Danny Lawrence: The Goodwrench Shirt is Better Than a Tux

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download – "Danny Lawrence: The Goodwrench Shirt is Better Than a Tux"

Podcast: The Dale Jr. Download
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM)
Guest: Danny Lawrence
Date: February 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode features a heartfelt and deeply insightful conversation between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danny Lawrence—longtime Richard Childress Racing (RCR) engine builder, team leader, and one of the enduring links to the legendary Dale Earnhardt Sr. era. They cover stories from the heyday of the No. 3 Goodwrench team, reflect on Earnhardt Sr.’s legacy on and off the track, discuss the evolution of NASCAR, and share personal moments of camaraderie, innovation, and perseverance. The episode balances technical anecdotes, emotional memories, and humorous tales, providing an indispensable look behind the curtain of one of NASCAR’s most storied teams.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Danny Lawrence’s Role and Longevity at RCR

• Danny Lawrence’s Current Role: Leads the Xfinity program and manages all of RCR’s technical alliances.
  (03:53 – 04:01)
• Longevity: Lawrence reflects on being one of the remaining original members from the RCR “Junkyard Dogs” era, and how his passion for competition keeps him going as others have retired.
  Quote: “I’m going to do this till I can’t do it no more. I’m going to go down swinging.”
  — Danny Lawrence, (22:55)
• Why He’s Still In the Game: “When you win these races and you make a difference... that’s what drives me.”
  — Danny Lawrence, (18:01)

2. The RCR Culture and Dale Earnhardt Sr.

• Team Chemistry: Dale Jr. and Lawrence talk about the unique culture of RCR—no explicit job lists, everyone simply “knew their part,” driven by an unparalleled group ethic and the intensity of Earnhardt Sr.
  “There was no standing around. We were a real team. Everybody had a part in it.”
  — Danny Lawrence, (12:47)
• Earnhardt Sr.’s Superhero Persona: Jr. describes growing up seeing his father as a “superhero,” shaped not only by his character but by the extraordinary people around him.
  (06:12)
• The “Goodwrench Shirt is Better Than a Tux” Philosophy: Will Lynn (team member) always said the Goodwrench team shirt was the best ticket to anything—more valuable than any fancy attire, symbolizing the pride and access that came with being part of the Earnhardt team.
  (44:13)

3. Earnhardt Sr.: Intensity and Relationship Building

• Competitive Nature: Earnhardt Sr. brought intensity to everything—from the racetrack to family life to salesmanship.
  “He wanted to win everything...from the souvenir side to the race side.”
  — Danny Lawrence, (09:08)
• Off-the-Track Generosity: Numerous stories reveal his private approach to helping others—buying dinners, providing tickets, supporting employees in need—always under the radar.
  “He always took care of us...He did so much stuff for people. He didn’t want people to know.”
  — Danny Lawrence, (55:59, 68:06)

4. Stories From the “Junkyard Dogs” Era

• Hard Work and Ingenuity: Tales of multiple engine swaps during long days at Daytona and how the whole team pushed each other to the limit.
  (06:15 – 08:21)
• Testing and Technical Tales: Earnhardt Sr. hated testing; he’d often ask, “Tell me how fast we need to run so we don’t have to test anymore.”
  (07:53)
• Tech Inspection Tricks: Lawrence addresses myths about RCR’s “cheating,” emphasizing that the team pushed rules to the limit—but their main magic was the guy in the seat.
  “See that seat right there? That’s where all our magic is. The guy sits in that seat.”
  — Danny Lawrence, (34:59, 36:07)

5. Behind-the-Scenes Nostalgia and Personal Bonds

• Dale Jr. and Danny Lawrence’s Relationship: Emotional exchanges highlight their deep bond, with Lawrence regularly affirming how proud Earnhardt Sr. would be of Dale Jr.
  “You’re like family to me.”
  — Dale Earnhardt Jr., (14:34)
• The Value of Team and Family: Stories about post-race gatherings, bench racing at the Bush shop by Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s mother’s house, and how the team felt more like a family than a workplace.
  (101:31)
• Memorabilia and Shared History: Lawrence gifts Jr. an original white helmet Earnhardt Sr. briefly wore at Bristol, making for a moving moment in the episode.
  (112:23 – 116:03)

6. Honesty About Challenges—Retirement, Changes in NASCAR, The Future

• On Seeing Friends Retire: Lawrence speaks candidly about the emotional difficulty of seeing old teammates move on, and how grandkids and life changes motivated them to step away.
  (18:36)
• Evolutions in NASCAR Tech: From hands-on camshaft selection in the ’80s to computer-aided design, Lawrence discusses the shift in engineering and how it forced veterans like him to adapt or step away.
  (19:24)
• Xfinity Series: Present and Future: The discussion pivots to challenges ahead as the Xfinity car ages, the importance of maintaining full fields, and the coming transition to single-lug hardware and parts shortages.
  "We can't continue with what we have...but we also cannot put the Mike Harmon's and the Joey Gases [small teams]...out of business. We need them.” — Danny Lawrence, (83:45)

7. The Human Side of Racing Personalities

• Austin Hill and Jesse Love: Lawrence reflects on mentoring current Xfinity drivers, their distinct personalities (from “abrasive family man” to “fun loving kid”), and instilling the competitive values learned from the old crew.
  (88:37 – 96:25)
• “Pass-through” Philosophy: Both recognize the bittersweet reality of helping develop young drivers who ultimately advance to other teams—making the Xfinity program a launch pad for NASCAR’s future stars.
  (96:00)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Team Culture & Earnhardt Sr.

• "We worked like junkyard dogs. Yes, we did. And Dale never let us down."
  — Danny Lawrence (06:15)

• “That Goodwrench shirt is better than a tuxedo.”
  — Will Lynn, as recounted by Lawrence (44:19)

• “He wanted you to do what you were supposed to do…have initiative…find something you’re passionate about and go after it. And he felt like having that control, that intimidation was a way to sort of keep you in line.”
  — Dale Earnhardt Jr. (09:57)

On Racing Ingenuity & Reputation

• “All our magic is in the guy that sits in the seat.”
  — Danny Lawrence (34:59, 36:07)

• “It's hard for me to believe that you guys were 100% up and up…”
  — Dale Earnhardt Jr., expressing the public mythos of cheating in NASCAR’s golden era (37:01)

On Bond and Legacy

• “You’re like family to me. And I would do anything in the world that you asked me to do.”
  — Dale Earnhardt Jr. (14:34–14:35)

• “I try to make every heavy decision the way I thought he [Dale Sr.] would choose, whether I wanted to or not. I feel like he was judging me, you know, still.”
  — Dale Earnhardt Jr. (108:33)

• “We were not just a team, we were a family.”
  — Danny Lawrence (107:34)

On the Good Times and the Small Gestures

• “He was the best ticket to anything that ever happened. That Goodwrench shirt...was the ticket.”
  — Danny Lawrence (44:19)

• “He always took care of us. He did so much stuff for people. He didn’t want people to know.”
  — Danny Lawrence (55:59, 68:06)

• “He wanted us to continue to be better, and it was never good enough.”
  — Danny Lawrence (79:09)

On NASCAR’s Ever-Shifting Landscape

• “We can’t continue with what we have…but we also cannot put the Mike Harmon’s and the Joey Gase’s out of business. We need them to be there.”
  — Danny Lawrence (83:45)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Danny Lawrence’s introduction and RCR background: 03:53 – 06:12
• Team culture and Dale Sr.’s leadership: 06:12 – 14:26
• Lawrence on why he keeps going while others retire: 17:29 – 24:57
• Technical/work ethic stories from the ‘80s: 31:03 – 39:54
• Cheating and garage myth-busting: 34:57 – 39:07
• Family, loyalty, and Earnhardt care for his team: 55:57 – 57:06
• Transition in NASCAR tech and roles: 19:24 – 23:27, 81:26 – 87:44
• Current Xfinity program and philosophy: 74:21 – 79:09
• Mentoring new talent and future of the series: 88:12 – 96:29
• Emotional closure, sharing memorabilia, legacy: 112:23 – end

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Tone and Speaker Style

The tone of this episode is warm, genuine, and reflective, with moments of humor and deep emotion interwoven with technical expertise and vivid behind-the-scenes details. Dale Jr. and Danny Lawrence share a natural, sometimes nostalgic rapport, often shifting between laughter, honest confession, and mutual admiration.

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Final Thoughts

This episode stands as a rich oral history of the RCR team and the Earnhardt racing dynasty, offering priceless vignettes about work ethic, innovation, family, and competition. It’s a must-listen for NASCAR fans seeking connection—not just to race statistics, but to the human stories behind the greatest moments on the track. Danny Lawrence’s presence, and his Goodwrench shirt, truly are living pieces of racing heritage.

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[For more, listen to The Dale Jr. Download on Dirty Mo Media.]

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You were going to tell another story.

[Danny Lawrence]

So Andy Petrie shows up at rcr. He's going to be the crew chief. He comes in and he's been there for about a week. And he says, okay, now show me all stuff like what are you talking about? All your tricks, your magic, your. Your. All the things, all the cheating stuff that y' all did. So we'll. Lynn grabs hold of him, carries him over there. See that seat right there? That's where all our magic is. The guy sits in that seat.

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Indeed.comdalejr Terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the right way with indeed. Following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody, it's Dalen Hart Jr. And welcome to the RB studio for the new season of the Dale Jr. Download. This is a guest segment and we have a pretty incredible guest coming in here. I'm pretty excited about this to kick the season off. So one of my favorite people that's in the industry today, Danny Lawrence. Danny Lawrence was part of the RCR black number three Wrangler number three. He was part of that group, part of that team. One of the engine builders at the track, working on the car. He's been in my life and a part of my life and an influence on my life for decades. And even today, he's one of the few guys that I still see around that was part of that team, and I see him every time I go to the racetrack. He's kind of runs the Xfinity program for RCR and a lot of the partnerships, but there's not a. There is not a moment, if I see him that we do not talk, that we do not. It's not. We don't walk by each other and wave and nod. None of that. Every time I see this man, we stop and we shake hands or we pat each other on the back or we say, hey, how's it going? You doing all right? And I love it, and I love that relationship. It's important to me. He's meant a lot to me, still does today, and I wanted y' all to get to know Danny, and hopefully we do a good job of that in this show. So excited about it. Let's bring him into the room. All right, Danny Lawrence is here, and you've been working for Richard Soldiers forever. Currently, you manage the Xfinity program, am I right? Yeah. You got other responsibilities.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, I look after the. All of our technical alliances. We have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which you have many.

[Danny Lawrence]

We have a lot of those, so it's a. It's a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but you've been. You were part of the. The three team, and I want to. We'll get into all that. But the reason why I was excited about bringing you on here is over the past couple of years, I had Kurt on here, and it was a lot of fun to talk to him, because back in those days, you know, I was just in awe of you guys. You know, it was so. I knew it then, and it's. And it still feels. It's one of the things in life that never. That's felt exactly the same today as it felt then. My dad to me, and you can appreciate this, my dad to me was like a superhero and just this crazy, crazy cool, special person, you know? And he was made that way more so because of the people that were around him. I remember when he was driving for Bud Moore, and, yeah, I knew he was rough and tough and tough as leather and no bull, but he really didn't get to become who he truly wanted to be until he found all of you guys and y' all found him, you know, and the match of him and y' all and how y' all went about Yalls job and how y' all looked at Yalls job was as perfect as it could be. And, you know, y' all strengthened his. His bit, his ability to go out there and really put his foot down, you know, and. And. And push people around and be aggressive and stand his ground. And. And nobody was. Not many people really were willing to. To push back. And they knew it wasn't just Dale they were pushing back against because y' all had a reputation as a team, you know, the Junkyard Dogs, the Flying Aces. And it was a lot of fun as a kid. Y' all were almost like, you know, heroes in a comic book almost. So you got to live that.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes. Very, very, very fortunate.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And I'll tell you, part of the reason that it. You're right. It was. It was for us. It was also. Your dad used to say all the time, we're making history. And we'd win a race, and we'd be in victory Lane, and he would be like, all right, let's go. Let's go, let's go. That was all about. He wanted to win everything that. Everything he did. Going to the restaurant where I mean, you know. You know, every. Everything. And when he got to the racetrack, it was strictly business. And so I heard the comment one time of. You say them guys were kind of mean to me a little bit. Well, we knew everybody had a responsibility. You got to remember back then that we not just change engines, practice like we go to Daytona. We show up with a practice engine, and the same guys that were the pit crew guys, I mean, and the garage stayed open for 11 hours. We would show up, put a practice engine in. All right, we're gonna make qualifying run. All right, pull that out. Not just that. You have to put the gear, the transmission, the head, you know, all. All this and that. Go make a run, pull that engine out. I mean, we worked a lot. We worked like junkyard dogs. Yes, we did. And Dale never let us down. The neat thing was, is that he knew the cars really good. We would go to a test. He hated it. To test. And he would go, oh, my gosh, man. Tell me how fast we need to run so we don't have to test anymore. Give me a number. If I can run this fast, can we stop testing?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, it was.

[Danny Lawrence]

It was. And he would just about do it. He. He ran at Talladega that Mike Thomas, his wife wanted to ride. And back then, you know, you didn't have. In the car. Yeah, he got a helmet put on Her. And he went out and he ran within two tenths of what the pole was with her in the car. She was holding on, scared, screaming like crazy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My God, how many people did that?

[Danny Lawrence]

But he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did you ever go for one of those rides?

[Danny Lawrence]

I did not. I did not. I did not. But it was like he was in control of every situation. I mean, even when you go get on the plane, you sit here. Oh, yeah, you sit here. I mean, it was. It was like, I've got a. I've got a picture of my truck I want to bring to you. The. We went fishing in San Salvador with him. I know I'm getting off base.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's fine.

[Danny Lawrence]

But that's the first time I'd ever seen anybody eat sushi. We caught a tuna, and I don't. And it was in the live. Well, for about an hour and a half. He pulled it out. I got a picture of him filleting this thing and him eating it raw. And I was like, this was. You know, this was 30 years ago.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure. Before it normalized.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, you're going to eat that with it without being cooked? And he goes, here, take some. Like, nobody. All of us were like, no. Like, he was very misunderstood. He was bad. He was badass and determined, and he knew how to. He knew how to make stuff happen. Everything from the souvenir side to the race side. People. People misunderstood him because he was. He was really brilliant. He'd come out there and go, hey, these hats aren't selling. Y' all put these hats on. And then. Then the next day he goes, all those hats are sold out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, he knew.

[Danny Lawrence]

He knew how to. Oh, yeah. He know how to work every deal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And it wasn't just on the race, but he wanted to win everything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I. You know, he was intimidating people. People would maybe wonder what he was like as a dad. He had this Persona on the racetrack with his competitors and in the marketing and so forth, and his fans tuned in to watch as the intimidator, the man in black. And he certainly earned it. And I thought it was a. I loved the way he drove and wouldn't have changed the thing he did, but he was exactly the same way at home. Very intimidating, you know, And I think he wanted to have that type of control over the situation because he wanted you to do what you were supposed to do. He wanted you to do well in school. He wanted you to have initiative and want to try hard and find something you're passionate about and go after It. And he felt like having that control of that intimidation was a way to sort of hopefully keep you in line. And so he was really similar at home as he was on the racetrack now. He had. He had moments where he would soften up a little bit, for sure. And y', all, y' all certainly saw that. And I would go to the racetrack and get around y', all, and I saw you guys in the same way I saw him. And I don't think that. I mean, I don't think that I felt like y' all were mean to me. Not in a way like y' all were rude or like, get out of the way kid. You know, none of that went on. You know, y' all were. Y'. All. Y' all were. Y' all were just so, like, I would stand if I was standing around, you know, y' all were. Y' all were going to get that other engine or y' all were pulling another motor out, or y'.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Y' all were always doing. Getting the car back to tech and going back through tech. And there wasn't. Back in those days, there wasn't any standing around or waiting, and there was a job to do all the time. And so it was kind of like when you would go to the racetrack back in those days, the majority of the time it felt like you standing at an intersection of a busy street. You know, it was just people moving all the time. And y' all didn't really have time to. To be nice. And y'. All. Y' all did have your. Y' all were really, like, uber focused on the prize, you know, and the responsibility to. To. To. To go win the race that weekend. There was no. There wasn't a ton of joking around. I didn't really see you guys, like, mucking it up with each other and being silly like some of the other teams, you know, and so that was kind of what I meant. It wasn't so much. I loved being around y'.

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All.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's videos that we shared with each other on our phones of. Of, you know, candid stuff of us standing in the garage and me kind of being around and going, holy, I can't believe I got this shirt on. I got a damn GM Goodrich shirt. I'm hanging out with the boys, and y' all are fine. That was how y' all were. Y' all were just, you know, so.

[Danny Lawrence]

One of the things about Race Race Weekend was we never had a list of who was responsible. Everybody knew who their part, who the what they were responsible for. Richard Dale, Or Kirk or. Nobody ever told us, all right, we're going to be there at this time. We were always early. We were always the first ones in the garage when we got there. You know, it's so much different now. You had to unload tires off of the. Where the lounge is now. You had to unload the toolbox. You had to set everything up. It was a, I'd say, well orchestrated machine. It's like you. You didn't sit there and go, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm. We did the same thing every week, and we. Each guy was responsible for the same part. So there, There were not a lot of talking or plant. You knew what you had to do. You. Absolutely. And then during practice session, Earnhardt would call for a lot of stuff, like, I need more gear, I need less gear or this or that or whatever. And why, why he was coming in, we would be getting the gear off truck, we would be ready to go. And he drove us to a lot of that because he was always prepared. He was always ready. He always showed up ready to go. And so we, we, you know, we. We just pushed really hard with him and we were, we were the. We were a real team. We all felt like when you won a race, you felt like you contributed because everybody had a part in it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The next thing I was thinking was, you're still the reason why. Like, I love you, man. I gotta tell you.

[Danny Lawrence]

I love you too, bro.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I love you. And you're like family to me. And I would do anything in the world that you asked me to do. Like, you're one of those people that when I see you, I know that your reaction and you're glad to see me, is as genuine as can be. You care about what I got going on. We compete, right? We compete against each other. I got Xfinity and you got Xfinity, and sometimes our cars bash into each other. That's never changed the relationship between you and me. And you've always been one of the few people that always say, man, your dad be proud of you. You're always going out of your way to, to tell me those things and make sure that I'm in a good, you know, headspace with those things. I, you know, that's just a. That's just, Just your nature. But the, and you're the, the kind of. The question I wanted to ask you was I saw Will Lynn the other day, and, And Kirk's been on the show and, and we know where, you know, we know what chocolate's been up to, you know, and unfortunately, David's passed and.

[Danny Lawrence]

And.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And there's a lot of guys that were part of that program that are off doing, you know, and, And. Or. Or gone and. But you're still boots on the ground. I see you on pit road pre race, you know, managing, overseeing, shepherding. What is the motivation for you? Where these other guys, right, Have. Have sort of decided, you know, that's. That part of my life is over. Like, I saw Will, and he comes into. He was over by the drag strip where our late model program is getting something for old hot rod he's working on. And the person that I kind of threw, another person said, hey, tell Will stop in if he wants to. Sure enough, he come walking in the shop about 20 minutes later, and I'm like, what have you been doing? I'm just working on hot rods. He's like, I don't have nothing to do with racing. Nothing. He's like, I'm. I'm doing this. This is what I do. And I. It's. It's. It's unbelievable for me that that person, even with Kirk, like, that person that I saw so rooted and welded into the industry and into those roles, is completely separated from it today while you have remained as, you know, kind of involved as ever. That's. For me, that's emotional for me. That's. It's like, you know, you never. I. I never want to see my heroes retire and one, you know, go off into the pasture. Right.

[Danny Lawrence]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't, you know, but they do. And that's something I think we all learn in life. You know, we go. We have heroes in sport where, you know, they retire and you're like, I remember when the guy got drafted. Feels like yesterday now. I've seen his whole career. How in the hell did that happen? But, you know, how has that. Has that been interesting to you? And why do you feel like that? What drives you to kind of still want to be so involved?

[Danny Lawrence]

There's. There. You get that feeling when you win these races and you make a difference.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

When you know that you had something to do with it and you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How hard is it to see your friends, you know, not have that feel? You know, I. I've got a buddy. You know, you might have a buddy one day walk up to you and say, man, you know, I'm gonna go do something else. And you're like, why? We're having fun. Why do you want to go do that? You know, And. And. But that's what they need to do you know? And you kind of have to. That's one of the things you learn early in life is like people are going to kind of come and go and it's out of your. It's out of your hands.

[Danny Lawrence]

One of the things that Kirk and Will both. One of the things that changed their lives, I believe, was the grandkids. Will told me that he is having such a good time with the grandkids. He's being. He's being the grandpa.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And the way that we had it and the way that we are. You can't halfway do it. You know, Will was. Will or Kurt. Neither one were going to sit back and just sit in an office. Our world's changed 100%. And that's why I'm not in the engine shop no more. Because the world's changed it. Back in the day, we would order six camshafts and run them across the dyno and then actually lay everything out. Look at everything go. Okay, this one looked a little like. Then we'd order three more.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

Now everything's done on the computer. And the engine shop got to be where. Just be honest with you. They didn't even want my advice in 90. In 98. One of my claim to fame is, is that your dad wanted his own. He wanted his own engine shop. So Richard separated Skinner's engine shop and his engine shop.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's crazy.

[Danny Lawrence]

And he had his reasons because he. Skinner, liked different engines than your dad liked and this and that and what. Whatever. And I got named Chief Engine Builder 98. And our first race was the 500. And meaning we worked. Me and Bo Nance and Gregg, we worked night and day to make sure we had the best engine that we had. I have a picture in my office that where your dad has his arm around me. And we're looking at the engine. And we went down there. We'd run good in every race. And we put the race motor in for last practice. And the race motors for the 500 are always brand new blocks. Brand new because you. You don't want to have an issue. And it was a little off. And he's like, it's 365 days before I get a chance to win this race again. I can't win with that engine. It's not good enough. Well, we have one on the truck. It's got roller. I just got roller cam bearings in it. We've Never raced at 500 miles and this and that. He's like, I'd rather blow up leading than I would be. So we put that engine in, took out 119 and put in 122 and ended up winning 500 with no practice. And that's. That is your, your dad's like, it's on me if something happens, but it's a year before I can win this race again. And people come. Officer, show him that picture all the time. Cause it's absolutely. He's got that look on his face like, what are we doing here? And, you know, you've been down there 14 days. You had a lot of practice, you know. And he just went around about three or four laps and said, boy, it's not good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really.

[Danny Lawrence]

He knew he was so amazing in the car. I know I'm getting off side. I got so many. So much to tell you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's what this is all about.

[Danny Lawrence]

He. We broke a crank at Michigan in practice one time, and he shut it off and didn't hurt anything. He felt it. He would call out on the radio, flywheel just broke. And he was right every time. Not just that. We were at Bristol one time and he said, there's a 716 snap on wrench and turn three up against the wall. And there was. I mean, it was like, like, you talk about details. He knew. He knew all the details. But. But getting back to the question. So when I moved over to, to do the O'Reilly's Xfinity, you know, whatever you, whatever you want to call it, got to go to the wind tunnel and see Chevrolet developed a new car. This is in 2018. Got to start doing stuff. Got. Got to start doing stuff that I'd never done before on the car side. You know, we're. We're testing brakes, we're testing transmission gears. And it revitalized me because I felt like I brought some of the engine stuff to the car side back then. We, you know, in 18, we measure everything with a tape measure and we started using micrometers. And, you know, now, you know, you can, you know, you're setting these things up with roamer arms and this and that, and it revitalized me because I felt like that was making a difference. And we go win these races. And then when we, you know, I've never had a, you know, never had a thought of when am I going to retire. I'm going to do this till I can't do it no more. I'm going to go down swinging.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And one thing about your, your company here is we do race like crazy. We race hard. But Mike Baumgartner and you and all your guys, we've got deals that you don't even know about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm sure.

[Danny Lawrence]

The Justin Allgaier two years ago wrecked at Chicago, and we were there to get your car off the truck because the trucks are so far away, and there's been times when, all right, Baumgartner, I need a transmission. If I need a transmission during the race. And he goes, well, there'll be one in the hallway of the 7 truck. If you need it, you just go down and get it. And we got a deal. If you use a backup car or two, you can have our backup car. I mean, it's like, we will. We've got deals. Because I love seeing you win. I love. You know, we're part of the Chevrolet family, and. And we had a lot of drama in Martinsville, and. And you guys won the race, and both of our cars are wrecked, and neither one of them made it to the playoffs. So I'm like, you know what? Wasn't their fault. I'm going to go over there and congratulate Baumgartner and Justin and Pullman and all that. So I go over there and I hear, Danny, Danny, Danny, Danny. And I'm like, look. And it was my high school sweetheart. My high school sweetheart was actually. She's all guy's nanny.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, crap.

[Danny Lawrence]

And like, I hadn't seen her in 30 years. I had not seen her in 30 years. And I went over there and talked to her and her husband. I've known them forever and ever and ever. And I'm like, they're doing great. They got grandkids and this and that. What? And I'm like, man, it's. It's. It is a small world. I'm like, how come you didn't tell me? And he's like, I knew about it, but I didn't, you know, whatever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But we.

[Danny Lawrence]

We have. We're family as well. You know, if anything. You know, if anything ever happens. The. Back in the day when Richard said, hey, Dev junior's gonna drive our car, I'm like, everybody was so excited. And I heard you made a comment one time about that was the easiest thing. We put in a lot of work because we. Richard said, don't embarrass us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh.

[Danny Lawrence]

So. Built a brand new car, did all the stuff. I mean, we had two or three things we needed to do, and we rolled with it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And when you got. When you. You won 10 races last year, we. We. We loved it because we are part of the family.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And I. I feel like that we do so much stuff together. I mean, my baumgartner is one of my best friends on the road, and we don't. We help each other.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And it's because of the relationship we have with you and your family, and it's an extension of rcr.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Danny Lawrence]

Richard loves you like a son as well. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I've had the same. I have the same feeling about Richard. And the RCR connection is more than just the relationship dad and, you know, had with Richard and the success they had on the racetrack. Dad and Richard were like brothers and.

[Danny Lawrence]

Brothers that fought from time to time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They did, of course, and that's perfectly natural. There'd be a problem if they didn't. And so I've always maintained in my mind that, you know, while we do compete on the racetrack, that is so small and singular, you know, compared to the history and relationship we have and the trust. And, you know, that is a bond that would be very, very challenging to break. I will say this, though. The going back to driving the car that I raced, the oreo car in xfinity race at Daytona, I was pretty excited because I knew that, you know, y' all had good stuff, and that was going to be. It was kind of going to be nice to see some of the, you know, some of the familiar faces that I would run into work driving the car. I'm over there running my cup deal. It's the Daytona weekend. You're kind of back and forth, and it was. It's a hustle from one garage to the next. So I go over to the xfinity garage, get ready for the first practice. And y' all were like, we're just gonna go out and make a run and come in and check something and then go make another run. And I was like, all right. So went out, ran, came back in, ran another run. 15 minutes, we're done. Still another hour of practice left, but we're done. And then we had happy hour. And I went out there and ran, and I was like, you know, it's. It's pretty good, but it's just. It feels like it's got a lot of wheel in it, and it's a little tight, especially off turn four. And we would always. That was back in the old bumpy Daytona days. And if the wind was blowing in the door off of two or four, Wherever the wind was blowing in the door, it made you tight. And y' all were like, oh, we can fix that. And so I believe. I never saw my own eyes, but I believe that Y' all had a pan or the radiator pan, y' all could open it up. And so, yeah, it was just maybe. I don't know, I'm just guessing, maybe like a 5 by 8 hole that y' all just opened up. And it would create like a vacuum and sucked a nose down in the racetrack. And, golly, it fixed all of the tightness and made that car pin to the corner on exit where everybody else is kind of struggling. Tight off, tight off. And that was going to get worse as you get made the right front mad. We didn't have that problem in the race, and that was literally the only thing we did. And again, like in happy hour, happy hour is the last practice, your last chance to make sure everything's right. We ran 20 minutes of an hour and stopped. And I'm like, you know, this is how dad did it. This is that. Y' all always were covering Yalls car up early. You know, if y'. All. Y' all were always messing with the competition, putting a cover on the car 30 minutes before the end of practice. And I'm like, man, this is neat. It was like I was kind of seeing it through the lens of what dad would experience with y'.

[Danny Lawrence]

All.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And we went out and ran the race, and it was effortless. The car was.

[Danny Lawrence]

He knew what he wanted, just like you did. Well, speaking of car covers 87, we go to Daytona. And that's back when Beatty was. Was the crew chief. And they. Back then, I'm not going.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We did.

[Danny Lawrence]

We never cheated. And I'm gonna tell you the Andy's petrie story right after this. But so. But we pushed everything to the end of the rules. And back then, they had, you know, a long template and a side template and this and that. So at Daytona, you needed a totally different car than you needed at Talladega. Really, you needed. The racetrack was rough. It would get hot, this and that. So you needed. You needed a car to be able to handle for the loan. So the back end of our car was 4 inches longer. The spoiler and all the back deck lid and all that stuff was longer. So. And our car looked different. And they came over the speaker and they said at 12 noon, anybody that wants to see the templates put on the three car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What?

[Danny Lawrence]

Cause we were the champion. So we had the first stall.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They said that over the weekend.

[Danny Lawrence]

Oh, yeah. So all these people came over, they.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Put all the templates on the car.

[Danny Lawrence]

Everything fit perfect. So we're covering car up at the end of the day, and the Car cover won't fit because the car cover is made off of a regular car. We couldn't get it over the back. It was like, oh, well, it's one thing that we missed on it. But it was fine. It was, it was good. But we weren't the only ones. There was, there was some of those cars look like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know that like Daryl and those guys. You can go, there's a, there's a wall trip car in the museum at Talladega and it's like four inches narrow.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The Junior Johnson bud car. You go in there and you can look at it, just tell it's like super narrow. And so, yeah, they were playing some games before because we at that point, I think around 85, 86, you didn't have. You had the long tip and that was it.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, they weren't measuring the width. All right, everybody. The 2026 NASCAR season is officially here. And you know what that means? It means new rides, new paint schemes, and another year of unforgettable moments out on the racetrack. And if you want to bring all of that action home, you've got to check out Lionel Racing. They're the official die cast of nascar. They've got the largest selection of officially licensed NASCAR diecast. From race wins to the newest cars hitting the track this season, they've got it all. They're incredibly detailed with the same paint and the same sponsors and same attitude that you see on race day. They're must haves for collectors and fans alike. And right now, to kick off the season, Lionel Racing is offering free domestic shipping. When you use promo code, download 26. That's free shipping just for the fans of the Delgender download. So head over to lionel racing.com make sure to grab your favorite driver's latest die cast and start the 2026 season the right way. That's download 26 for free shipping only@lionel.

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You were going to tell another story. Andy Petrie.

[Danny Lawrence]

The Andy Petrie thing. So Andy Petrie shows up at rcr. He's going to be the co chief. He comes in and he's been there for about a week and he says okay, now show me all stuff like what are you talking about? Are your tricks, your magic, your, your. All the things, all the cheating stuff that y' all did. So Will Lynn grabs hold of him, carries him over there, set up plate right in the middle of the room and he goes, see that seat right there? He goes, yeah, that's where all our magic is. The guy sits in that seat. We don't have no nitrous, we don't have no movable is. We don't have no, we weren't doing any of that stuff. It was all, it was all basics and that was, that was the truth. And Andy was like, you don't have no trick spoilers or no trick cows or no way to move the fenders or take lead out? Like. No, we don't have none of that. You don't have any, you know, five speed transmissions or what? No, we don't have. We don't have any of that. You don't have any aluminum panels or any way to cause a caution or. No, we don't have any. He goes, oh, my gosh. I'm like. And he couldn't believe it. He could not believe it. But. So Andy's thing was, we gonna have some of that stuff. And then Richard's like, andy, you embarrass us and it's on you. So I don't know if Andy had all that stuff, all the other places he ran and, you know, this and that, but.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But he brought that damn spoiler from the skull car.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes, I have it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, with the wires and the retractor where the spoiler laid down. He said they let, they. They used in qualifying. They're scared to do it in the race. Imagine you could see it if you were behind him. But I. I kind of always wondered. We talk about that all the time on here with folks about ingenuity and cheating and all that stuff. And I got this big old lead radio right here.

[Danny Lawrence]

That, that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gary Nelson, he brought that over. That's from like 1978.

[Danny Lawrence]

Gotcha.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Die. Guard Air Walter. That thing, it's tungsten. It's not lit. But, you know, I was telling. I was in Nashville yesterday speaking at the Cattlemen and Beef association and telling them about the Darrell Walter story where they had lead shot in the frame rail and it come out the jack stop. And every time NASCAR would go look for it, they couldn't see the hole because the jack was jacking the car up on the jack stop. But so y' all never. Y' all never. No, I mean, how do you. How do you get people like I. This is my question to you is I believe you, all right? I believe you when you tell me that you wouldn't. But in a garage that is cheating or bending the rules or whatever is rampant. I mean, it was like a badge of honor. Everyone in the garage felt like they had won over the next guy. They don't know about what I'm doing here. And every guy in the garage, you look in the eyes of all of those crew chiefs back in the 80s, and all of them had something they were hiding. And it's hard for me to believe that you guys were 100% up and up.

[Danny Lawrence]

So there's a picture floating around of your dad with his foot underneath front of the car. That's not that. That is that. And people are like, that's how he won all those races.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like it. I like he would. There's a. That picture. I see it every now and then, probably every six months on social media. And that picture makes me think. You know, I kind of do want people to think dad was smarter than the technical inspectors. I kind of like. Because he was. You know, he thought he was smarter than everybody else, and that's. That's an image of him in his mind. But what he's truly doing in that picture. And y' all aren't weighing the car. I mean, that would be, you know, lifting the car with his foot would go against the minimum weight.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, one of the things that dad did that a lot of people don't realize is he walked around, like, back in. Back in the 80s and the 90s. The front valence height on the car was critical to speed and how competitive your car was going to be. And he would walk around, and he wanted to. If he could, take a tape measure to every car out there on the grid or in the garage.

[Co-host or Guest]

Right.

[Danny Lawrence]

But.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But instead of doing that, he'd walk over and slide his foot under there and see what shoelace. Because he had them racing shoes on that laced all the way up to the ankle. And he'd see what shoelace that valence hit, and he would then walk off and go, well, that went up to the seventh shoelace. That's a little higher than the last one.

[Danny Lawrence]

That's exactly what he did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's what he's doing, and that's what he's kind of doing in that picture is like measuring the valence with his foot. And that was kind of his way of kind of seeing if he was where he needed to be and where the competition was at.

[Danny Lawrence]

You're exactly. Exactly right. He knew a lot about those cars. And. And when you. When you and Kelly and Carrie and all were going to start driving, he came in the truck one day and he said, I'm gonna make them work on those cars or they're not driving. I want them to be able to realize what it takes, what the. What you guys go through and what it takes to race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And I know he made you. I know he made you work on the cars there so that. So you could appreciate what is. Doesn't just happen and how easy you can tear one up. You know, weeks and weeks and weeks of work, and you can tear one up. In just a minute. Oh, yeah, he was. When you were winning all those races, he was so proud of you. He'd come back in, you know, he'd.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Be like, happy hour was right after I our races in the bush series. And I. I didn't get to see him. He might pop into victory lane. We win Dover, right. 98 or something. I think he pops into Victor lane. He's got a suit on.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. Because he's getting ready, getting his car. And he's there for like a minute. Hug, high five, slap on the forehead, whatever. Right.

[Danny Lawrence]

That's about what you're going to get.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Then he's gone. I'm like, damn, I wish he was hanging around. You know, we're going to take all these pictures and I want to hear. I want to. In five or ten minutes, if he had hung out, I might actually get to hear what he's thinking, Right?

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But he'd be jumping his car because he had to be first out or one, you know, didn't want. You know, it was a competition. He was back in his mode.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes, one. 100%. 100%.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But tell me what he would do when I would win races in xfinity series.

[Danny Lawrence]

He would come back and he'd go get you some of that Dale Jr. And he would say stuff to us like that you didn't think about till later on. He'd say, we're making history or this or that or let's get our picture made. He'd say that all the time. And you could tell, like most of the time when he walked to the car, he was strictly business. Is like, he didn't, you know, it's time to go to work and, you know, as good as anybody. A lot. A lot of people out there don't know. He wouldn't get out of the car. He would just lay over there and take a little nap. Even if it's for five minutes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

It's like he was focused and dedicated to try to make that car as good as it possibly could be. He'd go out and run one lap, one time and go, can't drive it. You know, need, you know, put a shim in the front or, you know, change the rear springs or this or that. And I'm like, how do you know in one lap the tires aren't even worn? But he did. He knew what he. He knew what kind of feel that he wanted. I mean, he. He's amazing race car driver. And he also knew the car is really good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. If mechanically.

[Danny Lawrence]

Oh, yeah. Like, like he could build a gear, he could build a transmission, he could build, you know, it's, it's like he knew how to wire the car. I mean, he knew you would, you wouldn't bull him on anything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. Because he knew what was right and what was wrong. Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

One of the things I wanted to throw out there was he was the best ticket to anything that ever happened. So he would come up like, hey, George Strait's going to be here in a little bit, hang out with us, or, you know, or this guy or that guy. You would go, hey, man, I want to go see the Eagles. No problem. He would call anywhere. He could get you tickets anywhere. He could get you into anything. You're like, these are Earnhardt's boys and they would put you backstage and I mean, it was, it was like an open door. He was bigger than life. For anything that you. I know you. I know you know what I'm talking about. It's like whatever it was, he could get you in. Yeah, it was, it was really amazing. Will in used to say all the time that good ranch shirts better than a tuxedo. That good rich shirt is better than. I don't know why you want to go back and put on a nice sweater or anything. You leave that good. He said that right there is the ticket.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I bet. So, all right, so you were born in Clemens, North Carolina, graduated high school 1980. What drew, what was. How did you get into racing?

[Danny Lawrence]

All right, so this is crazy. This is really, really crazy. So back when I was little, I took the telephone apart. I was a tinkerer, always wanted to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did you get in trouble taking it?

[Danny Lawrence]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had to get it. My mom was soft, my dad was tough. You're like, you better get that. He'll be here in a few minutes. You better. I was just a tinker and then so in 1969 I got Honda 50 and it wouldn't go. It was a three speed, wouldn't go fast enough. So I worked on it and I ended up messing with it. You know, worked on the carburetor, just self taught. And then I got a SL70 and that thing would go, it was four speed. And then, you know, worked on it and this and that. And then I got to be where I hung around some, some guys that worked on engines and this and that. And I started to had a 70 Camaro that I tore apart at my house. And there's a guy that works for GM now, he's the lead, lead engineer for General Motors. He's in charge of the formula one and all. Patrick Knuck. But lived on my street. So Patrick says. Oh yes. Patrick says, you know, at three o' clock in the morning, my mom and dad were not happy with you because I would do stuff and I'd run up and down the street, you know, open headers. Yeah, yeah. They knew it was you, by the way. And I'm like, I laughed about it. So I got to be where I started tearing engines doing. And then I had a friend of mine that, that raced back in 78 and 79. He raced at Caraway and he wanted to run a Buick V8. And so I built this. Buick V8 was my first race engine. Bobby the Bonnie was down there learning how to drive and this and that and that kind of got me. I got intrigued by it. Kind of self taught. And then I was helping Bobby Moody at RCR and in the body shop I'd come in, I'd go to school, I'd come in at nighttime.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're in what grade?

[Danny Lawrence]

And I was senior.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. So they let you just start coming by.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, Bobby. Bobby was a friend of mine. He worked at Modern Chevrolet when I did. And he was the paint guy at a Chevy store. Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he got hired by rcr.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yep. Bobby was from Mount Air, North Carolina and he was. He was paint and body guy. And so Bobby work all night long. And so I would get out of school and I would go, Bobby like saying this or this or that or. I just kind of got to helping him and then helped him for about two years. And then when you were helping him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you know where you were? Did you. Were you in all of being able to be around those cars?

[Danny Lawrence]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean this is. What year is she?

[Danny Lawrence]

So this was 82.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

82. So dad does not. It's Ricky Rudd.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yep. It's the white. It's the white Piedmont car. So then 84 comes around and Richard says we got some funding and we've had some issues in the engine shop. Can you help tear engines apart? And I'm like, I need to finish my school. And this. I had a record back then. My dad bought me a record Technical college. I'm going to Forsyth site technical school, taking business administration and I ended up going to Davison Community College as well. And you finished and. Yes, I did. And I got business degree and I got a auto mechanics degree. And so at the end of 84, Richard's like, I want you to come on full time and work in tear down. So in 85, I went to work there. This. This is my 41st year at RCR now. And tore engines apart for Lularosa. And there was three people in the engine shop and clean parts and this and that. And then Lou's like, okay, I'm gonna teach you how to fit bearings. Okay, I'm gonna teach you how to fit rings. I'm gonna teach you how. I learned how to cut pistons. I learned how to balance cranks. I learned how to. But I did that for seven years. And then he let me start putting a few engines together, qualifying engines and practice engines and this, this and that. Just kind of progressed as it went back then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You remember when you had. How might have you felt when the engine you actually had the most involvement in putting back together went to the racetrack?

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes, I do remember that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What was that like?

[Danny Lawrence]

I was scared to death.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

Because. So a couple engines I put together, we used them on a dyno to run cams and cylinder heads, and we beat them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Was a good way of.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Some confidence up and seeing your motor on the dyno, not. Not blowing up.

[Danny Lawrence]

So while Lou was there. Lou never let me build a race motor. He built every one of them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure.

[Danny Lawrence]

But I built practice motors and some qualifying engines. And then when Eddie Lanier came in, I mean, me and Eddie built them together. Eddie. Eddie was incredible as well. Eddie. Eddie. He pushed everything to the limit. Before, when Lou was there. Lou was a great engine builder, but the main thing was make sure they don't blow up. Make sure they run all the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But he, you know, and to his credit, he had come from the 70s.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And that's when you were breaking lots of engines. And that was the end of the. You know, you'd blow motor, and that would be detrimental to the shot it went in the championship. So he kind of had this sort of different, you know, he had a different, you know, feeling about, I guess, Mindset. Yeah, mindset. Toward the long, you know, the durability versus speed.

[Danny Lawrence]

We were. This is a little technical, but back then, we would run the pistons five down in the hole. And what does that mean? So. So where. Where the. Where the piston. Where the piston comes up. It would be down in the hole, and Eddie gets there, and he wanted to run everything at zero. And I'm like, eddie, man, it's going. I'm afraid it's going to. When we. If we miss a shift or hit really hard, he goes. He goes. We got 43,000ths of gasket. We're good. We're good. And we, we'd come back some of those races and pull the heads off and you could see where they, just, where they were basically clean, where they were. Everything was so close.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That build up.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, it had no build up. Yeah. And it was like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And that's more compression.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, put a little safeguard in there. That's going to cost you a little.

[Danny Lawrence]

But Eddie brought us a little power and it showed up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And so then, so I learned a lot from both of those guys. And then, you know, Chevrolet was heavily involved with us and, and being our automotive machine. Ronnie Revs and Ken Bingham, they were, they were doing. A lot of people don't know this. That's. That's what started Hendrick engines and then Hendrick ended up taking it over. But we were a small group. Every. All the Chevrolet people worked together really good. You know, we developed camshafts together. Not the camshaft itself, but the material it was made out of and this. And. And it was, it was an inventor's time. I mean, it was. They would. There was always something new coming and you would. There were, there were, there were times when you pick up 12 or 13 horsepower through the year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And now half a horsepower or a horse. Yeah, you're lucky. You're lucky. But it was, it was amazing times. It was, it was, it was great. Very, very, very fortunate to be in the situation I was in. You know, I had, I was at the right place at the right time and for my job. We were. You know how hard we work and, you know, how hard, you know, we're down. You know, we get down on the ground and we. Whatever it takes. But, man, I wouldn't have it any other way. You also know the feeling you get when you go and you win these races. That's why I continue to do it, because I love to win. And your dad was the same way. He was mad if second place was nothing. He wanted, he wanted to win. I mean, there's a couple times when we were. Had a 12th or 14th place car and he would end up fifth and he'd still be pissed off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he.

[Danny Lawrence]

I'm sitting there going like, that's not that bad. And he's like, no, that sucks. Yeah, I came to win these races. Yeah, we won 11 races in 87. And he's like, it's not enough. He never, he never laid down. Yeah, he wanted to win every single one of them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I believe you. When did, when did you go to the racetrack?

[Danny Lawrence]

So how did that happen? 86, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Early.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, early.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you remember the initiation on the road? Is there a. You know, was it. What was it like being one of the younger sort of new guys in that whole group?

[Danny Lawrence]

So mine was totally different than everybody else's, so I've never had any alcohol. I've never drank nothing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Never.

[Danny Lawrence]

Never.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And they. Life.

[Danny Lawrence]

Never. Never had a. Had a drop of alcohol. And they feel. Yeah. And they found that out why?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So even today still.

[Danny Lawrence]

Because they push me to try.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was a personal choice.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah. Yeah. Because my mom and my dad back in the day had a friend that got ran over by a drunk driver. And my dad told me early on, he said, if I can raise you not to be a drunk or not to be a druggie, I've done my job. And I'm like, no problem. So never smoked a joint, and I had never drank any alcohol. Then when we get into the racing thing, you know, we. We worked hard at the racetrack.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Partied hard to.

[Danny Lawrence]

Partied hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How did you party with them guys?

[Danny Lawrence]

I was the designated driver. Yes, I was. I mean, love that. Yeah. They. I've drove them guys around a lot. A lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. How hard. How hard, though, was it to resist? I mean, I'm sure there were some moments where they were like, oh, you know, they really put. To put the. Put you in the vice.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

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Your.

[Danny Lawrence]

Your dad is like, come on, man, just drink one champagne. We won the champion. I'm like, I'm not. Not. I'm not doing it. I am.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Even in those moments.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not.

[Danny Lawrence]

They push really hard, and then, you know, hey, I'll get you a drink. And you smell it. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They try to trick you.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn.

[Danny Lawrence]

But so we. We were really tight. We. We were never mean to each other. We had David. David was strictly by the book.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

David. I. I should say David was very religious and practiced his faith often and was which I felt like I liked that about David because it seemed like that y' all needed that. Yeah. Because there was as wild as y' all were on the track and off the track, it was cool that he was a balance. Just like, you know, you had your big guy chocolate, right. The big teddy bear. No. Everybody was terrified of him.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But he was absolutely the softest guy of the whole bunch. Yes, it was. I mean, I swear, it was like cast for. It was like a cast for a movie. You couldn't have done a better job if you were literally casting it for a movie.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, we had. We had the good, the bad. We had. We had it. We had it all. I mean, it's. It was. And it just kind of happened that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Way, just by chance.

[Danny Lawrence]

And. And your dad was right in the middle of it. He would. He was the ultimate team player. Your dad would come over, and every. Every weekend, he would give somebody else. It would either be me. Chocolate. Will, here's $500. Take the boys out. Dinner, you know, but don't tell nobody. And we. We. I mean, he always took care of us. He. I was at Pocono, and he's like, what's wrong? Because he could read people really good. What's wrong? I said, my grandfather's not doing good, man. Well, what's wrong with him? He got cancer. He goes, why are you here? I'm like, cause we got to win this race. So he flew me home to be with my grandfather, and then he had his pilots wait. And. Doctor said, your grandfather's going to be okay through Sunday. Flew me back to Pocono, and I'm like, thanks, man. He goes, don't thank me, man. He goes, I can't believe he came back. I'm like, we got an opportunity to win this race. But he's like, don't tell nobody. I mean, he did so much stuff for people. He didn't want people to know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And I mean, remember Lucky, the pilot? Oh, I do, yeah. Lucky was like, I'm here for you. You just let me know what we're doing. We were at Martinsville one time and just mentioned, like, motocross races in Charlotte. He goes, y' all want to go? I'm like, love to go. He goes, take my helicopter. I'm like, me and Will. And I'm like, really? I have a car over there for you guys. So Saturday, we flew out of Martinsville. He flew us in his helicopter. He's like, I'm not using it. We landed right beside a Charlotte Motor Speedway. And he goes, oh, yeah. By the way, me and Jeff Gordon own all that property over there. And, like, we had no clue. Their big lot, right? I think it's where 10/10 is now. Your dad and Jeff own that together. And it's like, won't nobody say anything to you. We own that. We had no. I mean, there was so much secret stuff that he kept.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And then he's like, helicopter's coming back up here, but I've got y' all a Suburban there. And, like, he just, don't be late tomorrow. I mean, it's like he made stuff happen. I mean, you know what I'm talking about?

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want to talk about some of the. The rivalries that dad had. I suppose, starting with Jeff Boudine in the 87 to 90 range, there was. I don't know why it was just Charlotte, but they wouldn't hardly. I mean, they. They'd run each other like. But they wouldn't wreck each other until we got back home to Charlotte. And for some reason, I don't know whether it was because dad was in front of his family, and, I mean, everybody in the family was at the race. Right. And Rick's got. You know, Rick and his businesses are in Charlotte City Chevrolet and all that. My granddaddy, Robert G. That does the body work on that car, lives freaking 150 yards off turn one at Charlotte. And for some reason, they would get around that race and. And have problems, and it'd be in the bush race, and it'd blend over to the cup race. And I know the answer to this because I've asked Kirk about it and talk to Richard and different people about it. But in all of those moments, there was one or two times where, for example, there was one weekend they ran into each other in the bush race. I think dad spun Jeff down the back stretch off of two, running for the lead, and nothing happened. And I believe the next day in the cup race, they. They got running into each other, and dad wrecked him, and in the middle of three and four. And that's when I think he got penalized, brought into the penalty box.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I was sitting there in the. I'm just a kid, but I'm thinking like a freaking adult. I'm sitting there going, man, what are we doing? Like, dad, can you not, like, control yourself enough? This is. This is.

[Danny Lawrence]

We're trying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, I'm always. I was so consumed with him winning the race, but also the championship.

[Danny Lawrence]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, we can't. You know, y' all break. Broke a cam that year. Rusty, I think, beat y' all in the champion. Y' all broke a cam at Charlotte.

[Danny Lawrence]

Dover. Dover.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Was it Dover?

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, I'm. That. That was devastating for me. I know it was for y', all, too, I'm sure. But, I mean, I live this so damn hard, and when he. When he gets. When he does that, I'm like, damn, we have to do that. And then they penalize you, and I'm like, crap, dad. You know, this is kind of your fault. You know that? And. But he's you know, he didn't see it that way. Did y'. All. Did you? I guess not. Y' all speak. Speaking for yourself, was there ever a moment where you were, like, grinding your teeth, going, did we really have to.

[Danny Lawrence]

There was a few of those, yeah. But. But the thing about it was, I believe with Bodine, it was more personal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was so personal.

[Danny Lawrence]

It was the. It was the things that was said.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And the things that, you know, when. When he. When he would catch Bodine from a straightaway back or whatever, he was all over the racetrack, and he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

He's just like, you know what? I'm not messing with you. Yeah, I'm not. And just kept getting uglier and ugliers. Like an ugly divorce almost. It just would not stop. And yes. Answer the question is yes. We were at Bristol one time, and we got penalized, and Richard walked over to the NASCAR trailer and called up to the tower, picked Mr. France.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, how do you do that?

[Danny Lawrence]

There's a. There was a telephone in the NASCAR trailer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And he. And they chewed Richard's ass for that one. And he's like, yeah, we won't do that again. But it was like we were for our team.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And there were so many times when Dale took an average car and won with it. And it. I mean, we. We had to roll with whatever. You know, we had that. We had the saying back in the day. You know, today, people think Dale Earnhardt wrecked everybody to win. He did not know. He did not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He was rough.

[Danny Lawrence]

He.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I loved every freaking second of it. Like, that was all that was he to me. I loved that. You know, he was physical, and he backed it up. He walked the walk.

[Danny Lawrence]

You knew what you had. If he caught you or if he. You know, it. It's what he. It's what he was. But we had this saying that he wasn't selective either. No. No, he wasn't. I don't know whose fault it was, but it wasn't his. That was what we used to always say. That was the deal. Like, I didn't see exactly what happened, but I know it wasn't his fault.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think about things like that. Like, I would have loved having all this opportunity over the last 25 years to reflect on his career, having a chance to sit at this table and talk to so many people that we've been able to kind of relive stories that we knew, but get a little more context and. And even hear stories we didn't know. And there's so. I mean, There's a God, my pile of. I would love to just sit down with him and go, man, what was going on there? Why did you do that? Or how come this happened? And what would you have done here if he. If he was sitting here? You know, what was. What is something that you would share with him or want to know or want to let him know?

[Danny Lawrence]

Your dad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

Me and him were really tight.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure.

[Danny Lawrence]

We had a. I can explain to you how he was exactly. He's building DEI and he's like, what are you doing? Like, come down here. So we're walking through the place and the walls are up, and he says, I'm gonna make this the show place. I want to have the. The engine builders booths where. Where we can give tours. I'm like, dale, you don't want to do that. You don't want. The engine builders need to be able to concentrate when they're degreeing the cam and they're putting engine. You don't want. People walk by and talk to them. He goes, well, that's what I'm doing. I'm going to have these cubicles because I'm bringing. I want the fans to be able to see exactly how this thing goes together. I'm like, you're opening yourself up for an issue. And he goes, well, that's what I'm doing. So when he finally got it built, he had those cubicles, but he went in and put rooms right across from him on the other side. He never said he was wrong. So he's like, when they get to that point, they can take him in the room, but. So then he goes, hey, I want to appreciate you helping me. Come back here to the Deer head room. And he pulls this gun out, and it's got a scope on. He goes, I sighted this in. I'm like, that thing's badass. He said that DE was the serial number. It was a Remington. And he goes, here, I want you to have this. That was a. That was a.280. I want you to have this.30,32. So he gave me two guns with the serial number started with DE that Remington made. And he had a whole. He had piles of meaning. He wrote them down. And don't you tell anybody I give you those guns. I mean, it was like all the nice things he did. He didn't want people to know it. Yeah, but he. He always. He always appreciated.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would ask him that if he was sitting here. Why did. Why did you always say, don't tell nobody?

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes. Yes. I mean, he did Things for the churches around here. And this. It was. It was like. But also, I knew. I knew when. I knew when to talk to him and when not to talk to him. I knew. I knew, you know, you could tell real easy what kind of mood he was in just by.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Soon as he walked in the room.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes, yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The room changed for whatever mood he was in.

[Danny Lawrence]

One of the funniest things was. So GM Comes in and they're like, okay, we're going to take you to the next level. We're going to. We called it charm school. They sent him to this deal to make him. Where he could learn how to talk to people.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What year was this?

[Danny Lawrence]

This was. This was. This was 86, 87.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And we want the crew to go, too. So they. They filmed him talking. They say, okay, read this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wonder where this shit's at.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah. And so they would show it to him, say, this is what you look like on tv. And this is. You don't say duh. Or. Or this. You know, they're teaching it. Oh, yeah. We called it charm school. And it's like, I hate to hear myself talk. I hate to see myself on tv. I hate to. And. And it's. The. The little guy that was doing the class is. Is like, we're going to make you famous. And he said, I already am famous. I don't need all this. But. But he did pay attention to it because he never.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He was good on camera.

[Danny Lawrence]

He was good on TV. I mean, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But in 1998, right before Daytona, they sent me to same thing. I was. I don't know what you would call it, but I remember it being in downtown Concord, and I was literally in a classroom, and there were people in there that were, like, mocking interviews, right. With me. And we would go over, like, the, you know, a fake conversation, and they were like, man, you got to work on. Stop. You know, gotta stop saying. And between every four or five words. And we would do an interview. No, mock interview. Watch it. Go do another one. Watch it. And I'm like, man, this is awful. And it was like two, two or three days.

[Danny Lawrence]

That's what. That's. So we called that charm. Still. He did one day of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got sent to it because I guess he appreciated it.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, he did. He did. But he took all the films, and he did get a lot better. Yeah, he was. You know, but he didn't want anybody telling him how he needed to act or how he needed to talk or how he needed to do anything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've got this Video. We were talking about this the other day, but I got this video and I found it. I've got a ton of VHS tapes and I don't even know what's on half of them, but I was going through some of them and it's dad, and he's in the Deer Head shop and he's doing an ad for mattress. A mattress. And it's talking about how good asleep he gets. And he's in his uniform. And I'm at. I'm. I'm in the shot, off to the side, dressed in the Goodyear Good wrench ship, wiping the top of this car with a rag. And Rick Boston, Tony Senior are off in the back working on two, you know, stuff in the background. And I had forgotten. I had forgotten how. How he was. Some like the. I had forgotten, like the. The. The real texture of being around him right in the exact detail of what his temperament was. And he is freaking miserable trying to read this. And he's reading off a cue cards over the top of the camera. And Theresa must be in. Teresa's in the background, and there's a bunch of people in the background. And he does about two or three reads. And he's getting pissed. He's messing it up, messing it up. And he's talking to himself, and he's talking to himself and he finally says. And Teresa says something like, it sounds really good. And he goes, hush. And I'm like. I'm like, I forgot that part of him, you know, that would just like, you know, it snap like a dog. And he says, everybody behind the camera, out. Y' all go outside, walk around. So everybody leaves the whole damn room except for the guy that says action and the camera guy. And then like 10 minutes later, he looks over at me and he goes, you want to do this? Like, he's so annoyed at himself now. He's like yelling at me, I ain't done. I'm just wiping the roof of the scarf. 15 minutes. And he goes, you want to do this? And I go, hell, I've heard it so many times. I probably could. And I'm like, holy. I, like had. I've got this in my mind. I've got this idea that I was always like, you know, oh, boy, don't say anything around dad. You know, he was. He was this tough and rough guy, but, you know, I must have walked around on eggshells, but there I was snapping back at him being a little smart ass. And. And that little video, it's 25 minutes of him trying to Figure out how to read this. This line and get it right was exactly what it was like to be around him, like, 90% of the time.

[Danny Lawrence]

You know, he was good at everything. And when. When he had. When he struggled with something like that, he would get so annoyed. Yeah. Oh, he get frustrated. He didn't. He didn't like, you know, there was nothing he didn't know about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

I mean, he knew.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He didn't like not being perfect at something, you know, great and.

[Danny Lawrence]

But he was good at a lot of stuff, too. I mean, it really, really finished product.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm sure, was just fine. Yeah, man, it was so funny.

[Danny Lawrence]

And he also didn't want to do what he didn't want to do. He wanted to do what he wanted to do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And I'm sure that they're like, hey, you got to do. He probably said, yeah, I'll do it. And then the time to do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's like, I was supposed to be doing this.

[Danny Lawrence]

That would. That would be. That would be him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. I suppose we can move on and get into the xfinity stuff. You know, you guys won a championship this past year. Y' all have had a lot of success over the. Over the course of the. I don't know how long you've been sort of shepherding that program.

[Danny Lawrence]

Since 18.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Since 18.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, Yalls, specifically, Yalls speed and ability at Atlanta, Daytona, Talladega. It's as. Nothing has changed for literally 30 years. Y' all take a ton of pride, I suppose I'm assuming, because of how good your cars are in. In running well at Daytona, at Talladega. Am I right?

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, we really do. And there's Is a lot of effort put in, and we're working on our short track programs now, and we're working on. You know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it.

[Danny Lawrence]

All this stuff happens on purpose. It's. It's a lot. Cause the cars hadn't changed that much and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which is good.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah. Yeah. Which. Which is. Which is good. I love. I love these cars. Being able to have a little bit that you can do to them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Feel like you're doing something.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes. Even if you're not really. You do feel like you. You. You know. You know what I'm saying?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I feel the same way. I. I've been around some shops and. And some people in the industry and they'll. You know, when I. When I. When I started racing with Tony Senior and Tony Junior, they in. They didn't. I don't know that they emulated rcr, but they adopted the focus that you guys put on Daytona. They adopted that. And, and I know it was industry wide that when in the off season, everyone probably spent three months on the Daytona car and a month or two weeks on the rest of the cars that, you know, you just. That Daytona car, you'd go to test in January, you'd rip the body off. You'd put two or three bodies off on the car before you actually got to the racetrack and ran the 500. But there was just an ungodly amount of work put into that one single race car for that one race. And, and Tony Senior, Tony junior And them guys were no different. And so when we started racing in the Cup Series, same thing we just, man, they just, they put everything into the Daytona car and y' all were doing the same thing. So was a lot of teams in the garage. Fast forward to like 2014. You know, we weren't, I don't think, industry wide quite as, you know, focused on the Daytona cars as we were. And I actually went to working with. I don't think he'd mind me saying this. I started racing with Latart and he's like, man, I can't wait to get you in our Daytona car and watch you do what you do. Man, we're going to be great. And I, we go out there to run around a little bit and I was like, man, this thing's not good enough. I was like, we're, you know, I do need the car to kind of help me and I can't get it to be on the offense. And here's a couple of things I feel like. I feel. And, and he was like. And, and we had a couple guys in the shop that loved the details in the Arrow and they were ready to, like, go to work and they were some of the old school guys. And I was like. So we, we went and Steve went back and we went and made. We did. We turned over every tiny little stone. It didn't matter if it was a maybe, just might help. We're going to pile it all on this car, right? And it was in. It was remarkable. I'm like, all right, now we got it. I can do everything I want with this car. And, and I feel like that y' all still do that. I feel like that y' all still. That mentality isn't alive in every team even in the Xfinity series today. You know, that same mentality and preparation that you have going to a, you know, a plate track like Daytona or Talladega that you had 30 years ago that's still alive. And it's very evident by the ability that your cars have and what your drivers can do with them.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, we, we do spend a lot of time, a lot of massage, a lot of. And you know, Jay Bourne is our. He's. He's our. Our lead guy that, that hangs all of our bodies and does all of our stuff. And, and when he goes. When we go to these races, he pays attention to every template, every. You know, so that. And we make a list. Even if you win the race, we make a list of, like, what can we do better? You know, where was our heights? What about this? What about that? You know, and you never stop working on it. You just continue, continue, continue to work on it. And you know, you know how it is. If you win the 500 or you win the 300. Your year's pretty good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Danny Lawrence]

I mean, no matter, no matter. No matter what happens. And there is really something to that momentum, to where you roll in. You start the season off you go, and you qualify 17th, and you run 17th. It's hard to get it going. And you start to season, you know, everybody's their new stuff. You go down there and you look good, and you even get a feeling. I mean, I know, you know how it is when your cars are leading that race. You see them come by with all the bands, you know, all the TV stuff that's going on. You know, you have all your new sponsors there, man. It. It's just very satisfying to be good. And we push as hard as we can push, and we go as hard as we can go. And Richard and your dad both taught us that, that it's never good enough. Just keep going, going, going. There's. There's a couple times when we won't won races with your dad, and your dad would say that car wasn't very good or this or that or whatever. I'm like, we just won the race, man. You know, motor wasn't good or this or that, but his whole thing is he wanted us to continue to be better, and it was never good enough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you think the Xfinity series looks like in a couple years? There's so, you know, and I'm. I'm not. I'm not a. I'm not all knowing. So, you know, I'm going to be educated a little bit because you, you and Bummy and those guys are definitely on top of what's going on in the, in the series. But as I understand it, we are, you know, we're our parts and pieces are harder to get, you know, and ever since the, ever since the cup series or transitioned away from the type of parts and pieces that we run suspension wise and so forth, it's been more, it's going, it's going to continue, I guess to become more of a challenge. What are the, what I guess what are the hurdles in front of us as a, in, as a series? How long can we sustain? You know, me and you both love this car. We love how this car works when we look at it. It's familiar. How long can we sustain running this car? Is it not a problem? Is it going to eventually going to come to a head? Well, what do you think the future looks like?

[Danny Lawrence]

It's a double edged sword to start with. They would love for us to run what the cup guys are running. And it took them years and years to get the cup cars to where they are today and they're still tweaking on them. They also do not want to put a bunch of teams out of business.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right.

[Danny Lawrence]

And we need 30 cars there. 35. We need, we need to have full fields.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Danny Lawrence]

The other part of it is they really need a single lug so that, so that your pit crews on Sunday can do Saturday. Can do Saturday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's becoming an issue.

[Danny Lawrence]

That's becoming an issue. And then when you do that, there's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Less, I guess to explain it to the person listening. Like there's less five lug guys. There's less guys willing to do a Saturday car. There's less cup teams wanting to allow their guys to do the Saturday car. They get confused. They can't be as consistent and as sharp on Sunday. It's getting too important to be perfect on Sunday. Right. You can't exactly.

[Danny Lawrence]

You're exactly right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. So. And there's some old school guys that are, that are decent Sunday guys that are very good, that used to be or still very good, five little guys. But they'll age out. There'll be a day, I guess in five, 10 years where everybody that's doing pit stops is a single guy. Yeah. It won't be any five luggers anymore.

[Danny Lawrence]

They, they in today's world you can get a really good athlete and teach him how to do a single lug. He can be on a pit crew in six months. The five lug thing, it's years.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And years and years. And also with that you have the bigger brakes that everything's getting harder to get the rear in housing the brakes. This NASCAR is not going to have. They can't continue to keep running what we're running. But we, we have input. Me, Junior Motorsports, RCR and all the other teams have input with nascar. And what I would love to happen is for them to continue to let us build cars, but to their specs go to a single lug. I don't like the spec engine because I like knowing what's in the engine.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

And.

[Danny Lawrence]

But there, there's. We can't continue with what we have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And, but we also cannot put the Mike Harmon's and the Joey Gases. We can't put those guys out of business. We need them to be there. If you, if they came in to Junior Motorsports and they said, okay, this car is going to be $300,000 or $250,000, it would be, It'd be devastating. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They'd only be 14 teams out there.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes. And we've seen that before in other series. So they have some challenges. But the one, the one really good thing about NASCAR is, is that they talk to Dale Jr. They talk to Richard Childers, they talk to people like me and they, they try to make a plan that everybody can get along with this. It's not like it used to be. NASCAR is like, all right, this is what we're doing. This is it. So, so they, they, they do understand our battles and that's why they haven't already went to what the cup cars have. I don't think. I think we'll have something that's close to that, but I think that it'll be. I'm not going to say a cheaper version, but a more. Yeah. A more affordable version.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't, I look at the cup car and I'm not. Here's a couple things that I guess are. If you're saying if, if you were to come to me and say, okay, man, you're gonna. We got to make some changes. We just, we just can't sustain going down this path. And there's a, there's a, there's a shortage of, of brake parts or calipers and, and, and spindles and hubs and this, that and other. And so I would do everything I could to keep the 9 inch rear end. Yeah, I would do everything I could to keep the trailing arm style points like what that arm looks like can change, but the points themselves, all the pivot points. So I would leave the back of the car as is. But maybe you've got a new, you got a new company that's the single source for the trailing arm or the rear end housing. Right. But it really is unchanged in terms of how it functions. The front suspension. I feel the same way. I would be very weary of, like, improving our braking performance.

[Danny Lawrence]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think that was a step in the wrong direction for the cup cars to shorten braking zones and take away opportunities to charge and beat people into the corner. If anything, I'd make the brakes worse.

[Danny Lawrence]

Our racing is really good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is, yeah. Like, I don't want the brakes to work better. I want them to be long braking zones and. And that being a tool for a driver and so. And the underbelly, like, I don't want. I don't. I don't want any arrow underneath. Totally no diffuser.

[Danny Lawrence]

We. We don't have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We don't need any of that.

[Danny Lawrence]

We don't have. Like, there's. When you start doing that stuff, it goes very, very deep on the aerodynamic side. We don't have but 15 hours of wind tunnel time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And we, me and you share it together.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just don't want it to be part of how the cars operate and function on the racetrack.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, I don't want oval racing. Stock car racing to me is. And diffusers don't mix. And so, you know, that's. That's GT sports cars. That's left and right. That's a global part, you know, for sports car racing. So I think, you know, I'm hopeful. I know that eventually we've got to accept and be ready to adjust and make changes and pivot. And to your point, I hope it's an affordable route for our team so that we have very, you know, we got teams that can survive. But I think it's simple to stay simple and stay very close to how we're operating now and how things function physically. How literally the car's function is important.

[Danny Lawrence]

I am 100% with you on that because it would be really easy to mess our racing up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And I don't want the damn tires to change either.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Low profile tire.

[Danny Lawrence]

I'm with you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And if you don't put the brakes on it, you don't need the wheels, you don't need the smaller tire, all those things, you know, because I like our tire. I like our sidewall, I like how our tires function.

[Danny Lawrence]

And the. Our fan base. Base grew a lot last year just from the cw.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Danny Lawrence]

And it's amazing if you pay attention to what the fans are saying. The racing's really, really good. Racing's really good personalities are good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A lot of, you know, a lot of excitement. You got a couple of strong personalities in your team. Austin Hill, he's went through some things this past year, had some. Had some learning, teaching moments, I suppose is best way to put it. But, you know, what kind of. What kind of person is he? We've had him in the room, and I've had the chance to talk to him, y'.

[Danny Lawrence]

All.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know that, like, knowing you and Yalls track record and your loyalty and support, like, when he's going through those things, you guys got your arm around him. So how do you navigate that with him to help him?

[Danny Lawrence]

So. So the. He's misunderstood a lot like your dad was. If you should. If you could see him with his two daughters and his son, he's an incredible dad. He. He's a fierce competitor. He wants to win. He won't. He wants. You know, and he. He's. He don't want to be pushed around.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I know.

[Danny Lawrence]

He.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He talked about how he was bullied when he was younger, I think, and that was something that's kind of still sticks with him. And he doesn't like to feel like that's happening and he wants to. And sometimes it comes off as is him being the bully a bit. I wish he would, like, listen, I love to bust his chops. I like to, you know, give him a hard time. And I wish he'd loosen up. Like, that was pretty big last year, and I know it was. And I'm not minimizing what he went through. And I know it was probably. It wasn't fun for anybody. Right. But when. Fun for y'. All. One fun for anyone. But I wish he would call, loosen up a little bit.

[Danny Lawrence]

He will smile a little bit. He's. He's done. He's done great through the off season.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't want to look at him like, damn, you know, everything we're going to have to deal with with this guy is going to be problematic. Right. I want to. I want to have some good races. Fun.

[Danny Lawrence]

We will. We. We. You will.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

I 100% believe that he's lighting up a bunch. He is. He is not. He is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't want to take his edge away. I don't think you can.

[Danny Lawrence]

No, you're. You're. You're not. You're not going to take his edge away. And he is. He is. He's misunderstood a little bit. He is. He is all about his family. They. They told him at work, like, okay, you need to start growing your fan base. He don't care about none of that. All he wants to do is drive. He wants to race, hunt and race. Sounds like your dad a little bit. And so you got to build your media platform. And he's like, all I want to do is race. I don't care about that. So it's probably his wife. They've been sending a few pictures out of the kids of the family. He's like, I don't do anything unless I'm doing it with my daughters or my wife or that's. Or I go hunting. And he's at Disney right now, and he's probably kicking and screaming because that's part of the deal is he can go do what he wants to do, but he has to do some family stuff, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I'm soon to do a Disney cruise.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, that's going to be.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's going to be something.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes, yes. But so I think you'll see he has learned a lot from that.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And, you know, in the heat of the moment, the heat of the situations, a lot of times you don't think about the ramifications, you know, and, and this, this and that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All track stuff. You know, I think he. Look what happened on the racetrack and what happened in. In the result of that. I personally am good with it. I think, you know, I'm not going to sit here and argue with you about what I think happened in Indy. I got my opinion. Everything that went down beyond that, I felt like NASCAR handled it. I want him. I want to. I know I'm going to have to racing.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I don't want every experience with him to be a bad memory.

[Danny Lawrence]

It's not going to be right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because I want him to go out and win races. I want him race hard. I don't want him to not win, not do well, but I want him to. I just love to get out and go, damn, that was a good race. And go slap him on the back on pit road and say, you got us. That was badass. That was fun. But Jesse love.

[Danny Lawrence]

So Jesse love. A lot of people don't realize you could almost throw a rock to San Francisco from where he was raised.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Danny Lawrence]

And he. You would think he was raised in Mooresville, North Carolina. Yeah, he absolutely loves it here. Jesse's head, his head is down. I mean, you know, his best friend's Connor, and I, I, I think it got in his head a little bit that Connor won all those races last year. You know, he. And he's worked really hard over the wintertime because he wants to win 11 or 12. You know, Connor won 10. I love them both. They are totally different. Austin is. Is the family man. He's a little more abrasive. He's not going. He's not going to sugarcoat anything. Jesse is the fun loving kid. Pretty, pretty much. I mean, he is. He's never had a bad day. He is living the dream right now. Jesse is. He don't even know how good he's got it made.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, he don't.

[Danny Lawrence]

He has. He has no clue. And so he called me yesterday and he says I can always tell when he wants something. Look, I really, really, really need to stay for the Daytona 500. I'm like, okay, why does he have to ask that? Yeah, it was just rental car room, this and that. Yeah. We're on a budget at our side.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I know that. I know.

[Danny Lawrence]

So I'm like, okay, no problem with that. Like, so then he goes, I can sleep on the floor in Connor's coach if you let me stay. And I'm like, all right, that's a deal. I'll keep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll pay for your rental car.

[Danny Lawrence]

You're not having a hotel room. And it's like, I can remember those days, but he's like, I'll do anything to stay. And I love that. Yeah, I love that. He wants to run. He wants to race everything he can. He wants to run every sprint car race, he wants to run every dirt race. He wants to run every late model race. He wants to. And he just had that talk with Richard about, okay, I got a chance to win, to run some dirt races and some midgets and this and that and whatever. And Richard said, okay, just, just be careful. I don't know who. If you get hurt, who are we going to put in the car? Yeah, but Kyle Larson's doing it all. You know, all those guys are. All those guys are doing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The opinion now is these days is more. More you're driving, the better you're getting.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yep. And. And Jesse does. He studies the craft. He studies the pit roads. He studies when to shift. He. He's been working on a. He's been working, you know, him and Connor since kids. Yes. They've been talking about, you know, how are you that good on road course, help me be better. And they're not. They're not in go karts, do it. They're just talking about, this is what I do. This is how I do. And. And Jesse's. Jesse's like, I feel like I'm gonna be way better, you know, And. And Connor's a good kid. Too. I'm. I'm really glad that they're friends, because he could definitely be with a lot of worse people. But they're all about racing. They're all about, you know, and see those kids come up. I think you said it one time, it's hurtful a little bit. On one side, you get Jesse and you get Austin in, and they're, you know, you kind of love up on them, but we're just a pass through.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right.

[Danny Lawrence]

And you got to let them go like they're your kids and then hope that the next ones you get, you know, are respectful and can drive and this. And sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's not so good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But.

[Danny Lawrence]

But we're trying to promote people to the cup side.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's what. Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And my issue is I get really, really close to them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but I mean, that's also one of your greatest attributes.

[Danny Lawrence]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And as a person, as a. Is your character and how you do care about people.

[Danny Lawrence]

And I have noticed how some of your drivers, how you have tried to promote them out of here, how to get them really, really good rides even though they were winning a bunch of races here. And that's what we got to do. You know, we got. I can't. We can't hold them back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I would love. I mean, I'll be honest. It's a bit of an ego thing. I love looking across the Cup Garage and seeing people that worked here. You know, I feel like if I can't, you know, if, if. If being in the Xfinity series is what we're going to do, then the greatest reward and the greatest success for us isn't winning the trophy on Saturday. That's nice. That's second or third. It's seeing your people go into the Cup Garage and be valuable, quality individuals and they spread the word.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

JRM is a great place to work. People start coming in that door. I was told this is where I need to be. This is the best place. My buddy, he's in the Cup Garage and he said such and such, you know, and we get a ton. You know, it's hard to find good people these days, but we, I think, have a better opportunity than most because of the. The reputation, you know, 100%.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A Team USA skier. It takes dedication, determination, and lots of hard work. But it doesn't take all that to.

[Danny Lawrence]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Danny Lawrence]

Terms apply.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Visit Wells Fargo.com ActiveCash Visa, proud sponsor.

[Danny Lawrence]

Of the Olympics and Paralympic Games. So your dad called me one time and he goes, he, you know, he always like, where are you at? Or what are you doing? It was never, it was never, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, yeah, that's. That's what I do. And I call and he picks up the phone. What are you doing?

[Danny Lawrence]

This was 92. I had bought a truck from Dale Earnhardt. Chevrolet, 92 Chevrolet truck. And he had a truck. And he goes, need to come to Deerhead Shop, Bring your truck. I'm like, okay. You couldn't tell him?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[Danny Lawrence]

I showed up, pull in, he's got his truck in there, bumper's off of it. He was looking at something and he ran into a hay bale, one of those round hay bales, and messed the bumper up on his truck.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So he took the bumper off of my truck and put it on his.

[Danny Lawrence]

Truck, and he's like, I'll get you. I'll get you a bumper. He said Martinsville was the next weekend. He goes, I gotta drive my truck to Martinsville. And I don't want anybody to know that. I, I mean, around the farm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's crazy.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah. Around the farm. He was amazing. It was like he knew every deer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

He knew every little bitty, you know, anything that went on. He knew about it. He. And, you know, he wanted to say he was a farmer. He loved the chickens. He loved this. He loved. He had. He had a lot of stuff going on. I mean, he, he was. He was wide. Wide.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And you talk about getting up early.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Four in the morning, five in the morning every day.

[Danny Lawrence]

I made, I made a joke. They said, hey, can you be. We want to start filming at 8:30. And I said, is Dale Jr gonna be up by then? They said, things have changed, brother. Cause it used to be you would sleep late and stay up all night, but your dad was always, man, it was 4:00 in the morning and you know, he was. I don't know what time he went to bed, but I know he always got.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bedtime was all over the place. You know, if there was. If the. They used to. At the deer head shop, you know, they'd work all day, he'd get up four or five, get out, feed cows and get up and autograph room, sign autographs for a couple hours or whatever and for. Everybody got there. And then when everybody got There he's running around doing. And at five o', clock, they'd pull, you know, a fifth of vodka and beers and they'd start drinking. Somebody would order some pizza and they just bench race and bull and talk about what they, you know, what they needed to do, make plans, you know, and with Tony Senior and all them. And that might end at 9, that might end at 12, whatever, right. And then next day, same thing, 4 o' clock in the morning. Some, you know, sometimes they didn't bench race after five, but most of the time, you know, he enjoyed doing that. He. They always. That was something that I always appreciated was. So they had that shop of. They had that bush shop next to Mama's house.

[Danny Lawrence]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In the 80s. And I mean, he. They raised a lot of. Hell, yeah. Back in the day.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes. And.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When he moved that all over and even got, you know, the big cup garage and all that stuff built, and they still had that Damn pal. Around 5 o', clock, happy hour, everybody come over. Everybody came over. The guys that were on the road crew that had real jobs for the Busch car, Scott Daniels and all these different guys, they'd come on in after they got punched out, they start driving in. Some guys got a damn bowl full of chicken wings, and this guy's got this and this guy's got that. And we just kind of. Everybody just started laughing and sitting around and drinking beer and having fun. Those were the best times.

[Danny Lawrence]

Did your dad ever tell you why he does his autograph like he did it? Richard Petty? So he told us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I see some.

[Danny Lawrence]

I heard him tell the story one time. He said that he. He used to sign his autograph where you couldn't even tell what it was. And then somebody asked me, goes, why do you sign your autograph like a girl? And he said, richard Petty told me that the fans is what makes us. Makes us or breaks us. He said, so Richard Petty takes his time and he signs his. And Richard Petty taught me that they need to be able to read my autograph. So he changed it up early. Early on. And so he made it to where you could actually read it. And if. And today, if you look at Richard Petty's autograph and you look at your dad's autograph, anybody else's autograph, you can't even tell who they are. But the reason he did that is because Richard Petty told him, like, you. You know, he paid attention to stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

To all the details. And Richard's R and your dad's D, is it. I mean, they're all Similarities. Oh, my.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Big loops.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah. Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Dad had a lot of respect for Richard. And, you know, I was doing those 1979, 1980 podcasts around the Becoming Earnhardt kind of series, and that's kind of one of them. One of them deals where, like, if dad were here, I'd love to sit down with him for, like, 18 hours and talk about 79 and 80, you know, and when he was in the race, when he was In NASCAR in 79, 80, he was different. He was the young guy. He was the guy that Richard Petty would stick his finger in his chest at Martinsville and go, what the hell did you do that for? You know, and, you know, Kellyarboro and Bobby Allison, all those guys were. Were mentors to him, you know, where in six years, it flipped. He was the mentor. He was the. He was the lead dude. So it was kind of fun, I think, to go back and study and try to remember dad in a completely different. With a completely different personality almost and mentality and outlook on things. He wasn't the top guy in the garage. Right. And that was a lot of fun for me to kind of see him becoming who he would become. But, man, this has been a lot of fun.

[Danny Lawrence]

I.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We. I didn't even look at these notes, really, but I had a lot of.

[Danny Lawrence]

Stories I was going to tell. We didn't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want you. What you need to do is I want you to come back. And when you start, do you use your notes app in your phone? So start a notes app for the next time you're on the show, and we'll do it this year. We'll get you back in here whenever you feel like you're ready. Every time you think of a story, just put a little brief and bring those. Because I sit down here and, God, I drive. For the last 24 hours, I've thought about this show, and I've probably thought about 12 things that I wanted to ask you that I can't remember. Sitting here right in this moment and the way I prep for this show, I should do a little better job. But.

[Danny Lawrence]

Making that note, we have a lot of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You got a lot of stories that are.

[Danny Lawrence]

That are non. Non racing stories that are really, really, really good. I mean, you'd be surprised at the music that your dad listened to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was. I was surprised a few times when the damn door. He'd come pulling up and the door would swing open and black velvet and, like, that would be playing, and I'm like, all right.

[Danny Lawrence]

We went to the store in Daytona one time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like Faith Hill.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, he, he love, he loved Faith Hill. And he would be in the classical section and get this. And he'd be over in the hard rock section. I mean it's like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he liked Delbert McClinton, which I didn't mind Delbert, but I wasn't like, I wasn't going to pull Delbert out and listen, put, you know, put his. He had. I remember going on his boat with him, which freaking super rare. This is literally the only time I ever remember. It'd be me. It was me and him. And the CD case. Yeah, right. He had that little fold open CD case and probably 50 CDs in there. And it's me and him and we're drinking beer and I honestly didn't know what. How freaking badass I had it in that moment to sit there with him and bullshit. And he's like, play some music. And there was one CD in there that I would have played if I was. If that was my case. There was one CD in that thing that I was like, yeah, I'd listen to this and it was Brooks and Dunn. And so we listened to a lot of Brooks and done that night.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The resident. I'm like, I. This ain't. I listen to.

[Danny Lawrence]

He would, you know, he did Dale's day off, which would.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The lake.

[Danny Lawrence]

At the lake. You know, we had. He would have Parasails this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

T shirts made.

[Danny Lawrence]

Oh my God. Yes. Just for us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Danny Lawrence]

But there is a lot of, there is a lot of stories that, that we need. We, you know, stuff you'd love.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's tell them, let's tell them one day. Make a note.

[Danny Lawrence]

I will, I will.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We got to get this on tape so it lives forever.

[Danny Lawrence]

I got you, brother.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're the, you're. You've got an important responsibility.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, I'm the old guy. I got. Got to get the stories out. I really do miss, you know, Kirk and Will and all, all the, all the guys, you know, and talking about this stuff brings back all the, all the memories and. And we were, we were not just a team. We were a family, you know, Richard. And I'm glad you were a part of it. I'm glad you were right there to be able to see all that because your platform reaches a lot of people. And your dad was way misunderstood. He wasn't just a hard ass that wrecked people. He was a badass. Everything he done, he was incredible. If the people knew what kind of business person he was and what kind. I mean, all the things that he did. And all the. All the people that he took care of. And that's why I said I was proud of you. Whenever. Whenever he passed, a lot of those people he took care of. I know you brought them in and you looked after a lot. A lot of his people because, you know, that would be the right thing to do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I tried to. I think. I don't know if I do it as much today, but, man, right after he passed for like, the next five years, I think everything I. Every kind of in, you know, heavy decision I had to make. I always, like, chose the one I thought he would choose, you know, whether I wanted to do that or not. I, like, I better do it this way. He might be watching me or. I felt like he was judging me, you know, still, because I've been. I felt that way my whole life, you know, like. You know, as a son, like any child is, you feel like your. Your parents always like watching you, you know, but, man, I told you at the start of the show that, you know, you've always been so good to me and you. You know, people like you that have done that and went out of your way to check on me and give me important advice and let me know just by. Just in brief passing, you've. You say things and do things that are always, like, building me up and making sure I'm.

[Danny Lawrence]

I love you, man. I mean, we're. We are family.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I can't tell you how valuable that is for somebody like me. And there's, you know, that's so important, and that has really helped me. It really has. And so even Today, even at 51 years old, seeing you on pit road is one of my favorite things.

[Danny Lawrence]

I love it, too. And I will tell you what, the way that you take care of your girls and your wife, your dad would love that, too. Yeah, he. They'll love kids. I mean, you know, you have that picture of Chase Ellie.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

That was not a photo op.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now.

[Danny Lawrence]

That was a real deal. Yeah, he. He. He loved kids, and he'd be really proud of you, how you've taken care of your girls and all the things that. That you. You've done. Well, he was teaching the stuff, and we didn't even know back in the day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's a good point. Well, I appreciate it, man.

[Danny Lawrence]

I appreciate it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Been a fun conversation. I knew it would be. And I want you to come back this year.

[Danny Lawrence]

Let's tell some more stories, make my notes. I got my homework to do. I'll Start making my notes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's easy. We call it flagging moments.

[Danny Lawrence]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're out and about. When me and Amy do our podcast, she's super nervous because we don't ever talk what we're going to do on the show, what we're going to talk about on the show. I'm like, well, sit down and start talking. She. But she's like, man, we need to flag some moments. Like, well, so we got a little notes app, and when something funny happens, my says something silly or that makes, you know, something we think everybody get a kick out of, we. We jot it down. But go flag some memories you've.

[Danny Lawrence]

You've made. You've done an awesome job with this thing. I love doing it with. With all. All of it. You've reached a lot of people, and it's fun. It's. It's great. And I love bringing up the memories of the past because a lot of that is. A lot of that's forgotten.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Well, hopefully this is how it can kind of be remembered, you know? And I know it's hard for people that have never experienced it. There's a lot of people that never saw dad race. And I know it's hard to, like, put them in the room with you guys in the 80s, right? It's hard to, like, help them understand what standing around that garage door at the racetrack was like, watching y' all work. But it's. It's worth a try, right? It's fun. This is a super rewarding thing that I do, and I'm glad that I found, you know, kind of this platform because I've been able to sit down with you. I would have never had a chance to really get down into it with Shelmerdine. And I've had the chance to bring some people in here and apologize for things that I did, you know, that maybe I'm not so proud of which is. Which is good, you know, and reconcile some bad memories or tough moments. So it's. It's been super rewarding.

[Danny Lawrence]

So I love it.

[Co-host or Guest]

Do you want to see what's in the box?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

Okay. You're gonna love this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[Danny Lawrence]

Oh, hell. Here we go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Face helmet.

[Danny Lawrence]

Open it up. All right, so Bristol 99, Bill Simpson and your dad were really, really tight.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Danny Lawrence]

And Bill Simpson had been wearing your dad out about. I want you to wear a white helmet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want you to wear a white.

[Danny Lawrence]

Helmet, blah, blah, blah, you know, because nobody sees the black. I need to sell helmets. So your dad is like, I'm not wearing it. He, your dad stuck those stickers on. It doesn't even have the Chevrolet stickers or the 76. He put it on for 10 minutes in practice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And then threw it out. And he said, here it is. He, he, your dad give me so much stuff. I kept it and that's yours now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know why I know that he wore this helmet? It's cause the front lobe is carved out. Because it's. He would get. They, you know, back then, they didn't, they didn't mold helmets to your head. And he has taken a hammer and a little. He's cut some of the foam right there. Because he would get. I just had my head measured the other day for a hat. And this guy's like, I bet you when you wear a helmet you feel a lot of pressure right here. I'm like, I do. And I was thinking, I was like, you know, dad did too. And he would, he would take a little ball peen hammer and just ever so lightly kind of tap into one little spot right in the front to get it to where it kind of fit better and you can see him.

[Danny Lawrence]

So that's a white helmet. He wore it. Bristol, doesn't have a radio or anything on it because he won practice. And then he told Bill, I wore your damn helmet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Was it a test or a race weekend?

[Danny Lawrence]

It was race weekend. It was. So he gave it to him for his birthday. So his birthday was the 29th, and that was on a Thursday. And then Friday the 30th we practice. Who won that race actually? And so he give me a bunch of stuff. I'm the coolest thing that I have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was going to just ask you, what do you think is the, your prized possession? And there may be a couple of things.

[Danny Lawrence]

His very, very first. Nike. Nike shoes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, the black ones with the red check.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or it had like a red.

[Danny Lawrence]

The very, very first. Yeah, he, they made them for him. He practiced with them at Daytona. He like, these things are too narrow. They're junk. He threw them in a trash can. And I said, I'm keeping these things. So the, the very, very first pair I got them, they say demo on them. Oh man, I'll bring him and let you see those. I'm not giving you those. I'm giving you this. But I'm not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's fine.

[Danny Lawrence]

But he, he would like, he wouldn't keep anything. You know, he, he's like, give it, give these goggles to that little girl or this or, you know, that, you know, he, he, he made sure that he spreaded the love.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wonder how many pairs of bubble goggles he wore.

[Danny Lawrence]

Oh, my gosh. And he had this little thing he had to go through where he would time up just. They had to have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not just the right amount.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah. Just he'd take them off and he just be just exactly right. One time he took. And he goes, check this out. He took and. And put underneath.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know it looks silly.

[Danny Lawrence]

And I'm like, that looks stupid. He's like. He wore them like one or two races. And he's like. But he was not going to be wrong.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It ain't stupid.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, it ain't stupid.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then they're gone the next week.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, but. So that is. That's a. That's a. That helmet is from the 90s.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, sir.

[Danny Lawrence]

And this only time I ever know of him wearing a white helmet. And I'm like, you know what? It's yours now. I got the box. Got the. And I just. I just figured that this is kind of stuff that needs to. People needs to see instead of being in my closet at mine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We'll put it up here in the room. It's all my. You know, most of it anyways.

[Danny Lawrence]

You got some stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got some stuff. Some old trophies, man.

[Danny Lawrence]

I appreciate you, brother.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I appreciate you. Thanks for giving me some time today. I know this was a. We jumped through a lot of hoops to make it happen. You're a good man.

[Danny Lawrence]

Thank you, brother.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thank you. I appreciate you, buddy.

[Danny Lawrence]

Thank you, brother.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, Danny Lawrence on the Dale Jenner download. All right, so that was great to have Danny in here, and, you know, I hope that you realize or.

[Danny Lawrence]

Or.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or understand why he's such a special person in my life and a special part of the RCR Earnhardt connection. He was heavily involved in all of that, and just one of the few guys from that era that's still heavily involved and around the racetrack today. So, you know, I said it once, I said it twice, maybe multiple times, but it's just. I love seeing that guy. And we walk up to each other on pit roads always wishing each other well, wishing our teams well. I know we're competing against them on the racetrack, but I certainly want to see him succeed and RCR succeed because of the connection. So just great to be able to have him on here. Hopefully, I'll enjoyed getting to know Danny and. And what he's all about. All right, everybody, it's time for the Dirty Mode do segment, brought to you by fan Jewel. We've got the Clash tonight, correct.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. This show comes out today.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The odds. Own favorite to win, Ryan Blaney with CH and Chase Elliott both. They're going to cross the finish line tied at plus 650, followed by Denny Hamlin at 700, Kyle Larson, 850, and William Byron at 900. I mean, I'm not going to argue with that. I think that's pretty accurate. Chase Elliot seemed to dominate last year. Ryan Blaney was relatively quick. I don't know. You know, I feel. I feel pretty good about Chase again.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, he's pretty good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

Him and Denny kind of ran the show, I thought, last year for a little bit.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Is this a dumb question? But with the. The races keep getting postponed, do you think some drivers are just gonna go out there and kind of go through the motion or. When they get in the car, does that change?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think you might. This is a very. This is a personality question, right? This isn't like. This is. Not every driver does the same thing. Some guys look at this as, like, an opportunity. I bet a bunch of fools are going to lay down and not take this seriously. Here's my chance. Other guys may go, hey, you know, this. This ain't even serious. Look at how we're, you know, look at how they're. Look at how the weather's affected this. And now, you know, we don't know who's going, you know, not even that many people are going to be paying attention. I don't. You know, you. You tell yourself whatever you think you need to tell yourself, only really, to suppress anxiety and nerves or, like, pump yourself up, right? I would get. We would get a rain delay, and, man, I would be like, everybody's checking out. I'm checking in. You know, that was. I was. I was like, man, we're gonna be racing at midnight tonight. That's my time. I'm up. Everybody else is ready for bed. At 9 o', clock, my ass is still going. I'm. I'm. I'm a night owl, so that's perfect for me. Even though maybe. I don't know whether it's true or not, but in my mind, literally, I'm racing around a bunch of guys that are like, I'm so tired, ready for bed. Right? Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

It's a mindset thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is a mindset thing. So that. That could. That could play a role, I think, in. In how they act and feel leading up to the moment they climb into the car. Man, as soon as you climb into the car and you buckle in, your. Your inner, like your Race car driver just kind of dominates your inner competitiveness. You can't allow yourself to, like, not lock in and go for it. Right. So I think, you know, once the. Once the engines fire and you kind of get. You're like, all right, here we go. I'm doing this. So I think that the. The betters or the odds makers have it correct. I feel. I mean, yeah, Denny, then he could be. Then he could sneak in there and get it. But you guys, do y' all want to bet a winner?

[Co-host or Guest]

I. I kind of just with your mindset thing, Joey Logano is. I don't feel like a guy that's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Going to roll over. Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

I don't know if he was even.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Good here last year.

[Co-host or Guest]

I don't have any stats for it, but he just seems like a guy if there's chaos and there's postponements, he's a guy that always kind of rises to the top. He's plus 1000, so he's not on that list, but he's right there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's not a bad bet. No, it ain't. I don't know. I feel like that, you know, they went there last year and it was their first try, and now they have notes. Right. Now they have information. And so what we saw. I guess I won't be surprised if we don't see a replication of last year, because I think teams go home, they get smarter. That's not really a very common style of racetrack they race on. They don't have a ton of. They have better understanding, I suppose, what they should have brought to the racetrack. And I bet you a bunch of teams have made some big changes and pivoted away from what they brought last year to try to be more competitive this year. So you could see. You might see none of these names leading the race.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Might be someone out of. Not on this sheet, you know, so I'll be honest. Like, Josh Berry was pretty good last year. Yeah, Kind of. You know, he had some great speed, but. And so I feel like that, you know, the Penske cars with Logano, Blaney, possibly Barry can get up there and make it a race, but Josh Berry plus 2700. Yeah. I mean, he was looking pretty good last year, but. And Blaney had to drive from the back. Right.

[Danny Lawrence]

I believe.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So if he doesn't have to do that, is he got a better shot at it, not having to work all the way from the rear of the field. Such a hard place to pass.

[Co-host or Guest]

Hard place to pass. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Had to use up A lot of race car to get there. Yeah. We also have the season win total bets Kyle Busch at over under a half. So does he win? Does he not?

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's the question.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

New crew chief Jim Poe, him over there. Dude. I feel like they could sneak in and get one. I don't, you know, not that, not that. The crew chief change is an upgrade. I honestly felt like he had a really good crew chief to begin with, but I just feel like that Jim can. Jim comes with his own ideas to add to what they were already doing. So I would be surprised if they didn't like improve some and that might be enough to like put him in place a few days on the calendar year to, to, to grab a win. I would bet Kyle over. What's the odds on that?

[Co-host or Guest]

Do the odds by chance?

[Sponsor Voice 2]

I think it was like 115 each way.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. Denny Hamlin at three and a half. I feel like he's motivated. Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

I think he's good for four wins at least.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think that the change in the point system has now given Denny kind of new life.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's no secret that he didn't love being in the framework that we had in the past because his, his style and he's just steady, consistent. He's a winner. You know, on an average year, he's going to win three races.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what I'm saying? And so he's a long game and he can tool it together. And I think he's more motivated than ever to go out there and point. You know, point, point, point, point here and there and win races and make it happen and put himself in that situation late in the season to be in the top three going into the playoffs or going into the chase. So minus 110 for the over for Denny, I'd take. Yeah, I'd go over on that. Ty Gibbs. I don't. I don't see him doing it.

[Co-host or Guest]

No, me either.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, I want him to. I don't have nothing against the guy. I just haven't been convinced. So I wouldn't put my money on the over. William Byron at three and a half.

[Co-host or Guest]

He'S so consistent though.

[Danny Lawrence]

It's.

[Co-host or Guest]

I have him over, but because of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Listen, Chevy's got a new body.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Less drag, more downforce. I don't know how you do that, but it's happened. I'm sure they're going to improve engines. I would expect the Chevrolet's to actually. I mean, if I'm hearing everything about the bodies, if that's all correct. I would, I would expect the Chevrolet to be pretty good. Yeah. All year. Better. The, the, the. The body should better serve them, I guess, for all their drivers. So why not plus money over, go for it. Plus money we're going over on. Byron Brack has a low ski at a half. So one way does he win? Does he not.

[Co-host or Guest]

Starting the year off a little bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't love it. Yeah.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm gonna bet the under. Chase Elliott at one and a half. I'm betting the over. That's over for sure.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

He was the most consistent driver last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you could get a alternate line, I would even go to two and a half. I'd go to three wins for Chase.

[Co-host or Guest]

That's a great bet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Connor Zillich, does he win a race? I would have fun with lines at a half.

[Co-host or Guest]

I, I would bet it over.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would, too. Just for fun.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

I don't, I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I mean, you've gone. You. This would be one of them deals where you, you put, you know, put a dollar or five dollars something on something like that. On this Connor Zillage. And so every time there's a road course race, of course Connor's going to go out there and try to win the ovals, too. But every time there's a road course race, you're up on it.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like you're more invested because here's your, you know, you're pulling for this guy to come in there and cash the bet. Yeah. That's what, that's what's fun about the whole process. Right. So, yeah, I'd put a, I'd put money on that. Over. We got Super Bowl Sunday happening this weekend. What's your thoughts?

[Co-host or Guest]

I like the Seahawks. They've been blowing everybody out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They've been, they are. They feel like the most balanced. Like if they, if they can't beat you here, they got this.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If they can't get. If this ain't working today, they got these two other things. You know what I mean?

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

They are defense so good. All, all the whole units, the roster, they all play the same way, hard, and they're just going to punch you in the mouth and that's hard to beat.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Let me ask you this, the intention, because there's a bet that I had my eye on. Largest lead of the game, under 14 and a half points. It's minus 1:30.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Like, I don't, I just don't see in a big game like this with good defenses that Seattle's gonna just Go out there and like get a 20 point lead.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah, but no, no, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

I do think their defense though, like, I have one of my fun bets is Seattle defense for a touchdown. Like, I think they could run a pick six back and they, they could dominate Drake May.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Does that include special teams or is it just.

[Co-host or Guest]

No, just defense.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Okay. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I feel like, you know, I've been watching all year, we do fantasy and all that stuff and yeah, I don't do it. I didn't do a ton of betting in, in the NFL this year. But I mean I was watching of course, trying to wish my commanders along.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

But enough wishing there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Drake May is in the same class as, as Jaden Daniels. And so there's, you know, you're watching and I had Drake as a quarterback on my fantasy team. And I'll be honest, man, I, I know there, I know, I know. I don't know how, I don't realize, I don't appreciate how good the Seahawks defense is, but in every game that I really watched Drake and those guys play this year, they're good enough to go out and score 21 points minimum. Right. Will that be enough? And against a very tough defense, can they go do that? So I'm seeing this as like, you know, Seahawks 28, Patriots 21. A game similar, something like that.

[Danny Lawrence]

Right? Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, 31 to 24, 31 to 21. It's not going to be like edgier seat close at the end, but I don't see it being a more than a 10, 11 point margin victory.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

I'm not saying that the NFL tells the refs don't, but you know, the refs don't want to call so like a little looser. They're going to keep the flags in their pockets. Going to help the offenses move the ball a little more.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The Dirty Modo segment is brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination of the United States. Man, it's great to have Danny Lawrence in the RB studio to kick off the season. I want to tell y' all about something going forward as we, as we move toward Daytona. There'll be a live show in Daytona on Thursday the 12th. We'll be down in the fan zone. We've done this before. We've had a lot of fun. Dirty Mo Media. We're going to be live on Sirius XM from 3 to 4. I'll be on stage with Jeff Gluck, Freddie Kraft and Ryan Blaney is going to join us then from 4 to 4:30, there'll be a little bit of a crossover show. We know who's going to be on that show.

[Co-host or Guest]

Be Jordan Bianchi and a slew of rotating drivers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, a slew. And then from 5 to 6, SiriusXM Speedway with Dave Moody. This show is gonna drop on podcast and YouTube later that night. That's the 12th in Daytona. From the Fan zone, if you're there, I hope to see you. There'll be some, I'm sure some fan engagement during the show. We also have a new merch that's came out, the new Dirty Mo media merch. I saw this post on social media yesterday. Hockey jerseys. Hockey jerseys. Yeah. Well, it's pretty awesome. Go check it out. The green flag collection is what it's called and it's just dropped where we've also got a Valentine's Day line that's perfect if you're buying something for somebody for for Valentine's Day or maybe you're just treating yourself. Hoodies, T shirts, flags, we've got it all. Go see it at shop.dirtymomedia.com. Check out DirtyMomedia on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok. When it comes to cigars, Cigars International is the pole position leader.

[Sponsor Voice 3]

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[Co-host or Guest]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Expert guides and staff reviews.

[Co-host or Guest]

They also carry accessories, humidors and everything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

For a winning setup. So when you're ready to light up.

[Co-host or Guest]

Head to cigarsinternational.com NASCAR or use code.

[Sponsor Voice 3]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your order of $50 or more plus.

[Co-host or Guest]

Free shipping on every order.

[Danny Lawrence]

We've been the trusted experts since 1960 because nobody knows tires better than we do. And with over 90 tire brands, we have an abundance of options in stock for your vehicle. Buy and drive today at discounttire. Com.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Let's get you taken care of.