Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Remembering The Great Scott Bloomquist 1963-2024
Transcript
- 0:04It's Friday morning, August 16th and it's a very sad morning for
- 0:10me. As you all know, about two
- 0:13months ago I did a special on Scott Bloomquist.
- 0:19This morning, Friday, August 16th, it's reported that Scott
- 0:23Bloomquist was flying one of his vintage airplanes and crash
- 0:29landed and died. Scott Bloomquist is dead.
- 0:34This is this is so hard to believe.
- 0:39I always thought Scott Bloomquist was different,
- 0:43unique, and I was always attracted towards people like
- 0:47that. When people were different, I
- 0:51kind of smiled and I talked to him because they were different
- 0:54in a good way. Scott Bloomquist landing one of
- 1:00his vintage airplanes, I'm assuming one of his father's
- 1:03airplanes. The family was popular for that.
- 1:07His dad was renowned. People would tell me on the
- 1:11Kenny conversation with Mark Richards, he said, Kenny, you
- 1:15would not believe these airplanes.
- 1:17They're beautiful. The paint jobs were like, who
- 1:20painted these? And the answer was simply Scott
- 1:24Bloomquist's father. So we don't know the exact
- 1:28details and we don't want to speculate on anything.
- 1:31But all the reports throughout social media right now, the one
- 1:37I read was on the speed sport was Scott Bloomquist crash
- 1:41landed a vintage airplane on their family property and he is
- 1:47pronounced dead today, August 16th, the same day Elvis Presley
- 1:52was was killed. So I just want to say a couple
- 2:00things about the late great Scott Bloomquist.
- 2:04As you all know, two months ago I did a a response of Scott
- 2:11Bloomquist horrible wreck at Eldora.
- 2:15Scott and Shannon Bad got together off Turn 2 and Scott
- 2:18flipped violently, just horribly.
- 2:23And in Scott's interview, Scott Bloomquist's interview at Eldora
- 2:27where the violent wreck took place, he talked about how he
- 2:33was liquidating and how times were very hard for him.
- 2:39So I reached out to Scott. Scott Bloomquist responded to me
- 2:42with a nice long text, to my surprise.
- 2:46Very surprising for Scott to respond to anybody in a long
- 2:49text. And I'll share with you now that
- 2:52Scott's gone what he said because it was heartfelt.
- 2:56Scott Bloomquist. Scott Bloomquist said to me, he
- 3:01said, Kenny, I want to have a long, lengthy conversation with
- 3:05you and I want you to help me end my career in a good way.
- 3:10And he said, quote, UN quote, I want to go out, kick an ass.
- 3:16That's what Scott said to me. And I said, OK, I can share some
- 3:21things with you and what I did, Scott.
- 3:25And what I was going to tell Scott was that when I decided to
- 3:30retire from NASCAR racing like I did in 2015 up at the Iowa
- 3:36racetrack, that was it. And that's what I was going to
- 3:39tell him. And I was going to tell him
- 3:41that, my God, we could sell $1,000,000 in souvenirs.
- 3:45Because you're so famous, Scott. You're legendary Scott
- 3:49Bloomquist. One last race.
- 3:53That's what I was going to tell him, but what he said kind of
- 4:00caught me off guard. Scott said help me go out
- 4:04kicking ass. He wanted to win.
- 4:08Even even retiring from dirt racing.
- 4:13I can't believe I'm saying this. Scott Bloomquist is dead at age
- 4:1760 years old. On Friday, August 16th, crashed
- 4:25his family vintage airplane on the family property.
- 4:31You know, Scott was a unique individual.
- 4:34Some people would say weird and I say no, he's not weird.
- 4:38He's different. There's a difference.
- 4:43Scott was extremely smart. Einstein, Elon Musk, all these
- 4:48people that are brilliant, they're different.
- 4:50They don't think like us. Scott didn't think like us.
- 4:53He didn't go about anything like we did.
- 4:55We had people make things for us.
- 4:57We bought things. Bloomquist, he just did it all
- 5:00himself. Built airplanes, built his own
- 5:05race cars, came out with the first unbelievable the the black
- 5:10hauler. How about the black hauler?
- 5:12Three years ago, everybody stared at that holler.
- 5:15Oh my God, look at this. It's it's mean looking.
- 5:18It's black. Later on, it was thought of that
- 5:22the truck and trailer was just too heavy and Scott sold it.
- 5:28So what I had to say about Scott Moonquist is basically he was
- 5:33the smartest dirt racer of all time.
- 5:36He built, designed his own race cars.
- 5:39He won more races than anybody. He won every crown jewel there
- 5:42ever was. There was simply no more left
- 5:45for him to do. And in his late years, his body
- 5:50started going out on him. You know, he was racing less and
- 5:55less. He was in more pain.
- 6:00You know, I would talk to him. I can't.
- 6:02I can't feel my arm. I can't feel my leg.
- 6:05This hurts. That hurts.
- 6:07But there were there were flashes of brilliance.
- 6:10He would get up to speed every once in a while.
- 6:12But for the most part, like all our NASCAR heroes, when you
- 6:17start getting at the age that I am, I'll be 61 years old next
- 6:22week. When you start getting to this
- 6:23age, it's hard to stay fast. It's hard to stay fast.
- 6:29So I never, I never said Scott's getting slow.
- 6:37Scott's not the way he was. I thought, well, Scott's 60
- 6:40years old. When you know, this is human
- 6:45nature. When you get to be 60 years old,
- 6:47you just start slowing up. Scott kept going through the
- 6:51biggest races in the world. When you get to be 60 years old
- 6:54and you keep going through the biggest races in the world, it's
- 6:57going to get harder. A lot of people when they get
- 7:01older, they go to the weakest races that they can find to stay
- 7:04racing. Scott never did that.
- 7:09He was a racer through and through.
- 7:11He kept going. He'd find the toughest races
- 7:13there was at 60 years old. He went to Eldora at 60 years
- 7:16old. But once again, a lot of races,
- 7:20when they start to get that age, they, they try to find the the
- 7:24races where the weakest competition is.
- 7:27But he never did that. Scott always believed in himself
- 7:30through and through. Scott Bloomquist, Unbelievable.
- 7:35This reminds me of the morning that I was barely awake and my
- 7:39wife was going. Kenny, honey, wake up.
- 7:42Davey Allison has been killed in a helicopter wreck.
- 7:46I couldn't get my bearings about me.
- 7:50Davey Allison was one of my best friends in life.
- 7:53It was shocking. Davey Allison and I flew
- 7:56together in an airplane a lot and I told Davey Allison, said
- 7:59Kenny, how many NASCAR Xfinity races, a Bush races have you
- 8:03won? I told him nine and he goes,
- 8:06God, I wish I could win just one.
- 8:09He told me this in Loudon, NH after I won the Bud 300 and I
- 8:13was flying home with Davey Allison and I said, Davey, I
- 8:16would cut off one of my fingers to do what you've done.
- 8:21I always found that odd that people that did everything,
- 8:26we're all still the same. It's all just relative.
- 8:30I guarantee you there's a lot of dirt races out there.
- 8:32Would like to do a quarter of what the great Scott Bloomquist
- 8:36done. So my tribute to Scott
- 8:40Bloomquist is today's Coffee with Kenny.
- 8:44Scott Bloomquist, the greatest dirt racer to ever live, There's
- 8:48no argument. And the reason he's the greatest
- 8:51dirt racer ever lived is because he built his own race cars.
- 8:54He did it all himself. Nowadays, these great dirt
- 8:57racers, they buy their race cars from Rocket Chassis or Longhorn
- 9:02or any of the other dirt builders.
- 9:06But wow, Can you believe it? Friday, August 16th, Scott
- 9:11Bloomquist is dead in a vintage plane wreck on his own property.
- 9:19All right, everybody.