Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Really The Crew Chief For Connor Zilisch's Win? | Coffee With Kenny
Transcript
- 0:00Happy Sunday morning, everybody. Hotter than a well digger's ass
- 0:06out here in Arnold, MO. Hey, Wallace, what's a well
- 0:13digger's ass? I don't know.
- 0:16It just rhymes. All right, everybody.
- 0:23We ran second last night. It was a it was a good run.
- 0:28I told you the night before. And here lately I've had the
- 0:31cartoon tight. You got to be you have to be
- 0:34part farmer. You got to really read this dirt
- 0:39really good with the eye. I mean, you got to go up on the
- 0:41racetrack. You got to look at the surface.
- 0:44And last couple weeks I've had the cartoon tight and here's
- 0:49why. I won two races.
- 0:54Oh, about a month ago I won here in Pevely and I wanted
- 0:58Brownstown, IL and both nights the track was what I call
- 1:02sheened up like a countertop. And the little setup that I had
- 1:07underneath my car ran good, ran real good.
- 1:10Well, you know when that it's, it's hard to leave that setup
- 1:15sometimes. So I tried to mimic that.
- 1:19Sometimes when you look at a racetrack, you go with slippery,
- 1:22but it's not sheened up. It's it's not like a countertop.
- 1:26So last night, put some load back in the right rear and raise
- 1:33that right rear lower bar back up 1 hole ran a little more
- 1:37stagger. Usually run about three quarter
- 1:39inch. You know, last night around
- 1:41about an inch and 1/4. And I'm an old asphalt driver.
- 1:45I got a sensitive ass. I got a skinny ass too.
- 1:49Maybe that's why it's so sensitive, you know, And I'm 62
- 1:53years old, I got to tell you. So my buddy Nick Hoffman, Nick
- 2:02Hoffman's here with wife Rhonda. Nick Hoffman's here with
- 2:07Darryl's truck and trailers there.
- 2:09Darryl builds my motors. Darryl Hoffman, Nick Hoffman and
- 2:14his whole crew, they're here. We got a party home up there.
- 2:17They're all staying up. And we're going to go to the
- 2:19ball game today, but every once in a while, the racers will pull
- 2:25in here. Billy Moyer, never forget
- 2:29Jonathan Davenport. His truck broke down, so I gave
- 2:33him the old Suburban. Oh, this was about 3-5 years
- 2:37ago. I gave, I gave Jonathan
- 2:39Davenport my old Suburban. His whole team drove up to
- 2:43Wheatland in it. So being located right here in
- 2:46the middle of the United States, Billy Moyer would stay here a
- 2:51lot. Rodney Sanders, the USMTS racer,
- 2:56Dan Ebert. But yeah, they'll stop here
- 2:59because I'm right off Interstate 55.
- 3:02But anyway, getting to my original point, 27 cars last
- 3:08night. And Rhonda Hoffman, Nick's Mama,
- 3:12she said to me last night. Rhonda looked at me so, so
- 3:16serious. She goes, Kenny, you ran so
- 3:18good. I truly thought Nick Nick
- 3:20Hoffman was in that car. Of course she didn't say often,
- 3:24but Rhonda says you ran so good. I I'm seriously, I thought Nick
- 3:28was in that car. I said Rhonda, I agree.
- 3:33I understand. I said here's the difference.
- 3:36If my car don't handle at my age, my ass don't go.
- 3:41Now, if my car is balanced, I look like I'm about 26 years
- 3:45old, and that's the way it works for the Herminator.
- 3:48Little bit of useless information this morning, but
- 3:51just a story. You ran so good last night.
- 3:55I thought Nick was in your car. It was funny because that meant
- 4:02I ran really good. OK, just a bullshit session this
- 4:06morning to get to what I want to talk about.
- 4:09Dale Earnhardt, junior. He acted as Connor Zilich's crew
- 4:13chief. And you talk about a story
- 4:16that's too good to be true. So NASCAR loves this.
- 4:23Of course there's some people they're going to call bullshit
- 4:26on it, but I'm here to D bull. So Dale Earnhardt Junior and his
- 4:32sister Kelly Earnhardt, they own Junior Motorsports.
- 4:36They got a great collaboration with Hendrick Motorsport.
- 4:40It goes something like this. I'll take a shot at it.
- 4:43Dale Junior watches all these. I love you, Junior.
- 4:46You know that Dale Junior, Kelly Earnhardt, Junior Motorsports,
- 4:52they collaborate with Rick Hendrick.
- 4:54So if Rick has some drivers, he he gives all the support to
- 5:00Junior Motorsports. I don't know if he I don't know
- 5:03what he does. I don't know if he, you know,
- 5:05pays the frank for the framing cage.
- 5:07I know probably supplies the motors, whatever, something like
- 5:10that. But it's a big deal and it
- 5:13gives, it gives Dale Junior and it gives Kelly something to do.
- 5:18They love the sport. They're in it and we need them.
- 5:22We don't ever want the Earnhardt name to be gone from NASCAR.
- 5:26It's like Petty's, it's like The Wood Brothers, you know?
- 5:30I mean, it's, it's a big name. It's the names needed.
- 5:33It's synonymous. It's deeply rooted.
- 5:35Earnhardt Petty, I mean, it's history, man Dale Senior, the
- 5:41man in black #3 Kyle Busch said something somebody said, hey,
- 5:47what do you think about Dale Junior being the crew chief on
- 5:50counter zealous his car at Pocono and of course Kyle Busch
- 5:56funny said it's just for it's just for PR, it's just for
- 6:00promotion. Dale Junior is not really going
- 6:03to be the crew chief. You know, he when you when you
- 6:07let the crew chief go and you suspend them, they still got all
- 6:10this technology, you know, you know when you're going to pit,
- 6:14you get a little text over the phone pit now, whatever it is,
- 6:17whatever, OK, whatever. I'm not going to be precise.
- 6:21If you know everything, you you feel it all in Kyle Bush had to
- 6:25come back on social media and say, look, I wasn't being a
- 6:28smart ass. What I'm saying is that when the
- 6:30real crew chief is suspended and let go, it ain't, it ain't like
- 6:34the guy, the new one is like all there by himself.
- 6:37You got the engineer, you got all this technology that the
- 6:42crew chiefs literally, you know, back in what they call the war
- 6:45room. Did you know what the war room
- 6:47is? The war room is a room that all
- 6:50these Cup teams are built and the engineers are back at the
- 6:53shop with all their data and Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi up to the truck
- 6:59and trailer that's at the racetrack.
- 7:01I mean, this stuff is becoming like Formula One.
- 7:05So what Kyle Busch was saying, I'm going to, I'm going to
- 7:08imitate it. Kyle Busch like a Saturday Night
- 7:10Live skip. Kyle Busch is going ha, ha, ha,
- 7:13ha. It ain't like Dale Junior is the
- 7:14crew chief. You know, he, he's got help.
- 7:17There's all this technology. That's what Kyle meant.
- 7:21Now I want to give my opinion about Dale Junior being the crew
- 7:26chief yesterday for Connor Zills and winning the race.
- 7:30He had he had Steve Letarte on the pit box with him.
- 7:34So now it becomes real. You know, sometimes we forget.
- 7:38I mean, sometimes I think we we see it's like me, you know, it
- 7:42it it's no different than Kevin Harvick.
- 7:46You know, whether it was Neil Bonnet on TV or whether it was
- 7:50Benny Parson or Ned Jarrett, these guys were real race car
- 7:54drivers. They're not dummies.
- 7:57You know, just to be a crew chief doesn't mean you got to
- 7:59walk around like this. Just because you're a crew chief
- 8:02does not mean you have to be very serious and walk around
- 8:06like this. You know, Rodney Childers is all
- 8:09over X. He was a great winning crew
- 8:11chief. He's able to text.
- 8:13And so Dale Junior simply wanted to do this because he loves
- 8:19racing. Like Mark Martin said, I think a
- 8:22lot of us don't realize how hard Dale Junior works.
- 8:26He loves the sport. He's got all this property.
- 8:30He takes all these wrecked race cars can.
- 8:32Can you imagine 100 years from now when somebody finds Dale
- 8:36Junior's property? Or 200 years from now when you
- 8:39know there'll be a day that people will find earth and
- 8:43they'll go, what was going on here?
- 8:46What's all these wrecked up race cars doing all over this
- 8:48property? This Dale Junior, he loves
- 8:51racing. He he's going, he tells me.
- 8:55He goes. I sneak down to the basement.
- 8:56I don't want Amy to know. I go down there and run my run
- 9:00my SIM, run my, you know, my game.
- 9:05He loves racing. He truly loves it.
- 9:07He's a great study in the sport. I always say Kyle Petty is #1
- 9:12Dale Junior is number 2 about the history of, of NASCAR.
- 9:16But I truly believe in my heart of all hearts, you know, Dale,
- 9:19Dale Junior said Dale Junior coming and he said, why can't I
- 9:24be the crew chief? And, and this is a true
- 9:26statement. It's on social media and
- 9:28somebody said, Junior, your name's on the front of the
- 9:30building. You can do whatever you want to
- 9:32do. Sometimes we forget that Dale
- 9:34Junior and Kelly, they, they really do own the team, Junior
- 9:37Motorsports. There's no telling how much Dale
- 9:40Junior is worth. What, a couple $100 million?
- 9:44He acts so carefree fun that you forget how wealthy he is 'cause
- 9:50he's such a a great personality. I appreciate Dale Junior doing
- 9:56that. And there's pictures out there
- 9:59of Dale Junior when he was a kid.
- 10:01There's something about Dale Junior wearing those kids
- 10:04mechanical, mechanical gloves. Dale Junior, when he was a kid,
- 10:10he had the GM Goodrich team member, you know, outfit on, and
- 10:16he had a pair of gloves on because he was rolling tires to,
- 10:19you know, one of the crew members, the Flying Aces, Dale
- 10:23Senior's team was called the Flying Aces.
- 10:25Dale Junior as a child loved the sport so much that he was
- 10:28wearing tire gloves and he was rolling tires around here he is
- 10:3350 years old now, and there's pictures of him yesterday with
- 10:36those skull gloves on. They had a skull, you know, like
- 10:39bone, bone figurines, bone fixtures on these gloves.
- 10:44So on Saturday, Dale Junior wore these gloves and he took it very
- 10:49serious. He rolled the left front tire
- 10:51changer his tire, so on. Bless your heart with Amy
- 10:58Earnhardt, Dale Junior. Dale junior said, I went and
- 11:00tested and then Kelly or Amy tried making fun of me.
- 11:04She goes, oh, you wouldn't tested rolling a tires.
- 11:06Eat a tire changer. Dale junior very serious said
- 11:09yes, yes, I I went and tested. I didn't want to be the guy that
- 11:13messed the pit stop up. Connor Zillich have already
- 11:16said, you guys know I've commented on him.
- 11:18I like Connor because when he came to Rockingham, Marty
- 11:22Lindley is a dear friend of mine too, from the old days.
- 11:26His dad Butch passed away. But Butch Lindley was a great
- 11:29race car driver. Marty made sure that Connor came
- 11:34to me at Rockingham and Connor Zillet showed me respect by
- 11:37walking up me and go. Herman, I know you run good
- 11:40here. Tell me how to drive.
- 11:41This track made the old man feel good.
- 11:45And I said, all right, buddy, and I told him what I do with
- 11:48the throttle there at Rockingham.
- 11:50So I like Marty Lindley. Marty Lindley was a crew chief
- 11:54that got suspended, you know. You know how they suspended crew
- 11:56chief? Some silly little thing.
- 11:58Nowadays you're staying at home because your car had to go
- 12:01through inspection too many times.
- 12:04Silly like that. They won the race because Connor
- 12:07can flat drive. Dale Junior and Steve Letarte
- 12:10were on the pit box. And just because they're on TV
- 12:12don't mean they're dummies. These networks pay these people
- 12:17a lot of money. I'll bet Junior got $500,000 for
- 12:22five Prime Video races. I'm betting they gave him 100
- 12:25grand a race. It was worth it.
- 12:27Hell's worth more than that I bet was.
- 12:29All said and done, Dale Junior ended up with $2,000,000 with
- 12:33that Earnhardt documentary and being the lead analyst.
- 12:36I mean you look at how hard Dale Junior worked, he was the lead
- 12:40analyst. He goes down and does post race.
- 12:46Did the Earnhardt documentary be another one being Earnhardt now?
- 12:51Today's the last race on Prime, everybody.
- 12:54I have a feeling that you're going to miss this, even though
- 12:58you're too old that you can't get the app.
- 13:03And like I say to all of you old people, is a joke.
- 13:09Kind of like you big dummy. Is that Sanford and Son calling
- 13:12Lamont, you big dummy old people means back in our day.
- 13:20All right, everybody. I think Dale Junior was the real
- 13:24deal and I think they flat won the race.
- 13:26It was not a gimmick. It was not a gimmick.
- 13:30It was a moment in time was like, holy shit, Dale Junior
- 13:32just won this race and all crew chiefs get help on that pit box.
- 13:37Crew chiefs are not the end almighty.
- 13:40They got car chiefs. They got engineers to help them.
- 13:45All right, everybody have a great Sunday.
- 13:49I'll see you down at the Cardinal ball game today.
- 13:51We're going to go down to the ball game.
- 13:53Cardinals who won five in a row.