David Green: Why He Turned Down A Ride From Dale Earnhardt

Summary

Summary of "David Green: Why He Turned Down A Ride From Dale Earnhardt" on The Dale Jr. Download

Release Date: June 11, 2025

Introduction

In this compelling episode of The Dale Jr. Download, hosted by Mark Green of Dirty Mo Media, listeners are treated to an in-depth conversation with Jeff Green, one of NASCAR’s esteemed drivers and brother to Mark. The episode delves into the life and career of David Green, exploring pivotal moments, family dynamics, and the tough decisions that shaped his path in racing.

Early Life and Racing Roots

The discussion kicks off with reflections on their hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky, a breeding ground for racing talent. Mark Green introduces David Green as a multifaceted individual—an Xfinity series champion, Cup Series racer, and NASCAR technical inspector.

Jeff Green reminisces about their upbringing, emphasizing the influence of local racetracks like Nashville Fairgrounds and Louisville, which ignited their passion for racing.

Jeff Green [03:03]: "I think the racetracks had a huge bearing upon kind of the direction we all went."

Transition from Drag Racing to Stock Car Racing

The Green brothers initially immersed themselves in drag racing, influenced by their father, who was involved in the NHRA. However, they soon discovered that the high-stakes nature of drag racing left little room for error. This realization led them to pivot towards stock car racing, where mistakes could be mitigated over longer races.

Jeff Green [05:59]: "So we quickly found out in stock car racing, man, you can mess up a couple times, right. And still have a shot at lap 200, 300, 400."

Building a Racing Career

Jeff Green shares his journey of moving to Nashville in 1980 to work for Wayne Day, an influential figure in the racing industry. This period was marked by building and racing late model stock cars, setting the foundation for his future successes.

Mark highlights the competitive spirit fostered among the Green brothers and their peers, including the Waltrips and Jeremy Mayfield.

Mark Green [02:45]: "There were the Green brothers, but also the Waltrips, Jeremy Mayfield..."

Key Career Milestones and Challenges

Jeff recounts significant milestones, including securing victories in the Busch Series and transitioning to Cup Series racing. A notable moment was winning a race at Bristol during a tumultuous period when Mark Martin made a surprise move to Victory Lane, inadvertently handing the win to Jeff.

Jeff Green [89:56]: "We were coming on strong at the end of the race... Mark peels off. Yeah, like. And it still didn't hit me quite thin."

Despite these highs, Jeff faced challenges such as sponsorship issues and mechanical setbacks, which ultimately led to tough decisions in his career trajectory.

Family Dynamics and Rivalries

A recurring theme is the competitive yet supportive relationship between the Green brothers. Jeff reflects on how their shared experiences and mutual respect forged strong bonds, even amidst intense competition on the track.

Jeff Green [32:08]: "Having two brothers in racing, and we're all kind of doing the same deal, fighting for the same real estate at times."

Mark adds that while Jeff often overshadowed him with his early successes, their relationship has strengthened post-retirement.

The Pivotal Decision: Turning Down the Ride

The crux of the episode centers on a significant moment when David Green was offered a ride by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Despite the opportunity, David made the difficult choice to decline. The conversation reveals the factors influencing this decision, including family loyalty, career aspirations, and the desire to maintain a certain path in racing.

Jeff Green [53:01]: "So, Dale, I think about maybe eight times that particular year..."

This decision underscored David's commitment to his values and long-term goals over immediate opportunities, illustrating the complex interplay between personal and professional considerations in the high-pressure world of NASCAR.

Legacy and Current Roles

The episode concludes with reflections on David Green's impactful role as a NASCAR technical inspector. His deep understanding of the sport, combined with his experience as a driver, makes him invaluable in ensuring safety and fairness on the track. Mark and Jeff express immense respect for David's contributions both behind the scenes and on the track.

Mark Green [111:57]: "David Green on the Dale Jr Download... a lot of people like that around these days. Pretty cool."

Conclusion

This episode offers listeners a nuanced look into David Green's racing career and the pivotal decision to turn down a ride from Dale Earnhardt Jr. Through heartfelt anecdotes and insightful discussions, Mark and Jeff Green shed light on the personal and professional dynamics that influence life in NASCAR. David Green emerges not only as a talented driver but also as a dedicated individual committed to the integrity and safety of the sport.

Notable Quotes

• Jeff Green [05:59]: "In stock car racing, man, you can mess up a couple times... still have a shot."
• Mark Green [02:45]: "There were the Green brothers, but also the Waltrips, Jeremy Mayfield..."
• Jeff Green [53:01]: "Dale, I think about maybe eight times that particular year..."
• Jeff Green [32:08]: "Having two brothers in racing... fighting for the same real estate at times."
• Mark Green [111:57]: "David Green on the Dale Jr Download... a lot of people like that around these days."

Key Takeaways

• Influence of Hometown: Owensboro, Kentucky, and local racetracks played a crucial role in shaping the Green brothers' racing careers.
• Shift from Drag to Stock Cars: The limitations of drag racing led the Green brothers to pursue stock car racing, where resilience and long-term strategy could be better applied.
• Family and Competition: The competitive yet supportive relationship among the Green brothers highlights the complexities of racing within a family.
• Career Decisions: David Green's choice to turn down Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s ride underscores the importance of aligning career moves with personal values and long-term goals.
• Legacy in Safety: David Green's current role as a NASCAR technical inspector emphasizes his commitment to the sport's integrity and safety.

This episode is a must-listen for NASCAR enthusiasts interested in the behind-the-scenes decisions and familial bonds that drive the sport forward.

Transcript

[David Green]

The new Huggies Snug n dry are luxuriously soft and ultra dry. How soft are we talking? Unbelievably soft? Irresistibly soft? Doesn't your baby deserve a diaper that's oh, so gentle on their tushy? Huggy Snug n Dry helps keep them comfy, cozy, and protected. Experience the unexpected softness and up to 100% leak protection. More parents choose the new Huggy Snug n dry softness versus the leading premium diaper Huggies. We got you, baby.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Get the most out of your vehicle with GM genuine parts and ACDelco original equipment. The only parts designed, engineered, tested, and backed by General Motors. Whether or not you drive a GM vehicle, you can find your perfect fit for most makes and models and choose from three tiers of parts, including GM OE or gold and silver aftermarket parts. Visit gmparts.com for more information.

[Jeff Green]

I got a call, and your dad's like, well, come see me. Come deer head shop. So I drove up there, and, man, we sit there and he's like, hey, I love Jeff to death, but we're gonna make a change. He said, I want you to drive three car.

[Mark Green]

I'm like, following is a production of Dirty Mode media. All right, so we're gonna have a great conversation today with a guest that I'm looking forward to, one of the three Green brothers that have raced in the Xfinity series and the throughout the years. There's Jeff Green, who's been on the show, Mark Green, a great friend of mine who's still in the industry, and then David Green, who's coming in today. David won the Xfinity series championship, raced in the cup series. He's now a technical inspector for NASCAR in the Xfinity cup. He's kind of doing a little bit of everything. A really great guy. Want to hear his story? He's kind of one of those kind of dudes that's just been around and ground through it, and he's had a ton of connections and no telling what names might get brought up in this conversation. Our paths crossed several times throughout. Throughout the years in different ways, and he was. My career was affected or influenced by him or his brothers in some way or another multiple times. So should be a lot of fun. I've never really sat down and talked to David a ton of. But I love the Green family, and I love the kind of people they are. Great, great, great folks. And so this should be. This should be one for. For us to enjoy. Let's get started. David Green has Joined us on the Dale Jr. Download. Born in Owensboro, Kentucky. A lot of. A lot of racers from Owensboro. Do you think the reason why is because of, you know, the location of the racetracks, like Nashville Fairgrounds and some pretty, pretty respectable facilities where one might look for talent. Plus Darrell Walter sort of.

[Jeff Green]

Right. You know, I agree on the racetracks, Darrell. I would add into that equation. Right. Like you said, Nashville Fairgrounds, Louisville. Louisville. Darn. They had like two or three racetracks. One right downtown went up in Charleston, Indiana, right across the river. You really even look at Indy with irp. Gosh, I think we're probably missing something somewhere else. Yeah, I think the racetracks had a huge bearing upon kind of the direction we all went. Right.

[Mark Green]

Yep. There were the Green brothers, but also the Waltrips. Jeremy Mayfield. Uh, your dad raced in the nhra, is that right?

[Jeff Green]

That is correct.

[Mark Green]

How did the Suns. And we're going to talk about your brothers quite a bit in this. In this conversations, but how do y' all get interested in oval track racing if your dad's driving drag? You know, driving, drive. Going to the drag strip, right?

[Jeff Green]

That was always a good question, kind of throughout our career, right? So to start off right there, ever since I can remember being around, right? Me being the otis Mark was 13 months later, then Jeff's another six years maybe. But I can remember going to the drag strip Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And one of my early memories were, you know, we were in school all week long, right? And on Saturday morning was when the cartoons were on, right?

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

Didn't have one during the week, like now.

[Mark Green]

That's right.

[Jeff Green]

So I was all set up to go watch cartoons on Saturday morning, right? And Dad's like, no, you're coming out here in the garage. We get that mother's aluminum polish and we get us a rag and we polish the front wheels on the drag car, right? Get them all polished up. So being around drag strip all those years, I figured that was where we were all going to be heading, right? And to my knowledge, dad never ran a lap in a stock car. Now, he'd raced go karts. And probably step ahead of that a little bit was we all kind of got started in racing with go karting, right? My uncle and Darrell were in the same class during high school, graduated.

[Mark Green]

So your uncle and who?

[Jeff Green]

My uncle. Clyde Potts.

[Mark Green]

Yeah. And who.

[Jeff Green]

And Clyde E. And Darryl, Walter and Darrell. So they went to school together and that's kind of got that go kart craze going, right? And then, then we do the Drag race and stuff with dad. I mean, round the clock, you know, all week long, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's cool. Really love drag racing. But as things kind of got toward the end of his drag racing, you know, I became old enough to have a license to make a trip down the strip, you know, then along came Mark, then Jeff eventually. So we all kind of got a little bit of time in a drag car.

[Mark Green]

Did you?

[Jeff Green]

He had like a super stock Camaro, you know, probably a 150 mile an hour car on a quarter mile, something like that. Beach bend down in Bowling Green was right down the road. Great facility. But I quickly found out, along with my brothers, that within a few seconds your race is over. Right. So you mess it up. One part of that six. Well, back then, probably 10 seconds for a superstock car on a quarter mile, your day's done. No second chances, no nothing. So we quickly found out in stock car racing, man, you can mess up a couple times, right. And still have a shot at lap 200, 300, 400. So that kind of diverted, I think our career paths into the stock car arena.

[Mark Green]

But you started racing go karts at what age?

[Jeff Green]

I was probably 14, 15 ish. Fairly late, right. In this day and time. That's an old person.

[Mark Green]

That's normal though, back then, right?

[Jeff Green]

Back in the day, yes.

[Mark Green]

About when people started, Right.

[Jeff Green]

Just prior to having a driver's license. Right.

[Mark Green]

You got in at first or.

[Jeff Green]

Yes, my granddad there on my mom's side got us going in that direction. Right. So Mark was right there along me, along my side. Right. Because we were fairly close in age.

[Mark Green]

Did you both race?

[Jeff Green]

Oh, yeah, yeah, we. And unfortunately we're in the same class together all the time. Right. So the good thing about Jeff, he was down here in the junior class. Right. And Mark and I started out in basically the adult or prior to adult class. But yeah, it was. Mark and I were head to head all the time. And then we could sit over and watch Jeff. Right. And pick on Jeff or whatever. But Mark and I were. It was on, from, from day one on go karting.

[Mark Green]

Yeah. So your. How much success did you have in carding?

[Jeff Green]

I think very successful later on, early on with the tutoring of her grandfather and my uncle, we got, we got on the right path quickly. But the one thing that carding I think did for me personally was it helped me understand the vehicle number one. You know, we didn't have mechanics, we were doing all of our own work. We'd take the engine off, send it off to Lynn Haddock down in Chattanooga to do our blueprinting, stuff like that. But we were responsible for the go kart. So I learned quickly on that. Parts and pieces better stay on it and it better be top notch to endure. And I think our races were probably 30 minutes. Maybe it's a timed race. So that was a big advantage I felt like that I gained from go karting. But you talk about super competitive. Not just between Mark and I, obviously, Jeff as well. And then just the whole competitive spirit of go karting.

[Mark Green]

All road racing.

[Jeff Green]

Correct.

[Mark Green]

What is your aspirations as a driver at that point? You're not racing stock cars. You're not, you're not anywhere near a path that might take you down toward nascar. Right?

[Jeff Green]

A great question. It's something I look back at even today because we hear drivers say, man, you know, at 15, you know, I knew I wanted to drive cup one day or I wanted to run Xfinity or the Busch Series. I'm like, you know, I never thought that. I don't know what my brothers thought, but all I wanted to do if I was in the junior stock class, I wanted to run an open class. And then I, I remember there's time I wanted to run the dual engine class, and I always just wanted to go to that next step, whatever that was. Now, did I still have aspirations to run our local stock car track in a stock car, Maybe small. But I'm telling you seriously, it was not on my radar. I just wanted to be the very best I could be at that class. Then I knew probably then I would have more confidence going to the next level. And, you know, we weren't even thinking back in the day about making sponsors happy. Right. We were just having a good time and wanted to get that trophy. That trophy meant so much.

[Mark Green]

How did you, how did you get introduced to the short track stock car world?

[Jeff Green]

Mark actually was the first one to go to the stock car track.

[Mark Green]

Okay.

[Jeff Green]

So I'm thinking, this is not right. I'm older than Mark. Why shouldn't I get the first shot? Right? But I'm telling you, Mark was very good. He was, he was the guy that set the bar very high at Kentucky Motor Speedway. And so I think that really kind of got obviously myself looking at it. And then ultimately, Jeff. And then I remember dad bought a street stock car, and it was blue and yellow and it had a number two on it. And I'll have to dig that picture up and send to you. But similar to your dad's car right there, It's a Chevy 67 Camaro street stock. And I'll say, even to this day, the most fun ever, you know. But anyway, that was my first start in street stocks. Took motor speed away. And Mark had already been out there a year running late Models. And I'm like, man, I got to get ahead of him somehow. And I think each one of us kind of drove each other to go up. Right. That's kind of got what it's got us going there. But I think obviously Darrell running that track really got the ball rolling then when Mark went out there and Mark was whipping up on him.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

I'm like, this is where we want to go. So. And we found out that, you know, it wasn't a 10 second race or a few seconds down that drag strip. We could mess up a time or two.

[Mark Green]

So you're just racing locally. How do you. How do you run in and get up with Mike Alexander?

[Jeff Green]

Yeah. So that's very interesting time in my career. Right. So we were racing at Kentucky Motor Speedway to venture down to Nashville for the fairgrounds. I met Wayne Day. So we actually raced against each other. Wayne had a guy by the name of Jerry Sisco that drove for him. His brother, Dave Sisco drove the Cup Series today.

[Mark Green]

Wow.

[Jeff Green]

And so Nashville's. I'm sorry, Wayne is down in Nashville. Goodlettsville, Tennessee, north of Nashville. 31W installation.

[Mark Green]

Yep.

[Jeff Green]

So as I'm racing against Wayne, Jerry's kind of on his way of retiring Jerry Sisko. And Wayne said, hey, won't you come drive from a car? Drive my car. I'm like, okay, this is going to be a lot better financially to do that. Right. And so Wayne and I got hooked up and actually in 1980, I moved from Owensboro to Nashville to go work for Wayne full time.

[Mark Green]

Really?

[Jeff Green]

We built chassis, we hung bodies, we had our own cars. Competitors, yes, Other competitors, and Mike being one of them. So Mike was a huge part of my career along with Wayne, that we were building late model stock cars. We were building some Busch cars. He had his own Busch team, the number 84 action vans.

[Mark Green]

That's right.

[Jeff Green]

But with Mike, we were doing it all right. And he was being successful in the Busch Series, winning races with cars that we built at Wayne Days. Bobby Hamilton, same way. He'll probably be part of the story here in a minute as well. But Mike. So then unfortunately, Bobby Allison got hurt in the Cup Series, so Mike was tabbed to sub for Bobby.

[Mark Green]

Yep.

[Jeff Green]

And Mike came up to shop one day, he said, hey, I don't know what you're Doing this weekend, but you're going to go to Langley. I'm like, I am. What are we doing? He said, well, you're going to practice my bushcar and you're going to qualify it, and if something happens, you'll race that thing. So we're going to get comfortable, but probably I'm going to show up and race it. But you'll have your day one day. So we did that. Dale, I think about maybe eight times that particular year.

[Mark Green]

From 1980 all the way up until 88, 89. He spent the majority of that time living in and around Nashville racing short tracks, racing the fairgrounds, building race cars for, I'd say, you know, six, eight years.

[Jeff Green]

Yes.

[Mark Green]

What's amazing to me is there's a lot of people like you that didn't ever give up on that opportunity. It's different today, like, the way we get these kids. And I mean, people are racing at five years old and, you know, you got a Connor zillich that's head to the cup series for his 21st birthday. Someone would spend his whole adult life working toward that opportunity to finally get behind the wheel of a competitive cup car.

[Jeff Green]

Right.

[Mark Green]

But you got. So you had a big chunk of time where you were happy and content with your life racing locally and helping, in this particular case, Mike Alexander. Working for the. Working for the days. Did you ever. Did he ever not show up to one of those xfinity races?

[Jeff Green]

No, he showed up. He showed up every time. And back to comment prior to what you're just making a note of was, I come from home, where we worked the concrete plant, right? Get home, run out to shop, work till midnight. Right. Didn't think twice about it. Now all of a sudden, in 1980, I drive to Nashville, live in Nashville, and go to work for Wayne. I'm like, you know, seven in the morning all day long, working in a race shop, cutting tubing, building chassis, hanging bodies, putting cars together, setting them up, Go to the racetrack and race all american, the nascar all american challenge series. And then we get into the bush side of things. But how interesting was, for me, it's like, man, come five o' clock, I see the guys in the shop, like, leaving, getting their lunch boxes, walking out the door. I'm like, where's everybody going? It was so interesting for me that finally to get to work on a race car all day long and even get paid to do it right.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And it's. Some of it's your stuff, some of it's customer stuff. But I looked at it all as my stuff. Right. But what an interesting time. Right. So, yes, a big chunk of. And you know, helping people. Not never really thinking even to this point. I'm not saying, hey, I'm going to get to the series. I'm not going to do this, I'm going to do that. So just a great time. And Mike Alexander was a whale of a driver.

[Mark Green]

He was easy to be around. I don't know him very well. Not at all. Now. I was around as a kid when he was running that 84 Action Vans car when he drove for Dave Marcus that year in the 80s when he gets called up to drive Bobby's car. You know, I was. And even. I guess even recently, maybe even a year or a year or two ago, he's still at the fairgrounds trying to race a late model.

[Jeff Green]

Yes.

[Mark Green]

You know, so I've, I've been aware of him, but. And he had this. There was this opinion that when he got called up to do drive Bobby's car that he was ready and that he was capable.

[Jeff Green]

Yes.

[Mark Green]

How come you think that things didn't work out for him? I know he had some injuries and different things.

[Jeff Green]

Yeah. I think twofold. Number one, the injury at Pensacola. Wayne and I were running our super down there at snowball derby when Mike unfortunately got hurt. But I think the other part of it was Mike had always been a team owner. He had his own stuff. He. And he was tough, man. He was. You know, many times he had his crew polishing the toolbox. Right. Polishing the jack stands. I mean, he was that kind of guy. But his performance on track spoke for it too. Right. So I think it was twofold, a little bit of that. But I think probably the injury probably surfaced to be the deciding factor that.

[Mark Green]

Where it all went the day family owned an Xfinity car. Am I right?

[Jeff Green]

Yes. We. We actually built a car in house. Here we are, you know, building the cars for Bobby Hamilton after Mike's. We first started building some for Mike. We built some for Bobby Hamilton and then actually built some for Bobby and Terry Lovani. So then Wayne's like, heck, let's build one in house. Right?

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

Oldsmobile was the body style back then and the V6s. Right. So we built one and I think we might have. I forget where our first race we might have went to, but chances are we might not have qualified for it. Right. Because back in the day there was 50 cars.

[Mark Green]

Red. 16.

[Jeff Green]

Yes. Actually, that first one could have been white with red numbers. 16.

[Mark Green]

I remember that being their scheme.

[Jeff Green]

Yes. Yes.

[Mark Green]

For all those years. So you ran a couple of starts for him in the Bush series. You finally get your chance to get behind the wheel. A lot of mechanical issues, just buggy stuff. Being a.

[Jeff Green]

Being a small team.

[Mark Green]

Small team, yeah.

[Jeff Green]

Just not kind of out of our wheelhouse, so to speak. Actually going there as a team. But, you know, the. I think it was great building blocks for things to come, but what an experience. I got to do those eight races. Thank goodness we qualified for every race, didn't use a provisional, and just learned so much all the way from how a championship caliber team operates. And then here Wayne and I can use those same things that we're learning onto our own car and just from one end to the next, all the way to how you sit in a race car, which that'll be a story later on too. I always get accused of how I sit in a race car and then I didn't mind putting my own seats in after that. And you and I probably have stories about that as well. But just great opportunity that led to the Fillmore ride in 1991. Who drove.

[Mark Green]

That car before you?

[Jeff Green]

Bobby Hamilton.

[Mark Green]

Right. Did you have a relationship with him?

[Jeff Green]

I did.

[Mark Green]

Do you think he went to bat for you?

[Jeff Green]

He probably did. He probably did.

[Mark Green]

So the 8 Fillmore car would end up becoming, in this little brief moment of the sports history, this little pipeline.

[Jeff Green]

Yes, right, correct.

[Mark Green]

And I don't know if y' all thought about it like that then.

[Jeff Green]

We didn't.

[Mark Green]

But he certainly had just gotten a Cup ride. And now you're getting in that car and you gotta think, crap, if I do this, this and this, and check this box and this box, who knows where this could go?

[Jeff Green]

Well, sort of did, but gosh, that's still a huge mountain, a huge task ahead of you. Right. And I've still got it in my mind that understanding the whole process and being able to build cars and doing all this, how many parts and pieces involved, now we're starting to think about sponsorship.

[Mark Green]

Oh, yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And I was blessed with the Fillmore opportunity. That was good for one year for me personally. But, man, we came out of the gate strong. Right. Just a really quick story. Bobby Hamilton, we were getting ready to go test Daytona. And back then there was like a test in December and two in January and manufacturers test. So Bobby and I, he came up to Wayne's before I went there full time. He said, hey, when we get ready to do that, we get ready to do that Daytona test. He said, I'm going to call Mike Fryer that built the engines, V6, Buick. He said, I'm going to tell Mike. I said, I want them to put in the Martinsville engine, because that Martinsville engine I just ran to finish out the year was strong. He said, but now you've never been to Daytona. He said, I want them to put that engine in that car. You just go down there and test, test, test. He said, it's probably going to be off a little bit, but you're going to get lapse. So we went down there, we tested. We were pretty good the first test. Each test we got a little bit better, but we never changed the engine. So the mindset was, after the final test, we were gonna send an engine back to Mike. He's gonna freshen it up, put the Daytona package, Daytona package in that thing. Right. So. But we had to make decision. When we left that final test, we were like P1 or P2, and so we just left it as is. I think he rebuilt it, freshened it. We left it as is and went down there and sat on the pole. Man, things are great. And obviously, I think that weekend was the first weekend I got to meet your dad and we started our relationship. And it's funny. We back during that schedule, we, I think, practiced on a Monday, qualified on a Tuesday, but we were there, like, for two weeks, right?

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

So I'm starting on the P.O. jack Sprague is second and your dad's third. So all week, I think I woke up thinking, oh, gosh, here we are. We're going to take off. We're going to get into turn one. Dayo's going to put me in the middle. I'm going to be 3 wide. Never started a race there at Dayton or nothing, Right. And back then, I don't know how much drafting we did throughout the week like we do now, but that did not happen in the race. But I had fears of that happening all week long. But your dad was good about it. He's like, you know, he said, hey, buddy, that. That car is pretty fast. He said, yeah, it is. I said. He said, just keep her going straight. We're going to be fine. Yeah, I'll be right there with you. And sure enough, he was right. So it was a good start to 1991. Probably about the fifth race we ran Bristol, I ran second, and Jimmy Smith was third, and I got huge satisfaction. I really felt, okay, maybe now I'm here and I can be there. And I've got a career in the Busch Series, and who knows, one day, maybe cup, because the Daytona pole was one thing, Right. But I needed to do it in the race to satisfy me. Had a great race at Bristlestar. Very next race was Lanier, Georgia. And I remember also it was a standalone bush race, but still we had probably 50 cars show up. Right. But I think the Cup Series was off in Michigan and man, we were able to win that race that night. And I remember the first person when I walked into the media center after winning a race, a reporter said, well, hey, it was a good race today, but there was no cup drivers here. And it kind of hit me. I said, okay, I agree. But hey, last weekend when I ran second to one of them and had one in my rearview mirror, that felt pretty damn good.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And so tonight feels good too, right? But we were very fortunate that team was on it. They had a year or two with Bobby Hamilton and just plug a driver in and we were, we were on our way. Then I felt like, hey, tj, you.

[Mark Green]

Know that I got my own Chevy dealership down in Tallahassee, Florida. We're part of the Hendrick Automotive Group.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, I have heard of Darren Hurt Jr. Chevrolet.

[Mark Green]

I bet you'd be surprised on what type of Chevrolet vehicles we specialize in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If I had to guess, I'm gonna say it would probably be Chevy trucks.

[Mark Green]

Well, we definitely sell plenty of those, but actually we're really big in commercial vehicles. We actually sell a lot of crane trucks. We're the number one seller actually in crane trucks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay, I definitely did not see that coming.

[Mark Green]

Yeah, pretty neat, huh? So for any of our listeners shopping for commercial vehicles, here's some things you need to know about us at Dalenhardt Jr. Chevrolet. We have hundreds trucks in stock so you can find what you need fast. And we have people there that can help you with custom orders. So if you want to build the exact vehicle you need, we can do it. We offer complimentary delivery anywhere in the continental U.S. plus, Hendrick Automotive Group is the nation's top rated dealer group for online reputation. Visit dalejrchevy.com and click Commercial to explore the wide range of available commercial vehicles. Our team at Dillon Hart Jr. Chevrolet will give you a world class experience. Chevrolet together let's drive make money moves.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Easy with Cash App. It's fast, safe and all the tools are right there to help you cash in. Personalize your payments with custom text stamps and backgrounds. Plus, if Cash App sees you might be sending money to potential scammer, they'll warn you before you hit send. I've used Cash App. It's Real easy. Super easy to use when somebody needs to send you money or you need to pay somebody for a dinner tab or even any, you know, going out on the town for a night. Super easy to use. You know, with Cash app, you can now customize text with stamps and backgrounds as well. So check out Cash App, send your friends some money or have them send you some money for a limited time. Only new Cash app users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real. There's no catch. Just download Cash app and sign up. Use our exclusive Referral code, Dell Jr. In your profile. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account. Terms apply. That's money. That's cashapp.

[Mark Green]

I didn't race against you a ton, but your record speaks for itself. Your ability, you know, wins championships and all that. There's no doubt about your ability. What I think I was surprised to learn is when Mark. When Mark came into the Xfinity series finally, that's kind of when I was there as well. And I watched it him pretty closely, and I thought, man, he's better than I think people give him credit for. Because the general that you knew because you grew up in that family, right? But the general. The general, like, thought of Mark was like, oh, they got a third brother. Okay, you know, and, wow, he does pretty decent. Pretty decent run, right? You know, none of us, you know, I certainly didn't know how, you know, what he'd been doing back home. I certainly didn't know why he. He. His deal took to. Took so long for him to get there. But I do know when he got behind, he got in the 37 and a couple other opportunities like, he. He ran really solid. And. And I just feel like that Mark's career as a driver is kind of one of them, you know, what could have been correct. And, you know, I don't know that that's always kind of bothered me a little bit that he didn't. You know, there's a lot of drivers out there that'll never get that chance to even get to the Xfinity side or get to that level that probably will never know had what it took correct. He's one of those guys that actually kind of did get there, and we just didn't really get to see what he's capable of.

[Jeff Green]

Yeah, I think, obviously thankful to Clarence Brewer that started Bruco. So Mark was there on the ground zero with Bruco Timberwolf, a local company there in Owensboro jumped on as sponsors, but, yeah, I would agree. And I think Jeff touched on it many times. I know I have, too. Is. Is Mark set the bar and he said it very high from the driving side. Right.

[Mark Green]

For both of you.

[Jeff Green]

Exactly. Absolutely. And then I think probably, you know, having a family, starting a family is very important, as we all know now. But I think this was one thing that Mark chose to start with first. Then that kind of, you know, delayed his opportunity, but thankful for Clarence for that to happen. Then eventually, Mark got over in North Carolina, and I joked that, you know, eventually Mark said, hey, wait a minute. I was first one. David went. Jeff went. I'm going. So here we are all over here now.

[Mark Green]

Mark still races, plays around those legends cars.

[Jeff Green]

Yeah.

[Mark Green]

And he works over at Rev.

[Jeff Green]

Yes.

[Mark Green]

Managing a lot of operations over there. So, yes, he's doing. I see him every now and then. And I didn't know you as well, but I did know Jeff a lot from back when he drove for dad, and then when me and Mark raced against each other in the xfinity series. Mark was a really, really nice guy. Like, I didn't. I. I wouldn't. I was a little introverted. Mark didn't let that stand in the way of us having a conversation.

[Jeff Green]

Right.

[Mark Green]

And I always appreciate that about him. Always. The way that, you know, they were. Y' all all are three different people, but all of you seem to have really great manners, easygoing, calm demeanors. So your parents and your family and your environment was conducive to a pretty solid upbringing.

[Jeff Green]

Well, thank you. That means a lot. You know, having two brothers in racing, and we're all kind of doing the same deal, fighting for the same real estate at times. Right.

[Mark Green]

Yep.

[Jeff Green]

Very challenging. And I think throughout our careers on the driving side, that took its toe a lot. I know Jeff and I became further apart.

[Mark Green]

How did that happen?

[Jeff Green]

Well, I think he was driving the famous number three. Yeah, well, even before that, Jeff was. It's almost like what Mark and I experienced through go karting, the local track at Kentucky Motor Speedway and then getting into the Busch series. Jeff took all those things, trials and tribulations we experienced, and put those into one package, and boom, Came out of the gate. You know, he. He set a track record, so to speak. Right. Coming right out of the gate, so. And then the unfortunate part of it, and I can even say this with Mark, is kind of the heyday of all of our careers. We're right there in one time frame.

[E]

Right.

[Jeff Green]

It's like, I wish that Mark and I would have been separated by 10 years, then Jeff, another 10. Yeah, that'd make me really old. But anyway, and then we could experience those in a calmer atmosphere. But I'm telling you, and you know, I'm. We've grown closer now after we've retired.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

On the driving side. And that means a lot too, right. That looking back at it, it wasn't fun. Now, I will say this. At the racetrack, I was always just biggest supporter. I would talk to him about racetracks, talk to him about setups, because I worked in shop. I helped my guys set up the slim Jim car. Right. And I'd always try to help him. And then we'd go to fairgrounds, for example, and Jeff was the king at the fairgrounds. And then I think Jeff. And we know this, right? As you go to your home track, everything's on the line, all your people are there. You want to try really hard. And sometimes we over try. To me, every time we went to the fairgrounds race, the Busch series, Jeff just tried so hard to do whatever that sometimes it hurt. Right. But I would always tell him the truth. And then some of his team members, I think, thought at one point I was kind of fibbing to him. You know, I have codes for springs and all this kind of stuff. Right. But I can honestly say I always told Jeff the truth because he's my little brother. Right. So we want to end up one and two across the line. Or in this case of Jeff's March running, we can be third, 1, 2, 3. And we almost had that happen at Myrtle Beach. Gosh. I was driving a Caterpillar Busch car, and we ended up sitting on the PO and ended up winning the race. And Jeff was maybe third or fourth in the three car. And then. But yeah, we almost had the perfect scenario, perfect storm one time there.

[Mark Green]

So it's interesting that you said that it was difficult at times because obviously the rest of the world's not privy to that part of Yalls life and the experience that you and him are having as brothers. From the outside looking in, I would have said Jeff's opportunities because he also drove for the day enterprise a time or two. But like, Jeff's opportunities were assisted by the success that you had, much in the way Michael's Waltrips opportunities were assisted by his. His brothers, not only his notoriety, but like, hey, you know, maybe there's some of the same genes in there, right. If one. You know, we'll do that right now with the quapples, right. With Kaden and Carson Carson's a solid ass race car driver. I think he's got what it takes. Right. He's probably got his cadence. Got that too. You know, Travis has raised them both.

[Jeff Green]

Right.

[Mark Green]

So. Yeah. And it's interesting because I, you know, Jeff would probably get mad at me for saying it, but I feel like that, you know, once he gets, I guess to the Xfinity level or, or, or even the cup level, like he, the rest is up to him for sure. But like from, from the late models are running the local weekly stuff at the fairgrounds up until he lands that three ride in 96 or whenever that was, 95. I feel like that you're, you're in, you influenced that, that, that even so slightly.

[Jeff Green]

Right.

[Mark Green]

In the same way that, you know, you said, hey, man, we ran that track and Darrell, Darrell's, you know, Darrell having raced that Shore track was a big deal.

[Jeff Green]

So, you know, if that was happening, I mean, I think deep down it's like, hey, you always want to kind of help open a door, right? Yeah. And you know, not that it's unique because we have a lot of brother acts in racing. Right. The Bodines and it is unique.

[Mark Green]

Yeah. That's why I think it's more, you know, interesting that while I feel like, you know, one may be assisting the other and hell if he goes and runs great and kicks ass, that can in turn help you as well.

[Jeff Green]

Exactly.

[Mark Green]

Back the other way. But. And he does have this hard headed independence.

[Jeff Green]

Jeff.

[Mark Green]

Yes. Oh, yeah, it is hard. He is. Yeah, he. I know what I'm doing. I know what needs to happen here.

[Jeff Green]

That's probably what helped.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

Break us away a little bit. Right. Not being as close.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

As I feel like we should. Looking back at it now, you know, I wish I'd hugged him every time we went to the racetrack and jumped in to do battle. Right. But most time I was like, sure, I'm gonna get you today.

[Mark Green]

Yeah. You end up having a really solid year with the Fillmore team. At the end of the season though, they let you go.

[Jeff Green]

Yes. There was some sponsorship issues and didn't ask a lot of questions. But I do know it was December, ish, early December, late. And as you well know, that's tough. And I'm sitting here thinking, okay, well, we had a pole, we won a race as a rookie, I think in my sixth full time start that year. And we were leading the rookie of the year. Martinsville was our last race. We lost a motor halfway through the race. Jeff Gordon and I were going back and Forth. And you know, sidebar to all that is Jeff was rookie that year and I was. We probably had a couple more in there too, but Jeff was like 17, 18, and I'm like 33. I'm like, you know, but I. I was enjoying every second of it, learning from Jeff and. But I knew that wasn't going to be enough to secure rookie of the year. Now, if we'd have finished it all off, that had been a. Maybe a different story. But quickly, I got the news in December, went back to Winsboro, two hours away, and even thought about talking to Wayne again. But, you know, I just wanted to let everything settle because I'm thinking, hey, man, what a successful rookie year. And then this happens and I'm like, man, if this is what big time auto racing is all about, I don't know if I can handle this. And so I went back home, spent holidays and just kind of figuring out what I want to do, right? And phone rang Bobby Lavonte. Bobby's like, hey, I just heard the news. This is probably a day or two after I got let go. But he said, hey, I heard the news. First thing first, you need to be driving. After a year like that, you need to be driving. But right now I need some help.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

I'm like, okay. So I thought about it over Christmas and called him back. He said, all right. He said, head on over. So I drove over. January 8th, where are they at? In High Point.

[Mark Green]

Okay.

[Jeff Green]

Just worked there throughout 92.

[Mark Green]

The whole year. The whole year as a mechanic. What was.

[Jeff Green]

And spotted.

[Mark Green]

And spotted.

[Jeff Green]

You know, spotting's kind of come along. Then what is it?

[Mark Green]

What is it like? I've heard stories, but what is it like working for. For Senior.

[Jeff Green]

Yeah, Bob Senior. I would say more like probably working for Tony Ury. Senior.

[Mark Green]

Fiery.

[Jeff Green]

Fiery to the point. And record speaks for itself. I learned so much from Bob. But just a hardcore racer, right? Number one, we weren't going to be a pound or two light. We weren't going to have a spoiler that maybe flexed in the air.

[Mark Green]

No. Legal.

[Jeff Green]

Legal. Eagle. Legal. Legal.

[Mark Green]

Now, is this Bobby Labani's second first or second year in the Bush series?

[Jeff Green]

This would have been Bobby's second thing.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

90 now he won in 91, so this might have been his third year. In 92.

[Mark Green]

Gotcha.

[Jeff Green]

Bobby had won and they needed some help to championship, so he needs some help and. But I think there's some other ulterior motives that we'll get into. But went there and Bobby's like, hey, I'm still back in Kentucky. Before I drive over, he's like, hey. He said, if you stay there, you're gonna be out of sight, out of mind. I want you at the racetrack. And I promise you, if Jack Ingram calls at race number three and needs you to drive a car, you're gonna go do it. I'm like, okay, yeah, okay. So went over there. Plus, I needed a job, right? So went over there, I worked. Jack ended up calling. I mentioned him because he did end up calling. Not the third race of the year, but some point in time prior to mid season. And I went in and talked to Bobby, walked into office, shut the door, and you know, Bobby, he's like another father to me and big brother that I didn't have. And. And I kind of told him about my phone call and he's like, the Bobby way, right? And he's like, let me think about this, but I think we'll pass on this one. And I'm like, okay, okay. So I passed on it because he said I needed to stay with him and go spot and do all this. I damn. So about September that year before Hickory Bobby, it's on a Monday, I think Bobby says, hey, don't make no plans for tomorrow at lunch. We're going to go do lunch. I'm like, okay, because usually we just ate at shop in the break room, right? Because we had. Bob said, we got work to do, man. We got to go. So Monday after work, Bobby come out there and says, yeah, don't forget now we're doing lunch tomorrow. I said, but bring some nice clothes. Okay? So got clothes. We took off. We're going to Raleigh. And I was like, what are we doing? He says, well, I'm going to take you over to the Good Mark Foods, Slim Jim parent company for. For Slim Jim, Goodmark Foods. He's we're going to go over and just do a little season recap with Dick Miller, the president of Good Mark Foods. I'm like, okay. Still I. No idea. So we're sitting in Dick's office there and big old desk, and Bobby's like, yeah, you know, I need to let you know that I've got this offer on the table to go cup race next year with Bill Davis, Maxwell House and all this stuff to Mr. Miller. And maybe they'd already had this planned out, but Mr. Miller's like, yeah, congratulations. He says, now, you know we're still on for next year, right? Slim Jim on the bushcar and all this stuff. And he said, oh, yeah, yeah. And Bobby's like, yeah, but we probably need to think about a driver. And dick's like, yeah, yeah. Well, I'll be open for any conversations, you know, in the next coming weeks or so. And Bobby's like, well, I brought him with me, and there I am sitting right. So that was my introduction to the idea. Well, no, it's hall of it. Yeah, it's real. I'm going to drive the 44 slim Jim car in 1993.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

Like, holy smoke.

[Mark Green]

Best car in the garage.

[Jeff Green]

Holy smoke. And, man, I've been working on this thing all year. And Dale, honestly, honestly, I say Bobby had all this planned out. And what a savior to my career. Right. Is he brought me on board to work on this car, build these cars, hang bodies, work with the guys in the shop. He was prepping me for getting in that thing. And when I rode in that thing. And I, you know, I mentioned a lot of times, it's like we just pulled Bobby's name because I. I put the decals on the car, too. Right. I love that. Still love that today. But, yeah, I was able to pull Bobby's name off and put my name on and move the seat around a little bit, and we're set to go 1993. So here Bobby missed out on championship, and now he's giving it all to me. I'm like, oh, man, this is going to be some pressure here. So we get to that point, we fire off in 93, and, man, we led the points for a long time and had a couple of misfortunes at the end of the year. Blew a tire and heck, might have. I broke my scapula a couple times with some blown tires, and that might have been part of it, too. But anyway, we failed a third at the end of the year, but my first season with driving the slim jim car, we were third, so. But we had a lot of momentum for down the road.

[Mark Green]

That's painful. Breaking your shoulder blade.

[Jeff Green]

And I did it twice, and Bobby did it, and. Yeah, and probably you did, too.

[Mark Green]

Those old seats, that seat ran right across that.

[Jeff Green]

Oh, my gosh. Very painful, Very painful.

[Mark Green]

You won A championship in 94. I remember this part of this part of this. The history of the sport quite well. Out of the success of driving that car, you. And you talked about the relationship that you created with dad. Right. As soon as you get. You get into the sports, you're in and around all these figures, and he's one of them. There was a. There was a. This is something that I didn't know there was an opportunity to drive that 3, 3 car.

[Jeff Green]

Yes.

[Mark Green]

In the xfinity series.

[Jeff Green]

I. I got an offer mid season of 95 from Buzz McCall on the Caterpillar Bush team. Ward Burton had drove that car just a handful of races.

[Mark Green]

Yep.

[Jeff Green]

And you know, the pay was good as well. Just all those little things. Right. But man, you talking about a tough decision or tough time knocking on the door to walk into Bobby's office and say, hey, but I'm telling you, at first he was not very happy. But I look back at that thinking, okay, that's my, you know, that's my big brother.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

You know, it made me feel good. And still to this day is my best buddy. Right. And we talk all the time. But so I went to do that deal. And then so warded drove the Caterpillar Busch car and a handful of races, and in 96, they're going to go full time with myself driving. So a couple of things is brand new team.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And we got to run all the races and we came out of the gate pretty good. Yeah, really good. And we had a great engine program with K Tech and you know, the car side of things, we were still trying to find our home with chassis and stuff like that. Right. But we had a couple of cars. We won hickory, we won couple races right there. Then toward the end of the year, about September again is Caterpillar. Caterpillar wanted to go cup racing in 97. So obviously buzz said, heck yeah, we're gonna go cup racing.

[Mark Green]

If I remember correctly, you're in position, you're battling for the championship when this decision was made. And it. And it sort of took the attention away from. From that a little bit.

[Jeff Green]

You're correct. And this is very similar to the.

[Mark Green]

Sacrifice that was necessary to get the team into the cup series.

[Jeff Green]

Correct. Very similar to maybe one stage of Jeff's career when the same thing happened.

[Mark Green]

Right.

[Jeff Green]

And this is really ironic and kind of odd when we start talking about it, right? So, yes, September Caterpillar wanted to go cup racing. So we had the number 95 cat Busch car. Then in this, then in 97, it was going to be the number 96 cup car. So we just agreed to go cup racing in 97. Then it was about a week later, I got a call and your dad's like, where you at? I'm like, well, working in shop on the cat car. And he's like, well, come see me. Come deer head shop. So I drove up there and man, we sit there and he's like, hey. And I don't even know if I knew at that particular point that Jeff was not going to be there. And your dad said, first thing he said, he said, man, he said, I love your little brother to death. Love him to death. But in racing, and I'm still trying to learn, you know, all the nuances of, you know, I think you would agree, too. Back in the beginning, it was just us driving a car and we're just thinking about us. Well, all these ingredients to the team personnel, all this stuff. So your dad said, you know, I love Jeff to death, but we're going to make a change. And he said, I want you to drive the 3 car. So let me interject. Maybe right before all this happened, we were at Darlington in the fall. I'm in the cat bushcar and we're second or third in practice. And I hated practicing at Darlington. Tires wear out. They make you out there and run. I think you would say, I love to race there, but hate to practice.

[Mark Green]

So.

[Jeff Green]

I'm out of the car. We were kind of walking around because we got an hour practice, and your dad hollered at me, come over and he said, hey, Jeff's getting ready to go out, make a run here. You doing anything? I said, no, we're pretty much done for this practice. He said, hey. I said, I want you to make a lap in three car. I'm like, okay. He said, jeff always complains about the engines. He said, but I don't know where to do and what to do with it. Right. How can we make it better right here today? He said, I want you to make a couple laughs. I said, you sure? Are you going to tell Jeff?

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And he's like, everything's fine. Everything's fine. You know how he was. And so Jeff came in and he kind of looked at me like, what are you doing standing here like in your cat uniform? And I knew right then he didn't know. He didn't tell you. So I jumped in that thing, we went out there and again, remember, I hate practicing at Darlington, right? And they didn't put new tires on it either, right? So we went out there and I'm like, oh, man, I can't scratch this thing. You know, the three car, we run a couple pretty good laps and come in and your dad had told me, like, hey, when you get through running, come straight to the trailer. I'll meet you in trailer. So got out, went in there. He said, all right, what do you think? I'm like, did I. Did I do pretty good or. Because I was really Cautious. Right. But, you know, sometimes being cautious is good.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And I ran pretty good times. Right. And Dale's like, what do you think? I'm like, I'll be honest with you. I said, if I could take my engine and put in your car, we'd be bad.

[Mark Green]

So the motor's not good.

[Jeff Green]

I didn't say that that way. Right. So Dennis fisher's in there.

[Mark Green]

Oh, yeah. He's in the truck.

[Jeff Green]

And Dennis built engines, and he was a quality engine.

[Mark Green]

He was. He has.

[Jeff Green]

Great guy.

[Mark Green]

Yes.

[Jeff Green]

And. And really, all it boiled down to is. Is some of the throttle sprouts wasn't there and had a little burp. And. And maybe Jeff had explained it in a certain way, but. So, Dale, I leave, and everything's fine. And your dad's like, get on out of here. Right? So I went on. Did my deal. So we're qualifying, and I remember I went out, like, five to go in the lineup, and maybe I'm second. No, I'm third. I'm third. And there's about two or three cars to go, and you know how it used to be. It's like, man, I really want to stay on the inside here at darlington. I don't want to get bumped by one guy and move to the outside. So I survived one guy, but the. The last car to go out was the three car. I'm like, dang. Okay, maybe I can stay on the. In. In the inside lane. Hopefully, he'll be fourth. Hopefully, he'll be fourth or fifth or something. Like, sucker went and sat on the pole. I'm like, whoa. So I had to go back over, like, what y' all. Y' all change anything? Oh, yeah. We just did some stuff. The carburetor. Okay. So I really felt good then for my brother, Right?

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

He's got him a pole, and if I could help out, fine. But then I also understood how well that car drove. Right? And so then fast forward into my meeting over at deer. Deer head shop. He said, I want you to drive three car. I'm like. And I didn't even think about first saying, hey, we just signed a deal to go cup racing. What came to my mind was, that's my brother, you know, and your dad's sitting across from me. He's sitting there. I'm sitting here. And your dad had this look on his face, like, that's right. I mean, it's really surreal. And one of the moments I wish I could have taped and memorized even better. But I'll never forget that moment. And I'm like, Dale, I said, man, I had a great time in it in the four laps I drove it to Darlington. I'd love to drive it everywhere. But I do understand. But man, that's my brother, my youngest brother and I'm very proud of him. And, but now did I think about after that and I never told Jeff that. Did I ever think about that afterwards? Like, man, I should have took that. Yes. Yeah, I thought about it because when we went cup racing on the, on the Caterpillar team, it's. We were like a one year old full season Xfinity bush series team going cup racing. Yeah, it was not good.

[Mark Green]

Not good.

[Jeff Green]

But that was a, that was an opportunity. And obviously Steve park ended up driving.

[Mark Green]

It, but they ended up getting Hutter engines too. And you should have said to dad, I know you probably couldn't, but he had his own experiences with those same Fisher engines.

[Jeff Green]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mark Green]

Dennis was amazing as an engine builder. But that for whatever reason they were struggling to make power with those cars that particular time.

[Jeff Green]

Well, in that particular day, it was just some tuning. Right. Maybe a little deeper. But, but, but. What a pivotal time in my career personally. Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Green]

Hey, it's Dale Jr. Did you know that we've got brand new merch from our star stripes and beers collection available now? We've got tanks, tees, beach towels and more. Just in time for summer. Check it all [e-mail] this podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one website platform to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or growing your business. It has everything you need to create a professional site, manage your brand and get paid all in one place. We all know in NASCAR how important the paint scheme is and how it looks on the car. And well, the same thing when you're building a website. And Squarespace has that for you. With their industry leading website templates, designer fonts and color palettes, it's all important. Get paid quickly with branded invoices and streamline your workflow with built in scheduling and email tools. No matter where you start, your website is flexible to what you need. I was talking to a friend the other day, tj, who says building a new website in Squarespace has been perfect for him. You believe that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm glad they're there. If I were to build a website, I'd have to have somewhere like that.

[Mark Green]

Sounds pretty good. I like building websites. My buddy's new company, they're looking to get people's attention and get people to visit their website. And with the built in SEO tools that Squarespace has, they are able to maximize their reach and grow their business faster. Pretty neat. The other feature they really like is Squarespace has everything you need to run an E commerce business, which is important especially for a brand like ours. You know, everything can be done from payment to fulfillment. All with Squarespace. Your business might be brand new, but that won't prevent you from doing business and making money. Head to squarespace.com dalejr for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code Dale Jr. D A L E J R to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Well, you, that kicks off your, your cup career. Right. And you talked about how things didn't go well with the Caterpillar team. They release Larry Hedrick called you. They released Steve Grissom from the 41 and wanted you to run the last few races of the season. You signed a deal to run the full year in 99.

[Jeff Green]

With the Kodiak Kodiak car. Yep.

[Mark Green]

That deal was kind of clunky around that particular time.

[Jeff Green]

Yeah.

[Mark Green]

And it kind of had always been with Larry and his team. You ended up leaving in the middle of the year or after a race at Richmond.

[Jeff Green]

Yes, I think after another broken scapula, I had to sit out a week and man, back in the day, if you missed a week, they might be looking for somebody different. And sure enough that was the case. Larry was a great guy, I think really put a lot into his race team, but just never got around the corner. Like you said to be consistent and smooth, but yeah, but yeah, unfortunately, yes.

[Mark Green]

You'D sign a deal with Tyler Jett. Who is that?

[Jeff Green]

So that was Tim Beverly. Rich Bickle had been driving that car, the number 45, 1010, the collect call stuff or whatever. 3, 4, 5 or something like that.

[Mark Green]

That purple car.

[Jeff Green]

Purple car. So I did like the last 10 races maybe of that year with that car. The first race or two, they had been building their own engines and I think that's what Richard Rich Bickwood had an issue with. Right. Engines. So the first two races we ran, things weren't real good, but new enthusiasm, new team. James Ince, if you remember him, he was crew chief. And the uniqueness of this team was James was crew chief. We had Chad Knauss as a shot guy. We had Gosh Jay guy over there working. There's a lot of who's who on this particular team. And James philosophy was a little bit Counter opposite of Bob Labonte is maybe more like a Harold Holly. I'm going to try to get it through. If it gets through, it's going to be good.

[Mark Green]

Yeah, he's done. We're just aggressive.

[Jeff Green]

Yeah, really aggressive. And as I walked up to that car to sit in it the first time at the racetrack and you know this feeling, I felt like I was 2/10 faster before I even got in it. Yeah, this thing's all twisted up. The October 10, 345. All the graphics were cool. Yeah, this thing. And it's a Pontiac. Yeah, this thing is right. So then after about the third race thereon, we got Hendrick engines. So probably our bright spot of that was Homestead sitting on the pole. Yeah. So we'd ran Homestead on. This was been the second version of the track. The flat corners. We went down there and tested and we were pretty good. We just made small tweaks to it. And again James and Chad and that whole group. The Hendrick engines, the Pontiac. I can't explain how wicked looking that body was. Right. So we went down and sat on the pole and was very tickled till I think Rusty Wallace meta made a comment in the media center post post qualifying to some effect of like, well, if you're in a Pontiac today, anybody could drive a Pontiac. Oh, oh, yeah. John Andretti was second and I think possibly Bobby was third in the Gibbs car. But Pontiacs did make up the first four spots, but that was a little offensive. But I got over it. Yeah, but. But yeah, we ran okay in the race. We. But yeah, my cup career just. It. We never got all eight cylinders going. It seemed like, you know, as happy and excited as I was for the cat deal to go cup racing and what a great sponsor, you know, just never materialized, you know, to where we needed to be.

[Mark Green]

Around 2002, you replaced Ricky Hendrick in the Busch car they had. Ricky was driving for the final six races of the season. You were his driver coach. You're at a test, he goes and runs a run and comes in and says he's done driving race cars. He had had an. This was after the injury. He had it, I think at Vegas or somewhere. He wrecked.

[Jeff Green]

Yes.

[Mark Green]

And had an injury to his right arm. So. And I know that Rick had mentioned that, you know, coming back from that and just. It just really kind of set into him that maybe he wanted to go do something else. But that had to been pretty like, you know, you had to probably go, yeah, right, whatever. You know, you're gonna be fine.

[Jeff Green]

Right. Right. Well, in 2000, 2001, I drove the 34 car and that's how I met Ricky. He was doing some partial Xfinity stuff.

[Mark Green]

You drove the CC?

[Jeff Green]

CC, well, 34, yeah. And things were good there. Just never able to win. But we had hudder engines. Things were good then. Yes. In we were Atlanta test and we broke for lunch and Ricky come up in the lounge and just said, I think I want to do something different. So it was a shock to me.

[Mark Green]

Save this to you just you by yourself?

[Jeff Green]

Yes, it was myself. And gosh, I forget the name. Ken House.

[Mark Green]

Remember Ken? I know Ken.

[Jeff Green]

Ken was up there. Yes. Up in the lounge. And I think Ken and I both kind of looked at each other like, oh. So after lunch, I threw Ricky's stuff on and jumped in. We made a couple laps and you know, I wasn't totally comfortable in the car, just jumping in a test, right.

[Mark Green]

I mean, it's a fast racetrack.

[Jeff Green]

Remember back in the day, new pavement, so I was on the edge, right? And can't tear this thing up. So I remember we left the track, I called Rick, I'm like, rick, you probably already heard this, but this is what Ricky said. And I said, but my personal feeling is because I'm his driver coach, right? I'm trying to. I'm like, I think this time tomorrow he's going to come back, right? And he's going to say, hey, I was just having a moment that day at Atlanta. So got off the airplane and I'd missed a call from Rick and he said, call me. So I called him. He said, no, Ricky's. Ricky's stepping aside and we want you to drive it the rest of the year. So in 2002, I didn't have anything solid, right? I just left the 34 in 2001, was sitting there idle in 2002, trying to put things together. Then this all happened, right? So drove that car the last few races, knowing each time I was auditioning for this thing, right? And I told Rick, I said, I'm just going to be point blank, this is not David Green style. But I'm just saying I'm auditioning for this car. GMAC was on the car and man, Dale, I can remember going to Charlotte, which hadn't been one of my better racetracks, and rolling out there and practice. And that was back in that era to where we was probably turning nine grand. You know, we had no gear rule. And this thing's all twisted up. I mean, it's nice, right? And I think I ended up Running third, fourth, fifth, something like that. Shoot, I'd never even got close to that before. Right. And this thing is so driver friendly on the horsepower. Nine grand on rpm. I mean, just wonderful. Yeah, man, I really want to do this next year, but. So we go to Phoenix, maybe the last race of the year, Homestead, something like that. And Rick told me before we started, he said, listen man, really appreciate it, but you know, our group of people back at HMS really kind of targeting a younger driver. I'm like, okay, I understand. Because again, when I was a rookie in 91, I was old, right? So I'm really old now. But he's like, no, no, no. And, but we're going to make it right. So when Rick says things right, oh, he makes it, he means it. Right. But the unfortunate part of was I knew I wasn't going to drive that car in 2003. So Brian Vickers got it. And, and, and what meant. What Rick meant by making it right was and I think he, he influenced Clarence Brewer now to hire me to drive the 37.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

Timberwolf, that Jeff Purvis. So Mark started in the 37, my brother, then Jeff Purvis drove it, unfortunately got hurt. Then I got plugged in to drive it and 2003. So Rick was instrumental in that part of it, but he also was instrumental in not only coaching Ricky and helping Ricky, I was also a part of the test team with the new cot car that came out. So Rex Stump and myself and Lance McGrew and that whole test team. Gosh, I tested for those guys for several years, but it all kind of got kicked off and got in high gear when I went to drive the Bruco Xfinity car. We did the speedway races with the R and D team at Hendrick Motorsports and we did R D. Right. And that was fine. Yeah, that was great. Now I'm cup racing again.

[Mark Green]

Right.

[Jeff Green]

With, with Hendrick Motorsports. So. So we continued doing our R and D testing even though I'm driving for Now Bruco in 2003 and we come out of the gates blazing. Jason Ratcliffe was crew chief.

[Mark Green]

Damn. Yep.

[Jeff Green]

And Clarence had really built his program thanks to Mark early on. Right. Back home in Kentucky team and Timberwolf and just I think we won three or four races that year and got down to the very end. Well, I was leading the points. We were at Dover in the fall and on lap five, Scott Riggs got into me and turned me around and I crashed out early and lost my point lead. So we fast forward going to Homestead. They just Reconfigured the track. It's Brian and I and Scott Riggs I think was close. Hornaday was close. Five laps into practice, I think Brian had an issue, got in the wall. They had to go to a backup car. And so we're sitting there, you know, the teams are parked at the garage like they do now and you know, we had maybe 10 people on the team, five, six full time people. We're sitting over here watching the traffic in and out of the five team. Heck, they got more engineers and we had people, right. So like we really up against the giant, right. So got down to the end of the race with 50 to go and passed Brian. I think I had to beat Brian by three spots, got around him and then was a very challenging day. I'll say it this way in passing Casey Mears for the position that I really needed and ended up one position short. I think I lost the point. Lost it by 12 points.

[Mark Green]

Damn it.

[Jeff Green]

And dang it. In 96 driving a cat car, we lost it by 22 points. That's the O system, obviously. So I think every once in a while, if I could have gathered up about 30 some odd points, I could maybe have three rings. Right. But it was great time and. And Rick said it at the end of the race, they're celebrating Brian winning the championship and kind of put his arm around me and said, hey, I was going to win this championship one way or the other, whether it's you or Brian. Which meant a whole lot. Right. But yeah, a great time in my career there as well.

[Mark Green]

How do you wind your career down? How does that happen?

[Jeff Green]

Well, we ended up finishing out my career first driving with bruco. We timberwolf 37. Then with some regulations, Timberwolf had to leave the sport. Kleenex got involved and here we go again. This is another. Another sponsor Jeff's. It's like how mirrored seems like our careers might have been. But I know in 05 maybe we won Pike's Peak with Kleenex and that was my last win. And then I think we maybe ran one more year. Then the team wanted to go a different direction. And then I went to do. I was still doing the R and D testing with Hinder and then kind of put together maybe a couple one offers. You know, Tommy Baldwin had a deal. We did a couple races with one time but I didn't do the start park stuff like Jeff did. So I mainly resorted back to the testing with Hendrick. Then when Bobby Labonte went to drive the 47 cup car. When Tad went Cup racing, I went over to spot. So then I got in that spot and part of my career and spotted for a lot of great drivers in cup and Xfinity. He spotted for you, I think, at Daytona one time. And I was a nervous wreck on that one. But you were good to me, you were kind and hopefully I did okay. But you know, that spotting deal was kind of the step right out of the car where I could still get my driving fix sort of. I felt like, you know, at least Bobby and you and the good drivers I spotted for always made me feel like I was sitting in the car with them. Right. And that was the fun part about spotting. So I still kind of kept my driving need there through that time. And then in 2012, still doing some tests and still spotting, John Darby approached me at Phoenix in the cup garage and said, hey, might have an opening. Would you be interested in coming to work for us? And you know, my first thought is like, everybody says, oh man, you're going to work for the dark side. You're doing this, doing that. And I actually thought about it for a full year because again, I knew that was going to be a big career change. But I accepted. And one year later I told John, I said, count me and let's do it. So I started mid season of 14. And I've always been a part of safety car and driver stuff, which, you know, I got to work and be hands in hand with a lot of drivers I drove for or drove against and with. And then moving forward, working with John Padlak and Matt Harper and all the folks at R D. Tom Gideon, man, I learned so much. And then, to be honest with you, being at the racetrack, in that competitive environment, getting respected by my peers as far as guys I used to drive with, guys I didn't get to drive with, guys like yourself and just other teams really fueled my fire. And it still does today.

[Mark Green]

Really.

[Jeff Green]

I enjoy the heck out of my job now. The travel is tough, yeah, but. But the company does a lot for us to get us around quickly. But I still love my job. I love to look at race cars. I love to look at race cars and how teams do things differently to get the same result. But also the fun part is how we've involved safety. And it didn't start with me, right. But John Padillac and the guys at R and D have really taken that to another level. And it's fun to be a part of that. And it's fun to have the camaraderie in the garage and the respect, it means so much to me.

[Mark Green]

I think that the one thing, I mean, of course, I think we as drivers have a really hard time coming to terms with not driving a race car. The joy of competition, the joy of going down in the corner and your car rolls the center better and you're going to throttle up and turn right up underneath this guy. That right there is exactly what is hard to let go of. But we will do it as long as we get to keep going to the track and it matter and us be an asset or a value to something like I wanted. I never thought I was going to be a broadcaster, but when I found that avenue, like, I didn't want to stop going to the track.

[Jeff Green]

Right.

[Mark Green]

But I needed a reason to be there.

[Jeff Green]

Right, right.

[Mark Green]

And I think that you found that same thing. Same thing in a very, you know, a very critical role. I've seen you walk around and work the garage and the sport. I mean, your keen eye of, over the years, looking at interiors and headrests and positioning and just being. Being someone willing to walk over to a driver like a Joey Logano and say, hey, I'd really like it if that was about a half inch taller or if that was a little bit this way or a little bit that. I think that's. That's going to benefit you better and be safer. That's, you know, that's a. You can't put a value on that role. So I'm thankful that that's something that you found enjoyment in because it plays such a critical part of keeping all of us on the. On the racetrack and keeping us safe. Speaking of that, you talked about mounting seats. I know your drive. Your brother Jeff told me a few things about mounting seats and tipping. Like one of the things that I always, like, I jump in a race car. Way back when I'm young, I mounted the seat perfectly straight. That's the way I thought you're supposed to mount it. I get in the car, I'm driving cars. For years, I'm driving cars and I kept telling people the same thing. It's tipped over on the right front, everything's great. But it just feels like it carries the left rear tipped over on the right front. And Jeff told me to turn the seat, tilt the seat. He's like, if it feels that way, then tilt the seat. So from that moment on, and this was probably like late model stock, just right before I got into bushcar, I started mounting the left side of the seat lower or tilting the right side up. You know, or if it's an insert, mounting the insert, all of my Hendrix stuff. If you. If you were able to look at the insert, My body is tilted inside the insert. Right. And so. And it would take that sensation away of getting me, you know, getting the car. It felt like it would give me the platform of the car that I wanted, but it was just kind of tricking my mind, you know, Where, I guess. Were you particular about those titles?

[Jeff Green]

Oh, absolutely. And not that I stumbled off across it, but back in the Mike Alexander days. Right. So I had to thank goodness we were same size or close to it, and I wasn't there. Gonna tell Mike, oh, I gotta move the seat for me. And you're gonna suffer through it. The race for you. Right. So I jumped in Mike's car, and that's where I got my trend going, is not only to have it tilted, but he had it turned.

[Mark Green]

Damn.

[Jeff Green]

Now this is oval.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

A real course would be straight up. But he had it turned, and that kind of caught me off guard a little bit. Like, why is he turning it? I get this part of it. And then also that put the steering wheel off center to the right, you know, whole motion there.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

So back to turning it to the left front tire, so to speak. Or the A post. It obviously put your vision where you need it to be. And then I think one of the main factors as well is it straightens out your right leg.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And sitting in the garage back when we used to have practice, we're waiting for spring changes, shock changes, all that stuff. My car was very uncomfortable sitting in the garage. But now when I got on the racetrack, it was comfortable because all these things being done, pedal location, steering wheel location was ideal. Center of the corner, because that's where I wanted to go the fastest.

[Mark Green]

Right.

[Jeff Green]

But it wasn't my idea. Mike Alexander led me that direction. And then I had a lot of pushback from teams and interior guys. That's why I wanted to be the interior. Yeah. I just do it this way. Right. But I got a lot of pushback. But I learned that from Mike.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And that whole deal of now, all of a sudden, because back in the day, our cars traveled a bunch of.

[Mark Green]

Delta on the right front.

[Jeff Green]

And if you start up here, then just to me, keeping in mind the center of the corner is the most comfortable spot for you. Your foot wanted to go down because it wasn't all bound up. But, yeah.

[Mark Green]

I've had guys get in my car even late in my career and go like Bowman and Regan Smith. And go, yeah, I can't drive it like this. You know, sitting in the garage, I'm like, yeah, not gonna feel good right here. But wait till we get down in the center of the corner of Charlotte. You're gonna be exactly. Everything's gonna go where it's, you know.

[Jeff Green]

Exactly.

[Mark Green]

Because I would. I would actually, you know, I'd build the headrest up. And so if you were sitting in the car, you almost had your head tilted a little bit and you're thinking, this isn't good. I can't drive like this. But once you load and get everything going, where it goes down into the corner after, you know, five to seven GS down in the corner, whatever we're feeling there, maybe it's not that much. Everything's. Now you're sitting straight up and down.

[Jeff Green]

Yes.

[Mark Green]

It's always found that fascinating. I learned that from your brother Jeff.

[Jeff Green]

Yeah. So we even use a lot of that mindset even today, right. With. With drivers watching the cup cars have high speed cameras that look at driver at all times. Unfortunately, in an instance, say Alex Bowman's yesterday, you know, we look at that on what's happening. But just normal driving, right. There's interesting things. You see really quickly a story and you might have forgot this one. We talk about seat location.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

The 83 car you're going to drive at Charlotte. I forget what year it was going to drive in Charlotte. I was spotting for Landon when Landon was over here.

[Mark Green]

My white Navy 83. Yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Green]

So you called me, said, hey, I'm over in Charlotte over there in a couple weeks. They got to test on Monday. Can you go over and test? I'm like, okay, yeah, I can go. So he said, go shop, make sure everything's all right in the seat. So same mindset. I gotta drive it the way you drive it because you're gonna race it. Right. So I get in there and that thing's kind of doing this number. So we ended up putting some padding behind the back. Right. And I need to get up here and get where I can see because I was. I was like a 70 degree angle. I wasn't laid by a ground. And I again learned that from Mike. And I always thought too, I'd throw out there for comical reasons would be. They never can accuse me of not being up on the wheel.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

Because I'm up on that wheel. So anyway, I put some padding in your seat. I get up there where I'm comfy. We go over and Rick stumps over there and I fire Out. And I remember the. It was the year that they had navigated the track. It was fast. God is fast. And. But you had an appearance so you couldn't go. And I was. I was giggly and ready to do it. So we rode out. I came by one time, went through 1 and 2, got down to 3 and 4. And about in the middle, 3 and 4, that thing goes boop. It dropped down. And I'm looking at that wall off of four at Charlotte. And that was. We were probably wide open.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

Kind of time. Which we didn't like right. As a driver. But anyway, come off turn four and that wall looked like it was that tall. And I'm like, I am going over this wall. When I stopped, I was in turn one of the quarter mile. I'm like, oh, boy, that hurt. Then I thought, oh crap, I got to tell Dale Jr. Just wrecked his car. So I get out, I go down there and I see Dr. Petty because I'm like, well, they brought me down there anyway. And he said, call me in a couple days, make sure you're doing okay. And I felt okay right then. And man, about three days later I'm like. So I go see him and I think I'd just. Small fracture of a rib or two.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And what had happened was as a butler built seat. And I love those seats. Right. But what I did wrong was I put about an inch and a half or two inches of padding behind my back.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And it took the rib from being here to move to the shop to back here.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

So I don't remember what you said when I called you or talked to you about wrecking your car, but we come to find out. Sway bar boat got into inside the tall tire. So the litigation of the tire so fast.

[Mark Green]

It has so much tire deflection.

[Jeff Green]

Yes, yes, yes. So it's like, oh, shoot. So that's. That was a good lesson.

[Mark Green]

That was always my fear of driving those cars. Back then. You'd run even the cup cars we'd go to, you know, in 03 04, we'd go to Fontana or Atlanta and you'd go out and run and come into the garage and Tony Jr. And them would lift the hood and the left front or the right front tire might have a damn 11 inch wide groove in it from where the fender had rubbed. It had laid on top of the tire.

[Jeff Green]

Yes. Or the fender strap.

[Mark Green]

Fender strap. Right at the seam between the hood and the fender. There's a one inch strap that ran the entire length from the Top of the hood, all the way down to the hood pins and that laid on top of that tire and cut this groove. They were traveling those cars just as far as they could get them.

[Jeff Green]

Yeah.

[Mark Green]

Until it lay that damn fender lay on that tire. And then they, you know, and you, you'd see fenders with, you know, the paint boiling off of the fender because the tire laying. And I'm. I remember I did go to Fontana. We go to Fontana off into turn one, first lap of practice. Oh, down into one new tire, full throttle back to back to the gas. And that right front tire exploded because that strap laid on that right front tire.

[Jeff Green]

Oh, yeah.

[Mark Green]

And I'm like, God, we can't keep doing this. Like, we gotta figure something out now.

[Jeff Green]

Then when we had telemetry, I did a test out there with the COT card. It was early morning and. And we made a couple laps there and came in. You're looking at the data and stuff like that. And it's like, how, how fast was we running down there? Like, oh, into one is like 2:04 or something like that. I'm like, after that, I think I slowed up a couple days. The rest of the day we went.

[Mark Green]

Me and Latarte went to Michigan to test, and this was in 14. They just repaved, they just paved the track maybe a couple years before that. But we were tire testing. And we're out there biffles out there, a couple of us. And I mean, I'm running. We're on a 20 lap run and it's near wide open. And I come in the pits and I'm like, Steve, I'm like, I'm just gonna tell you, between me and you, you know, I ain't even close to what we can do.

[Jeff Green]

Right?

[Mark Green]

I was like, I'm not gonna. Yeah, be.

[Jeff Green]

Not today.

[Mark Green]

Not today. On a tire test for a Goodyear, Right? But like, yeah, like the last lap of every run, I just do what it could do and it'd be like half a second faster. But I just wasn't willing to run it right like that for 20 laps.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

True work is hell bent on making the most technical, high performance workwear. It all started in Colorado mountains when a trade worker got tired of wet, heavy gear and built something better. TrueWerk products are built for comfort, protection and efficiency without the bulk.

[E]

Denim and canvas hasn't changed much in 200 years. But TrueWerk upgrades Classics using fabrics worn by elite outdoor athletes. Stretchy sweat wicking work pants replace soaked jeans. Wind and waterproof shells keep you warm without slowing you down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No wonder TrueWerk has over 50,000 5 star reviews. True work gear helps you perform at your best even in the toughest conditions.

[E]

The sun hoodie I've been using recently outside when I'm mowing my lawn, not trying to get sunburn out there. The best part, how light it is. Long sleeves but you're not really getting sweaty.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you know I've tried these shorts and man are they light and so easy to work in. You know, hot days at the racetrack on the roof, really enjoying them. And the comfort level is super high as well. Check out the full lineup and get 15% off your first order at truewerk.com Del Jr. That's 15% off at T R U E W E-R K.com Dell.

[F]

Jr. Travis, you and me, we work in racing. Everything needs to be quick. We need that social video quick. We need to get the podcast out quick. Well, guess what? The same thing is important when hiring quality candidates.

[E]

The last thing you want to be doing is sitting there waiting to try to find candidates. Jobs aren't getting done because you don't know who to hire. You don't even know who to interview for your job.

[F]

Yeah, that's right Travis. You realize you needed to hire somebody not today, but yesterday. And how can you find amazing candidates.

[E]

Fast with Indeed sponsored jobs? Your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can stand out and reach the people you want faster.

[F]

There are no monthly subscriptions, no long term contracts, and you only pay for results. That's right. I want to see results and Indeed can get you there.

[E]

And that's the thing is you don't want to just spend all this money. You want to pay for something and get it done fast so you can get everything done.

[F]

When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Join the 3.5 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast and there is no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.comdalejr just go.

[E]

To indeed.comdalejr right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.comdalejr Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need.

[Mark Green]

Were you the driver that won Bristol when Mark Martin pulled off the racetrack?

[Jeff Green]

Yes, it was.

[Mark Green]

What did you think about that? Did you think they were going to walk into the victory lane and maybe tell you that they were going to Give Mark his win.

[Jeff Green]

No, my memories right there of that day were we were coming on strong at the end of the race, right? With 50s go. I might have got into second right there. Mark was leading, as you well know, Mark was Winn Dixie car. That Winn Dixie car. And Mark were tough to beat everywhere we went. And he was the gauge, right? He was the bar. So I'm chopping into his lead there a little bit. And I kept thinking, like, okay, it looks like I'm going to catch him now. I'm trying to size up where I can pass him, because that's going to be the tough part. But as we well know, Mark was one of the most clean and respected drivers out there that I knew if I could get there, it was going to be fine. Right. So I got pretty close, and then caution come out, and so we're driving around through there, and nobody's saying anything on my radio. Now, the thing that I remember the most was when we were rolling into the 3, rolling through 3 and 4, coming off of 4, pace car still out on track. Mark peels off. Yeah, like. And it still didn't hit me quite thin. But what did hit me was pace car still on track. So.

[Mark Green]

So damn wonder you didn't follow him, Right.

[Jeff Green]

That comment's been made. I never thought that. So I obviously stayed out, right. We come back around, we got to checkered that lap. Heck, I stayed on track another lap. I'm like, I'm not coming off to y' all tell me to get off. So then the other interesting part of that now, if Mark had turned off the track and victory lane would have been down there where normal Victory Lane is. He would have been a race even though he's on pit road.

[Mark Green]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Green]

That was what was told to me. But obviously Victory Lane being the middle of 3 and 4. But. But, you know. Yeah. I was like, whoa, what's just happening? Right. Number one, I was very proud of how we ran that day, and to run second to Mark Martin was going to be like a win to me. Right. And we were in it for the long haul, for the championship, and. But then I think the coolest thing for me after that weekend, or as it was ending up right there, was the interview I saw that Mark did. They interviewed Mark, and he's like, dumbest thing I ever did in my life or something like that. Right. He's really hard on himself, but he said, hey. He said, I've been rooting for David Green to win, but not quite like that.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

So to me, that total respect from Mark. Right. But, yeah, that was an interesting one. But as I say, you had to be somebody. Had to be there, right?

[Mark Green]

Yeah, it was gonna be somebody.

[Jeff Green]

I was very proud of my team that day, and we were strong. It had been nice to be able to try to pass him.

[Mark Green]

Yeah. Not many people ask your side of that that afternoon. We've heard from Mark on that a few times because we still like to remind him of it. Oh, yeah, you talked about spoilers that might bend a little bit in the wind. I walked into the shop one day when Jeff was driving. I think they're getting ready for the very first race together in Daytona. And Jeff was on the bench welding aluminum for the rear spoiler. And it had to be welded all the way across, but he welded it in little stitches. Stitches. And then he would put J.B. weld to look like aluminum welds in the rest of those gaps, hoping that that would make it flex a little bit. Jeff. Jeff was pretty. Jeff was aggressive when he could be. He didn't mind. He didn't mind pushing. Pushing the limits of the rule book. And I know you're a NASCAR official these days, but we love talking about innovation in this, in this room. Is there anything from your own career, anything that you created, any rule that you might have manipulated or any. Anything that might not have? Maybe you did. Maybe you wrote a new rule. Was there anything that you ever done that you thought was pretty clever?

[Jeff Green]

Well, I have to say this, with working at Bobby Lobani racing, it was.

[Mark Green]

It wasn't then.

[Jeff Green]

It wasn't then. I can promise you that. And the other teams I work for, obviously, you know, Wayne days, you know, building cars for customers. And we were straight narrow. I think the only one I can think of, Dale. And with more time, I could probably think. I thought the deal with Jeff on the spoiler was. Was pretty cool. Right?

[Mark Green]

I did too.

[Jeff Green]

I think there had been some talk of, you know, back at that film our car at one time, maybe some brake calipers in the lower control arms to kind of jack the car up and down, you know, after inspection. Da, da, da, da. But I'd say probably the biggest one that. And we didn't actually do it. We actually found out about it. So, you know, Mike had had those bush series cars. We brought it up to Wayne's. We, you know, we were kind of copying the body and going from there and this and that. So when we built the Daytona 1991 Daytona Busch car for filmar for me to drive that we sat on the pole with, we kind of copied off of, of some of those cars that, that Mike had had. So we. They had real glass. Front glass was real.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And you remember those days. And we had chipped the glass in that car at Daytona and cracked it. Right. That was the issue there. They'd get chipped and cracked. So we was going to replace that for either Talladega or the following Daytona. And I remember like, oh, yeah, you just call down here to the Oldsmobile Buick store and just order a front windshield for a 1991 Oldsmobile. So we ordered one, they shipped it up to Dwayne Days, we unboxed it, and we've got the car right there. We had no damage in the race. Other windshields broke. So we pull the windshield out of the box to put in the car. You know where I'm going, right. This thing is like two inches too wide. Maybe when he sent us the wrong, you know, model car or whatever. No, sure enough. So the windshield was trimmed down for that car. Right. And that's prior to some rules here, there and yonder. And. But, but probably the, the thing that got that I was more involved with that was probably skirting around was that same particular car. When we went to the Daytona for the race, Kip McChord, team manager, says, like, so we went through the routine at the shop on inspecting the car.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And, and Kip's like, hey, David, he says when they go to measure the door top on this, on this car up here behind the A post, he said, I want you on the other side of whatever the fish oil is that's checking that measurement. And more than likely he's going to shoot you the tape measure through the car. Then when you're on the right side of the car, he's probably going to be on the left. I want you to cut that thing two inches. We mean cut it two inches. Like extended past. Yeah, don't hook it on the edge. What happened? That car was narrow windshields. Narrow.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

But the windshield part of it, obviously they didn't have a template back then for that windshield, but the door top measurement was when they, they physically did. So I'm like, oh, my gosh, you're going to put me over there. He said, yeah, yeah, yeah. They, you know, anything drivers do, they believe what drivers do. Right. So you put me right into the fire right off the get go. So, yeah, they measured it and I cut it and it was right on the rule.

[Mark Green]

That's awesome. So, yeah, I know that wasn't that uncommon. Darrell Waltrip and. And Junior Johnson, they built those cars that. Yeah. They were narrow as hell, which, as.

[Jeff Green]

We know, prompted templates. Right.

[Mark Green]

Yeah. And I think there was just an overall back in those days.

[Jeff Green]

Correct.

[Mark Green]

And I think from nose to tail.

[Jeff Green]

You know, you asked the question. Maybe it's something I did that. That prompted a rule. Not that I necessarily did it, but, you know, Tony Stewart was. Same way you were. A little bit the same way. As we put the tilt. We put the tilt back in seat. Which then got, you know, our helmets.

[Mark Green]

Closer to the wall. Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

Closer to the door bars. On. On any left side hits, which we know we've seen those. And those aren't good. That prompted actually our new cup car. You know, I carry around a gauge that. That we check to make sure that no matter whether you have tilt in a seat or you have tilt in the insert, which is the. Typically what guys do on the cup side is set to seat straight, then do your tilt with the insert. But anyway, what we want to do is always maintain a measurement from a common spot on the door bars.

[Mark Green]

Yes.

[Jeff Green]

That makes sure, in short of the helmet will always compress the headrest foam and do a lot of compressing on your headrest foam on the left side before. Before it ever reaches the padding on the Halo.

[Mark Green]

Right.

[Jeff Green]

Without that rule and a guy leaning really hard.

[Mark Green]

Oh, yeah.

[Jeff Green]

You know, your helmet is going to.

[Mark Green]

You're all in that. Yeah. You're all in that halo. That's why I always.

[Jeff Green]

And you missed a headrest.

[Mark Green]

That's why I always tried to get laid back. It was really not so much that I like the profile. I'd love to actually be sitting up straighter in my car through the years, but I did not want to be anywhere near that Halo bar.

[Jeff Green]

Correct.

[Mark Green]

You know, and I always. Every time I would get in my cars in the shop and sit down, I put that helmet on, and the first thing I did was tilt my head over and measure this, measure that.

[Jeff Green]

Yes.

[Mark Green]

Move my hand around and go. Okay, there's. That's good enough. You know, because that was. That headrest foam can move and compress, but that Halo bar ain't going anywhere.

[Jeff Green]

It's not going anywhere. And obviously your dad never had that issue. Right. He was always slow.

[Mark Green]

Yeah. I wanted to end this conversation with giving you a chance to talk about your son Austin. He's been racing in the Trans Am series and now the Xfinity series as well. It's been fun watching him work his way up through the Ranks. I know he's worked hard to get the minimum opportunities he's had, but he's done some amazing work with all of those.

[Jeff Green]

Thank you.

[Mark Green]

You know, how stressful, I suppose, is it, being a dad, not only watching him out there on the track, believe in his abilities, understanding the challenges he faces to prove himself. How do you. And you're in the. You're in the thick of the industry. While that might give you some opportunities to keep the conversation going every day, you also have to keep your mind on your role, your responsibilities, and not be distracted by him being at the racetrack, trying to compete. How do you manage all of that?

[Jeff Green]

Well, that's the last part. There is very ten. Tough, very tough. But, you know, the folks at NASCAR very supportive of watching him participate and allow me to be a part of those weekends where maybe I don't have to work the Xfinity race. I can just be there as be a dad, but always just be a dad and work at the same time. But very challenging. I know early on, you know, we. We had our bandos, we had our legend cars and. And, you know, trying to want to do it myself and giving the best opportunity, you know, then you plug in a guy like Timmy Latica and Cheryl that gives him an opportunity to drive their legend car. Then watching him drive some equipment that's not ours, not mine, I just kind of get back to look at it. I really didn't see a truer picture of Austin and his abilities. Right. And not that I ever said, hey, you're going to be a race car driver, but what I wanted to do is, like, if he could really do it. And prior to him driving Timmy Latica's legend car, I gave him many opportunities to not fail, but just to stumble because either I didn't know the tricks to do on a legend car and stuff like that, but he always, always rose to the top. So then that's another confidence you have, right? But also an issue, right? Like, now we gotta find him another rider going up the ladder. So there for a while, I really thought that I've not done a good job as a dad. Based on my career, my brothers, our family, just. I haven't done a good job of putting Austin in the right spot. Whether that's, you know, setting money aside. And again, you know, during our era, the money was not like it is now or even in the late 2000s. But nonetheless, you know, I just thought, man, I haven't done a good job. And man, that's tough as a dad. And I Know, you're finding that out with your kids now in other aspects, right? So. So Timmy Latica took Austin to another level in legend car. Boom. They were winning. And every challenge that Austin met, he met that and surpassed it. So I was very proud of him. I never got to go to college neither. My brothers. I always say my education past high school was racetrack, man. Racetrack, racetrack. So he. I was so proud of him. Went to App State, graduated four years of college, done a great job. And then I always told him, like, you do that first, then we'll worry about the rest of it, then count my blessings each day that Mr. Doug Peterson came along with TA2, gave him a shot to drive his TA2 car. And then Mr. Peterson said, Hey, I want to give Austin an opportunity and show him to the world. And, man, again, I can't thank the good Lord for that opportunity that Doug gave him and then to put him out there right, for people to see. And I think all I ever wanted was just give him an opportunity, just put him in that element and no matter how big, small, and see what can happen. And, gosh, he's made me proud. But then, you know, two years ago, no, last year, when Mr. Peters decided to take his team to go Xfinity racing, I'm like, oh, wow, this is a big jump. Do you guys really know? And I'm like, yeah, you know, we got. So they obviously did road course racing as their profession, and that's where they went on the Xfinity side. Bought a couple cars from rcr and man, they did really good. One of the neatest things, Richard, Richard Childers at Cota on Sunday. So Austin's first Xfinity race on road course was Cota last year. And so I saw Ursi on Sunday and he probably saw my smile a mile away, right? Austin ran seventh in his first race, and RC's like he said, I had to ask one of my boys Yesterday, who's that 32 car? And whoever said what, that's Peterson racing, Jordan Anderson racing. Like, who's driving that thing? And they're like, Austin, Austin Green. Like, is that David's son? So what a proud moment, right? I'm like, you know, Richard, really, it just made me feel so, so, so blessed that Austin was able to go put that race together. So fast forward. He had a great race at Sonoma. Just things were really good. And then, you know, Mr. Peterson's like, hey, I want to do more of these, do some oval stuff and, you know, ultimately think about going full time. So what a blessing. Thank Mr. Peterson every day for this opportunity. And then to me, and I kind of tell Austin after the fact, you know, it's like, hey, you know, there's a lot of pressure, you know, this particular day you had to go out, not only make the race, but just be respectful to the other drivers because one day that's going to be reversed. Little did I know that one day was the same day as first race. And I was so proud of how he respected other drivers. And the comments I hear on a Sunday, you know, from Kyle Larson to Justin Allgaier, I mean, just everybody, right? So, so, so proud and, but very, you know, what do we do now? Right. And as you well know, it's not like back in the day to where you saw that talent. And I tell Austin all the time, like, you know, things go full circle. Yes, we need sponsors. We always have to work towards that. But you just be yourself to do the right things. And no matter whether you win, lose or draw, it's all about how you get there. And you know, most recently he won the ARCA race at Charlotte. And whether he had won or he ran second because very good equipment. Shane Huffman, those guys ppg, top notch stuff. But that adds to the pressure. Right? And I hung out all day on top of the truck with Shane and Connor Mosak and just being a dad, this and only radio, no talking. Sure. I was just so impressed on Shane and the team and listen to Connor and Austin talk after practice and, and but Dale, if he'd ran second or third or fourth or fifth, I'm still proud of how he navigates. Right. And to me that's going to get him further than. Because we know we can't win them all and. But yeah, just very proud, I hope, you know, I just hope that the little momentum will keep going and, and he'll just get a shot.

[Mark Green]

Yeah.

[Jeff Green]

And that's how he can ask.

[Mark Green]

That's right. Well, I think he's certainly got a lot of people's attention.

[Jeff Green]

Well, I appreciate that. It's, it's, it's a nice feeling to have that, you know, that he, that he, that he does the right things on the racetrack and that is equated into with his speed and getting good.

[Mark Green]

Finishes so well, we can't wait to see him get more opportunities. Austin's out there, you know, grinding for every chance he can and making the most of them. Those top 10 runs in that Xfinity car are extremely impressive. Knowing the limited amount the team runs and the limited amount of opportunities he's had behind the wheel. Those races, especially at Cota and the road courses get chaotic at the end and his ability to just kind of quietly navigate to get the result is. Is probably one because you just expect the rookies just to get swept right up into those. Those moments, you know, and over overextend themselves late in those races. Sharp little racer. It's been a fun conversation, man.

[Jeff Green]

Well, we thank you so much for the opportunity. I think we could go on and on and on. Right. I think. But, you know, from the time that, you know, Bobby kind of put me through that learning process and hey, now you're going to drive to the toughness of our sport as we all race together, talking about my brothers, you know, what your dad did for Jeff and the opportunities he gave me and what we learned from all that. Right. And then lastly, I think from Owensboro, Kentucky, you know, at one time there was maybe eight or nine drivers, if you count Jeremy and. And David Keith that had run ARCA, Jeremy's stepbrother or. Yes. But there was like eight or nine crew guys or 12 crew guys from Owensboro. So very proud of what Owensboro's done with nascar, but. But super proud, you know, for. I know like we talked in the beginning. Right. I didn't know if it's going to be past the next go kart race.

[Mark Green]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Green]

Or what class that might be, but then get an opportunity in NASCAR All American Challenge, then the Busch Series, and then fortunate enough to win a championship and then knowing Mark would have had that same shot if the right opportunity would happen. But then fast forward and little brother Jeff wins one, so to share those accomplishments. So very proud.

[Mark Green]

Yeah, well, we're thankful. Yeah, I'm. I'm thankful to have the chance to talk to you, to get to know you better, for everybody else to enjoy. This story is a fun conversation and we love seeing you at the racetrack. We love you being a part of the industry and everything that you've. Everybody's lives you've impacted as an inspector again, we can't put a value on the job that you've done there. And it's awesome to have other. It's awesome to have people in the garage on that side, the dark side, as you say, that have drove race cars that have been behind the wheel, that understand what the competitors thinking and dealing with and challenged with, you know, because we look at you and go, he's one of us. He'll understand. He knows what I'm dealing, you know, and. And you have A lot of grace. But we appreciate you see at the racetrack here, I guess this weekend in Mexico.

[Jeff Green]

Absolutely. And I promise you and I, I hope I get to send you more proud dad texts and appreciate sharing those good things. But thanks, Dale. It's been a pleasure.

[Mark Green]

Absolutely. David Green on the Dale Jr download.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kubota Orange Days delivers the savings you need for the life you love. Shop a wide selection of equipment at your local dealer, including America's number one selling compact tractor and get your perfect match delivered to your door.

[E]

Designed for comfort and built for performance. Now through June 30, get 0 down 0% APR for 84 months or up to $3,000 off select compact tractors.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sales ending soon. See the details@kubota orangedays.com.

[Mark Green]

All right, so that was a great conversation with David Green. I really enjoyed that, man. Looking through our notes that the team, Bobby Marcos and Andrew have compiled, I got a group here that helps me be able to sit down here and do this as well as we do it. And they do an amazing job. You know, just, I know I was around David. I know what his career was like. But those little moments like in the, at the test with Ricky Hendrick and just even stuff I'd forgotten him testing my Xfinity car. I didn't. I totally forgot about that. So just, you know, and listening to, I guess, the challenges of racing with your brothers and trying to both, all three of you trying to make it to the top or at least as far as you can go. Pretty, pretty compelling. David is a great guy, salt of the earth and great race car driver. Really fun race car driver to be around on the racetrack still today doing good things in this sport. As an inspector, I know he's got several roles and has had probably many responsibilities over the years, but one of the things that I've always appreciated about him was he was one of those individuals that actively roamed the garage and knit picky about all of the safety aspects of the interior of the car. He wants to see that headrest. He, he watches every driver get inside the car, buckle in, and then he looks and sees kind of where their head's positioned according to where the headrest may be and are they getting all of the benefits that that can provide and which is so important these days. But so we need people like that that want to do that job and want to have passion for it and he does. So we're thankful for that. And I mentioned about his brothers Mark and Jeff, two great dudes. I would say I'm thankful to be friends with all of them. And they all have a very similar salt of the earth, polite do it the right way, they're never going to cross you or do something that you're going to go, man, why, why did you choose that? Just nice people and racers. Really good, really good hardcore racers that have, that have, that have been, you know, that have worked on their own cars, tuned on their own cars. They know every aspect of this industry. There's not a lot of people like that around these days. Pretty cool. So a lot of fun for me. Hope you all enjoyed that conversation. David Green, he's been involved in this sport forever. He's the kind of person you need to know about and learn about. It's time for the White flag. White flag. The teardown was live after the race on Sunday on YouTube and Twitter. If you haven't already subscribed to the Dirty Move Media YouTube page, need to do that. You'll get the notifications that the teardown is live. Right? Everybody's telling us how they're loving the post race shows that we're giving you from Amazon. Well, you can continue that experience by tuning into the teardown live at these races every single Sunday. And make sure you subscribe to DirtyMomedia on YouTube. The notification comes in. Boom. The teardown is live and you can jump right in and be part of the conversation. Actions detrimental Taped on Monday with Denny Hamlin. Always fun hearing from Denny, particularly after he wins races when he's in such a great mood. I give him a hard time for being in kind of a down mood every now and then. He says you can't really tell when he's in a bad mood and I disagree. I can, I can tell within about a word or two whether Denny's in a Denny mood or in a good mood. Shout out to Denny Bros for the win this weekend. I know they're all happy. Door Bumper Clear also dropped on Monday. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Come by to talk about a lot of things. He's had a great year up until Nashville. We'll talk about that. The he talks about it with the team about Jose Var and all the how that all went down. You won't want to miss that. But obviously we did Dirty Air yesterday with TJ Majors. Had a lot of great conversations. Went in depth about a lot of things going on with Michigan Preview in the next race with the Dirty Modeau gang for Mexico. Just a great, great conversation, a lot of fun. And Herman Schrader and Speed street also also are dropping on today. So if you love Herman Schrader, you want to hear some Speed Street? We'll have all that out for you as well this week. So then you got Bless your heart, man. We got a lot going on. Me and Amy are not going to be doing the show this week together. I've got to go to Mexico. And so Amy's gonna have a special guest come in. She's already had a show where she had a friend of hers come on. Everybody seemed to really enjoy the conversation. I'm hoping, I don't know who's gonna be your guest, but I'm kind of hoping it's one of my friends, somebody like TJ that she can give them, give me kind of ask a lot of questions of why was it, was it the way it was for so long? I thought that might be kind of fun. But we'll see. I'm anxious as you are as to who will be the guest. Special guest on Bless yous Heart this week. So look forward to the race in Mexico. And yeah, for me, I'm done. I will see y' all next week at Dirty Air on Tuesday. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok.

[David Green]

The new Huggies Snug n Dry are luxuriously soft and ultra dry. How soft are we talking? Unbelievably soft? Irresistibly soft. Doesn't your baby deserve a diaper that's oh so gentle on their tushy? Huggy Snug and Dry helps keep them comfy, cozy and protected. Experience the unexpected softness and up to 100% leak protection. More parents choose the new Huggy Snug n Dry softness versus the leading premium diaper Huggies. We got you, baby.

[Jeff Green]

NASCAR makes history on Prime.

[Mark Green]

As the Cup Series goes international, we're.

[Jeff Green]

Headed to Mexico City for a road course with all new challenges, 14 turns.

[Mark Green]

And 7,000ft of altitude. Don't miss the first ever points paying Cup Series race in Mexico Sunday at 2pm Eastern. NASCAR.

[Jeff Green]

It's on Prime.