Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / NASCAR Season Review, How To Change The Playoffs & Lawsuit Update | The Rick Mast Show

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NASCAR Season Review, How To Change The Playoffs & Lawsuit Update | The Rick Mast Show · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
All right, everybody, welcome back.
0:01
It's the Rick Mash show. I know it's been a while.
0:04
The great Rick Mash right there. I'm Charlie Marlow.
0:07
Rick, how the heck are you, man? It's been.
0:10
Too long. It has been too long.
0:11
We took a little break, Charlie, but we're back.
0:13
We're full of bits of vinegar, man.
0:15
We've got opinions. We had Thanksgiving Turkey.
0:18
We get that out of the way, right?
0:19
We went to the Stocks for Talks deal in Mooresville a couple
0:24
weeks ago. Big turn out with fans.
0:27
That was a neat dip, man. You ever see so many older
0:29
NASCAR people in your life go to this deal?
0:31
If you've ever been to that deal folks and you're an old time
0:33
school racer, you need to go to that because every name that you
0:36
can think of from old school racing attends that deal.
0:38
It's like 70 NASCAR personalities, Charlie.
0:41
It was pretty wild. I did that thing years and years
0:44
ago. I think it said it's like it's
0:45
35th. That was his 35th deal, right?
0:47
Don Miller, everybody knows Don Miller with Piskey Racing and
0:50
all that. He puts that thing on his.
0:52
He still does it, you know, barely getting around, but he
0:55
still does it. That was cool.
0:56
And now we're getting ready for Christmas, right?
0:59
We get through Christmas, we get through New Year's Eve, OK, We
1:03
can watch a little football then.
1:05
What can we do, Charlie? The Daytona 500, baby, it's
1:09
coming. That's what I'm waiting on.
1:10
It's a countdown for. I love it.
1:13
So the event for TOTS, what was it called?
1:15
What's the event? Called stock.
1:16
It's called Stocks for TOTS. It's the deal Don Miller
1:19
started, like I said, 35 years ago and and they raise money.
1:23
It's all for the children, deal the children down there.
1:25
And it's such a cool deal, such a cool deal.
1:28
Well attended, well organized, just a good deal, just a good
1:32
deal. Love it.
1:33
So give us we'll we'll start there.
1:35
Give us your best interaction, your best story.
1:38
I, I know you've, you've had a lot of them guessing kind of
1:40
reunion type events with the NASCAR alumni this this past
1:45
year, but who did you see? Who'd you talk to at the event?
1:48
Give me some stories. Yeah, mainly I set between Dave
1:51
Marcus and Bob Koppockras, right?
1:55
And Bob is of course Dave. Everybody knows wing tip Dave,
1:57
right? He had his lovely wife Helen
1:59
with him and we were talking about the flood, right.
2:01
He lives in the Asheville area, Asheville, NC area.
2:05
And he he wasn't he wasn't hit by the flooding and then pop
2:08
crash. You know, he's just a good dude.
2:10
He's just a good quiet dude. Lives in New York.
2:12
You know, he lives in New York City, dude.
2:14
He lives he lives in what do you tell me, Brooklyn?
2:17
Well, I forget what he said, man.
2:18
He had the city. So I mean, that's a that's a lot
2:21
of flying He does you you would think he would be in Charlotte.
2:24
I had no idea. I thought the dude had to live
2:26
in Charlotte because anything that breaks in NASCAR, he's on
2:29
it in three seconds. And no, the dude lives in New
2:32
York. I'm not sure how he pulls that
2:33
off. I guess with, with electronics
2:36
and what we're looking at here, right?
2:37
He's able to, to get the get the word out there.
2:40
But he's a, he's a, he's a nice dude.
2:43
You know, I'm, I'm happy here for him.
2:45
I remember when he first came on in the sport and very, he was
2:49
very unassuming, very shy, very quiet.
2:51
But he gets it done. He gets it done.
2:53
Mike Wallace, he was on the other side of me over there and
2:55
he was just going on with a lot of different things, you know,
2:59
So I spent a lot of time with Waddell Wilson, the old crew
3:01
chief at Kel Yarborough, right? I saw Rodney Childress.
3:05
I said, you know, I talked to Kevin the page, haven't seen
3:07
Kevin the page in forever, you know, and we networked about the
3:11
alumni network. Kevin was asking all about the
3:13
NASCAR alumni network and he's not part of it.
3:15
But anyhow, I gave him information, you know, and I
3:18
don't know, just so many of these guys that that were there
3:21
and then God lay the amount of skull or RIP mass paraphernalia
3:27
I had to sign. I'm like, man, Oh man, Oh man,
3:30
I've never it's been a long time since I've signed that much RIP
3:34
mass per fan, autographed paraphernalia, bad for die cast
3:38
the posters and cards and just all kinds of stuff.
3:41
And but what they do, they advertise the drivers and the
3:44
personalities are going to be there.
3:45
So the people that's bought tickets and know who the drivers
3:48
are, they they could grab all their stuff and and and bring it
3:51
the head that been autographed, right.
3:54
So it's a cool deal for the fans, man.
3:56
It's cool. Cool deal.
3:58
Very cool. All right, so, and we're going
4:00
to get to kind of our our NASCAR season wrap because because our
4:04
show here didn't really do one because you had a little bit of
4:08
a of a health issue. Tell.
4:09
Tell people about. That, well, in 1975, when I was
4:14
18 years old, I had a lower hernia that busted and had it
4:17
repaired. Then in 1978 and had a right
4:19
side of hernia busted, right? Repaired that.
4:21
And then about maybe seven or eight years ago, both of them
4:25
busted again. Charlie, Right.
4:26
And I went to my doctor and he said you got a hernia, you got a
4:28
hernias. I said, yeah.
4:30
He said we need to fix them. I said, well, I don't really
4:31
have time right now to want to fool with it.
4:33
He said, well, you'll know what? It's time, right?
4:36
So guess what? This year it was time.
4:37
So we so we went, we went to UVA.
4:41
Great, great facility, man. Yeah, I'm telling you right now,
4:44
I told the people UVA from the time I first went to the
4:47
doctor's visit, to the time we went to the surgery center, to
4:51
the time I was let out that it's like, Charlie, you know how the
4:57
the folks at Chick-fil-A are. You go into Chick-fil-A and
5:00
they're happy and they're just real respectful and is the
5:04
nicest people you ever run across.
5:06
Well, I told the people at UVA their survey, I said, man, y'all
5:08
must send y'all staff to the Chick-fil-A training center
5:11
because it's just great, great people there right from the
5:14
beginning to the end. And we had a couple of
5:16
complications, but you know, we got got all that worked out, you
5:19
know, and I'll tell you something about it, Charlie.
5:22
They don't, they told me it was swell.
5:24
You have swelling, right? I'm like, OK, so I come home, we
5:29
operate all, but I'm later in the chair and I'm still on the
5:31
oxy cotton food, Oxy cotton from the surgery.
5:34
And you don't have to go to the bathroom and go to the bathroom.
5:37
Well, they don't tell me that you, you swell up the size of a
5:41
grapefruit, right? And so that was that was a
5:45
little shocking. I'm not going to go into detail
5:47
about what went on and what happened, but it was a shocking
5:51
experience for a little while. But anyhow, it's all said and
5:54
done. I'm held up.
5:54
Ready to go baby, ready to go. And we texted about this just
5:58
quick story for me two years ago.
6:00
So I had I had emergency abdominal surgery about two
6:05
years ago. I had an obstruction.
6:09
They had to take out a couple, I think couple centimeters I think
6:12
for my jejunum. I can't remember exactly, but I
6:16
have a nice little 8-9 inch scar through my belly button.
6:20
And then of course after that I get a nice big old hernia and
6:25
this thing, you know, at first I'm thinking, OK, I see a little
6:29
thing. I swear, Rick, this thing was
6:31
size of a, of a softball and it was right at the top of my
6:34
abdomen and it was just from an aesthetics.
6:38
It was so bad. So I went and got that removed
6:41
about, I don't know, 8-9 months after that and I'm, I'm pretty
6:45
good. The scars also a little better,
6:47
but I still got a little hernia at the top, but it's, it's not
6:50
as big. So I think I'm just going to
6:51
live with it, right? It's not, it's not perfect, but
6:54
now I have to get all ripped. I have to.
6:55
I have to get some ABS so I can because otherwise it looks like
6:58
I have a nice big little little pregnancy button.
7:03
Oh, gosh, yeah, I remember. Remember Mark had one one time.
7:06
Mark Martin, he had a mess put in.
7:08
That's why we were still racing. I got that.
7:10
Yeah. But anyhow, whatever.
7:12
All right, moving on from hernia surgeries that we both know too
7:16
much about, let's just let's throw it to you this way because
7:19
again, we didn't do the season recap show.
7:22
Take it any direction you want, whether it's the championship at
7:25
Phoenix, season as a whole. Just give me your thoughts.
7:28
Rick Mast on the 2024 NASCAR season.
7:32
Well, I will pat myself on the on the shoulder and tell you to
7:34
remind everybody that I did pick a Pensky car to win the
7:37
championship. I remember I said if a Pensky
7:40
car is in it, that's going to be the that's going to be the
7:42
favorite just because they've had a good set up for that
7:44
racetrack the last two or three years.
7:46
You with Blady and you know, again, it proved to be true.
7:50
The only way you fix that is you changed the track for the last
7:54
race, right? I thought it was, man, this,
7:58
this playoff deal, Charlie, I'm telling you it it creates so
8:02
much excitement. I mean, it really does from what
8:04
we used to be. Now I'm going to make a
8:06
statement here in a little bit and I want Steve Phelps with
8:08
NASCAR to listen. I want everybody to listen.
8:10
But anyhow, you know, we get down to the end and I don't
8:15
know, it's just it's just exciting.
8:16
It just is. So it's going to stay now.
8:19
Here's one of and congratulations to Logano in the
8:22
Penske group, right? Again, not a surprise to me.
8:25
Logano just he got in because of the other guy got kicked out.
8:28
And that's that's that's made some fodder for fans not liking
8:31
that. But you know, it's set up and
8:34
it's structured the way it is. Here's my deal.
8:37
I've been I've been paying close attention since the championship
8:40
race to social media, right? And what the fans are saying now
8:45
I have a fix for this, Charlie, I'm telling you, I've got a fix
8:48
for this. I think I do.
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What do I know? I do.
8:51
The fans, they're complaining. The fans complained there.
8:56
Here's what you got. You got a group of fans.
8:57
You got fans, right? You got a percentage of them
9:00
that do not like the playoffs, period.
9:04
All right, you could we we could tweak, structure, restructure,
9:08
whatever we're going to do. Those group of fans are not
9:10
going to like the playoffs. But here's the problem with
9:12
that. Fans we're going to the playoffs
9:15
are not going away. So you're going to have to learn
9:17
how to accept them or, or whatever, or quit watching or
9:20
whatever you want to do. But they're they're not going
9:22
away. I tell I'm telling you that.
9:24
Then you have a group of fans that, yeah, they go along with
9:29
the playoffs, but they don't like the structure of it and the
9:31
outcome sometimes, right? So you get to read and pay
9:35
attention to those fans. And a certain amount of those
9:39
fans don't like that the winner or the the guy that was most the
9:46
guy that won the most, the dominant guy for all year, he
9:49
didn't make the final four. The fans don't like that.
9:53
Well, if you if you compare it to ball and stick sports or
9:56
stick and ball sports, you know, the Kansas City Chiefs, they win
9:59
13 games during the season. They go to the first round of
10:02
the playoffs and guess what? They lose.
10:04
So you go to the Super Bowl. So your most dominant team
10:07
didn't get in the final Chase Championship, Super Bowl, right?
10:12
So. But we're not a stick and ball
10:15
sport. You know, I remember when
10:16
Richard, when this thing happened, I remember a clip came
10:19
out, Richard Petty, he said that, you know, the we our
10:23
sport, we go all year long and whoever's the best at the end,
10:27
you add them up. The last race, whoever's got the
10:29
most points to win, He said that's kind of one of the things
10:31
that separates us from the other sports, right?
10:34
It keeps us separate from it. He was kind of, I think,
10:36
complaining about the new format when it first came out.
10:39
And so you have groups of fans that feel that way.
10:43
And I understand that. And, you know, there's nothing
10:45
wrong with that. But what I saw, what I saw was
10:49
most of the people either fussing about Logano get it into
10:53
the final four because of the the trouble with what's his
10:56
name. But anyhow, most of it was,
10:59
yeah, with Bowman, most of it was, you know, the guy that was
11:03
dominant is not in the deal, you know, this year being Kyle
11:06
Larson. So here's by a remedy for this
11:09
right now, Steve Phelps. I know you're going to listen to
11:13
this one way or the other. Somebody at NASCAR is going to
11:15
make you listen to this, Steve. So anyhow, here's here's Rick
11:17
Mask thoughts on what you need to do.
11:23
Leave everything the same. Don't change the thing with this
11:26
point with this with this with this with this playoff.
11:28
Don't don't change the thing when we get to the next when the
11:32
when the next to the last race is finished and the four drivers
11:36
are in the show, right? The guy that is not in the show
11:43
that has the most wins gets in the show.
11:46
So you've got a final 5, right? That will cut out a lot of the
11:52
well, you still people going to still griping bitch.
11:55
I understand that, But that's that that's the one thing that I
11:58
saw that was a was a constant a bone among the people fussing,
12:03
right? The guy that was so dumb.
12:05
And again, we're not a sticker ball sport, right?
12:08
So we got to be a little different.
12:09
We want to be a little different.
12:10
We don't want to be exactly like these guys, right?
12:13
Kansas City Chiefs win 12 games. They lose first round.
12:16
They're not in the Super Bowl. Kyle Larson wins 10 races more
12:19
than anybody else. Guess what?
12:21
He's in our Super Bowl. And here's the other thing,
12:23
Charlie, it's Steve. Think of the the the hype.
12:27
Think of the drama. Think of the conversations with
12:31
the media with its own broad, the, the broadcast commentators.
12:34
Think of the things they're going to be talking about during
12:37
these last few races. Well, he's in the points.
12:39
If he wins, he's yeah, if you win, you're in.
12:41
We get that. But all right, if this guy wins,
12:43
but he's sitting over here with eight race, he's over here with
12:46
eight wins. He's not in the show right now.
12:48
He needs to win to get in, right?
12:50
Well, you know, it it, we're putting everything on win to get
12:53
in. I mean, win, win, win is what
12:55
the, the the emphasis of this playoff system is, is win, win,
12:58
win. Well, I believe, I truly believe
13:01
if we add the guy that has it, that didn't make the top 4 but
13:05
has the most wins, that's not in the top four at that moment.
13:09
Put him in the show, baby, put him in the show.
13:11
I think a lot of the criticisms goes away.
13:14
We're still going to get criticized.
13:15
I understand that people are not going to like it for whatever
13:18
reason, things going to go wrong.
13:20
But I think we do that, man. I think we fixed a lot of things
13:23
that we could call it the, I don't know, call it the, the,
13:26
the RIP Mass wild card. Yeah, call it the Rick Mass wild
13:30
card. Steve, I don't care what you
13:31
call it, you know, call it anything you want, but I really,
13:34
truly believe that that might be, might be the answer to this.
13:37
What do you think, Charlie? Does that make sense?
13:39
It does. I like this.
13:40
And just just so I I want to clarify here.
13:43
So let's say Kyle Larson wins 8 races, but he also makes the
13:48
final four. In your scenario, it's going to
13:51
be whichever driver did not make the final four.
13:55
So there's a 5, there's five drivers every year, but it's
13:58
it's the guy who's out who has the most wins.
14:01
Exactly. OK.
14:02
And it might be a year, you might get a year worth.
14:04
You know, there's 3 or 4 drivers that have three wins or four
14:07
wins. OK, that's not in right where he
14:10
gets in. But then, but then when you have
14:12
a year like he had this year with Larson been dominant, you
14:15
know, it just puts emphasis on that, you know, and I just think
14:18
it'll it'll, it'll, it'll drop a lot of it'll drop a lot of
14:21
drama, man. It'll drop a lot of fodder for
14:23
the scribes of our sport broadcasters.
14:25
Everybody be talking about trying to figure this other
14:28
element. Then we got to figure out this
14:29
other element over here. We got the final four, but we
14:32
also got to talk about this, this, you know, this other
14:34
element over here and it adds, of course, it adds more
14:37
confusing. I get that.
14:39
But heck is confused anyhow, so it doesn't matter.
14:41
Well, just kind of you get to the final four, you're in, we
14:44
get all that. But how to get there at times
14:46
with the points and all that, you know, sometimes a little
14:49
confusing. So I don't think that really
14:51
adds to confusion anymore. What we got.
14:53
I think it would just be a bigger deal, better deal for a
14:56
sport. I love it and just just because
14:59
you brought it up though, I got to throw it back to you.
15:01
So what happens and and we can just we can kind of talk this
15:05
through because we're all just, you know, everybody's kind of
15:07
doing this. How can we just perfect this a
15:10
little better not get rid of it? I love the playoff format.
15:14
How can we tweak it? So I think these conversations
15:16
are really good. So I like I like your idea.
15:19
Let's just say hypothetically, let's say that the four, whoever
15:23
4 they're in, but let's say next year, I'm just going to throw
15:27
out random names. Let's say William Byron, Denny
15:29
Hamlin, and let's just say Joey Logano don't make it.
15:36
But they all are tied with let's say probably two or three wins.
15:41
How do you how do you break the tiebreaker to get in the year
15:44
Year 5? It has to be by EE.
15:46
Either go by the other tiebreakers, either who's got
15:49
the, whoever's got the most 2nd place finishes, if that's tied,
15:53
whoever's got the most 3rd place finishes, right?
15:55
Or you go who's got the most points at that point.
15:58
You know, the, the, you know, NASCAR can decide that whichever
16:01
way they want to whichever, the way they would go with that.
16:03
If you, if your, if your emphasis is on winning, then you
16:06
have to go with second place finishes or third place
16:08
finishes. If your emphasis is on points,
16:10
you have to go with who's got the most points, right.
16:13
And this is all about winning for the playoffs, winning you're
16:15
in and some consistency, then that's how you would go.
16:19
That's how you would fix the tiebreaker, you know, but I, you
16:22
know, I don't know that the way the way these cars are right now
16:26
and the way things are structured, you know, it
16:28
wouldn't surprise me until we change things.
16:31
It wasn't surprised me a bit that we have a somebody that
16:35
breaks out with a something set up with their car for a period
16:39
of time, but just, it's just dominant, all right.
16:42
And they go on some kind of crazy streak at some point
16:45
during the season and and knock off 5678 wins like just like
16:49
kind of like Larson did. And and and this car sets itself
16:53
up for that type of thing. It it really does because it's
16:55
so finite in all the things they do to make this car win a
17:00
winning car or a lap down car. It's just so close and you come
17:04
up with something that works, man.
17:06
These guys stick to it and it happens.
17:07
So, you know, but anyhow, that's what I would do with it with the
17:10
with the tiebreaker. I think that makes sense.
17:15
Yeah, I didn't grow up a hardcore NASCAR fan.
17:17
I am now. I love the playoff format.
17:21
I understand why some old school folks don't love it.
17:25
I think it's absolutely great for picking up the casual sports
17:29
fan. And here's something I feel like
17:31
is kind of is missing in the debate.
17:34
And I've been thinking about this for a while.
17:37
I haven't really seen a lot of this discussion.
17:40
And it's this Joey Logano, who now has three championships.
17:44
But people say, OK, his last two, you know, he wasn't that
17:47
great during the regular season, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
17:50
And, and I, I get that argument, whatever he was this year, I
17:53
think was he 16th in points or whatever it was.
17:56
I, I understand the argument, but I feel like the argument
18:00
that we have in other sports is not being had in NASCAR, which
18:04
is what about being clutch? What about the fact that like we
18:09
celebrate in other sports, we celebrate the Derek Jeter's, the
18:14
Tom Brady's, the Bill Belichick's, you mentioned the
18:18
Kansas City Chiefs, the Patrick Mahomes, that for whatever
18:21
reason, in the playoffs, they elevate their game, they raise
18:26
their game, they win championships.
18:29
And I feel like nobody's saying that.
18:31
A lot of people are kind of criticizing Joey Logano.
18:35
And I, I understand it. Again, I think it's a fun
18:37
debate, but how about the fact that when when everything is on
18:42
the line, he and Team Penske rise to the occasion in in the
18:47
same way that everybody was criticizing Aaron Judge because
18:50
he didn't have a good playoffs. And your guy Freddie Freeman, I
18:55
mean, was the king because he rose to the occasion during the
18:58
World Series, the biggest spotlight of the year.
19:01
I feel like nobody's saying that about Joey Logano.
19:04
How about the fact that this dude has huge balls and the
19:08
moment doesn't get to him and he freaking just rises to the
19:11
occasion every year? Yeah, the point well taken,
19:14
Charlie, I agree with you 100%. I think, I think 1 of it is
19:18
we've, it was social media. I think we've just set ourselves
19:20
up to be able to criticize it, you know, instead of the, the,
19:25
the good stuff that goes on, right?
19:27
I just feel that it's part of what this is about.
19:32
No doubt. When the playoffs happen, Logano
19:35
is there, right? And we see it.
19:37
Like you said, all I can do, all I can do is repeat what you just
19:40
said. I mean, I agree 100% with what
19:42
you said. I think he's not being
19:44
celebrated for being for doing what they've done for, for
19:48
pulling off what they pulled off, right.
19:51
The celebration should be 100 times more than what's going on.
19:54
Instead of criticizing the guy, it should be because this is
19:57
what we do. We race all year.
19:59
Everybody knows the rules. Kyle Petty's base of people bad.
20:02
But say, listen, when we go to Daytona, we know what the rule
20:05
is. We know what the playoff rules
20:07
are all through the season. And it all gears towards the
20:10
last four of their last few races.
20:13
That's what this whole thing is geared towards.
20:16
For whatever reasons, right, Pisky, at the end of these
20:19
deals, their cars turn and they hook up the gas, They turn and
20:23
they hook up in the gas and they just, they're just, they're just
20:26
dominant cars, you know, at the last few races of of the
20:30
championship. It's the way it is now.
20:33
Is that by chance is that something they work towards?
20:36
Is that what they're geared toward?
20:37
I think Joey personally, I think as a driver, I think he steps it
20:42
up a level I truly do right. And I think the team probably
20:46
understands maybe that it does. So the team has to step it up a
20:50
little. If I was in the sport right now
20:53
and I was a car owner, crew chief, engineer, I would be
20:56
looking this point structure. I would look at the last few
20:58
races of the year of what's on the schedule, right?
21:01
What, what, what, what the, the, the, the money, the money races.
21:05
That's the last few races. That's the championship races.
21:08
My whole goal as a crew chief, engineer, owner would be to bake
21:13
my car fast at those race tracks, whatever those race
21:16
tracks are, whatever I'm at anywhere else all year long.
21:20
I'm thinking how can I apply this knowledge to those last few
21:24
race tracks in the in the championship?
21:26
Because that's where it all happens.
21:28
And I truly believe that's what Pisky does.
21:30
I think they look at those last race tracks and work all year
21:35
towards what can we do to make our cars good at those race
21:38
tracks. You take that and couple with
21:41
Joey stepping it up, Blaney steps it up, right.
21:44
Everybody steps it up and under this with your car, when you got
21:47
a good thing going with your team and the driver and the car
21:50
is working good and the driver steps it up a little bit, now
21:52
you going a little bit quicker. Everybody just steps it up and
21:55
that's seems to be what goes on with the Pisky organization at
22:00
the championship time, yeah. Here's what I'll say about I
22:09
think a tweak and a lot of people have brought this up now
22:13
because you do the final three races or the final two races,
22:18
kind of you don't just have the one and done championship final
22:22
race, although you do kind of lose that Game 7 moment.
22:25
Joey Logano has talked about that.
22:27
But I do think that NASCAR is so track dependent in terms of
22:33
particular tracks are so important in that just some
22:38
teams are better on certain tracks.
22:40
I do think you get to a point where if you lock into one track
22:44
being the final race like Phoenix for for many years in a
22:48
row, we could see more of this where one team could dominate.
22:53
And by the way, all teams have the same chance to dominate.
22:56
I understand that. But I think just to have maybe
22:59
some more variance, I don't even know if fairness is the right
23:03
term. I, I think you should have and
23:06
we, we know weather is important, but if you just pick,
23:09
let's say Vegas homestead in Phoenix and you rotate those 3
23:16
for the final three races. So the championship race is at a
23:19
different track, let's say every three years.
23:22
And you can change it. By the way, you can do this for
23:24
a six year rotation and then you could add or subtract another
23:27
track after that if you don't like the way things are going.
23:30
But I, I like warm weather, Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, rotating
23:35
those three like in the last three races.
23:39
So it's not just Phoenix deciding everything every year.
23:43
What do you think about that? Yeah, and I've had that thought
23:45
too, Charlie. I think it's a great thought.
23:48
You know, we Yeah, that's why that's why I picked the last two
23:52
years. I've picked Pisky car to win the
23:54
championship because I've just you just watch what they've done
23:57
at Phoenix racetrack with this new car, right?
24:00
They've got it. They've got it going on, man.
24:02
They've got it working and so if you change the tracks around, of
24:08
course, of course you know it it you know, you know it gets in
24:13
again, try it gets into last course hamper a little bit
24:16
because of the venues right. And it's not, it's not easy to
24:19
just change around the schedule 'cause you got to do it a year
24:22
in advance, right, For all these tracks to have their marketing
24:24
stuff and selling tickets and all that.
24:26
It's not like the ball and stick sticking ball sports.
24:28
But yeah, I agree 100%. You can change, you can change
24:31
that around a little bit each year.
24:33
You know, where the the last races.
24:35
Well, I tell you what would have, here's what would happen
24:36
Trump, if you did that say next year the last race is going to
24:40
be Homestead, right? You're going to ask me who's
24:42
going to win the championship? I'm going to say I don't have a
24:44
clue, right. Well, what if Pensky's in that?
24:47
No, I'm not going to give them the advantage, but if we go back
24:50
to Phoenix next year, if we go back to Phoenix next year and
24:54
you ask me who's going to the championship, I'm going to tell
24:56
you if a, if a if a Penske car is in there, they're they're
25:00
favorite, right? We change tracks.
25:02
That's not going to happen. So yeah, that's that's a good,
25:04
valid point. Steve, are you listening?
25:07
Yeah, you are. For sure.
25:09
He better be all right. We got some people watching here
25:12
live. Get your questions for Rick in,
25:14
get your comments in. We will.
25:16
We'll get to them here a little later towards the end.
25:19
Just some some NASCAR hot topics.
25:21
The lawsuit is is lingering. I'd say everybody was talking
25:27
about at the end of the season. And then obviously you focus on
25:30
the championship. There's been some more
25:32
developments. Obviously NASCAR is not messing
25:35
around there. It looks like they're not at
25:38
least right now, they're not willing to compromise now down
25:42
the road. Could that change?
25:43
But give me give me your thoughts on just.
25:46
Where we're at, right? Now with the lawsuit.
25:48
The first thing I find interesting, Charlie, Yeah,
25:50
honestly, honestly, it seems like we have a lot of fans are
25:56
taking NASCAR's side on this, right?
25:59
I mean, we're so used to social media to everybody beaten,
26:02
beaten up on NASCAR, right, with everything negative.
26:04
But it seems like there's a higher percentage of fans on
26:08
this deal that that surprised it to me.
26:11
The very, I've been very surprised that they're sticking
26:13
up for NASCAR instead of the teams, right?
26:16
But anyhow, that's just a side note, Charlie, I listened to the
26:21
guy, forget the name, the lawyer for 23 action front row, the
26:25
race teams lawyer. I listened to him on Moody's
26:27
show a while back. It's like a 15 or 20 minute
26:30
interview. And he laid out everything all
26:33
right. And I listened to this dude.
26:34
I'm like #1 he's very impressive.
26:36
He's it's very impressive that with the, the, the victories
26:40
he's had in this same type of situation with other types of
26:45
sports, right? The, the, the baseball deal,
26:47
football deal, it's somewhat basketball, but anyhow, so I'll
26:51
listen to him go through that a little bit.
26:53
Then I'll listen to him talk about the suit against NASCAR,
26:55
right And the one thing I'll say, Charlie, everybody that's
27:00
talking about this, they'll get to a point they'll say, I don't
27:03
know law. I don't understand law.
27:05
You've you've heard that I've heard that from so many people
27:08
on here that I was you know that I want me too.
27:11
I'm the same way, right? But the but in law, I do know
27:15
that there are some lay terms that that that come into effect
27:19
that really applied to law. OK.
27:22
And I listen to this dude. I'm like, yeah, that sounds
27:25
pretty cool. But what is what do you said and
27:27
done? I'm like, I don't know law, but
27:31
I don't know in lay terms if what the way you've been
27:34
victorious in your other suits is going to work in this case,
27:39
because NASCAR is not like is we all we've talked about this
27:43
Charlie, many times and everybody knows it.
27:45
NASCAR is not structured like the other professional sports,
27:49
right? NASCAR is a private entity and
27:51
we're all the competitors. We're all private contractors
27:55
signed up to do be part of the show, right.
27:59
And if you listen to some of the stuff he was saying, I'm like,
28:02
man, I don't know the law. But in late terms, that won't
28:06
fly to be in a in a courtroom what you just proved in your
28:11
other cases in in using that same logic here with NASCAR in
28:17
lay terms, it's not going to fly, I don't think not knowing
28:20
anything about the law and that's my wife calling by the
28:24
way she's calling me, but. You can take it live on the
28:28
show. No, I better not do that.
28:29
I better not do that. Here's what I'm going to do.
28:31
I'm going to say on look here on air right now, see, see, that's
28:42
what it says. There you go on air right now,
28:44
there it is. Oh Lord, there it went.
28:51
OK. But anyhow, so I'm concerned.
28:56
I'm concerned that, you know, the end result of this thing is,
29:01
is not going to go well for the teams.
29:04
And I don't know what that means.
29:06
You know, nobody, nobody doesn't want Michael Jordan and Diddy
29:13
Hammond in front row in this sport.
29:15
Nobody doesn't not want them in this sport.
29:17
Everybody wants them in this sport.
29:19
NASCAR wants them in the sport, right?
29:21
Everybody wants to be in the sport.
29:23
Now. You got hard liners on both
29:24
sides right now, Charlie, you got, you know, we got Larry
29:27
McReynolds on what side? He dug his, you know, he made a
29:30
statement, he dug his heels to say it and he's doubled down on
29:32
it, right. And then you've got the other
29:34
side that kind of doubled down on their on their deal.
29:38
And so you've got two different factions here.
29:40
But I, I, man, I'm telling you again, from a lay standpoint and
29:45
not understanding the law, I just, it just, it didn't make
29:49
sense to me what the guy said in the way he was going after this.
29:53
It just didn't make, oh, it made sense, but it didn't make sense
29:56
to me that this was going to work in, in the way NASCAR is
29:59
structured and going through same type of things.
30:02
So you get that out of the way. Now you look at, well, OK,
30:05
what's NASCAR's stance? I'm telling you, dude, we've
30:08
talked about this. Everybody's talked about it.
30:10
You knocked the old school racers and I've talked about it
30:13
before. You know, we caught heat, but,
30:15
you know, caught heat for it. But NASCAR, you know, they,
30:19
they, it's hard to bump them, dude.
30:22
It's just hard to buck them and, and, and come out.
30:24
I mean, they're, you know, the way they're structured.
30:27
Again, it's a private company and we all agree to sign up to,
30:31
to, to go in their playing field and play in their sport.
30:34
You know, that they own and they 100% control, right?
30:38
It's always been that way and it's been, here's the deal.
30:43
It's always been very successful, Charlie, Right.
30:46
I mean, here we, we came through a period of explosion and growth
30:50
in our sport that nobody else I think saw coming.
30:55
Then the amount of growth we had an explosion back into, you
30:58
know, the end of my career into the 90s, into the 2000s.
31:01
We go through this and then, then the then the economy tanks,
31:05
right? NASCAR loses its way with some
31:08
of the marketing stuff they do. And you know, we lose tons of
31:11
fans, but here we start our crawl back up through there and
31:16
here we are in 2024 with a brand new TV package, right contract.
31:22
That's the highest it's ever been, right?
31:24
All the numbers look good. The ratings this year look good.
31:27
So, you know, everything's on the upswing.
31:29
We'll never get back to where we were at one time.
31:31
I don't think, you know, I just don't think we were hell, one
31:33
time, Charlie, we were we were being rumored to to to take over
31:37
NFL, right? And NFL is the most successful
31:40
frigging franchise sports deal in the history of the world from
31:43
the beginning of time through now.
31:46
And I mean, that's how crazy our thing had gotten one time.
31:49
But anyhow, the the sport hit its dip, it went down the sports
31:53
back on it's on the upswing now and for these guys to think that
32:00
they're just going to bully NASCAR around it doesn't work.
32:02
It doesn't you know, that's I mean, I don't know that's carbon
32:05
liable lose in legal battle. They liable lose everything
32:08
they're talking about. They liable to lose everything
32:10
right or lose all the the case and and 23 X and foot row gets
32:14
everything they want. But I don't know.
32:16
I can't answer that, but to me right now, man, it just doesn't
32:21
look good for a good outcome for these race teams.
32:23
And you know, and none of this is good for the sport.
32:27
No, this is good for the sport, but it is what it is.
32:30
And you're, I'm just telling you, I've told y'all before,
32:32
you're not going to bully NASCAR around.
32:34
It's just, you know, it doesn't happen.
32:36
You know, they have their way of doing things, doing things.
32:39
They've been successful and they're going to do it that way
32:41
until a judge says you can't do it.
32:43
But I don't know. We'll see.
32:45
All right, here's something I've observed about this and, and you
32:49
tell me, but I think most people can agree that that or I, I
32:55
shouldn't say most people, but I think could NASCAR budget a
32:59
little bit, make it a little easier on the teams to make
33:04
money or not lose money year to year.
33:07
I I think that's a fair argument.
33:09
Here's what I've noticed, though.
33:11
It seems like almost all of the old school racers, right that
33:15
I've seen weigh in on this. It seems like almost all of them
33:20
take NASCAR's side versus the teams slash drivers when if you
33:25
think about it, all these old school drivers used to be in the
33:29
spot that the teams or drivers in are in now.
33:33
So first of all, tell me if you think I'm I'm right on that.
33:36
And why do you think that's the case?
33:38
It seems like a lot of the old school guys are siding with
33:41
NASCAR where if you were driving right now, you'd probably be
33:45
saying, hey, let's try to make it a little better for us like
33:48
it was back in your day. If if your guys, you guys were
33:52
making a bunch more money and the and the sport was healthier.
33:54
What do you think about that? I think a lot of it has to do,
33:57
Charlie, with we didn't have a net my whole career.
34:01
I never had a debt. We didn't have a safety net.
34:04
The owners didn't have a safety net.
34:06
We didn't have anything. You go to the racetrack, you
34:09
fail to qualify, you've got a Fortune 500 company on your on
34:13
your quarter panels that's suspected you can perform and
34:16
you go out there and you've got not 30, but you've got 45 race
34:21
teams that's got Fortune 500 companies on their race cars,
34:25
right? Only 42 is going to start the
34:26
race that day. Three is going to go home.
34:29
OK, There's no safety net and everybody with it to a fault in,
34:35
in my time in NASCAR all through the 80s and 90s, right up
34:39
through when I got out 2O2, everybody in the garage area
34:42
says, man, we need some kind of safety debt.
34:45
We need something to protect us. We need something to protect
34:48
because we know I'm going to take something.
34:50
We lost a lot of sponsorships. We lost, we lost a lot of
34:53
companies because teams failing to make races.
34:56
OK, put all this money in there and you go to the racetrack with
35:00
you got a big suite set up there and you got all the CEOSCFOSCOS,
35:04
everybody, the company and customers and all this branding
35:06
and stuff. They're setting in the suite.
35:08
They go start the race. Yeah, the car is not there.
35:11
Where's my car? They didn't make a show.
35:14
Well, this is embarrassing. They pull out the sport.
35:17
This this thing came along to protect the the teams.
35:22
It became to protect really protect the sponsors, but to
35:24
protect the teams. And one of the side benefits was
35:27
it was supposed to give the team owners, you know, some, some
35:31
blue sky value to their teams. Because when so many of the
35:34
teams and everybody, you know, we talk about it, Bud Board,
35:36
Junior Johnson, everybody when they went out of business, it's
35:38
a fire sale. Only thing of value is what the
35:41
equipment was worth, right? So the charter thing, what was a
35:45
was a benefit to that and it was just something that we all
35:48
wanted so bad. Something like this, our whole
35:51
careers, right? And now it comes long and that's
35:54
far as got it. And we're like, man, you guys
35:58
don't really understand how good you've got it right now.
36:02
That's compared to the way we had to deal with it right now.
36:05
The other side of it is the drivers made more money in my
36:09
time than they make right now, which is wild, Charlie, you
36:12
know, I should say the latter. From 2004 and five on up
36:16
through, right, the drivers made more money than what they make
36:21
right now. You know, that was because that
36:23
was during the explosion. That's when this thing exploded.
36:24
That's when the money, you know, you just count the money, man.
36:27
And it was rolling in, OK. And it's not like that now.
36:30
So I get I get it from that perspective.
36:34
I get it from a perspective of owners not making profits, not
36:37
making money. You can't make money doing it.
36:39
Why the hell you doing it? Will a lot of people do it
36:41
because they love it? OK, what Rick Hendrick say, I
36:44
just got tired of arguing with them about the charter and just
36:46
signed it. Well, and Tony Stewart made your
36:48
remark. You think you think Rick
36:50
Hendrick runs his business that way.
36:52
He gets tired of arguing about somebody, about a business deal
36:55
and then just I will sign it. Walk away.
36:56
Tony's point was, no, he don't do that.
36:58
Well, there has to be a love for the sport.
37:00
That's been love for what you're doing.
37:02
That kind of overrides that now you can't be set up for the
37:05
teams to lose money. I mean, I get all this guys I
37:08
get I get what they're doing. I get what 23X fuck Rose trying
37:11
to do. They're trying to get more money
37:13
for the race thieves. That's what you're trying to get
37:16
and and and some of the things I think a little bit more power, a
37:18
little bit more control and that'll never happen.
37:21
OK, that's not going to happen. But the money thing, I totally
37:24
understand that. But you know, you know, if all
37:28
the other teams can make it, you know, without going bankrupt,
37:32
well, maybe maybe these two teams can make it.
37:35
I don't know. But I understand both sides.
37:37
And it's a it's it's a funny thing, but I just don't again,
37:41
it goes back to my other point, Charlie.
37:42
I don't know that the stuff that's been valid in this this
37:46
law firms of the lawsuits are going to hold hold water in in
37:50
in the NASCAR court. I just don't know.
37:52
Yeah, I do wonder sometimes how far off are they now?
37:56
There are some teams leaving, Tony Stewart, Stewart Haas
38:00
leaving and and he's basically said a lot of it has to do with
38:04
with the economic model. But then on the other side, you
38:08
do look and you see, OK, 2311, Michael Jordan, they probably
38:13
had this lawsuit when I say in their back pocket, like thinking
38:17
about filing this for the last year or so, right as they're
38:21
going through these negotiations, while they're
38:24
doing that, they're still, they're building this
38:27
unbelievable multi $1,000,000 beautiful new facility.
38:31
They're also trying to add a third team 1/3 charter, right,
38:36
with Riley Herbst and then somebody like Brad Kozlowski
38:40
who's been very vocal on this as well.
38:42
He's a very smart businessman and they're adding another team.
38:46
I know some of the charter stuff is kind of hanging in the
38:48
balance here because of this lawsuit, but they're trying to
38:50
add. So I do wonder sometimes, well,
38:53
OK. And, and by the way, I always
38:54
kind of say in a tie, I usually in a tie, I will, I will, you
39:00
know, air on the side or kind of go to the side of Labor versus
39:03
capital in, in a tie. And that would be in this case,
39:06
the drivers and the teens. But I just wonder sometimes,
39:09
well, how bad can it really be if you're still building this
39:13
new facility and you're adding teams, right?
39:17
Like if the if the model is so bad and I don't think it's
39:20
perfect by any means, but if it's so bad, why are you adding
39:23
third teams? That also doesn't kind of sit
39:26
with me perfectly. Yeah, I know.
39:29
And. And you know, in in the 23 in
39:32
the 23 X deal, you can see that because Gordon Michael Jordan
39:37
has more money and God right now, OK.
39:39
And you he whatever he wants to do, he can do.
39:42
And I guess, I guess he could run the team all year.
39:44
Not even get money coming in or whatever for for positions, but
39:48
if you want to go down that type of Rd. which you know, you can't
39:51
do that. Nobody, nobody in there saying
39:53
their right mind would do that. But you know, they they made
39:57
some mistakes, man. They said they would run the
39:58
deal next year without the charters.
40:00
You know, that come up in court, right?
40:01
And and talked about the drivers leaving and not being able to
40:04
get sponsorships that come up in court and that all got thrown
40:07
out. And but at the same time,
40:09
they're saying, you know, we're going to add another team, OK,
40:12
But you know. And and what I think about is we
40:15
talk about this all the time, but everybody always talks about
40:18
Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin book.
40:19
But what about front row? You know what I mean?
40:21
What about front row Motorsports?
40:23
I mean, does that guy have more money than God to be able to
40:26
fight this? You know, I don't think so, but
40:29
you know, they're still viable. But to your point, you know,
40:32
that, that, that, that that part does discredit somewhat what
40:37
they're after, what they're saying.
40:39
And because you're doing this, you're, you're still trying to
40:42
add, you would add another team. I'll run without the charter
40:45
making that statement, man, you know, it just some of it at
40:50
times just doesn't add up. But then you've got teams that
40:53
that agreed to do it. I'll bet they didn't get what
40:56
all they wanted. And I think I made the comment
40:58
when they when they decide this deal.
40:59
We didn't, you know, we didn't get everything we wanted, but
41:02
it's a workable deal. We can make this work.
41:04
And that's what all the teams teams agreed to.
41:06
So, you know, it's, it's a, it's a wild situation, man.
41:10
It's a wild situation on the same topic.
41:13
Kind of we have our guy Brian Kidder here has a question and
41:17
he says if you're a sponsor coming into NASCAR, who do you
41:20
go to, the teams or NASCAR? And Denny Hamlin has brought
41:23
that up as well, saying look, we're we're.
41:27
Part of a league. But but this is where NASCAR, I
41:30
think is totally different than a lot of other sports.
41:32
Now you're seeing these other sports start to add the jersey,
41:36
right? The jersey logos, the the
41:38
business logos. Just in the last couple years,
41:40
baseball did that. You saw in the post season they
41:43
had the ads on the helmet for baseball.
41:46
You're seeing basketball does that soccer, I feel like
41:49
European soccer has always done that.
41:51
But NASCAR is so sponsor driven. That also seems like part of
41:55
this issue is that if you're a big time Fortune 500 company,
42:00
you're being pitched by both the teams and the sanctioning body
42:04
of the sport. Yep, it's always been that way.
42:09
Charles, I'm telling you, it's been that way from beginning of
42:12
time. You know, one time the saying
42:14
was, you know, we got we got somebody we're talking to about
42:17
a sponsorship. Well, don't let NASCAR know.
42:19
Don't let NASCAR know because you're trying to take it right.
42:21
And that was one of the things sayings that went on years ago
42:25
in the garage area. And but it it's very unique if
42:31
to answer his question, if you want to sponsor a team, I'd walk
42:35
right into that team. I'd walk right in the front door
42:38
to walk to the receptionist. Same.
42:40
I'm so and so I'm, I'm the CEO of what you call it.
42:43
And I want to sponsor a race team.
42:45
What can y'all sell me? Sell me.
42:47
OK, That's the way that if a sponsor wants to, and I'm
42:51
telling you the way things are now, it doesn't work like that.
42:55
It the, the, the, the race teams are out here beating on the
42:59
company's sponsors doors. The, the, the, the, the sponsors
43:02
don't go looking for race teams in the environment we're in
43:05
right now. So everybody in this country
43:09
that's got a, it's got a company or they own a company or
43:11
whatever, At some point you're going to get contacted by some
43:15
representative of one of these race teams.
43:17
Hey, are you interested in our sport?
43:19
Even if you're not, let me let me sit down and explain our
43:22
sport to you, right. And they start this long
43:25
dialogue. I mean, there's companies that's
43:27
been tutored for, you know, for a long time, Charlie.
43:30
I mean, I'm talking 2345 years and even longer than what I know
43:34
of that were tutored right or, or just the team was working
43:41
with them for years trying to get him to come over to the
43:45
sport. And they do a lot of times they
43:48
do after a period of time. And it's it's pretty, it's
43:51
pretty neat when that happens. All right, folks.
43:54
Watch and get your questions and comments and we will read them
43:58
here live on the show. Here's here's one from about
44:02
half an hour ago. Michael Yeats, How far are you
44:04
from Lynchburg, VA? Rick, 40 minutes, 45.
44:07
Minutes. OK, Greetings.
44:10
Yeah. He says greetings.
44:10
From Lynchburg, VA Rick, tell us a funny story about Kenny
44:14
Wallace, please. Is there any Kenny Wallace story
44:17
that you haven't told that you can?
44:19
Or if it's a if it's an old one and a good one, you can.
44:21
You can tell it again, it's all good.
44:23
Not really. You know the the most famous one
44:30
and that Kenny talks about a lot.
44:32
But 1991 or two or three or four, I forget what year it was.
44:39
We were Dover and we were, I forget we just finished
44:45
qualifying or practice practicing or something.
44:48
I'm sitting on pit wall sitting there sitting there and Kenny
44:51
comes up to me and he's like a damn Batty rooster.
44:53
Anyhow, I mean it's just like Kenny's just all over the place
44:56
guys as y'all know what you see here on the Kenny Wallace Show,
45:00
that's Kenny Wallace actually toned down a little bit because
45:03
Kenny is like man, you watch it and you go he just wears you out
45:07
watch it right And he he comes up to me and he sets down he's
45:10
going on and on and on and on and on He's fussing about his
45:13
car and car Don't do this and don't do that.
45:15
I go to turn one it's boost up racetrack and I try to tell crew
45:18
chief the son of bitch won't listen to me and these people
45:20
over here in the motor ain't no good and the owner's going to
45:22
fire me and just on and on and on and on and on and on and on.
45:24
I let him go on probably probably a good 3 or 4 minutes,
45:29
right? And he's just, you know, he's
45:31
beside himself. Every the world's coming to the
45:32
end. Everything's wrong.
45:33
You know, everybody's got, they're going to fire him, the
45:35
car ain't working, he can't drive, blah, blah, blah.
45:38
And finally I, I get a little break, right?
45:41
I said Kitty. I said, I said Kitty, shut up,
45:45
Just a second, Just be quiet. Just a second, just a second,
45:48
hustle a minute. He looks at me funny.
45:49
I said just settle down, settle down just for a second.
45:52
And I put my hands on his shoulders like this, right?
45:56
And I said, Kitty, do you want to be a Worcester Cup race car
46:01
driver? Is that what you want to be?
46:03
Is that what you're aspiring to be?
46:04
Well, yeah. Yeah, Yeah.
46:05
That's what I said. Settle the F down.
46:10
Everything is going to be fine. You're good.
46:14
Everything's working in your favor.
46:16
Chill out. Settle down.
46:18
Quit it. Everything's fine.
46:20
Right? And Kenny and, you know, I
46:23
didn't think about it anymore. Years later, Kenny brought that
46:26
up. It changed his whole perspective
46:28
of kind of how he was dealing with the pressures of being in
46:32
our sport. Because Charlie, I'm telling
46:34
you, you cannot explain to anybody the pressure in our
46:38
sport, at least in our time, the pressures on a driver in our
46:41
sport. You cannot, you cannot verbalize
46:45
the pressures that that you're under in our sport.
46:48
And Kenny was just just manifested all those emotions
46:51
out put, you know, just out of yourself.
46:53
I don't his sleeve man. And it was, it was, it was not
46:56
being good for him. But anyhow, he got it worked
46:58
around. So not really a funny story, but
47:01
it's a good Kenny Wallace story. It's a Kenny Wallace story that
47:03
I love. I love it.
47:05
Good stuff. All right, we have I mean, we'll
47:07
have about two months here, right, two months to preview the
47:11
2025 season, but let's let's end on this and and we'll start
47:15
doing more regular shows. So we'll have a lot to talk
47:17
about. But just if I ask you right now,
47:19
Rick Mass, what are you most excited about?
47:23
Most excited about seeing whether it's a track, a driver
47:26
that might be able to step up or on a new team, What are you most
47:30
excited about for the 2025 NASCAR season?
47:32
It's honestly Charlie. And this is this is a deal with
47:35
me. It's the it's a combination of
47:37
everything. It's not I don't, I don't ever
47:40
go into the first of the season, first of the year really looking
47:45
at one thing, you know, and I think that came from the years
47:49
of all the tests that we used to do at Daytona.
47:52
We got out of the Daytona test and you know, you'd be down
47:55
there for two or three weeks of broken up, but then somebody or
48:00
something would be fast as I think his old time.
48:02
See you go to Daytona anticipating to watch that car
48:05
or be that car time or till we work.
48:08
And you know, you look at that stuff and then after a period of
48:11
time, I realized, you know what, I'm looking at this room.
48:13
I need to look at this thing as as as a whole, right?
48:18
Show me what to get excited about first.
48:21
Give me what to be excited about.
48:22
I mean, a couple years ago we had the new car.
48:24
That was a whole deal, right? Everybody was excited and
48:27
looking forward or whatever to what the new car was going to
48:30
bring. Well, now we're on to what,
48:31
third year or whatever it is of this 4th of this car.
48:34
So we don't have that anymore and we've got all these other
48:37
things. And I'm telling you, Charlie,
48:38
when the Daytona 500's over, when they wave that checkered
48:41
flag, we go have more shit to talk about than you can imagine
48:46
because stuff just happens. And that's that's the I guess
48:49
it's probably the part I like is the unknown, Charlie, you know
48:53
what is going to happen in our sport that's going to make me
48:57
excited and give me stuff to talk about and give me things to
49:00
have opinions about. It's about on the Rick Mass
49:03
show. That's what that's what excites
49:05
me is the unknown of our sport right now.
49:08
Yep, any given Sunday. I know that's an NFL term, but
49:12
NASCAR for sure. So, Ken?
49:14
Ruggles asks. He says, does the next Gen. do
49:18
next Gen. fans have the attention span for 300 to 600
49:23
mile races? And I'll just I'll say this, I
49:26
and this is where, you know, maybe some old school fans
49:28
disagree with me. But look, you should, you should
49:31
want to watch the whole race. But you don't have to watch the
49:34
whole race. You can put it on, you can watch
49:36
the pageantry, you can check in O15 laps till the first stage.
49:41
All right, go, go to the bathroom, eat some lunch, come
49:44
back O20 laps till the second stage.
49:46
OK, Then you lock in again 50 laps till the end of the race.
49:51
I mean, you can also watch it like that if if you want to, you
49:55
don't have to, but you can Charlie this.
49:58
Good question kicks. I'm going to tell you something.
50:00
This is this is a question that's befuddled me, right?
50:04
All right, here's the deal. Here's the deal.
50:05
We know there are very smart people at NASCAR and not just
50:10
NASCAR, but all the other sports they have done the the analytics
50:15
on this, right? They have to know what what what
50:21
the the fan of today as he calls the next Gen. fan, right
50:25
millennial fan or whatever you want to call them.
50:27
These these people now that that we're that are becoming our fans
50:30
and fans, we've got to get what do they like?
50:33
What will they will they support a 600 mile race?
50:37
I don't know that I think that NASCAR knows.
50:40
I think they figured this out. I think all the other sports
50:43
have figured this out. I need to talk And I always
50:46
thought, man, I need to talk to somebody at NASCAR that's all
50:48
this, right, that knows about this to get an understanding of
50:52
what they have figured out that they've got to produce for the
50:55
fans to like. And that and one of those things
50:58
is how long, what's your attention span and how long do
51:01
we keep these fans engaged? And I agree with you making a
51:04
600 mile race where you got to watch the old thing.
51:07
But I will say this, Charlie, we went to the Atlanta race in the
51:11
in the fall, me and my family and we sat in the grandstands
51:14
and we went in the garage area first, but we sit in the
51:16
grandstands. We talked about that and the
51:19
race is, what was it 500 miles? Is Atlanta 500 or 4?
51:23
Hell, I don't remember what it was, but I'll tell you this.
51:26
We're sitting in the stands and I think it was 500 or whatever.
51:31
It was the regular race. That race was over before I knew
51:34
it. Even sitting in the stands for
51:37
that length of time, I'm like, I was engaged the whole time,
51:40
dude. Right now it was Atlanta and it
51:42
was side by So, you know, again, I know
52:01
these people. I know these people haven't
52:02
figured out and what that timeline is.
52:05
So, but I don't know, I don't know.
52:08
And Ken? Jumps back in in a comment here,
52:11
he says. I've been a fan for 60 years and
52:13
been through all the different stages of growth.
52:15
The kids don't know what to do without a cell phone.
52:18
That's also true. But that plays into how NASCAR
52:21
and sports are consumed, whether it's watching the full race.
52:24
But also are you are you getting people watching the highlights
52:27
on X on Facebook, on Instagram, on Tiktok, that all that all
52:32
plays a role. How about Michael Hurt here?
52:36
Michael Hurt Rick says hello. Just got a die cast of Rick's
52:40
when he drove the 75 with Remington sponsorship.
52:43
Any good stories from that time? Man, we were going through.
52:47
We were going through a dry spell.
52:50
Well, the two years that I was with that, that team was it we
52:54
didn't do well. OK, We just didn't do well and
52:57
for a lot of reasons. But anyhow, we're going through
52:59
a dry spell one time and we're at New Hampshire.
53:02
We had three or four races of bad luck.
53:05
Well, I roll in on on Sunday morning and my bus driver comes
53:10
through, go look in your car. And I go to the crew's all
53:13
standing there, right, My crew chief and everybody go look in
53:17
your car. And I go look in the car and
53:20
there's a chicken. There's a chicken in the seat of
53:22
my car, sitting in the driver's seat.
53:24
And I turn around and they're all looking at me.
53:26
I'm like, what? What are we doing?
53:28
What the Hell's a chicken for, right?
53:31
They said, Rick, we're going to change your luck around what we
53:34
going to do? We're going to sacrifice that
53:37
chicken. I said, what?
53:39
We're going to sacrifice the chick and somebody come up some
53:41
kind of crap about sacrifice and the chicken would change your
53:45
luck, right? Which meant you Chuck, you cut
53:47
the chicken's head off and then I don't know, I don't know what
53:49
you did yet, but I don't know some, some rigmarole they had
53:52
worked up, right? And, and, and a couple of the
53:55
guys are actually going to do that right there in the garage
53:58
area. And then the, the team owner
54:00
stepped in and, and put a stop to that, right?
54:02
He, he didn't, he didn't do that.
54:05
But anyhow, but I'll tell you one thing.
54:07
This triggers Charlie. I'm going to tell everybody
54:09
right now, folks, let's listen to this old RIP mask fans or
54:14
whatever. You might be getting some fan
54:17
mail signed in the mail or fan stuff signed in the mail.
54:21
And I'll tell you why. Charlie, when I was down for
54:24
surgery during the holidays with the hernia deal we uncovered,
54:30
and I'm not going to get into how it happened or what
54:32
happened, but we uncovered tons of fan mail that had gotten
54:38
misplaced over the years, right? How old?
54:42
Dude, I'm I'm talking. About the oldest I saw postmark
54:45
was 2007. Dang I know and I'm looking at
54:50
this. My wife's looked at this like
54:52
hell in the heck did we let this happen right.
54:56
So I spent the last what, 3 weeks or whatever it's been now.
55:00
I mean, my hands weren't look at my head.
55:01
It's like Fred Sanford. It's all, it's All in all enough
55:04
to see from signing. So, you know, we, we, we did
55:08
everyone of them. I still got a few.
55:09
We still got some a few left yet to do.
55:11
So if you didn't, if you sent something to me the last few
55:14
years and it didn't come, guess what?
55:16
It's in the it's in the US Postal Service somewhere.
55:19
We, we did all and Charlie, I'm talking man, I don't know, dude.
55:24
I bet it's probably 2000 pieces or more.
55:27
Absolutely kind of humiliated, a little bit embarrassing.
55:31
I'm like, how do we do this? We know without what happened,
55:33
right? And it wasn't my fault.
55:35
It wasn't my fault or my wife's fault, let's put it that way.
55:38
But there it is. So if you if you get something
55:41
in the mail from way back from Rick Mass, you know what this is
55:44
about. And I apologize to everybody
55:46
that didn't get it or that did get it.
55:49
Now that's happy. But whatever, you know, we tried
55:52
to make amends. So it's it's on the way.
55:54
Hopefully it's on the way people and you got to love with the if.
55:57
You're one of those people who hopefully still live at the same
56:00
address, but they sent you something 17 years ago and all
56:02
of a sudden they get it back. That's that's a pretty cool
56:05
story as well. It's all good, I'm sure they
56:11
have their. Forwarding address and it'll get
56:14
to the right spot. It'll it'll get to these people
56:16
tell you what, let's let's call it there.
56:18
We're almost an hour, as I said, we're going to get back to doing
56:20
more regular shows or maybe we'll take a little break for
56:23
the for Christmas, New Year's, we'll see.
56:25
But I mean, next week we're pretty open.
56:27
So Rick, it's been fun, man. I'm excited to get back to doing
56:31
these again. Yep, can't wait for.
56:33
Daytona 500, man. That's what I'm waiting for.
56:35
Now. Wait a minute.
56:36
It's not New Year's yet. No, I'm sorry.
56:37
We got to do Christmas and New Year's.
56:39
Then I'll be excited for it. There you go.
56:41
All right. Thanks everybody.
56:43
Please comment like. Subscribe and we will see you
56:46
later. See you, Rick.
56:47
Bye, bye.