Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / My Final Take On The Downfall Of Wisconsin Local Racing | Coffee With Kenny
Transcript
- 0:00Happy Saturday morning, everybody from Orlando.
- 0:05We are getting ready to go over to Cape Canaveral, 40 minutes
- 0:09away or so. And we are going on Carnival
- 0:13Cruise Line and I hear the waters are rough.
- 0:17I hear the waters are rough. My my nephew just got off.
- 0:21Well, Kim's nephew Aaron just got off one of the ships and he
- 0:24said it's rough, be ready. I said, Allard, if we get on
- 0:30that baby name, we get out in the ocean, I'm going to have a
- 0:32helicopter come pick us up. All right, so a following up
- 0:40update on the local Wisconsin racing.
- 0:45I got up this morning, checked my Facebook and had like a 1700
- 0:52likes, 368 comments. Those are pretty good numbers.
- 1:00So I I read, I read the ones that mattered.
- 1:05Of course you all matter. Greg Mccarns, Dan Frederickson,
- 1:16Ty's dad, Mark the kid, Martin out of Hatesville, Arkansas.
- 1:23OK, here's the update on Wisconsin local racing.
- 1:30As I predicted, Wisconsin, like I said yesterday, I said
- 1:35Wisconsin is the greatest state for racing in the world.
- 1:41And, and the question yesterday was, is local racing dying in
- 1:48Wisconsin? That was simply the question, is
- 1:50local racing dying in Wisconsin? So here's what all the mature
- 1:56people say, like a Greg Mccarns at Dan Frederickson.
- 2:01They said, Kenny, just like NASCAR, the death of local
- 2:07Wisconsin racing has been greatly exaggerated.
- 2:12It's not what it used to be back in the Dick Trickle days, you
- 2:15know, back in the Dick Trickle days, the Tom Ruffner days, they
- 2:19they were racing 6 out of seven nights and they were doing it
- 2:22for a living. Has the local Wisconsin racing
- 2:25changed? Yes.
- 2:28But is it dead? Absolutely not.
- 2:31So like NASCAR is what they're telling me.
- 2:34The death of local Wisconsin racing has been greatly
- 2:39exaggerated. It's doing very good.
- 2:42I even had some race tracks comment on the subject.
- 2:46Mark Martin's going up for an appearance.
- 2:49So I knew, I knew this was the case.
- 2:53I knew that you all would come to the defense of Wisconsin
- 2:58racing, and that makes me happy because you all prove my point.
- 3:02For years I would talk about, you know, how great NASCAR is,
- 3:06and for years I would argue with everybody and they're saying
- 3:10NASCAR is going to fail. So just like everything in life,
- 3:18Wisconsin local racing is not failing.
- 3:23It's just not what it used to be, but it's still big time.
- 3:28Nothing can stay the same. My little my little project here
- 3:33worked. It made all the Wisconsin people
- 3:38defend themselves and they come running.
- 3:41How dare you say Wisconsin racing's dead?
- 3:45Oh, by the way, same subject. Count how many times I say
- 3:51Wisconsin racing. So I think it's fair to say
- 3:57everybody that life changes. There are a handful of tracks
- 4:03that closed down. You know what, I think Wausau or
- 4:09one of them closed down Rockford.
- 4:14There's a there's a handful, but same thing here in Saint Louis.
- 4:17Saint Louis, we had Lake Hill Speedway closed down Godfrey,
- 4:24but right Wisconsin auto racing is not exactly the way it used
- 4:31to be, but its demise is greatly exaggerated.
- 4:36And I sure was happy and I sure was smiling this morning to see
- 4:40all the responses. So hopefully I'll get up that
- 4:43way soon. You know, the last time I raced
- 4:46it was the I raced at Marshfield.
- 4:48Is that track still going? Respond right here.
- 4:51I ran up. It was a triple 33 Lappers, 3366
- 4:57and 99. So it was 99 laps and I won one
- 5:00of them at Marshfield. I remember Tom Ruffner was still
- 5:03living. He was there.
- 5:05He was happy. But yeah, and and listen, all of
- 5:09Kim's family live right there. You know what is it?
- 5:13West Dallas, right outside of right outside of Milwaukee.
- 5:18So maybe I get up that way. I know lacrosse is doing good,
- 5:24Slanger. So all right, everybody, thanks
- 5:28so much for the comments. I want to thank, I'm going to
- 5:31thank Greg Mccarns for writing me a little letter and and Dan
- 5:35Frederickson and I'm going to leave you with this.
- 5:41Here's what they're all telling me, and I'm going to say this
- 5:44with love. They say that all the old Dick
- 5:48Trickle people are the ones that complain the most and they're
- 5:53sad and they're just bitter. So I said that with love.
- 5:59So here's what I would say to you know that nobody loved Dick
- 6:03Trickle more than me. Here's what I would say.
- 6:07We lost it. Dale Senior in NASCAR too.
- 6:12And you know, the rally cry was NASCAR's over.
- 6:18I'm sad that we lost Dick Trickle more than you, but we
- 6:21did not lose Wisconsin auto racing.
- 6:24So for all my old people out there, the ones that call me all
- 6:27the time and and just tell me that Wisconsin racing's dead,
- 6:32it's it's dead. It's not what it used to be.
- 6:38I'll meet you halfway, OK? But it's alive and well.
- 6:42So for all my Dick Trickle and Tom Reffner and you know, all my
- 6:48old crew out there, I love you all, get your ass to the
- 6:55racetrack, support all those tracks.
- 6:59I love you all. And I just think it's very
- 7:04important to know that when you get old, you do get sad and you
- 7:07do get bitter. And I think that's where most of
- 7:10my reporting come from, the people that are sad that Dick is
- 7:14gone and Tom is gone. But don't give up on the sport
- 7:19that those great racers loved. So once again, Wisconsin auto
- 7:28racing is just like NASCAR. Is it the same?
- 7:35No, it's not the same. It is the demise greatly
- 7:40exaggerated? Yes.
- 7:43So I encourage all of you to get out to your local Wisconsin race
- 7:47tracks and keep it going, keep it rocking.
- 7:50Just like the Dick Triple days. Remember, it ain't the same, but
- 7:55it ain't over. And like Delana Harvick said,
- 7:59don't be sad it's over. Be happy it happened.
- 8:02Hopefully I'll see you all up in Wisconsin soon.
- 8:05Lots of love.