Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Meet Maddi Gordon At The Arizona Nationals | Noah Reed Reports

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Meet Maddi Gordon At The Arizona Nationals | Noah Reed Reports · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Yeah, it was so awesome. It was really great to have them
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  out at the Race Shack. Some of us or some of them have
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  never been to a drag ship, let alone actually been on the drag
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  strip. So had a great time.
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  And the driver I was with, Tanner Holmes, did an amazing
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  job. He actually won the race and the
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  reaction to average reaction time almost won the burnout
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  contest, but it was close. So he did a stellar job.
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  It was really fun getting to coach him through that process.
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  Listen, amazing, great dollar control, just an overall great
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  driver and I was just so excited to show them the ropes.
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  So for all the rookies out there, when it comes to, you
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  know, top field racing, give me a little rookie test.
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  What is it like with the reaction time?
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  You know the timing lines, you know that I'm.
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  Of course I'm forgetting now the name of the.
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  Pre stage and. Stage, stage.
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  That just goes to show, you know, my inexperience, but take
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  all the fans. So, you know, might not have
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  experienced that like me through a weekend here at the NHRA
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  series. Yeah.
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  You know, there's so much more than just going in a straight
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  line. You have a lot of strategizing
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  as a driver. Crew chiefs have a lot of
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  strategy, of course, setting up the race car to go up and down
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  the racetrack, whether it's a 70° track or 150° racetrack,
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  Huge, huge, huge tune up changes that go into those differences
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  between the tracks from what we were doing today.
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  It was a lot of strategy. So the race cars are very evenly
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  matched. They're going to go down the
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  racetrack every time for the most part.
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  So it's not necessarily exciting the race car up.
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  It's how you prepare before you hit the gas.
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  So in this case we were talking about burnouts.
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  We want to do a cool burnout just because that's really fun
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  and cool burnouts, big smoky burnout, a long distance.
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  And then there's a lot of strategy when it comes to the
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  Christmas tree. You have your pre stage bulbs,
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  you have your stage bulbs, you can go deep so you can roll in
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  past stage and what they call it put the top bowl about, which
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  means you roll in further. It makes your reaction time
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  better, your ET worse. So it's kind of a game of what
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  do you want to play? And you know, me and Tanner had
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  a great time of discussing strategy, what he felt he wanted
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  to do versus, you know, some other options.
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  So just had a great time working with him and he was very
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  receptive to all of the different strategies and it was
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  a just a overall great, great crossover.
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  I heard you and Tanner talking about, hey, races aren't one on
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  track on the weekend, they're one on the shot preparation
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  wise. Just tell me a little more about
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  what goes into preparation on a race weekend, especially when
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  you're going to a track that's going to be as hot and as slick
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  as Firebird this weekend. Yeah, I mean, definitely, I live
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  by that. Races are not one at the Race
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  Shack. Yes, they technically are, but
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  you win them back in the shop. And when I was talking to Tanner
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  about that, I say win it back in the shop.
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  What I meant by that was that was our strategizing time.
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  That was what I was calling our shop time.
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  And you know, I think that's a big part of of our our success
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  in that race. And it's same thing that goes
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  out whether you're running a junior dragster or a top field
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  dragster. You know, you have to spend a
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  lot of time at your shop with your parts, with your pieces,
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  getting your heads put together, getting your blower set up,
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  looking at the computer, looking at your data, which is what our
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  Carlyle tools team does every single day.
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  Our guys are working the shop every single day, you know,
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  sometimes morning tonight, you know, and they work really long
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  hours to get prepared to be at the racetrack and be ready every
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  single run. So we're not scattering.
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  We're ready and we're prepared every pass, which is what makes
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  a successful team in my opinion. And you talked a lot about the
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  team right there, and one of the people in your ear in your
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  corner is Ron Capps, one of the best to ever do it.
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  I'm curious, maybe share one of the best piece of advice that
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  he's ever given you in your career.
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  You know, Ron's given me a ton of advice.
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  You know, he's what's gotten me to this point.
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  You know, it would, none of this would be possible without Ron
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  Capps believing in me. And honestly, he saw something
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  in me that I didn't even know I had to be truthfully honest
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  there. He he believed in me from the
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  start and it never wavered. And that gave me so much
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  confidence coming into this new career.
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  As far as a specific piece of advice he's given me, there's so
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  much it's hard to pinpoint. I mean, a couple things just
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  right off the bat that comes to mind is just being myself.
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  Every time I ask him how can I improve, how can I be better, he
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  says just be yourself. And that's the refreshing for me
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  because it's it's easy for me to be myself.
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  But as far as driving the race car, don't drive over your head.
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  You know, you don't want to get yourself into a bad situation
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  like 340 miles an hour because things happen really fast,
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  especially if it's kind of out of your comfort zone.
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  You talked about Ron seeing something in yourself.
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  I would love for you to just go in a little bit about your
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  career, career and what that moment was where it clicked.
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  You're like, first of all, I want to race.
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  And then second of all, that moment you're like, man, I'm
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  here and I can do this. Yeah, you know, and I've always
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  wanted to race since I was born, to be completely honest with
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  you, Like my dad says, he knew I was a race car driver before I
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  was born because my due date was on a race weekend and I held off
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  till after the race weekend. So he said I he knew I was a
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  race car driver from the start. But you know, I just love the
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  sport. I love everything about it.
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  I love the fans. I love working on race cars.
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  I truly, truly love working with tools.
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  It's a passion of mine. I love fabricating.
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  I love the tuning aspect. I love driving.
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  I just love the sport. And and that's never wavered,
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  you know, And Ron, Ron says he saw, he saw in me what he
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  envisioned. Like, how do I say that?
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  He saw himself in me when I drove the alcohol Funny Car and
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  working on the car and my passion for the sport.
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  And he, he wanted to pay it back to somebody like Don Preem did
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  for him. Don Preem brought brought him up
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  in the ranks when he didn't have the money to drive.
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  But Don Preem believed in him and he wanted to do the same for
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  somebody else. And he thought that I was the I
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  was a good fit. And I tell you what, when he
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  asked me to drive for him, I was totally shocked.
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  I, I, I didn't, I didn't even know that I saw what he saw in
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  me. I didn't, I didn't, I just
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  didn't know, you know? And, but his confidence in me
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  never wavered. And that gave me so much
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  confidence coming into this. And I'm, he's always in my
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  corner cheering my biggest cheerleader.
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  So it gives me a lot of confidence.
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  That's amazing. Now these next couple of
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  questions, they come from Kenny Wallace and he's driven a lot of
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  different cars throughout his career.
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  And he wants to know from you, first of all, what is the
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  experience out there in a Funny Car and you know, just some of
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  the different drag cars that you've driven and, and what is
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  that like from your perspective? Yeah.
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  So driving alcohol Funny Car, you know, we're going 270 miles
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  an hour to the quarter mile 3 speed transmission.
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  We're carrying the front end close to 150 to 200 feet.
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  So you're not steering it, you're just long for the ride
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  until it touches down and nothing gangs you all over the
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  place. So those cars are very, very
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  aggressive and extremely hard to drive from the hit of the
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  throttle to about 400 feet. 1st, the Top Fuel Dragster, in my
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  opinion, coming from the alcohol funding car, the Top Fuel
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  Dragster is actually a little bit smoother in those first 400
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  feet. The front end, we don't carry it
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  quite as far. Yeah, quite as far.
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  Even though it hits the gas or it hits the tire harder and it
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  accelerates quicker, feels a little bit smoother until we get
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  to 400 feet, the engine RPM drops, the clutch locks up and
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  it starts pulling massive GS and it's literally hang on along for
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  the ride. And it's it's almost like kind
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  of like A2 struck motorcycle. You think you're going fast to
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  hiss the power band and then it just ramps up.
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  It's almost like that except for you start pulling 6 GS.
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  It's like an elephant standing on your chest just because of
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  all the pressure on my body. Man, that is, that is insane.
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  Now that leads me to my next question actually, Is there
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  anything that you haven't driven yet in your career that you
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  would like to drive in the future?
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  I mean, I love all kinds of drag racing cars.
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  I don't honestly know that I'd ever get on a Pro Stock
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  motorcycle. I prefer to be in a cage.
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  Although I do love motorcycles. I think I prefer to be in a
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  cage. You never know, life will take
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  you. I'm 21 years old, so who knows,
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  but honestly, right now I'm just living a dream.
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  I I haven't even thought about driving to the race cars.
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  I love driving the Top Fuel dragster and but I'm very young
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  in my career, so we'll see where.
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  It goes, and this last question is for this weekend.
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  For all the fans who are coming out to Firebird this weekend,
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  what should they expect? Why should they be here
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  throughout the weekend? Oh, you cannot you, you know,
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  you try to explain drag racing and explain how crazy it is.
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  You cannot like fully grasp it unless you're here.
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  It is a see it to believe the kind of sport one race car goes
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  on the racetrack. It'll set off a car alarm.
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  I mean 12,000 horsepower one cylinder in these race cars is
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  more powerful than an entire NASCAR engine, which is I think
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  is insane. And how about two race cars side
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  by side, So 24,000 horsepower on track at the exact same time.
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  Every tickets a pit pass, you get to walk through the pits,
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  meet your favorite drivers, get autographs, be 5 feet from the
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  guys working on the car tearing apart a 12,000 horsepower
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  engine. It is truly, it's like a once in
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  a lifetime experience, except for you can come every single
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  year and three days. It's a three day event, Friday,
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  Saturday, Sunday. So it's it's an amazing event.
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  And like I said, you can't really grasp it unless you're
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  here. It's a see it to believe it kind
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  of sport.