By Mike Davis
Here’s what you need to know about longtime champion crew chief Todd Parrott— the man bears his soul.
In everything.
Building a car, calling a race, working at Lowe’s Home Improvement, chatting on a podcast, building friendships, making mistakes, mending them, rehabilitating himself, making a new life while seeking a place in the old one. Every day is qualifying lap with the grill taped up.
Soul-bearing is a full-time job. It’ll make a fella downright emotional, and Todd Parrott is downright emotional.
I don’t take pleasure in seeing a grown man cry, but I admire it. In today’s superficial society full of masking mechanisms, guilt-treatment and impulses to judge without a shred of knowledge, tears are the only real thing we’ve got left.
Here’s some advice: Want to know who your real friends are? Find one whose shoulder you can cry on. Any time. Any reason. Without having to explain yourself.
Parrott got teary on The Dale Jr. Download, and not so much for the reason you’d expect. Sure, we talked about his NASCAR suspension in 2013 for substance abuse and his Road to Recovery. We had to. It’s part of his story. But the real emotion for Parrott comes when he talks about relationships. His dad. His daughter. His wife, a school teacher who he is super proud of. Rusty Wallace. Dale Jarrett. Dale Earnhardt. Robert Yates. Get him going on any of them and he’s sure to get emotional.
Which brings me to this — we’ve had many ‘real’ guests on The Dale Jr. Download over the years, full of honesty and transparency. But I doubt any of them top Todd Parrott — not in that category.
Of course, you can listen to the podcast and decide for yourself. Our newest episode with Todd Parrott, who won two Daytona 500s and a NASCAR Cup championship during a storybook run with Dale Jarrett, is available here and everywhere you listen to podcasts.
— Dirty Mo —
