366 - Kevin Harvick: Burying the Hatchet

The Dale Jr. Download

Dirty Mo Media & SiriusXM

Sports

5 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2021

⏱️ 191 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The show many thought would never happen. After years of harboring unspoken animosity, Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with NASCAR Champion Kevin Harvick to bury the hatchet on some things from their past. Harvick made comments during a 2017 satellite radio program about Dale Earnhardt Jr,'s lack of success "stunting the growth of the sport." With Dale Jr. being in the midst of his retirement season, the comments came unexpected and cut deep for many. The two drivers sit face to face to talk about what led to controversial criticism and clear the air by listening to all sides of the story. In 2014 Harvick drove for JR Motorsports, leading the team to a total of six wins in a two-year span. He made his mark in places other than performance, bringing some personnel, key partners, and a relentless desire for success. While JR Motorsports enjoyed the fruits of the relationship, Harvick felt otherwise. After he was separated from his crew chief and team, the relationship went south. It's something that has never been discussed either. Until now. Dale Jr., co-host Mike Davis, and Harvick tell all about what went down at JRM. Harvick's path to becoming a NASCAR Champion started on the streets of Bakersfield, California. His rapid ascension through West Coast Short Tracks led to some tough decisions and a severed relationship with his father. His on-track success led to an opportunity with the West Coast's only full-time NASCAR Truck Series team, Spears Racing. The relationship developed from towing a racecar with a shag-carpet Winnebago to a full-time chance in the big leagues of racing. When opportunity came knocking with legendary car owner Richard Childress there were a few more hurdles. A newly signed letter of intent with another team meant, Harvick had to gamble on himself, buying his way out of the contract and living off his girlfriend's credit card to make it. His first race in Childress' NASCAR Xfinity Series car went well. The second race? Well, the California hot-shoe shockingly didn't qualify. This led to a disappearance few have ever heard about, that had Harvick on a milk container. Once back on the scene, his confidence grew and so did his success, winning two Xfinity Series titles. Kevin lays out the game plan to Cup that few knew about. A plan that had him beginning a Cup effort in 2001. But on February 18, 2001 those plans changed. The untimely death of the legendary Dale Earnhardt Sr. at Daytona International Speedway created a void in Childress' race team that Harvick stepped in to fill. A win at Atlanta put Harvick's career into a stratosphere he never imagined. He admits it was a role he didn't necessarily want. Harvick opens up to Dale Jr, about how tough and awkward the 2001 season was. Before Dale Jr. and Kevin Harvick's relationship hit a stall in 2017, they had a good history together on and off the track. Did you know Kevin and his wife DeLana's first date was in Dale Jr.'s basement? It was a very memorable first date. While at "the table of truth" Kevin and Dale Jr. discuss a myriad of topics. The discussion begins with the heated discussions and rivalry Kevin had during the 2021 playoffs with Chase Elliott. Kevin reveals that he thinks there is a conversation that still needs to be had with the young Georgia driver. Then they talk about the NASCAR Next Gen car and the hurdles ahead for the new racecar and its upcoming debut in the 2022 season. Kevin isn't the only Harvick racing. Keelan is racing over 60-times this season. Harvick reveals his plans to put his son in a Late Model Stock Car. After Kevin's interview, Dale Jr. answers some incredible questions in one of the most entertaining and insightful AskJr's of the season. We learn about what Dale thinks of the new qualifying procedures, the news about Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, and what he would think of a NASCAR / F1 double-header. We also learn that he has an itch to learn to play a popular stringed instrument. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast, this is a production, the following is a production of Dirtymo Media.
0:30.0	Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for episode 366 of the Dale Jr. Download with my co-host Mike Davis. Hey Mike, how you doing?
0:39.0	It's your birthday Mike. It is. Happy birthday. Thank you. Yeah, right in the middle of the 40s. Right in the middle of the 40s.
0:44.0	Yeah, it's weird, isn't it? No, you know. It's 40s are kind of weird. I honestly lost count of which one I was to be honest with you.
0:50.0	I mean, when you get this old, it just kind of all runs together. Yeah, yeah.
0:54.0	I really had a lot of fun in my 20s and my 30s are pretty good too. Getting a little worried in my 40s. Are you getting more terrified the older I get?
1:03.0	Terrified of what? Dying. Oh, that's coming. Yeah, I know. Okay. That's morbid. That's morbid start to the last show in the season.
1:11.0	But to be honest with you, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. We're going to get to this show. Yeah, I know. So are you, do you feel like you're halfway?
1:19.0	Halfway to death? Yeah. No, I think I'm beyond halfway to death. You're beyond halfway.
1:23.0	You don't really want to live? I'm not making the 90. Oh, man. I don't want to. Really? 90? That looks miserable. No. I think it's a pretty spry 90 year old.
1:32.0	Not me though. I think you have to work out your whole life to be spry 90. Well, in what's wrong with working out your whole life?
1:39.0	It just doesn't seem like something I do it. Well, you know, I don't think you have to work out yet. Just be active. Get up and walk around and go do.
1:46.0	Let's see. We'll see how it works out for me. So there's a place where I chill out and hang out for vacation and so forth. Yeah.
1:53.0	And there's a lot of older people that are very active up in the morning, walking around six miles and so forth, up and down the beach and just staying busy. And that's how you do it.
2:03.0	Getting after that's how you stay. That's how you enjoy your 90s. Did you ever have a midlife crisis? Every day. Is that right? Yeah.
2:12.0	Oh, yeah. I had one this morning trying to get out of school on time. That was a crisis. Then there's different kinds of crisis, you know, but trying to get your shoes on with a midlife crisis.
2:22.0	People have midlife crisis. I have not experienced a midlife crisis. Trying to get her out of her pajamas and is a midlife crisis.
2:28.0	They get the shoes on on time. Lots. I had about six crisis this morning. All right. And they were all midlife. I guess so. I'm right in the middle of my life. So yeah, they're midlife crisis. All right.
2:40.0	Well, now I know what a midlife crisis is like. Yeah, it's, you know, getting your kids.
2:48.0	Oh, must come. I did you get in the school? Yes. All right. Well, then the crisis averted. We haven't been late. Oh, crisis averted. I beat the crisis. Yeah. Congratulations on that. That's right. Happy for you.
2:59.0	What? Well, it is a midlife crisis. Well, like, I know some people out. They'll remain nameless that really struggle with age.
3:07.0	Like, in fact, when people say, how old are you? I don't have a problem telling them how old I am. It don't affect me. I have 45. That's how old I am. You know, done bottomy.
	...

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