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Rusty Wallace Shares Vintage NASCAR Stories About Dale Earnhardt & Darrell Waltrip · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation, brought
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  to you by Jags, the leader in high performance aftermarket car
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  parks. Remember to go to jags.com for
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  everything you need for your hot rods as Rusty says to fix your
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  hot rod up. Everybody wanted to know more
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  about these trophies, so we talked about the 1998 Bud
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  Shootout. They know all about that.
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  But they saw this big, beautiful trophy here, the 1989 Winston.
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  So let's talk about this race, All right?
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  I think it's going to take about 8 or 10 minutes to talk about
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  this. So we're we're in the late
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  stages of the Winston, and you see Darrell Waltrip up there and
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  you're driving the crap out of your your Kodiak Pontiac.
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  What are you thinking as you're you're catching him?
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  Well, I'm going to back up just a second.
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  Yeah. Yeah, we started the race and
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  that car I had was so fast. It was unreal.
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  So we just jetted out and won the first stage.
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  OK, all right. Came down, put 4 tires in the
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  car and went out for second stage.
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  There was 3 stages, went out for the second stage and all of a
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  sudden the car is just really loose, really bad loose.
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  I'm holding on to it. Darrell gets past me, he wins
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  the second stage. I come down Pit Rd.
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  They change tires for the final stage.
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  Barry Dots, my crew ship comes across to radios with Rusty we
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  we figured the problem out. So what happened?
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  Man, you're not going to believe this.
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  We accidentally got the right rear tire on the right front and
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  the right front on the right rear.
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  Oh my gosh. And there was 1/2 an inch
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  difference in tire stagger, meaning that I'll never forget
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  the numbers. We were running an 88 1/2 inch
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  diameter right front tire and an 88 right.
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  Rear OK, hold on. Remember this.
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  Everybody's amazed by Mark Martin rattling off his chassis
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  numbers from his ASA days. How the fans are going to want
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  to know right now. How do you remember that?
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  It's you've got to know it to be successful.
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  I know you and I thought about it.
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  We had a lot of people thought about, let's put it this way,
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  that's the only way I knew how to do it.
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  I had to control my own destiny. I had to understand every setup
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  on my car. I had to know that the the
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  compression, the rebound on my shocks.
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  I had to know the air pressures. I had to know the the tire
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  stagger and that's just the way it was.
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  So in 9/19/89 so many years ago you still remember the
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  circumference of the tires. OK, go ahead I I did my best.
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  You you don't remember last week, but he remembers 1989, the
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  size of the tires. So you start to race the cars,
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  we practice the car, it's all set.
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  It's got 88 1/2 inch right front tire on.
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  It's got an 88 inch right rear tire on it and so it would have
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  had an 87 left rear and where they had an 87 left front
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  diameter, OK And that's the way the the tire, the car loved to
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  be. So we won the first segment in a
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  big manner, just drove off. Second segment the car is just
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  loose. So I'm like this is weird.
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  It just doesn't happen that bad, all right.
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  Barry Dodson comes across after the second segment.
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  He says we found a problem. We've accidentally put the right
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  rear in the right front, meaning we had a big right rear tire in
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  the car, which made it super loose.
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  All right. So now the last segment, we get
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  the car right, we get the tires back, right?
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  Darrell takes off, he jets out, he jets out.
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  And I'm like, man, this hot rod of mine is back to normal now.
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  It's really feeling good. So I run him down, get into Turn
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  3, and I got right to his bumper.
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  And so I said didn't get the job done.
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  So now we're getting down like 5 laps to go.
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  OK 'cause I think it was only like a 10 lap run or something.
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  Quarter of $1,000,000 to win. Quarter of a million, Darrell
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  says. I hope you're choking that 2.
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  Definitely, he says. I hope hope you're choking that
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  200, but it was 250. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  So anyway. You know, three or four laps to
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  go. I see all that baby down the
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  back straight. We just think his hand on like a
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  real hot rod, you know? And I I sail it down.
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  Then it turned 3. I never did less than screw it.
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  I'm not lifting. I've held a wide open and went
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  in this long drift and I got right to his left for 1/4.
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  Pounders barely touched them and I thought maybe he wiggle a
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  little bit but he end up spinning out anyway.
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  I went on to win the race. The craziest thing was is that
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  my great friend Rick Hendrick owned the team that Kenny
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  Schrader was driving. The boys put a phone call into
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  Kenny Schrader and said hey, he was running second at the time.
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  Kenny was on the restart of this race.
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  So you spin Darrell out, caution comes out.
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  Now they're going to restart the race.
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  Yeah, and Kenny's running second.
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  He gets a phone call from his boys.
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  Hey, Ruffle. Rusty up a little bit, yeah, He
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  pulls up along. Sabi and I looked over him like
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  this. I said don't even think about
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  it. Because, because we grew up with
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  Kenny Schrader in Saint Louis. Oh, homies, I said.
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  I can read your mind, I said. Sign language.
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  I said don't even think about it.
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  They dropped the hammer and I was gone.
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  And then I'll Hot Rod just checked out and I won the
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  Winston got the 250 grand and all hell broke loose.
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  The whole damn infield was in a fight.
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  Everybody's screaming and hollering.
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  When it was all said and done, I'm in Victory Lane.
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  I. After Victim Lane was over, they
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  put me in an ambulance because they thought they were going to
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  kill me. The fans were.
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  They were so mad at me, they put me in an ambulance, stuck me
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  out, took me up to the top of the Speedway tire for his
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  presentation. I walked in there and everybody
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  booed me. Everybody.
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  No Boo Boo it. Was the most humiliating thing
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  in the world. They put me back in ambulance
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  and. I didn't know this.
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  It drove me to my house in Concord.
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  I went to bed that night. That took two police officers
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  stationed in my bedroom. That night, at my house
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  downstairs in the living room, my daughter Katie gets up in the
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  middle of the night. She walks out of her room and
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  she sees two police officers there.
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  She comes flying. Upstairs she goes, Mom and Dad.
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  Mom and Dad. There's, there's and the Katie's
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  only like 4 or five years old. Yeah, Mom and Dad.
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  Mom and Dad. There's police officers.
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  What's going on? I said.
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  I looked at her. So, Katie, it was a long night.
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  It's a long story. I'll tell you tomorrow.
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  Wow, so. And so they, I mean, the fans
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  were going to kill me. They were so bad at me.
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  It's unreal. I want to stay about this race.
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  First of all, that's unbelievable.
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  And a lot of people think to themselves, you know, why are
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  people so passionate about it? But I want to go to you out
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  running and and straighten the story out.
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  We're still talking about this race, but you told me a story
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  where fans threatened to kill you when you and Dale Earnhardt
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  were going at it. That happened at Atlanta, where
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  some fan looked at you, said I'm going to kill you, Rusty
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  Wallace. You've been roughed up before.
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  All that you know, Kenny, that happens to a lot of people where
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  they're they got a favorite driver and then they got the
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  competition going on and all the hell breaks loose.
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  That happens. The biggest thing I had happened
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  to me in my life was the Darrell Waltrip thing in the All Star
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  Race works. I got this trophy right here.
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  For that's the but. That was a tough one.
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  But I will tell you right now, before we go much farther,
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  Darrell Waltrip and I are some of the best friends.
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  I love that dude. He's one of the coolest man on
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  the whole planet, you know, And him and I are both in the Hall
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  of Fame together. And that's nice.
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  That's what happens when you get in the Hall of Fame.
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  You take all the past memories of all those competition.
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  You can remember them, but the competition stops and we start
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  respecting each other's career and that's what the Hall of Fame
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  does for us. And Daryl and I are super tight.
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  We're great friends and Daryl and I.
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  But switching gears on you a little bit now you you talked
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  about Dale Senior, so Dale Senior, you know, obviously very
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  popular guy and there there's no doubt, man, on the short tracks,
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  I was winning them races on the big tracks.
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  He was winning the races. We go to Charlotte, I'd win the
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  Coke 600. I'd win Michigan, I'd win, you
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  know those intermediates a little bit.
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  And we were back and forth and we're the big buddies.
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  People didn't know that, man, we're racing like hell.
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  And we, we vacationed a lot. Hell, we would go down into
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  Bahamas, my wife Patty, his wife Theresa and all of us and the
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  NASCAR boys, and we'd have a great old time down there and
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  we're wonderful friends. Always have been to the day
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  died. And then we get on the racetrack
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  and he'd work for his team and do his deal.
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  I work for my team, I do my deal and he'd race back and forth and
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  that's it. The fans were going crazy up and
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  down, but I drove my car as hard as I could drive it.
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  He drove his as hard as hard as he could drive it and and I won
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  my fair share, you know, from let's let's call it 93 to 2005
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  to the day I quit, you know, But 93 to 2000, it was magical
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  years, man. It was we were doing some crazy
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  things that were amazing. 93 I won 10 races. 94 we switched
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  from Pontiac to Ford. I won eight races and the career
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  just kept going. And every time I would win,
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  Earnhardt was second and every time Earnhardt would win, I was
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  second. It was just like that back and
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  forth, you know? It just wouldn't stop.
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  It was amazing. It was really good.
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  Do do you think that that was the rivalry that NASCAR needed?
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  Because right now I understand that you don't race anymore.
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  And I understand that you're in the Hall of Fame and you're
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  retired and you got all your in, in a fun way, all your, all your
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  competitors now are your friends.
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  But back then it was looked at as a rivalry.
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  We don't, I don't know if we have any rivalries anymore like
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  you guys had did. Did you know at that time that
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  you were a great race car driver?
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  Number one knew your chassis. That was #1.
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  But you also had to know that you were you and Earnhardt were
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  a show. Well, that's a good question.
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  We've done some really crazy things when it comes to the
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  show. I can only remember like 2 times
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  that we actually did a show deal on the racetrack.
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  But look, you know, I whether I was winning Bristol, I when it
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  was all of a sudden now my career was dumb.
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  I had nine wins of Bristol you know, and Earnhardt was always
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  rattling me all the time, man, help me with that setup, help me
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  with those setups. And you know what?
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  I you're not going to believe this.
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  I was on a boat one time in the Bahamas, he said.
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  Look, man and I, that particular year I was not hunt for the
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  championship and he was, come on man, help with that setup, help
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  with that setup. Do you know I gave him the exact
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  setup, the real setup, right to the team?
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  And you know. Why I wasn't concerned.
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  Why You're not going to believe this one.
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  The reason I knew I was not concerned is I knew that he
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  could not sell it to his team. Oh, wow.
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  I knew the team would look at this and say, Rusty's
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  bullshitting you. Yeah.
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  And you know what? I didn't lie.
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  Yeah, I gave him that entire setup.
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  And I looked at him. I said, what you got in the car
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  before the race started. He said this, this, this, this.
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  And when it was all said and done, you know what he did?
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  He used 70% of that setup I gave him.
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  And you know what happened? I waxed his ass.
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  Yeah, I beat his ass that night so bad.
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  You know why? He didn't do.
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  What? I told him, yeah, he didn't do
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  the whole thing. You always said that to me.
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  Back in the ASA days. You had mentors, you had Larry
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  Phillips, you had Dick Triple and you did everything they told
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  you to do. And then when you went to pay it
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  forward. No.
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  Do you find that like either when you're first starting out,
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  they don't believe you and then when you get to the big time,
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  then he Earnhardt like you said, he goes to Richard Childers.
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  Hey, put this in because Rusty told me.
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  Do you think they thought you were lying or they just their
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  pride got in the way? Do you think people's pride gets
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  in the way? No.
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  I don't think the Pride got in the way of the driver.
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  I think the Pride got in the way of the.
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  Team Yeah, that's what I mean, because.
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  The driver didn't. It was in trouble.
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  He couldn't get the car to handle away once, so he went
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  outside to get some help, right. I went outside to get some help
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  from Mark Martin. All the time I went outside to
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  get some help from Jeff Burton. Jeff Burton went outside to get
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  some help from me. Mark Martin got some help from
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  me. We told each other exactly the
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  truth to the truth. And what was amazing that I
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  always knew what goes around comes around.
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  You can't run this thing by yourself, man.
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  It takes a team or it takes friends to do this stuff and
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  there might be one day I'm in the ditch and and I need some
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  help. There's a lot of times they're
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  in a ditch and they need some help and we did that.
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  And I tell you what, I got a bunch of crap with our two car
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  team. A-Team Penske.
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  I mean those guys, the other guys, the other team, I mean,
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  they were really locked down, super secret, everything, you
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  know? And I didn't believe in that,
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  man. I didn't believe in that.
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  And I share, I'm sorry, I've shared a lot.
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  But you know what? It worked out for me.
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  Yeah. And it worked out for me really
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  good. And that's the way I I live my
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  life. And I'm an honest guy.
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  I tell those guys everything. And I could, I could sit there
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  and say tell them the truth. But I know in my heart that.
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  They're not going to listen. They're.
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  Only going to lose 70 percent, 80%, 'cause I think I'm
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  bullshit. I'm not.
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  I'm not. You know, so we won't keep this
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  one long because people like short stories.
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  We've been talking about 20 minutes.
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  Yeah, well believe me, when you all get to about the four minute
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  mark, you start going like this. But this is so good, I know
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  you'll listen to the whole thing.
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  So that 1989 All Star race, you win it, you win, you won a
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  $250,000. Do you think it night in 1989
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  was that that, was that the most money you ever won or?
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  Oh my gosh. Yeah, back then that was huge
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  money. That was gigantic.
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  I mean, we had me and Barry Dodson, Harold Elliott, Jimmy
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  Makar. We had Todd Parrott, We had the
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  All Star car owner. Yeah, Raymond Beatle, you won
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  the. Championship this year, yeah.
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  Big World time Drag Race. We won the championship in 1980.
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  So you win, you win the, you win the All Star race in 89, you win
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  the championship in 89. Was that your best year ever?
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  Eagle wise? You go like championship.
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  Well, one of the championships, your best year ever.
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  Yeah, my best year ever was driving for Team Penske when I
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  won 10 races and I won a third of all NASCAR races, a third of
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  all the NASCAR races. Yeah, and and we got more
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  stories and it. Broke my wrist in 1993.
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  I got a pin in it right now, still to this day.
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  Talladega, you got a pin still. Yeah, it's a foot long.
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  It starts right here and goes right here.
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  How? Do you go through?
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  It's actually at the airport. They all cost calcified over and
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  it and it doesn't set the the detectors off, you know.
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  So anyway, yeah, no, I I did 9310 races, man.
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  You kidding me? I mean championship was
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  fantastic. They got us six wins that year
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  in 1989. But to win 10 races with Buddy,
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  with Buddy Parrot at the helm and Team Penske?
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  Just rock'n'roll with that black and yellow Miller, January F
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  Carr. My favorite.
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  Car What was your favorite design?
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  What What was your favorite design?
• 14:54
  So we're going to do more of these.
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  We're done with this story. The All Star race, of course.
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  Rusty's Best Year 89. As far as winning it all, we're
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  going to do more stories. The next one up is when you ran
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  how Fast in a tire test at Talladega.
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  We're not going to talk about it.
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  That's the next show We're going to tease you, AT&T Alltel had
• 15:18
  you do the tire test. Nextel.
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  OK, that's next. How many mile an hour?
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  242. That's next. 242 mile an hour at
• 15:29
  Talladega. Until then, remember we are in
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  podcast form. You're going to listen to Rusty
• 15:34
  on the way to work and you're going to listen to him on the
• 15:37
  way home until the next show.