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My Thoughts on Why Dale Earnhardt Jr. Left NBC · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:03
  Happy Friday morning everybody. I'm still in Pensacola, FL.
• 0:10
  I will be leaving here Sunday and headed over to Daytona
• 0:13
  Beach, FL with brother Rusty and nephew Steven for Daytona Bike
• 0:18
  Week. However, I have had to think
• 0:23
  long and hard about this next subject.
• 0:28
  I have been. I've been asked by several
• 0:33
  people, Kenny Wallace, are you going to Give your opinion on
• 0:39
  Dale Earnhardt, Junior and NBC not working together anymore?
• 0:47
  Well, I had to think long and hard about that.
• 0:50
  I think about things that I've been taught in the past.
• 0:54
  If I give my opinion on the Dale Earnhardt Junior NBC situation,
• 1:00
  how does it benefit me? Well, first of all, Dale
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  Earnhardt Junior is a very good friend of mine and I could just
• 1:10
  call him up. However, I don't want to really
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  do that. The other thing is, I worked for
• 1:24
  Fox Sports out of Los Angeles. NASCAR on Fox.
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  My boss was Eric Shanks, Jacob Bowman, Steve Craddock, the same
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  boss. Those people are the same boss
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  of Troy Aikman. You know, Joe Buck, the
• 1:43
  superstars. So I know a lot about the
• 1:49
  subject. I don't know a lot about Dale
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  Junior and NBC. However, I have a pretty good
• 1:59
  idea because I did TV for 14 years.
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  I would like to say that I have worked in TV at the highest
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  level and I think you all know that.
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  I think you acknowledge that I've worked in the booth.
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  And I I think that I'm going to go ahead and give you my opinion
• 2:21
  on Dale Junior and the NBC situation.
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  And here's why. This will be the ending, the
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  reason I'm going to give you my opinion.
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  Hey, Herman, are you really going to go there?
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  How does it benefit you? Yes, I'm really going to go
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  there. And here's why, because that's
• 2:39
  what I do. Fox TV paid me for 14 years.
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  I was told this. Kenny Wallace, you go up there
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  NASCAR race day built by the Home Depot then it was NASCAR
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  race day fueled by Sunoco. We had two sponsors for the same
• 3:00
  show. It was Home Depot and then it
• 3:03
  was Sunoco and they said we want you to go up there say what you
• 3:10
  believe. So I was taught by TV executives
• 3:20
  to go up there and give my opinion.
• 3:21
  If I believe it, say it. So that's what I'm going to do.
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  But the other part of this is it cannot be a shit show.
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  So what I say has to be respectful.
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  There are some people in the TV industry that just light a fire.
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  I don't light a fire. You know when whenever somebody
• 3:42
  comes up with me, they say you're so raw.
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  Kenny Wallace, you're so raw. You say what you think, but I'm
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  not mean. That's the difference, OK?
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  I'm not mean. So I'm going to go ahead and I'm
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  going to give this. I'm going to, I'm going to give
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  this a go, and we're going to start like this.
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  I'm going to tell you my real story.
• 4:05
  OK? But let me put a disclaimer in
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  here. I quit TV.
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  That's a fact. You can ask Steve Craddock.
• 4:12
  You can ask Jacob Bowman. My bosses call him and ask him.
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  I got lonely. I got depressed, I got tired of
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  being on the road, the airport, the commercial airport was the
• 4:25
  death of me. I still say to this day, if you
• 4:28
  could have picked me up in a helicopter at the front door of
• 4:31
  my house, then I would still be doing TV.
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  But those commercial airports and those lonely nights in the
• 4:41
  hotel rooms and they get in the rental car and the fighting, the
• 4:44
  people in the airport getting on the airplane, I could not take
• 4:49
  it it, it will grind a grown person down.
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  So when I first start, now this is about Dale Junior, OK?
• 5:03
  When I first started, TVI was a race car driver, OK?
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  And that was always a joke inside the TV compound.
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  People would start talk to me about, hey man, you're great on
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  TV. I'm like, I'm not ATV guy, I'm a
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  race car driver. So when I did Speed TVI was I
• 5:25
  was still driving the race car and boy, they were so nice to
• 5:28
  me. I'd get done running a cup race
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  in the Furniture Row car and I'd jump on the NASCAR Victory Lane
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  set. Hey Kenny, you know, all was
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  good. I usually ran anywhere between
• 5:38
  15th and 25th in that that car. I was the first, you know, cup
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  driver for furniture. You know, we struggled a little
• 5:48
  bit so I would run 15th and 25th and when I worked for Speed TV
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  which was owned by Fox, they were awesome.
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  They treated me like $1,000,000. However, when I was done racing
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  and I announced my retirement in 2015, it changed a lot.
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  So the honeymoon was over. My honeymoon with TV was over.
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  And here's why I have heard, I have heard this statement, this
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  true statement. I've heard this statement before
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  that was given to another great, great champion over and over.
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  OK, you don't drive the race car anymore.
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  You work for us now, OK? I get that.
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  Kale Yarborough always told me there's somebody bigger than
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  you. There's always somebody bigger
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  than you, whether it's your God or your boss.
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  But the last thing you tell an athlete that has competed his
• 6:57
  whole life is he worked for us. Now you're asking a great
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  athlete that you chose to hire. You chose to hire this guy for
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  your TV network and you're saying, OK, you work for us now.
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  No, that's not the way you say it.
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  You say, hey, so happy you're part of our TV team now.
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  So I watch TV. The TV industry, they hire the
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  athlete because they want the athlete.
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  It's their their job. So in my opinion, they they you
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  hire Dale Junior because he's the most famous athlete in auto
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  racing by far and probably top five athlete in America.
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  I'd say for sure top ten respond here is Dale Junior, top 10
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  athlete in America? I think he is.
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  So Dale Junior gets there and it's a honeymoon man.
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  Dale Junior's here. The ratings are going to go
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  through the roof because we got the most famous person.
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  Now I'll remind you, Dale Junior's my friend, personal
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  friend. Not little bit of friend like
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  Dale Junior's like my friend, like like we see each other,
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  we're going to hug each other, we're going to talk every month,
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  you know. So I know I'm taking a chance at
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  this. The honeymoon was over between
• 8:22
  Dale Junior and NBC. How many years have you been
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  there? Three.
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  The same as the honeymoon was over between, I mean, Joe Buck
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  and Troy Aikman, Troy Aikman, Super Bowl winning quarterback,
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  And all of a sudden the honeymoon's over.
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  Oh, you're going to go to work, You know?
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  So those two, Troy Aikman, Joe Buck, they left Fox and went to
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  ESPN. I feel like that.
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  No matter what you do, it's always about a honeymoon, right?
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  It's it's the same story I told you about Carl Edwards.
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  Hey, hey, let me tell you something.
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  I'm thinking when I'm at right now, you're probably thinking,
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  well, he he ain't got no juice on this.
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  There's no controversy here. Well, there isn't.
• 9:13
  There is no controversy here. However, my, my my controversial
• 9:18
  opinion is this. They NBC fell out of love with
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  Dale Junior and they just probably started treating them
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  like a person. OK, you don't do that.
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  Not when you're in the NASCAR Hall of Fame and you've won
• 9:35
  everything you've done. OK, listen, I'm sorry, I'm sad
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  to say, not everybody's the same, OK?
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  Nobody is treated exactly the same because nobody's equal, OK?
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  It's like William William Byron said, and he said Max Papp has
• 9:52
  shared this with him and this is an innuendo.
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  I'm going to warn you right now, your pay is indicative of your
• 10:02
  personal value. So if you're a sideline
• 10:06
  reporter, you're going to make 500,000 a year.
• 10:09
  However, if you're in the booth and you're in the NASCAR Hall of
• 10:12
  Fame and you've won a lot of races and you're the most famous
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  racer, you're going to make, you know, 3-4 million a year.
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  Not based on your talent in the booth, based on who you are,
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  because Dale Junior is going to draw in ratings.
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  Hey, I'm going to watch this race because my favorite
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  drivers, Dale Junior, OK, That's the way it is.
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  Respond right here. So my controversial take is NBC
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  and Dale Junior fell out of love and I don't think that they saw
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  his value anymore. So reports say that the
• 10:53
  streaming service, whoever Dale Junior, I guess Dale Junior is
• 10:57
  going to go to a streaming service next year, they see his
• 11:03
  value. So Dale Junior's got the last
• 11:08
  word here. Somebody else wants Dale Junior.
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  OK, so that's the way it works. I'm not going to belabor the
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  point. I'm not going to choose anything
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  else to say. I gave you my truth, #1.
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  They want you. They want you.
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  So they get you and then you're there.
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  And then about year three, they go.
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  Honeymoon's over. You work for us now.
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  No, I don't work for you now. I'm part of your team now.
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  Don't. Don't be trying to treat me like
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  I'm just some Joe. I'm not.
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  And that's when the honeymoon falls out.
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  That exact moment right there. And then all of a sudden they
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  try to start, you know, putting in the TV compound.
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  Here's your food. No, no, that's OK.
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  I'll fit in like a team. But see what I mean?
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  All those little innuendos. Now, that's enough about Dale,
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  Dale Junior #1, the honeymoon was over.
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  And I just don't think that day. I think that they tried to treat
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  him like a normal Joe. I mean, I don't think that
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  worked. OK.
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  I'm going to be honest. I know what happened and I can't
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  tell you, but I think that give you a couple innuendos and I I
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  think Dale Junior. I think you'll watch this and I
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  think you'll appreciate, you know, my story.
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  My story was what I told you. Hey Kenny, come to work, Come to
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  work. OK.
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  I'm a race car driver and I'm working for him.
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  But when I quit racing and I became a normal TV Guide, then
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  it's when they tried it, you know, It's like I was working
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  for a damn, I don't know. It was like I had bosses.
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  Well, we all know we got bosses. OK, You don't got to tell me
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  you're my boss. I'm going to give you the
• 13:00
  respect. I'm going to go.
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  Hey, boss, hey, boss. But in reality, we come from a
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  race team. We're A-Team.
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  I don't work for you. Crew chief don't work for me and
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  the driver don't work for the crew chief or a team.
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  And when you go to be part of the TV team, you expect it to be
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  that way. And then all of a sudden you
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  look around you and like, oh, you know, Troy Aikman, Joe Buck,
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  they left. They went to ESPN.
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  It's because the TV they they're done with you.
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  They they got what they think is their value out of you and and
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  then you're like, OK, but Dale Junior won this.
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  Dale Junior is the winner because he's going to a
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  streaming service and I guess maybe they see his value a
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  little more than NBC. And I'm going to leave you like
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  this. If NBC wanted to keep Dale
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  Junior, they would have kept him.
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  All right, everybody. I hope you enjoyed this 14
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  minute segment. And it wasn't too.
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  I taught you about TV. Remember I worked at the highest
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  level of TV. Was I in the booth for the Cup
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  race? No.
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  But that don't matter because I I did more.
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  I did it all. So I'm not I'm not patting my
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  back. I'm just reminding you all.
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  I guess I'm a little pissed about this too because I know.
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  I know the real deal. It is a little disappointing and
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  you can see my face. It is a little disappointing
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  when people it's kind of like a marriage.
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  I love you. I love you.
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  Let's get married And then about, you know here three or
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  four, it's like you know and and that's what happens.
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  So but congratulations Dale Junior you're going somewhere
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  where they really want you because like I said, nobody said
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  nothing to me about this. But once again if NBC wanted him
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  they would have kept him. And all right now remember I
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  know what happened but I can't tell you what happened.
• 15:00
  Although I shared some innuendo with you figured out between
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  yourself. But if NBC wanted him, they
• 15:07
  could have been able to keep him.
• 15:10
  I think this is good. I think I did good.
• 15:13
  All right, Remember this is in podcast form and you can you can
• 15:18
  watch it on iTunes and Spotify. Please subscribe below.
• 15:23
  Now I'm going to watch myself over and see if this is OK.