Dale Jr. and Jeff Gordon trade Intimidator tales

then we went to Japan, oh yeah, deleted mmm, but you were in front the whole time. I didn't miss the week. Dad and I am still mad at Japan because we went there, everyone had that. We had that thing when we were. Very good, yes, very good, do you know what catches my attention? A couple of things about Japan: Russy and I had a bit of a rivalry and you didn't, maybe you don't know much about it, but you know. The way it worked was in '95 when I broke out and had that championship year, your dad and I went into battle rusty, I looked at it like this is my place, right?

I'm the guy who's going. I'm up against Dale Earnhardt and I'm the one that, you know, I'm hoping to come out on top and my race is getting a pole and then all of a sudden, who is this little punk kid that you know came in so rusty? You know a little? It was a problem with me and he and I raced so hard in Japan that it ruined everything for us and I think your dad ended up winning the race or Rusty won the right. I can't, I think it's you dad and me. I was so angry, Rusty, because he said, "No, no, you're not going to pass me because I'll do anything to stop him from winning this race.

I don't care about Dale winning or anyone because there are these great moments." In the sport at that time, they were feature races, whether it was the Brickyard 400, whether it was to Southern California in Fontana or to Japan, you felt like a man, if I win this race or if I excel in this race, this is going to be elevate not only do you know the sport but me in my brand or you know my place in the sport so rusty and I do, now we laugh about it, well you know what stood out on his spine, they threw a shoe at him, he threw it Rusty. a shoe because that's how Japan ended for him, that did it, oh your father, yes, yes, so they threw a shoe at you, why did you dance?

I think I heard this story, this was at The Oval the last time I ever went to Oh Motegi, yeah, yeah, you're up front with Skinner Skinner God, now you can show the whole other race. I'm mad in some way or another, we got excited, we had it, I was uh, I was fine and I got up. there with you and then I hit the wall trying too hard, but that made me back up to where dad was. He's running seventh-eighth all day, just terrible, there weren't many really capable cars and he had basically resigned himself to finishing where he wanted. was going to finish they had another set of tires in the pits Koster came out with about ten laps to go Tony Tony junior told Richard Childress where to stop in the pits pit stop sigh on the side says hey, you're going to borrow, you're going to use that last set of tires and Richard says now we'll bail out or go down pit road.

I'm going to put these tires on this car, so I came to that pit road to put tires on my car, restarted and drove to my dad. As he passed me, we were coming out of turn four and I accelerated and said, you know, leave it to me and he'll stay on my side panel, of course, you obviously didn't understand. "A lot of times, race dad treated me pretty well. I'm glad it wasn't just me, 90% of the rest of the field he raced with for the first time, and not you, if you're on my quarter panel, I can do it".

I didn't keep the accelerator full. I got it. They gave me a couple more turns to get these guys in front of me and I ran him into the wall. This reminds me a little bit of a Daytona in 1997. I'm like man, I beat dad. I have your shy ATAR. He could. We change clothes and dad and I get one of those trailers that they have in our mobile trailers, so I go into my you know, I go in there and I'm chained, I'm clean, I change, the best day of that life, it's been a long trip . around here I'm happy you know it's worth it and dad comes in and he just saw the look on his face so when I go he doesn't want to talk I'm changing and he's taking off his shoes and I bend down to tie my shoe or something and a damn driving shoe went right over my head but I wasn't looking at it so it would have hit me in the face and it was coming up behind me and I thought man he's mad he didn't say a word and someone He peeked out the door and said, "hey, all the way home, really angry, well I'll tell you what's weird that he was the one that was angry, he usually always was." he doesn't care about other people, I mean, I'll never forget running in Michigan and yeah, I don't know what year it was, but it was a time where we were erased enough to know how they pushed each other. the race and practice and I will never forget that we had an incredible car.

I don't know if we are in the poll or in the fast car final. I think we're happy and we start shooting and Ray says, now listen to yourself. Get out, run, run some laps, we've got a good car, you don't need to mess with anyone and stay away from Dale because he just knows the weather was what we were in the points or whatever of course. It doesn't matter where your dad was in the points, you know, you usually come off pit road depending on where your arm is pointing, your dad could have twenty ten points.

Oh, he was the first car on the track, so I don't know what happened this day. Just remember he rolls out and he's right in front of me and my car was just rough and I caught him and I was like, okay, Ray told me to stay away, but I'm going to pass him. 'cause my car was so good, he was so good, well, I don't know, maybe he was checking and waiting for me or whatever, we come out of a corner and I get inside him and I drive two three and I said, well, my car .

It's really good in the three hour drive, it's pretty deep heel lifts, aha, it came right in there, at my door, suck that thing. I've never hit the wall that hard in Michigan, I mean, it was tough, luckily. It was more of a back ten hit, it destroyed the car and Rain just got mad at me. I told you to stay away from him, buddy. I just called him from quite a while back. I thought I was going to walk past him. He says. I never knew you two know that man and I think I saw his dad like the next day, a driver's insurance, I was like Jesus Christ, man, he's like, I'll just drive around the corner.

I guess, I guess you thought you were going to get over me. there and I was left outside I don't know what happened what you're talking about Oh, what a compassionate resonator is something that makes that story incredible. Did you ever have a very specific conversation about owning this perceived rivalry between the fan bases or did you? That just happens because I guess our assumption would always be that you guys recognized, hey, we can make money off of that, yeah, I wasn't good at that part, I just wanted to drive and race like some of these guys today.

Right now I recognize it later in my career, but at that point I just want to go out and drive and win and perform on the track and then things would come like this, that's how I see it, but but you know, Dale would do things honestly. , he would go and do it, he would lap us 5 or 10 in the Daytona 500, he would take three of us and I would just say what the heck, but he had the ability to know that he has. All these fans are going to love this, they are going to eat it up and they did and he also knew his car and his skills and his team was good enough that even if it really cost him some positions, it was worth it. grief.

I'll get it back and I usually did, especially at Daytona and Talladega. I see he just did things like that. He had this ability to read what the fans were asking for. Did he ever invite you hunting? We talked a little. I knew right away, I think even though I grew up, my stepfather was, to this day, a great hunter. We've been hunting a few times since then, but it just wasn't, it wasn't my visions of hunting when he was a kid. It was early in the morning and it was very cold and wet, it's true, he was showing me the afternoon or evening of hunting with him, but what he did was convince me to buy a boat because, you know, he started talking about his love By the boat he was in the water and he started talking to me about men, you know, I like him because we have a hard schedule, we work hard and this is my way of escaping, so unfortunately he passed away before me.

I got my boat, but on one hand I thanked him because those are some of the best moments, but what I was struggling with is the part he left out. I was cursing him at the same time, here we go and I would have loved to have had that conversation with him to tell him about my sailing experience and compare notes