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The Dale Jr. Download
Kevin “Two Beer” Pennell: Wild Stories From Working DEI’s Early Days
01:20:20
Dale Earnhardt Jr. revisits some of his glory days in NASCAR as he sits down with longtime friend and crew member, Kevin “Two Beer” Pennell. The two talk about DEI's early days, meeting Dale Earnhardt for the first time, the race Dale hit Two Beer with his race car and much more.
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- [00:00]
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Available in classic black and vanilla sweet cream. Get 20% off these new community coffees by using the code DALE20@communitycoffee.com that's code DALE D A L E20 for 20% off only@communitycoffee.com well, we go to Daytona for the first race. It got off to a rocky start by coming over, shot the pits and hit you as a jackman. You got to go first.
- [01:19]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You're committed. Obviously. Went to the airfare care center. You know, watching the race on the monitor. I watch you and trickle down the backstretch, flip it. And then they haul y' all in. And when they haul y' all in there, you know what I mean, and drop y' all off in there. You come walking in and look at me and you're going, what are you doing in here? And I'm like, I'm in here because you hit me like 50 laps ago. I didn't hit you. And I'm like, yeah, you did.
- [01:47]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And we got a great guest for you today. His name is Kevin Pannell, but everybody knows him in the racing industry as Two Beers. We're going to learn how he got that nickname. You can imagine how that might have came about. But this guy, Kevin, two beers, whatever you want to call him, he's been part of the DEI circle for a really long time. He was working with the AC Delco crew when I would come in and drive that car for two championships in 98, 99. He was with the bud guys back in those days. And we've just always been together, one big family. And he's still in the racing industry today. So we're gonna try to cover as much as we can. This will be difficult because there's a lot there, but let's get going. Get this one started and bring two beer into the room. So. Two beer. Kevin Pinnell. It's been a while.
- [02:53]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [02:54]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So, Kevin Pinel. A lot of people are. Are going to wonder who you are, and that's what we're going to talk about today. You are. You've been a part of a lot of things, but most notably for me, you're Tony Jr. Married, your sister.
- [03:16]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right. You.
- [03:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Became kind of part of the. Part of the family. And then you would work on the xfinity stuff with the acdelco car. And you were there before I was. And you would be on the bud car for years. You were a jackman mechanic, all kinds of different roles. And then you still are in racing today. You went with shr once. That. And basically the eight team kind of stayed together all through those years. We're gonna talk about all that. So I know Tony Jr. And Tony Jr. Mary and your sister was a. Was a catalyst to getting you kind of involved in racing or around racing. Right. What is your first memories, I suppose, of getting to. Getting near a race car?
- [04:05]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
First memories probably would have been the, you know, I mean, just getting his late model. Him and his dad was working on that deal, you know, out of the deer head shop at the time. I approached him because he spent a lot of time at my house. I approached him about, you know, helping out. What could I do?
- [04:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What were you into at that point? I mean, you're in high school then.
- [04:27]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
I was in high school. You know, I mean, football, baseball, wrestling, just school school sports. You know, actually getting ready to get into high school. You know, actually eight, like eighth grade, junior high.
- [04:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [04:39]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
What could I do? How could I, you know what I mean, you know, be a party, you know, helping you and your dad out. He's like, you know, just come up. He said, we'll go and work on the car on Saturday. You know, just come up and hang out. So I did, you know, I mean, of, you know, going with me on Saturday morning, and that's where I, you know, actually met the first time. You know, I guess we'll talk about. But I met your dad and pops, you know. Yeah. And that was. That was the Kind of the shoehorning of the deal.
- [05:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So what was that like being around them?
- [05:11]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You.
- [05:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, you probably knew who dad was, but never met him. Never met him.
- [05:16]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Pops.
- [05:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What was your experience around both those guys?
- [05:20]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Pops was really quiet, you know what I mean?
- [05:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Pops was talking to you. You better be nervous, right, because he's usually getting your ass chewed.
- [05:27]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
He was really quiet, but he was also, you know what I mean, you know, also wanting to know a lot about me, you know, who I was and, you know, and all that. But the. The deal with your dad was I actually was laying underneath the late model at the time in the deer head shop, and Tony Junior. Pops wasn't there at the time, but Tony Junior walked out and said, I'll be right back. I gotta go grab something. And your dad came in because it wasn't. It was the cowboy boots walking on the floor that walked over the top of me laying underneath the car and. And grabbed me by my ankles and drugged me out from underneath the car. And I've never seen him in person. Never. Just never been around him. And the first deal was looking straight up at him. And, you know, his deal was, who the hell are you? And I, you know, got, you know, the kind of the clammy mouth, you know, stuttering, going, kek, kek, keh, kek, Kevin. And he kind of looked down at me, you know what I mean? He says, well, I'm glad to meet you. And he started stuttering and going, keh, keh, keh, Kevin. And that's how we struck things off, was like that. And then obviously Tony Jr come back in and we, you know, eased the things up a little bit, you know, and went and wrote on a farm. Oh, yeah, checking the fence line before Tony Senior got there. And that whole deal, inexperience in itself was just me as a young individual, you know, seeing deer, you know, riding this farm with Tony Jr. In the middle and old farm truck, you know, And I'm sitting there pointing out deer to him like a dumbass, you know, and he's sitting there, you know, looking over there at me, you know, like this. And I'm like, y' all don't see that deer? Y' all that damn blind, you know. And he's sitting there, you know, the whole time, ain't saying a word.
- [07:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [07:12]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And about halfway through that ride, he kept looking over at Tony Jenner going, I don't see no deer. I don't know what he's talking about. So we ended the, you know, obviously ended the Fence ride on the farm, pulling back up to the deer aid shop. And what broke the ice was he looked over there and asked Tony Jr. He said, how many deer did you see today, Tony Jr. I didn't see no deer, Dale. And he looked over at me, and he started stuttering. He goes, kevin, how many deer did you see? And I went, and I didn't see no deer today, Dale. And he said, that's what I thought.
- [07:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [07:41]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And that was right after, I'll say the 93 or I'll say the 93 incident with a guy jumping the fence, doing all that crap. And that's why he was the way he was. And that was our introduction together. And I'd say after that, you know what I mean, it went good, you know, or as good as you can expect.
- [08:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Man, I can see all that playing out just like that, you know. How did you. You know, you. I remember you running street stocks, right. You know, you were 16 years old, I guess, right out of getting your license.
- [08:16]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Actually, I was. Actually, I was 15. And my dad signed time for you to be. Signed for me to be able to do it, for sure.
- [08:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This is the year after I quit running street stocks. Kelly was in our street stock car.
- [08:26]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [08:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
How did you. What made you. Or who convinced you like to do. To drive like you hadn't been around, grew up around it, hadn't known it. And here it is on your. You know, you just walked through the threshold just the other, you know, of being around a race car for the very first time, and then months later, you're in a street stock car at Concord.
- [08:50]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Well, I think it was a lot. No different, you know, than you or Tony Jr. It was like, why would you want to work on them when you could drive them?
- [09:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [09:00]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And I was, you know, you're just talking about that age of being able to attain your driver's license, and you get to drive a car by yourself. And I'm like, you know, and I come home from being helping Tony Senior, Tony junior Out on these late models and going to a couple of races with them, and I'm like, hey, what if we build a car?
- [09:20]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You said that to who?
- [09:21]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
My daddy?
- [09:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So y' all got a Nova?
- [09:23]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yep.
- [09:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Where'd you get to Nova?
- [09:25]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Junkyard over in Kannapolis. So I asked him about, you know, doing it, and obviously he's like, you know, let's just go down, watch one. So we went down to Concorde, watched and got us a rule book, which was about that thick at the time, and went to the junkyard and pulled us one out. And actually I drove it home from the junkyard.
- [09:47]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Really?
- [09:47]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah. And he. And he was in front of me just running blocker so I wouldn't get pulled holy. And yeah, pulled it into the actual backyard. I had a one bay shop in the backyard. And my job during the summer was, you know, stripping it seats, cutting bolts. So that's how, you know, I obtain, you know, mechanical side of working on them, seeing how they were put together and all that. And then once I got it to a point where me and him put a roll cage in it and painted it.
- [10:15]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You did the roll cage?
- [10:16]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Me and him?
- [10:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Did Tony Jr come over and see what you did?
- [10:20]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Well, and that's the thing about him and pops come over and they would bring supplies, we call them, you know, and help out, you know, and like MSD boxes, distributors, they wouldn't use them. And you know, a lot of dad was in Cannon Mills at the time. So, you know, pipe cutting and bending and stuff like that, they would do for me at the shop, you know, Cannon Mills. And questions I had, I would ask Tony Jr. And if he couldn't answer, answer them, he'd ask his dad, you know, and that's how the car really got put together. And from there, you know, I mean, we went racing.
- [10:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, man, I remember I was over at the shop one day, we had a friend of ours, Todd Savage, that ran a Ford street stock. And it was like Friday morning. And I'm like, todd, you ain't working on the street stock. He's like, no, I ain't going. I ain't going to go. This weekend, the Tony junior and senior, they were running Xfinity somewhere, the bush car somewhere. It was quiet and Kelly was going to run. And so I think that's why I was over messing around. And she had our old car me and Carrie had tore up. And Todd's like, I ain't going to do it. I ain't going. I ain't going to go. I was like, man, you ought to go or I'll take it. He had a good little forward that he had running pretty good. And I thought, man, I'll go drive it. Damn thing. You mind if I take it? He's like, I don't care, take it. So I go over there and we went out and practice. And then it's time for us to race. And do you remember what happened in the race?
- [11:53]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
I vaguely remember you going, but I can't recall.
- [11:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They must have. I don't know what we did for qualifying. They must have drawn or something. We didn't have heat races or anything. And you started in front of Kelly and I started right behind Kelly and Kelly's car. We had a damn railroad tie, A railroad tie iron to the or welded to the rear of that car because we'd crashed and tore the bumper off a bunch. And so we just put a big old square, it was like big giant angle iron tubing on the back of this thing. And we got going and you missed a shift. Kelly lifted and I didn't. And I run through Kelly and knocked the radiator out of that Ford. I didn't get a lap.
- [12:41]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
I can believe it.
- [12:42]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And I took that car back to Todd and I was so sad. I was like, man, I'm sorry. I didn't even finish one lap with your car and damn front ends knocked out of it. What do you, you know, what did you remember from racing street stocks? I mean, I know you didn't. You ran it what, a year? Two years.
- [13:00]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Two years. But the thing about that, and I will tell you this, so originally all I had was an automatic. So I had to shift it. Oh, I had to shift it first, second, no. Yeah. And then to drive in the column. And so if you went past drive, it was neutral. That was that. Until dad actually said, all right, we'll put you a four speed in there.
- [13:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [13:23]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And we cut the floor and it got better. But sorry for that.
- [13:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, that's all right. I didn't know him.
- [13:28]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
But yeah, you know, I, I remembered a lot, you know, and I still, you know, what brought a lot of that on was like when you made the movie with your dad and everything and done that whole deal. There were some pictures of, you know, me, Kelly and Hank Parker Jr. Sitting on the wall.
- [13:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [13:45]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And it was like, wow, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? Those days down there racing with them three and even Todd Savage was priceless, you know what I mean? Of. And we still talk about them, you know what I mean? Of just, you know, how, how things were back then and how simple it was and you know, how enjoyable. But, you know, tore up a bunch.
- [14:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, yeah, I tore up a crap ton of stuff in restocks.
- [14:11]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And I think that was one of the reasons dad, my dad approached me about, hey, you know what I mean, this is becoming pricey. You know, you need to find your job. And he started poking me and like, you need to get yourself in up there at Arnhardt's and start, you know, working making Making some kind of money. And then that's where you know, I started approaching, you know, Tony Jr. About going up and helping more on the late model to try to get myself around those people, to get myself in the door.
- [14:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. You know, that's a great. That's a great. That's a great thing to talk about because a lot of people always ask why, you know, how do I. I have kids. We're the technical. NASCAR Technical institute is right here. We get kids. There'll be kids out there, I bet today.
- [14:58]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [14:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hey, you know, getting advice.
- [15:00]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yep.
- [15:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You know, and I tell them. And I told them. I told a group of kids last week out front. I said, man, you might have to go somewhere and work for nothing. Yep, you might. I was like, if you want it bad enough, you got to be willing to go somewhere and do it for free.
- [15:18]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And you bring up a great point right there. You know what I mean? That was the exact words that I received from your father was. You know what I mean? When I started, it was for cash money. That's how I started. And I would not see him for months, maybe a month, because he was off racing or deer hunting or doing his deal.
- [15:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But he was your.
- [15:40]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
So. But he was my paycheck. Yeah, he was. Want to pay me out of his pocket. And he, you know, he told me, he says, you keep it with your hours. And Tony Senior looked at me and. Because that's kind of how Tony Jr. Started. He looked at me and he says, get you a book. You know what I mean? Or a little piece of paper writing down. And he said, make sure you keep up with him, because he'll ask you, knowing that he wasn't going to be there a bunch.
- [16:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [16:02]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And then he come, you know, missing a couple days or weeks at a time. And so I was like, man, this dude don't want me around here. Maybe I don't need to come here, you know, and. Cause he ain't here to pay me. So I missed like a week. And he showed up when I wasn't there.
- [16:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [16:19]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And he asked about me. Where was I at? And then Tony Jr. Quizzed me in on. Hey, Dale asked about you. And I'm like, oh, you know. So I showed back up, and obviously he was there. And he looked at me, you know what I mean? Walked through the shop and kind of gave me the cold shoulder and just kept walking. And I was hoping he was going to ask me about pay and everything else, but he wouldn't. That wasn't what he wanted to Talk about.
- [16:42]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [16:43]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And he, you know, finally walked back by a couple more times and says, where's you at last week? And I was like, well, he's. I said, I. I didn't come. He why didn't. Why didn't you come? Well, I figured, you know what I mean, that you didn't need me up here. You know, you haven't paid me in four weeks, so you didn't need me. And he says, let me ask you a question. He said, you do this cause you love it. He said, or you do it for the money. And I'm like. And that was kind of a, you know, a deal to me. Like, I didn't understand. And I'm like, no, I love to do this, but I have to have the money too. And he said, well, you'll find a way to make money. He said, but you gotta love this stuff. You gotta love what you're doing. And I'm like, I do love what I'm doing. He's like, no, you don't. And I'm like, yeah, I do. You know what I mean? And then it become one of them deals. No, you don't. Yeah, I do. Deal. And finally, you know, he said, well, how much I owe you? Like that? And I flipped open my book and he said I was keeping up with it. And I told him, X amount of money. And it turned out to be somewhere near $1,500 at the time. And he goes, that's too damn much money.
- [17:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [17:44]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And so he started raking his hundreds out of his back pocket. And he got empty. And he says, and he. And he owed me like 400, you know, more. And he looked over at Rick Bost, he goes, bost, he goes. He looked at me and he says, you need a set of tires on your car. I thought, yeah. He said, boss, take his car down to punches. Put a set of tires on his car.
- [18:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [18:03]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You know, he said, would that do for the extra 400? I'm like, yeah, that's fine.
- [18:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Damn, that's hilarious.
- [18:08]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah. And so I took the money and obviously I didn't miss another day.
- [18:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. You know, but golly, dad gave you your nickname. Two beer.
- [18:16]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [18:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
How'd that happen? I've always wondered this.
- [18:18]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Well, obviously, the late model racing, you know, we went to the beach and raced with you on some of the big races. And we went down there and everybody wanted to go out to some establishments. Oh, yeah, I went out with them, figured I was going to get in, but I didn't get in. Got throwed out.
- [18:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Damn. Too young.
- [18:39]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Too young. Sit out there in a dually and there was a cooler beer. So I sit out there with cooler beer by myself until they decided to come back. I was passed out.
- [18:48]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Damn.
- [18:49]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
I done sit in there and got sick.
- [18:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Oh, no.
- [18:52]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Messed all over. Messed up all over the side of. So they were like, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? You can't drink. You don't need but two beers and all this stuff. And then they got back to the shop and, you know, your dad was like, I could, you know, told me I could go with her, but I couldn't, you know, get into trouble. Drinking and all that other jazz with them. Got back to the shop and the story time he had on Monday nights. Yeah, he went down to the house and came back and you can't.
- [19:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
If there's a story to be told and them boys in that shop know it. You ain't surviving.
- [19:27]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You can't hide it.
- [19:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You can't hide it.
- [19:28]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Can't hide it.
- [19:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Coming out 5 o', clock, the damn beer cooler came into the shop and the five alive and the absolute vodka.
- [19:38]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Or Jack and the diet.
- [19:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, all that stuff came out of the cabinets. And it was story time.
- [19:43]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
So he went down to the house and came back and he had a stein and it would only hold two beers. And I didn't know it at the time. And he set the stein on the table and he says, two beer like that, you know what I mean? And I didn't answer. And he's like, he goes, kevin, like that. And I go, what? He goes, I got a mug right here. This mug will only hold two beers. Whenever you think you brave enough to drink another beer again, you can have it. But this is all you can have. I'm going to put it up here in the cabinet. Yeah, and he slid up there in the cabinet with all the pictures where they were and all that stuff, but that's where it set for all in years.
- [20:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Damn.
- [20:17]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And it was just. It got exposed on a Monday night. Thunder night. You know.
- [20:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Man, you. We. Your nickname, 2Beer has followed you ever since. Nobody, yeah, nobody calls you Kevin?
- [20:30]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And. And that's the thing about it, you know, people, you know, you get uniforms and you get Kevin put on there and they're like, kevin, when did you get that name? You know what I mean? But you know, mom and dad, they're not really proud of it, but the same stuff, you know what I mean? It got me to where I am today, you know what I mean? I Mean, your name is your name, but hey, yeah, I'd much rather get it from who I got it from than someone else.
- [20:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, you worked for dad on the farm for a while.
- [20:59]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Well, and that's the thing, you know, I wasn't able to travel cause I was in school. So when your dad got out of the Busch car in 94 and he hired Jeff Green in 95, 96, they run full time. They run full time. So that would leave the shop to Bugs and Rick Balls to me. What are we going to do? You know what I mean? They're sitting. And so I would go to the farm shop and hang out with, you know, Savage and Cook and Cliff Cook and all them guys back in the old days. And they would, you know, be belling hay, pushing cows or whatever. And I go climbing a tractor with one of them and just right on farm and spend the afternoon with them after school every day. And that's. That's kind of where I. I met with the farmers, you know, on that side of things. And then when the bushcars would come back home, if I wasn't. If I was able to go to the bush race and there was enough room on the King Air, I'd fly to them on Saturday morning with the weekend guys.
- [21:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [21:59]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
But I had to either ride home in a truck if there wasn't enough room, because you race Saturday and you, you know, I mean, you had Sundays off. So I'd ride home in a tractor or fly back home if they had room.
- [22:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [22:10]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And that's. That's kind of how that deal worked out in the whole 95 to write it, 96 era.
- [22:15]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. What was your. What was the process of you in terms of being a better mechanic? How were you in those days? You know, how quickly are you learning on the job?
- [22:28]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You better. I mean, I say you better learn quickly. But I was making a bunch of mistakes. You know, Tony Senior made sure that the mistake you made, you didn't make it again. And that's, you know, I mean, you know, there was never, you know, nothing that they wouldn't allow you to do, you know, but there was always a teaching principle to it. If it was going to the boat bin and grabbing boats or parts, running, going to get certain parts in town, whatever it may be. You know what I mean? It was a teaching principle back then in that day from Tony Senior.
- [23:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [23:02]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You know, Tony Junior. Yeah. You know, I mean, he was. He was in the learning stage with his dad and everything of following in his footsteps. But me, you know, what I mean, I remember your dad approaching Tony Senior one night and asking him, is he going to work out? Pointing to me and Tony. And I was kind of nervous on how he was going to answer that question, you know, And Tony Senior said, he's fine. He's. He's okay. And he was like, all right, you know what I mean? Just making sure that I was not getting in his. In anybody's hair around there.
- [23:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, man. A lot of people find the Deer head shop to be this sort of mythical place. Me and you both spent a lot of time in there.
- [23:43]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Area 51.
- [23:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, kind of. Right. You know, it's my belief that the day dad died, that door got locked. And, you know, maybe there's a person that's been in there every now and then to clean it up, but from what I know, it's untouched.
- [23:56]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah, 100%. I throw the Monday morning afterwards, you know, I felt really, really lost, like, you know, no different than you would have been. You know, me and Tony Jr looked at each other and kind of, you know, like, what are we going to do? What do we need? What do. I mean? We just didn't have an answer. Yeah, we walked across the street and walked in there and sit down in.
- [24:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The Deer head shop.
- [24:23]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
In the deer head shop. Picnic table opened up and had a Yoohoo and a pack of cheese crackers and you know, everything was left or was laying in there just like it was two weeks prior that I seen.
- [24:36]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [24:37]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And walked out and I've never been back since.
- [24:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that was where you worked during those early years.
- [24:45]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Oh, yeah.
- [24:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Three, three bays. Kind of a small shop. Three or four full time people with you. Tony Jr. Tony Senior, Rick Boss Bugs cleaning up.
- [24:54]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Gold window office outside.
- [24:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, yeah. Dad had that little office in the.
- [24:59]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [25:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Some good memories in there.
- [25:03]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Very good.
- [25:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr.
- [25:06]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Here.
- [25:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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- [27:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
When you got out of school, you know what was your did you consider maybe not graduating high school? Was there a moment or time when you thought no?
- [27:39]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
No. It was never a question. Never a question, never a question. It was a conversation. And your dad was near.
- [27:47]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh really?
- [27:48]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
The conversation. We were, we just, I think we just received a new trailer for Jeff Green and we were outside working in the parking lot getting it ready for Daytona, obviously. And he was out there inside of it and someone said something to me about schooling and you know what, you know, it was late that night and you Worked. You worked with those guys till they were done. And that was, that was the deal. And it was late that night. Somebody said something about schoolboy homework and why aren't you at home doing your homework? And I'm like, you know, I'll get to it, you know, once I get home, you know what I mean? And they're like, what do you, you know, I mean, you end up. You quit in school, you know what I mean? You're. You, you're gonna fail. And your dad overheard it.
- [28:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [28:29]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And it went ballistic on from him. Like that ain't a question. That ain't even possibility. And it was, you know, one of them from here pulled over and it was like, you will graduate or you won't step on this concrete right here in this facility. You will not work for me. And it was a. It was a deal from him that it hurt him that he didn't graduate. And he, you know, he let it be known.
- [28:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [29:00]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And I never experienced that, you know, one on one right there and took every bit of it.
- [29:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [29:07]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And the day I graduated, and I will tell you this, the day I graduated, we went racing that weekend in South Boston with the Busch car. And the next Monday morning, he was sitting in his truck waiting on me to pull up. And the promise from him was kept. He took me straight into that, that little house right there on the highway.
- [29:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [29:30]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
As you pull in, a brick house. That's where he kept all the office people.
- [29:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [29:33]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And pulled right in there and walked in there, says, put him full time. Yeah. Just. Cause I kept my end of the bargain. And it was a deal where, you know, I was just, I was wondering why he was sitting in his truck and it was just. He was waiting on me.
- [29:49]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. You know, that's pretty cool. Did you think about going to school, College?
- [29:55]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Not at that time because I've done spent so much time up there and invested so much effort into that. And it was like racing was going to go on forever.
- [30:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [30:04]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
The style of racing, these guys, you know, And I remember Tony Senior asked me one time, he goes, you know, you better be sure this is what you want to do to rest your life. And I was like, yeah, it is. Yeah. You know, and I mean, it's been, it's been a great ride, but in the same sense, there's been some hairy moments in the sport. But at that point in time, there was no question. I mean, it was great opportunity. Oh, it was incredible. Yeah. I mean, you got a guy that sits there and said, all you have to do is graduate and I give you a job, you're going to take it, especially from him.
- [30:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, yeah. You know, let's talk about the Acdelco days. They hired Steve park to come drive the car 97.
- [30:45]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [30:47]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Jeff Green, great little driver, for whatever reason, didn't work out. And we've had some conversations with Jeff on the show. I think the year with Steve and the car, the. What Steve was able to bring to the table. I know Steve was influential in building some of the, you know, some of the redheaded stepchilds.
- [31:05]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
100%.
- [31:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All those cool little cars that I got to drive the next year. Yeah, there's a lot of people too, that. And I'm one of them that believe that had Steve, for whatever reason, stayed in that car. He wins those races, he wins Those championships in 98, 99. Everything that y' all did in 97 with Steve.
- [31:23]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [31:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sort of teed that team up for what we would accomplish the next couple of years. You know, how much I felt like the team really kind of shifted. And when Jeff Green drove the car, it was still the black Goodrich car.
- [31:37]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [31:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And there was a. There was a heaviness kind of hanging over the team because of that car. What it looked. What it looked like. Yeah.
- [31:47]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Expectations.
- [31:48]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And when we shifted to the Acdelco car, it felt like that team's. That team was like kind of released from some sort of, you know, gravitational pull that wasn't very favorable. Did you experience that? What was it like having Steve come in and y' all start to do kind of some of the things y' all did together?
- [32:11]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah, I think when Steve came in, Steve brought a bunch of short track knowledge that we didn't have at the time. I mean, they ran good, you know, I mean, obviously, But I'd say 75% of your races back then were short tracks. And Steve brought in his style of short track knowledge. What he knew, and that's where Stepchild came along.
- [32:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [32:34]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Was we need to buy a chassis that's an inch and a half drop. You know, we need this, we need that. And Pops was like, you know, weary on doing them things because he was a, you know, Ronnie Hopkins, guys, and a set belief of. Of his deals, which is great. You know what I mean? His foundation of race team was just strong as ever. And I'll never forget, he allowed. Allowed us to get one of those cars but sit over in the corner. And that's why it was called Stepchild. Cause it set off to the side. No one would work on it. None of us or nobody. And Steve was in the shop working with us. And that's back when the driver came in. And, you know, he turned wrenches with us when he did not have to do appearances. But he asked me one day, we're gonna hang that suspension on that car. So I got a suspension ready, we hung it, and he started putting steering columns and stuff like that in. And your dad came in and wanted to know what that thing was sitting over there in the corner. And Steve walked him over. My office was showing him everything about it. And your dad was quizzing him on the steering column set up. And he was like, you know, I got this lightweight rod in, you know, on this column. And your dad said, that ain't gonna work, ain't gonna fly. And he was like, oh, yes, lightweight. It's better than these over here. And your dad climbed up on the door bars. I remember kicking it. Yeah, kicking it with these cowboy boots and kicked the thing off the roll cage. And he goes. And he goes, that's what's gonna happen to you in a damn wreck. You know what I mean? We don't build like that around here, you know, and that was the end of some of that stuff. But in the same sense, obviously, you know, Stepchild from there and that race team, you know, we took it and tested it at Nashville to the fairgrounds against a standard car, and it just performed flawless, you know, 30 laps in the race and on. And that's where that car shined, and it won us a lot of races. And, you know, obviously, you know, went through a lot of drivers there.
- [34:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [34:27]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
But race team wise, you know what I mean, the acdelco days gave us a new look, you know, away from the good wrench car that was racing on Sunday, where people still looked at us and expected us to run good. But in the same sense, we. You know what I mean, we were still the same team.
- [34:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a lot of fun driving that car in 98, 99. I remember when y' all had a car, I remember a couple things. So the drop snout red chassis, we had two of them. And Stepchild was one step mama. Step mama was the other. They were both amazing. Every time I drove them cut in the middle. And we had a car number one that we took to Atlanta and Texas, and that was the car I won my first race in. And that car was badass. Every time it was loose as. Until we pulled the tape off of it. And we pulled the tape off, it would haul us here.
- [35:25]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
It Comes.
- [35:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, man. And then we had. We had this other car that we didn't run a ton, but y' all gave it to me in 97 to run Michigan, and it was car number five. And I liked it. Y' all didn't. It was like a car. Y' all were kind of culling out of y' all's little line up there. And I liked it. And when Yacht. When I got asked to come over there and drive, I convinced Tony Senior to skin it and keep it and keep running. And we took it to Bristol, run second to Hermey or Elliot Sadler, and then I think I run it. I wrecked the car in practice at Darlington, and we ended up pulling that car out as a backup and running second to Trickle, I think. But, you know, you kind of get hung up on cars because we, you know, you had names for cars. You had cars. You. You ran a lot and you loved. You knew their tendencies. It's a little different than it is today. Y' all had pretty decent success with Steve. Won at the fairgrounds in Nashville. Richmond had some good races. Yeah. And then dad announces that he's going to do this cup team. They'd been putting together this kind of cup program, which I had your hands on. We ran Jeff Green in that number 14 car. The racing.
- [36:40]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Racing for kids.
- [36:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that car. That chassis for that car. Sit over at Doug Wayne's junkyard forever. I don't know where it ended up, but the. You know. So the cup idea had been kind of brewing.
- [36:53]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [36:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Finally, Dad's gonna put it together. And he pulls Steve out of the. Out of the ACDelco car.
- [36:59]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yep.
- [37:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
For what we know, Steve probably could have used another year and y' all would have been hell on wheels. But they ended up putting me in the car, which was a big shock to me. You know, I didn't even know. Dad never came to me and said, hey, this is what we're doing. He never even mentioned it. Like, hey, what do you think? Tony Jr. Or Tony Senior called me and asked me to come by the shop. And y' all were still down by the. The chicken houses.
- [37:32]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [37:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And I didn't know why they wanted me to come over there. And they rarely asked me to come over there. So I wasn't sure what was going on. And I walked in there and he said. And the name was on the roof of. My name was on the roof of one of them cars.
- [37:45]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [37:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And I was like, damn, is this some kind of joke? Because I didn't. I thought they were laughing like it was funny. It was weird because they were laughing, like it was funny. And I was. They were laughing at my reaction, really. But I was like, these guys, this is cruel as hell. They put my name on this car just to pull my leg. And they're like, no, you're really doing it. What was everybody. I guess, kind of. What was the. I know there's a lot of people on this race team that are family, right. To all of us, right? You're you and I. You and I got the connection with the. With Tony junior And Tony Senior. And then there's Danny Earnhardt and all those guys on this team. Been there forever. They all knew me, but I had never really worked with y' all or worked in the shop. I hadn't really paid any dues. So what was the General? And be honest, but what was the general like feeling in the shop? When Steve gets pulled away, he's going cup racing with the pins oil guys, and y' all are going to put me in that car. So to unproven.
- [38:46]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
So from what I can remember on that deal, your dad never told us, like, y' all are gonna get a driver swap. I think probably pops told us what we were gonna do, and this is the way we're gonna do it. And I do remember, and maybe you do, too. We put a car together and took it to Charlotte Motor Speedway.
- [39:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, right.
- [39:10]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
The out of it and with Steve park and you to put you in it and to get some laps by ourselves. Nobody there, just us and, you know, vague racetrack. I mean, just empty. Went there. Steve shook it down. He climbed out, you climbed in. And I can't recall the amount of laps, but all we heard was tire squeal. And we jumped in the van because you wouldn't answer us. We drove down there, and you're laying on the racetrack. You done got out of the race car. And we walk over like, are you okay? And you're like, yeah, I'm fine, but daddy's going to kill me. Daddy going to kill me. We're like, dude, you're fine. You know, you're good. You know, we'll make this work. Yeah, you're okay. And that's the memory I first have of you climbing in the race car from over there. You know what I mean? But I would say the tendency was, you're going. From Steve park, winning all the time, and then, you know, we're gonna go shake this car down with, you know, Dale Jr. And then it goes out there and it's gone.
- [40:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [40:17]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You know what I mean, and we're like, this is what we're receiving. And I'm not saying there was never no, oh, my God, this ain't gonna work. You know what I mean? But we were tight knit, race team, family wise and work wise that, you know, Pops is, you know, behind a stern going, we're going to be fine. We're going to make this work. You know, that's what we, the way we approached it.
- [40:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [40:45]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And I, you know, I, I can't, I can't say I never doubted it. You know what I mean? I would be lying if I sit there and said I doubted it. Yeah, you know, not working. But I never, there was never no thought. It was just Pops had us working so much and going in that direction of winning all the time. Didn't matter who he put in, but in the simple fact, you know what I mean? You got put into a car and it turned out to be two of the greatest years ever, you know?
- [41:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, we go to Daytona for the first race. It got off to a rocky start for the first couple weeks of the season, but in Daytona, we go down there. I'd never qualified at Daytona before. I pull off pit road, just taking it easy, thinking, oh, man, we'll just get up to speed, go through the gear. I qualified third and come in and I'm thinking, hey, that's pretty good. Tony Senior says, what the f were you doing? You didn't even get up to speed. You got to go off pit road like a maniac. You'd have qualified on the pole. He was so mad.
- [41:40]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [41:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
In the race we had these really tough first gears, trying to get out of, get out of pit road, and I tore the yoke off to rear in housing trying to get out of the pits. In our first pit stop, we had to go behind the wall, change of gear, come back out. During that pit stop, I come in, overshot the pits and hit you right. Threw you over the hood, that jack and everything goes flying. And you had damn jump up. And what was that? Do you remember much about that?
- [42:05]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
I do, yeah. I remembered the actual jump to this day was, you know, I mean, this ain't gonna work out great. Yeah, you know, I was on, I was on when I jumped, when I was supposed to jump, it was just the car was going faster than it was supposed to be coming.
- [42:20]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, yeah.
- [42:22]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
But in the photo or in the picture and the videos or whatever, everybody else is like, look at this dumb, you know, I mean, they're still standing on the wall. Oh, yeah, they didn't jump.
- [42:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They knew.
- [42:31]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
They knew.
- [42:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But you, as a jackman, you got to go first.
- [42:35]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You're committed. Yeah. And when I was fully committed, I launched out through pit road and knocked the crap out of me. And then, you know, finished the stop and done the stop. What I wasn't waiting on was when the stop was over. You know what I mean? Obviously, you leaving the pits and breaking the yoke off the drive, you know, off the drive shaft was, you know, pulling behind the wall, working on the car to get it, you know, all back together to get it back out there as quick as we could. But to be, you know, grab a Tony senior after working on the car going, you know what I mean? This is all your fault. Being slow. You know what I mean? You're slow riding a race car. And Tony Jr. Is trying to tell him why I was slow because I got run over. He never had a clue that I got hit. To this day, you know, he didn't even know. And Tony Junior's trying to explain to him that, you know, you just wiped me out on pit road. And then obviously, the, you know, throwing a drive shaft out was just principles of everything else. All the commotion over the radio.
- [43:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [43:33]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Of leaving.
- [43:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [43:34]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
But obviously went to the airfare care center. And I did. They were standing there after I climbed up from underneath the car and received my butt chewing from pops. And they were asking me, am I okay? And I'm like, yeah, I'm fine. They were like, you know, we've seen a video. You need to come get checked out. And obviously, the prr girl at the time, Teresa Hunter down, she was like, you need to go. Just get checked out. So I went. And they, you know, I was like, well, I got to jack the car. We'll find somebody else. So I went. And obviously, sitting in the airfare care center at the time, you know, watching the race on the monitor, I watch you and trickle down the back stretch, flip it, and land. So I'm sitting there going, oh, crap, you know, now I gotta go fix the car. I need to get out of here. And I'm looking for a doctor. You know, hey, I need to leave. And then they haul y' all in. And when they haul y' all in there, you know what I mean, and drop y' all off in there. You come walking in and look at me, and you're going, what are you doing in here? And I'm like, I'm in here because you hit me like, 50 laps ago. I didn't hit you. And I'M like, yeah, you did. So it's me and you. And I'm like, you know, and the doctor comes over and he's like, you're fine. You can leave. And looks at you, you know, and checks you out, and you're like, hey, wait on me. I'll ride back with you. So me and you ride back to the garage, you know, I mean, from. From that whole incident. Yeah.
- [44:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, my gosh. We go to Rockingham and run like crap. I was terrible at Rockingham. And I'm sitting there after that race. I was pretty worried. You know, I'd had a couple, like, glimpses the year before driving. Driving a car that I'd borrowed and driving for Ed Whitaker and so forth. But I knew that I had a lot to learn, and I knew that I wasn't sure whether I was ready for what I was doing and ready for y'. All. Like, y' all deserve better. But we finally go to Vegas, and, you know, I hadn't really, ever really run many mile and a half. I think Michigan. I had one Michigan race under my belt, which went really well the year before. And we go there and run second to Spencer.
- [45:51]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Spencer. Yep.
- [45:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Coming down to the finish, like, I had every opportunity to move him up the racetrack, and I was nervous to do it because it was Jimmy Spencer. He's a big boy, and we get the race done. And so Tony Jr comes up to me and he goes, man, I can't believe you didn't move him. He's like, I bet on you. I bet on us to win.
- [46:17]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
We all did.
- [46:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, I taped the freaking ticket to the dash.
- [46:23]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
To the dash on the right side.
- [46:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I got in that car and ran the whole race and never saw that bet slip.
- [46:28]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yep.
- [46:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Y' all had bet for us to win the race.
- [46:31]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
We put, like, 200 down.
- [46:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What were the odds? I don't even remember. Couldn't have been too good.
- [46:36]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
No, it was. I mean, it was well over 400 to 1.
- [46:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right.
- [46:41]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah. We were going to make some cash.
- [46:42]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [46:43]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
But in. That's. But that's how much belief that we had. You know what I mean? As a race team, we knew we could get the job done.
- [46:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [46:51]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You know, we knew we had great race cars, you know, and we just. We were going to stick behind you, motivate you.
- [46:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [46:57]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And, you know, through pops and do what we had to do to win races, and it didn't matter who we had driving a car.
- [47:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [47:05]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
But.
- [47:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that I'VE watched that race back and we kind of. That race itself in a way is a big day for me because we start out kind of, you know, backside of the top 10, doing okay. Not really too flashy, but as the race goes, it's like I start to get. Get it right. Better and better. Confidence and understanding what the car can do and pushing the car to that limit and really getting the most out of it. And then we go to Bristol, run second to Sadler, which I was really proud of. Cause I ran Bristol the year before with Ed Whitaker and I had a haul. I hauled ass, but I wrecked a ton.
- [47:46]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And that's where I remembered you from being. I knew you, but in the same. Got to see you drive. And I knew what Ed had as a race car.
- [47:54]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [47:54]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And it was like, you know, this car just sat on a pole, out qualified us and what we had as equipment. And I'm sitting there looking like all it takes, you know what I mean, is the right four springs, the driver, you know what I mean? And the shocks to get around here. But in the same fact, you were on the pole and we were sitting there like third or fourth and it just. You know what I mean? Pops is like, wonder what they got in that car, you know what I mean? It burned him up, you know what I mean? That weed got outrun, you know what I mean?
- [48:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I remember we didn't have a ton of motor, which actually made the car way easier to drive. And we had very basic linear shocks. I actually think we leaned on y' all for some of that, some of them shocks. But that was those two weekends, right? Kind of having a good run in a big unfamiliar place like Vegas and then going to Bristol, which I thought would chew me up and spit me out and getting in and out of there with a. With a good finish that, that we. It was. It was on from there. Felt like everywhere we went. By time we got to the midpoint of the season, our attitude, at least mine was finally, there's no better team here. No reason why we're not going to win every race we show up to.
- [49:07]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right? But that's what we were asked to do. That was the expectations that was presented. And there was no question, you know what I mean, for us from Pops, you know what I mean? It was like we knew your dad was behind us. We knew, you know, at the end of the day, his expectations and they were really high. But Pops's expectations were very, you know, very much right there in line. And it was like, you're not going to just go be mediocre.
- [49:35]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. You know, man, Tony Senior and Tony Junior. What I learned from them, the stand, the things that stand out to me, I mean, there's. They're two of my most favorite people, and I know they're absolutely top of your list, but Tony Senior and Tony. Tony Senior more so than Junior. They didn't. They wanted to be at the top of the board in every test, every practice, every. Any session.
- [50:03]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yep.
- [50:04]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Any session. They did not know why that. That car that they took to the racetrack wasn't on the left side of the board and toward the top.
- [50:12]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And nothing better fall off.
- [50:15]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You know what? You know, we had 13 wins, two championships in 98, 99 with that ACDelco team. What are some of your favorite moments?
- [50:28]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
I mean, both years, I mean, there's. I would say there's not just one. I mean, we won it that first year and you were supposed to win it the second year, you know, but to come back the second year and run just as many or win just as many and just sit there and have a rival like we did with Matt Kenseth, you know what I mean? Tooth and nail. And if we were. If we were to win, won the race and he would finish second or vice versa, and there was races that we wrecked out together, you know?
- [50:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, yeah.
- [51:00]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Just. There was never no one. It was just everything. Just the whole. What I take from two years with that race team and with y' all was priceless. You know what I mean? It was so much learning in everything that we done, but we were victorious doing it, and it was so enjoyable. And even when we weren't victorious and we finished second, it got to be no fun, you know, because you were. Your expectations was to win, and it made you who you were, you know?
- [51:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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 out at shop.dirtymomedia.com when it.
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- [54:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
One of my favorite races when I think back on those couple of years was there's a lot of moments, but one of them was with the year 99, I think it was. Pretty sure it was 99. They announced that Jeff Gordon was going to run that Pepsi car out of the Hendrick shop and I thought, man, you know, it was tough enough as it was trying to beat Mark Martin when he showed up with the Winn Dixie car. That brings back another memory as well. But we Go to Michigan, and I am chomping at the bit to have a race with Jeff Gordon. And we all. Me and Jeff kind of were the two best cars in this race, and we would swap the lead and the aero. Balance on the xfinity car in 1999 was as good as any race car I'd ever run. In terms of how you competed with each other, if you got the lead, you got loose. Right. And you needed. And if you were. If your car was handling great, you really didn't want to lead because it was too much of a handful. It was easier running second.
- [55:23]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Tuck him behind him.
- [55:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You get in behind him. And the balance would get perfect. The balance would go from free to neutral as you got a little bit of that air off the nose. But, man, it was so much fun. And so the guy that would get the lead would get up there and go, hell, yeah, I'm gonna drive away. And then he'd run about three laps ago, I got my damn hands full. Why don't you lead a little bit? And me and Jeff sit up there and kind of passed each other back and forth on. On the early part of that race, but ended up. We drove away, we got our. You know, we made a couple adjustments, locked it back down, and we went on. And I was so proud of that. The other moment that I. I thought of, and I can't remember exactly, it was 98 or 99, but we passed Mark.
- [56:06]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah, that's what I was getting.
- [56:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Like, Mark, you couldn't beat him.
- [56:10]
Podcast Sponsor Host
Nope.
- [56:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Like, I. I would wreck trying to keep up with Mark at Charlotte and all these other places. If you could even see him, you know, he was. They were just so fast. But for whatever reason, man, we. We kind of. We kind of figured Richmond out. We were good there in the Xfinity car and the cup car. We'd win some races there as well, in the bud days. And it was so similar to the beach in shape and how you race the car and race the track. I think that that helped me a lot racing at Myrtle beach all those years to go to Richmond. But, man, we passed Mark Martin on the outside at a.
- [56:46]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You know, right there towards the end of the race. Hard to do anywhere but the start of that race. I'll never forget. Jeff Burton was driving the 9 car, and Mark was in the 60. And I'd never forget one of the crew Chiefs on the 9 car at the time asked Pops about, because we won maybe the first race or the year before there at Richmond and asked us about Springs and, you know, what do you got in the car? You know, you got the same stuff. And Pops is like. You know what I mean? No, you know what I mean? We made some changes. I think we blew a motor maybe or something. We were changing engines before the race. And the reason I remembered it was because I had an ingrown dodo and I had to go to infrared care center and get it cut out. Came back and we were changing the engine. Tony Jr. Rolled a motor hoist over on my toe. And that's how I remember this race. But in the same sense, we started out the race and we just, you know, we're up front with mark in the 9 car and we were. We passed the 9 car for the lead and Mark was like second or something. And then Mark obviously had the lead. And then you passed Mark right towards the end of the race on the outside to win the race. And it was just like. Mark was like. Couldn't understand how he just got beat, you know, by someone on the outside.
- [58:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [58:03]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You know.
- [58:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [58:04]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And it was.
- [58:04]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I couldn't believe it either.
- [58:05]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
I couldn't either to this day, you know what I mean?
- [58:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was happening and I was doing it.
- [58:09]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Those are the same things I remembered about that.
- [58:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Somebody else in his car.
- [58:12]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [58:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Is it not Mark Martin in there?
- [58:14]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
But like you say, I mean, those were some great, you know, memories of racing. I mean, Walkins, Glen, you know.
- [58:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes. Oh, Beaton, Ron. Fellas.
- [58:24]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Ron Fellows of all things.
- [58:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Ron. Ron was having some pickup issues on his. On his fuel. But we also our transmission. So I wasn't great road course racer. And I'd knock. There's dog bones or something in the transmission. You know more about that and I do. But I'd wore the transmission out, it wouldn't stay in gear. And so I had to drive the whole last eight, ten laps holding the thing in third and fourth and whatever. Right. Because it just pop out of gear down the straightaway. But he was having so much trouble, I could still kind of keep up with him driving it with one hand.
- [58:53]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
So. Funny thing about that race. Joey Myers, your pilot, we'd all fly up on the King Air and he wanted to help out on the car. So when we were changing rear gears or doing whatever, we'd let him pull axles, take the caps off, do whatever, and he ended up leaving the dust cap on the outside of the axle loose. And you slung an axle out of the right side going through the. And you had to coast all the way back around and you missed pit road. I Guess coming down the front stretch. So you went on down the hill and turned down there at the bottom of the hill at the glen.
- [59:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [59:26]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
So we had to run all the way down to pick you up because you kept telling on the radio, I'm down here. I'm down here in one. So we had to run all the way down there, push you all the way back up that hill. And we were like just living on Joey.
- [59:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, man.
- [59:40]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
But Darby, John Darby, he brought the axle back over and gave it the pops and gave it to him, you know what I mean? He slung out, said, there's somebody in our camper over there that wants to sue you because you penetrated their tent with an axle. You know what I mean? Just joking with him. But we played a joke on Joey, you know what I mean, and gave him the golden Axle award.
- [60:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes.
- [60:02]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And he has it on his wall in his house.
- [60:04]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You want to talk about axles? We went to Darlington in my rookie year. This was a tough day. We'd had. We had. We're. We're coming off of two championship races or seasons and I mean, it couldn't have been higher. And we went in. We're going to talk about that rookie season. There was some really incredible, incredibly good moments early on. But we go to Darlington and the. Every day in. Every day in nascar, at least in that rookie year, and it was like this most of my career. You could be on top of the world one day and literally thinking that you needed to quit doing the job the next. I mean, literally thinking like, I'm not. I don't deserve to be doing this. It was so wild how the swings of high and low and when we go to Darlington and we're running seventh or eighth in the race and I'm getting freaking crazy loose, like crazy, crazy loose. And you know, cars build balance free. And I was like, man, I'm in over my head, like this cup really hard. And I finally busted my ass off a turn two and nose the car into the inside wall, pull it into the garage. And I'm like, man, it's going to really suck now because I gotta go out with this car, no fenders, and ride around and stay out of the way all day. We got 200 some laps left. I get out there and I can't go. It won't accelerate. It's just broke. And I don't know how to explain it. And I pull down and pull into the garage. Tony Senior is like, bring it to the pitch. He's madder than hell. And I'm like, I'm going to the garage. This thing's broken. Something's broke in the drivetrain or something ain't right. And I get out and I walked away. Like, I didn't wait for you guys to come over there and didn't wait to debrief with Tony Senior. And I don't know where I went, but I left maybe to the camper or the bus to change clothes or whatever, but I was like, I ain't getting back in that thing. And Tony Sr. Was furious, livid, from what I remember. And I. Dad finishes the race and I meet up with him and I'm gonna walk with him to the outside of the racetrack, get in a helicopter and go home. And on the walk over there, I said, dad, give me a desk job. I'm like, I ain't cut out for this. This is too hard. If that's how the cars drive and that's what I've gotta do, I can't be as good as y'. All. And he's like, he's just not even answering. He's just not even saying nothing.
- [62:46]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
He.
- [62:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He'd ran all day, run eighth, and he's back slapping and talking to everybody and not even listening to me. And I'm literally at my lowest point in my entire life in my mind. Right?
- [62:59]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [63:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And we go home and I am hiding from Tony Senior. I'm so ashamed, I don't even want to go over there. And it's like Monday to Monday morning or so noon, Tony's. Junior calls me. He goes, hey, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm just sitting over the house. Found what was wrong with your car? And I was like, really? Like, I. I was like, man, you know, they're gonna take it back and whatever's broke, they're not gonna find it and they're not gonna believe me and they're gonna think I quit. And Tony Senior had already said it. I think in the 12 hours, like, get quit little. And I'm like, I don't know how I'm gonna. I don't know how I'm gonna gain back his trust. Cause once he's. Once he's done, he's done, he gone. And Tony Jr's like, found what was wrong with the car. I was like, what? He goes, strip the drive plate out of the axle or strip the axle out of the drive plate. I was like, one of the two. Either axle failed or the drive plate. I think it was axle. And I was like, no, I knew it. And he's like, yeah, you only have one axle. And so I went over there, happy. Happy. I came in, and he showed me the axle, and I had that. I'd walked around the entire shop with that axle.
- [64:21]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah. Yeah. Doing that to everybody. I remember that because I done all suspension.
- [64:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was so glad that there was a reason for what happened, because I was like, man, all these guys think I'm a. I'm a wimp.
- [64:35]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Candy ass.
- [64:36]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Candy ass. Yeah.
- [64:37]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [64:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They think that I just couldn't do it, so I parked it. And I'm like, man, I'm so glad that we found. I hate that we found an issue, but I'm glad we found an issue.
- [64:44]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right. You remember that Darlington testing there? I never forget. We were. You were making some runs out there, and you were like, you know, these tires suck. They suck. And then we. We look out that towards the end of the garage, and there's white smoke. I thought something was on fire. And you were down there doing burnouts. Yeah. You're just doing loops, circles down there in the. In the parking lot.
- [65:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [65:09]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And I look at Tony jr. I'm like, what the hell's he doing? And Pops and, you know, all of them. Finally you get done, and you pull in there and you're like, I don't want to run these tires no more. Get them off here. And Pops is like, nah, you're gonna go run them. Yeah. You know, they only had, like, five laps on. You wouldn't let her act like a duck. Gonna run. But it was just stuff, like. It was comical all the time, but, you know, I mean, but we were. We still were serious. Yeah, but it was fun.
- [65:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I. Darlington. Darlington was a tough racetrack for me. We had some times when we'd show up and haul ass, but it was hard for me to figure out how to finish a race there. Rockingham as well. Rough. I never. You know, I. I grew up racing at the beach, which was abrasive and old, but I couldn't make. Couldn't transition into, like, the cup level and make those tracks be my expertise, you know, I kind of. I fared mostly better on the newer, more recent Repaves, but we. We come into the Cup Series, and I remember we built a car and we built a couple cars and ran five races in 99. We did okay.
- [66:18]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah. Ran good.
- [66:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. We run 16th or something in the 600.
- [66:22]
Commercial Host / Narrator
Right.
- [66:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We went to. We went to. I remember we went to. We didn't run a switch for the rear end. And Xfinity car, the bush car. We Went to New Hampshire and we're running like 12th, dad's 15th. I'm like, hell, yeah, we're Dale Earnhardt. And I didn't flip the coolers, the switch on the rear cooler and burnt the rear end up halfway through the race. We went to Japan.
- [66:50]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Japan. Oh, yeah.
- [66:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And that was.
- [66:53]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
That was awesome.
- [66:54]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So do you remember taking that first car to Homestead?
- [66:58]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
I do.
- [66:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And that's.
- [66:59]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And that's something that no one realizes about park, you know, is all the hits he was taking back in that day and the concussion side of things we did not recognize. And I think even as you went in your earlier career and was wrecking some stuff at California and different places, and we would test, you know, like on a Tuesday or Wednesday or somewhere in Homestead. Not Homestead, excuse me, Lakeland or somewhere. And you were like, you know, I don't feel good. I feel sick. You know, I remember Pops was like, you just been out too late, you know what I mean? And all that. But that being said, you know, taking that car down the Homestead and shaking it down, you know, I remember your dad bought us one of Schrader's cars.
- [67:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, good car.
- [67:39]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Good car. Rolled in the shop. Pops over looked at. We scaled it and everything, and he didn't like it. You know, we can do better. So we were going to skin it, put a new body on it and do stuff like that. But he ordered a Hopkins car, you know what I mean, to replace it to build. And we did. And your dad was like living that. He went and spent the money and built a brand new cup car. And we were going to show how good we were, you know, as a group. But we put this car together and we were like, hey, let's just take it to Homestead and shake it down.
- [68:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We were already down there testing our Busch car for the season finale.
- [68:15]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [68:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And Steve gonna take the car out and run it. And he. I mean, his first run, four or five laps in, he got busted his ass into three. Backed it in, backed it in. I remember him sitting on the back of the holler and we walked over there and he's like, give me a minute. I don't feel good.
- [68:36]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yep.
- [68:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And he went and laid down in the lounge for the rest of the day.
- [68:40]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Well, he come. I remember walking through there to grab something, you know what I mean? And he looked at me, you know what I mean? I said, steve, you all right? And he goes, ah, just. He said, I'm feel. I'm a little chilly out here. I'm cold. I'm like, we're in Homestead, bud. It ain't cool down here. It's hot, you know, And I said something to Pops about it. You know what I mean? Him not feeling good. Well, they brought his helmet back over there, and I laid it in there, and there was a crack in the back of it. Oh, yeah, there was a crack in the back of the helmet. And it hit something. You know, I don't know what it hit, but it hit something. And that was my first visions of a driver getting hurt in a car. And, you know, I mean, what this can lead to.
- [69:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I remember that, too. We ended up having to take that Petrie car, that Schrader car, to the Furry ferry, Japan.
- [69:24]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
We didn't.
- [69:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I remember they said that the front clip was bent. You couldn't change the sway bar. So the sway bar that was in it was the one that was in it. But we go to Japan, and we are. I remember sitting up in first class with Daddy, and I'm thinking, this is going to be badass. I'm going to ride 13 hours in the air with dad. We going catch. You know, we're going to hang out.
- [69:49]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [69:49]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He didn't want to talk, so I went back and sat with y', all, with us, played cards.
- [69:54]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah. He was like, daddy, ain't no one had no fun.
- [69:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He ain't.
- [69:57]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah. We were like, you mean? We kept hollering, you don't want to have no fun up there. That's why I'm coming back here in the back.
- [70:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. You know, y' all were playing rummy.
- [70:04]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Playing rummy and sit back there just having a fun. Oh, yeah.
- [70:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And so 13 hours, I think, on that plane or something like that. But we get out there, and, man, it was awesome. Like, I was one of my favorite experiences, and I didn't really appreciate what we were doing. I didn't. I didn't appreciate what an opportunity it was to travel to that country, to stay in the hotels and experience, you know, everything that there is to offer.
- [70:33]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [70:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The food and all that. I didn't appreciate it. And, man, something I've wanted to do over again is go back to Japan and really dive in. But, you know, we tried to. We leaned toward the more Americanized foods, and, you know, we just really didn't, like. I didn't really embrace it, but I remember we stayed in these hotels. It was like an hour. Hour and a half is a long bus drive.
- [70:57]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah, I know. It was like three hours or four hours from Tokyo.
- [71:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [71:01]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Where we stayed. And then once we got There it was another hour to get to the racetrack every day. Every day. You had to ride in a bus and. A bus.
- [71:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [71:09]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And the room was like the size of this table.
- [71:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. The rooms were tiny.
- [71:12]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [71:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You'd walk in and you climbed onto the bed. There was no. There's no floor beside the bed. Everything. It was very minimal. But I mean, it was neat, you know. I remember that bus ride and I remember having an MP3 player loaded with music and just listening to like all kinds of stuff all the way back and forth. And you were driving through these very royal sort of. It was farmland and all these shanties and patchwork homes that these people. I'm like, this is like blowing my mind, like how different life is here and what it must be like to be that person that lives in that house every day and what their experiences are. And finally, I think somewhere near the end of the trip, dad moved me into that hotel across right next to the racetrack. And I ended up there on the hill. Yeah, I ended up staying in there the last couple of nights. But we run that race. We. I remember practice. I remember being. You know what? I. I took a fun saver camera with me and I remember walking around in the during tech taking pictures of like Jeff Gordon's car and Dale Jarrett's car. And I go back to Tony Jr. And I'm like getting all these pictures, man, of their cars for next year. We're going a couple racing, man. I got all these photos of all their cars and how they building their fenders and a post and all this stuff. Not really knowing that everybody takes like their worst car to Japan.
- [72:39]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
So do we.
- [72:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And I remember when we started to do our first practice, I'd never been on the racetrack with dad. And I told Tony Jr. I think I let Tony Jr. Know that I was very excited to be on the track with dad. And so we pull off on the pit onto the pits to sit there and wait for the track to go green. And the track goes green and dad goes wrong and I'm like gassing it up real fast, trying to catch up with him, to try to go out on the racetrack and practice with him. And I think he ran like two laps and pulls in and I'm like. And so we. But anyways, we had a good weekend. It come down to the end of the race. We had a. We had a. I was driving my ass off like way over my head and we're battling for the lead with. With Jeff Gordon and I think it was Skinner and I Slapped the wall off of turn four. And I car up. But we were doing all right up until that point. We were going to be like a fourth or a fifth place car and just got to trying to do. Do too much. We come down at the end of that race, and I think me and dad are sort of backside the top 10. And we don't have any tires left, but dad had us sitting his pit stall, and they're side by side. And apparently Tony Jr. Hollers, there's a caution. 10 laps to go. Some Tony Jr. Hollers at Richard childress on the pit box. Y' all gonna use them tires? Richard's like, nah. Dale's ready to go home. We're not gonna come in and get them.
- [74:08]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yep.
- [74:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And Tony Jr. Said it. We're coming to get em. We're gonna borrow your tires. We're coming to put tires on. And we restarted and drove up through there and ended up beating dad. That was the whole thing. It's like, just beat dad.
- [74:19]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Beat dad the whole time.
- [74:20]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We ended up running sixth or something.
- [74:22]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And that same time, like you say, you come back over there after the race, you know, getting debriefed with dad or getting changed, and you're like, can't believe this. But dad threw a shoe at me. You know what I mean? And I was sitting there and we were all just like, well, dad, you know what I mean? Hell with him.
- [74:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You know what I mean?
- [74:40]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
That was our mentality, you know what I mean?
- [74:42]
Podcast Sponsor Host
Yeah, I know.
- [74:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He was, you know, we got, we. I was trying to get by him off a turn four. And we're coming to like four to go. And I'm passing him easily. But coming up off of four. He's hanging on my right rear quarter panel. And I can't finish the throttle because he's in my way. If he's. If he lets me go, I can get in the throttle 100 yards sooner, get down a straightaway and try to get the next guy. And I'm trying to pass everybody. I can pass one of these tires while they're good. We, we had a stupid arrow package too. Like 6 inches on the nose split on the front splitter. I mean, six inches on the valence and six inch rear spoiler. And if you. Terrible in traffic. Awful. And so I'm like, I gotta get this. While these tires are giving me some somewhat of an advantage. And I just drove, I just gassed it and, and, and clipped him on the left front, you know, and he had to jump out of the gas. But he picked me up down the straightaway and almost wrecked me down the front straightaway. And that's what he threw the shoe at me for, because I throttled up. But that was a pretty cool deal. We go into the cup series off of that experience and that attitude you're talking about. We go into the bud days, and we are coming off of two championship runs in the xfinity series thinking that we are the. And we go into. We ran those five races last year. Seems like we can figure this out. We literally went into that season unchanged. Not as far as I know. There were a few additions added to the shop. You know, we brought in some of the crams. You know, there's some good people put in different. Yeah. Different spots. But for the most part, the nucleus of that team really didn't change. And we went into the first year thinking that we absolutely could go in there and beat them.
- [76:34]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [76:35]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And we did. You know, we go to Texas and win that first race car hauled ass. And the one thing that. The one thing that impresses me the most is that we were. We were a new team in the cup series. But we were as forward thinking on. On our technology springs where what we had, what we had to get the arrow down the left front down. We weren't the last person to figure this out. And that was one of the days, like at Texas, we had a little 400 in the right front and a thousand in the left. And I mean a 400 in the left front and a thousand right front and a big sway bar, something like had the left front pinned. And I remember, you know, I remember thinking, like, how does Tony Jr. And these guys know how to do this? Right? We. We didn't run any of this stuff really that much in our. In our Busch car.
- [77:30]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [77:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But we're only a few races into the cup season and Tony Jr. And those guys, I think you can speak to this. They could look around in the garage and identify and see, like, if they saw a guy with his pivots in a unique place or if they saw a spring that looked a little different, they could see it and know what they were trying to accomplish and do with it.
- [77:52]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [77:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And they would go home and like, sit around that picnic table and go, man, I wonder what they're doing there. I saw this. I saw that. There's a. There's one missing piece. What is the piece? If we figure that piece out, we'll know what they're trying to accomplish.
- [78:05]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah, there was a lot of that. You know, I Mean drawing it out in the shop.
- [78:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [78:08]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
On Monday nights, Tuesday nights, whenever, prior to going through the next week of what we should try. Because there was a bush notebook. But that was 105 inch car.
- [78:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [78:18]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Versus this 110 inch car. Five inches is a lot. You know what I mean? Qualifying motors, you know what I mean? To just everything in itself of trying to get, you know, a balance underneath you to drive competitively against them, but in the same fact, you know, just us, you know, the unknowns that we were dealing with at the same time of looking around through there, you know, we had some people, you know, that we could lean on if we got lost, you know, RCR guys and stuff like that. But even with your dad's stuff, you know, it didn't always work in our car. You know, hey, I'm running this. Well, I can't run that. And I'll never forget we were at Bristol, and I ain't saying you were out the lunch, but dad was like, I'm going to teach you how to drive, Brad.
- [79:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. That was the one and only time.
- [79:08]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Got on the radio. And I'll never forget that day. Long as I lived to hear that voice of, you know, off on, off on. Oh, you know, throttle, you know. And I was like, he is hollering off at the Flagstaff, you know what I mean? And it was like, I'm looking at Tony Jr going, you really. He wants you in the lift right there, me saying this crap, you know.
- [79:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [79:29]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
But when it was pick up the throttle, it was like before for the center.
- [79:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes.
- [79:33]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You know what I mean? And I'm like, we're getting ready to get a backup out. But hey, the times were clicking, you know what I mean? And it was just like, you know, times like that of having him to lean on and then after, you know, he was gone, didn't have that time. And it was like, hey, we have to fend for ourselves.
- [79:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [79:52]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You know what I mean?
- [79:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, for sure.
- [79:53]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And we have to figure this out or we're not gonna make it.
- [79:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [79:56]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
You know.
- [79:57]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Well, Tony Jr. And those guys, they were incredible with staying. They were kind of on the front edge of the curve in terms of as guys were figuring out how to get softer springs in the front of the cars and how to get the aero platform better and even the superspeedway stuff, which you're still plugged into today. I mean, Tony Jr. And Tony Senior would. I don't know that there were many people in the garage doing as much time, hours Cutting, replacing.
- [80:29]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Never do a stone. No, never.
- [80:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We'd go to the racetrack and test in A for speedways for three days, and Tony Jr. Would have, you know, 60 different puffs to put on, you know, this fender, that fender, that quarter, that. A post, that. That B post. You know, we tried everything.
- [80:46]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
I mean, we went to a December test down there in Talladega. Come home, cut the body off.
- [80:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [80:52]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Went to the July test, come home, cut the body off. To go back to Talladega before the 500. Come home, cut that body off, put another one on.
- [81:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [81:01]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
And you start sitting there thinking in the back of your head, you know what I mean? What are they trying to accomplish? You know what I mean? What are they trying to do? But, you know, with Tony Senior, it was always a vision of what he knew he could do, you know, and it was. It was like you were saying, never. No stone ever overturned. I mean, there was a back door going up on the trailer, and we'd pull the car back off.
- [81:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [81:26]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
To just get a little bit more.
- [81:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Pretty incredible. We. Your career spans. You know, where we are today. I suppose we're sitting on top of this rookie season, which I want to talk more about. We had the Bud days together. You would stay at DEI.
- [81:49]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [81:49]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
When Tony Jr. Would go to Hendrick, you would stay.
- [81:52]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Right.
- [81:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Be a part of that program. That whole team eventually would move to shr, and. And I want to get to all of that. Yeah. We're gonna. We're. We're gonna have to have you come back.
- [82:06]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yeah.
- [82:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
To do a part two, maybe even a part three.
- [82:11]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
There's a lot.
- [82:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
There is. There is. And I don't want to miss any of it. I don't want to. I don't want to rush through any of it.
- [82:16]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
There's just so many good times.
- [82:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We've been sitting here talking for an hour and 15 minutes. It wouldn't feel like it, would it?
- [82:21]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
No. This is like me and you at the old trailer, you know?
- [82:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Well, your involvement in part of our. You know, our. Some of our greatest memories, and I know they are yours, too. Your loyalty to Tony Gibson. I want to get to all of that. I want to discuss all of that. All your experiences at shr. Got to get you to come back, and let's finish this out.
- [82:45]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Let's do it.
- [82:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. It's been a lot of fun, buddy, catching up with you.
- [82:48]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Anytime.
- [82:49]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I appreciate you, man.
- [82:50]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Yes, sir. Love you.
- [82:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right, buddy. Two beer on the Dale Jr. Download.
- [83:03]
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- [85:01]
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- [85:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So it was a great episode with Kevin Pinnell. Two beers. One of the guys that was part of the DEI days. And you know, obviously he has so many awesome stories and want to get him in for another, another episode soon because I believe after we got up from the table. I realized that I think in the next show I need to get out of the way a little bit. He has a lot of stories and it's more than we will be able to fit in a second episode honestly. So I'm going to try to get him back in here ASAP and try to step out of the way and let him go. Had a lot of fun catching up with him. Hadn't seen him in a long time and thankful that yeah, he's got the memory he does because he had he had a lot of great insight on on his experience kind of as he was introduced to to DEI and being around dad and working at the race shop and some of the early days. But we had a ton left to cover and we got to get him in here and get right back to it. So that'll be pretty fun getting two beers to come. Be a part of this again soon.
- [86:28]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
White Legs.
- [86:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The teardown was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race on Sunday. If you haven't go to Dirty Mo Media's YouTube page and hit subscribe and turn on your notifications so you don't miss anything that we're putting out all week long. Doorbell Clear dropped as well. Monday and yesterday the Tuesday show with TJ Majors. Dirty Air dropped as well. Tomorrow another episode of Bless yous Heart with Amy. And on Friday as usual, another episode of Dirty 30. The kind of catch all highlights of all of our shows we put out every Thursday, every Friday 30 minutes. Catch it and tell us what you think. We'll see you. Check out DirtyMomedia on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok.
- [87:18]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
Bubba Wallace here from 2311 Racing.
- [87:20]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You know what's slower than a pace car waiting at the car wash. That's.
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Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It turns these slow minutes into fast.
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Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
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Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
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- [87:41]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
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- [88:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Get all the more flavors you love.
- [88:09]
Kevin Pinnell (Two Beers)
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