Ward Burton was my favourite driver at the time. I came over from the UK to watch a race at Darlington and I was lucky to meet Ward. He signed my programme. Man I loved that CAT 22.
So much of nascar racing history that race fans took as "just the way it is" makes a helluva a lot more sense in retrospect after hearing these stories.
Evernham may have been the go to Dodge team, but it was Chip Ganassi and Sterling Marlin getting the first win for Dodge. He led the points for 26 races in 2002. If he was not sidelined with the neck injury, Sterling would have been champion.
I wouldn't say definitive would have been champion because Stewart had one helluva last third of that season moving from like 6th or 7th in points like 200 plus points back to catch and pass everyone in front of him and win the championship by like 30 something points if I remember correctly, BUT marlin up till his injury was bad fast all year long and def woulda been right there at the very least for the cup..... Was it Chicago or Kansas where he got hurt, wreck off turn 2 I remember, think it was at kansas
Too bad Bill couldnt say more than 5 words at a time and Dale had to carry the entire interview. Dodge sure had their work cut out for them. Davis couldnt keep his engine out of a toyota and Evernham couldnt keep his out of Crocker.
Bill Davis never had much to say. He is the kind of man who believes "if you have nothing good to say then say nothing" I don't think anyone disliked him. He put everything he could muster into his team and the sport. His passion finally got beat down until there was nothing left.
I loved those bill Davis cars. They made me like dodge in cup. My dad was a heavy equipment operator and I eventually became one: a cat car was so cool to me. They also kicked ass for what they were given. That 93 car was so much fun to root for and one of the best schemes of all time. Especially the white and gold version
You are right, I'm a Pontiac guy añd loved the MBNA and Amaco schemes with Blaney but those first intrepids were cool especially after they went to the snout nose chargers
@@vintvarner16 I loved the Pontiacs too, but I just followed the cat car and it was most influential to me as a dodge. Pontiac bodies are still my absolute favorite looking back
@@camarowland4 huge Petty fan here especially Kyle but seeing that #43 back in Dodge again was awesome, but my favorite was the Mello Yellow #42 and Hot Wheels #44
I'm neither a fan nor hater of BD, but I get the feeling from watching this that BD is his own worst enemy. I don't hear him taking much responsibility for his teams inadequacies.
I agree and think you are making a lot of sense. The finger was pointed everywhere else but the man himself. I mean, how can you possibly have that many failures/issues and you as the owner were not responsible for any of them?
Your assumption and observation. is correct. He was basically a 💩 bag car owner like JD Stacey 🤷♂️. He was the main problem to his race team and nobody else but him. Best thing Jeff Gordon ever did was get the f out of that place . If Jeff stayed at BDR he would’ve had like a handful of wins and zero cup titles
Im glad to see and hear this with Bill Davis..I think Jr is great interviewer but I will say I think he talked alot from this point on in the interview and would have wanted to hear more of what BD had to say in his own words instead of Jr laying it all out. Totally not hating on him and think hes great but it was pretty noticeable in this.
Brad Keselowski won a NASCAR Championship in 2012 with Dodge. ""Not one failure all year long in that Dodge engine, so I want to thank Dodge for what they've done for us," Penske said after Keselowski secured the title."
The Dodge deal with Bill was strange too as they refused to help the BD Busch team so Scott Wimmer drove factory Pontiacs and Chevrolets with Dodge's permission in 2002-2003.
Exactly like if Bill Davis can get away running Pontiacs and Chevy's In the Busch Series,they can definitely get away running Toyota in the Craftsman truck series.
@@BlueRidgeKat1 He's a minority owner in Dirty Mo. He and Jr. are friends. Jr could easily buy him out, but Mike did help him get it off the ground. So yeah, prolly feels sorry for him...
Well, I mean, he set up a shell company to run his TRD program and when the courts came down with the $6.5m judgement, it was because it was proven he violated a confidentiality agreement and not because he was building Toyota trucks. Which means he was caught sharing data he gained from Dodge with Toyota, who was in the early stages of building a NASCAR program. The court specifically said it was fine he was building Toyota trucks under a different company, it was that violation of the confidentiality agreement that got him. Also, the judgement was $6.5m and he settled after the initial judgement for $5m.
I hate hearing folks talk about how Gordon did Bill wrong. What he did was nowhere near as Bill firing Ward Burton with a note , just 1 year after Ward won daytona 500.
Well I'm sure they didn't just make it up just because they were dodge and coming back, there woulda had to have been some kinda talking behind the scenes going on for them to have that idea in their head
Gordon was probably headed to Dodge. Believe he signed an early contract , which was a lifetime driving only for HMS & ownership stake in HMS the year Evernham left.
@@martycablejr.9855 you are correct.. Hendricks had to give partial ownership to Gordon to get him to stay, at that time in his career he was still looking at money. Dodge was offering him a ton of money to drive.
Stellantis isn’t coming into stock cars unless there’s an EV series. They’re allegedly the “new manufacturer” that backed out when NASCAR shut down EV and hybrid plans for last year.
@@Gage_Brumley Delayed them like a decade or so. NASCAR has forgotten what it’s core fans want so I’ll be surprised if the sport is doing well by then.
Talk about a case of does the cat have your tongue, I give Jr a lot of credit for this, he really had to work to pry the answers out of Bill Davis. And I’m not taking shots at Bill Davis, maybe he’s just a man of few words
The question I didnt hear was "Bill why did you give TRD a Dodge racing engine" Its great when a story only touches around the edges of the truth. Bill Davis got everything he deserved.
Toyota didnt get a Dodge engine from Bill. Nobody wanted the overweight , oversize dodge. Toyota had all the manufactures engines , long before they decided to go racing.
I always felt like Jr. is grateful to Mike for past work, and kept him around for that reason, but I had the feeling from the first time I saw Mike, that he's like the kiss ass friend of the popular kid in school. He does disagree from time to time, but most of it is "oh, I totally agree with what Dale said about..." just all the time. I could be wrong. Stranger pairings have happened. Look at Dale Sr. and Michael Waltrip. It just seems kinda forced in this case though. 🤷🏻♂️
Now hold on a second guys. Saying dodges return to the series was a let down is being q little too harsh. When they got to cup sterling won the first duel race i believe and bill Elliott was on pole. They also won the championship on thier way out with brad k. Im not a huge dodge fan but credit is due for em. Also ward winning in 2002 second year back. Dodge was a star that shined twice as bright but burned out fast as well
Huge Pontiac and Dodge fan here, Those Dodges were cool, Elliott and Stacy Compton on pole for Daytona 2001, that #9 and #19 of Elliott and Atwood were cool looking
Jr. you are one great human I know it will probably never happen but I would love to be you one day. Just a down to earth intelligent person. 🙏. Maybe one day I’ll get lucky enough. Hope you and all your family stay healthy and the rest of 2023 gets better and better and by the way thanks for all the great videos. Awesome job.
I’ll take you and your crew out for some snook fishing in the back waters of Estero on me any time. Also some good red fish fishing in my area. SWFlorida Sanibel Captiva area, Fort Myers Beach in Estero Bay. Anytime, dude. Thanks for all your Q&A during your interviews. 🙏
Bill Davis brought Toyota into NASCAR, his company Triad serviced customer engines starting in trucks then moved to the other divisions until TRD could carry that amount of service. Then they serviced other manufacturers engines for private teams. Not sure if Triad is still around or got bought up by TRD or just closed.
Hard to believe Bill Davis has Jeff Gordon and then bobby Labonte and Ward Burton within not many years so he has some really talented drivers for such a small team I think Ward was more talented than Jeff he just never had as good of equipment as Roush gave Jeff
@@fatpatlives1998The OP may have meant Jeff Burton since he paired the comment with Roush. I think Ward was a better driver and stayed too loyal to Davis. Listening to this was like trying to get a rusted nut off a rusted bolt. JR had to do all the talking and I think Davis doesn’t want to admit his fault in the whole Tommy Baldwin, Ward, and Toyota deal. He was doing some shifty stuff from about 03 on. He didn’t last either.
@@ringalls22 I'm sorry I was thinking about Jeff Gordon but yes your right he could have definitely had a career on point with his brother if he would have had better equipment.
@@ringalls22 Well and keep in mind there is lots of lawsuits involved in all of that. You never heard much out of Bill Davis anyways, throw those in the mix and he probably doesn't want to say too much of anything that would get him possibly slapped with another one. I also think Dale probably should have been a bit more patient with him as well. He seemed like he was trying to be measured in his wording, which maybe doesn't make for an easy interview but I think it would have made for better information from our perspective.
Jr. something that might help add some substance is allowing the interviewee the chance to tell the story. I’m sure you need to keep moving things along, but I feel like Bill had more to say on some topics. Shawn Ryan is fantastic at this on his videos. I love this channel and really appreciate it. Just a very small critique.
He does do a good job and jr's interviews ain't always like that, I think just cuz he still has memories of that time being involved in the series he is talking more cuz many times he is talking about the things from his memory/vantage point
"The lawsuit claims Davis' employees built Toyota a truck with a Dodge engine installed and accompanied it to an April 30 wind tunnel test in Marietta, Ga."
And while at the wind tunnel they forgot to strap the truck down and it crashed through the wind tunnel. There’s a clip on door, bumper, clear with Chris Rice talking about it while discussing the new rules for 2020. I thought Bill gave Toyota a dodge engine for them to basically copy to get the engine approved for the cup program.
@@johnhopkins6565 another one I remember that actually was announced was the 09 when it switched from Ford in 02 to dodge in 03 and had the decals on in 03. Actually got some manufacturer $ support from dodge so that's y.
If you look back far enough there is a truck engine for Toyota and a cup engine. That cup engine got in serious trouble. It was a carbon copy of a Dodges engine. Toyota tried to raise the cam in the block no no Dodge got yelled at for that one. How dare bill Davis cuss Ernie Elliott and Tony Santanicola bout the dodge engine people. Bill Davis through Dodge under the buss. That Toyota money got him greedy
Lucky for Jeff, Ray's pockets weren't deep enough to match Rick's lifetime deal. Ray got distracted by the new talent and lost track of the rest of the operation.
W Burton certainly doesnt seem like that kind of a diva or hard to work with kind of person. Furthest thing from it. He stayed a long time and probably lost out on a lot of money moving on to another team.
Could have been settled a lot easier by BDR not working with another manufacturer to develop a car for NASCAR. Huge violation of the contract with Dodge. Especially when they were testing the Toyota with Dodge engines in them before Toyota had their engine developed. Seriously doubt Cat would tool up and start casting blocks that more than likely had copyrights on. Dodge will never come back into NASCAR because every time Dodge outran Chevies NASCAR would change the rules on the car or engine for Dodge's and slow them down. They are done with that BS!
They were testing the Toyota body by using a dodge engine your saying?? Don't make much sense since they could a used the truck engine and/or just wind tunnel..... How sure are you of your claim exactly??
@@diychad7268 Damn sure. It was even reported back then that is what they were doing. You have to realize the factory engine in the street vehicle is way different than a race engine. Toyotas race engine was not developed yet. They were working on it yes but did not have an engine. Toyota first came into NASCAR in the truck program only. And they ran only truck for I believe the first two years. It was all new to Toyota and that is why they reached out to a team like BDR to help develop the truck and BDR had no issues with backstabbing Dodge and breaking a contract by using Dodge engines in another manufacturers car. It cost BDR 5 mill that was paid by Toyota and I am sure BDR told Toyota we will do this but you need to pay the cost of it if we get caught screwing Dodge. By the way BDR is no longer existent in NASCAR
@@skidoorulz4914 you are right but no matter what testing another manufacturer while you are running another different manufacturer is sketchy and just illegal, whether they were testing engines in different brands, you just don't do that period
@@jkdwayne And you say that because? Why would they have bought Ford engines when they had Dodge engines laying around? That's right they wouldn't have. But anyway you look at it what BDR did was wrong.
Then the Dodge deal just got weird. The Intrepids had front ends that looked just like the Stratus road car. The "Charger" came out, but it was a cross between the Magnum and some duck lookin kinda thing. The Dodge drivers didn't know what to call their cars.
Wow, Lil E... You don't have a lot of love for Benson do ya? That s too bad, He won a race in all three series, a champ of two. And he did it while you and your pals used him to get a caution when you needed it. Not much love for Davis either, Why did they break up the 23 team after the championship, and bank on the second team?
Well this sure adds alot to the story about Bill. However, I always loved the colors on the #93 Amaco car. Especially since it was a Pontiac and i'm a big time Pontiac fan. I still have an autograph photo of Dave Blaney with that car. But i gotta say it didn't surprise me none when Davis said about the how chrysler engines were poorly made. As a tech from the late 90s onward, i can attest that mopar products and their vehicles back then were nothing but junk. Almost every week i had to be working on several jeeps, interpids, carvans, etc. I hated it! Everything i saw they made had issues. From engine failures, especially that horrible 3.8L engine, electrical issues, and the completely rusted out strut towers from the mini-vans. I mean for them to get into racing without fixing there production problems is just doing things half assed. What made it worse is when Dalmer took over and incorporated their mercedez bens auto stick feature. It just didn't work! So it to no surprise that Mopar only lasted as long as they did. In a sense, i'm glad they came into the sport because it was great to see the big three competing on the Nascar stage, but then again, that performance program had a lot to be desired. Not sure if it was true or not but i heard awhile ago as to one of the reasons why those dodges weren't competitive as the other two is partial due to the amount of mass on the engine block that cause the cars to "push" alot in the corners making them hard to steer. This could have been just wild rumors, but i can't forget that for some reason. Maybe someone can chime in on that.
@@needsmetal If Kinser could have ran some Busch races for a little bit, dirt to asphalt big change. Even Tony Stewart ran Busch for a season after Indy car, etc
Dont remember if i ever saw bill davis before anywhere. Like his style but there shouldve been more elaboration on stuff and maybe less interrupting the guy before he says something really good.
So I don’t have a horse in the race but my experience with car owners that have routine problems with drivers being “bull headed” or “personality conflicts”. Normally someone in the leadership of the team is toxic and driving the venom. -- but even in lower series it’s perfectly understood you don’t go working on another make in any way while your wearing the colors. Drivers and teams forget when you wear sponsor logos or names. That company is blessing off on you to represent them. So if you wear Home Depot colors you can’t be working on a Lowes project. Or if your dealing with Chevy you can’t go running Ford’s. I ran in 4 series for a couple of years and It was a chore managing the sponsor conflicts. It just seems extremely brazen to work on a Toyota while being sponsored by dodge. In anyway btw. Forget it being cup. Normally in the contracts you can’t do anything it’s like being married. You can’t go get another wife or gf you will end up in divorce court
They do on their website and a couple other places, not sure I've known of them ever putting the entire episodes here on RUclips..... Maybe they have here and there but not always
People forget that Toyota struggled big time when it entered cup in 2007. Red Bull and MWR missed a lot of races. There was no charter system and these teams had no owners points to fall back on. Dale Jarret brought over UPS Sponsorship from Yates and it turned into a fiasco.
This is like pulling teeth. Jr. Keeps opening doors with questions, it seems like Mr. Davis keeps his thoughts and answers very short to the point. Would like to hear the details.
I thought Ward was BDR's best driver. Had Wimmer just waited a bit longer and had not burned the bridge with Dodge, that could have been a championship team
Is this the same Bill Davis who let Jeff Gordon go..............didn't see any potential. Dodge qualified 1-2-3 at Daytona and also won one of the qualifying races. All 10 Dodge's qualified for Daytona................NO engine block failures ever. Gave Toyota one of our engines which they immediately copied. Got sued and lost big time. By the way I was one of the Dodge people who worked on the engine program. Two of us worked on the original race group engines for the Petty's back in the day. Yep..............no experience there. Poor old Bill..............looks like dementia has kicked in.
I think I remember a tiny bit of them having to cover up the logos on the car but it's really faint it seem like it was Ward's car that's all I can remember nowadays the story like that would be talked about quite a bit back then it seemed like it flew under the radar
Ward stuck up for Bill Davis even when they were black listed and sucked and Davis comes on here and throws Ward under the bus. What an ass and I'm glad he got sued.
I heard that Daimler wanted all the racing money to be funneled into Mercedes racing projects, after Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler. But, the NASCAR project was too far along to cancel the it and contracts already in place. Litigation would have been nasty and very long to get out of the contracts.
@@Ever443 no not so much fiat owns Ferrari as well. So when the viper whooped the 458 at road America in 2014 Ferrari bitched about it and now look what happened with the vipers.
@@brazilnut8898 it's an interview, and he didn't apparently want to be interviewed, because Jr had to pull teeth to get more than yes or no out of him. 🤷🏻♂️
I'm not surprised that Bill lost this suit if he still doesn't understand the contract after going through it. He tried to separate things in his mind but there's a lot of details we don't have from this telling (like did an car tech go over one day, could the toyota people walk through the dodge shop to get to Bill's office). The amount for example would be explained in detail in the court ruling. Also the Dodge deal with nascar falling apart times up with the company falling apart outside the sport.
TOYOTA'S FIRST YEAR WAS IN TRUCKS I WAS AT THE RACE IN Daytona. Trucks ran well on Friday. I was with a group of Toyota Service managers and Directors we had a blast seats were almost on start finish line 25 rows up.Dale was a hero to a bunch of managers.
The biggest problem with Dodge is Chrysler corporation decided to go cup racing and started things in motion with the truck series and Busch, then mercedes bought them, there was no merger, and mercedes management got involved and didn't really care about naSCar because all Mercedes cares about is f1.
And the other issue is towards the back half of the dodge deal (like 08ish and after) fiat didn’t care much either. Plus the fallout of the 2013 deal with the Andretti’s didn’t help either
I kinda tried to like Bill Davis Racing. Now I can see why I never really bought in. He's either a terrible communicator or he chooses to avoid providing detail. Either way he doesn't seem like a good example of a leader.
I remember Kyle Petty saying dodge fined him like 150 grands for relief driving for Harvick at bristol. I thought that was pretty shitty of them. Maybe Harvick could have returned the favor later on but I guess dodge saw it differently.
Jr is at his worst in this interview. He’s basically interviewing himself with BD just listening. The Gordon situation really sucked, maybe Davis could have done better, maybe not. But working on a truck team with Toyota while having a deal with Dodge and not clearing it with them is sheer idiocy. How were they supposed to feel about that?
After hearing this interview, I don’t get why the fanbase claims a car sponsored by a manufacturer like Chevy or Dodge is “unsponsored.” If anything, having that on your car just shows that your team has the manufacture support of a major OEM. Look at the Evernham team as a prime example of that. A lot of fans portray having Chevy or Toyota on the hood as a sign of bad things. I think that’s just a misguided assumption.
I kinda thought that Bill was holding back, and he's definitely not the guy to (Bad Mouth) people. Kind of a struggle to get him to open up about everything.
I have been a Ford guy since the 70s and 80s when I worked on a mini modified at Nashville Fairground. That said I would love it if Honda would join Nascar.
But Honda don't have a pushrod V8 engine, they would have to develope one, I mean I guess that's what Toyota did but I just don't get the feeling that Honda is even a lil interested in doing that
I always like and comment. You never comment back Jr. I've actually tried to contact you a few times. You never respond or return my calls or emails... SO, here's another like and comment to boost the rating for your channel...
@@beckyumphrey2626 That has nothing to do with the business. He's talking about the business, and business accounts. If you're digging into your personal accounts to keep your business afloat, you're doing it wrong. You're talking about two completely different things.
Jr is the best interviewer there is, hands down. Not afraid to ask the tough questions and prod for deeper answers.
And the most important part is he's extremely respectful about it too
He talks to much
Ward Burton was my favourite driver at the time. I came over from the UK to watch a race at Darlington and I was lucky to meet Ward. He signed my programme. Man I loved that CAT 22.
So much of nascar racing history that race fans took as "just the way it is" makes a helluva a lot more sense in retrospect after hearing these stories.
Evernham may have been the go to Dodge team, but it was Chip Ganassi and Sterling Marlin getting the first win for Dodge. He led the points for 26 races in 2002. If he was not sidelined with the neck injury, Sterling would have been champion.
Bill Elliot was after? Didn't he win around them I'm the 9
I agree 100% with you remember seeing Sterling at the track with that big neck brace on and it just tore him up to see somebody else driving his car
I wouldn't say definitive would have been champion because Stewart had one helluva last third of that season moving from like 6th or 7th in points like 200 plus points back to catch and pass everyone in front of him and win the championship by like 30 something points if I remember correctly, BUT marlin up till his injury was bad fast all year long and def woulda been right there at the very least for the cup..... Was it Chicago or Kansas where he got hurt, wreck off turn 2 I remember, think it was at kansas
Evernham may have been the "flag ship" but when I think of Dodge in modern NASCAR, I think of Penske and Ganassi
And look how BDR repaid Dodge. Sterling Marlin was great. IIMHO he and Mark Martin are the two greatest drivers to never win a championship..
Too bad Bill couldnt say more than 5 words at a time and Dale had to carry the entire interview. Dodge sure had their work cut out for them. Davis couldnt keep his engine out of a toyota and Evernham couldnt keep his out of Crocker.
😂😂😂😂
Damn lol
Ward's side of the story will be golden
LMAO
This was cool.. I never knew much about Bill Davis, I do know Ward & Jeff were great at Darlington and those abrasive tracks. Fond memories.
Jr carried this interview. Jr said 100 words for every 1 Bill said.
Bill Davis never had much to say. He is the kind of man who believes "if you have nothing good to say then say nothing" I don't think anyone disliked him. He put everything he could muster into his team and the sport. His passion finally got beat down until there was nothing left.
@@wysetech2000 Your exactly correct , I worked there from 97-08. Never find a better man to work for .
@@jkdwayne what he said about Ward not having faith in people who worked on the cars surprised me.
I loved those bill Davis cars. They made me like dodge in cup. My dad was a heavy equipment operator and I eventually became one: a cat car was so cool to me. They also kicked ass for what they were given. That 93 car was so much fun to root for and one of the best schemes of all time. Especially the white and gold version
You are right, I'm a Pontiac guy añd loved the MBNA and Amaco schemes with Blaney but those first intrepids were cool especially after they went to the snout nose chargers
@@vintvarner16 I loved the Pontiacs too, but I just followed the cat car and it was most influential to me as a dodge. Pontiac bodies are still my absolute favorite looking back
@@camarowland4 huge Petty fan here especially Kyle but seeing that #43 back in Dodge again was awesome, but my favorite was the Mello Yellow #42 and Hot Wheels #44
@@vintvarner16 that hot wheels 44 was so awesome. Pontiac had some awesome cars. 32 tide car was also amazing other than the JGR cars
I'm neither a fan nor hater of BD, but I get the feeling from watching this that BD is his own worst enemy. I don't hear him taking much responsibility for his teams inadequacies.
I agree and think you are making a lot of sense. The finger was pointed everywhere else but the man himself. I mean, how can you possibly have that many failures/issues and you as the owner were not responsible for any of them?
Your assumption and observation. is correct. He was basically a 💩 bag car owner like JD Stacey 🤷♂️. He was the main problem to his race team and nobody else but him. Best thing Jeff Gordon ever did was get the f out of that place . If Jeff stayed at BDR he would’ve had like a handful of wins and zero cup titles
Yeah agree, seems he was holding back a bit at some of Jr's questions
Bill Davis always thought he was Hendricks, Childress caliber. What a rude awakening he got.
I loved that mbna scheme that ward had with Pontiac and the cat dodge
Im glad to see and hear this with Bill Davis..I think Jr is great interviewer but I will say I think he talked alot from this point on in the interview and would have wanted to hear more of what BD had to say in his own words instead of Jr laying it all out. Totally not hating on him and think hes great but it was pretty noticeable in this.
Bill Davis is a man of few words.
Same. Actually made it a difficult interview to listen to.
@@tomchrisfield7348 he really didn't have a chance to say anything or questions to answer.
Bill's barely talking, Jr is having to guide the conversation.
Sounds like Bill was having trouble with his voice.
Brad Keselowski won a NASCAR Championship in 2012 with Dodge. ""Not one failure all year long in that Dodge engine, so I want to thank Dodge for what they've done for us," Penske said after Keselowski secured the title."
Their last year in the series...... Still dunno why they even pulled out actually
I remember this clearly
@@diychad7268 they had a car built for 2013 season but I think it was clear the money/factory support wasn’t really there and teams bailed.
@@nicklehman1289 Chrysler/Dodge's problem with commitment in motorsports is that they're owned by foreign entities aka French owned Stellantis
@Sgt. Stoven same thing happened late 70s when they pulled out
The Dodge deal with Bill was strange too as they refused to help the BD Busch team so Scott Wimmer drove factory Pontiacs and Chevrolets with Dodge's permission in 2002-2003.
Exactly like if Bill Davis can get away running Pontiacs and Chevy's In the Busch Series,they can definitely get away running Toyota in the Craftsman truck series.
Hearing Dale Jr say "MOPAR POWER" was awesome 👊👊👊👊🇺🇲👍
Damn Jr shutdown mike with the "i just said that" comment. Ole Bill is still not telling the whole and nothing but the story.
I noticed that door slam too.😂😂😂
I don't get why Mike is even there. Don't care for him. Must need a job and Jr. feels sorry for him.
@@BlueRidgeKat1 He's a minority owner in Dirty Mo. He and Jr. are friends. Jr could easily buy him out, but Mike did help him get it off the ground. So yeah, prolly feels sorry for him...
Welcome to the interview Mike….😂😂😂
Mike can be there and most of the time he's good. BD is to old school to have a real interview lol
Nice shirt. Used to watch him race when I was a kid at GPS.
I don't totally trust Bill's version of affairs on Dodge things.
Well, I mean, he set up a shell company to run his TRD program and when the courts came down with the $6.5m judgement, it was because it was proven he violated a confidentiality agreement and not because he was building Toyota trucks. Which means he was caught sharing data he gained from Dodge with Toyota, who was in the early stages of building a NASCAR program. The court specifically said it was fine he was building Toyota trucks under a different company, it was that violation of the confidentiality agreement that got him.
Also, the judgement was $6.5m and he settled after the initial judgement for $5m.
Dodge had every right to sue Bill for moonlighting with Toyota. BDR may still be around if he hadn't had done things the way he did.
Stellar interview. Just awesome. Loved it
Dale let the man talk
Massively disappointed with his comments on Ward after all the loyalty he showed Bill
I hate hearing folks talk about how Gordon did Bill wrong. What he did was nowhere near as Bill firing Ward Burton with a note , just 1 year after Ward won daytona 500.
Bill Davis had about as much manufacturer loyalty as ThorSport, which is to say none at all
Yeah they’re like the child of divorced parents Ford and Toyota fighting over custody
I listrned to every Ward Burton interview just to hear him say Caterpillar Dodge in his unique voice
HOLD THE PHONE: DODGE THOUGHT JEFF GORDON WAS GONNA LEAVE HENDRICK/CHEVY AND DRIVE FOR THEM??? HOW DID YOU JUST GLOSS OVER THAT???
I had to pause it on that one and re-group
Well I'm sure they didn't just make it up just because they were dodge and coming back, there woulda had to have been some kinda talking behind the scenes going on for them to have that idea in their head
Gordon was probably headed to Dodge. Believe he signed an early contract , which was a lifetime driving only for HMS & ownership stake in HMS the year Evernham left.
@@martycablejr.9855 you are correct.. Hendricks had to give partial ownership to Gordon to get him to stay, at that time in his career he was still looking at money. Dodge was offering him a ton of money to drive.
Right? I've never heard that one before. Although that being said, I don't totally trust it cus I don't trust Bill Davis on Dodge stuff.
I would love to see dodge return
I don’t see it happening as deeply they’re involved in the NHRA.
Also marketing a car they don’t make anymore would seem a little useless.
Stellantis isn’t coming into stock cars unless there’s an EV series. They’re allegedly the “new manufacturer” that backed out when NASCAR shut down EV and hybrid plans for last year.
@@warrenself NASCAR didn't shut down those plans, they only delayed them
@@Gage_Brumley Delayed them like a decade or so. NASCAR has forgotten what it’s core fans want so I’ll be surprised if the sport is doing well by then.
Talk about a case of does the cat have your tongue, I give Jr a lot of credit for this, he really had to work to pry the answers out of Bill Davis. And I’m not taking shots at Bill Davis, maybe he’s just a man of few words
The question I didnt hear was "Bill why did you give TRD a Dodge racing engine" Its great when a story only touches around the edges of the truth. Bill Davis got everything he deserved.
Why? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ He didn't 'give' TRD anything. He made a very, very pretty penny for that engine Joe... Way more than it was worth.
Toyota didnt get a Dodge engine from Bill. Nobody wanted the overweight , oversize dodge. Toyota had all the manufactures engines , long before they decided to go racing.
This is a rough interview. Bill Davis either not saying much or Jr interrupting him, then Jr jumps on Mike and talks to him like he’s an idiot.
Well, he kinda is...
Why the hell is Mike even there. Tired of looking at him.
He's always slouching like a wet noodle.
I always felt like Jr. is grateful to Mike for past work, and kept him around for that reason, but I had the feeling from the first time I saw Mike, that he's like the kiss ass friend of the popular kid in school. He does disagree from time to time, but most of it is "oh, I totally agree with what Dale said about..." just all the time.
I could be wrong. Stranger pairings have happened. Look at Dale Sr. and Michael Waltrip. It just seems kinda forced in this case though. 🤷🏻♂️
Well, Mike is an idiot lol
Now hold on a second guys. Saying dodges return to the series was a let down is being q little too harsh. When they got to cup sterling won the first duel race i believe and bill Elliott was on pole. They also won the championship on thier way out with brad k. Im not a huge dodge fan but credit is due for em. Also ward winning in 2002 second year back. Dodge was a star that shined twice as bright but burned out fast as well
Don't forget in I believe 02 Marlin was cruising to a championship until his injury at Kansas
Ward's Daytona win should have been Marlin's... unfortunately, the illegal red flag repair attempt happened.
Huge Pontiac and Dodge fan here, Those Dodges were cool, Elliott and Stacy Compton on pole for Daytona 2001, that #9 and #19 of Elliott and Atwood were cool looking
@@vintvarner16have you seen brock beards 500 days on here? It's great and talks a lot about Dodge coming back
Great show guys but how do I get one of those Butch Lindley t-shirts? That is so cool!
Jr. you are one great human I know it will probably never happen but I would love to be you one day. Just a down to earth intelligent person. 🙏. Maybe one day I’ll get lucky enough. Hope you and all your family stay healthy and the rest of 2023 gets better and better and by the way thanks for all the great videos. Awesome job.
Meet you one day
I’ll take you and your crew out for some snook fishing in the back waters of Estero on me any time. Also some good red fish fishing in my area. SWFlorida Sanibel Captiva area, Fort Myers Beach in Estero Bay. Anytime, dude. Thanks for all your Q&A during your interviews. 🙏
Bill Davis brought Toyota into NASCAR, his company Triad serviced customer engines starting in trucks then moved to the other divisions until TRD could carry that amount of service. Then they serviced other manufacturers engines for private teams. Not sure if Triad is still around or got bought up by TRD or just closed.
I think Toyota bought Triad and absorbed them into their own company
Ward should have taken the cat sponsorship and left for a better team. Bill Davis seemed shady.
Good video, but I felt like Dale shut down Mike a bit there. I think Mike was going to lead it toward some different line of questioning.
Hard to believe Bill Davis has Jeff Gordon and then bobby Labonte and Ward Burton within not many years so he has some really talented drivers for such a small team I think Ward was more talented than Jeff he just never had as good of equipment as Roush gave Jeff
That's bold...I do agree ward could have won more in better equipment no question but better than 90s Gordon idk
@@fatpatlives1998The OP may have meant Jeff Burton since he paired the comment with Roush. I think Ward was a better driver and stayed too loyal to Davis. Listening to this was like trying to get a rusted nut off a rusted bolt. JR had to do all the talking and I think Davis doesn’t want to admit his fault in the whole Tommy Baldwin, Ward, and Toyota deal. He was doing some shifty stuff from about 03 on. He didn’t last either.
@@ringalls22 I'm sorry I was thinking about Jeff Gordon but yes your right he could have definitely had a career on point with his brother if he would have had better equipment.
@@ringalls22 Well and keep in mind there is lots of lawsuits involved in all of that. You never heard much out of Bill Davis anyways, throw those in the mix and he probably doesn't want to say too much of anything that would get him possibly slapped with another one.
I also think Dale probably should have been a bit more patient with him as well. He seemed like he was trying to be measured in his wording, which maybe doesn't make for an easy interview but I think it would have made for better information from our perspective.
And had rookie Mark Martin in his early days.
Jr. something that might help add some substance is allowing the interviewee the chance to tell the story. I’m sure you need to keep moving things along, but I feel like Bill had more to say on some topics. Shawn Ryan is fantastic at this on his videos. I love this channel and really appreciate it. Just a very small critique.
He does do a good job and jr's interviews ain't always like that, I think just cuz he still has memories of that time being involved in the series he is talking more cuz many times he is talking about the things from his memory/vantage point
Most of this interview would have been silence if he didn't push. Answers of a few words don't get much across in context or otherwise.
Dale jr keeps nascar in the news like his dad !
"The lawsuit claims Davis' employees built Toyota a truck with a Dodge engine installed and accompanied it to an April 30 wind tunnel test in Marietta, Ga."
And while at the wind tunnel they forgot to strap the truck down and it crashed through the wind tunnel. There’s a clip on door, bumper, clear with Chris Rice talking about it while discussing the new rules for 2020. I thought Bill gave Toyota a dodge engine for them to basically copy to get the engine approved for the cup program.
@@Whitewizard1289 wow comedy of errors
Was a Ford.
I remember the Dodge deal got so bad, Michael wouldn't even refer to his car as a Dodge. It was the Napa Hotrod.
He did that at the 2006 Daytona 500 qualifying broadcast. I used to think it was weird not to say what it was but I get all the stuff now.
@@dillonpierce7869 I remember now the dodges not having the manufacturer emblems because I was painting cars for the NR2003 car sets in those days.
@@johnhopkins6565 another one I remember that actually was announced was the 09 when it switched from Ford in 02 to dodge in 03 and had the decals on in 03. Actually got some manufacturer $ support from dodge so that's y.
@@johnhopkins6565 it was odd and weird looking with no stickers or logos, that Napa Hotrod wasn't much of a hotrod for Mikey...lol
Waltrip's 2006 team was operated by BDR (but used Jasper's owner points) and that year BDR was required to remove all Dodge branding by a court order.
If you look back far enough there is a truck engine for Toyota and a cup engine. That cup engine got in serious trouble. It was a carbon copy of a Dodges engine. Toyota tried to raise the cam in the block no no Dodge got yelled at for that one. How dare bill Davis cuss Ernie Elliott and Tony Santanicola bout the dodge engine people. Bill Davis through Dodge under the buss. That Toyota money got him greedy
98 percent Jr. talking & couple words from Bill. Instead of talking at him, maybe ask simple concise questions & let the man answer.
Lucky for Jeff, Ray's pockets weren't deep enough to match Rick's lifetime deal.
Ray got distracted by the new talent and lost track of the rest of the operation.
Ray got distracted by his girlfriend.
Ray became a Creeper.
I get a kick out of Jr. treating Mike like a dummy. 😂
Ward Burton was an excellent driver. Loyal to the teams he drove for and made out of heavy duty leather
W Burton certainly doesnt seem like that kind of a diva or hard to work with kind of person. Furthest thing from it. He stayed a long time and probably lost out on a lot of money moving on to another team.
2002 Daytona 500 Champion one of the nicest people out there Bill Davis. I have a picture at Daytona USA with Ward's car
Jimmy Hensley should be in the HoF.
Could have been settled a lot easier by BDR not working with another manufacturer to develop a car for NASCAR. Huge violation of the contract with Dodge. Especially when they were testing the Toyota with Dodge engines in them before Toyota had their engine developed. Seriously doubt Cat would tool up and start casting blocks that more than likely had copyrights on. Dodge will never come back into NASCAR because every time Dodge outran Chevies NASCAR would change the rules on the car or engine for Dodge's and slow them down. They are done with that BS!
They were testing the Toyota body by using a dodge engine your saying?? Don't make much sense since they could a used the truck engine and/or just wind tunnel..... How sure are you of your claim exactly??
@@diychad7268 Damn sure. It was even reported back then that is what they were doing. You have to realize the factory engine in the street vehicle is way different than a race engine. Toyotas race engine was not developed yet. They were working on it yes but did not have an engine. Toyota first came into NASCAR in the truck program only. And they ran only truck for I believe the first two years. It was all new to Toyota and that is why they reached out to a team like BDR to help develop the truck and BDR had no issues with backstabbing Dodge and breaking a contract by using Dodge engines in another manufacturers car. It cost BDR 5 mill that was paid by Toyota and I am sure BDR told Toyota we will do this but you need to pay the cost of it if we get caught screwing Dodge. By the way BDR is no longer existent in NASCAR
Wrong , there never was a Dodge in a Toy Truck , we purchased 20 FORD engines from Ernie Elliot for that.
@@skidoorulz4914 you are right but no matter what testing another manufacturer while you are running another different manufacturer is sketchy and just illegal, whether they were testing engines in different brands, you just don't do that period
@@jkdwayne And you say that because? Why would they have bought Ford engines when they had Dodge engines laying around? That's right they wouldn't have. But anyway you look at it what BDR did was wrong.
Love the Butch Lindley shirt
Bill and Dale Jr kinda forgot about the best Dodge team in 2001 and 2002 CGR
So glad Gordon left this team for Hendrick
Then the Dodge deal just got weird. The Intrepids had front ends that looked just like the Stratus road car. The "Charger" came out, but it was a cross between the Magnum and some duck lookin kinda thing. The Dodge drivers didn't know what to call their cars.
The Intrepids were odd, the chargers with that scoop nose were bad ass looking, you knew that was a Charger
The Intrepids were odd, the chargers with that scoop nose were bad ass looking, you knew that was a Charger
Wow, Lil E... You don't have a lot of love for Benson do ya? That s too bad, He won a race in all three series, a champ of two. And he did it while you and your pals used him to get a caution when you needed it. Not much love for Davis either, Why did they break up the 23 team after the championship, and bank on the second team?
Dang Jr. you seem way too excited to tell this story. You never let Bill talk at all. We would like to hear his side of the story.
Well this sure adds alot to the story about Bill.
However, I always loved the colors on the #93 Amaco car. Especially since it was a Pontiac and i'm a big time Pontiac fan. I still have an autograph photo of Dave Blaney with that car.
But i gotta say it didn't surprise me none when Davis said about the how chrysler engines were poorly made. As a tech from the late 90s onward, i can attest that mopar products and their vehicles back then were nothing but junk. Almost every week i had to be working on several jeeps, interpids, carvans, etc. I hated it! Everything i saw they made had issues. From engine failures, especially that horrible 3.8L engine, electrical issues, and the completely rusted out strut towers from the mini-vans. I mean for them to get into racing without fixing there production problems is just doing things half assed. What made it worse is when Dalmer took over and incorporated their mercedez bens auto stick feature. It just didn't work!
So it to no surprise that Mopar only lasted as long as they did.
In a sense, i'm glad they came into the sport because it was great to see the big three competing on the Nascar stage, but then again, that performance program had a lot to be desired.
Not sure if it was true or not but i heard awhile ago as to one of the reasons why those dodges weren't competitive as the other two is partial due to the amount of mass on the engine block that cause the cars to "push" alot in the corners making them hard to steer. This could have been just wild rumors, but i can't forget that for some reason. Maybe someone can chime in on that.
I remember in 2003 13 year old me hearing Bill Davis was working with Toyota and thinking, what the heck???, this won't end well, lol.
People always say Steve Kinser this or that but Blaney was successful in dirt and had a long racing career in NASCAR and the Bush series.
Believe Kinser would have been good on asphalt if he did more than IROC and jump straight to the top level
@@needsmetal If Kinser could have ran some Busch races for a little bit, dirt to asphalt big change. Even Tony Stewart ran Busch for a season after Indy car, etc
Dave Drove Number 93 Pontiac Grand Prix Thanks For Uploading
Dont remember if i ever saw bill davis before anywhere. Like his style but there shouldve been more elaboration on stuff and maybe less interrupting the guy before he says something really good.
So I don’t have a horse in the race but my experience with car owners that have routine problems with drivers being “bull headed” or “personality conflicts”. Normally someone in the leadership of the team is toxic and driving the venom. -- but even in lower series it’s perfectly understood you don’t go working on another make in any way while your wearing the colors. Drivers and teams forget when you wear sponsor logos or names. That company is blessing off on you to represent them. So if you wear Home Depot colors you can’t be working on a Lowes project. Or if your dealing with Chevy you can’t go running Ford’s. I ran in 4 series for a couple of years and It was a chore managing the sponsor conflicts. It just seems extremely brazen to work on a Toyota while being sponsored by dodge. In anyway btw. Forget it being cup. Normally in the contracts you can’t do anything it’s like being married. You can’t go get another wife or gf you will end up in divorce court
How come they not showing the whole show any more.
The episodes are on Peacock, since NBC dumped their Sports Channel
They do on their website and a couple other places, not sure I've known of them ever putting the entire episodes here on RUclips..... Maybe they have here and there but not always
Learn so much, Bill is tough to get him to open up Jr has to pry it out of him, overall good job, Bill is a good man. 🏁
The Thursday show should be called the victory lap. !!
Always a Bill Davis fan….
I'm with Jr. I don't remember any of that stuff with Dodge happening. These days, any kind of issues are publicly blasted
People forget that Toyota struggled big time when it entered cup in 2007. Red Bull and MWR missed a lot of races. There was no charter system and these teams had no owners points to fall back on. Dale Jarret brought over UPS Sponsorship from Yates and it turned into a fiasco.
This is like pulling teeth. Jr. Keeps opening doors with questions, it seems like Mr. Davis keeps his thoughts and answers very short to the point. Would like to hear the details.
Way to dig man .
Dodge runs a non NASCAR configured power plant in the Hemi. But it's been the base of NHRA for decades!!
I thought Ward was BDR's best driver. Had Wimmer just waited a bit longer and had not burned the bridge with Dodge, that could have been a championship team
Is this the same Bill Davis who let Jeff Gordon go..............didn't see any potential.
Dodge qualified 1-2-3 at Daytona and also won one of the qualifying races.
All 10 Dodge's qualified for Daytona................NO engine block failures ever.
Gave Toyota one of our engines which they immediately copied.
Got sued and lost big time.
By the way I was one of the Dodge people who worked on the engine program. Two of us worked on the original race group engines for the Petty's back in the day. Yep..............no experience there.
Poor old Bill..............looks like dementia has kicked in.
Good stories
I think I remember a tiny bit of them having to cover up the logos on the car but it's really faint it seem like it was Ward's car that's all I can remember nowadays the story like that would be talked about quite a bit back then it seemed like it flew under the radar
Ward stuck up for Bill Davis even when they were black listed and sucked and Davis comes on here and throws Ward under the bus. What an ass and I'm glad he got sued.
I heard that Daimler wanted all the racing money to be funneled into Mercedes racing projects, after Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler. But, the NASCAR project was too far along to cancel the it and contracts already in place. Litigation would have been nasty and very long to get out of the contracts.
That's the problem, Chrysler has been sold over and over again... Now the French (Stellantis) owns them.
@@SSinister_Grin y does everyone forget fiat still has part of that too? 🤷🏻♂️ It ain't just Peugeot.
@@dillonpierce7869 true, but that’s probably worse than the French
@@Ever443 no not so much fiat owns Ferrari as well. So when the viper whooped the 458 at road America in 2014 Ferrari bitched about it and now look what happened with the vipers.
@@dillonpierce7869 Fiat spun off Ferrari, but the 2013 Viper's mule was ironically enough a SLS AMG.
That old man didn’t seem to want to be there…
It seemed like a deposition
@@brazilnut8898 it's an interview, and he didn't apparently want to be interviewed, because Jr had to pull teeth to get more than yes or no out of him. 🤷🏻♂️
I'm not surprised that Bill lost this suit if he still doesn't understand the contract after going through it. He tried to separate things in his mind but there's a lot of details we don't have from this telling (like did an car tech go over one day, could the toyota people walk through the dodge shop to get to Bill's office). The amount for example would be explained in detail in the court ruling. Also the Dodge deal with nascar falling apart times up with the company falling apart outside the sport.
Dale is trying really hard to make it a good interview.
Bill isn’t a real talkative guy. You kind of have to lead him into and through a conversation.
That whole deal between Bill Davis racing and dodge with davis with Toyota to get them in to start racing.
TOYOTA'S FIRST YEAR WAS IN TRUCKS I WAS AT THE RACE IN Daytona. Trucks ran well on Friday. I was with a group of Toyota Service managers and Directors we had a blast seats were almost on start finish line 25 rows up.Dale was a hero to a bunch of managers.
Sorry that was February 20, 2005.
Are you looking for the all star race this year?
Is he looking for the all star race this year?? What's that mean
The biggest problem with Dodge is Chrysler corporation decided to go cup racing and started things in motion with the truck series and Busch, then mercedes bought them, there was no merger, and mercedes management got involved and didn't really care about naSCar because all Mercedes cares about is f1.
Daimler bought Chrysler in '98 - at that point Dodge was only in Trucks while Mercedes was also in FIA GT/Le Mans (CLK-LM/CLR).
And the other issue is towards the back half of the dodge deal (like 08ish and after) fiat didn’t care much either. Plus the fallout of the 2013 deal with the Andretti’s didn’t help either
Can we submit ideas for discussion topics for a future podcast? If so, how?
I think the Daimler part of Chrysler ruined the deal. I remember Krannefus calling them a bunch of arrogant pricks.
I hope to see Dodge come back in at least the Xfinity series. Seems it was there most profitable series and those Challengers were BA looking.
I kinda tried to like Bill Davis Racing. Now I can see why I never really bought in. He's either a terrible communicator or he chooses to avoid providing detail. Either way he doesn't seem like a good example of a leader.
I remember Kyle Petty saying dodge fined him like 150 grands for relief driving for Harvick at bristol. I thought that was pretty shitty of them. Maybe Harvick could have returned the favor later on but I guess dodge saw it differently.
Ronny Crooks son Colby did my shocks for awhile.. RIP
Jr is at his worst in this interview. He’s basically interviewing himself with BD just listening. The Gordon situation really sucked, maybe Davis could have done better, maybe not. But working on a truck team with Toyota while having a deal with Dodge and not clearing it with them is sheer idiocy. How were they supposed to feel about that?
At his worst? If he wouldn’t have guided the interview, it would’ve been like 5 minutes long. Bill doesn’t have much to say, never did.
This was not Jr's issue.
Mr Davis seems like a very mysterious and shady guy.....
Well he and Bill Clinton were buddies...
After hearing this interview, I don’t get why the fanbase claims a car sponsored by a manufacturer like Chevy or Dodge is “unsponsored.” If anything, having that on your car just shows that your team has the manufacture support of a major OEM. Look at the Evernham team as a prime example of that. A lot of fans portray having Chevy or Toyota on the hood as a sign of bad things. I think that’s just a misguided assumption.
I kinda thought that Bill was holding back, and he's definitely not the guy to (Bad Mouth) people. Kind of a struggle to get him to open up about everything.
I have been a Ford guy since the 70s and 80s when I worked on a mini modified at Nashville Fairground. That said I would love it if Honda would join Nascar.
But Honda don't have a pushrod V8 engine, they would have to develope one, I mean I guess that's what Toyota did but I just don't get the feeling that Honda is even a lil interested in doing that
@@diychad7268 Honda will join when the series eventually goes electric like F1.
No damn Honda bad enough Toyota is there
Dodge went out of Nascar in a blaze of glory by winning a Championship in its last year of competition with Penske/Kesolowski
Mercedes running Dodge was a big hold up on the program. Now that Fiat owns them dont look for a return.
Maybe if Marchionne was still around they would have had a better shot
Winning the Daytona 500 crown jewel of auto racing
Dale is struggling to get this dude to talk. He usually can get anyone to yammer on and on. Davis is a terrible interviewee lol
I always like and comment. You never comment back Jr. I've actually tried to contact you a few times. You never respond or return my calls or emails... SO, here's another like and comment to boost the rating for your channel...
Ward should have left earlier.
To race where? I'm sure he had no other offer to race anywhere else, so to stay in the series he stayed in that car
Actually I saw an interview with Ward and he said he did have offers, and was advised by some to leave. However he said he stayed because of loyalty.
He has said he had offers, glad you're sure he didn't.
@@diychad7268 he was offered the #18 after Dale Jarrett left but turned it down out of loyalty to Bill Davis Racing
I refuse to believe Jr when he says 5 million would shut him down, come on now lol.
He could be refering if he was in that situation
I agree. His net worth is over $400M!
@@beckyumphrey2626 That has nothing to do with the business. He's talking about the business, and business accounts. If you're digging into your personal accounts to keep your business afloat, you're doing it wrong. You're talking about two completely different things.
I don't think you have much understanding about how race teams are run.