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Rick Mast Talks Great Kansas Finish & More! · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
What's up, everybody? Welcome to Episode 3 for
0:04
Earnhardt of the Rick Mash Show. I'm Charlie Marlow.
0:07
That is the great Rick Mash. Rick, how are you doing this
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morning? Sir, if I was any better, I
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don't know what I'd do, Charlie. Everything's just everything's
0:14
just Peaches and roses right now.
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Everything. 'S I love it.
0:18
I love the positive attitude, all right.
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Coming off a really positive NASCAR race, I don't know how
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anybody. We always joke about how people
0:25
always find a way to complain about about anything like this
0:28
race. For example, Jeff Glock does the
0:31
Was this a good race? And 96% of people said yes.
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And it's even like who are the 4% that can actually complain
0:39
about an amazing race and an amazing finish.
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The closest finish in NASCAR history .001 seconds.
0:47
Kyle Larson edging out Chris Buscher.
0:49
What did you think of Kansas, Sir?
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Well, you know it's like Dang, you know, I mean the end was
0:56
good because these these green white checkers always do that.
0:59
But the race was good all the way through.
1:02
If you remember we the first part of that race was the five
1:05
and whoever was running side by side, you know for the lead
1:08
forever that a couple other cars ran side by side.
1:10
And if you look back through the camera angles, you see everybody
1:14
behind running side by side. You know, this is like in a mile
1:17
and a half racetrack. The tracks that that we used to
1:20
hate or loathe watching or the fans, at least they told us on X
1:24
or Twitter they hated it. It's these tracks have now
1:27
turned into the best races right So and then come down to the end
1:32
when you had the closest finish in NASCAR history and we've had
1:35
some close ones dude. But never one quite like that
1:39
and it was historic because of the the finish, right.
1:43
You couldn't tell who won and then I love the people talking
1:46
about the white line. You know everybody raising cane
1:48
about the white line. It's the one showed the one car
1:51
won the other the other line showed the other car won.
1:54
And then when NASCAR finally come out with that little laser
1:57
deal they had superimposed on it then that that's what really
2:00
told the story. So man what a cool deal we we
2:04
you know we got we got to get this car you know we've got to
2:07
get this car doing that on the short tracks now you know I mean
2:10
the speedways are running side by side but they're running half
2:13
throttle cost of fuel they can fix that and but the short
2:16
tracks you know and to me it comes down to either the tire
2:21
and or an engine deal right We and that's what you keep
2:24
hearing. We need more horsepower.
2:25
All the competitors want more horsepower.
2:27
NASCAR is pretty out of it. We're not going to give you more
2:29
horsepower. Well, I think somewhere between
2:31
the tire and the horsepower is probably where the answer is
2:35
because they've exhausted all the aerodynamic possibilities on
2:37
the on the short tracks that that is that's just not going to
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work. So what are you left with a
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different car design? No, we're not going to do that.
2:45
We got to use what we got. So then what's that leave you?
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The four little tiny, you got 4 little tiny contact patches on
2:52
the bottom of that tire like this.
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You can see this that's all connects that car to the
2:57
racetrack. So everything works off those
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contact patches. So on a short track let's do
3:01
something to that tire, either make it go away quick, you know.
3:05
Well, I'll tell you, novel idea. I thought about coming in this
3:08
morning. What if we tried a real, real
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super hard tire one time? Because what they're talking
3:15
about is the tire falling off and not having any grip and
3:17
everybody slipping and sliding and it seems to make the race
3:20
better. Well, do the soft tire like you
3:23
did at Bristol that was a little bit extreme, got back up from
3:25
that little bit or put a put a tire on there that's like hard
3:29
as a brick. So when the guys go to the
3:30
corner, you know there's slot, there's slides all over the
3:33
place. They're coming in and raising
3:35
hell at NASCAR because this tire is no good.
3:37
It won't stick. Try that one time, see what that
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does. You know, that and horsepower.
3:41
I mean, that's the only thing I know to do.
3:43
But my goodness gracious, what a good race at Kansas, of all
3:46
places, of all places. Yeah, so explain to folks on
3:50
that last restart what happens when when you're in the car and
3:54
Denny Hamlin who ended up finishing fifth, but he said,
3:57
look, the way it was with Larson and Buscher, he became the
4:00
parachute there. Explain to folks how that
4:03
happens. And then also, I mean when it
4:05
got down to Larson and Buscher, what do you think of the
4:08
strategy there? Larson beats and Bangs does some
4:11
door driving at the end. What do you think of all that
4:13
final restart? Yeah, it was pretty cool.
4:15
It's just it's it's it's like somebody these restarts
4:19
everywhere we go. Now you make one or two moves
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and then that kind of sticks you into what what's going on.
4:24
That's going to stick you into what happens because the the
4:28
momentum on each line right Then you get suckered in the middle
4:31
or what all these things play. It just it's a it's it's really,
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gosh, a multiple of things that that that come into play in just
4:39
a few seconds and you only really make it.
4:41
You only get a chance to make a couple moves and if you make the
4:44
wrong move earlier done. That's what happened to him and
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he made a wrong move early, right and he became the
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parachute. What that meant was they he was
4:52
in the middle of the cars on the outside and inside of him and
4:55
they those guys are throwing out this big wake of error.
4:57
And from the like, he's on the inside of a car, he's hitting
5:01
the air off of that car. He's on the outside of a car,
5:04
he's hitting the air off of that car, right.
5:06
And he's just boom, the the the air has got him in the nose.
5:10
Those guys are going on, they're throwing off air and he's trying
5:14
to push that air. We can't push it.
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So it goes backwards. That's what that's what that's
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all about, you know. And then the deal with like
5:22
Butcher, I mean I've heard a couple people criticize.
5:25
He should have moved up higher to block and he could have done
5:28
that. He could.
5:29
He could she could. When you saw that he needed to
5:34
he he he. When everybody if you're
5:36
watching the race and you see about the time that the the the
5:40
the car is right behind butcher on the outside you think well he
5:44
can move right now or at that moment was too late to move.
5:47
If you move then, then they going to they're going to wreck.
5:50
The shot he had was maybe a 2 seconds before that to move up
5:54
high to block the high lane. Well, if he'd had done that, it
5:58
would have stopped that deal, but Larson would have turned
6:01
under him and he may have passed him clean or he may not even got
6:05
past his quarter panel, I don't know.
6:07
But in in Butcher's defense, he did what I thought was his only
6:11
move. The only thing different he
6:12
could have done was moved up higher quicker, but then that
6:15
opens up the inside. So I don't know who does.
6:17
I do know that Butcher was in the brake a lot, right in that
6:20
spot on the right. If you look at the telemetry, he
6:22
was in the brake up real pretty hard at that spot.
6:25
So, you know, I'm not sure why he hit the brake so hard if
6:29
that's just what he had to do. The car got loose.
6:31
He's trying to make it take a set.
6:33
I'm not sure without talking to him what he was up to.
6:35
I didn't look the telemetry of the five.
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I don't know what they were doing.
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But anyhow, it still produced the greatest finish, Closest
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finish to NASCAR history. And we got to witness it.
6:46
Dude. Cool.
6:48
Yeah, that was awesome. I was just checking.
6:50
I had to make sure. So your last Cup race was 2002
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Richmond, so then you wouldn't have been driving in O3 for the
6:59
Darlington finish. And of course we have Darlington
7:01
coming up, but that was Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch.
7:06
So in your career, I'm sure you're watching that one, but
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what was the closest finish you can remember in your driving?
7:11
Career, man. We want to race somewhere, get
7:17
where it was. It was a close finish.
7:20
But I don't know. In the cup, man.
7:24
I've drawn a blank. I've.
7:26
I've drawn a blank because you know, unless you're when you're
7:29
in that race and unless you're in that close finish to the win,
7:33
it didn't really matter to you. You know what I mean?
7:35
So I'm sure we had plenty of them, but because I wasn't
7:38
involved in in any of those, it didn't matter.
7:41
I don't care. Probably, you know, the the the
7:46
closest finish that really wasn't that close was the Gosh,
7:52
what was it? What was the race when Pearson
7:54
and Petty wrecked at Daytona and at the 500, they wrecked on the
7:57
front stretch, You remember that?
7:58
And Pearson limped across the finish line.
8:01
Petty couldn't get his car started.
8:03
That was probably one of the more dramatic finishes that that
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was close, that wasn't really close by Stopwatch, you know,
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and everybody remembers that race.
8:13
Yeah. And then I think I think this
8:15
this came out again. Everybody was talking about it
8:17
around Atlanta, if I'm not mistaken, because the Atlanta
8:19
finish was the the three, the three wide at the end where it
8:23
was really close between 3:00 and I think it was one of the
8:26
Daytona 5 hundreds maybe in the in the 50s.
8:29
Was Lee Petty involved where they they literally and and
8:32
don't don't correct me on that if I'm wrong 'cause I I'm just
8:35
going by memory from a couple months ago, but I feel like I
8:38
remember reading that NASCAR didn't even declare a winner
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until a few days later. They had to go and get still
8:44
photos to figure out who won. Yeah, it was Lee Petty and I
8:47
think boat Champ and they, they claimed boat Champ I think won
8:50
the race and Lee Petty protested.
8:52
They finally found somebody had a picture.
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It wasn't an official picture, but somebody had a picture that
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they took the track and they got it developed that night
9:00
somewhere, somehow. And Lee Petty got a hold of this
9:03
picture and went to France on Monday morning and said look
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here, here's here's the picture of the race.
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I won this race and sure enough they reversed the decision and
9:12
gave the gave the race to to Lee Petty.
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And I think after that is when they decided to start having
9:19
photographer stand at at somewhere where they could see
9:22
start, finish line and actually photograph cars coming across
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the finish line. Of course, you know those days
9:28
you didn't have 6000 frames per minute, you just kind of had
9:31
what you had right. So it wasn't the best but that I
9:34
guess that that thing kind of started that off and you know
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that I tell you another important close victory an
9:40
important close victory was the Kevin Harvick over whoever it
9:45
was. Bobby, I I forget the the the
9:48
the Atlanta race after we lost Earnhardt and they go to you
9:52
know go to Atlanta. We will go to Rockingham after
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that. And then I think the next race
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is Atlanta after we lose Earnhardt and then Harvick wins
10:00
that race in dramatic fashion, man, just like half a bumper,
10:05
you know, And that was probably the most dramatic close finish
10:09
race. OK, I'm seeing it was 1959 was
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the Lee Petty as you said, Johnny Beauchamp and Beauchamp
10:19
originally awarded the victory. A photograph taken by T Taylor
10:23
Warren proved Petty to be the winner.
10:26
That's pretty cool. 1959 and that famous picture, I'll put it
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up here because I remember during Atlanta I found that
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picture and it's pretty amazing to see that and the crowd and
10:36
the and the old cars, what it looks like.
10:38
It's pretty awesome. Yeah, T Taylor Warren.
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He went on to become a a racing photographer.
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For years he lived in the Martinsville area.
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You'd always see T Taylor at Martinsville, at a lot of the
10:48
close races, Rockingham and Richmond and those places, and
10:51
then he would go some other places.
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But that was his first major claim to fame as a photographer,
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I think. And I'm not sure that he's a
10:58
photographer at the time. I thought he was just a fan.
11:01
Maybe. Maybe playing with photography,
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but after that he became a nice car photographer and that was
11:07
cool for him. Yeah, I think it's so funny too.
11:10
And and we've talked about social media a couple times here
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and and we probably will more so because it's so changed how we
11:18
consume entertainment and sports.
11:20
And I I was laughing. And, you know, we have this meme
11:23
culture, and I'm about to be 42, so even the kids, but they're
11:26
all with these memes, you know, the pictures and the gifts, the
11:29
funny little photos and whatnot. And after the finish here at
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Kansas, I saw so many funny memes of, hey, the guy who
11:37
painted the line, you know, because that line was a little
11:40
crooked. And it's just one of those funny
11:42
things because nobody would have ever noticed.
11:44
But then, of course, it comes down to the closest finish in
11:47
NASCAR history. And now everybody's blaming the
11:50
poor guy who painted the line. Well, you know, there's got to
11:57
be a scapegoat for everything, everything in life.
12:00
You got to have a scapegoat. But I thought that was, and you
12:03
know, a couple of guys got real serious about that.
12:05
A couple of the racers, you know, they were fussing about
12:08
this white line, right? And I I'm like, well, I know
12:11
that DASCAR has a laser line on their camera system, right?
12:15
And then they finally showed the photograph of the laser line.
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And I'm like, if I know there's a laser line on this start,
12:22
finish line, why do these couple drivers that's raising hell
12:24
about this white line not know that, right?
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These guys need to go back to do a little homework and figure out
12:30
what they're doing, I think because if they were being true,
12:33
I guess they didn't realize where that little laser line was
12:36
at. Because you can't.
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You really can't. You know you can't.
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You can't. You can't blame that.
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I mean, you can't, you can't get around that laser line deal if
12:44
everybody saw the picture. But we're talking about Charlie
12:47
that if you haven't seen that fans go look that up, That'll
12:50
show you that the clear evidence of the clear winner, you know
12:54
and not don't look at the crooked white line that's on the
12:57
race drive. That was pretty funny though.
13:00
Yeah, and you know, you mentioned some drivers bitching
13:03
about it and I know Denny Hamlin talked about it on his podcast.
13:06
And I have, I have kind of a different theory on Denny
13:10
Hamlin. Like I understand especially
13:12
how, you know, even even my generation, but an older
13:15
generation could say, man, these guys bitch about everything.
13:18
I I get that. But also, I think NASCAR is a
13:22
sport that really benefits from these storylines, especially
13:27
some of these midweek storylines that, you know, keeps everybody
13:30
talking about NASCAR until the race the next Sunday.
13:34
And Denny Hamlin, in my opinion, is perfect at that.
13:37
And I understand maybe some people don't like him, they
13:40
think he's bitching too much. But I also think he's doing this
13:44
by design. He's he's very smart and NASCAR
13:47
is better when there's controversy and when somebody's
13:51
always bitching about something, and I understand that, that
13:54
people target him, but I think he's doing it on purpose and I
13:57
think it helps the sport to keep the storylines going week to
14:00
week. There's no doubt he's doing it
14:02
on purpose, Charlie. I know that.
14:04
You know it and I know it. The the thing that tricks me is
14:08
why is he doing it? Why?
14:10
I know why? Because he's it's just it's it's
14:12
driving a lot of things. It's driving interest.
14:15
It's driving that is driving his brand up, the 23 brand that
14:19
drives all that by question. And I'm going to ask maybe I get
14:23
to him by asking what caused this, what it all started after
14:28
the did the 23 team, right. And then he got this podcast
14:32
going and he's taking that role. He's taking on that role.
14:36
But I'm just, I just wonder if, you know, the higher ups for the
14:39
bees and marketing people, the Michael Jordan groups, those
14:42
folks say, you know, Denny, you've got this kind of persona
14:45
about you already. Why don't we, why don't we throw
14:50
it out there some more? OK Be yourself.
14:53
Tell exactly what you want to tell and let's see where this
14:55
thing goes. I got an idea that that there's
14:58
some discussions that may be prompted this more than just it
15:02
naturally occurred. And I think you're exactly
15:04
right. It definitely, it's definitely
15:05
on purpose. I I absolutely love it, man.
15:08
I I absolutely love it. It gets a lot of play, right?
15:12
A lot of people talk about it as long as you don't make your
15:17
fellow competitors upset by your stuff, you say right?
15:22
Long as you don't get on there and like, you know, you had a
15:25
trouble, you had some trouble with the guy and you get on a
15:27
show with that guy, wreck me, you know, But whatever, right?
15:30
But if you get on the, if you get on that show and you start
15:33
harping on something like that with a fellow competitor, then
15:35
that's going to create problems. And he hasn't done that.
15:37
I'm done. I know he's smart enough not to
15:39
do that, right. But because the other competitor
15:41
doesn't have that venue or that outlet to tell his side of the
15:45
story, So, but what he's done right now, it's it's real
15:48
interesting to watch this because this, this is really the
15:51
first time we've had a driver, you know, with this outlet doing
15:55
what he's doing right. And it does create, it does
15:59
create fodder for a lot of people, a lot of journalists,
16:03
but it also creates, it creates it, it really it it again, it's
16:07
it's building his brand, I think the Diddy Hamlin brand.
16:10
And that goes hand in hand with his sponsorship, with his team
16:13
ownership. So again, it's cool.
16:16
We'll see what happens. And along those lines, so I
16:19
agree with you, I I think at least half of it is he, he knows
16:23
it's good for the brand and the sport to keep it going.
16:25
But then I also think in the last year or so I do think he's,
16:29
he's genuinely pissed now as a car owner with what is going on
16:34
with these charter negotiations. So I want to get your take on
16:37
that because so we recorded last week I believe on a Wednesday,
16:41
you know Michael Jordan comes out New York Times and says says
16:45
NASCAR as a sport could die if if the owners if there's not a.
16:50
And I'm, I'm paraphrasing here but he said, you know if
16:52
everybody's not healthy, you know the tracks got to be
16:55
healthy. NASCAR's got to be healthy.
16:56
But he said all these teams also have to be healthy.
16:59
And then Denny Hamlin is on the Dale Junior download and he says
17:03
the tracks in NASCAR. Again, I'm paraphrasing, but I
17:06
believe he said they're making nine figure profits per year and
17:10
he said the teams are are at 7 figure losses per year, which
17:15
which I think most people would agree that can't continue in any
17:19
sport for it to be healthy. So I'll just throw it to you and
17:22
any take on what's going on with the Charter negotiation?
17:24
Yeah, you know what, Charlie? It this this thing we're talking
17:30
about charters, but it's no different than anything or how
17:37
can I say this, let me back up 1979 or 8 or whatever.
17:42
I'm a fledged teen teenager fledged race car driver.
17:46
I want to be a race car driver somehow or another.
17:50
I end up in a shop in Asheville, NC and I think it was Bosco low
17:54
and old Bush driver. But in this shop was Butch
17:57
Lindley and Jack Ingram, right? Most of people have heard of
18:01
those guys. They were the best.
18:03
And this was right before the Bush Grand National Series
18:05
started. They were our Late Model
18:07
Sportsman champions. They had, they won all the
18:10
races. They they would tour around like
18:13
we talked about earlier on this show.
18:14
They go to the different tracks and run Chasey's Championship
18:17
points. I think Butch had a Firestone
18:19
deal, Jack had a Goodyear deal, they both were sponsored.
18:23
You know, they're winning all the races.
18:25
I mean, if you're going to make it, if you're going to be able
18:28
to make it or just be able to be able to pay your bills racing in
18:31
those days, well, they were the best of the best.
18:34
They had everything going for them.
18:36
Winning the race is sponsorship, tire deals, the whole deal.
18:38
And I remember being in that shop and Jack and Butch talking
18:44
about how things are so screwed up, right?
18:48
NASCAR wouldn't help them with sponsorships.
18:50
In fact, if they got a sponsor, NASCAR, try to take it from
18:54
them, you know, and just, you know, just an hour or two of
18:58
constantly bitching about the state of the sport and how bad
19:02
it was and you couldn't financially make it.
19:05
And I remember, I'll never forget this Butch Lindley, I
19:07
remember he sat there, he said one time, he said, you know, it
19:10
wouldn't surprise me at all guys if we go to Daytona in two or
19:13
three years. And that whole Winfield is
19:15
definitely but a big marshland because the track's gone, the
19:18
sport's gone. And as a young fledgled race car
19:21
driver, I'm sitting there bug eyed looking at these heroes,
19:24
listen to these guys taking it for the word and like, man, you
19:28
know, this is hell. If racing goes away, what am I
19:31
going to do now? Because I want to race, right?
19:34
And I always remember that conversation and I've heard that
19:37
same conversation my whole career from that deal right
19:42
there, right up through the Buscher series, right up through
19:45
the Cup series, the same conversation.
19:47
Everything is wrong and we can't.
19:49
We got to have this, the bottles wrong.
19:51
It don't work. And but you know, the only thing
19:54
that ever changed, Charlie, The numbers who get bigger, it'd be
19:58
more zeros out on everything. That's the only thing I'd ever
20:01
changed. So, you know, but what's going
20:03
on now with the charter thing, It's a little bit different, but
20:06
it's really the same basic problem, right?
20:08
You've got the team owners and you've got NASCAR and you've got
20:12
those two entities trying to come up with a solution.
20:15
What they've got now that they didn't have back in those days,
20:18
they've got a checkbook. And the checkbook is our
20:21
television package, right? And so all they've got to do is
20:26
figure out on this television if it if you get a dollar for that
20:29
television deal, how much of that dollar goes worth.
20:31
That's what this whole argument's about.
20:33
And I don't know the insides. I don't know what's going on.
20:37
I know it seems like Dennis shows his frustration and then
20:41
when Michael comes out and says that he's just, you know, he, he
20:44
and Denny are on the same page, of course, right.
20:47
Then you have other owners saying, yeah, we're far apart,
20:49
but we're going to get it worked out.
20:51
So you know it it's, I mean basically what amounts to the
20:55
team motors, what more of that they want more of that dollar.
20:58
You know then for NASCAR to do that, it's either got to come
21:00
away from NASCAR or it's got to come away from the tracks.
21:04
So where are we 65% tracks, 10% NASCAR and the rest of the teams
21:09
right right now. So that that number is what
21:12
they're they're they're they're negotiating over and what that
21:15
number ends up being, I don't know.
21:17
I don't know what it is, but you know, people talk about the the
21:22
people in the grandstands and you know the the attendance.
21:25
Now what it used to be in the heyday, of course is not not
21:28
like it used to be. And but the thing that kind of
21:31
messed me up a little bit is when we came back, we were the
21:34
first professional sport during COVID to come back.
21:37
We were the very first professional sport to come back
21:41
and we did it for a few weeks. If you remember, we did it with
21:44
the grandstands closed now back in the day.
21:48
There's no way you could have done that.
21:50
The the purse was totally paid by the ticket sales.
21:53
That's how the promoters paid the paid the purse.
21:56
So when they ran those races and nobody in the grand stands, what
22:01
does that tell you? Because the team still got paid.
22:03
People got paid to bid to race track to do what work there was
22:05
to do. Well, they got paid when they
22:07
got paid by TV money, you know, and that to me that was a
22:11
glaring, to me, it was like a glaring, you know, glaring fact
22:15
of OK, now we've we're we're totally TV money now, right?
22:19
That's where that's where we're at as a sport, even though we
22:22
want to have fans at the racetrack to enjoy the thing.
22:26
So that tells you how much TV drives a sport.
22:29
So that's, that's where it's all at.
22:32
I mean, that's where it's all at to me.
22:35
OK, let's, let's get into this our, our first, what do we call
22:40
it, not gimmick. It's our our weekly, our weekly
22:45
spiel of what's pissing Rick off.
22:47
What word was I looking for there?
22:49
Our weekly, I'm sorry, see, this is me, our weekly segment, our
22:52
weekly segment. What's pissing Rick Mast off
22:55
anything today? It is.
22:57
And I'll tell you what caused this.
22:59
I don't know why it did it, but we'll go back to COVID again.
23:03
I live on near Interstate 81 in Virginia, and it's a main
23:07
thoroughfare from the southeast to northeast with trucks, big
23:10
truck transportation. They ship their goods, their
23:13
goods to, you know, Philly and New York and Boston.
23:15
Anyhow, heavily traffic, heavily traveled Interstate when COVID
23:21
went on. I took a couple videos riding
23:23
down to Interstate 1 time and it wasn't a car insight.
23:25
And I sent it to some people at the driver's Ed thing and like,
23:29
all right kids, this is what it used to be like in the 70s when
23:32
I first started driving 81, right?
23:34
Well, what happened when everything started breaking?
23:38
Everybody came back for some reason.
23:41
And baby fans, you can answer this for me because I don't know
23:44
the answer. But for some reason when when we
23:47
came back from the COVID deal and the interstates got blocked
23:50
or heavy again, everybody decided that instead of riding
23:54
in the right lane or driving in the right lane, we're now going
23:58
to drive in the left lane. You go up and down these
24:02
frigging interstates, everybody gets in the left lane and that's
24:05
where they ride. It's just like you're doing the
24:07
same thing you used to do, but you're in the left lane instead
24:10
of the right. So what that does is it makes
24:13
you have to pass people on the right side, and when you go to
24:17
pass them on the right side, instead of doing holding their
24:20
speed, they want to speed up to keep from letting you pass them
24:24
right and try to jam you in. Now I'm not talking about a fool
24:28
that comes up through you if you're the left lane jacked up,
24:31
jammed up and a fool comes flying by you like, OK, where's
24:34
he going? Right.
24:35
That's. I'm not talking about that.
24:37
I'm talking about people just lollygagging, riding down the
24:40
damn Interstate that the left lane on their cell phones.
24:43
Not a care in the world. Jacking traffic up five miles
24:46
behind them because they've got, they've got they've already got
24:49
beside a truck instead of passing them they're just riding
24:52
along in the left lane right Virginia.
24:54
I noticed Virginia last week they had all their Rd. signs.
24:57
Left lane is for passing only right in the right lane drive
25:00
the right. And I've seen a couple other
25:02
states have put these signs up and ain't doing no good.
25:05
There's that sheriff in Texas. I don't know if you've seen he's
25:08
got videos that big tall dude we've seen on TVA lot he pulls
25:12
people over riding in the left leg right.
25:14
Finally one time I saw him ticketed the guy who's he would
25:17
give him warnings if I gave a guy a ticket but Charlie that
25:20
that is what the only reason to say that I drove to Atlanta the
25:24
last two weekends and back which is like a 8 hour drive for me
25:27
and I was up in Northern Virginia yesterday and ride the
25:30
Interstate so much and it's like man you just get pissed off at
25:35
people riding over there and I don't know why I don't but I'm
25:37
telling you right now it happened after COVID when they
25:40
came back from COVID everybody has to ride the left leg.
25:43
I don't know. I have no idea why.
25:46
COVID messed everything up. It's funny if you go back and I
25:49
obviously I I hated every aspect of COVID except for maybe this
25:54
one thing, which was so at the time.
25:56
I'm working at ATV station and some of the TV stations did did
26:00
work from home for a lot of their reporters and whatnot, but
26:03
we actually went in the entirety of COVID, so we were going in
26:07
every single day. And that's the one thing that
26:10
was a positive, was just that nice easy ride to work and back
26:14
from work because nobody was on the freaking highway.
26:17
And then you you knew we had returned to normalcy when there
26:20
was traffic again. So OK, also we got our other
26:24
segment. I couldn't think of that word
26:26
'cause I'm not very smart, but we have story time with Rick
26:29
Mast. And before I I ask you about
26:31
this week's story, I need to apologize because by the way, I
26:35
just posted just the clip on YouTube and X last night of your
26:40
great stories about Davey Allison.
26:43
It's about a 5 minute clip. So people can just check that
26:45
out if they don't want to watch the full hour podcast.
26:48
And I have to apologize because you were telling the story last
26:51
week and you said how you met Davey and he was a good guy.
26:54
And then you said you got the message that your your house
26:57
burnt down. And I started to laugh because I
26:59
thought that Davey was playing a prank on you, you know, the way
27:03
the way you started telling it. And so I started laughing
27:05
because it sounded like Davey was playing a prank.
27:07
And then I realized it's a true story.
27:09
So I felt like a an ass. That's a great story, by the
27:12
way, so people can check that out.
27:14
Anything you got this week, Rick, for a story time with
27:16
Rick. Well, we always got story time,
27:19
man. I let's see where we go.
27:22
We're going to Darlington this week, right?
27:25
Yeah. I'm going to tell you a couple
27:26
Darlington stories. We were there racing in the Bush
27:29
Grand National Race, and a typical deal was there.
27:32
And we're running real good. And it's Bush Race and it's
27:36
Davey and I believe Darrell, and then me running first, second,
27:43
third, and it starts raining, all right?
27:47
So we slow down, we pay it or whatever we do we come back out
27:50
and we're riding around and it's still raining going into what is
27:54
now turn one and the the the Flagstaff was of course on the
27:59
front stretch, on the back stretch now and you know we go
28:03
down through there. They give one to go and I go
28:05
through three and four and it's rated like.
28:06
And then coming off A4 going down the front straight away
28:09
it's not raining one and two it's not rated.
28:12
Well. They give us one to go and I'm
28:13
like, I I got a whole lap ride around here.
28:16
Think I go back in three and four it's raining or in three we
28:20
come back around they throw the green, right.
28:22
So I take off I'll be there's a whistle cup guy.
28:25
Dave, there's a whistle cup guy there.
28:27
I'm pretty sure it was Darrell what Darrell was doing, whoever
28:31
it was. But anyhow so we golf in one or
28:33
two wide open through the turn come off to flying wide open and
28:37
I can see up there in front of me rain going into turn three.
28:41
I see rain. So I'm on the bumper and I'm
28:43
like, man, these guys are these guys are whistle cup veterans
28:47
and stars. They know what they're doing,
28:49
right? We going to turn 3 and I've just
28:51
followed them. Boom, boom, boom.
28:54
All three of us clobber the wall.
28:56
I've been docking crap out of the wall and I'm like, well,
28:59
shit. I knew that wouldn't go to work,
29:01
but I'm so dumb that I followed these guys into there.
29:04
I came in there and my car is wrecked.
29:05
And I never forget David Hoots. He ended up becoming director
29:08
for many years in the Cup series.
29:10
He was working Pit Rd. that day and I, hoot, always told me the
29:14
story and I didn't even remember it.
29:15
I got out of my car as bad. I went down there, I guess just
29:18
cussed him and Lamb blasted him and the whole deal for letting
29:21
us go back to green, you know, and but that when you're young
29:26
and you're gullible, you know, and you look up to those guys so
29:29
much, you think, well, he jumped off the Cliff, you know, and
29:33
he's he's done it before. I can jump off the Cliff.
29:35
Ridiculous. But you know Darlington, I tell
29:39
you how you I tell you learn me how to drive or who taught me
29:41
how to drive. Darlington.
29:43
And that was two guys, Earnhardt and Gant.
29:46
We were running a Bush racer one time and I qualified very well,
29:51
Might have been the time of qualified on the pole.
29:53
Anyhow, I was following Harry a little bit because Harry could
29:56
win. Well, he had a very unique way
29:59
of going through which is what's now one and two, the way he did
30:02
it, I was the way I was doing it.
30:03
I got behind him and followed him for a while and I'm like,
30:08
oh, I've been doing this wrong. Then when I came up on Earnhardt
30:12
going into turn what is now 3, I was right behind him down the
30:16
straight away my car was a little faster.
30:18
I caught him. We go into three and I thought
30:20
something happened to his car man and I jammed on the brakes
30:23
to keep from hitting him right and I followed him for a little
30:26
bit. Then I realized what he was
30:28
doing going into turn three. He would go in high and let out
30:31
of the gas way earlier than what I was doing but he's back in the
30:34
gas pretty early but but what he was doing was he's saving tires.
30:39
Getting into turn, which is now 3, is a big deal for tearing
30:43
your tires up or you would just go in there really easy.
30:47
Then you wouldn't run as fast a lap that particular lap.
30:50
But 10 laps from now you would be faster because you didn't
30:53
wear off your tires going to that turn.
30:55
So that was you know that was a pretty cool deal that I learned.
30:59
And then golly, Darlington, oh, I'll tell you something else
31:03
going on. Darlington this weekend they got
31:05
the alumni, we talked about this.
31:07
They got NASCAR's formed what they called NASCAR alumni group.
31:11
Right. And I'm a member and I think
31:14
you've got to be, you got to have raced or be involved in 100
31:17
races, Cup races to be in this group.
31:20
And I'm not sure and it's in the infancy stage right now.
31:24
I'm not sure what all's going on.
31:27
I know some of the stuff that they're trying to get done, they
31:29
want to do in the future with us guys and the guys that that came
31:33
along before. And I mean they they they
31:36
they've really reached out. They've really done a good job
31:39
and this thing kind of came from the top it, you know, I heard
31:42
Mike was telling Mike Hilton said Jim France kind of came up
31:45
with this something to something.
31:46
We got to do something to try to take care of the guys you that
31:49
are still alive, that we're in our sport for years, right?
31:53
And then I know Kitty, Kitty has taken, he's taken well.
31:59
He says I'm the one that did it because he's on the boat with
32:01
Chip Wiley somewhere on a boat, somewhere fishing.
32:03
And he said, I'm the one that made that suggestion.
32:06
So then I've heard somebody else say, well, I don't know what to
32:08
make, so I don't know who actually made the suggestion,
32:11
Right. Well, I guess they all made the
32:12
suggestion and maybe that's what happened.
32:14
Enough people bitched about it. They decided to do something to
32:17
do that. But in how Darlington, I mean,
32:19
we got to go down there third Saturday and Sunday.
32:22
They're going to do a dinner and they're going to do autograph
32:24
sessions. You're going to do beat greets.
32:26
You're going to do stuff with the current drivers and the
32:28
alumni group. I'm not sure there's a lady,
32:31
there's a lady with NASCAR that's hitting this up and it's
32:34
going to be fun to see what comes out of this.
32:37
You know what I'd like to do with Charlie?
32:39
And I told him, I said I would love somehow as this goes
32:42
forward, I would love to somehow try to bridge publicly to the
32:49
fans, bridge the gap from us, our drivers to the group now,
32:55
right. Because if you look back at in
32:59
in my era it it's almost mystical.
33:02
When you get to talking about that, you see people talking
33:05
about by by era. Again it's almost mystical to
33:08
these people like with with Earnhardt, you know and all and
33:11
Darrell and all those guys and you know somehow, somehow we've
33:16
lost the connection from my era group to the current era.
33:22
And and and my take is the guys that are there yet they're
33:26
they're more polished. They're more corporate.
33:28
They're all that, But they're still frigging race car drivers,
33:30
man. They're still in that car trying
33:31
to do the exact same thing. No different than I did or
33:35
anybody before me did, right? So that's the connection.
33:38
So I don't know if we can, and I've mentioned this to a couple
33:40
of those folks with the alumni group somehow or another trying
33:43
to do that. What do you think you think
33:44
that'd be? How can we do that?
33:46
You think that'd be a good deal? I think it's a great idea and
33:49
and obviously I'm biased when I'm about to say this because
33:53
clearly here we are, people are watching this on YouTube and
33:56
listening on podcast. But I think what we're doing
33:58
right now, what you're doing right now helps that, you know,
34:02
not just with the fans. I mean you're you're telling
34:05
great stories from your era. And here's a good example.
34:08
I was at the gym yesterday and I, I had a guy come up to me and
34:13
he said, man, I love what you're doing with the NASCAR stuff he
34:15
brought up. You know, our show that's just
34:18
been going couple weeks and obviously everything that's
34:20
going on with Kenny, this kids probably, I don't know, maybe
34:23
2528, whatever it is. And just just think about that
34:26
generation of fans I'm sure they've heard of Earnhardt and
34:29
Rusty Wallace. But and even for myself I don't
34:32
know all these all these great stories.
34:34
Every single one of them. I'm saying, you know, I know I
34:36
know kind of the big ones. But I think these podcasts, you
34:40
know, it's it's all to me, it's storytelling it's telling these
34:44
great stories and you know if if you ever want a young driver or
34:48
a guy from your generation to come on and and you guys can
34:50
tell stories we should do that as well.
34:52
I I do think this this space of content is really helping bridge
34:56
that gap. When you're seeing Dale
34:58
Earnhardt download and he's interviewing all the old guys.
35:02
Right. And the crew chiefs and they're
35:04
talking about you know the the engineering or the innovation
35:07
some cheating here and there. People love that shit.
35:10
I I really think that maybe there's a renaissance from your
35:13
era that's coming back through these podcasts in YouTube.
35:16
And again, I'm biased, but I do think it helps.
35:18
Yeah, well, it was, it was so colorful, you know, I mean, I
35:22
was there. I mean I was there and we
35:25
witnessed the explosion and all that and the the the the
35:29
characters we had, the drivers, the man, the excitement.
35:35
That was just the aura of excitement.
35:38
Been in that garage and been at that racetrack.
35:41
I mean you, you can't get into tracks, you can't get out of
35:43
them. There's this hordes of people
35:45
and everybody's from that. I remember one time Kyle Petty,
35:48
we were sitting in the mid 90s sometime or another and he was,
35:51
we were talking about our sport. You know, we're all sitting
35:53
there kind of in amazement about what was going on, right?
35:56
Because we're just sitting there doing our thing.
35:58
We don't really, Earnhardt got on, Earnhardt got it.
36:02
He's probably the first one that got it and he brought some
36:04
people along with him. But you didn't really get what
36:09
was going on outside of our garage area, right?
36:13
I never forget. Excuse me, Kyle Petty said we
36:16
were talking about that. Kyle Petty said y'all Watch any
36:18
TV. That's what we watch.
36:20
TV. Yeah, you need to watch news,
36:22
report, watch the news and stuff.
36:23
And what you talk about, Kyle, look at when they do news
36:26
reports from inner cities, look at something going on in the
36:30
inner cities, whether it be a crime going on or something
36:33
going on. What you talk about, Kyle?
36:35
All the inner city kids, look at what they're wearing.
36:38
I said what do you mean look at what they're wearing?
36:41
They've all got frigging racing jackets on inner city kids,
36:46
right? Black and white in like the mid
36:48
later 90s. The whether it be Detroit,
36:51
Chicago, New York. All these inner city kids have
36:54
got our frigging racing jackets on, right?
36:57
I'm like how? What the hell?
36:59
How's this happened, right. What is this all about?
37:02
You know, it was, it was hard for me to fathom.
37:05
In fact, it was all it was hard for all of all of us to fathom.
37:08
But over a period of time you learned, you kind of, you kept
37:12
seeing all these things happened, right?
37:14
Just like when we go to Indy and you, you sell the place out the
37:17
first time you hadn't been in there ever.
37:19
You go there in 94 and you know they can't, you can't buy
37:22
tickets standing room only and everything that went on all
37:25
through the next 10 years, right?
37:27
You're like, man, you're involved in this.
37:29
But why why is this so exciting? Because I don't get it.
37:33
I know, I know, Darrell, I know, Michael, we're not that special,
37:37
believe me. But the thing that happened, one
37:41
of the things we're talking about our our growth.
37:43
One of the things that I tell this all the time we were we we
37:49
we profited or or we got we gained from the MLB strike.
37:53
Whatever year that was, I I forget what year that.
37:55
Was 94 into 95. Right when they went on strike,
37:58
we gained from that. There's a definite numbers that
38:01
came out that we gained fans and and popularity from the NBMLB
38:06
strike, you know and all the things that that causes, right.
38:10
But it was just amazing, just amazing to me.
38:17
What what what went on? And it it was like it was like
38:21
it seemed like and I tried to think about it, It's like we're
38:25
almost the last part of Americana things that were going
38:29
on. Baseball, hot dogs.
38:31
You know what I mean? You can't.
38:33
We took baseball away. Well, these drivers and
38:38
everybody could relate to our drivers.
38:39
And I talk about that all the time.
38:41
As a fan. You got if you, if you, if
38:43
you're a hero, if you've got a hero.
38:45
Somehow, at some level, you've got to be able to relate to that
38:48
guy to be your hero. And with Earnhardt, you know,
38:51
the working band dirt poor farmer, you know, Bill Hill guy
38:55
didn't have a pot to pee in. And you know, people related to
38:59
that Harry get sitting there hanging Sheetrock with his head
39:01
building the Alps. People related to that, right?
39:04
And then they saw him on TV. And the way they conducted
39:07
themselves, the way they talked, the way they acted, you know, it
39:10
was a grown man. It was hero material, right?
39:13
He's just like, this is a, this is like Americana.
39:16
It's a last part of Americana. And I really think that's what
39:19
transformed across the country to to to get the other areas of
39:23
the country so hyped up on our sport.
39:26
It was just, you know, and I think it's still, it goes back
39:30
to the characters in our sport and the way we were presented,
39:33
the way we presented ourselves or were presented by the media,
39:37
you know, 'cause you had, you had, you had the Tom Higgins in
39:40
the Steve Wade's of the world. You know, they would talk about
39:43
negative stuff, but they would also, you know, they would build
39:46
the sport up. They would build the drivers up
39:47
as gladiator, modern day gladiator.
39:49
I think what I've said one time, right?
39:52
And Ken Squire, all those guys, all that stuff fed into it and
39:57
you know, just such an exciting time.
39:59
And if we can, if we can somehow or another bridge those stories
40:04
into these guys now and incorporate some of this stuff
40:09
with those guys, right that we've got now.
40:12
You know, because they've all got to have personalities who do
40:15
that. I mean, they're all different
40:16
personalities, but they're stifled so much because of the
40:20
way it is you know and you, you have somebody like Denny that's
40:24
coming out with his show. This causes so much stare, stir
40:28
in our sport, right? And you know, we I, I just think
40:31
we we could, we could do more of that and and get the fans more
40:34
connected to the guys. And the way we did it, the way
40:37
it happened and the way the journalists did it, I mean it's
40:39
not just the drivers. I mean, you know, I think
40:41
journalists, journalists, I have to buy into this also, right?
40:44
And but I think there's an opportunity here to do that,
40:47
Charlie. We'll see.
40:49
Yeah. When when you were in it, let's
40:51
say in the mid 90s, could you feel how amazing it was or do
40:55
you think also I I think there's also this always your yearning
40:58
for yesteryear. We all do this to your high
41:01
school days, but I think with NASCAR specifically it it's fair
41:05
to say it it was better. So I'm wondering when you saw
41:08
the Rainbow Warrior going around or or Dale Earnhardt in the
41:12
black #3, could you feel that it was iconic?
41:16
I I'm just wondering because, you know, couple minutes ago you
41:19
used the word colorful and I think that's a perfect
41:23
description for it and here's why.
41:25
So I'm a member of NASCAR media. So I go on the NASCAR media site
41:29
all the time to get pictures and I'm telling you there's
41:32
something about the pictures from your era once they become
41:35
color and it's it's almost better that they're not so high
41:40
resolution HD. You know what I'm saying?
41:42
Like, even the fact that they're just a little fuzzier, it makes
41:46
you think of the Seventies, 80s and 90s.
41:48
And I'm telling you, the colors pop when you see the stands, it
41:54
the fans, the colors, they're wearing pop, the cars pop.
41:58
Everything looks sunny, everything looks happy.
42:02
It does feel like Americana. I'm telling you, I've had that
42:04
exact same thought as I go through.
42:07
If I'm doing a story on any particular older driver, I
42:10
always put their search into NASCAR media and I look at the
42:13
old pictures and I have this thought every single time,
42:16
'cause these pictures are so damn cool.
42:18
Yeah, it's like I remember Tony, Tony Stewart one time said the
42:22
best looking race car I ever saw was that green and black number
42:26
one skull car of Rick Mast, right.
42:28
I remember he made that comment one time.
42:30
I'm like, well, that's pretty cool because that was in 1990,
42:33
what 5, you know what I'm saying?
42:36
But that air car, another thing that happens to Charlie in those
42:39
days when we started Daytona, whatever our car, whatever our
42:43
car was, the color and the scheme, it was the same every
42:46
week for 36 races or whatever all through the year.
42:50
It is, you know when you turn the TV on and go to the
42:52
racetrack, you can pick out the one Rick Mass skull car easy,
42:55
right? You always pick out the black
42:57
three car, but you can pick out the yellow 30 Michael Walker
43:00
car, you can pick them, you know the Sharla Marl.
43:02
You can pick all these guys out real easily and they were lot
43:07
simpler in their skeeves, you know?
43:08
And I and I listen, man, I don't know anything about that crap.
43:12
I'm not an artist. I don't know anything about.
43:14
I know when something looks good.
43:15
I can't tell you, I can't tell you how to make it look good.
43:18
But if it looks good at the end, I'll tell you.
43:19
If it looks bad, I can tell you right.
43:21
But I think it was just it was just so many components and
43:25
that's that what what you're talking about is one of them
43:28
that that was just one of the components and maybe it was a
43:32
keeping it simple a little bit and people could talk because
43:34
like right now I mean I watch the races every week and man I
43:37
have to look and look and look and look and look and study.
43:40
In fact it's gotten out of work. If there's somebody I'm wanting
43:43
to follow that day because of some storyline I'm interested in
43:46
or I've been told some inside secret about right.
43:50
I'll. I'll find that driver in that
43:51
car and I'm looking all right what scheme has he got today.
43:54
And I'll try to pick him out as they're going around pre race
43:57
and find him And then during the race I'm trying to find that car
44:01
right. And it's hard to do.
44:03
It's hard to do. Back in those days it was very
44:06
easy. You didn't have to look at a pre
44:08
race deal to know What Car you're looking for.
44:10
So you know but with with the, with the sponsorship being what
44:14
it is and have to run different color schemes.
44:16
I mean that's what we got to do now.
44:17
I mean I get it that's that's the way it is.
44:19
We can't put one color on that car at a sponsor and keep it the
44:23
same all year. You know those days are gone.
44:26
Yeah, I I think that's a very important point.
44:29
That is a that is a huge deal. I don't know how to fix it.
44:32
I know RFK, they were thinking about maybe trying to keep the
44:36
the same color scheme throughout a season even though the
44:40
sponsors change. But I think that's it.
44:42
I've got some good schemes right now, by the way, but it is.
44:44
Go ahead, go ahead. No, I think, think about
44:47
baseball. So baseball's different, though,
44:49
because you just have two teams, right?
44:51
You have for, for the most part, your Rd. uniforms, your home
44:54
uniforms. Every once in a while they'll do
44:55
a throwback, which people like. But it's pretty easy.
44:57
Even if they're doing a, let's say, a throwback or a tribute to
45:00
the Negro Leagues. Whatever it is, it's pretty easy
45:02
that day to figure out who's who in a baseball game.
45:05
But NASCAR with 40 or something cars, it's a different deal.
45:09
And and I I know Bobby Labonte brought this up and he said look
45:13
the the 2nd. We kind of went away from the
45:15
one color scheme. You just lose that branding.
45:18
And so. So in the last few years I feel
45:21
like you know you could usually know Logano's yellow and up
45:25
until this year I mean Denny Hamlin with FedEx.
45:27
But now I feel like Mavis is all over that car and even Chase
45:31
Elliott with Napa. I feel like most of the time.
45:34
But man I feel like I feel like now you know I don't know the
45:38
primaries, how many races most of those get.
45:41
But I agree with you. I think you're trying to find
45:43
out oh who is that. Oh that's a blue car.
45:44
Who is that? I think that's a big deal that
45:46
NASCAR needs to figure out because when you talk about the
45:49
iconic branding, it's hard to establish that brand without the
45:53
consistent colors and the consistent car.
45:56
That's true. I mean, if that's what you want
45:59
to do, you go back. You saw that green white car
46:03
right That's Harry get that's that's gold card.
46:06
You know you saw the black on course there an art you know you
46:09
you saw you saw those guys you it was very very easy to pick
46:15
them out. Very easy to identify.
46:18
It's hard now to do that. It's hard to identify.
46:21
I I don't know this I think what it if you if we've got 100
46:25
things that we need with we can fix or work on that's just one
46:29
of 100 things. All right.
46:31
I I don't know how prominent it is but it is an issue there's
46:35
there's you know no way around it and and and same way with the
46:38
drivers you know one of the problems when when NASCAR got so
46:44
so popular a lot of the guys you know we had to be older to get
46:48
it to become a cup racer. You know until Jeff came along
46:52
and Tony came along that's when the whole thing changed.
46:55
The word is now if you're 30 years of age, man, you're over
46:58
the hill, You're too old. But the one of the things that
47:01
happened, these guys raced the the, the, the all the short
47:06
tracks, right? The Hickory's, the Birmingham
47:09
AL's, you know, the Hialeah Speedway, the New Hampshire, I
47:14
mean, Oxford Plains. And these guys became stars
47:18
locally, OK? And then, gosh, then they would
47:22
start touring with the Busch series and then the name got
47:25
going. So by the time a guy got to the
47:27
Cup, a lot of fans already knew this guy, and they just
47:31
naturally would follow this guy from different parts of the
47:34
South or the Eastern coast, East Coast, right.
47:37
And they follow these guys. And then you bring a Californian
47:39
in, like Jeff Gordon, right, that people really didn't know
47:42
the Southeast, but they got to know Jeff because he won so
47:46
much. And then he became the arch
47:47
enemy of Earnhardt because he's an outsider, you know,
47:50
California kid coming in here. But it was, it made for great.
47:53
It made for great stories and great racing.
47:57
You know, today these guys come in at 20 years of age.
48:00
All of a sudden you turn on the TV, they're starting 5th is
48:05
whoever it is, right? And you're like, who's this guy?
48:08
Never heard of him. And you're, you know more than a
48:12
passive race fan, you know and you keep up with racing and
48:15
you're like, who is this guy running the top series?
48:18
I don't never heard of him or don't know him.
48:20
So then you have to, you have to learn to know about this guy or
48:25
learn about this guy watching the Cup races Sunday, right.
48:28
And those guys are put in a bad position because they don't have
48:31
the experience and all that. But I don't know that that
48:35
that's one thing that hurts a little bit, I think, you know,
48:37
we've got to we've got to get back to having these guys as
48:40
heroes. I mean we've got to these guys
48:42
have got to be, they don't necessarily have to be heroes,
48:46
but they got to be persona as heroes somehow.
48:48
And that, as you say it comes natural.
48:50
Does it come forced? Right.
48:52
But But anyhow, I I digress here.
48:55
I digress. No, I love it.
48:57
OK, let's let's end on this this topic.
48:59
You and I were talking about this a little bit before we
49:02
press record and you're a baseball fan, big Braves fan.
49:06
I'm a huge baseball fan. I live in Saint Louis and right
49:08
now Saint Louis Cardinal fans are are as pissed as I've ever
49:12
seen them and I've been here what, 16 years?
49:15
This is my 17th season and I I covered the Cardinals a lot and
49:19
and still do I have a a separate YouTube channel that's just for
49:22
Cardinals if people want to check that out.
49:23
It's called Charlie Marlowe Dash 590 the Fan KFNS.
49:27
But you were kind of remarking about how you know fans always
49:31
want everybody to be fired. GM, coaches, managers, players
49:35
and I always like talking to to athletes about this because I'm
49:38
sure, look there's probably time in your career somebody wanted
49:41
Rick Mash fired or Rick Mash crew chief or owner or this guy
49:44
can't do his job. So I think athletes always have
49:46
a different perspective than media folks.
49:49
So you think there's too much of that, just too many fans kind of
49:52
bitching and always wanting everybody to get fired after
49:54
every loss? Dude, when the the Braves won
49:58
the when they won the World Series, after that Super Bowl
50:01
crap. When they won the World Series,
50:03
we go in. I guess the next year we get in
50:06
some kind of slump, right? You cut on Twitter, which is now
50:09
X and I'm telling you dude just gives you It gave me a headache
50:15
reading sniper needs to be fired.
50:19
Bryce Snitzker. He's Urbana.
50:20
He's the manager of the brace. He's old school.
50:23
He does do analytics. He's not.
50:24
He's hard headed on and on and on and on and on.
50:27
And he's be fired. Needs to be fired like Tony
50:29
Bennett, one of the top five in my opinion top five college
50:33
basketball coaches in this country.
50:36
I watched what he did at UVA for the last 15 years.
50:39
I mean, if he if UVA got an IT bid.
50:42
Man they were jumping up and down the streets of
50:44
Charlottesville. Happy, right?
50:47
Tony Bennett comes along well if we don't win a championship,
50:50
Hell, Bennett needs to be replaced, right?
50:52
He had an off year this year and I've never seen so much negative
50:56
stuff in my life been it's old school, the NIL is passing it by
51:00
everything. He can't do this, he can't do
51:02
that. And I'm like, dude, he's done
51:03
one. He's got the biggest winning
51:05
percentage in the ACC the last 10 years of any coach of any
51:10
team. He won a national championship.
51:12
What in the hell is wrong with you people, right?
51:17
So when he catches it, Saint Louis, your group is catching
51:21
it. When Atlanta Braves just come
51:23
off of a World Series and that manager's catching it, how can
51:28
you pay any attention to this crap?
51:31
How can you, as a as a normal thinking fan, read this crap and
51:38
be like, no, no, no, no. It's like what we did in the
51:46
past don't matter. Yes, it matters.
51:48
I mean, you hear that so much in sports as an athlete.
51:51
What I did last week don't matter this week, right?
51:54
Well, it does matter because you've got a pattern.
51:57
You know how to win. You.
51:58
You know you're a champion. You know how to do.
52:00
You know how to do it. All right?
52:02
You can't go out there and play the game.
52:04
You can't hit the damn ball for the for the manager.
52:07
You've got to hit it yourself. You can't catch it.
52:09
You're the manager. Ain't out there doing that.
52:11
You know they just fired a couple of who knows the Lakers
52:15
and somebody else fired their coaches, right?
52:18
And all because of the way I understand it journalistic,
52:23
journalistic stuff. Everybody getting down on these
52:26
coaches and the you know the the head office is not having the
52:30
balls or the here with or whatever you call it to stand
52:34
firm and know what they're doing and know they're right, right
52:37
and doing the right thing. They just wither up to social
52:40
media, right? And but golly, I know I, I I
52:44
feel for you, Charlie. I feel for you because I know
52:46
what you're going through with the with the, with the Cardinals
52:48
right now. And listen, dude, whatever the
52:50
problems are, they'll get fixed. It's too good organization,
52:53
right? It's just like the Braves, too
52:55
good of an organization. It'll get fixed.
52:58
Like UVA, too good of a head coach.
53:00
It'll get fixed, you know Jesus Christ.
53:05
You know, I'm. I'm very passionate about this
53:08
topic and it's not just specific to the Cardinals.
53:10
It's it's again, because I've worked in media my whole life
53:14
and this goes back to when I worked in TV.
53:16
But also now as I do YouTube and I, I've done my own little
53:19
studies on this where I'll see if you put out a video, the
53:23
comments are always, you know, very irrational.
53:27
But I'll look and like let's say a video gets 2000 views, there's
53:33
only about 1-2 or 3% of the people.
53:36
It's usually about 1% comment, right?
53:38
They're very negative. Most people watch the video and
53:41
by the way, we want everyone to comment.
53:42
I'm not trying to shit on commenters, but I'm saying some
53:46
people like to get riled up, but most people just consume the
53:50
podcast or the video and they just don't comment.
53:52
And I think what we do is this happens in politics, by the way,
53:55
all the time. And this happened in TVI.
53:57
Saw this all the time. My news directors and people
54:00
would be like, all these people on Twitter are saying this.
54:02
We got to, we got to go talk to these people.
54:04
I'm like, these people are crazy.
54:06
I'm thinking why are we, why are we giving more of a microphone
54:09
to the craziest 1% of the people?
54:13
This is the amount of people, you know, these are the people
54:15
that are bitching on X. And I feel like we amplify it
54:17
more. We go everybody's bitching on X
54:19
and I'm like, no, the loudest 1% minority is bitching on X and
54:24
then we're amplifying it by even talking about it more.
54:28
Giving them a platform. Yep, Yep, Yep.
54:31
But you know, Charles, my girls played sports all through high
54:33
school. They played softball,
54:35
volleyball, basketball, right? We did travel teams, we did all
54:38
that. And really the same stuff would
54:42
go on there, you know, at these ball games, but it'd be two or
54:46
three in the grandstands instead of them being on Twitter or X
54:50
doing it. So it's it's kind of, it's kind
54:53
of like it's kind of like criticism.
54:54
I remember, dude, man, Ross, little boy.
54:57
There used to be two publications.
54:59
One was called Southern Motorsports Journal and I can't
55:03
remember the other. It was just a little pamphlet,
55:06
would come once a week. My dad subscribed to it and it
55:08
was all about cup racing. Have stories about cup racing.
55:11
It would probably be maybe four or five pages.
55:14
It would fold out big. Would it be like that?
55:16
And every week and I, I, I, I was thinking the other day about
55:20
this. Of course, at one time I
55:21
remember the guy's name. But every week there'd be one
55:23
guy that have a letter to the editor and they would always
55:26
have two or three letters to the editor.
55:28
And these guys were bitching. Every week there's one guy
55:31
always bitching about something And it it dawned on me one time
55:35
here a couple, three years ago, this ain't it.
55:37
I was, I was reading all that crap.
55:38
This is no different than the what it used to be in the 60s
55:41
but but the same stuff was going on but the only could get two or
55:44
three letters in there. So I'm like this stuff is always
55:47
out there. We've just they've just got an
55:49
outlet for it now and how do we how do we take that and not hurt
55:53
our sport because of the negativity right.
55:56
People read that and it becomes negative.
55:58
So we got, we got to we, you know, it's just something we got
56:00
to help somehow. I love it.
56:03
We'll figure it out. We'll figure out this problem as
56:05
the podcast goes on. Let's let's end on that note.
56:07
Rick, have a great time at Darlington, by the way, to
56:10
everybody apologize. Our audio on the last episode
56:13
wasn't great. We got new mics and new computer
56:15
programs. We're figuring it out.
56:17
So thank you. But that was a great podcast.
56:19
And like I said, people are also watching, listening to your
56:22
Davey Allison stories, Rick, which were great and I think
56:25
this one was great as well. So we'll get it out as quick as
56:27
possible so people can watch and listen.
56:30
And Rick, thank you as always, Sir.
56:32
This is good time. Thanks folks.
56:34
See you next time.