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Why Dale Earnhardt & Rusty Wallace Were Bigger Than NASCAR | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Happy Friday morning. Everybody had a dream and woke
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  up, looked over, it was 430 and finally got out of bed about, I
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  don't know, 512. And now it's 5:30.
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  And I thought to myself, it's 5:30, but it's 6:30 in
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  Charlotte, NC. Certainly I'm the only person up
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  in the whole world. Then I get on X and I see that
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  Larry McReynolds has already posted on X an hour before I
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  even got out of bed. What time do you all get up?
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  It appears to me that Larry McReynolds must get up at 4:30
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  every single day. Did you know that?
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  Dale Earnhardt Senior, the man in black #3 he was half farmer.
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  I remember Dale Senior telling me that he would get up at like
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  436 o'clock something, go up to the shop, sign all the fan mail,
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  and then start his day. Just getting up is is a big
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  deal. Like, what time do you get up?
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  I usually get up around 7:00 to 8:00, but every once in a while,
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  maybe once, maybe once a month or once every two months, I'll
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  find myself falling dead asleep at 11:00 and then like up at
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  4:00 and they go, Oh my God, I'm up.
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  All right. Today's top.
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  Why did I wake up so early? I had a dream last night that
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  woke me straight up out of bed and that's why I'm up.
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  I had a dream that me and my brother Rusty were walking
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  through a building like through a room and I looked and there
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  was 2 stand ups, one of Dale's senior and one of Rusty.
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  And as soon as I started to turn around and talk to Rusty my
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  dream stopped and that was it. And I woke up.
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  It made me think it took me back in time.
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  I got I got emotional and so Kim felt me wiggling around, you
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  know like at 4:50. So I told her about my dream.
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  I said man those those days were so magical.
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  I mean, it was Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Senior I'll never
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  forget. Senior was so damn popular, so
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  famous. When we went to the Brickyard,
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  for the first couple years, whenever Dale Senior would leave
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  his motorhome to head to the garage, he had to have like 2
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  police escort him 'cause the people literally hanging on the
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  fence and screaming it was. Those days were magical.
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  It was so big. I mean, these guys were like,
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  they were like Elvis Presley. I mean, they were superstars.
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  I remember one night we're up in New York for the, you know, the
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  awards ceremony. And I was a lucky man because
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  they always liked me. Me and my wife.
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  We're up there, we're celebrating the year.
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  And all of a sudden, Dale Senior, Rusty, they invite me
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  and Kim, we find ourselves somewhere in one of those, you
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  know, New York Strange. It's like where we at, you open
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  a door and you go back in there and there's these big old
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  venues. We go back in there.
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  Brooks and Dunn. I mean Brooks and Dunn, when the
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  sun goes down on my side of town alone, some feeling comes
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  through the room and the whole world turns blue.
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  I mean, Brooks and Dunn, it was like a a, it wasn't even a
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  concert either. It was a like, maybe, maybe
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  fifty of us. But I was with Rusty and Teresa
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  Earnhardt, Dale, me, my wife, and there we are like fifty of
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  us for like a little bitty mini concert.
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  Brooks and Dunn those days, I mean, they were truly
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  superstars. And I'm going to tell you
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  something, and I don't know if Mike Helton ever watches these,
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  but Mike Helton will agree with me.
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  He used to be the president of NASCAR.
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  Dale Senior was bigger than NASCAR.
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  You know, there's that old saying, you're never bigger than
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  the sport. I'm telling you right now, I
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  talked to anybody about that. I would talk to Steve Phelps.
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  I would talk to Mike Hilton. I would talk to Jim France.
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  In those days, Dale Senior, he was bigger than NASCAR.
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  Dale Senior, he could have got on radio or TV and said
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  everybody stay home and all the fans would have stayed home.
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  That's how that's what superstars were back then.
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  I'll never forget Southern 500. I ran good, you know, I didn't I
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  didn't run real good in the cup series, but there were times I
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  showed up. Me and Kim are Kim and myself.
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  Dave Moody wants I'm doing some radio from the studio and he
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  goes Herman, he said. I think it's Kim and myself.
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  So you say the first name, then myself.
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  So Kim and myself were flying with Rusty in his helicopter
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  after the Southern 500. And the fans knew like what?
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  Let me see what would that be turns 1?
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  It'd be turn 4 now. Now it'd be turn 4.
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  But Rusty's helicopter was over there.
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  Back in those days, Rusty had a a Learjet.
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  Rusty had a Learjet and a helicopter buddy.
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  The they, we were printing money back then.
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  We were printing money. There was so much money in
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  NASCAR, you were buying with it. So Rusty had a hell of a pilot.
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  And Kim and I, those were the days.
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  We go out to the helicopter with Rusty and we're getting ready to
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  get in it. We're going to fly from
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  Darlington back to Charlotte. And the fans that somehow they
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  ran all the way around there and they were climbing the fence and
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  there was this one drunk girl. She's drunk.
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  She's having a good time. Kenny, Kenny, sign my thong,
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  Sign my thong. I'm like, and she's got her
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  thong ripped out of her pants. And there's a chain link.
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  Friends and I looked at Kim like Kim looks me right in the face.
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  She goes, go ahead. Of course, we all carried
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  Sharpies. I took that Sharpie and I, I
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  just took that Sharpie and she had her butt up against that
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  chain link fence and I just signed my name as good as I
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  could. I'm telling you, that's what
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  wrote, that's what woke me up out of a dead sleep.
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  And then I, I told Kim about it and she just went and she went
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  right back to bed. But I was wit I was a witness to
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  those days. And then I laid in bed a little
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  bit and thought, who's alive that witnessed those days with
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  me. You know, Rusty, Mikey Waltrip,
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  not very many people. It's hard to believe, but
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  Sterling Marlin, Oh my God, we used to do these Race of
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  champions. Bruce Patron ran them and
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  Richard Bostick. Richard, he was the one that
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  checked everything out. We used to do these Race of
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  Champions. It'd be about six of us NASCAR
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  drivers. We would go to these race
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  tracks. The fans were packed.
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  They'd never seen crowds as big in their life.
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  What would happen? We'd get off the airplane.
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  It'd be Dale Senior, Rusty, Those guys would make the big
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  money. Then they had other guys that,
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  you know, were somewhat famous and and I fell in that category.
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  And you know, that racetrack would pay like $60,000 and
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  Bruce, you know, he'd give Earnhardt and Rusty the majority
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  of the money, but help me and Mikey Waltrip and Schrader,
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  Sterling Marlin that that would be about it right there.
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  It'd be Rusty Earnhardt, it'd be Sterling Marlin, Mikey, me.
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  But help they gave me. Hey, I was happy they was giving
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  me good money. And I'm telling you what it the
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  crowds were so big and we they would have six race cars.
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  Some of you will remember this. And we'd get in those cars and
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  we'd put on a show. We'd put on a show and we would
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  tell each other, you know, we'd be putting our fire suits on in
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  motorhomes. And we say, OK, whoever gets out
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  front now, don't run away. Look in your mirror, you know,
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  if if you, if you get a better car, go in the corner, go high.
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  Let us get we put on a hell of a show.
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  And the autograph sessions at those race tracks respond right
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  here. If you remember those race of
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  champions, we were like rock stars, man.
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  Those were the days. I'm telling you what they they
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  truly were, though. And and I think that's what
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  upsets me. I think that's what I say.
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  I think that's why I say we're lacking superstars.
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  They just, there's no superstars like like there was back then.
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  I mean, the, it, it was like The Beatles coming to town.
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  We we'd get out off that airplane and they'd be meeting
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  us there at the airport screaming like we were The
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  Beatles. So much more to say.
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  Wow. All right, everybody, I'm headed
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  to Italy today. I'm so excited.
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  Have a great Friday.