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Episode 0- The Shakedown · Pushin' the Cushion

• Jim Gardner: Alright, straight into the catch fins. Yeah, the bleachers on the other side actually. So people that don't know or they've never been there live, I don't know if you understand the layout. When you go down the ramp, you have to make a 90 degree turn right. It's more than 90. To get onto the racing surface. Welcome to the Pushing the Cushion podcast with Slim Pushings and Corby Scherb. For all your local and national sprint car updates, news, opinions, driver and team interviews, and behind the scenes insights and stories, I promise you've never heard. These two have no idea what they're doing or why they're doing it, so give it a try. If for no other reason, you'll be able to make fun of them for it. knowing because there are people smarter than we are out there, there's a huge catch-fits to keep you from literally careening into the, what they now call, what do they call them? The back stretch rowdies. So you're, were you hung? Like were you airborne? No, never airborne. It just ran down there. I mean, I bent the brake pedal in half. from the Rutherford team studio, please welcome, Corby and Slim. Welcome to the very first episode of Pushing the Cushion. I'm the legendary Slim Pushings. And next to me here is my co-host, the only guy that I know that eats the middle out of an Oreo and puts them back in the package, Corby Scherb. Hey buddy, thanks for having me. Well, having you. Oh, you were just hard. had no clutch, no nothing and I was still young in cars. It didn't make sense to me just to flip the switch off. Well, that was my next question. I've never driven a race car and anybody listen to this is gonna be like, oh, we all know that. It happened in three seconds. So knowing now what you know, would it be second nature? I've had throttles hang since then and I just turned the switch off. I mean you ran out of choices but... I couldn't do this without you. I don't know about that. This is pushing the cushion. Our aim is to give you some insight on local 305 racing, ⁓ national racing, check in with people that we know that might be on the road and maybe tell some stories. In the meantime, ⁓ Corby, give us some background. Let's, ⁓ did we get here? got practice. I actually set my car a couple of notches practice flipping the switch off. Was your week over or was the car repairable? No, we got it fixed. But it had a real... you won? You won that whole shootout? No, absolutely not. No, no, no. No, it had a bit of a miss. So we ran our heat race and pulled off and then called it a week. Oh, really? Yeah. I don't know how we got here. We got talked into doing this. But I've raced my whole life. I started racing motorcycles when I was four years old. Grew up, got smarter, got inside of a roll cage, been in sprint cars. Didn't race very much last year. 2024, we had a really good season. Great season. Truly had no complaints about it. It took a lot of people to get to that point. So that was your first. On four wheels. Yes. First time in the building on four. Chili bowl is a, is a whole different ball game. Not, not to piggyback on what on the shootout, but the chili bowl has so many people don't realize what goes into it in the weeks of preparation. And we were a team that we raised sprint cars. We had. a lot of people who believed in me when I didn't believe in myself and if if we could do anything with this show it'd be really cool just to spread some of the light and because if it wasn't for people that stepped into my life I would have never made it as far as I did even you is useless as you are just a blessing to your racing career being in my pit area an absolute blessing to you even if it's just a laugh like I say midgets, but did not, there's not a lot of midget racing in this region. So our preparation, like there really wasn't a ton of off season. As soon as the sprint car racing was done, we were working on the one race a year that we raced midgets. I think that was the biggest fault in it all was a lot of dumb things happened to us in our cars there because they just never got drove. I would agree with that. But we knew that going in too. I mean, I never went there and didn't believe I couldn't make the A main, but there was too many things that happened inside of each of our preliminary nights that would make it really tough. ⁓ We're in middle of the off season. So let's talk about off season plans. What have you been up to? For the most part, during an off season, think you just try to, one, you try to regroup, you try to get home and see your family and get to sit in your recliner for a little bit. season gets pretty hectic and it seems like it just runs back to back. ⁓ Try to make sure that you make it through the holidays and then get back to training, get back to focusing, getting ready for the season. How many races did we race in 24? I believe we ran 34 races that year. lot of back to back nights. A lot of them. A lot of long weekends, lot of long weeks from crashing cars, minor incidents to big ones. We rebuilt a car in five days. For Nebraska. I mean, the first year that I raced a midget there, we had a yoke seize up inside of the torque tube in my heat race, so the car wouldn't even start. We thrashed, got that one fixed, pushed out there for, believe I was in the D feature that night and broke a fuel fitting, so it sprayed me with fuel. This was your first trip to the To the Chili Bowl, yeah. so, ⁓ I started for like the Z feature on Saturday. And no, that was a different car. Remember, I got ballparked at Ardmore. And then we made it to Abilene the next weekend. we went. And then Waco? Was that the back-to-back weekend? Abilene and then Waco? Yep. And actually, we built that car. then there at Abilene, we was passing for the lead in our heat race. And it spit a rear end. So. During the off season, let's talk about. ⁓ I know low that was an early morning. Yeah Logan's had ⁓ He had a huge one explode Lucas had a couple chassis issues murals blown up a motor Lucas is blown up a motor there There was just always a lot of stuff that Maybe it could have been prevented if we ran at some other places But I think the hardest thing for all of us was we just was never comfortable in that car until late in the day Saturday And you're way behind the eight ball at that point What happens during the off season with a race team? The last race ends, you throw the car in the trailer and then you don't pull it out until you're headed to the next race three months later. Not even at all. Yeah, running what they call the soup. What they take the first ⁓ four, four five. Yeah. And it's, it's awful. It's just nerve wracking. It's just terrible. It's intense. A lot of people don't understand. A lot of the general race fans don't understand the, the intensity of Saturday, the intensity of Truly off season is probably a little bit more hectic and it's more tedious, I guess, than anything else. taking everything back apart and making sure that stuff's greased, making sure that we People have no idea what goes on during the off season, much less weekends, during the week. Just making sure you got anesthes on bars and stuff because if you break a radius rod, you might need the heim out of it. And I promise you, Jimmy's hair stands up on end when he even thinks about- Hollywood Jimmy Gardner. And it was different for us because we had four and five cars every year and they were all running. Every one of those has to be naturally the odds of the odds of a couple or three cars being in the same feature were slim because there were so many features and everybody ran on a different night, which was the greatest. Hollywood Jimmy Gardner. The legendary ⁓ Sharp Crew Chief for how many years? Way too long. Way too long for him to stick it out with us. Him and Wesley McMorton. Poor Wesley was there before Jimmy even came on the Took some of the load off? Yeah. I didn't know how bad it was until I really started paying attention. I think that's half the reason Jimmy even helped us. He just felt bad for us. having everybody's main day different was the best decision as a team that was ever made. I agree. It'd be so difficult to run during the middle of the week, but everything leads up to Saturday and the intensity of making those turns from one race to the next. You literally have. He's got sucked into a, is Jimmy the one that taught you about the importance of anesthes? Yeah. Had you ever used anesthes? I didn't even know what it was. I think a lot of people misunderstand and that we didn't have a clue what we were doing. Oh, when Jimmy and I stumbled upon the Sherb pit after he had just had you, Jim, I don't even think he had moved down here yet. what 10 laps, 12 laps after you. you go, so you go from, you know, one race, ⁓ the L number one, ⁓ or the L number two. that means if you, if you transfer from the L number two, when you get to the top of the ramp, the L number one is running. So you have enough time to put some fuel in it. If need be and some very minor changes and you're making the U-turn right back into the shoot. Yeah, I remember. It's fun. In the moment, it's just incredibly... It's just grueling. And I say that from a guy that just cruise and helps out. ⁓ That's right. And I didn't know Jim very well. Jim moved down on a Thursday in that Saturday night. We went to, was it KSP? To KSP. And he said, let's go into the pits. And I did not grow up in, in dirt track racing at all. I grew up in Waco. There clearly obviously is a track in Waco. did not grow up. Yeah, I remember the second year I ran there with all the features going on. ⁓ Me, pregnant Lindsay Warhurst and Dakota Warhurst actually pushed my car up to staging. around dirt track racing. Racing in general, No. Yeah. No, I didn't grow up any of that. And I remember Jim called and he said, Jim said, do you want to go to the Kennedale race? And me, you know, not having any friends or plans at the time, ⁓ I was all about it. Assuming we were going to sit in the stands and, ⁓ And I think that that was the biggest thing about the chili bowl is how many racers are there and how many people are willing to do. remember what the number was this year? 350 plus. think it was 340 340, uh, checked in this year. 340 340 cars. No, no, uh, support classes, obviously like all the same class and it is intense. Um, That cost me $35. Then we, so we showed up and we were just walking through the pits and I didn't know at the time, the only thing I knew about racing for the most part was the different NASCAR series and ⁓ pit passes were hard to come by and you know, just going up and buying a pit pass and we were just walking through the pits. I a lot of people misunderstand that. I agree. How accessible that it truly is. I agree. A hundred percent. Then like I said, that's a lot for one race and you break down 340 cars. Like I said, you know, you got 50 % of people saying that they just wanted to race it. You got about 20 % of people who saying they're good enough to be there. And then about 30 % of the people, they are paid drivers. That's what they do. That's their job. And then the other, how many percent are paying drivers? Yeah, you know, cause they do, they have rental rides and stuff like that. They're crash deposits because honestly the odds of not getting in a crash is just about unheard of. But we stumbled on y'all's pits. We're getting off topic here, but that's the background of how we came together, how Jimmy's involved. ⁓ But back to the off season, we just finished up with Chili Bowl. We had a good time. Personally, we had a good time. We might or might not have ⁓ a group of Chili Bowl ⁓ fans, people that have been to the Chili Bowl with us. Well, because it's such a, that goes back to the intensity. Well, it's small too. Don't, don't let anyone take it for granted. The chili bowl is not a big racetrack. Well, they're midgets and they're midgets, but it is, it is, it is very tight, especially in heat races or early morning features. ⁓ the tracks really one lane. is, you have to be extremely aggressive. All right. Let's talk about. over the last few years ⁓ that we might or might not wager on the nightly features. So we had a good time. We did. I didn't win at all. No. But I'm the luckiest person in the family. Always. ⁓ But that was fun. ⁓ What does it, what did it mean? Let's talk about chili ball. What did it mean to you? ⁓ chili bowl shenanigans. There's a lot of stories that come from the chili bowl. stories like you just mentioned with, with Lindsay Warhurst and Dakota worst, you know, stepping in and pushing a car. This is the same year, you know, remember Jared went for a big ride that year too. And we got Jared's car fixed for Saturday. The shenanigans most of the time. was a whole, listen, that's a whole story in itself. With ⁓ with a racing background and always knowing the significance of Chili Bowl. I know when I went to the Chili Bowl for the first time, it was just an event. I don't think that I understood the caliber of what the Chili Bowl means and the stature and the grandness of the Chili Bowl. Amongst dirt track racing, it's like the Daytona 500. JW flipping like that. ⁓ he tore that car up. He's the, I believe he's, he's the only car he is. His flip is the only car that has come close enough to knock the little, what do you call those out of the air? The little camera, the drone. He came, he came within four or five feet of knocking the drone out of you. That was awesome. It was a big ride. What do you remember your first? Do you remember your first time strapping in in that building? Yeah, actually a lot of people don't know this. I mean, I'm old enough me and my older brother Merle actually raced the shootout there on motorcycles. In the building in the same building for the Tulsa shootout before many sprints and micro sprints had gotten so big they would. They had quad racing motorcycles and the mini sprints. And what was the turnaround for that was like 20, 25 minutes. had everybody people we didn't know. Yeah. Working on that. That's like I say that that's the good thing about the chili ball. I think the camaraderie there is everyone else knows that while you're there, you want to race. It's the middle of winter. It's probably miserably cold. It's even cold in Oklahoma at that time. You just, you just raise. That was the first time I ever raced there. then, but I, I, we knew how big that that race was just because of the caliber of people who race it. Little did I know just how nerve wracking it truly is inside of there. As a single car, as because everybody knows, most everybody that's something knows that you have. So we thrashed to get his car back together. The shenanigans that go into the trailer. you remember his knees? His knees were bad. He never raced another car, as far as I understand, without knee guards in it. They were, to say it was black and blue is kind of an understatement. They were black. I'm a firm believer in knee guards. That steering box hurts real bad whenever you try to knee it. three brothers and a father that have raced your entire life. Yeah. You're talking about nerve wracking. Just yourself, just me sitting in the, in the car, let alone, you know, watching it's one thing to watch friends. It's, it's another thing to watch your family do it. And then you, I will say this. I I've raced a lot of races all across the country, stood on some podiums and stuff, but there is nothing more nerve wracking than when they push you out on the racetrack for practice qualifying. just so that we're being brutally honest here, my, was named the, Sherb. was the director of artificial lighting and team nutrition for, it didn't come with a business card and it didn't come with any, any sort of a pay. There was no salary. It was a title and it got me in the building. ⁓ and a warm place to stay. ⁓ heat race, whatever it might be, and you sit there dead engine right next to the fence, ⁓ nothing compares to that. Then you just add in and it just amplifies the people that you're sitting around. I mean, in the place is legend. ⁓ you talk about the place is legendary. Let me finish that thought. Yeah. But you're talking about you're literally, you're literally next to some of the biggest names in sprint car in the sprint car racing sport, but also next to, ⁓ Jimmy might argue with that because our air conditioner didn't work and we slept with the window cracked open one night and it was, I don't even know if you know this, it it sleeted that night and Jim being the good sport that he is, he let me crack the window about six inches and it sleeted that night and froze the window open. couldn't even, the next morning when we went, when we went back to the Expo Center, we couldn't even get the... former and current. NASCAR, NASCAR, know, uh, late model guys race that big buck modified guys race that, um, that peep tons of people from overseas come over just to race that. think that the chili bowl will hold such prestige to so many people just because of, and they don't even build that race up. If we're being honest right now, the chili bowl doesn't, know, they, really don't have to. It's just because of the people who want to come and just be a part of it. Now, you know, like I said, you can race when you're 14 years old, if you get approved window closed. But he was good sport about it. I think there's so much that happens inside of that one week that you're there. I mean, you're truly because you're there at least Saturday to Saturday if not Friday to the next Sunday. Yeah. Now it's even longer. Yeah. They finally opened up practice day to being just Sunday. So you got to, everyone's got to be in the building by Saturday. Yeah. Load in is Saturday now, right? It's Friday and Saturday actually is load in. ⁓ by them if you have you know current racing history and you can race it when you're 106 apparently you know I think that a lot of the people go there to say that they raced it I could we could probably break it down and there's probably like 50 % of the people go there just to say they raced it should just say I would agree with that you know 20 % go there 20 % of the racers there are like us and they're they feel they're fast enough to be there they're they're a great hobby we That's a whole nother event. The load in is one thing load out load out is a, I'm going to say this, but I say it with lighthearted. It is an absolute disaster, but it is an organized disaster. Load in, would say load out is every man for himself. Every man for himself. I mean, there were people, I've seen people push trailers themselves out because the only organized way to do it is to racer and then there's 30 % the other 30 % are paid drivers. Not just from dirt racing like you said it's from everything you know when you have people like you know Tony Stewart did a lot of things he still is doing a lot of things in racing. Very accomplished. know Kyle Larson Christopher Bell you know Sammy Swindell still doing it to this day. And competitive. Absolutely went for a real big ride this year. Let's talk about pull trailers from the furthest back first. The same as how we load in load in is people at the back come in the building last. So naturally whenever you go to leave, it would be back to front. And there is nothing worse. Absolutely nothing worse. then, and it's on Saturday. So you've been up, you know, Sherb cars. were up at, we were in the building at 7 AM and your feet hurt, your ankles hurt, your knees are killing you, your hips hurt. ⁓ you've literally been racing for 15 hours and then you got to load everything up and then, you know, two o'clock in the morning. your first trip on four wheels down the ramp. ⁓ you're talking about first trip in a mini sprint. Yeah. Yeah, it was. That was my first time. it end up bad? Bad, really bad. they're getting semi close to your trailer. Yep. And it's four degrees outside. yeah. Yeah. But again, I don't know any, I mean, it just kind of is what it is. There's no magic. It's not that they're doing anything wrong and just kind of, it just kind of sets up that way. What? Tell me what happened. I've heard the story. I know the story. We got a car basically like pulled out of the weeds and we cleaned it up and started up and it ran. Never got to practice it. Never put a seat in it. Got to the chilly bowl or got to the shootout. Put a seat in it. Jimmy went over it the best that we could for the time that we had and we pushed out there for the feature and I started it started right up. I put it in gear and it died. It's like I said, you have people that have really good weeks and they pit it in the back and they're there until late in the evening before they ever start loading to people who pitted at the front and had a really bad one and they just want to go home. They're from Minnesota. just want Yeah, they've been done since 10 a.m. Yeah, they just want to go home. And I understand that. I am very much a homebody. I would rather be at home every day if I could. Yeah. On the ramp. On the ramp. Or in the chute. Previous to the ramp? Yeah, no. in... On the ramp. On the ramp, going down. Put it in gear, car died. Told Jimmy, I was like, hey, clutch is bad, bump start me. Jimmy's like, what? And I was like, push me. So he pushes me, and I kid you not, the throttle hung, wide open. And? Down the ramp. Straight into the bleachers on the other side. That's no surprise that anybody's ever met you. let's talk. We, we touched on it. Let's talk about the ramp. They wet that ramp down. I have no idea which is an absolute disaster. Yeah. I have come so close. Dylan Ramey has the, his favorite story ever is he was walking up the ramp as I was going down the ramp and I lost my footing and there's no cool way or tooth way to kind of catch yourself. It's just like instant panic because you're inevitably there's another hundred people that are walking down with you and they're walking past you from the last race. And, ⁓ one of your brothers fell more than once. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah, it's a disaster. It's just slick like a slip and slide. Tell, tell them this. Why, why did you always want to stand on the ramp? I mean, there's no bleachers places sold out. If you want to watch the racing with us on the track, not watching just through a screen, you have to go stand on the ramp. Yes. Yeah. And I was, I have a weird way. I have a weird way of, Like even at the racetracks, even at the racetracks, ⁓ local racetracks, I don't know that I've ever sat in the stands and watched any of our races. ⁓ That's just weird OCD, I think. ⁓ So there's a ramp cam. And that's always fun. If you're sitting at home. Yeah. And I never asked you, did you this last year, did you, you had made a comment that you saw me on the ramp camp. Did you see me giving you like looks and hand signs? Yeah. Just one of them seemed like devastation. One of them seemed like. What was that? Like this was a waste of our time. But like we say, the moral of the story is just it's a long week. It takes a lot of preparation just to get there, even if you're in just mediocre stuff. It's I've watched people do it. I know it can be rewarding. I know you can do it. I wouldn't have ever gone there if I didn't believe that I could do it. It's like the, ⁓ it's like the NCAA, like the tournament, like you get the Cinderella stories and I think that's why people go. It's not cheap under any circumstances. It's not cheap to have to have a, well, for one, a car and for two, ⁓ All everything that gets involved the entry fees and the the wristbands and and you know You got to eat while you're out there. Yeah, I think you have to eat chili. Do you do? Yeah, who believes that well? I Knew this would come up So being the director of team nutrition and not being a mechanic my value I felt like was doing things that either a nobody else wanted to do or things that nobody else had any time for. So that first year I had like a crock pot and a hot plate and like 30 cans of chili. How many do we end up cooking every day? Every day we had chili, an option with chili, whether it be, it be, you know, nachos or chili cheese dog. And I, I don't, I guess anybody that's never met Corby's brother Lucas is not a guy that you want to disappoint. ⁓ so what was it like Thursday? We've been there like three days, three full days. And you know, I'm in, I'm feeling good. I've, know, I'm in the trailer and I've got, I've got the Crock-Pot going with chili. and hot dogs and you know, Lucas comes in and he's like, I just, he just gives me this look and he's like, chilly again. And I have never been more defeated than the moment. ⁓ I disappointed Lucas and I had not lived up to my, ⁓ director of team nutrition title. That's a lot of days of chili. is, but I was limited. I was, it's, I'm not a chef. I'm not a chef and I was trying to do it as cheap as possible. And, I disappointed Lucas. So, and then the other did not disappoint him twice. I left him in the shoot at KSP. Yeah, that happened. And, ⁓ Both of those instances seem to come up more than I think that they should just in conversation when we all get together. ⁓ There's another, speaking of like chili bolt shenanigans, and I don't know, this might be too much information for some of our demographic. We came up with what we call the urinal lottery. Yeah. And you know what I'm talking about. I think anyone who's ever been there knows what you're about. for what, I don't, I don't claim to know anything about building code, but the urinals, in every bathroom in that building are like 16 foot tall. So my aim every time that I walk in there is to get the short one so that I feel normal. And so we coined it the urinal lottery and I made a big deal out of it because I'm not the tallest guy in the world. but it can get messy quickly. If you can't reach the urinals that just, just the, don't know how they can have that many people inside that building with as few of just restroom spots in general. Well, the stalls aren't even an option. We don't even include the, we don't call it the bathroom lottery because the stalls in that building, there's some, there is, ⁓ how do I say this? There is always business being conducted for sure in those two. There's a hundred urinals and two stalls. And you got 50,000 people standing in this pit area, seems like. Everybody needs to go to the bathroom at the same time. Well, you're there for, you know, 12, 16 hours a day. Yeah. That's a whole nother story in itself. ⁓ what other, am I missing any chili bowl shenanigans? There was, I know that there was once one of the years that we were there. ⁓ I was tasked with watching Dakota. Her dad was racing and he was, they'd also rented a car that ⁓ rented a midget. So he was, his time was consumed and So I was tasked with watching Dakota and if anybody doesn't know who Dakota is, she is, she's become an incredibly talented go-kart racer, ⁓ wins a ton of races. They race every opportunity that they can. ⁓ And her mother at the time was driving a monster truck in ⁓ the, ⁓ what was the series? Monster Jam, Monster Jam. And she had earlier that day had to go to the airport to fly to, I think Kansas city. So I was responsible for, and, ⁓ everybody knows her, everybody likes her, everybody watches out for well, at the time there was a, there was a, a tradition on the back stretch of throwing those huge golf ball size marshmallows. And she had been playing, we used to call her baby Joe dirt because she was constantly dirty and she was always finding she could just entertain herself. She'd be sliding around on, on, on anything that had rollers pretty much. And she'd be under, they'd be like hide and go seek. She'd be up underneath the trailer. So I had told her, I need you to come check in with me. We were watching the feature that night and I told her, I need you to come check in with me. You know, like every 20 or 30 minutes. And we're sitting there, a bunch of people in lawn chairs. If you've ever been there, you know what I'm talking about. People congregate in lawn chairs, like it's an outdoor concert right underneath one of the two big screens. And you're watching the live race on the other end of the arena. And... She walked up and I could see, I mean, I read her mind. There was a marshmallow that was on the ground about four or five feet from me that had been there hours and people had stepped on it and had been kicked around. mean, like literally it had started its life on the back stretch. Cause like you said, it's dirty in there. It's a dirt track race and we're sitting on concrete floor. It had started its life on the back stretch and it had, we were at the very back of the building. So it had traveled. however marshmallows travel, being kicked and on the bottoms of feet and on, I would assume, know, a few revolutions on a right rear at times. And she was walking up and she, this marshmallow laying on the ground caught her eye and she looked down at it and then she looked back up at me. I, I, trying to be, you know, the adult in the room, I was like, don't even think about it. So she reaches down, she just smiles and she reaches down and she picks this thing up. And I was like, Dakota, do not like that is it's been on the ground. It's nasty. Don't even think. And she, before I got that out of my mouth, she goes, and takes an absolute hunk out of this thing and just smiles at me. Just not worried about it. That was the last time Lindsay ever, they Lindsay and Jared ever let me. I can imagine. So, all right, back to chili bowl. before we, before we finish up here, what always, especially the shootout, I'm always interested because I've never been to the shootout. Some of us have jobs and so I never, I've never been able to make the shootout knowing that, you know, if I'm to take some time off, I try to take time off for the, for the chili bowl. So one of the things that always interests me is, seeing these kids being interviewed and some of them were just naturals. One thing about you, that you were always a natural and you'd been doing it since you were little. Tell me about interviews. How do you feel about being interviewed? I don't mind being interviewed. ⁓ I think I was taught, like you said, at a young age to be respectful and There's certain things you just never say on a microphone and there's certain things you can always say off a microphone. When it comes to being interviewed, I believe I've watched enough interviews in my day to know what to say and what not to say. They just want to know about what's going on and make sure that you always thank your sponsors. Try to remember them. Is it nerve wracking? I don't think so. Embarrassing, nerve wracking, stressful? No, I know a lot of people feel that way. I've just never, never had that feeling. when it came to being interviewed. ⁓ It's just talking. Even though there's people staring at you, mean, if you really break it down, there's people staring at you every day in life, if you're talking or not. So being interviewed, even at a big stage is, I would always try to go back and watch it to make sure that I didn't do anything dumb. I hate hearing, I won't listen to this back. That's why I'm glad that we have somebody that will. do the editing. I have no ambition. I don't want to see myself and I don't want to hear myself. I don't mind. It doesn't bother me too much. What do you have a preference? Whether it be like the track announcer or like a broadcast announcer. I love when announcers give you feedback and they talk to you and they, they want to interact with you. And I know that that's not how a lot of people are. And there's a lot of track announcers that won't even try that. I want, I want to be asked questions. I want to be able to enjoy that moment, maybe make someone laugh if I can drop a quick one. There was one time where were we a Boyd? Were we at Boyd when you were, you had kind of gotten caught in, was a late race caution. I believe it was at rocket. Is that where it was? I think so. It was a late race caution and you felt like that one of the decisions by the officials that were made were not, um, adequate. at the, in the moment, we still finished top three or four. We were on the front stretch and you hopped out of the car and you turned to me, which normally in that moment, ⁓ on the front stretch, there are, there are people around. Normally I, my job, I try to grab your helmet and your, ⁓ your race fever and stuff like that and, and put it on the four wheeler so that, you know, you can do your business and you hopped out of the car and we're absolutely raising hell at the officiating at the time. What was it? You felt like it should have been a single file restart. I felt like someone got the position back that didn't deserve their position back. They were still caught. don't know how you remember these things with detail. I don't, there's not many things that I do remember except for race situations. ⁓ I felt like someone was involved in the crash and they should have been penalized for it, whether or not it was late or anything like that. And I am a man of We never were cheaters ever we refuse to ever cheat with anything I'm a man to play by the rules and I will be the first to try to help enforce the rules not to the racers but to the officiating staff to help them Make them under or help them understand where I'm coming from and I just felt like that incident was very blatant Inside of that moment and of course like you say we're in the middle of a race and emotions are high anyways and everyone's they're trying to do whether you're chasing points or just a, just a race when I felt like it was uncalled for. so you got out. So you got out of the car and you were raised in hell. I've voiced my opinion to me, explicitly expressing your, your displeasure and to anybody else that was close that would listen. And I looking back on it, I felt like it was almost instantaneous because one thing that we always maintained was and still maintained to this day was respect. And there are things that go on, in and around a racetrack. And I think anybody that's ever been a race car driver or any part of a team, think we'll understand this. There are things that go on that other people don't see conversations, whether it be, you know, proprietary set up stuff or complaining or whatever that stuff goes on in the trailer or at the shop. and it's not well, think a lot of race. Well, I think a lot of race fans just misunderstand how much thrashing happens in the pits whenever they see a car break and then it shows back up an hour later. They're like magic. just happened and it was probably 10 guys throwing wrenches and cursing at everything that they could just to try to get it back together to one piece to give that said driver the opportunity to go out there and race. And that's I think in the sense of why I got out so upset. just, I, I, I understood why you were upset. And the point of the story, the reason I bring it up is back to interviewing is you were, you were so upset and, hopped out of the car and we were talking and you were, ⁓ get, trying to get the attention of the powers that be to express your concern, not that it would have changed anything, but that, ⁓ and I agree with the need that it needed to be heard. They all need to be heard. And I know, know, sprint car drivers get a bad rap because I think everybody thinks that the sport in general is high maintenance, but you were absolutely raising hell. like I said, looking back on it, was like instantaneous that. as you were raising hell, you get spun around and they put a mic in your face and you became an absolute different person. Like, left it all behind you and did your ⁓ politically correct interview. I think that, like I say, that's the difference and a lot of race fans that go to the racetrack and they just don't know any of that stuff that happened. They don't stand at the drivers meetings and stuff like that and they don't deserve to they I My job always is to make sure that the fans enjoy the show That they're thanks for being there if it wasn't I say this all the time in almost every interview if it wasn't for those fans sitting up there I wouldn't get to chase my dreams Well, and I think ⁓ and you'll agree with me. We've talked a lot about doing the podcast it was It was out of both of our comfort zones, so we we got been boozled into this to some degree ⁓ it's been brought up over the course of the last three or four years, but that is one of the reasons why both you and I decided to do this podcast was to give some insight on things that either, ⁓ people don't know about some behind the scenes stuff that people don't know about. Our intention is to, we'll, we'll have drivers and crew and we'll, ⁓ other than this episode, we hope to have a guest in studio with us, ⁓ every episode. ⁓ so that we can give the general race fan an idea of what goes on and some insight. And if nothing else, you can put some character and some personality behind your favorite driver that you only see ⁓ either on a weekend basis or every few weeks when they come into town. I think that it's like you're saying, know, a lot of people know me by my car or my number. Right. Not, not everyone knows me by my face and that's because it's a great thing. It's a great thing. have a face for radio. I think that the fans are separated a lot from what just happens all the time sitting over there when, like I said, the thrashing that goes on, what we did through the week just to be able to be there. You know, people don't have a clue that we pulled the valve covers off this week and had broke a rocker arm in the last lap of the feature. They don't know. Absolutely. You know, But they knew there's things like that, that, people that are race fans are in fans of the team and fans of the sport and fans of the track. ⁓ I think, I think they are very interested in, in all that they can know. They're paying, they're paying good hard earned money and they come in, they yell, we, we hear them when we push off, we can hear people yelling at us and for us. Mostly probably at us, if I had to guess. You know, cause it's, it's in the same sentence, you know, even to be a promoter, takes a lot. Cause like you said, there's a lot of people who complain just to complain. Absolutely. You know, and then there, I always tried to, if I was going to complain, I felt like I had good enough reason to. And I think that even a lot of race fans don't understand how many times these promoters will stand in a driver's meeting and just get torn apart. ⁓ just torn apart. again, those that's drivers meetings are something that I've been a part of a many drivers meetings through the years and that's, I would be willing to bet that your, your average race fan that comes every weekend, they, most of them probably don't know that there's drivers meeting that existed. While they're playing the national anthem, we're usually getting cussed out over something that we did on the racetrack last week. Yeah. Getting bumped or, or something that we did or didn't do not being on time. That's another big thing. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ I think that being on trying to keep the show running. Yeah. Being on time is one thing and then getting lined up, especially a sprint cars because we can't restart our motors. We have to be pushed started. ⁓ it's a big thing for us to, we, for the most part, we know where we're at. We might, there's a lot of people who might try to cheat the system and slide up one, but they have live timing. They have the lap times come through automatically. They know where we're at. Which was your biggest. I felt back to the point of the story. Yeah. I felt like he didn't deserve a spot. And that's my opinion. I expressed my opinion. ⁓ I think in life that the only stupid questions, the question not asked. And like I said, I just simply asked why that happened. And even those questions can end up being stupid. ⁓ for sure. ⁓ all right. Well, ⁓ that's probably a good place to wrap it up for a episode. Number one. ⁓ maybe we'll get this figured out. before episode number two? I would say, know, like you're saying, I want to say it again. I thank you to all the fans who always come out and support the local dirt tracks. ⁓ Even at the local level, it's just as needed. And for sure, the promoters who do this because it ain't a job for me. There's no way I could never be a promoter. Like, we say that, and I believe that we mean that. But you know, next week when we're when we get to the track and we have nothing good. you know, whether it be the track condition or whatever. ⁓ you know, it does take a lot. ⁓ there's a lot at stake. It's not cheap. ⁓ you know, we complain about the cost of stuff. and I, I don't know if you know this, ⁓ Kevin Ramey, well, you know, part, Kevin Ramey is running, ⁓ RPM now has taken over that responsibility. And, ⁓ last season I had a, I was talking to him and I was just asking him general questions. I've never been a promoter. I don't know what goes into it other than track, you know, uh, uh, preparation and schedule and a lot of ask you. A whole lot of ask you. Um, but he told me, I asked him about, I think I asked him about prices or something and he, he explained it, um, legitimately and it made all the sense in the world. And, and I hope that that's, those are some of the things that we can bring also to the podcast to make people just better understand. understand things. ⁓ In time, I would love to have ⁓ promoters on. ⁓ know, our initial, ⁓ our initial idea is to just have drivers on so that they can tell us their backstory and how everything came about, but ⁓ how they got to where they are and what their future plans are ⁓ and ⁓ how Corby Sherb ruined one of their nights at some point, but, we really appreciate you listening. we hope you come back for more, ⁓ and you know, we hope we can give you something entertaining. So, ⁓ thanks for listening to number one. You have anything to say? ⁓ thank you guys very much. That's it. ⁓ thank you, slim push ins for allowing me to be a part of this and whoever was dumb enough to put us to. inside the same room probably needs to think about Jesus. All right, y'all have a good one.