The Magic Behind Dale Sr.'s Speed & Gus vs. The Snow

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download – Episode Summary

Episode: The Magic Behind Dale Sr.'s Speed & Gus vs. The Snow
Date: February 6, 2026
Host(s): Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelly Earnhardt Miller
Guests: Marcus Smith (President of Speedway Motorsports), Danny Lawrence (Longtime RCR engine builder)
Podcast Network: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Dale Jr. Download covers two distinct but entertaining themes:

1. The Business and Nostalgia of Charlotte Motor Speedway:
   Host Kelly Earnhardt Miller and guest Marcus Smith explore the decision to revert the Bank of America 400 from the road course 'Roval' back to the traditional oval configuration. The conversation uncovers industry considerations, fan impact, and behind-the-scenes insights into NASCAR scheduling.

2. Family, Winter Life, and Pet Antics:
   The second half lightheartedly shifts to stories about winter storms, family challenges during 'Snowmageddon,' and Dale Jr.'s much-loved—yet very ornery—dog Gus.

3. Dale Sr.’s Racing Legacy:
   The episode finishes strong with guest Danny Lawrence, offering rare, candid insight into Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s mechanical genius, crew culture at RCR, stories about NASCAR ingenuity, and race-day memories.

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Key Segments and Insights

1. The Return to the Charlotte Oval (02:07–11:20)

The Decision-Making Process

• Strategic Shift: Marcus Smith recounts a recent Charlotte Speedway planning meeting where Jessica Fickensher suggested returning to the oval for the Bank of America 400. This sparked consensus, with fan input playing a pivotal role.
• Fan and Driver Perspectives:
  • “The best driver feedback I had was from Dale. He said, ‘If you’d started listening to me, you’d have made this decision two years ago.’” – Marcus Smith (06:44)
• Why Now?
  • The Roval was originally embraced as part of a road course resurgence but recently lost competitive excitement due to changes in the NASCAR car and officiating.

Logistics and Impact

• Operational Relief:
  • “Our operations team just got, you know, a huge relief. So, it’ll be kind of neat … Camping, I think, is probably the biggest thing.” – Marcus Smith (07:24)
• Year-to-Year Flexibility:
  • Smith emphasizes adaptability, citing the revived North Wilkesboro Speedway as proof ‘there’s nothing not doable’ (09:28).

Notable Quotes

• “I think you mentioned as a team owner … throwing a wrench in the system sometimes actually produces some excitement.” – Marcus Smith (08:35)

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2. Snowmageddon, Family Vibes & Gus the Dog (14:13–26:07)

The Snowstorm and Parenting

• At-Home Stress:
  • “It's been stressful. It's almost giving me, like, Covid vibes in the house, you know, like, we're on lockdown. Can't go anywhere.” – Kelly Earnhardt Miller (14:23)
• Dale Jr.'s Perspective:
  • “I'm thinking, man, the kids are home. We get to hug on them all day.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (15:11)

Gus vs. The Snow

• Dog Drama:
  • Dale shares a comedic, exasperating play-by-play of his aging dog, Gus, who struggles with arthritis, forgetfulness, and the snow/ice, frequently demanding to be let in and out, and requiring midnight rescues.
  • “My dog takes his own ass for a walk. I don't live in the city … We got 300 acres. Be my guest. Wear yourself out.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (20:59)
  • “He goes out in the yard, falls through the ice, and he's like, all right, come get me … I'm out here, 15 degrees outside, I'm here to carry your ass, your 80 pound ass inside, and you're growling!” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (19:32, 19:53)

Family Dynamics

• Sympathy and Laughter:
  • Kelly offers practical solutions and notes Gus doesn’t growl at her: “He only does that to Dale. I don’t know what that is. They have, like, this weird relationship.” (21:45)

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3. The Magic (and Myths) Behind Dale Sr.’s Speed (27:14–36:51)

Memories with Danny Lawrence

Happy Hour and Race-Day Rituals

• Dale Jr. and Danny discuss “happy hour”—the last practice session before race day—recalling that Dale Sr.’s team routinely drew attention (and suspicion) by covering up their car early.
  • “You all were always messing with the competition, putting a cover on the car 30 minutes before before the end of practice…” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (27:53)

NASCAR Ingenuity and Legends of 'Cheating'

• Danny tells a story about Andy Petrie’s arrival at Richard Childress Racing:
  • “He says, 'Okay, now show me all your tricks, your magic...' Will grabs hold of him ... and goes, ‘See that seat right there? That’s where all our magic is. The guy that sits in that seat.’” – Danny Lawrence (30:26)
  • The story drives home that Dale Sr.'s legendary speed was due less to trickery and more to driver skill and straightforward car prep.

Cheating Lore and Racing Myths

• Dale Jr. probes into the prevalence of “bending the rules”:
  • “It’s hard for me to believe you guys were 100% up and up.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (32:21)
• They recall classic tales:
  • The 'foot-under-the-front-of-the-car' photo that’s endlessly dissected online actually shows Dale Sr. measuring valence height with his shoe, not cheating (34:21–35:07).

Dale Sr. as a Teacher

• “When you and Kelly and Carrie were going to start driving, he came in the truck one day and he said, ‘I’m going to make them work on those cars or they’re not driving. I want them to be able to realize what it takes.’” – Danny Lawrence (35:22)

Notable Emotional Moment

• On watching Dale Jr. succeed:
  • “When you were winning all those races, he was so proud of you … Happy hour was right after our [Busch] races, and I didn’t get to see him. He might pop into victory lane … he’s got a suit on. He’s there for like a minute. Hug, high five, slap on the forehead, whatever. Then he’s gone.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (36:07)

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• “The best driver feedback I had was from Dale. He said, ‘If you’d started listening to me, you’d have made this decision two years ago.’” – Marcus Smith (06:44)
• “I'm thinking, man, the kids are home. We get to hug on them all day.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (15:11)
• “My dog takes his own ass for a walk. … We got 300 acres. Be my guest.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (20:59)
• “Will grabs hold of him ... ‘See that seat right there? That’s where all our magic is. The guy that sits in that seat.’” – Danny Lawrence (30:26)
• “It’s hard for me to believe you guys were 100% up and up.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (32:21)
• “When you and Kelly and Carrie were going to start driving, he came in the truck one day and he said, ‘I’m going to make them work on those cars or they’re not driving.’” – Danny Lawrence (35:22)
• “Happy hour was right after our [Busch] races … he’s there for like a minute. Hug, high five, slap on the forehead, whatever. Then he’s gone.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (36:07)

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Memorable Moments & Takeaways

• Oval vs. Roval:
  The discussion highlights how decisions at the top levels (which track configuration to use) are deeply influenced by fan and team feedback, and how quickly the sport can pivot to keep racing exciting.

• Winter Life Humor:
  The relatable, chaotic, and hilarious tales about family life in a snowstorm, especially dealing with a stubborn old dog, offer a comedic, human touch to balance the NASCAR talk.

• Racing Legends:
  Listeners get a rare, first-person look behind the curtain at how Dale Earnhardt Sr. and his crew approached racing—not with rule-breaking magic, but with deep know-how, observation, and relentless work.

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Suggested Listening Order

• 02:07–11:20: Inside the news on the Charlotte oval’s return—industry and fan insight
• 14:13–26:07: Snowmageddon stories, kids, and the saga of Gus the dog
• 27:14–36:51: Danny Lawrence on Dale Sr.’s “speed magic,” garage stories, and family legacy

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Final Thoughts

This episode of The Dale Jr. Download is a quintessential blend of NASCAR industry analysis, family life, racing culture, and behind-the-scenes lore. From candid memories of Dale Sr.’s garage wisdom to the joys and headaches of winter living with kids and dogs, it’s a heartfelt, humorous, and insightful chapter for fans new and old.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Marcus Smith]

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[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Hey everyone, it's Kelly Arnhardt Miller here and welcome into the RV studio for another episode of the Dell junior Download. I won't be by myself though in just a couple minutes. Marcus Smith, President of Speedway Motorsports will be joining and for a big announcement. Although I'm sure a few of you could be guessing what that is. So enough about that let's bring Marcus in. So, you know, first things first. And I'm. I'm super curious about this from a team owner standpoint, because when they announced or, you know, announcing the change with the Roval, you know, that's a race that a lot of times we'll run our fifth car and we'll have a road course ringer, as they call them.

[Marcus Smith]

Right, right.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

And a sponsorship or something that comes together because somebody says, I want to run a road course. And so with that news coming at this point in the. What. What is that? Like. Like what? You know, what brought that on? What's the time frame? How does that come together like that?

[Marcus Smith]

That's a great question. So we. I don't know. I hadn't been thinking about it. I was thinking about lots of other things in our business going into January and coming out of December. But the Charlotte team was having a strategic meeting. There was kind of talking about your. Your planning. And Jessica Fickensher said, smart lady. She's smart. She's smart. She said, what do you think about going back to the Oval in October? And, of course, it's not the first time I've heard that because Dale has said it many times, but when Jessica said it kind of in the context of the whole group, I said, well, what do y' all think? Is it. What do the fans think? And they. They said, you know, when you think about the.

[Danny Lawrence]

The.

[Marcus Smith]

The point system kind of going back to the Chase and. And that story of kind of going back to the way we were, the last time the Chase was at Charlotte, it. It was, you know, the oval for the Coke 600 and the Oval for the bank of America 400. So we. I said, if you guys think that fans will like this, and it'll be the best thing, certainly the racing is good. Dale will say, I told you so, and, you know, we'll. We'll all have fun. And so that. That was kind of how it happened. And so then we made a few phone calls to NASCAR and our TV partners, and, of course, bank of America is a sponsor, and everybody thought it was a good thing that the fans were into it.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

How much influence does the TV partner matter? And the process with NASCAR just, you know, being a decision that you can make within a month's time from a strategic meeting that you guys have in terms of all of your conversation and then the other people that you have to talk with.

[Marcus Smith]

You know, what I think is neat is that all of those parties care about what the fans think. And I think Just the timing was such that back when we, when we introduced the Roval, it was at a time when road courses were having this, this amazing surge. Fans were saying, boy, we love road courses, that they kind of race like a short track. And, and, and, and so we brought out the Roval and it provided a, another road course in the, in the schedule, a road course in the, in the playoffs. And it made for something new and different. So it was one of the highest rated races in TV for a couple of years. Great growth and great excitement and you know, some great highlights from, from the race. But I think the new car and the way NASCAR officiates the racing hasn't been as exciting as, as it had been initially. So you know, we want to deliver excitement. We want to deliver, you know, a great event that has fantastic competition and those amazing highlight worthy moments in racing. So all those people, whether it's NBC or NASCAR sponsors, bank of America and others, I think we're all in it together to make great competition happen and see the fans happy.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Well, yeah, you obviously wouldn't make a change unless you thought that good could come out of it. Right, Dale? I can't talk from the perspective of running the Roval or running the oval. Roval and oval. I know that if he were in the seat he definitely would have a lot of comments about. But have you had driver feedback? You know, as it relates to.

[Marcus Smith]

The best driver feedback I had was from Dale. He said, he said if you start listening to me you'd make this decision two years ago. So yeah, I did laugh about that too.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

That's funny. Well, most of the time sometimes the only feedback that matters is Dale. Right. So what's the process like for your team, you know, to. Not, not the physical process because I would imag that it's going to be a little lighter that you don't have to configure the road course. Right. So it's going to be lighter. But what's the whole process like? Does it change things for you as it relates to, you know, sponsorship, the amount of people? I imagine there's more camping spots available since you can use everything and things like that.

[Marcus Smith]

Like probably the biggest thing is camping. I think, you know, that's going to be a big thing for fans to be able to camp again on that turn one and two side of the oval. So that's really the biggest thing. And of course the work that goes into converting Charlotte Motor Speedway from oval to Roval is tremendous. So our operations team just got, you know, a huge relief yeah. So it'll be kind of neat and I think, you know, the racing in May for the 600 has been fantastic. Bringing that to the fall will be, you know, I think fantastic. Again, it'll be neat to see how the teams react to that, you know, from the spring to the fall and, you know, certainly should be, should be exciting.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Super cool. It is going to be exciting. You know, I do think with the points system the way it is, you know, road courses present a challenge for a lot of the drivers.

[Ad Read Voice]

Right.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

And lots can happen. There's a lot of beating and banging and moving around. So that strategy for teams and drivers should look a lot different, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Marcus Smith]

You know, I think you mentioned as a team owner, kind of the, the factors that you all think about and you go in from season to season. From my perspective as a, as a promoter and as a, as a fan of nascar, throwing a wrench in the system sometimes actually produces some excitement. So if this, you know, creates a little bit more excitement, creates a challenge that needs to be solved for some of the teams, I think that generally works out pretty good for, for the fans and it makes some excitement happen for, for the teams and it should be pretty interesting to see.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Yeah, very exciting. All right, what about, you know, what, what can we expect in terms of the stability of the oval versus the Roval? Is that something you're going to look at year to year? Is, you know, what, you know, I.

[Marcus Smith]

Think after reviving North Wilkesboro Speedway, there's nothing that's, that's, that's not doable. I thought you'd never get that speedway, you know, to actually operate again. So we, we've got a wonderful racetrack in the classic oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway. We've got a fantastic world class road course with the Roval. And you know, we'll, we'll bring that back at different times, but you know, for now we're be running the oval and we'll see what happens.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Well, you know, the cool thing is, is I think that the adaptability is great. Right. Because you can react to what's going on in the market, what fans are asking for, you know, what the entire lineup of the series looks like track to track, and, and you proved that already with the Roval, so.

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Well, the oval it is. Here we go.

[Marcus Smith]

That's right. I love driving the Roval. You know, as a, from a sports car perspective, it's super fun to drive and we've got a lot of customers that like to drive it. So outside of NASCAR week, we'll still have plenty of opportunities for, for our different driving experiences and and OEM customers to come out and enjoy the roval.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Very cool. You know, we did the Del Junior ride alongs for a lot of years at the Speedway until the ROV and and then that was, you know, that presented a bit of a challenge. Not that people wouldn't have liked the Roval, but as you know what Del Junior's temperature was on road courses. So we've pivoted, we've done it at North Wilkesboro and so maybe we can get back to Charlotte. It was, it's a, it's a fun weekend to provide for fans that did the ride alongs with the hall of Fame being here and we could just have a, you know, a weekend of all things, taking in the races at the speedway and whatnot.

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

All right, so Snowmageddon, let's talk about the snow for a second and the amount of time these kids are out of school, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I noticed that it's been very.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

It's been stressful.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stressful for you.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

It's almost giving me, like, Covid vibes in the house, you know, like, we're on lockdown. Can't go anywhere.

[Marcus Smith]

I love it.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

I know you love it. You got your chef, your toys and your hobbies and all the things, and you don't have anybody bothering you. It's like your favorite thing. But I need people. Like, I need energy from other people stuck in the house with, you know, everybody needing things from me is just. It's a lot. I'm not the only one that feels that way. Some of the other moms that have literally, their kids have not gone back to school yet are about to lose it. Like, truly lose their minds. Yes. Because doing the school and all the things virtually, when you don't know how to do Common Core math or like, all the things that the kids have to do, it's a lot. It's a lot on your mind. You don't even Know what I'm talking about? Do you?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't. I mean, I. I'm sorry. I. I don't. I. I'm thinking, man, the kids are home. We get to hug on them all day.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Yeah. I mean, that part is good. And I like the snuggles.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

And not having to pack lunches. And I know they're like, there are a couple little things that are great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know they're gonna go back, and I know that, you know, things are gonna go back to normal, and it is never going to snow like this again ever. I mean, you know, most likely, this is the most snow that I remember ever getting in the. You know, 40 years. I can really recall.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, you know, we would have. You know, we would have two or three snows in the winter that were two to three, maybe four inches at the most back in the 80s. And then it kind of trailed off to maybe one snow a year.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or a little. A little dusting. That was crazy.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Wasn't expected to have the weather.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was awesome.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

It was very magical. And then. And the girls playing in. It was a lot of fun getting them dressed. I didn't even mind that part. Just the taking the clothes on and off, getting the boots. Like, we got the order down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think the way you feel is how I feel about the dog. What Gus has been. Gus has been next level annoying because he. So I'm sorry this is bothering some of you animal dog lovers. I've got a dog. I'm a dog lover, But I don't love the way he's been acting. We.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

He, too, feels trapped. He's like, I want to go outside. I want to drink out of the fountain that's now frozen over. That's his. What. He thinks that's his water bowl, truly. So he goes outside and he's like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is the experience with Gus.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

All right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So usually Gus is happy, calm, laying around napping all day, and he gets excited when he wants to go outside, and he. He hops around the floor, and that's. That's the cue. I want to go out. And he's thrilled. You know, go over to the door, open it up, goes outside, and he's going to come back to the door in about 10 or 15 minutes, and he'll bark. He might lay down on the porch for a while and chill and look out, and he'll start barking. He'll just. You'll just hear him burp, burp. And that's. Come get me. Let me back in.

[Marcus Smith]

No problem.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's going to want to go do this again maybe an hour or two later. And that's sort of the pattern. And that's what we've done for. For a long time, but during the snow. So we got the ice first. Right. We had that ice storm. Gus is getting old, and he's got arthritis in his hips, and he's got a bunch of fatty gross and all this stuff, and he's just. He has a harder time.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He jumps up on the couch. It's. It's not as easy it used to be. Sometimes when he lays around for a while and he gets up, it's a. It's a while before he can get moving. So he kind of, you know, if he lays down, like all of us at our age, if he lays down, when you get up, you're sore, you know, from sitting in the same spot for five minutes. And so. But. So we get the ice storm. He goes outside and his feet bust through the ice. He gets 15 yards from the house, and his feet bust through the ice, and he's like, I'm stuck.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

He goes catatonic and just starts talking and won't move.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he won't move. He's 15ft from the door, and his feet have just fell through the two inches of ice, and he's like, come get me. I'm stuck. And that's literally it. And.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

And so Dale's like, I think something's wrong with the dog because he's walking around out there like he's basically sliding, but he's hunched over like he won't stand up straight all the way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Walk so funny on the ice, like, I don't.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

I think that's his arthritis. Or maybe he's. I think he's going to the bathroom, and he's not. I don't know. What did he get into? What'd you feed him? Through the mountain of things other than. It's just ice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If we don't take him out before bedtime, he gets us up at 4, 2, 1, 3 in the morning. He gets. And Amy might take him down some, but most time I'm taking him down, and I go down there, let him out. I'm in my damn underwear, you know, and I let him out.

[Ad Read Voice]

We didn't need that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Huh? I'm sorry.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

We didn't need that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He said, it's hard to catch what you're saying. I'm just letting you know that I'm not ready to walk.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

He's not prepared for what I was about to Ensue.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He goes out in the yard, falls through the ice, and he's like, all right, come get me. And I'm like, all right. So I go put on pants, put on a jacket, go outside, and I go to him. And as soon as I go to him, he starts growling at me like, am I helping you? You don't want help? What's the damn deal? You going to growl at me? I'm out here, 15 degrees outside. I'm here to carry your ass, your 80 pound ass inside, and you're growling and so, and I'll take him back inside. So that's what happens in the middle of the night. What happens during the day is he wants to go outside. You take him outside, he stands on the porch, he goes, it's cold, let me back in. So he starts barking at the door. You let him back in. 5 minutes goes by and he has completely forgotten about that. And he wants to go back outside.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

He's restless as hell.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he goes back outside and he's like, holy, it's cold out here, let me back in. And he wants back in. And then five minutes later, he's forgotten about that. And it's like this constant, like, he's, he's like, let me out, let me out, let me out. And you're like, we just, just let you out. Like, what are you doing? You going out there? You using the bathroom at all?

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

I think he wants you to come out with him so he, yeah, when it's warmer, he and I go out for a walk. Well, we haven't been doing that. And so he's like getting all excited because he wants you to come outside with him when he, when you close the door and he's like, oh, damn, I don't want to be out here by myself.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't entertain that idea.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

No, because you've never been the one to walk in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ever. Going to be. I'm taking the dog for a walk. I didn't, I don't, I, I, I, we live on a farm. My dog takes his own ass for a walk. I don't live in the city. I'm not walking my dog down the road to get his legs stretched. He was. If his ass needs to go outside, he can take his own ass for a walk. We got 300 acres. Be my guest. Wear yourself out. But this, like, oh, we got to take him for a lap so his anxiety calms down. That's, that's, I, like, I have a hard time with it.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

You are that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I am.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

You are Just like that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't need you to take me for a walk.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

No, but you need me to lay on the couch with you so you can recharge, as you say.

Well, that's.

What's the damn difference.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

He. He's used to that. We walk together, we get the energy out. He has not been able to do that. That's why he bothering you. But also, he doesn't growl at me, like, if I go outside with the dog or if I go lay on him on the couch. He didn't growl at me. Not ever. He only does that to Dale. I don't know what that is. They have, like, this weird relationship.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, yeah, we're dudes.

[Ad Read Voice]

Maybe he could have, like, cleared a path for him where, like, he gets some grass to, you know.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

We did that. Yeah. I laid it. So when the ice storm was coming preemptively, I laid out all of the felt blankets and different blankets like I have in the dog room, down the stairs, across the path, into the grass. Like, he had his own little section that was not going to get iced. And he would walk over the ice to the. He was always going towards that fountain. But anyway, he's. He's just spoiled. He's got all those things. He just wants attention.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I haven't had to go outside to pick him up and bring him back in since the ice, right? It's been a week. We had seven and a half inches of snow. I'm like, all right, we're over the ice. The other two nights ago. He's like, I gotta go downstairs.

[Marcus Smith]

It's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's one o' clock in the morning. We get down.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

I like how you interpret how he's speaking. If he could speak to you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We. He's like, oh, he gets up. His bed is in the floor at the end of our bed. And he gets up and he paces up my side, up Amy's side.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

He's just waiting to see who's gonna get.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he pants really loudly and he drags his feet. So he's intentionally, like, making as much noise as he can to get one of us to get up and let his ass go downstairs. He will not go down a set of stairs. He falls. If he goes down the stairs, he will slide. All very good. His legs don't work, so we got to go down an elevator. So I get up, I take him into the elevator, we go down. And he doesn't go to the front door, which is where he should go. He wants to go out back. Out back's the hill that he's getting stuck on. But we have, you know, haven't happened in a couple days. And his ass goes out there and I watch him and he walks around, he takes his poop, he takes his pee and then he just, he locks up. He goes, come get me.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

He's playing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's down this hill. And I see him like, he's like.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

I know you're going to be cold and I know you don't have any clothes, front legs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's like, okay, I can't get up the hill.

[Ad Read Voice]

He's asserting his dominance over you, Dale.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he's acting.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

That's exactly what it is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's acting like he needs wheelchairs.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

He's like, you ain't the boss of me. I'm the boss of me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Help.

[Danny Lawrence]

Help.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Come get me. I'm going to freeze.

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah, you're.

[Ad Read Voice]

You're his.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not right. But that's not how it is. So I have to get my pants on and go out there and pick him up. Don't pick me up. And I'm like, this sucks.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

You wanted this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't. I did not want this. This is not the part. I don't know that. This is experience for every dog owner.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Well, when they get older, you have all kinds of things you didn't experience. You didn't have that with Rocket.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Look, I don't want to put him down. I'm not saying let's get rid of him.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

I didn't hear you say that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just want to get on my chest. I'm. I believe my. You're so. Maybe that's me relating to you right in your. Your, you know, feeling like you got island fever. You're, you know, claustrophobic and need to get out of the house, see some friends.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

Yeah.

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey everybody, it's Dalen Hart Jr. And welcome to the Arby Studio for the new season of the Dale Jr. Download. We have a pretty incredible guest coming in here. I'm pretty excited about this. One of my favorite people that's in the industry today, Danny Lawrence. Let's bring him into the room again like in happy hour. Happy hour is the last practice, your last chance to make sure everything's right. We ran 20 minutes of an hour and stopped and I'm like, you know this is how dad did it. This is dad. Y' all always were covering yalls car up early. You know if y' all were always messing with the competition, putting a cover on the car 30 minutes before before the end of practice and I'M like, man, this is neat. It was like I was kind of seeing it through the lens of what dad would experience with y'.

[Marcus Smith]

All.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Danny Lawrence]

He knew what he wanted, just like you did. Well, speaking of car covers, 87, we go to Daytona. And that. That's back when Beatty was. Was the crew chief. And they. Back then, I'm not going to. We did. We never cheated. And I won't tell you the Andy's Petrie story right after this, but so. But we pushed everything to the end of the rules. And back then they had, you know, a long template and a side template and this and that. So at Daytona, you needed a totally different car. And you needed. At Talladega, really, you needed. The racetrack was rough, it would get hot, this and that. So you needed. You needed a car to be able to handle further along. So the back end of our car was 4 inches longer. The spoiler and all the back deck lid and all that stuff was longer. So. And our car looked different. And they came over the speaker and they said, at 12 noon, anybody that wants to see the templates put on the three car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What.

[Danny Lawrence]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They said that over the weekend.

[Danny Lawrence]

So all these people came over, they.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Put all the templates on the car.

[Danny Lawrence]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know that. Like Daryl and those guys. You can go. There's a wall trip car in the museum at Talladega, and it's like four inches narrow. Yeah, the Junior Johnson bud car. You go in there and you can look at it just tail. It's like super narrow. And so, yeah, they were playing some games before because we at that point, I think around 85, 86, you didn't have. You had the long tip and that was it.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, they weren't measuring the width, but, you know, the. You were going to tell another story.

[Danny Lawrence]

So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Andy Petrie.

[Danny Lawrence]

The Andy Petrie thing. So Andy Petrie shows up at rcr. He's going to be the crew chief. He comes in and he's been there for about a week. And he says, okay, now show me all stuff. But what are you talking about? All your tricks, your magic, your.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your.

[Danny Lawrence]

All the things, all the cheating stuff that y' all did. So we'll grabs hold of him, carries him over there, set up plate right in the middle of the room and he goes, see that seat right there? He goes, yeah, that's where all our magic is. The guy that sits in that seat. We don't have no nitrous. We don't have no movable. This we don't have no, we weren't doing any of that stuff. It was all, it was all basics and that was the truth. And Andy was like, you don't have no trick spoilers or no trick cows or no way to move the fenders or take lead out and like. No, we don't have none of that. You don't have any, you know, five speed transmissions or what? No, we don't have, we don't have any of that. You don't have any aluminum panels or any way to cause a caution or. No, we don't have any. He goes, oh my gosh. Yeah. And he couldn't believe it. He could not believe it. Yeah, but. So Andy's thing was we going to have some of that stuff. And then Richard's like, andy, you embarrass us and it's on you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So.

[Danny Lawrence]

So I don't know if Andy had all that stuff the other, all the other places he ran and you know, this and that, but.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But he brought that damn spoiler from the skull car. Yes, I have it.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

With the wires and the retractor where the spoiler laid down. He said they let, they, they used in qualifying when they're scared to do it in a race. Imagine you could see it if you were behind him. But I, I kind of always wondered. We talk about that all the time on here with folks about ingenuity and cheating and all that stuff. And I got this big old lead radio right here. That, that Gary Nelson, he brought that over. That's from like 1978.

[Danny Lawrence]

Gotcha.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Die. Guard.

[Marcus Smith]

Air Walter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Danny Lawrence]

So there's a picture floating around of your dad with his foot underneath the front of the car. That's nothing. That is. And people are like, that's how he won all those races.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, one of the things that dad did that a lot of people don't realize is he walked around, like, back in. Back in the 80s and the 90s, the front valence height on the car was. Was critical to speed and how competitive your car was going to be. And he would walk around, and he wanted to. He wanted to. If he could take a tape measure to every car out there on the. On the grid or in the garage, Right. But instead of doing that, he'd walk over and slide his foot under there and see what shoelace? Because he had them racing shoes on that laced all the way up to the ankle. And he'd see what shoelace that valence hit, and he would then walk off and go, well, that went up to the seventh shoelace. That's a little higher than the last one.

[Danny Lawrence]

That's exactly what he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Danny Lawrence]

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

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And I know he made you. I know he made you work on the cars there so that. So you could appreciate what is. Doesn't just happen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

And how easy you can tear one up. You know, weeks and weeks and weeks of work, and you can tear one up in just a minute.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Danny Lawrence]

He was. When you were winning all those races, he was so proud of you. He'd come back in, you know, he'd.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. Because he's getting ready, getting his car, and he's there for like a minute.

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hug, high five, slap on the forehead, whatever. Right.

[Danny Lawrence]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Danny Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Danny Lawrence]

Yes. 1. 100%. 100%.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it's great to have Danny Lawrence in the RV studio to kick off the season. Hopefully y' all enjoyed getting to know Danny and. And what he's all about. Thank y'.

[Kelly Arnhardt Miller]

All.

[Danny Lawrence]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Danny Lawrence]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Terms exclusion supply match. $100 cash back per month. See terms of Venmo Me America, America, you used to be so fun but.

[Danny Lawrence]

Now you go to bed at night scrolling on your phone well, listen up, America, Carnival is here. There's comedy and snorkeling and dining like everything from the sea to shining sea.

[Ad Read Voice]

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[Marcus Smith]

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