Joe Rogan Experience #1196 - Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Joe Rogan 0:02 Four, three, two... Hello, Dale.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:08 Hey, how you doing?

Joe Rogan 0:09 (laughs) Thanks for doing this, man. I appreciate it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:10 Yeah, I'm glad to be here.

Joe Rogan 0:11 Nice to meet you, man. And nice to find out that not only you're a race car driver, you're also a bow hunter.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:16 Yeah, yeah. I do like to... I saw your-

Joe Rogan 0:18 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:19 ... your archery, uh, equipment and all that stuff. But me and a buddy of mine own some land, and... and I try to get out there and at least go twice a year. I just love being in the stands, sitting in the woods. Just thinking about what's going on and just try-

Joe Rogan 0:34 Yeah. It's brain cleansing, right?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:35 It is.

Joe Rogan 0:35 It really is.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:35 Everything before the shot really is what it's all about.

Joe Rogan 0:38 Yeah. Yeah, that's a lot of it, right?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:40 Hanging out with your... being with your friends and family, you know.

Joe Rogan 0:42 You need one of those techno hunts in your life, don't you?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:44 I do.

Joe Rogan 0:44 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:44 The techno hunt was pretty impressive.

Joe Rogan 0:46 Yeah, that thing is-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:47 Uh, all my friends who come over here just go, "Whoa."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:51 That's a, that's a life-changer.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:52 Yeah, absolutely.

Joe Rogan 0:53 But it's also a giant time waster.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 0:55 I know. I don't know. Like, I've got a golf sim at the house, so I got to figure out where I can put that.

Joe Rogan 0:59 Ooh. Golf's the one I've always avoided.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01 I've always avoided golf because I just saw it suck away people's time.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:04 Yeah. I don't go... That's the thing. Like, I don't have the time and the patience to really block that whole day off to go play-

Joe Rogan 1:11 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:11 ... out- outdoors. But to go over there and just hit the driver for 30 minutes on, on the simulator is so fun.

Joe Rogan 1:16 Well, I would imagine with what you do for a living, with... I think what you do is one of the craziest, wildest, most demanding things a person could do for an occupation.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:28 Boy, I don't know.

Joe Rogan 1:29 It's, it's right up there.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:31 You don't know? Other than being-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:32 It's (laughs) ...

Joe Rogan 1:32 ... a soldier or a firefighter or a cop or-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:35 I don't know. I mean...

Joe Rogan 1:36 ... a fighter.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:37 Yeah. Fighter and bullfighting and, and-

Joe Rogan 1:39 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:39 ... bullriding. Those type of things are-

Joe Rogan 1:41 Those people are-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:41 Boxing.

Joe Rogan 1:42 That's on th- Bullriders, that's on another level.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:44 That's another level of crazy.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:45 I've hung out with those guys and they are on another... They are crazy people.

Joe Rogan 1:49 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:49 You know, it takes a certain mentality to, to be able to climb onto a bull.

Joe Rogan 1:54 Yeah, they have a certain energy about them.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:56 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:56 That, they got that "I don't give a fuck" energy.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:58 Yeah. They don't-

Joe Rogan 1:58 And it's cranked up to 10.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:00 Exactly. (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:02 (laughs) Have you ever been in Vegas when they have the, the big...

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:04 The p-

Joe Rogan 2:04 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:04 The finals?

Joe Rogan 2:05 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:05 I haven't actually. But-

Joe Rogan 2:06 Oh, they're everywhere.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:07 And they're all crazy. (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:08 I know it. They are, they are really... I know a lot of those guys. And, uh, um, our cr- our paths have crossed several times. And they, the... It's every time you're around them, you're like, "Are we gonna end up in jail tonight?"

Joe Rogan 2:19 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:19 You know, just that's a real possibility. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 2:21 Yeah. I mean, they're throwbacks.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:23 Yeah, they are.

Joe Rogan 2:23 They're real throwbacks.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:24 They are.

Joe Rogan 2:25 Legit wild men.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:26 Agree.

Joe Rogan 2:26 Yeah. I mean, but what... But dr- driving, driving a race car, I mean, you have a giant engine, you're strapped into a seat, you're hurling down the road at extreme speeds, right next to other cars doing the same thing. Just the intensity and the, just the everything being on nine at all times, like, that is a wild way to make a living, sir.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2:47 Yeah, thanks. Uh, I mean, I, um, it... When I was a little, uh, when I was little, thinking about, you know, "What the hell am I gonna grow up and be?" Uh, I was... My father was really successful in the sport, so I would go to the races and I would watch him race and see him win and watch him go through victory lane and, and then celebrate and all those things. And I thought, "Man, this is what I gotta do. I gotta do this. This is... This looks fun. This looks exciting." People are, uh, you know, people are in awe of the drivers, the race, my father, the, the, the personalities. And I just wanted to do it real badly. But I knew that the odds of making it are tough, so there's only 40 guys in the field every weekend. So there's 40 guys in this- in the whole country that are gonna get the shot to do it, you know. And m- me... The odds of me, even with my dad being as successful as he was, I'd have a lot of doors open to me, but the odds of me actually getting there and being able to stay, have the staying power and the success and talent, I just knew were tough. So, I didn't know if I- I'd ever get that chance. Um, but it is... I don't... You know, I remember the first time I went to a two and a half mile track, it's Talladega, and you hold it wide open. I was, uh, working at my dad's dealership changing oil. He owned this, uh, Chevy store in, uh, Newton, North Carolina. And, uh, the phone rang and he said... My dad, my dad was on the other end, and he was in Talladega for a test, and he said, uh, "Get your helmet and your suit and meet me at the racetrack the next day. You're gonna fly in a King Air to the, to the track." Don't... No... Don't ask questions, just do it." And so I got there and I, I knew I was going to Talladega and I thought, "Man, I must be driving. This m- this is gonna be crazy." I'm gonna go around this two and a half mile two- track full speed at 190 miles an hour. I'd never done... I never f- went faster than 90 or 95 on a racetrack before. Never drove anything bigger than a half mile. And, uh, I pulled out... He's... You know, I got there. He's like, "You're gonna test this car. Get in, get ready." He puts me in there and he's like, "You gotta hold it wide open. If you don't hold it wide open, the motor's not gonna work. It'll, it'll hurt the motor. You gotta hold it." The way they tune the motor to run wide open, it has to run it, it has to run at full throttle. If you try to go around there at half throttle, it'll burn the pistons, it'll run too lean.

Joe Rogan 5:03 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 5:04 All those things. So, he, he was saying that and I thought to myself, "Is he just telling me that just to make sure I hold it wide open 'cause he thought I would, I would, I would be a pussy and not do it?"

Joe Rogan 5:14 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 5:14 And so (laughs) I was like, "Man, I, I, I'm a little nervous, uh, to hold it wide open." But I, I pulled out on the track and I mashed the gas, full throttle, and I'm going down the back straightaway and I was like... I'm looking down the back straightaway into the next corner, this long corner, and I'm like, "How's it gonna stick?" You know, "How's the car gonna, how's the car not gonna fly out of the racetrack?" Like, it... I'm going so fast, I don't... It doesn't feel like it's going to stay in the track. And, uh, and I kept ru- kept running that through my head about my dad saying I gotta hold it wide open. I'm like, "Well, Dad said it'll, it'll, it'll go wide open around here, so I don't think he would..." You know, I believe everything he says. And you go in the corner and you turn, uh, into the corner and there is...... more grit than you can imagine, like the m- it... there's, there's so much grit. The tr- the car is stuck to the track with such grip that you've never felt this before in your life, this, this grip. Like, you can't slide across that track. The tr- the tires in the car have a hold of the track so tough and tight that nothing's gonna make it... It just goes around there like it's m- it's the craziest thing. And so now, today, when I tell people, uh, when I go- I... We got this two-seater car and we take people for rides. And they get in there and I'm, I'm like, "Man, what am I gonna do... What are you gonna do to explain to somebody what this is gonna feel like?" Well, there, I'm gonna tell you things to pay attention to. Pay attention to the grip. You're not gonna believe how much grip this car has. Like, it's... You're, you're just not gonna believe that it'll stick to the track the way it does. So pay attention to that, and pay attention to how bumpy and violent it is. You know, you drive a Cadillac or, or any car down the street. Well, it's, you know, six, eight inches off the ground. These big old f- inflated tires and big giant sidewalls and it's gonna feel nice, you know, when it hits little bumps. Our cars are rigid and sucked to the ground and don't have much travel in the suspension. And, you know, it's just, it's, it's built to han- to, to go fast, not to feel good,

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 7:15 you know? And it's gonna... It's rough as hell and shakes, shakes the hell out of you. And, um, that's what I remember about that. And, and, and as soon as I got over that initial fear, I think that was the only time I ever had any real fear of driving a car. As soon as... I was like, "Well, all right. What..." You know? Anything... Nothing else is gonna be as scary as that was. Right? Driving a car. And, I've been flipping and... When I flipped for the first time and our, you know, the car's tumbling and flying and parts flying off the air, my m- I, I thought to myself that... I wasn't scared or I never was scared of flipping. My thought was, "I just did something a lot of people are never gonna experience." You know? "I did something that, uh, that only a few people know what that's like." And, and I feel safe. I've always felt incredibly safe inside the car, you know, with the... Especially with the... I mean, in the last 20 years, this, the safety stuff has really been focused on and improved and better and better and better. But I look at the interior of our cars today versus 20 years ago and it's like, I'm, I can't believe the, some of the stuff that we used to climb into, but...

Joe Rogan 8:24 So you felt calm while it was flipping?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 8:27 Yeah. Oh, yeah. I always-

Joe Rogan 8:29 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 8:29 Well, I've seen cars flip, right? I've seen it for years, right? And so I know that it's possible, so I get in there and I got turned around at a race, uh... In 1998, I was racing at Daytona, and, uh, I got turned around and the car... So I'm flipping for the first time in my life, and this car's, like, over 3,000, uh, 3,000 pounds. So it's, it's... But it flies up in the air like it's paper, man. It's the craziest thing in the world. It's so... weightless, you know? And what it felt like to me, 'cause... So the car rolled on its side and, uh, came down kinda on its side. It felt like somebody rolled a prop wall of grass up against the car. You know what I'm saying?

Joe Rogan 9:09 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 9:09 When I was on my side and I could see the ground, I felt like I was right side up because as you're flipping, there's... The force pushes you down in the seat, so you feel eternally, eter- you feel, uh, gravity all the time. Like you're... You know, as the car's flipping, you're, you're pushed into the seat, so you feel gra- you feel weight of yourself in the seat. That never changes. You never kinda come up out of the seat-

Joe Rogan 9:31 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 9:32 ... like that, you know? And so it, it was like somebody rolled a prop wall of grass up against the side of the car and then against the roof and then against that side and then this. You know, it kept doing that and I'm like... It's just the weirdest feeling. And you feel completely safe, you know?

Joe Rogan 9:44 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 9:45 You feel like, you know, "Nothing's gonna harm me." But this, but, and he- you know, this, you just... One of the things they always talk about is, like, get your hands, um, onto something because the spinning makes your arms just go like this. And if you watch a lot of old wrecks from the '60s and '70s, you'll see the guys' arms come flying out the window and they're just kinda flopping around. They can't pull, uh... It's spinning so fast, you can't pull it in. And, uh, your arms will go like that. So as soon as you know you're going upside down, you grab the bottom of the steering wheel and just kinda, you know, watch. But, um, I flipped my pickup truck one time on Christmas Day and I wasn't holding onto the steering wheel, and my arm went out the window, you know, for like a split second it banged around in the d- in the, in the window sill. And I was like, "Man." You know, I got it back in and grabbed ahold of the steering wheel with both of my hands. And so ever since then I've, like, you know, now I know, like, anytime I'm in a crash, you gotta have your hands ahold of something 'cause that's the one thing that you can't control. You're, you're strapped in with your seatbelt and everything, but your arms are, you know, can go anywhere. And in that moment when the car's rolling or barrel-rolling or flipping, you, it's so fast. Like, you can't... Your arms just go this way. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 11:01 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 11:01 It's the craziest thing in the world. That's the only fear, I guess, is that your arm could get outside the window and get crushed or something, 'cause guys have had that happen.

Joe Rogan 11:09 Yeah, I would imagine.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 11:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:10 How'd you flip when you were, uh, on Christmas?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 11:12 On Christmas Day, my sister, uh... (sighs) She knows this, so this won't be news to her. But, um, uh, it, it's probably not fun for her to hear every time I tell it but... We... I had a pickup truck with a tape deck in it. And I had... She got me that Walkman CD with the adapter for the tape, tape deck that you stick into your, you know, your cassette adapter. And she bought me the Walkman cassette adapter and I'm in my pi- I'm in, I'm in my truck. I got a extended cab S10 and I'm driving from my house to my m- my ma-maw's house where a family reunion is. My dad's there. Everybody's there. The whole family's there. I'm a little late. Um, and I'm driving down the road and I got to messing with that Walkman, and I drove off into the ditch and I hit a driveway culvert, a pipe, drainage pipe and a driveway, and went like seven flips.

Joe Rogan 12:03 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 12:03 ... and destroyed this truck. And in the middle of the flipping, I remember that happening. And everything, all my change, jacket, anything that was loose in the car ended up down in the one corner, like floorboard. Everything sorta collects into that one corner as it's spinning. And, uh, it crushed the windshield down. The mirror was down into the radio. You know, it was f- it crushed the roof down real bad.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 12:26 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 12:26 I was really lucky. I had my hands on top of the steering wheel and the windshield kept slapping my knuckles and knocked all my, busted all my knuckles real bad. And so then I, I let go, and my hands went this way, and then I finally got 'em back in and grabbed the bottom of the steering wheel. It broke, it, the tires were flipped, you know, broken and busted off the, the truck. And this, uh ... I got outta the truck and I was fine, didn't have any injuries other than just the knuckles kinda being scraped up. This mar- this newly married couple, they just, or either got engaged or just got married, h- had, were driving the other way and saw the whole thing, and they stopped. And, uh, they were like, "You all right?" I'm like, "Yeah." And, uh, of course there's this line of cars behind me stopped on the road. And this one lady pulls up and I was like, "I need to borrow your cellphone to call my dad." She's like, "You're in shock, you need to sit down." I was like, "No, I'm not in shock, I just need to borrow my cel- borrow your cellphone." So she, so I walked to the next car-

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 13:24 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 13:24 ... and I got a cellphone from this person.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 13:26 (clears throat)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 13:26 I called my dad and I was like, "Dad." I was like, "Man, I flipped my truck." I had paid, I had got, I had financed this thing for five years, I was paying $100 a month. It was perfect. I was working at the dealership changing oil, probably making $130 a week. And ha- I mean, just got this truck for probably two, three months. And, um, used truck, but it was, it was good. It's junk. Uh, I called Dad and I'm like, man, he's gonna be mad. Can't be too mad, 'cause I'm paying for the truck, but-

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 13:58 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 13:58 ... he's gonna be mad at me 'cause I'm screwing up family reunion and, and Christmas. (smacks lips) He comes to get me. Uh, I'd flipped this truck real close to our, where our farm was, so he ran over to the farm and got this flatbed truck and, uh, he pulls out there with the flatbed truck, and he pulls up. And as soon as he pulls up, state trooper pulls up. And the state trooper guy and Dad talked for a minute, and the g- uh, state trooper's like, "Yeah, one single car accident. You okay?" "Yeah, everybody's okay. Dad, y- y- Dad, are you gonna put this on the flatbed and take it home?" "Yeah, okay, okay." You know, "I ain't gonna, I ain't gonna investigate or anything. Everything's cool. Y'all just go about your business." So he left. So he did us a solid there and, uh, didn't give me any kind of traffic ticket. And so me and Dad put the truck on the flatbed and we're driving back and he started laughing. And I was like, "Man, I expected you to be really mad." 'Cause he was a, uh, fiery kinda dad, you know, and, and, uh, pull the belt out and go to town, you know. Be ... He was a rough, strict, tough, tough dude. And so I thought I was gonna get, um, a good cussing at least, but he started laughing. And I said, "Man, what's so funny?" And he goes ... Uh, I was 18 when this happened. He goes, "When I was 18 years old, I flipped my car." He's like, "I can't get mad."

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 15:11 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15:11 He's like, "It's just, I'm just glad you're not hurt." I'm like, "Well, that's nice." So we drove back. I took a couple pictures of it, and, uh, got me, got insurance for it. Got like 11, 12 grand for the insurance to be able to buy another truck.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 15:23 (laughs) So it all worked out.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15:25 Yeah.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 15:26 So that was the first time you ever flipped something, or did you flip the race car first?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15:29 That was the first time.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 15:29 That was the first time.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15:29 No, the race car was next.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 15:31 So the race car is like, "Oh, I've been here before."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15:33 Yes. Yeah.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 15:33 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15:33 And it's nothing. And the, and the race car, it's, it's not as bad as a ... A passenger car, you only got that strap, you know?

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 15:39 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15:39 You just, you're moving around and banging around in there. And in the race car, you're in there pretty tight.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 15:44 Yeah. W- do you feel weird when you're in a passenger car too, just f- the lack of support and-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15:48 The lack of support and safety?

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 15:49 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15:50 Y- you know, I, I do, because compared to way- the way our cup cars are now, or the race cars are now, man, we're cocooned in there. The seat and everything, the headrest, the st- you got a six, seven point harness. I mean, in a street car you really just got the strap. I mean, it's ... Um, I certainly, uh, you know, am more c- I'm much more cautious as I get older on the highway. And, and people are like, "Hey man, how do you do it? How do you drive on r- how do you drive a race car and then go 45, 55 on the road?" And it's real easy actually, you know. You just kinda chill. Uh, when I was-

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 16:23 Does it get all your fast driving out of the way?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 16:25 Yeah. When I was younger I w- I was getting speeding tickets all the time, but when I, as I got older, I just didn't care to be in a hurry anymore.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 16:32 Yeah, I would figure the way you drive for a living, you would just get it out of your system.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 16:36 Yeah, yeah.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 16:36 You probably just-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 16:36 I get plenty of, I had plenty and, plenty of high speed r- action and hijinks on the racetrack. I don't ... I calm down on the road.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 16:44 What kind of car do you drive in real life?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 16:47 Well, it's funny. I, um, uh, I just bought a brand new Silverado. I hadn't bought a truck in a long time. I had, I still have my old Silverado I bought. It's about a '04, '06. But they, this new one, uh, I like a lot. I really-

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 16:59 The new ones are badass.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 17:00 I didn't like the old ones that much. They just look kinda basic. The, the, yeah.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 17:02 The new ones are really sweet looking.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 17:04 The character lines and the body lines, it's just a good looking truck. So I bought that. Um, but my, the, what I was driving before that, I got a '48, uh, pickup truck. And, uh, it's all rough as hell on the outside and, um, original faded, all messy and ugly looking. But it's got a Vortec motor, good drivetrain in it. It drives good. Um, but it's easy to work on and I just love fooling with it. I took the original binc- bench seat out and put these old bucket seats in from a '80, uh, Chevy Blazer. And, uh, so I made it comfortable and just the way I wanted it. So I drive, I drove that a lot this summer until I got this new truck. And I got a '76 Chevy Laguna that I love to drive.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 17:50 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 17:51 Yeah. That thing just kind of-

Joe Rogan 17:53 ... float-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 17:53 Floats down the road, man. And it's a, it's dark midnight blue, tinted windows and just a really cool color. I love the '70s and the style of the cars in the '70s. Even the, kind of the bigger ones, like in the late '70s, like the 442 Oldsmobile Cutlass.

Joe Rogan 18:08 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:09 Those big, big, big cars. There's something about those guys that, that I really dig.

Joe Rogan 18:13 Is that your car right there?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:14 That's my car right there, yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:15 Damn.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:16 I love that thing, man.

Joe Rogan 18:17 I had a 1973 Chevelle-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:20 ... that reminds me of that kinda body style.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:22 That's it.

Joe Rogan 18:23 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:23 I got a 442 that's sort of the sister to that, Oldsmobile, uh, 442 that's red. And, um, kinda the same tinted window. Same, I did the same wheels, same tires, same tint, same sp- I put a spoiler, like a NASCAR-style spoiler on the back and the front. It kinda looked... 'Cause those cars were big in NASCAR.

Joe Rogan 18:41 Oh.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:42 So those, those cars don't get as much love as the '60s-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:44 No.

Joe Rogan 18:44 ... muscle cars.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:45 Well, we'll get there. I think as we get older, the what's cool gets older.

Joe Rogan 18:50 Really?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:50 I mean, yeah. Like, I mean, uh, nothing. I mean, this Camaro, the '67 Camaro, those cars, the 50-

Joe Rogan 18:55 '69, yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 18:55 Yeah, I got a '67. I thought it... Um, I had a '69, but, uh... Like the '55 Chev, all those things will always hold their rightful place in-

Joe Rogan 19:03 Mm-hmm.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:03 ... in history. But these cars, like that car right there, that wasn't very cool 10, 15, 20 years ago.

Joe Rogan 19:10 No.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:10 But as we get older, that car becomes cool, you know? And, and, and, uh, you know, one day we'll be driving around in like, uh, '85 pickup trucks going, "Man, this thing's so, so awesome, so old school."

Joe Rogan 19:23 Really?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:23 Yeah, I think so.

Joe Rogan 19:25 I don't know-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:25 I mean-

Joe Rogan 19:25 ... about that.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:27 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 19:28 I just think that, that car might just be cool 'cause you own it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:31 I don't know, man. I l- I think that it's got these old character lines, man-

Joe Rogan 19:34 It does.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:34 ... that I really like.

Joe Rogan 19:35 It does have old char- You know what's interesting? I was, I was just talking to a friend of mine about this. When, in 1970, uh, my mom bought a Barracuda.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:42 And when I was in high school, in 1981, I was a freshman in high school, and she had this Barracuda. And it was like a classic car, and it was like a classic muscle car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:51 Right.

Joe Rogan 19:51 But like, that's only 11 years old.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:54 Like, if you had a car today from 2007-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19:58 Well, there, yeah, you wouldn't-

Joe Rogan 19:59 ... that wouldn't be a classic car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:00 No, it wouldn't be a classic car.

Joe Rogan 20:00 It's just a car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:01 Yeah, you're right.

Joe Rogan 20:02 It's weird.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:03 It is weird. It is weird.

Joe Rogan 20:04 Like a 1969, when I was in high school in 1969, which is only an 11-year-old car-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:09 ... was amazing. Like, whoa. People would stop and stare at it. "Dude, look at that '69 Camaro."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:15 "Whoa."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:16 I got a '88 S10. That was the first pickup truck I, I owned or had. That was like what the car I got when I was 16 years old. And I got one and restored it, and, uh, which was a terrible investment. But, um, it made sense for me because it, you know, because it was my first truck. But, w- And I didn't think anybody would give a shit about it, right? 'Cause it's an S10. It's like the m- the bottom of the barrel in pickup trucks for Chevrolet in 1988. And, and, but I'd drive that thing around and people were like, "Wow, that's the cleanest S10 I've seen in (laughs) you know-"

Joe Rogan 20:46 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:46 "... 15, 20 years." That's it right there.

Joe Rogan 20:49 Oh, that's a nice car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:50 Yeah. And so-

Joe Rogan 20:51 Y- There, there is-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:51 I mean, that's what-

Joe Rogan 20:51 ... something about seeing one of those that's in great shape.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:54 Like, that it made it through.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 20:55 Yeah. There's not many of them left. I mean, th- for, for good reason. But what was your first car?

Joe Rogan 21:01 My first car was a '73 Chevelle.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:04 That one. But it, the-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:05 I got a '70.

Joe Rogan 21:06 ... engine blew out on it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:06 '71.

Joe Rogan 21:07 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:07 Chevelle's a good car, man.

Joe Rogan 21:08 Oh, I love Chevelles.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:09 So why don't... So would you buy a S- So would you get a '73 and restore it to-

Joe Rogan 21:13 I would get a '70.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:14 ... similar?

Joe Rogan 21:14 That's my favorite year.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:15 '69 and '70 are my favorite years.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:18 I go back and forth between-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:19 ... '69 and '70 with Chevelles.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:21 Yeah, they're-

Joe Rogan 21:21 They're both amazing years.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:23 Mm-hmm, yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:23 Yeah. I like those cars. They're, they're, uh, they're a big muscle car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:27 They are.

Joe Rogan 21:27 Like, that's a big ride.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:28 It's bigger than the Camaro, like-

Joe Rogan 21:30 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:31 I have a 1969 Nova.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:33 Really?

Joe Rogan 21:33 Yeah, which is like a smaller-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:35 Yeah, like that right there. Whoa, daddy.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:37 That's a good-looking car.

Joe Rogan 21:38 That is as classic an American muscle car as you get.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:41 It's a 1970 with silver with black stripes, camo.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:46 They used to race Novas.

Joe Rogan 21:47 Whew.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:48 My dad raced a Nova in the '80s, yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:49 Yeah, Nova, I like Novas 'cause they're light.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:52 'Cause it's a light car and 'cause, you know, you, y- put a big engine in it and-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:56 ... new suspension and, you know.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21:57 Yeah. I have a, a Nova, a wagon that I just bought, a '66.

Joe Rogan 22:04 Oh, wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:04 Yeah. That's my next project. Um, I bought it from a buddy for five grand, and I'm, it's in, it's, it's pretty bad shape. But I'm gonna, that's my next project soon as I get some time. I, I ha- I had this little girl, um, Isla, and she's six months. Um, so it's kinda made it tough doing any kind of projects.

Joe Rogan 22:22 I know what that's like.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:22 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 22:22 Congratulations.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:23 Thanks.

Joe Rogan 22:24 It's awesome.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:24 But it does, uh, it does eat up a lot of your time.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:26 Everything is on the side right now. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 22:29 Yep, yep, and it will be.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:30 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 22:31 I mean-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:31 How long?

Joe Rogan 22:32 Forever.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:33 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 22:33 It's just forever, uh, till they move out and then it's-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:36 ... still a little bit on the side-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:37 ... 'cause you gotta call and check on them.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:39 And-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:40 ... uh-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:40 It's awesome though.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:41 Yeah, it is. It's amazing. I c- I couldn't... It's like getting married and having a kid and all that stuff. Is, um, not... Nothing like I thought it'd be.

Joe Rogan 22:50 N- It's, no one can explain it to you. Especially-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:52 That's right.

Joe Rogan 22:52 ... the kid part.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:53 They can explain it to you. I've had friends that have kids. They just go, "We'll, we'll talk after the kid's born."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22:58 Right.

Joe Rogan 22:58 There's no way you're gonna be able to figure this out-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:00 ... until it actually happens.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:01 Yeah. I've had people... Everybody tries to tell you, "This is what it's gonna be like. Man, you ain't gonna believe it. Greatest thing ever. Boy, you just don't even know." And it still doesn't, it doesn't help, you know? It d- it don't sink in till you go through the experience. When you go through that experience, you're like, "Damn, they were right." You know? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 23:17 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:17 "This is the greatest thing ever."

Joe Rogan 23:19 It's a different kind of love.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:20 It is.

Joe Rogan 23:20 It's just a, it's just, it's hard to explain.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:24 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 23:24 Doesn't, doesn't make... You know, when my, if I come home, my daughters run up to me and jump in my arms. And I catch 'em and they give me a kiss, and I'm hugging 'em. And there's a kind of love that doesn't exist in any other-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:35 Nothing you've-

Joe Rogan 23:35 ... part of my life.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:35 Nothing y- you could have ever felt before with anything or anybody else.

Joe Rogan 23:40 No.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:40 It is.

Joe Rogan 23:40 It's just different.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:41 Yeah, I can't wait, I can't wait for that. She's six months and, uh, everybody's like, "Man," and you, you'll probably agree. They're like, "It goes fast, it goes fast, it goes fast."

Joe Rogan 23:50 It goes real fast.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:50 But we're sorta in that moment where we're like, come on. Like, can't wait for her to talk. I can't wait to hear her voice.

Joe Rogan 23:56 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:56 Like, what is her voice gonna sound like?

Joe Rogan 23:58 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 23:58 You know, what kind of voice is she gonna have and what is she gonna like and what did we, is she gonna want me to do with her? And-... these kind of things.

Joe Rogan 24:05 Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 24:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:06 It's awesome. But yeah, it does put your projects on the side.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 24:09 It is. My projects are on the side.

Joe Rogan 24:11 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 24:11 Golf sim's on the side. Hunting's on the side.

Joe Rogan 24:13 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 24:13 I ain't gonna h- go hunting this year. I was, I was gonna go. I usually go in October or, uh, November, first of November.

Joe Rogan 24:20 And you guys have a spot in Ohio-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 24:22 Yeah. Yeah, me and-

Joe Rogan 24:22 ... which is one of the best whitetail spots in the country.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 24:25 Yeah. Me and a buddy of mine, Martin Truex Junior, he races too, and, uh, we just been buddies a long time. And he's hardcore. He's heavy duty into the hunting. And so, uh, we got... I wanted to hunt but not... you know, I'm not gonna be going every week, uh, but I knew he was probably interested in probably buying some land and us managing it together and learning how that process goes. So we bought this land and we've put the cro- we've put the... you know, we've put the food plots in not per- not ourselves, but we've managed the land on how he wanna change it-

Joe Rogan 24:52 (coughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 24:52 ... and, um, sort of managing the herd and-

Joe Rogan 24:55 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 24:55 ... you know. It's been a really, uh, educational experience. Uh, I got-

Joe Rogan 25:01 I think a lot of people who don't hunt don't even understand what we're talking about-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:04 No.

Joe Rogan 25:04 ... the whole process.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:05 Like, if you buy a nice piece of land, people who, uh... especially if you look at... like, there's a bunch of organizations that, uh, you know, teach classes in how to manage a giant piece of property-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:16 Right.

Joe Rogan 25:16 ... but laying out food plots-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:18 ... and, and people buy these big chunks of property specifically for whitetail hunting.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:23 Yeah. Yeah, so we have about 1,000 acres and, and-

Joe Rogan 25:26 That's awesome.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:27 All we do is bow hunt for whitetail. That's it.

Joe Rogan 25:29 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:30 We'll, we'll go in there twice a year maybe f- or at least once a year for turkey, and then we eat what we kill. Like we ate... we killed, uh... we got a turkey last year and was eating it that night. I mean-

Joe Rogan 25:40 That's-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:41 ... that's amazing, isn't it?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:42 Yeah, it's crazy.

Joe Rogan 25:43 Yeah, when you can eat it and it doesn't ev- ever touch the freezer, never goes-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:46 ... in the refrigerator, just straight from the harvest right to the grill, oh.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:50 Yeah. Yeah, it's great.

Joe Rogan 25:51 It's incredible, yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25:52 I love deer j- deer jerky's probably my favorite and, uh, we fry and, uh, turkey nuggets and stuff like that. I mean, it's pretty cool.

Joe Rogan 26:00 That's awesome.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:01 So tha- that's a cool little getaway for you too, right? A 1,000-acre little slice of heaven.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26:06 Yeah, I mean, yeah, and it's dr- it's driving distance so... 'cause I love a road trip. I'm... I mean, if I wanted to, I could fly out there but I like the, the road trip. The whole thing for me, really, is everything before the shot that you take in the f- you know, on the deer. Er, it's the drive up there with your buddies talking about what you're gonna do, what you can't wait to do, what's been going on with everybody, getting up there and getting everything laid out, looking at the map on the wall, you know-

Joe Rogan 26:32 Mm-hmm.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26:32 ... get that big laminated map on the wall, be like, "Man, this would be a good stand. Which way is the wind blowing? Let's talk about the wind. What's the wind gonna be doing tomorrow morning?"

Joe Rogan 26:39 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26:39 "Where we gonna go tomorrow morning?"

Joe Rogan 26:41 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26:41 You know, and then, you know, everybody has... you know, everybody gets their hands into cooking dinner that night. Somebody... you know, everybody gets a side or something they're dealing with and managing and it's just fun, you know, just the li- just spending time with your buddies, 'cause you don't never... no one... we don't take that time anymore, we don't-

Joe Rogan 26:59 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26:59 ... really make time anymore and it's, uh, kind of you're go- you're gonna go do that for two days, you know, so you're gonna make time to be with each other and enjoy it. I like taking my buddies and, like, taking friends of mine that hu- don't hunt or haven't ever hunted and letting them sort of understand what that experience is like and it's pretty cool.

Joe Rogan 27:16 It is cool but it's ta- tough to get someone who's never hunted before, who isn't into-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:20 Into it.

Joe Rogan 27:20 ... hunting sit in a stand-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:22 ... and just wait.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:22 I can't get my wife to go.

Joe Rogan 27:23 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:23 I wanted Amy to go. She's h- she knows what hunting's about, she's into it, but, um, she don't wanna go. We got e- we even got the Redneck blinds, you know, the real comfortable-

Joe Rogan 27:32 Mm-hmm.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:32 ... deals and you're sitting there in the chair, move all you want and-

Joe Rogan 27:36 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:36 ... you ain't gotta worry about your scent too bad or anything like that and she won't even go sit in that. I'm hoping little Isla will want to go, so we'll see.

Joe Rogan 27:43 Yeah, maybe it's better that she doesn't go.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:48 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 27:48 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:48 You need a little break.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:49 Yeah, you're right.

Joe Rogan 27:49 You need a little place where, like, if you guaran- like, if she wanted to go every time you were going-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:54 Right, that would-

Joe Rogan 27:54 ... then it'd be like, "Oh come on."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:56 Wait. Yeah. No, like-

Joe Rogan 27:56 "What do you wanna do?" You're like, "Hunting."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 27:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:58 Oh, but you like it too much.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 28:00 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 28:01 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 28:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:02 Yeah. Well, I would imagine, like, again, some... with what you do for a living, having something that's peaceful and quiet and out in nature would be very important to kind of balance out the... just the wild, hectic nature of race car driving.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 28:15 Yeah, I mean, a- for me that's, um... getting... when I get in the stand and I sit down and I look out across the, the, you know, the field and look at the land and everything, um, man, you ain't gotta worry about a- you know, answering no email or, or getting back to this guy or setting up this appointment or answering this question or, you know, it's just... it's even better... it's better than going on vacation. Like, we go on vacation with my wife or w- with my buddies or whatever, you still can't really ever really un-... you know, disconnect-

Joe Rogan 28:52 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 28:52 ... from everything you're doing. It seems like, though, when I go hunting, I can completely get rid of technology, you know, if I want and, you know, it's, it's just, uh... and sitting in the woods is, is peaceful-

Joe Rogan 29:06 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:06 ... you know? There's so-

Joe Rogan 29:07 Good for you.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:08 It is good f- it is. It's therapeutic even though nothing's happening.

Joe Rogan 29:12 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:12 It's kind of cleansing in a way.

Joe Rogan 29:14 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:14 In some weird way.

Joe Rogan 29:15 In a weird way. Just... I think human beings have a certain amount of requirement for time in nature.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:20 I think a- and you don't realize you have that requirement until you're out there.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:23 You wouldn't... yeah, you wouldn't know it until you go-

Joe Rogan 29:25 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:25 ... sit in a stand. You're like, "Wow, I needed a little bit of this."

Joe Rogan 29:27 I think even a park, you know, even people that go to Central Park in New York City, they go to that park and sit down by that tree-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:33 ... and they just feel better.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:34 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:35 Exactly. That's exactly what it is. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:37 Yeah, I mean, and your, your work environment is a concrete slab, you know, that you're driving. How fast... what's the fastest you go?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:46 215.

Joe Rogan 29:46 Oh.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:48 When that, when that passes you (imitates car speeding by) , ugh.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:51 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 29:51 You realize how fast 215 really is.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:53 Like, "Geez."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29:54 You get... you get sit in that car, do it long enough, you forget.

Joe Rogan 29:58 Do you have apprehension about the horsepower wars with just modern consumer cars? 'Cause I look at some of these cars that they're putting out that are amazing-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:08 ... like the new Corvette ZR1-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:09 Right.

Joe Rogan 30:10 It's like 700-plus horsepower right from the factory.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:13 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 30:13 The Dodge Demon's like 800 horsepower. Like, they are putting out these insane race cars-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:20 ... right from the factory that any dummy like me, I could just go to a s... If I have the cash, I could go to a Corvette dealership and pick one up and all of a sudden, I'm on the highway.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:29 (laughs) Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't have a problem with it now until it becomes a common occurrence where people don't know how to control it, you know-

Joe Rogan 30:37 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:37 ... or ha- uh, ha- uh know how to manage what they're doing behind the wheel or something like that. But until, until that's like a common issue, I don't know that it'll need regulation.

Joe Rogan 30:46 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:47 Yeah, I don't necessarily think a re-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:49 I wouldn't be surprised though that, that c- that one day it may be, you know, regulated because everything gets, you know, governed at some point.

Joe Rogan 30:55 Right. Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:57 Maybe too much, right?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:58 Right.

Joe Rogan 30:58 Maybe we should just appreciate-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30:59 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 30:59 ... the fact that you can do that. (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 31:01 I know, I mean, I wanna be able to build whatever I wanna build.

Joe Rogan 31:04 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 31:04 You know?

Joe Rogan 31:05 Right. Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 31:05 And if, and if I want that, I... Then production oughta be able to produce whatever they want.

Joe Rogan 31:09 I agree. But I feel like, I feel it the same way I feel about guns. Like I'm very pro-Second Amendment. I feel like, uh, I am a responsible gun owner. I n- have a lot of friends that are responsible gun owners. I've used guns for hunting. I think you should have a gun for protection. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I don't think it would be a bad idea to have some sort of course that you have to go through so you understand all the aspects of safety and v- precautions that you should take-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 31:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:36 ... and how to correctly load a gun and clean a gun and-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 31:38 Absolutely, yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:39 And that, but this is not really the case right now, you know?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 31:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:42 And it's not necessarily ... I'm not talking about gun control as much as I'm talking about gun safety-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 31:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:46 ... and gun responsibility. I feel like the same way about a car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 31:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:50 I feel like if you're gonna go out and buy a Corvette ZR1, I mean, the kind of body mashing acceleration, the g-forces you can get from something like that right from the factory, zero to 60 in under three seconds, that's an insane automobile. Like maybe someone should like take you around a track a little bit.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:07 That's a great idea. I guess that would be the case. If you were gonna buy something like that or get in a car like that, you would need some kind of a trainer course that-

Joe Rogan 32:14 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:14 ... you would have to pass or-

Joe Rogan 32:15 Three hours on a track.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:16 If you're, if you have to have a particular license to drive 18-wheelers down the interstate, you know, there should be a v- s- style or a type of license that you need to achieve to have a certain type of-

Joe Rogan 32:27 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:27 ... m- you know?

Joe Rogan 32:28 You wanna go buy a Viper ACR and take it on the road, those crazy race car Vipers you could just-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:34 ... drive? Should probably know how to drive that thing.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:36 Especially the Vipers.

Joe Rogan 32:37 Yeah. Those things are beasts.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:37 Those things are a little, have been a handful. (laughs) Yeah. They're a little, they're a little tail happy.

Joe Rogan 32:42 They're pretty tail happy.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:43 They're so crazy too, that the race car one with all the vents and all the aero all around it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:47 That is just an insane thing that you could just go buy that and take-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:50 ... that on the road.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:50 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:51 Giant ass V10 in it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:53 It's pretty crazy.

Joe Rogan 32:54 It's awesome.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:55 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32:55 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:57 Do you, so do you drive like fast cars on the road ever? Or do you mostly, are you just like, just mostly drive a normal, relaxed on the road?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 33:09 So I, um, I got a lot of speeding tickets when I was younger, uh, th-

Joe Rogan 33:14 That's a shocker.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 33:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:15 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 33:16 And I, a- and it seemed like it w- just never failed. Anytime I got behind the wheel of a Corvette or anything like that, I would get pulled over for, you know, rolling through lights or rolling through a stop sign or reckless driving or whatever. And I kept... I mean, it happened as recently as two or three years ago. I got pulled over for, um, rolling through a stop sign and speeding. And, uh, and the guy's like, "Man, you don't need these tickets. Like, what are you doing?" And I was like, "You're right. I don't know what the hell I'm doing."

Joe Rogan 33:51 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 33:51 "I don't need to be driving this damn car is what's up. I need to get outta this stupid car. I don't need no Corvette with all this power."

Joe Rogan 33:57 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 33:57 And so, uh, and I've m- I've got this original, um... I got this original, uh, 65 Impala that's been in my family since it was brand new, and it's kind of been the community car. It was passed around, got banged up on the corner, corner, right front corner. Couple crashes here, couple crashes there. This guy needed a car 'cause his was broke down, so he used it for a while and such, and it was just pa... And I finally got it. I bought it for two grand from my dad. And I've fixed it up. It's got a two barrel 283.

Joe Rogan 34:31 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 34:32 Doesn't go anywhere, right? And I'd just as much rather drive that car as little a power as it has, um, knowing I won't get myself into any stupid trouble.

Joe Rogan 34:44 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 34:44 You know, being in a hurry or being impatient. And so that's, uh, you know, that's, that's what I, that's what I try to do. I actually, I don't care about as much what kind of power the car has as much... I like a driver. I wanna ... I like nice cars. I like f- you know, frame off restorations, but I'd rather have a driver that's reliable and easy to work on. And I think that's why I like that 48 pickup truck. It's got the Vortec motor, which is just a, you know, it's g- it's, it's not a powerhouse. It's just dropped in out of a ju- out of j- out of a junkyard crash. And it's, uh, it's easy to work on. Like, uh, me and a buddy of mine put an electric wiper motor in it the other day 'cause it had an old vacuum on it and, and it just didn't, didn't work. And, uh, and it's easy to, it's easy to work on. I put, we put these seats in it. We put a, we got an old ammo box for a console and shit like that.

Joe Rogan 35:42 Do you just enjoy it because it's also... It's, it's, it's something that's sort of related to what you do for a living, but then again not, and kind of just a project?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 35:51 Automobile?

Joe Rogan 35:51 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 35:52 Um, I, uh, I think the reason why I like to work on cars is because it m- ... I don't know, it makes you, uh, it put e- It makes you a little invested in the car. Uh, there was a s- there was a pin... There was a point in time where I was just kind of like, "That's cool. I wanna buy that. I'll get that. I'll drive that a year. Now, I don't like that anymore. Well, that's cool, I wanna buy that. I'll get rid of this one and get this one." And that got old real fast for me.And so I started to... That's when I st- that's when I put a little more time in that 65 Impala and fixed it up. And, and I'm like, that's... I'm never le- I'm never selling that car. Never gonna sell it. Um, that 48 truck, I'll never sell it, just 'cause of the work I put into it-

Joe Rogan 36:36 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 36:36 ... or the, the, you know, the time, the time that I've spent with it. Uh, I've had... I mean, you know, and I, it, I've got... There's people that are helping me work on these cars. I got a buddy of mine that, that actually helps me work on these cars. But, um, when I finish that Nova Wagon, I'll probably never sell it, even though it's probably nothing special if someone else were to look at it. But it's what I, you know, it's what I put into it.

Joe Rogan 37:00 Yeah, you've got w- sweat equity.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 37:03 Yeah. And the more you work on these cars, the more confidence you get in trying to do more, getting into the jobs that you didn't think w- you were capable of doing, and-

Joe Rogan 37:11 Have you ever thought about a build up straight from scratch?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 37:13 Um, that's probably what this little, uh, Nova Wagon's gonna be.

Joe Rogan 37:17 Yeah?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 37:17 Yeah. I wanted a Nomad. So my dad had a Nomad, and, uh, it was, uh... This thing had polished, uh, aluminum on the, uh, on the underneath floor pan. And Miur- he'd park it on a Miura in the shop so you could look underneath it, you know, and look how good the damn thing was. It was a bol- it was frame off, hardly ever seen the road. I mean, just clean as it could be from end to end. And I love road trips. The Nova Wagon, I mean, uh, the, the Nomad is the perfect road trip car. But I c- I just don't wanna spend the money on a wa- on a Nova, I mean, a Nomad chassis and, and body. It's... they're just ridiculous to buy. And, um, I want to build the car. I'm not a expert modder, so this Nova Wagon's perfect. It's a wagon, it's not a Nomad, but it's a little smaller, which I like. And if I screw it up, it's okay. Um, if I screwed up a Nomad build, I'd be pissed.

Joe Rogan 38:22 Why are Nomads so expensive?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 38:24 I don't know. They're just rare, and it's like the, you know, it's like the ol- it's like the old '55 Chevy Wagon. It's just-

Joe Rogan 38:31 I'm trying to put it into my head what a Nomad looks like. What year?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 38:35 Like a '55, '56, '57.

Joe Rogan 38:36 Pull up like a '55 Nomad. Oh.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 38:40 Yeah. See, that to me is my ultimate car. Uh...

Joe Rogan 38:44 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 38:46 But damn, man, I mean, they're just so high.

Joe Rogan 38:48 That's a beautiful car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 38:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:50 That's a different era, you know?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 38:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:51 Like when you look at the muscle cars of like the 1960s and then you go to something like this, like, that's a whole different world.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 38:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:58 It's a different kind of thing.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 39:00 I'd like to get, um... There was this one Nomad this guy chopped up and narrowed up and he made, uh, one of those things. Um, it's like a rat rod out of it.

Joe Rogan 39:11 Oh.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 39:11 Yeah. Um, that was, that was an idea for this Nova Wagon, but I think... I'm, uh, I don't think I'm gonna chop it up. Think I'm gonna keep it as is.

Joe Rogan 39:18 When I was in high school, there was a man in the neighborhood when I was a kid that had a '55 Chevy, and it was the greatest thing anybody had ever seen in their lives.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 39:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:27 And we would all wait while this guy drove by in his-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 39:29 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:30 ... '55 Chevy. We just couldn't believe it was a real car-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 39:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:32 ... that someone could own this. It was black and mint. It was a beautiful car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 39:37 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 39:37 Manual transmission. He would just drive by in that thing and we would all just have our jaws hanging out.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 39:42 When I was a little boy, um, I had Hot Wheels. My favorite Hot Wheel was the '55 wa- black '55 Chevy that w- had the flip hood with the flames on the front.

Joe Rogan 39:53 Mm-hmm.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 39:53 It was like an original Hot Wheel. And ever since then, you know, that's kinda, that's kinda been my car. But I went from the regular, you know, sedan to the wagon. I think that No- that Nomad's pretty awesome.

Joe Rogan 40:04 Do you have like a full garage set up where you could do repairs on things or-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 40:07 Yeah. It's kind of a farm shop, so it's, it's, it's dirty. We fix lawnmowers. We do some modding on our cars, whatever needs to be done in there. I park my, uh, I park my bus in there. I got a, a bus that we take to the racetrack and... So I mean, it's kind of, kind of just a big building. We've just got a sandblaster in there. We got a big old... We got, uh, a shear in there. We can do anything.

Joe Rogan 40:34 It's a man shop.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 40:34 Pipe bender. Yeah, whatever.

Joe Rogan 40:36 Man shop.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 40:36 Yes.

Joe Rogan 40:37 Yeah. (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 40:38 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 40:38 Nice. So tell me about your book.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 40:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:40 Um, you... One, one of the things that was surprising that I had heard was your, your experience with concussions.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 40:47 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 40:48 You know? Um, tell me about that.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 40:50 So when... I've had concussions. In that flip I was talking about in 1998 at Daytona, I got a concussion from that crash. Uh, I'd had concussions throughout my career at many different points and didn't think anything of 'em. I thought when you, you know, when you got a concussion, you joked about it with your buddies, about how it made you feel, and you just rested until it was gone. And you race through it, uh, and eventually it'd go away and you were fine. You know, it was just something that would go away and you never thought anything about... You never thought about seeing a doctor, you never thought about getting treatment. You didn't know there was even treatment available for a concussion. You just thought it was something like a bruise, you know? So this is going on throughout my whole career. I was racing at, uh, I was testing at Kansas, uh, Motor Speedway in 2012, blew a right front tire, hit the wall at 185 miles an hour, and it screwed me up. And so that was a really not, you know, that wasn't a typical crash, not something that drivers deal with usually in their career. This was something that was unique to me. Uh, and it was just a terrible impact at a bad angle, at a very, very fast rate of speed. And I got outta the car and I knew something was wrong with me and I couldn't, you know, I couldn't... I felt, you know, just like I'd been hit in the head with a bat. Uh, shocked and shellshocked in a way, or just couldn't... I couldn't, uh...... shake it off, you know. You just kind of wanted to shake your head and get it out, whatever it was, and you couldn't. Um, that's the way I, I felt imme- immediately after that crash. We went ... Our test was done 'cause the car was killed, so we went over to this place to get some lunch and we're sitting there and I started getting sick, nauseous, before we ever sh- you know, I wasn't eating. Uh, we just ordered, we just sat down, and I started ... I'm sitting with my team, all my guys, and I'm, uh, starting to- I think, feel like I'm gonna throw up right there in front of them. And I'm getting nervous. And I don't, I haven't said to them that I feel this way, you know? So, I don't want to tell them I feel this way. Um, but my crew chief, Steve Letarte, is like my- is like a brother. Um, I was like, "Steve, I, uh, am getting sick and something's wrong with me. I don't know what's wrong with me but I gotta get out of this room." It's a bus- it's lunch hour, it's full of, full of people, noises, talk and chatter, uh, shit going on, and I gotta get the hell out of there. Um, and as I was getting up to leave, my wife come walking in. They were ... She was coming to get me, we were going to watch the Redskins Monday night game, and, uh, sit in the owner box with Dan Snyder and, uh, who, who ever else is there. So, we had them plans to go. I said, "Amy, I'm gonna go lay down in the car. I just gotta lay down in the car for a minute." And I laid down all the way, in the car all the way to the airport. I'm thinking, "This is, this is bad. This is the worst I've ever felt anything, but hopefully it's gonna go away." And so, we get to the game. We get ... We went to the Redskins game, we watched the game. Uh, did that whole thing. And I went about four weeks of feeling bad and sick, for about four weeks, and it finally went away. And I was ... I knew that was unusual for it to be that long, but in my mind I wasn't s- thinking doctor, I wasn't thinking treatment, I wasn't thinking anything like that. It didn't cross my mind to tell anybody or that I really needed ... I thought, you know, I thought that I had been dishonest and not, uh, you know, I hadn't, I hadn't been honest with everybody about the way I was feeling but I didn't ever think that it was gonna cost me anything. So, I thought, "All right, I'm feeling better. I'm good. Go to this race." I'd been racing the whole time, right? Finally, four weeks later, I'm great, I go to another race, I'm racing, I crashed. And it all came right back, like, as bad as it was, if not worse. And that's when I said, "I gotta go to the doctor. This is bad. I can't ..." You know, "I can't even ..." You know, "I can't keep crashing like this. Just s- putting these concussions so close together is a bad deal. It's dangerous." And my ... I couldn't bite my tongue. Like, my attitude and my emotions and shit was out of whack. Like, I couldn't control my anger-

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 45:19 Hmm.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 45:19 ... and I was like, anybody be s- anybody say something I didn't like, I'm like, well, you know, I wanted to tell them to fuck off, you know?

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 45:25 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 45:26 And, I, that was just not like me. I couldn't s- I couldn't, like, k- keep myself calm. And, uh, everything that I heard, like, made me angry. (laughs)

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 45:37 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 45:37 It was the craziest thing. Even people just talking about stuff would just get under my skin. I'm like, grr. Uh, real impatient. Um, and there was some new symptoms but, uh, finally, uh, I went to the doctor and, and, uh, got to ... I went to this neurosurgeon in Charlotte, Dr Petty. He's like, "I want you to meet this guy in Pittsburgh. His name's Mickey Collins. He works with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Penguins." And, uh, I'm like, "All right." I go up there and I'm thinking I'm gonna meet this guy that works du- works with the Penguins and the Steelers and he sees, you know, players. But he's a, he's a doctor that sees anybody and everybody. Like, there's kids in there, you know, that got hurt playing on the playground. There's workers, uh, con ... You know, uh, carpenters, housewives. Everybody's in that damn waiting room to see this man. He sees about 25 people a day and, um, he's an expert on head injuries and he's got, you know ... He's just, he's on the f- cutting edge of whatever the hell the new shit is, he knows it. And his, you know, his team and his people are investigating it. And so they're ... Uh, he fixed me. So I go there and I'm like, "This is what happened. This is how it happened. I crashed, I, I hit it, I didn't tell anybody about it. I was sick for over four weeks, I got better. I crashed in this race and I feel sick again." And he was like, "Well, these are two different injuries of two, two different parts of your brain. The first injury, you, you bruised this, uh, f- right front edge of your brain, uh, when you hit the wall." He said, "This, this second crash, uh, you twisted the s- base of your brain and injured some things in the back of your brain, and that's why you're having the emotional ..." And different things like that. So, uh, but we ... He went deeper into it than that. He was like, you know ... We did all these, uh, tests and, um, visual tests, and all kinds of stuff for, for ... And I'd go back to s- I mean, we did this thing. We d- I went through the gamut for a whole day of doing tests, and then I went back every, uh, week, uh, before I ... You know, and, and in two weeks I was back racing again. I was clear. And, uh, so he, he took an injury that I hid and took four weeks to heal, and healed it in two weeks.

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 47:55 What did he do to heal it?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 47:56 Um, he gave me ... I never took any medication on this particular, uh, issue. He gave me, uh, home exercises and eye exercises. There was a ... I had problems with focusing and mi- making my eyes work, tra- tracking in object, like a bird flying across the sky or anything like that. I couldn't, my eyes couldn't stay on it. If I looked at you, uh, my eyes would bounce off of you. Um, and they just wouldn't stay, you know. If you said, "Hey man, I'm gonna take a picture," and you held up a camera and I tried to look at the lens and smile, my eyes would wanna jump off of that object. They would want ... They didn't want to, to look at what I wanted them to look at and track anything going anywhere. And s-

Guest 2 (unidentified, brief participant) 48:38 What was the cause of that?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 48:40 Um, the, the brain has-... the ocular stuff, uh, I mean, you can have injury to that part of your brain or you can have an injury to the vestibular part of your brain that, that af- that may af- l- like if you have bad balance, then that ... Your eyes and your balance work together. And so if you have, uh, vestibular issues, that can create ocular issues. And, um, that can create, um, that, that can affect your, uh, anxiety and depression and things like ... So all these ... You can have an injury to one part of your brain that affects four other areas. And so ... And we talk about that in the book. Mickey comes into the book and I'm, I'll talk a- you know, I'll say, "This is what I was feeling, this is what I did." And Mickey will come in behind me and say, "This is the medical science behind that, and this is how we treated it and why." But I would have an injury to one singular area of my brain, but I would have four different symptoms affecting four different parts of my brain, four different senses. And, um, you know, he would have to hone in on the one that was broken and then f- know to fix it. And when he started fixing it, all the other ones would start communicating together. The brain would start working again. Balance and visual and all those things would start to work again, and anxiety and all those things would, you know, begin to tu- come back in tune.

Joe Rogan 50:06 Now when you said he fixed it, like what is he doing?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 50:08 Uh, he ... Well, so he gave me physical exercises to do. I had some balance issues. Basically if I was ... if I turned my head, uh, or looked up and down, I would get dizzy and sick. Like my stomach would turn if I turned my head left or right, if I looked up and down just sitting there. Like the best thing for me was to sit on the couch and not move.

Joe Rogan 50:31 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 50:32 And so like literally not move. And I felt fine then, but if I had moved an inch, man, it was like m- it'd make your stomach nauseous. And so I did a lot of motio- I did a lot of exercises that created a ton of motion with my head. Um, lifting heavy balls up and, uh, p- passing them over my shoulder this way or that way, taking a ball and turning around and hitting it this way, taking the ball, turning around and hitting it that ... Just doing that for, for hours and hours and hours. And so I would train ... Basically, uh, I was training myself to s- to balance again. You know, training my mi- training my l- my body to balance itself again. And if ... And my ... If I couldn't see a horizon or a flat surface, uh, I couldn't tell which way was up.

Joe Rogan 51:24 Oh.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 51:24 And yeah, it was so bad. And, um, the visual stuff, there was these, uh ... I had a string with these balls on it, and I would hold the string on my nose and hold it out here, and I had to look at all those balls. And it would ... My eyes are focusing ... Just all it's doing is really just making my eyes change focus, uh, from one to the next to the next and back, on to the next, next and back. And there was this eye chart on the wall, and it had all these letters and all these numbers on it, and I had to, uh, I had to look at that eye chart and turn my head back and forth this way, but look at that eye chart and count, and count, uh, do from A to Z but backwards.

Joe Rogan 52:06 Oh.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 52:06 Do the alphabet. So I'd have to look for the letters. "Where's Z?" You know, and go backwards. Or one, one to 20. You know?

Joe Rogan 52:13 All while you're shaking your head.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 52:14 One, two, three. Yeah, and standing up, and walking backwards and walking forward.

Joe Rogan 52:18 And what is this doing to your mind? Like how d- how does this fix your mind? Like what is the-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 52:23 (sighs) I-

Joe Rogan 52:23 ... what's the process?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 52:24 You know, I don't know what the real ... I don't know what ... It's the ... I've had ... The problem with me was my vestibular system, so my ability to understand balance and understand horizons and ... So I was putting my mind in a perplex, uh, in a complex environment, or making my mind do complex things that you don't do every day.

Joe Rogan 52:49 And it's just firing up these parts of your brain-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 52:51 And it's, yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:51 ... and exercises them?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 52:51 It's kind of like stretching this muscle. You know?

Joe Rogan 52:54 Oh.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 52:54 It's like, it's like they used to say when you would get hurt to go into a dark room and hide and, or t- you know, no, no electronics, no TV, just sit in a dark room and wait.

Joe Rogan 53:04 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 53:04 And what they're, what they believe today is that exposure is what helps. Pushing yourself into these complex environments and doing things that are really challenging for yourself. Even doing that ... If I put you in front of that eye chart and made you turn your head back and forth and walk, walking two steps forward, two steps back, and doing ... It would be di- it'd be difficult for you. Um, uh, so but for an injured person, it's super difficult. It has to be really challenging. Um, but it just sort of tunes the mind or retrains the brain to do balan- to, to balance. It retrains the eyes to, to track on objects and to lock on objects and stay on them. And-

Joe Rogan 53:39 What's crazy is it sounds like physical rehab.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 53:41 It is.

Joe Rogan 53:41 Like if you had a knee injury or something like that.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 53:42 It is a physical re- Yes, there's a lot of physical rehab to it.

Joe Rogan 53:45 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 53:46 There's a ton of it. And-

Joe Rogan 53:47 We don't think about that when it comes to the mind though.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 53:49 I know.

Joe Rogan 53:49 We usually think of the mind as like something that needs to be healed with medicine.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 53:52 Yeah. I agree. Um, all the m- probably 85% of the work that I did was physical therapy. Play-

Joe Rogan 54:01 Did you change your diet or anything like that? 'Cause th- they say inflammatory-causing foods or-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:06 ... inflammation-causing foods.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:07 I, I did not, I did not change. I drank, strictly drank water. I didn't drink anything other than water. And, uh, I incorporated, you know, bananas and things like that into my diet that I never ate before or didn't care.

Joe Rogan 54:19 Because of potassium?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:20 Yeah. And what, what effect does potassium have on-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:23 I just-

Joe Rogan 54:23 ... brain recovery?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:24 I just hear that it's good for your brain. It's just-

Joe Rogan 54:26 Oh, okay.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:27 ... good for your brain.

Joe Rogan 54:27 You just heard that? (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:28 Yeah. I di- not ... My doctor didn't say, "Start eating this stuff."

Joe Rogan 54:31 Oh, okay.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:31 But it was just, you know. I- you got, you get tidbits f- Like when you go and get injured like that-

Joe Rogan 54:36 Mm-hmm.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:36 ... you're gonna get people texting you and giving you information here and there.

Joe Rogan 54:39 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:39 And you kind of take what you want and go, "Ah, you know, I don't know about that." But, um ...

Joe Rogan 54:43 Did you ever mess with CBD at all?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:44 CBD?

Joe Rogan 54:45 You don't know what that is?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:46 No.

Joe Rogan 54:46 No. Interesting. Um, CBD is a non-psychoactive form of hemp.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 54:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:52 And, uh, it's a radical inflammation fighter. And a lot of people that have f- like some pretty significant injuries to the brain, a lot of fighters take it-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 55:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:01 ... like right after fights. It used to be, um, it still-... questionable federally.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 55:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:09 Like, they're trying ... Like, there's some pushes to try to make it illegal just because of pharmaceutical drug companies kinda putting pressure on them.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 55:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:16 Doesn't do anything in terms of, like, get you high or anything-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 55:19 No. I've ... Actually-

Joe Rogan 55:20 ... but it reduces inflammation.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 55:20 I actually read a little bit about that, um, just a couple weeks ago because it, um, controls anxiety.

Joe Rogan 55:27 Yes.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 55:27 And, and, and it's helped a lot of people with that. One of my biggest ... One of the problems that I face just on a, you know, on the regular every day is, is where my anxiety is. Like-

Joe Rogan 55:36 Is that because of being famous?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 55:39 I don't ... No. I think it comes from, like, your childhood and-

Joe Rogan 55:42 Yeah?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 55:42 ... just things that you experience in life and-

Joe Rogan 55:45 Like, what are you anxious about?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 55:47 Um ... Just general social situations? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I would avoid ... I would ... I l- ... I've, I've gotten a lot better. Like, I go ... I can't ... I, I w- ... I would avoid concerts even if I loved the band. I would, uh-

Joe Rogan 56:05 Just 'cause there's too many people there?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:06 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:06 But is it too many people that are gonna bother you?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:08 No.

Joe Rogan 56:09 No?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:10 Um, I don't think so. And I like being bothered. I don't mind people coming up-

Joe Rogan 56:14 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:14 ... to me and saying, "Man, that's cool."

Joe Rogan 56:15 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:15 "I know who you are." I mean, that shit's ... feels great. But-

Joe Rogan 56:18 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:19 It was more about, like, am I gonna be accepted? Is it my scene? Is ... I don't know, man. I just always had a lotta anxiety over-

Joe Rogan 56:29 Oh, okay. So anxiety about whether or not you're gonna be-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:32 Like, fit in.

Joe Rogan 56:33 Fit in.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:34 Yeah. Okay. So you felt like an outsider-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:35 Yes.

Joe Rogan 56:35 ... when you were younger?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:36 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:37 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:37 So that anxiety, I don't know, I still feel ... Um, I d- ... I don't ... You know, so I ... When I-

Joe Rogan 56:45 That shit goes away hard. Takes a long time for that to go away.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:49 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:49 Yeah. Like, my wife, um, I ... She, uh, likes ashwagandha. You ever heard of the ashwagandha?

Joe Rogan 56:55 Yes.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 56:56 Yeah. So she, she likes that and I take that every once in a while, and I think that shit works pretty good.

Joe Rogan 57:00 Yeah?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:00 Kinda keeps you calm and-

Joe Rogan 57:01 Mm-hmm.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:02 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:03 So ... But I've never tried the ... I've read about ... When I was reading about ashwagandha is when I read about that stuff you're talking about.

Joe Rogan 57:10 I'll get you some.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:11 All right.

Joe Rogan 57:11 It'll, it'll help. CBD's amazing.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:13 Okay.

Joe Rogan 57:13 And then, you know what's really good? There's some b- muscle balms that work really good on sore joints and stuff. I mean, but, like, and nothing I've ever used before. Better than anything.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:22 Mm.

Joe Rogan 57:22 CBD just gets right into the muscles and just relaxes all the inflammation. And the best part about it is it's 100% natural and no side effects.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:30 There's nothing.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:31 Right.

Joe Rogan 57:31 But in terms of, like, there's a bunch of different CBD oils you can take.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:34 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 57:35 And you just ... They, they chill you out, but they don't get you high or anything.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 57:38 You're not weirded out.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:39 No.

Joe Rogan 57:39 But they just, just calm you down.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:41 Right.

Joe Rogan 57:41 And I wonder how much that calming down is because of inflammation, just reducing inflammation and just ... It just ... It seems that your body has, uh ... Your body knows what to do with it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:51 Your body's like, "Oh, I know what this is. This is good."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:54 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:54 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 57:55 Yeah. L- ... I mean, I g- ... I got Ted Nugent into it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 57:57 Really?

Joe Rogan 57:58 Man, Ted Nugent, before he came on here, he was telling me how he's all anti-marijuana and this and that, and we had this conversation about it, makes people lazy. I'm like, "I don't think it does, man."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:07 "I think people are just lazy."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:09 And I told him ... Because I know he's got some serious knee problems, had all these knee surgeries. He's ... You know, he's a madman. He used to jump off the top of the fucking stage and land on the ground, blew his meniscus out.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:19 I got him on this CBD balm now and, uh, he, he texted me the other day and he says, "There's not a thing I've ever used that's helped me like this before."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:26 Really?

Joe Rogan 58:26 Yeah. So now, like, I'm having cases sent to him, like, every week.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:30 Nice.

Joe Rogan 58:30 Yeah. He loves the shit.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:31 Man.

Joe Rogan 58:32 He's ... He wants to endorse it, which is hilarious.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:35 Like, the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent, super anti-marijuana, wants to endoise- ... uh, endorse a, a cannabis product that's helped his knees.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:42 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:43 But it doesn't do anything to you psychologically.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:45 Right.

Joe Rogan 58:45 It doesn't affect you.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:46 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:47 Other than it's-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:47 I mean, that's, th-

Joe Rogan 58:47 ... calmed you down.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:48 Yeah. That's what I read about it.

Joe Rogan 58:49 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 58:50 It doesn't have that part of the ... part of the drug that makes you high.

Joe Rogan 58:53 Well, my friend's son has, um, it's a type of epilepsy. Uh, Brendan Schaub, and he's started giving his kid CBD oil and it stopped the epilepsy in its tracks.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 59:05 Yeah. I think I read where they're, um ... It's been used for that for years.

Joe Rogan 59:10 Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 59:12 Yeah. To help, uh, for, um ... God ... seizures and stuff.

Joe Rogan 59:16 Yes.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 59:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:16 Yeah, for seizures. Yeah. It's a ... Just a radical inflammation decreaser. It just ... It figures out a way ... It does ... It does some sort of an interaction with your body where it just reduces inflammation.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 59:27 Mm.

Joe Rogan 59:27 But it's just ... It al- ... Like I said, it also calms people down, alleviates anxiety, and no side effects.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 59:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:34 That's the most important one. Some people, it gives them a weird stomach. They've ... They don't like the way it ... But I think they're probably taking too much or maybe it's expired or something like that.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 59:43 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 59:43 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 59:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:43 I've never had those issues, but I'll get you some.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 59:45 Okay.

Joe Rogan 59:45 We should look into that too.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 59:46 All right.

Joe Rogan 59:47 Yeah. So what else did they do with you? Did you do any cryotherapy or anything like that that also would reduce inflammation or-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 59:54 No, no. Basically, I went and, um ... Uh, in this ... In 2012, we did mai- ... Basic, basic, uh, physical therapy and eye therapy, eye, eye tests and different eye exercises. Um, and in two weeks, I was back in the race car. I raced for ... That was in 2012. I raced all the way to 2016.

Joe Rogan 1:00:19 Two weeks, you felt 100%?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:00:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:21 That's amazing.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:00:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:21 So with all these crazy exercise you're doing, when did you feel like it had settled in? Like, "Wow, this is really working"?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:00:28 Uh, pretty ... I mean, in two ... If it was a two-week period, it wasn't ... You know, it was a day or two, I th- ... I guess, you know? I mean, I can't even-

Joe Rogan 1:00:36 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:00:36 ... remember. I can't even remember that far back.

Joe Rogan 1:00:39 A day or two?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:00:40 Yeah. I mean, I imagine it was feeling pretty good after a couple days. I'd have to ... I don't know. I mean, I don't know if it-

Joe Rogan 1:00:46 Mm.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:00:46 ... affected me right away, or ... But I know I was ... By time ... We have ... We ... I take an impact test, which is basically kinda measures memory and things like that, all kinds of different stuff. And my, um, measurements had come back to my norm, you know, my basic, uh, uh ... Your ... You know, they kinda make you take the impact test beforehand so that gets your, your blueprint of how you are. And, uh, and then whenever you get injured, you take it again and they'll line that up against-... against that and say, "Okay, yeah, you're deficient here. This is a problem." Maybe it's not diagnosing a concussion but it wants... It, it's asking us to look in this area.

Joe Rogan 1:01:24 Mm-hmm.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:01:25 And, um, so you have a baseline and then you have whatever post, you know, your injury or post-crash, uh, baseline is. Um, so I was matching all my normals on that impact test and that was kinda the trigger for them to go, "Man, if you feel good, you look good. Here. All the things are saying that you're back." You know? And, uh, I wanted to go race so I felt pretty good.

Joe Rogan 1:01:49 Is it a, a strange feeling knowing that you can't see what the damage is? Like a, a brain injury's a strange one, right? Because it's affecting everything in your body but you don't... You don't see it. Like if you have a, a broken arm-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:02:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:02:05 ... and you're looking at it, you know it's in a cast, it gets fixed, you know, you, you're, you're aware of it. You're doing rehab on it, you're looking at it while you're doing it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:02:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:12 There's something about the brain where it's all like... You can kinda mind fuck yourself-

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:02:17 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:17 ... and say, "Eh, I think, I think I'm okay."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:02:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:20 You know?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:02:20 That's why... So in the b- in the book I talk about these notes I started taking. After that crash in 2012, when I would wreck after that, I would get sick and I wasn't telling anybody. And so I started writing these notes in my d- in a journal in my phone and from 2013 all the way to 2016 I had this long journal of crashes and how I felt. And I would, uh, crash on Sunday and I'd write in the journal on Sunday night, Monday morning, Monday at lunch, Monday at night. You know, every... Three times a day every day until whenever I felt good, which is usually the Wednesday or Thursday of th- that week. And I was writing these notes because I couldn't tell if I was getting better. The n- the, the brain injury or any type of head injury... I mean, if you said, "How's it feel?" Monday and then you asked me again Tuesday, I'd be like, "I really don't fucking know, man. It just... It's there."

Joe Rogan 1:03:10 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:03:10 "I don't know if it's better. It just feels bad." And so I would try to write as detailed as I could on a day, on a Monday and then try to write as detailed as I could on Tuesday and re-read Monday and see, "Hmm, is it better? I can see in the comments or, you know, I can't really remember exactly what I was feeling Monday but in the comments it seems better," and I would write these notes, right? And so I kept doing this and I thought I was treating myself. And eventually it caught up with me. Like I had about a dozen concussions in a period of about two and a half years-

Joe Rogan 1:03:41 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:03:41 ... and I got to where I couldn't walk and I was... Called my owner and I was like, "Man, I need to talk to you. I can't race this weekend. I can't hardly walk and, uh, my balance is so bad that I can't get up off the couch without holding onto something and walking across the room without grabbing stuff as I go." And-

Joe Rogan 1:03:59 Jesus.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:04:00 He, he was like, "We gotta go back to the doctor. What are you doing?" He was mad. He's like, "Y- you know, what are you fucking doing getting to the doctor? Why aren't you at the doctor?" And I was like, "You're right. I need to go to the doctor." I mean, a concussed person doesn't have good judgment and self-awareness, you know? They're... You're just-

Joe Rogan 1:04:13 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:04:13 You're just in a fricking... You're in a... It's like being hungover.

Joe Rogan 1:04:18 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:04:18 But the worst hangover. You can't make decisions. And so I went back to Pittsburgh and saw Mickey again and I had to stay out the entire whole half of the year in 2016 to get better. It took me five months to get well instead of two weeks.

Joe Rogan 1:04:33 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:04:33 And that time, um, I was on... They put me on medication that would drop my anxiety levels so the anxiety levels would stay down so that I could concentrate on, uh, the injury and-

Joe Rogan 1:04:44 What medications?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:04:46 Um, I'd ha- I don't know exactly the names but, um, it was a... To... It was very, very small doses and it would take about three weeks for it just to kinda kick in. I'd have to take it for a while before it'd start working. Um, but it just made me real chill and it made me not analyze myself every single day when I got up. When I got up I wouldn't go, "Hmm, is it still there? Is it as bad as it was? Let me walk across the room and see how I feel. Let me go do this and test this and try this and try this and try this all day long and see how I feel." It made me stop doing that 'cause I was driving myself crazy. And, um, he gave me a lot more physical therapy, basketball, e- m- movements, anything that got my head moving. Um, I'd do those exercises for about two weeks. Some of them would stop triggering symptoms. I'd go back to this place in Pittsburgh. We'd go through about 30 more exercises and I'd take home about 15 that made the symptoms trigger and I'd do them for about two or three weeks and some of them would stop working. I'd go back to him, we'd go through more physical exercises till... You know, kept doing that process over and over and over. I took the medication for about a year and a half, um, and I had a lot of... They gave me this, uh, computer program for my eyes and I was wearing these... I would wear these 3D glasses and, uh, uh, this computer program would try to take these 3D objects and go to 2D and back to 3D and my eyes would literally try... It would... It felt like it was trying to rip my eyes apart. It hurt, like physically hurt when this object would try to go from, from, uh, 3D to 2D and it was going very, very slowly and it felt like it was trying to rip my eyes apart. And imagine your eyes are tethered together so when you look left they both go there, right? And they both go... Wherever you look they go together like they're supposed to and mine didn't wanna do that. Mine, I... You couldn't physically see my eyes toed out or going the wrong way. You couldn't see that but when I'd try to look over here, they both didn't go to the same place and that was... That action or that, that computer program was strengthening that activity of my eyes trying to do something together and I would wa-... So if I... I've got these buffalo on my property and they're across the field wa-... You know, 200, 300 yards out across the field out the back window of my living room and if I walked across the floor, every step I took...... would knock my eyes off of the buffalo. Like, they're way out there and I could look at 'em, but if I took a step, my eyes would shake and I couldn't... I'd have to find 'em again, you know?

Guest 3 (unidentified, brief participant) 1:07:29 Wow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:07:30 And so that would s- that computer program would strengthen my ability... It's called gaze stabilization. It would make it to where when I walk I don't... You know, if I'm walking or bouncing across the room, I'm s- I can still look at you in the eyes and, and, you know, like a normal person.

Guest 3 (unidentified, brief participant) 1:07:44 Right.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:07:44 And if I... When I was in my, at my worst, I couldn't do that. And so, uh... But that took a long time to fix. And, uh, the book basically is me admitting making those mistakes. Uh, I shoulda went to him as soon as I got sick again the first time instead of trying to document it myself and, and hide it and, and manage it myself and trying to get to whatever the end of my career was, whenever that moment was, and retire, thinking I was gonna walk away without anybody ever knowing. Um, (smacks lips) and it... And I had to retire after that. After that 2016 year of missing half a season and going through all that, I didn't wanna go through it again. I had one more year on my contract in 2017, so I finished that season, and that was that.

Guest 3 (unidentified, brief participant) 1:08:29 Were you apprehensive while you were finishing that season?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:08:31 Yeah. I didn't wanna get hurt.

Guest 3 (unidentified, brief participant) 1:08:33 Yeah.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:08:33 I didn't wanna go back through that whole process again and go through that rehab again. I didn't wanna get sick again. Me and my wife just got married on New Year's of 2016, '17, so we are newlyweds. We're getting... She's pregnant. Uh, we're gonna have a baby. Um, you know, I didn't wanna go through any of that stuff sick.

Guest 3 (unidentified, brief participant) 1:08:52 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:08:52 You know what I told my doctor though? You'll like this, since now we know each other so well.

Guest 3 (unidentified, brief participant) 1:08:56 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:08:57 Um, when I was ill in the hospital... or when I was with Mickey in Pittsburgh as... my wedding was, uh, on New Year's and I was... This is probably around October or right be- no, this was probably in, uh, August. I said, "I need two things." I was like, "I need to be able to, uh, go through my wedding, uh, on my wedding day, and my wedding night and that whole experience, I wanna do it with a completely clear head and I wanna be able to remember everything. I don't wanna be on any drugs, I don't wanna, uh, have any symptoms. I don't wanna even be thinking about my hit or reminded about it in one- in any moment during that night. I want, uh, my wedding to be perfect. And I wanna be able to climb up in my deer stand-

Guest 3 (unidentified, brief participant) 1:09:39 (laughs)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1:09:39 ... without feeling like I'm gonna fall out of it." And he said he'd fix it, and I was hunting that...