Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Why I Can't Watch The "Earnhardt" Documentary | Coffee With Kenny
Transcript
- 0:00Happy Monday morning everybody. It's tolerable outside we have
- 0:09we've got cloudy skies supposed to rain today still a little
- 0:14humid but boy, way better than it has been.
- 0:19OK everybody deep breath, deep breath.
- 0:25So I I'm going to address a subject that is sad for me and I
- 0:34know it's sad for all of you. The movie slash documentary
- 0:43Earnhardt. To my surprise yesterday, which
- 0:48was Sunday, I had somebody on X, the social media site, they
- 0:55said, Kenny, have you watched Earnhardt?
- 1:00And I was at lunch, I was eating and where did I eat yesterday?
- 1:05Hell, I don't know. I forgot, Oh, Mcalister's Deli I
- 1:09had there. I had that Mcalister's club with
- 1:13a fruit cup, half sweet, have fun, sweet tea.
- 1:17And I'm scrolling and somebody asked me a really nice question.
- 1:21They said, Kenny, have you watched the Earnhardt
- 1:26documentary? And I simply responded.
- 1:29I said no, I know what happened. It's too emotional for me.
- 1:37I don't want to hurt my heart again.
- 1:40However, I hope the young kids will watch it.
- 1:46So I kind of let it go. And I woke up this morning and
- 1:50got on my phone and had my banana, had my whole wheat
- 1:55toast, made my coffee and 85,000 views on me saying that.
- 2:09So I said, well, that's what coffee with Kenny's going to be
- 2:12about. It's going to be about the man
- 2:15himself and his son and his daughter.
- 2:20So, you know, I've talked about Earnhardt before and everybody
- 2:25knows everything that happened. I can't help the way it went
- 2:29down. First thing I want to do is I
- 2:31want to apologize to all of you that are mad at me that I drove
- 2:40Dale Earnhardt seniors #8 GM Goodrin Chevrolet.
- 2:45When I say I want to apologize to you, I know there's some
- 2:48people you know they're, they're also, they're also mad at me for
- 2:52running second to Earnhardt and Earnhardt Dale senior getting on
- 2:58national TV and they said Dale, Dale Senior, how did you win
- 3:01this race? And Dale Senior said Kenny
- 3:05Wallace and he said my name 7 times.
- 3:10I apologize. I'm sorry, I really am.
- 3:14I apologize that I drove Dale Earnhardt Senior's car.
- 3:19What year was that, 1988? No, November of 88.
- 3:25I drove the number 8 GM Goodwin Chevrolet at Martinsville.
- 3:29Think I finished 12th. Respond right here.
- 3:32Look it up. So I drove, I drove his car and
- 3:37Todiuri Senior, the dad, he was the crew chief and I drove his
- 3:43car because I was going to be a NASCAR Xfinity driver the next
- 3:49year and I was going to go for a rookie the year the
- 3:51championship. I was coming out of Saint Louis.
- 3:55Actually I, I flew from Saint Louis or drove, I can't
- 4:00remember. I think I flew, I flew down
- 4:02there, but somehow I sent my seat down there.
- 4:05So there I put my I'm on VA Rd. I went to old Ralph's garage,
- 4:10Marth and Ralph's house. I went there.
- 4:13You talk about a time warp of a shop.
- 4:16There was all these steering wheels and all these parts and
- 4:19pieces hanging up above, you know, in the rafters of, of the,
- 4:24the, the shop right there in Mooresville, NC on V8 Road,
- 4:28Martha's house. So the house was here and the
- 4:31shop is right outside. So I show up there and I put the
- 4:34seat in with Tony Uri. Really kind of like you're just
- 4:37a house garage, but a a detached house garage.
- 4:42So we go practice at Martinsville and everything goes
- 4:45real good. It was a Ronnie Hopkins car and
- 4:48had a different had different trailing arms on underneath of
- 4:51it. I remember making a qualifying
- 4:54run, almost spinning out, but I saved it.
- 4:57Tony Yuri was impressed. The dad, Tony Yuri seniors like
- 5:01damn, Wallace, you got control. Those are things I remember.
- 5:07So I make it, I make it through the race at Martinsville and
- 5:12NASCAR says, OK, we approve you to go to Daytona, just go down
- 5:15and practice. So because of Dale Senior and
- 5:21spending time there at the shop, and then I raced Dale Senior,
- 5:25you know, in the ASA race, Dale Senior had an ASA car and he
- 5:30came to the Minnesota State Fair.
- 5:33And the highlight there was Earnhardt was coming through the
- 5:36field. He didn't qualify real good,
- 5:38which was pretty common. Earnhardt could never qualify
- 5:41real good, although he was the greatest of all time he could.
- 5:44Earnhardt, you had to put a rabbit in front of him
- 5:46sometimes. Now he had his poles, no doubt,
- 5:49but somehow Earnhardt was coming through the field, that ASA
- 5:52racing. He popped me in the ass and I
- 5:55was on elbows and I saved it. He went by and I'm like, oh, and
- 5:59I forgot about it. So after the race up there at
- 6:02the ASA race in Minnesota State Fair, St.
- 6:07Paul, MN, we're drinking beer after the race and Earnhardt
- 6:10goes, Herman, you did good today.
- 6:14I said no, I didn't. I ran like 12.
- 6:17It's no. He says I popped you an ass.
- 6:20You had two choices, either to spit out or save it and you
- 6:24saved it. And he lied to me because of
- 6:26that. So.
- 6:27So at this point, I'm not even in Charlotte yet.
- 6:31I'm not even out of Saint Louis yet, and I've already drove Dale
- 6:35seniors #8 Jim Goodrin Chevrolet.
- 6:38I've already raced him up at the ASA race, you know, in St.
- 6:42Paul, MN, 1988. And now I make my way down
- 6:47there. Now I get down there 'cause
- 6:49NASCAR approved me. So like, like the Beverly
- 6:52Hillbillies, man. Rusty said.
- 6:55OK, Herman, you bring your ASA hauler, we're going to use it.
- 6:58So I had a newspaper delivery truck and a Dillon trailer.
- 7:02We took it down there. Course we had AI think we used
- 7:05one of Raymond Beatles trailers, one of those Blue Max trailers
- 7:10or whatever they call it. So we started with my there.
- 7:15There'll be pictures out there. So do you understand what I'm
- 7:18saying? I wanted to paint this picture.
- 7:22I knew a lot about Dale Senior before I even got to Charlotte
- 7:27to start my Xfinity career in 1989.
- 7:31You know, I, I won, I won Loudon in 1991 and I get a phone call,
- 7:37you know, of course, no cell phones back then.
- 7:39I get a hermit. What are you doing this at all?
- 7:42Bring your team up here. We're going to celebrate your
- 7:44win from Loudon. We did it after work.
- 7:48We got in one of those vans. He had a, he had a brand new van
- 7:52with the paperwork still on it. And he he would he would, you
- 7:58know, kill deers for hunting, but those deers on his property,
- 8:03those were his pets. That's a whole nother story
- 8:06about Neil Bonnett. Are you following this?
- 8:11So Dell Senior was good to me, but there, you know, like a dad.
- 8:18I'll never forget practicing at at Daytona and I'm I'm drafting
- 8:25with him and I took him three wide get into one.
- 8:29He chewed my everliving ass out like like my dad would or like
- 8:33Rusty would or MM well, MM doesn't.
- 8:36Mike doesn't ever chew my ass out.
- 8:38Rusty and dad would. Rusty would chew my ass out more
- 8:42than anybody. Dale senior chewed my laugh.
- 8:44You never take me 3 wide and practice.
- 8:47Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir.
- 8:50So you know, then you Fast forward to the end of his life
- 8:55where, you know, we come from the back of the pack at
- 8:58Talladega. We win the race.
- 9:00How did you win the race? Kenny Wallace.
- 9:03Kenny Wallace. Kenny Wallace, help me.
- 9:05If it weren't for Kenny Wallace, then Mikey Walter writes that
- 9:12book in the blink of an eye. And in that book, Mikey tells a
- 9:18story that Dale Senior stands up in front of everybody before
- 9:24they go to Daytona and he looks everybody.
- 9:26And this is in the book. This is in the book.
- 9:29It's not my words. Dale Senior stands up and says,
- 9:32you all need to be like Kenny Wallace was to me at Talladega.
- 9:40You all need to be like Kenny Wallace was to me at Talladega.
- 9:44You stay loyal to me. And this is the only way we're
- 9:46going to win this race. That's what it says in the book.
- 9:52So when we lost, well then one more there's a lot more, but
- 9:56I'll just tell you one more. We we go to Rockingham and after
- 10:01Talladega and we're we're doing a pit stop contest and he says
- 10:06to me, senior says, Herman, let me talk to you.
- 10:10I said, OK. He says, the next time you get
- 10:12behind me like you like I what? This was about Talladega Dale
- 10:16senior giving me advice about Talladega.
- 10:19He says, next time you get behind me and I start swerving.
- 10:23He says, trying to break the draft.
- 10:25He says, don't you don't swerve, don't try to follow me, just
- 10:28stay straight. Wow, Earnhardt thought enough of
- 10:33me that he taught me a little secret.
- 10:35You know, when you when they when you go down the street,
- 10:37when you got to lead and you start the leader starts
- 10:39swerving. He says, don't swerve, don't
- 10:41don't try to follow me, just keep going straight.
- 10:43So when Earnhardt died, Oh and also he was good to my wife,
- 10:48Dale Senior really liked my wife.
- 10:51Not not for sexual reasons, just because Kim's quiet and Kim's
- 10:55got those dark brown eyes. He was always very nice to Kim.
- 11:01And of course him and Rusty were really good friends and I got a
- 11:04lot of great memories. I could go on two hours.
- 11:07So when Earnhardt died, there was 1 documentary that came out,
- 11:11you know there, there's been about four now.
- 11:14And the first documentary, I remember laying in bed watching
- 11:18it and oh, oh, just crushed me. And I promised myself after that
- 11:26I would never watch another one because I'm a happy person and I
- 11:31know what happened. I know everything I know.
- 11:35I mean, I know about Dale Junior and I know about Kelly, you
- 11:39know, I know about Carrie. I know it all.
- 11:43I'm not bragging. I was just saying I know.
- 11:46And I don't want to relive it again.
- 11:49I was racing him during that time.
- 11:52I was in the races during that time and then friends with him
- 11:56too. So I don't want to relive it and
- 11:58I don't want to, you know, it's kind of like, hey, there's hey,
- 12:02you know what, Herman, if you watch, if you watch the Dale
- 12:06Earnhardt, if you watch the Earnhardt documentary, look,
- 12:08bang, bang, hey, you can run your head right into a brick
- 12:12wall again. You want to do that?
- 12:14I don't feel like it. So hopefully I've I've explained
- 12:19everything to all of you. It hurts too much.
- 12:21Let's put it that way, OK? And then it my, my middle
- 12:25daughter, Brandy, watch it. It destroyed her.
- 12:28She texted me every God, every 5 minutes because she knows I
- 12:31lived it. And she's like, dad, Oh my God.
- 12:35You know, and my daughter could not get over Dale Junior and
- 12:40Kelly being raised so rough she she couldn't get over it.
- 12:47And I tutored her through it. I said, listen, honey, that
- 12:51that's just Dale Seniors dad Ralph.
- 12:54Those guys were broke back then. You know, it was not fun.
- 12:58You know, everybody talks about how life is so miserable right
- 13:02now. Oh no, you wanted to be
- 13:05miserable. Grow up.
- 13:06Grow up. Back in those days, that's when
- 13:08people really had no money. You guys are pissed that you
- 13:11don't got no money to go to Six Flags or something.
- 13:14Those people had no money. They couldn't eat.
- 13:17Kenny Schrader said it best. Everybody talks about how good
- 13:22the good old days were. I don't remember those days
- 13:25being so damn good. Have a great Monday, everybody.