980 is going to be a big year for dad as well. He's going to have more wins. It's the last season of the big bodied race car. They're going to go to the smaller cars in 1981 and I have the car in my possession that dad ran the final race in at 1980 to clinch the championship. That car also won at Atlanta and did several other things throughout the year that we'll talk about. We had the car in our hands pretty cool. So we'll talk about that and let y' all know how that's gonna coming along. But there's a lot of incredible happenings and moments throughout the 1980 season. I don't want to spoil too much, but Jake Elder will not be the crew chief when the team wins the championship. And that split is really, really dynamic. And there's a lot of articles with some pretty telling quotes. Dad and Kale Yarborough get into a bit of a spirited battle not only on the racetrack for the championship, but in the media. There's some quotes and comments from both drivers about their opinions of each other in their driving. So should be a lot of fun. We'll also include obviously the sisters and Doug Reichert for their take and information what they can recall. Now that we know what we're trying to do with this series, I'm telling you, I think 1980 and that season will be even more entertaining. So until then, I hope you've enjoyed our look back on the 1979 year becoming Earnhardt. Came out of some scrapbooks that my aunt made with love and it's been incredible to create something with those. And I've really enjoyed the feedback that everybody has given us. And I hope you know it's an evergreen series. If you enjoyed it now, you can share it with friends, they can listen to it in full, have some fun with it and keep, keep the stories out there. Like my aunt said, keep, keep telling the stories and keep sharing with people some of the cool things that happened in my dad's career. But NASCAR as well. We'll see you next time on Becoming Earnhardt. Check out dirty mo media. Check out dirty mo media on twitter, facebook, tick tock and.

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