Doug Richert: The 20-Year-Old Behind Dale Earnhardt's First Championship

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download: Doug Richert – The 20-Year-Old Behind Dale Earnhardt's First Championship

Episode Overview In this episode of The Dale Jr. Download, host Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with Doug Richert, who served as Dale Earnhardt's crew chief during the pivotal 1980 NASCAR season. At just 20 years old, Doug played a crucial role in guiding Earnhardt to his first championship. This detailed conversation delves into the dynamics of their partnership, the challenges faced during the season, and memorable moments that defined their journey to success.

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1. Introduction to Doug Richert's Role

Dale Jr. kicks off the episode by introducing Doug Richert as his father's crew chief during the 1980 season. Doug reminisces about discovering old scrapbooks created by his aunt, which sparked memories of the intense 1980 championship run.

Doug Richert [04:51]: "You and Dad's friendship grew really quickly. We did things together, like riding dirt bikes and water skiing, which naturally strengthened our bond."

2. The Friendship Between Dale Earnhardt and Doug Richert

Their friendship was built on shared interests and mutual respect, despite the significant age difference between them. Doug reflects on their spontaneous adventures and how their personalities complemented each other, fostering a strong working relationship both on and off the track.

Doug Richert [05:10]: "We did things together, and I kind of accumulated up from there. It came naturally."

3. The 1980 Championship Season

a. Challenges and Mechanical Issues

The 1980 season was fraught with mechanical difficulties, including engine blowouts and fragile parts. Doug highlights the era's lack of stringent regulations, which allowed for greater experimentation but also increased the risk of failures.

Doug Richert [17:23]: "The motors were a balancing act. We could build a grenade, but it could blow."

b. Aggressive Driving Style and Team Dynamics

Dale Earnhardt was known for his aggressive driving, which set him apart from his contemporaries. This approach not only pushed the team to their limits but also caused friction with more conservative drivers like Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough.

Doug Richert [29:39]: "Dale wasn't saving his breaks or time. He was racing hard every single lap, which was different from the norm."

c. The Martinsville Race Incident

One of the most memorable moments discussed is the Martinsville race, where Earnhardt's aggressive maneuvers led to a significant crash involving Richard Petty. This incident underscored the tensions within the racing community and marked a turning point in Earnhardt's driving style.

Doug Richert [25:55]: "Dad jumped the curb and drove into the 42, causing a massive wreck. It was his limit."

4. Team Adjustments and Changes

a. Firing of Jake Elder

Midway through the season, team manager Jake Elder left the team, earning the nickname "Suitcase Jake" for his tendency to depart mid-season. Doug explains how this departure, while initially seen as a setback, ultimately allowed the team to avoid distractions and focus on their championship aspirations.

Doug Richert [35:22]: "We felt like we wouldn't have these distractions without Jake."

b. Transition to Co-Crew Chiefs for 1981

Following the championship win, Doug and Eddie Jones were named co-crew chiefs for the 1981 season. Doug admits to Rod Osterlin that he felt unprepared for the new challenges posed by the upcoming changes in car designs.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. [55:12]: "You and Eddie partnering together as co-crew chiefs was a good decision given the new cars."

5. Personal Anecdotes and Memorable Moments

a. Doug's First Fine

Doug shares a lighthearted story about taking Dale out for a victory lap, which unfortunately resulted in his first NASCAR fine.

Doug Richert [53:27]: "I just went out around, took a ride, and ended up getting a $300 fine."

b. Victory and Team Spirit

The team’s first win at Nashville was a relief and a testament to their hard work. Doug reflects on the emotional high of securing the championship and the camaraderie within the team.

Doug Richert [41:05]: "We won, and it felt like a huge relief. It was something we worked all year for."

6. Conclusion and Reflections

As the conversation wraps up, Doug emphasizes the importance of teamwork, resilience, and adapting to new challenges. The 1980 championship season remains a defining moment in NASCAR history, showcasing the synergy between a young crew chief and a determined driver.

Doug Richert [40:10]: "We didn’t have much time to get scared. We just had to do it."

Dale Jr. expresses his gratitude to Doug for sharing these invaluable insights, encouraging listeners to explore the full Becoming Earnhardt 1980 series for a comprehensive understanding of that historic season.

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Key Takeaways:

• Youth and Responsibility: Doug Richert’s ascent to crew chief at 20 highlights the trust and potential seen in young talent within the NASCAR community.
• Aggressive Driving Pays Off: Dale Earnhardt’s relentless driving style, while controversial, was instrumental in securing the championship amid fierce competition and mechanical setbacks.
• Team Dynamics Matter: The departure of key team members like Jake Elder and the subsequent leadership transition underscored the importance of cohesive teamwork in high-pressure environments.
• Resilience Through Challenges: Despite numerous mechanical failures and critical incidents, the team's ability to adapt and persevere led to their ultimate success.

This episode offers an intimate glimpse into the behind-the-scenes efforts that propelled Dale Earnhardt to his first championship, underscoring the blend of youthful vigor, technical expertise, and unyielding determination that defined their partnership.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, Dale. Yo.

[Doug Richert]

What are we doing for lunch today?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm getting kind of hungry. Well, I'm already on it. It's actually going to be delivered soon. Arby's Angus cheesesteak with a side of curly fries is on the way. It's the ultimate meat and cheese combination for steak lovers like you and me. It's actually the perfect balance of quarter pound of Angus steak, melted American cheese fire roasted peppers and onions with a nice garlic spread to tie it all together. It's a must try. That's going to be our lunch sandwich. Sounds delicious. But there's one thing I've learned is if you're talking about food, I got.

[Doug Richert]

To trust you on this. You've never failed me yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have not. No, you've nailed it. Well, there you go, man. This sandwich has it all. When I first tried this, I was at the shop checking on the race cars and stuff, seeing if the guys need anything. We ordered up some Arby's and when this Angus cheesesteak arrived, I was blown away by how much steak is actually on this thing. Definitely big enough to satisfy your hunger. Definitely tastes like a true American classic. Everybody check out your nearest Arby's today to try this Angus cheesesteak. And if you want it delivered like we do, use code dale for $0 delivery when you order through the Arby's app. That's code D A L E on the app available for a limited time at participating U.S. locations while supplies last. You're not just working on assignments. You're building your future with Creative Cloud Pro.

[Doug Richert]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Doug Richert]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How did that friendship and relationship develop was that he's just a bit older than you, probably about six, seven years, maybe even. Maybe one or two more than that. But how come that. How come you. Right. Why wasn't he, you know, what was. What was the connection between you two?

[Doug Richert]

Well, I mean, we kind of, like doing the same things, I guess. I was new. I was learning a lot. So was he. We didn't have a lot of commitments outside of the going to the track and stuff, yet. Wasn't built up as big as it got. I grew up on dirt bikes. We decided to buy dirt bikes and we go ride in the mud, through the dirt, the trails, over logs, whatever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I remember that bike.

[Doug Richert]

And that came about. And, you know, skiing, we always water skied. He always wanted to pull someone on a tube. And that's why the videos and stuff are out there, of that pulling you out there. And I don't know. I don't know. We just. We did things together, and I kind of accumulated up from there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

I can't really say that there was a path I took to become his friend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It came naturally.

[Doug Richert]

Yeah. I mean, usually it's personalities that work and they like to do similar things. Usually creates a friendship. Yeah, right. I mean, and how long that lasts is up to the two.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

How much you want to pursue afterwards. Because life get busy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

And it is hard to keep up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The dad that I know, for the most part, is later in his career where he doesn't have a lot of time. Every day there's. Every day, every hour is committed to something. Right. And I'm not gonna pretend that it was entirely different back in, like, 1980. But y' all did, you know, you'd get home from a race, I imagine, you know, you're gonna be at the shop all week getting, you know, cars ready and so forth. He's gonna come by, there'll be that traditional, you know, relationship and professional relationship where he's plugged in and y' all are working. But how. How did y' all plan a day on the lake? I know they ra, you know, racing 28 times a year, so there's some off weekends and some opportunity to actually do those type of things.

[Doug Richert]

Well, a lot of that stuff came about when. At the point when his neighbor that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Was a pilot, Lee, or No, I know, you're talking about Edwards, Edward, you.

[Doug Richert]

Know, when he started flying them, that helped a lot because we could leave, like, Dover, hop in the plane, land right near his house, and we had daylight left to go ski. And we were together. Come on, let's go ski. Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Doug Richert]

Boom. Plan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

I mean, if we would have got home later, it wouldn't have been a plan. So a lot of it was really spontaneous. I can't, so. All right, well, Tuesday at 10 o', clock, we're going to be on the lake. His day didn't go like that about any time because he was spontaneous. Come on, let's go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Doug Richert]

You know those. You, you know it. It's like when you want to do some. Go now I ain't got time to wait.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So dad would sign a contract early in the 1980 season or leading up to Daytona. And it's a. So four days after Riverside. It's a five year extension with Osterlin that was stretched through 1986. Like imagine had all of that continued throughout all those years. Dad's quote is, we're building a team and I think it'll reach 100% this year. When five years are up, we'll probably sign another five year contract to run him through 1991. Long contracts were a rare thing.

[Doug Richert]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so, you know, as we know, Osterlin would sell the team midway through the 1981 season. But this is beginning February of 1980. He's rookie of the year in 79, his first full season, his first real job, and now he's got this long term extension. Was that even briefly amongst the guys, a bit of a relief?

[Doug Richert]

What has to be right? I mean, because you build as you're building something, you always got to think about where it's going to go. Obviously, if we didn't run well, we probably wouldn't last long. And when it did start happening and it's clicking like you said, rookie of the year, he's got an extension. He's going to be staying. Now it's up to the rest of us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So that's it right there. You just said that he's going to be staying. Let's paint the picture for a listener that there was always maybe this worry for everyone in the back of their mind that the person they're working next to could be gone tomorrow because there weren't a lot of contracts or binding agreements. Like Jake could walk out the door after the six.

[Doug Richert]

Charlotte.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Somebody could come to you and go, I want you to crew chief MC Anderson's car. And you would be like, I can't not do this. Thanks, guys, it's been awesome. But I'm going over here. Right. And that could happen at any moment. He was staying. You said that. So that must have actually been a big relief for the team to know there was this plan and that, you.

[Doug Richert]

Know, you knew was gonna be with.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. If you, if you thought Dale Earnhardt could get it done and then you were glad that he was locked down. Right.

[Doug Richert]

Right. Well, we all saw the talent, we all saw the Success. And we all wanted to be part of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

I can't. I can't remember anybody that really wanted to leave.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Why would you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. Going into Daytona, dad seemed to have. Obviously we know now that he's, you know, won a ton of races there. 34 career victories at Daytona and different, you know, in 125s and July races and the Daytona 500 and all that stuff. But even in 79 in the Buick and then when you prepared the 442 Oldsmobile for 1980, he would have fantastic runs at Daytona and Talladega. What. What is he asking for? What is it? What does he need that car to do? What. What is. You go win the Busch clash in 1980. He gets out of the car and he's like, blown away like that. He's won this race. You can see already the thrill that Daytona is to him.

[Doug Richert]

I think the biggest thing about that time in racing was it was up to you how far you wanted to push your car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you mean?

[Doug Richert]

Well, we didn't have restrictions.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Want to take a spoiler off? Take it off. I gotta get a story for that too. But you know, those limit. You could reach your own driver's limit. It wasn't. You were working in a. A rules box.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

And you had to make the best of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You could make the car fast as you wanted, but if.

[Doug Richert]

As long as you could drive it right. And what. What's the biggest speed was rear spoilers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

You know, you might have had. You might have had a size of the spoiler.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let it back.

[Doug Richert]

But you could go straight back if you wanted. Whatever. That was your. That was your choice. So during the week, that's. That's kind of what we were playing with that. Yeah. How free. Get those brakes pulled back, get. Put springs on them. Put all this stuff to not create drag. What oils. All that was the same. But there was some bigger tools in the box that you still had freedom. You could change whatever you wanted.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So that's why y'. All. I mean, that's why you needed all those days of practice and because you were tinkering and toying.

[Doug Richert]

That's it. Because you could.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Now. Now they. They limit practice because they know they're.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just gonna wreck, man. There's nothing really to change anyways. So did he ever come. Did he ever come in and go, oh, that was a little too much. A little bit too hairy?

[Doug Richert]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Testing, testing. Brought that. This. You might have heard it. But we were at Daytona testing And we were playing with the rear spoiler, you know, we were laying it back, laying it back, you know, got back to where you wouldn't even think it was doing anything. So he said, ah, take it off. Okay. We didn't think twice. He said, take it off. He left pit road going through the gears. He gets over there, he starts going in third gear. I'm coming in. It was too much.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Tires just come off the ground.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wow.

[Doug Richert]

That was his limit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

If they started spinning, you're not up to speed, I guess it says go back in. That's the wrong direction.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think that you, I don't think that you guys start the season out going, we're going to win the championship this year. It's going to be our year. You know, you're just probably thinking we're going to run and win some races. We're going to try to win a race, win multiple races. Do you remember, I guess where there was like a bit of a shift in the garage or the shop of, of man. We're, we're the, we're the favorites or we're the, we're contenders even for the big prize.

[Doug Richert]

I mean I can see it and I can imagine it because you never know, right. If you have four bad races in the year, you never recover. But we, we were good enough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

And I, and I think if there was a light bulb going, we're halfway through and, and I guess you really don't know you can do it until you actually do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Talk about the fear of those mechanical failures because people don't really understand. I don't. You know, today's NASCAR fan hasn't experienced a time when mechanical issues and even engines blowing up was a regular occurrence. Kale Yarborough was struggling with this in the first three quarters of the season. A lot of mechanical issues for Darrell, Jr. Johnson and their team and cost him the opportunity to really, to win a championship that year. But you know, it was such a common occurrence for a team to go out and blow a motor. There's a lot of attrition in all the races. A lot of gremlins and little two dollar parts which we do not see anymore, I guess. Yeah. Having that points lead sitting there a third of the way through the year but knowing going to the next race, you know, something, something could happen. Absolutely none of this stuff was as tough as it is today.

[Doug Richert]

You know, the biggest thing was back then was, I don't know, you could say a lot of the quality of the parts and Pieces like spindles. And, you know, we were welding spindles together to make them. We had a stock spindle, but you still welded steering arms on them and things like that. But the biggest thing, I think, was in the motors. Right. And you worry about. You say, oh, I had a lot of motor trouble with the. The perimeters of what you could do in the motor was also wide open as far as some of the rules go. So how far do you push making power and you hope it lasts. Yeah, There wasn't. There wasn't rod weight limits. There wasn't. It was just open. Right. So you could build a grenade, but a grenade could blow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Doug Richert]

And it was a balancing act. The rules actually helped everybody because it. Well, this lasts now, but this is all I can do. I can't go any lighter. You know, springs and valves. I mean, there's all kind of limits on it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I guess that's a great reminder of why. Why the engines were so delicate. It wasn't, you know, my mind would say, well, it was the. It was. They were trying to push parts. Production parts further than they were designed to go. But that's not necessarily entirely the case. They were trying to take production parts and grind them down, make them lighter. And turning, you know, turning a crank into a toothpick, you know, that's not supposed to be ground down. Not supposed to be so light to where it might break in half. And rods as well, you know, stretching rods.

[Doug Richert]

Throttle body. Yeah, throttle body shafts, just. Yeah, you name it. Everything was to get airflow, air, movement. Lightweight.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Doug Richert]

Titanium was a big friend of people.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah, I imagine so. There was a lot of innovation I've heard stories about. And this is during, like, 78, 79, 80. Dare Walter and junior Johnson, or even might have been Kaylan. Junior Johnson having. Or it was Dare Walter from dygard. Dumped all the lead shot out of the frame rail and the jack post. And so, I mean, these teams. It might have been. I forget who it was, but somebody. Buddy parrot or somebody. He's gonna be pissed if I. If I'm wrong, but somebody had a set of. Oh, it was. What's the space with all the gold? Timber. Yeah, Timber. Had a pair. Had a set of wheels that had. That were full of lead. And they, like, had 40 or 60 pounds of lead in the wheel and that. He would.

[Doug Richert]

You know, that's what you went through inspection.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. They didn't scale the car after the race. So he'd go across scales with his jack.

[Doug Richert]

That's why that was invented. Weigh him afterwards.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, I mean, you, you guys ran. Ran. Well, do you remember any innovation that you guys, you know, try to take advantage of or not?

[Doug Richert]

Not from that aspect.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nothing like that.

[Doug Richert]

No, that was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's aggressive.

[Doug Richert]

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. I learned some of that after the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Fact down the road.

[Doug Richert]

Yeah, I did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I mean, then in 79, 80, dad's cars, we were straight up. Straight up. No. Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

I mean, of course we met limits, but we didn't take it out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, I figured. I mean, I just. Dad. So dad went and raced Ed Negris car in 1975 and Dodge a Dodge, his very first cup race. And Ed Negri's son Norman said they had nitrous on the car, but everybody had nitrous. Like, if you didn't have nitrous, you know, you were. You definitely weren't going to make the race.

[Doug Richert]

Never used it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But they, they, you know, and guys, I guess the front row at Daytona and either 77 or 78, it was maybe Dave Marcus and Darrell Waltrip. They, they are AJ Ford and Dave Mark. They kicked them all. No, it was Darrell Waltrip and AJ for it got kicked off the front row at Daytona because they had nitrous. And then in the same year, Dave Marcus and the K and K Dodge had a. They had some kind of a removable blocker block, you know, some kind of a piece of tin or something blocking just the radiator to stop the air from trying to drag, go through the engine compartment and create drag so it Go around the car. Kind of like what we do now with taping off the grills and stuff.

[Doug Richert]

Right. And it wasn't allowed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It wasn't allowed, you know, so they threw him out.

[Doug Richert]

I remember seeing people paint the screen with clear.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, really?

[Doug Richert]

And that would block it off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Damn. Well, it's interesting. I mean, you know, I've always. I figured that, you know, Jake, Jake had tricks, but they were all within the.

[Doug Richert]

He was, he was. He really focused on setup stuff. Yeah, you know, that's what, that's where his expertise was. I mean, even if we didn't have a spring Raider, he would grab a spring and squat on it and, and just kind of, you know, bounce it up and down. Say, yeah, that's good. That's good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, T.J. you know that I got my own Chevy dealership down in Tallahassee, Florida. We're part of the Hendrick Automotive Group.

[Doug Richert]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Doug Richert]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Doug Richert]

Okay, I definitely did not see that coming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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 of 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.

[Doug Richert]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Doug Richert]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So Martinsville, this is a race to forget.

[Doug Richert]

First lap.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, dad, this was really out of character, at least in my opinion for him. But the green flag comes out. He started on the inside, let's say row five or so. And in front of him I believe is maybe the 47 O' Harry again. And then Richard Petty's two rows in front of dad they drive down into turn one, and dad is running into the door of the 43 car. He's jumped the inside three wide, goes down course no. 1. This is like a move that no one makes. So I say that because I don't. No one's going into turn one expecting this. Right. And Richard goes on down to the curb, and there's Dad's car in his door. And dad jumps the curb, drives into the 42. They all wreck. Do you. And Richard Petty is so mad, I think he goes up after the race and sticks his finger in Dad's chest, and he's like, you got to do some. You got to change some things. Like, you know, hey, it's kind of one of them moments where he's like, you know, that right there ain't gonna work. You don't ever want to do that again.

[Doug Richert]

And they did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And the rest of the day sucked. I've watched that race like y' all struggled. The toe was all messed up, and the car just didn't drive well. And y'.

[Doug Richert]

All.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Y'. All. Y' all ended up just kind of, you know, grinding out the day. And Richard talked about this on the podcast, how he got, you know, got Dad's attention at the end of the day. I wonder if you kind of recall much about that afternoon or just, you know, when dad goes down there. I'm sure y' all maybe didn't have a great view of what went down because of where you were in the pits, but.

[Doug Richert]

I mean, it wasn't like we had a view that we're gonna go over and fight them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. Sure.

[Doug Richert]

Right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Like you would nowadays.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

But, I mean, I think we all knew that there was gonna be repercussions from that. Right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[Doug Richert]

If you're not. If there wasn't repercussions from that, that just said, okay, anybody can do that if you can make it. I mean, no one. No one thought he was in the right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[Doug Richert]

And did it take that for him to realize that? Man, I can't do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

I'd say yes, I think he did realize that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's probably a good teaching moment for dad.

[Doug Richert]

Sure. We were all learning, him included.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. After that race, dad, you know, there was. I guess there was a kind of a. A flashpoint where, you know, Richard Petty's mad at dad after the Martinsville race. What's this mean for dad? Is he going to make, you know, how's that going to change his style, if at all? But he continued to race everybody pretty aggressively, all the veterans, you know, at certain points of the year would criticize dad. At Michigan, for example, in 1979, he drew a lot of criticism from Darrell Waltrip and Richard Petty for his over aggressive driving. And then the Martinsville thing with Richard Petty, Cale would. Dad would win the Nashville 420, which that trophy's sitting right over there that you brought to us. Cale is beaten on dad's bad back bumper the last 20 laps or so of that race and actually jumped to the outside and dad squeezed him off the corner. And Cale gets out and claims that dad runs him into the wall. And Cale would make more criticisms later in the year about dad and his aggressive driving. When I look at 1980 from my vantage point, I don't think about aggressive. Dylan Hart aggressive, Dale Earnhardt and the Intimidator. And all of that kind of flew into the picture in 86, 87 and beyond after it got wild like 86, 87, and in that black car in 89, 90 and so forth. I mean, there were some hard times. We win a lot of races, but there was some moments where you're like, you know, we damn pissed everybody off here. But in 1980, he's just, you know, he's just a young driver with some flaws that, you know, some polishing that's needed as this year's going on and Cale and him are starting to, you know, Cale starting to be a little vocal in the media and so forth about his opinions of dad's driving. Was any of that ever, you know, a topic of conversation amongst you guys?

[Doug Richert]

Well, you know, I think what was. I think what was happening was the style of racing in that day was different than Dale's style of racing. And I say that is because I think everybody had races where they just kind of rode along. They were biden time, they were saving their breaks, they were saving their time. Whatever it was, Dale wasn't. So his aggressive driving is actually now starting to force other people out of their comfort zone. Right. So that's. Now he's making these guys mad because now I've got to run this. I got to run so hard to not let him get so far away or whatever. You know, I'm saying it's just. Yeah, it's just the way that the race plays out now. Everybody runs 100% every lap because they got equipment and talent and means to do it. If you don't do it, can't afford.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To give up a spot.

[Doug Richert]

You're in the back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

You know, so I think, I think that's why now? Did I see that? It was. Oh, my gosh. And I'm scared going in here to this race. We're going to get wrecked. You know, because he did so. I don't think we really thought that. I mean, that didn't really bother us. Of course, if you go in there and you squeeze someone, they retaliate on you. Okay, well, we got what we had coming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Right. We started it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a great way to describe it. If you watch, you know, the NASCAR races throughout the 70s, there was a. There was sort of this all. There was sort of this constant understanding that, you know, we're gonna. We're gonna get these vulnerable, big, giant machines to the finish line, and we'll figure it out then. And, you know, things would get testy at times. I mean, Richard Petty and David Pearson, 76 Daytona 500, crashing to the finish line, that was wild because it was so rare. Right. When you saw backstretch contact. And Donnie.

[Doug Richert]

Yeah, Gail.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. That was wild to see then because it was so out of. Out of character. But to your point, dad comes in off of the, you know, North Carolina dirt clay, where he had to, you know, pretty much fight his way.

[Doug Richert]

Sling it around.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Fight his way through every freaking weekend. And, you know, he shows up and he's just racing hard every single lap. And those guys are like, hey, that's not how we do it here.

[Doug Richert]

This is not how I'm comfortable with doing it. I think people that are comfortable in the car are successful. Some people aren't comfortable doing that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

I mean, it's a deal. But you know what's funny that you talk about, you know, that was not the normal. Right. But even though, like, those wrecks all came from blocking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Doug Richert]

And what do they do today?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, block lots of blocking. I know.

[Doug Richert]

It's funny.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is. So. So as we're moving up to the World 600, so going into the World 600 weekend, there are reports that Jake Elder is having problems with Roland. And during the race, dad cuts a tire on lap 276, and him. It's this really cool picture. Unfortunately, Dad's wrecking, but dad blows the right rear tire. Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Kel Yarborough, they're all running at the front of this race, having a great day, and then they all get swept up in this crash. It's really spectacular moment, right. As all the lead cars are crashing in the middle of three and four late in the race. This is the race where Jake ends up Leaving. He's very successful, very respected, but cantankerous. Often moving from shop to shop mid season, you know, if he didn't want to be there, he was gone. And that's what gave him that nickname, Suitcase Jake. So he cites that Jake would leave the team the day after the world 600. And I will read some quotes to you. He had some differences with Roland and a change of attitude in dad quoted as saying Roland could screw up a five car funeral. Dave Marcus told me I'd never be able to get along with him, and he was exactly right. And since Earnhardt has got some money. He don't know you. He's as cocky as they come. That's what he said. Isn't that crazy?

[Doug Richert]

Wow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You start the season, dad signs a contract. Everything is looking awesome. Winning some races at this point. When you go back to the shop on Monday and you're learning of everything that's going on, is there. Is there any concern? Is there, Is there? You know, does Roland come into the shop and go, guys, we're gonna be great. Don't worry. I got it? Is there anything like that going on?

[Doug Richert]

No. Because were you curious?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Were you worried? Were you not worried?

[Doug Richert]

Our group is small anyhow. Right. And everybody knew how Jake was. Jake was good. We ran good and all that. But there was also distractions that came along with Jake. Right. It's not. It wasn't always gravy, you know, when winning's good, it's when you're down is when you. When you realize how good your team is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

And during some of those times when he would start throwing things, and those are just distractions. We do it at the shop, we do it at the track. Nobody. It's kind of embarrassing sometimes when you're out in front of a lot of people and you do that. So I really felt like, I'm not saying, okay, I'm glad he's gone, but there was a side that, well, we won't have these distractions.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. There's a problem. There's a silver lining.

[Doug Richert]

I mean, nothing of our choice, but you can find something good out of anything. And I felt like that was a good point for us to not have that distraction and, you know, and to take over a role like that or whatever in a transition day is like, okay, I always wore a radio. I always did everything except for push the button.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you remember when you pushed a button and you're the man? Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Next time I got to the track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. I know. So do you just. That came Out.

[Doug Richert]

And I'm sure I was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you have some anxiety?

[Doug Richert]

I'm sure I did, yeah. You know, do I remember, like. Oh, my gosh. I was nervous, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Were you? I mean, yeah, I had to be. I'm trying to put you in the garage.

[Doug Richert]

I was 20 years old.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm trying to put you in the garage. When the car. When the dad's backing out to run the first laps and you're standing there and looking around going, all right, this handful of guys, they're all counting on me.

[Doug Richert]

You know, that. That was. But that's always the case. It was. It was definitely the case in. Very inexperienced. Right. And now I'm in this role. But, you know, I always found that those were my most anticipated lapse of any time. Is when you show up with something you think is going to work and you go see it and you go. Or you go in and almost hit the wall. You go, oh, my gosh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But Jake would subsequently be hired by the die guard team at the request of Daryl by Buddy Parrott again is fired from the team. Buddy would say, I'd die before I ever turn another wrench on a DW car. A lot of NASCAR media basically count you and dad out after Jake's departure. It's believed that without the experience of Jake on the box, the team would fall off. Continue racing through Texas, World, Riverside and Michigan with finishes of 9th, 5th and 12th. Are you solely in charge of the decisions on, like, cross casters, cambers, all those things? Springs.

[Doug Richert]

We always discussed it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who's we?

[Doug Richert]

Me and your dad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. And so you and dad together would formulate the plan for the weekend and what you unloaded and then you would work on it. There was lots of practice at these races. I mean, some weekends you'd go into Charlotte and start practicing on Monday. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy because, you know, it was just crazy to think about. I counted it one time. I think in 1981, there were 15 or 16 hours of practice for the. For the world 600.

[Doug Richert]

That's a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There were full days. The track would. It just said in the. It said in the program it'd give you a schedule. It'd be like, yeah, the track is hot at 9 o' clock and it's closed at 5. And you're like. I mean, you could literally just go out at any point in the day. Right now you weren't. You weren't running hours and hours and hours, but you'd be like, hey, we're gonna run this run. And then you know, go take a break.

[Doug Richert]

A lot of times, you know, what we would do is we. Well, these weather conditions aren't when the race is going to start, so we'd wait till the day, you know, around the same time the races start to get your final.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

You know, set up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So you and dad are kind of managing this. Do you remember if dad had any concerns about, you know, the lack of experience or Jake. Jake not being there or was he kind of similar to you in terms of like. Well, this. We're just going for it.

[Doug Richert]

I don't, I don't feel like it was a concern. Yeah, I, I didn't, I didn't take it as a concern.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

You know, so we just started talking like, all right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Doug Richert]

There's what we ran there before.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Doug Richert]

Here's. You know, but we ran a little better over here. You know, do we want to try this? You know, it's. It was an open book.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

You know, I wasn't. How could I be strong headed after a year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Right, right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your role at the racetrack changed instantly. It wasn't. It wasn't sort of this progression. It's like soon as you go the racetrack without Jake, you're you. You're the man on. You're the voice on the radio, Right?

[Doug Richert]

Mm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Funny, isn't it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

I guess I didn't have time to get. I didn't have too much time to get scared.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Too much time to think about it. We just had to do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Right. That's kind of like the same time when we showed up for the very first race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. And so you would go to Nashville and win. And there's some great photos of you guys in victory Lane. The trophy sits here. And I believe we've talked about this in the past, but getting a win together, was that a calming relief? A bit of like, all right, we can do this.

[Doug Richert]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Our season is, you know, we're still on path toward this, you know, this championship goal after that win.

[Doug Richert]

Absolutely. You know, it's like, what's this like? The whole time we anticipated as a team to get our first win, period. And sitting in 1979.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

You know, all of a sudden as the group's like, we won.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. That looked like a very hot, miserable night. Middle of the summer. That look on that. You know, there's pictures of dad and Rich Lane squatting down beside the car to take his photos. Just because of, I guess, the heat and so forth in those cars. Hey, everybody, you want the latest? Dell Jr. Download apparel. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com we're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a T shirt again. Check it [e-mail] Introducing Family Freedom from T Mobile. We'll pay off four phones up to.

[Doug Richert]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Contact us.

[Doug Richert]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So you survived this messy crew chief change mid season. Y' all continue being consistent and winning races. There was a, there was an engine failure at Darlington. Dad has another blow motor at Dover. You win Martinsville despite and then you would go to Charlotte and win again. But then Rockingham you have two crashes, broken tie rods and Kale slashes the points lead to 44 in the back half of the year. There were a lot of mechanical issues. Do you think that that might have played a role in the, you know, coming to the pressure? Well, not so much that but like was there. I'm just trying to make sense of why they would cut Roland or not Roland, but why they would cut the engine builder LaRussa Lou at the, you know, with two races left in the season, why not, you know, just at least let the guy get to the end of the year. But there must have been some boiling over, disagreements, some some differing of opinions leading up to that, right? Obviously, you know, that just don't happen overnight. You don't just walk in there and fire guy. But with all the failures and the engine issues, was there some.

[Doug Richert]

I would have to almost say there Something. Plus, Roland had a motor background to himself also.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't know that.

[Doug Richert]

Yeah. He was always. He was always involved in the motor room, even though Lou was there. But that was kind of his cup of tea.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gotcha.

[Doug Richert]

You know, he did. For his modifieds, he did that stuff. So I would say if there was anything that was probably between two. Two guys. Motor thoughts of what way to go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Right. What's. What's better, what will last, what won't break.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Obviously somebody wanted to push it more than the other. And we had failures. I don't know what they were. I don't remember.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But were those becoming. Was. Was, you know, your. You're having these engine failures in the second half of the year that you hadn't had, you know, earlier in the season. Do you remember there being any concern about, you know, was there. Were you sitting there going, what. What has changed? Why. Why are we starting to have issues?

[Doug Richert]

Well, I would have to. So me not being a motor guy, I would have to think that Roland and them are in there discussing like, okay, what's going on?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

What are we doing different? Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

And I'm only assuming that because I was. I always had my hood. My head under the hood.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Right. It was time to put the next water heater in. Yeah. And so that's just one thing I've never done.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

It's never messed with motors.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Well, I. That would make the battle for the championship a tight one going into. Going into the season or season finale on Ontario. So if you're in the shop and you're preparing the car for Ontario, did you find yourself, like, over obsessing with every.

[Doug Richert]

Details, every.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Every bolt, every, you know, checking everything this. Is this the best coil that we got? You know.

[Doug Richert]

Right. Is this rotor button, best choices?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. This is the best rotor button we have. Because rotor buttons would break. Silly, stupid, silly, stupid things.

[Doug Richert]

But rotor button out, felt out. Fell under the motor department.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Right. I'm sure I already got it with a distributor in it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

But I mean, I'm sure a lot of that. Something we did every week, though, really. I mean, because we did build our cars from scratch there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Which, you know, at the time, there wasn't a lot of people doing that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, you get to the racetrack in Ontario, but this is your neck of the woods. It's your side of the country. Mm. Does that add any comfort? Does it matter?

[Doug Richert]

Not really.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You've been on the east coast a couple years.

[Doug Richert]

I mean, I came home, but I like. I Didn't have, like a big group of people at the track, you know, my family.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What was the vibe in Ontario like? Because dad drove by, we're in the car together and late afternoon after a day at the racetrack and dad drives by and says, this is where Ontario used to be. That mound of dirt is turned.

[Doug Richert]

That was. Yeah, that's that. That little mound was the front straightaway.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, and there was still this little ticket booth box on the corner that was still there for the last, you know, that was one of the last, like, physical structures. But. And I'm like, my gosh, there's a racetrack here right in the middle of town.

[Doug Richert]

Because you know what?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Never.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so, of course, it was way less developed back then in the 80s when the track was there physically. But when I watch races, old races, it's. There's people there, there's a crowd. It's not, you know, the track obviously isn't as successful as they had hoped because it did not survive beyond, I think, the 80, 81 season or so. And so what was. What was the vibe inside the track, in the garage, in the pits? Comparable to a Atlanta darlington. What was it like? Because you're on the other side of the country. This is back before the sport was truly a national.

[Doug Richert]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Recognized, you know, deal.

[Doug Richert]

I mean, I don't remember it being as super focused. Championship weekend, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, because TV coverage was not that old, you know, for racing. So the, the social media. The media, period. I mean, obviously it was a big weekend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You knew it was at stake. Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

You know, we knew what we were after is what we built the team for. And we're there doing it, in a position to capitalize. And I think we just kept going.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, right.

[Doug Richert]

I mean, I. Did something worry me? Well, of course. Right. Anything bad thing can happen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But did everything go smooth? Practice qualifying, all this stuff?

[Doug Richert]

I feel like it did seem like. Yeah, no, nothing stands out on it, you know, other than the one point.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In the race dad would follow lap down on lap 71. When he pitted too early during a caution, he would go to ninth place. Cale continued to battle for the lead, even took over the points lead midway through the race during a caution in lap. At lap 146, dad battled past Cale to get back on the lead lap. And Junior Johnson protests that dad made some sort of an illegal move. Dad's final pit stop, the one that you'll, you'll recall came on lap 183. The plan was to take fuel only and Somehow there was a miscommunication. You guys began to change tires, and dad would take off with only two lugs on the right rear. He's black flagged. Comes back down pit road to get the lugs put back on. Let's talk about it. So you do remember, like, standing. You mentioned. You remember standing in the pits when Osterling comes up and says, well, that's it. I guess it's over.

[Doug Richert]

And then. But everything played out. Yeah, but I just. I'm just trying to think, you know, the damage on the side of the car. Did that provoke something to go. I mean, a lot of times you go over the wall, you see something, you go, oh, my gosh. You can't get tires because it's rubbing the fender. Rubbing a tire.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You got to fix it.

[Doug Richert]

Was that it? And that's what's confusing. You know, you can just remember why it happened that way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who's changing fronts and rears?

[Doug Richert]

I was changing the front tires, so I was into that. And then Dave d' Ambrosio was on the rear.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Marv Acton was on the jack.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. And y', all, you get up and you're. I mean, of course you're not watching what's going on back there.

[Doug Richert]

And you think, I get done and I leave. That's my thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You got to run around. Knows the car so he can leave. You got it on. Watch it. This will be fun.

[Doug Richert]

Yeah. Look, Dave run around tire carriers there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Look at Daddy's waving.

[Doug Richert]

He's waving it off. He keeps looking over there at the right rear like, come on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What an idiot, dad. Damn it. I'd be interested to know, and I know you probably can't recall, but did. If the right rear tire changer comes over and goes, doug, there's only two lugs on the wheel.

[Doug Richert]

He had to have. Right. But see, at that time, the officials were always. We were the only one on pit road. And they're standing there, they're already telling.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You you're coming back.

[Doug Richert]

Yeah. You don't have lug nuts.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I mean, it wouldn't have made.

[Doug Richert]

That's a go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. It wouldn't have made it more than a few more laps with this two on the right rear.

[Doug Richert]

Yeah, we know how that would work.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Oh, my gosh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So the race plays out. You end up fifth, a lap down, well in position to win the championship. Do you remember knowing when the car crossed the finish line that you were the champ?

[Doug Richert]

I think so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Because we were standing there just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Not chewing your nails right.

[Doug Richert]

It was just one of those things where it was. It was something you worked all year for.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I'm just saying, like, so you know, all of this is going down. And I'm sure y' all probably quickly did the math and said, all right, we're good.

[Doug Richert]

Nothing happens, nothing changes, nothing breaks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right? And you ran out the rest of the race, finishing fifth. Cale finishes third. Benny Parsons, using some really great strategy on pit road, wins the race. You guys also won the Craftsman Pit Crew Championship, which you brought the trophy to us. And these are Dad's comments. My heart really dropped when I got black flagged. But I can't say anything bad about the crew. As hard as they have worked this year. Cale won three championships in a row, so I don't see why we shouldn't try. I guess we got a young crew and young ideas, so we're going for it. Crew chief reportedly took the car for a victory lap of his own on the way back to the garage.

[Doug Richert]

That was my first fine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[Doug Richert]

Yep. That was my very first fine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What'd you do?

[Doug Richert]

$300. Well, the race was over. We won the championship. I just got in the car, and I went out on pit road, and I was going down pit road, and lo and behold, there's some girl sitting on the wall. I said, come on, get in. Dead got in the car, and I just went out around, Wasn't fast. I just running around, and when I got to turn four, there was trucks nose to tail, blocking you, blocking the track. And I just turned down, went on the apron, went back in the. On pit road. All I was doing just took a ride.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wasn't fast ain't bad.

[Doug Richert]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

For a fun day, that would only be like 3 million.

[Doug Richert]

Now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, but thinking about, I'd paid 300.

[Doug Richert]

300 bucks for a joy ride for the first championship.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What happened to the girl?

[Doug Richert]

I don't even know. I didn't know her.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

He was just sitting there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Why'd I pick her up? I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Only in. Only in, I guess, Southern California. That's the moment. Yeah. That was the. Yeah. The Western California, the West Coast. Southern Cal. Southern California hospitality.

[Doug Richert]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's. It says you says Dick. Betty wasn't amused. Dad earned almost $600,000 in 1980, just shy of Al Answer's record from 1978 of $591,000. Any stories about a hometown celebration? You and Eddie Jones, y' all were named co crew chiefs for 1981. And you admitted to Rod that you didn't think you could do the job due to the new cars that were rolling out in 81. Is that true?

[Doug Richert]

That's when we switched to Pontiacs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Went to the smaller.

[Doug Richert]

The smaller wheelbase and all that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did you. Do you remember?

[Doug Richert]

I don't see. I don't recall that. What I was commenting on earlier was Dale Inman came.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know.

[Doug Richert]

And they made him the crew chief.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Did you get to talk choose that, or did you get a hey, this is what we want to do. How you feel?

[Doug Richert]

I told him I was fine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

You know, just because I was, you know, young. So was that comment. Was that actually end of season leading into 81 before they got Dale Emmon?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

What it sounds like is why would we become co crew chiefs if Dale Emmon was coming?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. Yeah. Y' all were named co crew Chiefs leading into 1981. This must have been right after the championship win in Ontario. And that you, I guess somewhere in an article, had admitted to Rod that this was a good decision, you and Eddie partnering together to be co crew chiefs because of the new cars coming in. Felt like that would be a challenge for you to manage on your own. Yes. So I guess, you know, that was. That's something I wanted to ask you. Was the. The new cars coming in. NASCAR had talked about this. If you read articles from 78, 79, 80, there's this. The new cars are coming. Oh, what. What the hell? You know, auto manufacturers made. Had a massive influence on the type of cars you guys are racing on the racetrack. What. I guess what was. Was the celebration, short for the off season. Knowing that you had all of this preparation in front of you.

[Doug Richert]

See, I really don't even remember a celebration, really. There was a deal down at the Sergeant Peppers. No. On the. On the beach. Where in Daytona was where the banquet was at.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. At the banquet happened at Myrtle beach or Daytona.

[Doug Richert]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. There's some pictures of that, you guys.

[Doug Richert]

That's when we were all. That's when we were all dressed up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

For the. In our wrangler coats and all that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Did the banquet happen immediately at the end of the season or do you recall whether it was, Lee?

[Doug Richert]

It was a little bit after.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Closer, I think.

[Doug Richert]

More. More winter time kind of thing. I just remember it being.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You had to go all the way to Daytona.

[Doug Richert]

Yeah, Right back where we started. Yeah. It was different.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Doug Richert]

Right. Introducing family freedom from T Mobile.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We'll pay off four phones up to.

[Doug Richert]

$3200 and give you four free phones all on America's largest 5G network. Visit t mobile.com family freedom up to $800 per line via virtual prepaid card typically takes 15 days. Free phone via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement. Example Apple iPhone 16128 gigs $829.99 eligible trade in example iPhone 11 Pro for well qualified credits end and balance due if you pay off early or cancel.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Contact us Big thanks to Doug Richert for sitting down and sharing those stories. Hearing the 1980 season all from the guy calling the shots at just 20 years old adds a whole new layer to that year. It was cool to hear about Dad's run ins with veteran drivers like Richard Petty, Kale Yarborough, plus the dynamics of the Osterlin team during that championship run. It was incredible. Just so thankful for Doug to give us some time again. If you like this conversation, go check out the full becoming Earnhardt 1980 series. All six episodes are out now. Wherever you get your podcasts. And now it's time for the White Flag. The teardown was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race and door bumper Clear dropped on Monday with guest Michael McDowell and actions detrimental also dropped as well on Monday. Me and TJ had a great episode of Dirty Air yesterday and also dropping today Speed street and Herman Schrader and tomorrow another episode of Bless yous Heart with Amy. She joined me in Sonoma, so we should have a lot of fun conversation around this past weekend. Hope you guys enjoy this episode today. We'll see you tomorrow. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok. KFC presents a story about the pursuit of flavor. When Colonel Sanders learned there was no such thing as a free lunch, he went to the kitchen and made one to prove people wrong.

[Doug Richert]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Doug Richert]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Doug Richert]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Doug Richert]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Doug Richert]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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