Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Can Fan Clubs Make A Return to NASCAR? | Coffee With Kenny

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Can Fan Clubs Make A Return to NASCAR? | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:02
  Happy Tuesday morning, everybody.
• 0:05
  Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
• 0:07
  We are not in Milwaukee, although it is Tuesday.
• 0:12
  Brenda, how you doing? I'm doing great.
• 0:15
  Kimberly, my wife, how are you doing?
• 0:17
  Fantastic. Brenda said we can't do this
• 0:20
  with that plain coffee mug. So, Brenda, will you do the
• 0:25
  honors? Gladly.
• 0:28
  Thank you very much boy, I feel better.
• 0:32
  We had a decal, everybody, so we want to, we want to thank Jose
• 0:36
  Castillo Trackside Live. So now we got a coffee mug.
• 0:41
  Brenda, why does that bother you so much?
• 0:43
  Because I know the fans want to see your coffee mug with your
• 0:45
  decal on it, no matter what it says.
• 0:48
  OK, Brenda, you said it once, but let's say it again.
• 0:52
  We're not in any Myrtle Beach. Where are we?
• 0:55
  We're in North Myrtle Beach and it is different from Myrtle
• 0:58
  Beach. There's two different places.
• 1:00
  Yeah, and Kim, you were laying out yesterday in that hot sun.
• 1:03
  I was. Yeah.
• 1:05
  Always. I'm at the beach.
• 1:06
  Yeah, so that means when you're at North Myrtle Beach or any
• 1:10
  beach, you stay hydrated with my friends at Horsepower Hydration
• 1:15
  right there. Go to horsepowerhydration.com.
• 1:19
  And I always say, listen, it's got the best electrolytes.
• 1:22
  It will make you feel good. There's all the ingredients.
• 1:27
  Water won't do it. Everybody, you got to have
• 1:30
  horsepower hydration. All you do is pour that in the
• 1:33
  water bottle right there and drink it and boy, it is so good.
• 1:37
  So go to horsepowerhydration.com, put in
• 1:40
  Kenny 10 and get 10% off and man, they are doing it right.
• 1:47
  Everybody in dirt racing, all throughout racing.
• 1:50
  That's the big hit right there. Horsepower hydration once again,
• 1:55
  Kenny 10 Horsepower hydration.com get 10% off.
• 2:01
  Ladies, Are you ready to go? We are.
• 2:03
  Yes, we are. Did you all think I was going to
• 2:06
  forget Tuesday? Did you think I was going to
• 2:09
  forget Tuesday? Oh no, Kim, what is that?
• 2:16
  This is our Kenny Wallace bobblehead.
• 2:19
  Yeah. It's actually one of Jeffrey's
• 2:21
  little souvenirs he let us borrow for today, so we had
• 2:24
  backdrop. Yeah, yeah.
• 2:26
  See, we're we're working on our production here.
• 2:30
  So, yeah, you know, we're leaving Milwaukee and we're
• 2:34
  going to stop at are we going to Pottawatomie so you can gamble
• 2:37
  Kin. Or ho Chuck.
• 2:39
  Either one. Or ho, Chuck Chunk.
• 2:42
  All right, everybody. That's for all our Milwaukee
• 2:44
  friends. We've had so much fun with
• 2:46
  Tuesday because that one right there, Kim would come back and
• 2:49
  go no. And I would say stop it, Kim.
• 2:53
  You wouldn't be there an hour and you'd be talking like them
• 2:55
  Milwaukee family. That's right.
• 2:58
  You love Milwaukee. I do.
• 3:00
  I do we. Love Milwaukee, spent my summers
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  there every year. OK everybody, this is going to
• 3:06
  be a great special about fan clubs in NASCAR, fan clubs
• 3:12
  throughout all of auto racing. Why?
• 3:14
  What was the purpose of the fan clubs?
• 3:17
  We're going to start off like this.
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  Brenda, Are you ready to go? Oh my gosh, yes.
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  All your friends have been talking to you.
• 3:25
  It's like the Kenny Wallace fan club has never shut down.
• 3:27
  You've been staying active, haven't you?
• 3:29
  Very, very. I look forward to Charlotte week
• 3:33
  and on both spring and fall because I still meet with many
• 3:38
  fan club members and have lunch with them.
• 3:40
  That's my week to remember. OK, let's start like this.
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  So on Sunday, I told Kyle Petty at the Trackside live show.
• 3:48
  I said Kyle. I said, going to go to Myrtle
• 3:50
  Beach and going to do a coffee with Kenny, with Brendan Kim
• 3:54
  about our fan club. He goes, oh man.
• 3:56
  And Kyle Petty got jacked up on Sun drop right away.
• 3:58
  He goes, you know, dad, Richard Petty, the great Richard Petty
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  still has some what they call chapters.
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  Ladies, do you know what chapters mean?
• 4:10
  You do. OK, So Kyle Petty said the
• 4:14
  Richard Petty Fan Club still has a couple chapters.
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  We want you all to respond right here.
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  Who are you? What state are you in?
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  And so let's get started like that.
• 4:26
  Kim, let's start with you. When did you meet Brenda?
• 4:32
  I met Brenda through her daughter Angie.
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  Angie used to work in the fan club office.
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  Then she went to work and she needed Brenda to run the open
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  house and help us get ready for our fan club meetings in
• 4:47
  Charlotte. So then eventually Angie was
• 4:52
  working full time and she moved down and she's been there ever
• 4:57
  since. OK, I'm going to brag on Brendan
• 5:02
  and Brenda. You're going to do some talking.
• 5:04
  OK, This lady right here, Brenda Hayes, she was our savior.
• 5:11
  As you know, to this day, we do get thousands.
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  And I'm not bragging on myself. I'm just saying the Queen's
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  right there. We get thousands of requests and
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  we get the cards sent in and my God, I signed them autographs.
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  And I just love you all so much and I appreciate you.
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  But besides Brenda, you know, being the secretary of the Kenny
• 5:34
  Walls Fan Club, Brenda, you did a wonderful.
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  Job. Preparing everything for me and
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  I would come down there two or three times a year and we would
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  just literally sign thousands and it would, I wouldn't take
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  any days. Talk about those days where you
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  would go through everything and how much work that is.
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  When I started at the fan club, it was still the old fan club.
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  It was still, it was an open like it was like you when you
• 6:01
  remodeled it and there was a cubby and it had boxes stacked
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  at least three boxes full stacked with fan club request
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  with autograph requests. Well, we worked on that and we
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  worked on that and we worked on that until we got it done and it
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  took a while and. Then there were three more
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  boxes. Some of the stamps had been
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  outdated. It were they were had been
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  there. To pay more, it's like to mail
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  us to send the stuff back, we had to put money in that was.
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  Before forever stamps. That was before forever stamps,
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  so we would have to add postage to get them back to the people.
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  And then when I got that all caught up, then we kept it up
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  and you would come down to the office and I, I'd have it all
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  laid out there on the island. And it might be all the way
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  around the island. That might be only half of the
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  island. But I had it all ready, ready
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  for you to come down and sign and you did.
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  And we kept up with it then. We.
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  Kept up. So now Kim's mom is doing it on
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  our kitchen table in in Imperial, MO, right outside of
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  Arnold. OK, Kim, Yes.
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  What made you start the Kenny Wallace family?
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  Why? Well, you know what, when you
• 7:12
  started racing in NASCAR, we didn't start it right away, but
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  you, I think you won your first most popular driver award and we
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  thought we need to do something for him.
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  So we did. We started.
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  It was small, but boy did it ever grow.
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  And that was we were just doing Charlotte.
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  Then you won a big race up in New Hampshire.
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  Yeah, the Bud 319. 91 and I got a phone call from Reed Wallace.
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  All of you will know who he is if you were fan club members.
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  Hey, respond right here, fan club members.
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  We want to hear from you. Yes, Kenny was going to make an
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  appearance at at least Speedway. Lee, NH.
• 8:00
  Oh yeah. Red and he said would you mind
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  if I did a fan club thing there? And we didn't know what to
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  think. So we agreed to that.
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  And of course I went to Lee Speedway with you.
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  So they set up and they signed up members and they signed up a
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  bunch. So our first little gathering up
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  there was under the grandstands with like maybe 50 people.
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  We were taking pictures from the little elevator shafts and all
• 8:31
  that stuff, but it grew and it grew to where we needed a tent
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  and we would work with the track.
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  The trek was excellent. We love the Northeast.
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  And the Bears, they, they were so good to us.
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  And they, they made a deal with DuPont because DuPont was the
• 8:56
  biggest tent out there and they used it for Sunday morning.
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  That meant we could use it Saturday night as long as we had
• 9:02
  everything cleaned up and everything.
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  It was, it was incredible the amount of people that came in
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  there. But it was so fun sitting out
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  under the grandstands meeting new people.
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  They'd sign up right away. We met a lot of people and a lot
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  of friends. OK, So what is the And I want
• 9:24
  both of you to converse amongst yourselves.
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  I don't want to ask you everything, but what what is the
• 9:31
  purpose of a fan club? And when you do join up for a
• 9:35
  fan club, what do you get? I know, I know The kits you guys
• 9:39
  just hacked. Our fan club was better than
• 9:41
  anybody's because you guys put so much stuff in it.
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  Brenda, why don't you start out? Whoa.
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  I, like Kim, say what the purpose was, but what would you
• 9:49
  put in those kits? Oh my gosh.
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  We would contact all the sponsors and we still have
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  things here that we put in, Oh my gosh, coolers and you name
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  it, we had it. And I can't thank sunglasses,
• 10:06
  decals, license plates, towels, you name it, and key chains,
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  pins, lanyards. I can't even begin to remember
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  all the things that we put in earplugs, Bank of America
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  earplugs, which I still wear today.
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  Just by the way, by the way, I was in their car yesterday and
• 10:30
  they still had some Toyota sunglass covers.
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  I'm like, you got to be kidding me.
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  Jeffrey loves it. OK, Kim, what?
• 10:39
  What, what was the purpose? What did the fans gain out of
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  being a fan club member? They became a part of our
• 10:48
  family. Literally.
• 10:50
  They it gave them a place to all gather together.
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  They all had the same likes. And you it it it was a family.
• 11:02
  I mean, they really. Yeah, we had great sponsors.
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  I mean, they had a really good time.
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  We made it fun for them. We really did.
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  I I specifically remember now I will brag on the ladies.
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  I I do remember that DuPont tent it, they told me it was seating
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  600 people and you guys would pack that and you would deal
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  with the Jeff Gordon people it. Started out with 1200 and then
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  when they took away the like, they didn't have as many people
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  for hospitality. They started down.
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  Then we set up church style so we could still get our people in
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  there. Yeah, I'd like to switch to my
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  hero, the great Dick Trickle. We lost Dick, but but his
• 11:44
  daughter Vicki, she ran a really good fan club.
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  So this is a celebration of not just the Kenny Walls fan club,
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  but but fan club. So you know, we heard from
• 11:56
  Petty, you know the chapters that are still out there.
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  I did a special on the RV lots that are still around.
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  Do we need the fan clubs back in any capacity?
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  Maybe you can't give them things, but is it a good way to
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  stay in touch with the fans and let them know what's up?
• 12:16
  It is I I agree with that because right now social media
• 12:22
  is taking over. They can get to you anytime they
• 12:24
  want to. Literally a lot of our I can
• 12:29
  speak for our fan club, it was very on the personal side.
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  They watched our kids grow up through a newsletter.
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  They knew everything that was happening and it gave them
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  something that other fans didn't get.
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  They they they got everything. First is ready.
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  Though they felt like part of the fan, yeah.
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  As NASCAR has fallen some 60%, a lot of us older people were sad
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  and, and I know that you're a little sad too.
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  You, you, you're like, man, I wish I was up there in Saint
• 13:01
  Louis and I would do your. In a heartbeat.
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  Yeah, tell me your feelings. Those were the the years that I
• 13:06
  worked the fan club were the best years of my life.
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  And from the time that I would leave Maryland and come down.
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  And at that time we only had open house a few days.
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  But it then when my father passed away and I was able to
• 13:21
  move to North Carolina, it was somebody said, well, how did you
• 13:25
  get there? I said it.
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  I never applied for that job, but and it was just like a given
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  you're, you know, you're going to go in when you move down
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  here, it's going to be your job. And it did.
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  And you became family and still are family.
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  And she loved it and I loved every minute of it.
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  There was never a time that I didn't the times that we've, Oh
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  my gosh, I could go on and on and on.
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  And the fans, thank God for Facebook is all I can say,
• 13:51
  right? Because we're able to still stay
• 13:53
  in touch with all the fans and to be able to meet with them
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  still like I do, I run out. I go to Charlotte for the race
• 14:00
  weeks just so I can be with the fans.
• 14:03
  I I, I want to say something. They both still look really
• 14:07
  good, don't they? Here we are, you know, up in
• 14:09
  age. Kim's so dark.
• 14:11
  I. Can't see her.
• 14:12
  And where's Kim at? Kim lays out that son.
• 14:15
  And Brenda, you look beautiful. I'm too old to land.
• 14:18
  Well, we're all getting older, but you know, everybody's like,
• 14:21
  oh, Oh my God, what happened to them?
• 14:23
  But we look good. Speak for yourself.
• 14:28
  All right, we're closing in on 14 minutes, 30 seconds, and this
• 14:32
  could be an an hour show. Yeah.
• 14:36
  Brenda, you go first. Can you close it out?
• 14:38
  Brenda, what do you want to say to all your your friends out
• 14:41
  there that you still want them to know about?
• 14:43
  All I want to say is thank you all.
• 14:45
  All the fans, Kenny, thank you, Kim, thank you.
• 14:49
  Just thank you for opening up your lives to the fans, to our
• 14:53
  family, to everyone. You never left a stone unturned.
• 14:57
  You were always gracious to everyone you met.
• 15:01
  That's why you were so popular. That's why you are still so
• 15:04
  popular, and that's why everybody loved being a member
• 15:06
  of your fan club. We had the best fan club in all
• 15:08
  the NASCAR. Still do.
• 15:10
  As Darryl Walter would say, aw shucks, but keep talking.
• 15:13
  That's right. He.
• 15:15
  Never believed us. He never believed us.
• 15:18
  We would tell him because we dealt with the fans, we knew
• 15:22
  where their popularity was. And he would never believe us
• 15:25
  because he stayed humble. He really did.
• 15:28
  Exactly. And this is.
• 15:29
  What you get? That one kept me humble.
• 15:31
  She would kick my ass. Well, what you see is what you
• 15:35
  get. I'm.
• 15:35
  Sorry, that's right. But it really is, and it's all
• 15:38
  in fun. Oh.
• 15:38
  My gosh, you know, and gratitude just.
• 15:41
  Yeah, you got, you got to have fun in life.
• 15:43
  You really do. It was, you know, and we do, we
• 15:47
  do. But anyhow, we do miss
• 15:49
  everybody. And I know a lot of you are
• 15:51
  maybe on Kenny's page and not on my page or whatever, but we
• 15:55
  would really like to touch base with some of you again if you
• 15:58
  ran the fan club. And we're pretty good at
• 16:00
  remembering, Yeah. Let's end like this.
• 16:02
  Brenda, where can we find you on on on Facebook?
• 16:06
  What do we punch in if we go to Facebook?
• 16:08
  What's your your call letters? Brenda Haynes Hey is my Facebook
• 16:12
  page. Hain.
• 16:14
  ES yes, hey. HAYHAY and Kim.
• 16:19
  I am under Kim Poole Wallace or under wreaths by Kim Wallace on
• 16:24
  there and my phone number's on there too.
• 16:26
  Just text me. Anytime.
• 16:28
  She crazy, man. I don't mind it.
• 16:30
  Everybody are fans. And they're all.
• 16:32
  Nice. Say goodbye everybody.
• 16:34
  Goodbye. Thank you all.