Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Michael Rigsby: The Most Influential Man in Dirt Racing
Transcript
- 0:00Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation brought to
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- 0:11they are telling me right now to tell you all they have Jeep
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- 0:21I'm really excited today more so than normal because you know my
- 0:24love for dirt racing. Dirt racing saved my life after
- 0:29NASCAR and you are looking at the most influential man in dirt
- 0:34racing in in history, the great Michael Rigsby.
- 0:38How you doing, Michael? That is a hell of an
- 0:40introduction. I I don't know how true or if
- 0:43it's true at all, but I appreciate it very much and I'm
- 0:47doing great. I, you and I texted back and
- 0:49forth a little bit. I do a lot of podcasts and I'm
- 0:51genuinely, truly honest when I say this.
- 0:55I am most excited about doing this one, just because you talk
- 0:58about real shit and I like that. So I'm ready.
- 1:01I'm ready to talk about real stuff today, so.
- 1:04Well, Michael, it does amaze me that people think that I'm
- 1:07bravado or I. And it's funny because I'm like,
- 1:10no, after the dirt races, when we drink beer, this is what we
- 1:14talk about. But you're saying it in real.
- 1:17Yeah, it's real. So let me start like this.
- 1:24You are the most influential person in dirt racing history,
- 1:29and here's why. Here's why You started dirt on
- 1:34dirt. Dirt on dirt was your baby.
- 1:37That's right. Nobody could watch dirt racing.
- 1:41If they did, it was some little camera here or there and it was
- 1:44like we we hear of Billy Moyer Junior, we we hear of Bloomer.
- 1:50But my friend it was you. That puts him on TV.
- 1:53My friend Kenny Schrader lives and did live on dirt, on dirt.
- 1:58So that is why you are the most influential person in dirt
- 2:04racing, because you put Billy Moyer and you put Bloomer.
- 2:07You put them on the map. So tell me your thoughts on on
- 2:13my opinion why I say you're the most influential person in Dirt?
- 2:17I well, I appreciate that very much.
- 2:19That means a lot and and Schrader has been you know, I'm
- 2:23not going to pretend that Kenny and I are best friends but we've
- 2:25we've developed a pretty good friendship over the years and he
- 2:28is been one of the most supportive human beings since I
- 2:31started Dirt on Dirt back in 2007.
- 2:33To your point I I do think you're right about one thing.
- 2:36I think so. My background is is broadcast
- 2:39journalism. I was a sports anchor up in
- 2:40Wisconsin interviewing Matt Kenseth and covering the
- 2:43Wisconsin Badgers and the Green Bay Packers before I started
- 2:46Dirt on Dirt. And I would have been a dirt
- 2:48racing guy my entire life. Grew up 10 miles from Fairbury
- 2:51Speedway in Fairbury, IL, right? Every Saturday night of my life
- 2:53was spent at Fairbury. So I'm getting into journalism.
- 2:56I'm going through the process of becoming a journalist, and I'm a
- 2:58sports acre, but I'm going to dirt races still, you know,
- 3:0250-60 times a year, going to El Dora, going to Fairbury, going
- 3:04to Florence. And I just, I spent so much time
- 3:07in the pits. And I'm like, these guys are,
- 3:10these are the best personalities in the world, not these pro
- 3:14athletes that I'm covering on Sundays in the NFL.
- 3:17They're these college athletes that I'm covering on Saturdays.
- 3:19They're great and there's amazing stories there.
- 3:23But I spent my entire life around dirt track racing while
- 3:26simultaneously elevating my career in broadcast journalism.
- 3:30And I'm kind of looking back at dirt track racing going, wait a
- 3:32minute, there's something here. There's something to this, and
- 3:36particularly if you know a guy like Scott Bloomquist, right,
- 3:38who is the most dynamic personality I've ever met in my
- 3:42life? Pro athlete, Formula One?
- 3:44Dirt track racing, NFL. It doesn't matter.
- 3:47So around 2006 is the, it sounds funny to say now, Kenny, the
- 3:51Internet was really coming on in two 1006.
- 3:57So around 2006 I thought, is there a way for me to marry my
- 4:01journalism skills with my love of dirt track racing because of
- 4:05the personalities and and human interest stories that exist in
- 4:08this? My wife, who is my girlfriend at
- 4:10the time, said, yeah, I'll follow you down this crazy Rd.
- 4:13Our first employee was Todd Turner who is the greatest dirt
- 4:16dirt track journalist of all time.
- 4:17He's still with us to this day and it in the rest is kind of
- 4:21history. From there we we thought there's
- 4:23something to this. There's something magical that
- 4:26people will fall in love with if we can show them these
- 4:29personalities and race tracks from all over the country every
- 4:32day and it and it quickly took off and 17 years later, here we
- 4:35are. That's an incredible story.
- 4:39Let's talk about you for a little bit.
- 4:41Now, you you've talked about the sport, So you're from
- 4:44Bloomington, IL, or as they say, Central Illinois.
- 4:47That's right. I think that's funny because in
- 4:49Nashville they call it God's Country.
- 4:52In Illinois, it's Central Illinois.
- 4:54You're from Bloomington, but you went to work in Madison, WI for
- 4:59TD 10. I have always thought when I
- 5:03listen to your voice, you know I could be working in the shop and
- 5:07when I hear your voice, I turn my head.
- 5:09You you have some good bass, your your you have an
- 5:13announcer's voice. Whether now, is that your real
- 5:17voice? My wife's my wife says that I
- 5:20turn it up a notch and I'm just being honest just like I'm on
- 5:23your. I'm on your show so I have to be
- 5:25honest my yeah, yeah. My wife says it comes and goes,
- 5:28right. She goes, you'll be talking to a
- 5:30barista at Starbucks and for whatever reason your voice that
- 5:33that you know turn it up voice will come out but, but, but, but
- 5:37by and I I think it's my real voice but I'm not going to
- 5:40pretend like when I get when I sit down in the seat to host Flo
- 5:43racing night in America. I always use the term I clean my
- 5:45language up a little bit. Right.
- 5:47I clean it up a little bit, so I think it's my real voice.
- 5:50But there's a there's a twin. You're turning it on a little
- 5:53bit. I think so. 100% So you're You
- 5:57go to Madison, WI now. I was the keynote speaker for
- 6:01the Illinois Stock Car Hall of Fame, and I caught myself in the
- 6:05strangest dynamic. For the moment, I I just could
- 6:10not make the difference between Illinois and Wisconsin.
- 6:15It's like at that state line, they just marry themselves.
- 6:18Do do you find it that way? It is that part of Northern
- 6:22Illinois and into Wisconsin is really unique and you don't
- 6:25really feel like you're getting into Wisconsin until you get to
- 6:28The Dells, right? It kind of southern Wisconsin
- 6:31kind of feels like Northern Illinois.
- 6:32I will tell you this. Wisconsin people, they sort of
- 6:35have like and I love Wisconsin. My mom has lived in Wisconsin
- 6:38for 20 years, so I have many Wisconsin friends and family.
- 6:41They'll draw the distinction for you Illinois people, the people
- 6:45from Illinois, they will let you know that you are not a
- 6:49Wisconsinite when you are up there.
- 6:51They feel very strongly about that and I kind of appreciate
- 6:54it, honestly. Yeah, my my wife's family, my
- 6:57wife Kim. The complete family, the
- 7:00Sunshine family. We have a nun, Sister Sorella,
- 7:04in a convent convent in Minnesota, but they're all up in
- 7:08Milwaukee. I love Wisconsin the same as
- 7:11you. There's, you know, there's
- 7:13there's a church and a bar on every corner.
- 7:15We go to church and boy, do we drink beer in Wisconsin.
- 7:19You know, I want to go to your father.
- 7:24You know, your dad raced at Fairbury.
- 7:26That's my grandfather. Actually, it's my grandfather.
- 7:29Yeah, my grandfather. Yeah.
- 7:30Thank you. So your grandfather raced at
- 7:33Fairbury. So now I'm, you know, I when I
- 7:36did my studying on you, I started connecting all these
- 7:38dots. I started going, oh, now I get
- 7:41it. This Fairbury phenomenon,
- 7:45Fairbury Speedway. Is it because they get free
- 7:50help? Is it because everybody works
- 7:52for nothing? What is the phenomenon beside
- 7:55your grandfather racing there? What is the deal with?
- 7:58And I mean it's nice now I don't.
- 8:00I don't. My face goes like this.
- 8:02It is like no other racetrack I've ever seen.
- 8:05I think Vermont Thunder Rd. maybe is like that, or it's a
- 8:08religion. What is the deal with Fairbury?
- 8:10It is so my my I live in Bloomington now.
- 8:13My original hometown is Colfax, IL.
- 8:15It's a tiny little town, about 9:00, but as the crow flies, 12
- 8:19miles from Fairbury, Fairbury is.
- 8:23It's been this way since it's opened in the 1940s, right?
- 8:261930s, nineteen 40s. There is that town, and it's
- 8:32not. Well, the town obsesses over the
- 8:33racetrack. Absolutely, The town obsesses.
- 8:35Over the It's a religion. It is an absolute religion in
- 8:39the town of Fairbury, IL and it's, I think there's there's a
- 8:42magic in the size of Fairbury Kenny, in the the the size of
- 8:47the racetrack. And what I mean by that is
- 8:49Fairbury's not Bloomington, where it's 160,000 people and
- 8:52there's a lot to do. Fairbury's 3000 people, and it
- 8:54just so happens to have one of the most, one of the best race
- 8:57tracks in the country. And there's not a lot to do in
- 9:00Fairbury. So you marry those two things
- 9:02together of the town that's not big, with a racetrack that's
- 9:05phenomenal with generations of people.
- 9:08And it was the the townspeople built the racetrack, right?
- 9:11And it meant something to them from the moment that racetrack
- 9:16was built all those years ago. And this doesn't happen
- 9:19everywhere. But that was passed down from
- 9:22generation to generation. Like my grandfather told my
- 9:25father, you will care about this, right?
- 9:28This is something that that means a lot to and I get I
- 9:31seriously have chills talking. About it right now.
- 9:33And I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you.
- 9:35I get it. You will.
- 9:36This is something that you will care about.
- 9:38This is something that our community has rallied around for
- 9:41fifty, 60-70 years. Because I cared about it.
- 9:45You will care about it. And that is something like when
- 9:47your father's and your grandfather's tell you that you
- 9:49know that look from your family. When they tell you something
- 9:52like that, you know that it means something.
- 9:54And that has now been passed down for nearly 100 years.
- 9:57Generation after generation after generation cares about how
- 10:01the racing is at the track, what the racetrack look like is or is
- 10:05the painting done, is the mowing done?
- 10:07That is instilled DNA that you cannot recreate.
- 10:11You can't just open a track somewhere in Georgia or
- 10:13Tennessee and hope to create the DNA of 100 years.
- 10:17My my uncle always used to say this.
- 10:19This is 100 years of giving a shit.
- 10:21That's what my uncle would say. It's 100 years of obsessing over
- 10:25this thing, caring about this thing, and above all else,
- 10:29wanting other people. This is the secret sauce when
- 10:33people come from out of town wanting those people to love it
- 10:37as much as you love it. That is the secret sauce of
- 10:39Fairbury you're from. You're from Norfolk, VA.
- 10:42I want you to love this like I love it.
- 10:46And that matters more than anything to me.
- 10:49I I love that explanation. I'm I'm thinking to myself, I
- 10:54have Trent Francis, who's the owner of Crowley's Ridge in
- 10:58Paragould, AR. Cool track.
- 11:00Yeah, I love. It it's fun.
- 11:02It's a throwback, though, but, but, Trent says when high school
- 11:06football starts, we shut down and they give away.
- 11:10It seems to me like it's the opposite at Fairbury.
- 11:13Now there might be high school football, but you get stronger.
- 11:16At Fairbury, it's like all the way through the winter.
- 11:19So I go, it's getting ready to snow.
- 11:20We need to stop. Am I right or am I wrong?
- 11:23I mean high school football at Prairie Central High School, I
- 11:25mean, it is a big deal. It's a big deal everywhere.
- 11:28But where we where when the fall hits other places and racetrack
- 11:32people dissociate themselves with the racetrack We have, like
- 11:35you mentioned, right? We have a great group of
- 11:37volunteers. Our volunteers come out and go.
- 11:39What can we do? How can I love that?
- 11:41How do we winterize? What it what needs painted.
- 11:43What needs mode. What needs fixed.
- 11:45What needs you know on any given week and and Matt Curl and I are
- 11:48part of the ownership group there on any given weekend.
- 11:52You know there's week. If we said hey we need 200
- 11:54volunteers we'd have 200 volunteers probably have 300
- 11:56volunteers if we needed them right.
- 11:58And there's such a magic to that and then the the people just
- 12:01obsessed. Here's love here's obsessed.
- 12:04Our people are obsessed over over the racetrack.
- 12:07Yeah. Let let me know now.
- 12:09This is a joke. I need to know your business.
- 12:12So Matt Curl and then all of a sudden here you came.
- 12:16What is your relationship now at Fairbury?
- 12:20I think two years ago? I.
- 12:21You're part of it. Yeah, it was 20.
- 12:23Geez. COVID kind of made everybody
- 12:25lose track of time. It's called code fog that.
- 12:29Was two years ago and they're go originally that was five year,
- 12:31five years. Ago already.
- 12:32I can't believe it. I want to geez, I think it was
- 12:342019. There was Matt and I acquired
- 12:38the racetrack from the American Legion.
- 12:40So Matt and I. You do own it now.
- 12:43Yes, correct. Matt.
- 12:43Curl, wow. Yes, yes.
- 12:45That's big. Yeah, that's a big deal.
- 12:47And let me be very clear, it is Matt Curl's show.
- 12:52I am there for sage advice when Matt needs it or streaming help
- 12:56or I kind of a a bigger idea guy.
- 12:58But Matt what if we tried XYZ? But I believe this.
- 13:01I'm a little biased. Matt Curl is the best promoter
- 13:03in the country. Matt runs Fairberry.
- 13:05Everything Matt does is incredible.
- 13:07At that racetrack. I'm part of the ownership group,
- 13:10but Matt is Matt is the Matt grew up two blocks from the
- 13:13racetrack. Matt is the magic of Fairberry.
- 13:16My my opinion on promoters is very strong.
- 13:19Bob Sargent is a dear friend of mine.
- 13:21Bob is tall. Matt's got he's tall and got a
- 13:25little. I call it girth dirt.
- 13:28Racers are are God awful. They it's in in dirt, especially
- 13:33my division, the modifieds, they're God awful.
- 13:35I call them out all the time. Modified racers, they're mad all
- 13:39the time because they want to be super late model and everything
- 13:42is about them and they just complain 24/7.
- 13:46But I love, but I love the division.
- 13:48I love it. It seems like Matt and Bob
- 13:51Sergeant, they stand above these these mod guys and they're like
- 13:57don't and they don't. I'm telling you, I'm telling
- 14:01you, I'm the king dirt racer. I run 80 dirt races year and I
- 14:04just brought it back to 40. But when I go to Matt Curls
- 14:08drivers meeting, everybody shuts their mouth.
- 14:11And Matt's got a little bit of young Earl Baltus to him, and
- 14:14the fact that he's at a young age commands an immense amount
- 14:18of respect. And and part of that is just
- 14:22doing stuff the right way. He always treats everyone
- 14:24fairly, always tries to do things the right way.
- 14:26And if he screws something up, he will come right to your pit
- 14:29area and say canning, I screwed up.
- 14:30And he will do that. And I think you guys respect
- 14:33that, which is why he's become so good.
- 14:35Yeah, there. When there's a Mod drivers
- 14:37meeting at Fairbury, they talk and we leave.
- 14:40All the other ones like, well, my hauler or my car or when I
- 14:43spun out, you, jeez, calm down. OK, So Speaking of Fairbury,
- 14:51Flow Night in America was your your baby.
- 14:55Tell me about Flow Night. First of all, I like it.
- 14:58I think it's awesome. I like what you're doing with
- 15:01it. I do understand it.
- 15:03Is it coming back? I haven't seen anything on Tell
- 15:06Me About 2024 and Flow Night in America.
- 15:09Yeah, so I've always had the idea, even like early dirt on
- 15:12dirt days, to have a midweek racing series.
- 15:14And I'm not the first person to think of this.
- 15:16Right. Thursday night Thunder on ESPN
- 15:18with UC, you have TV. Yeah, right, right.
- 15:20I'm not the first. If people go, hey man, that was
- 15:22a great concept. I'm like, well, thanks.
- 15:24I'm not the first person to do this, but no one ever had really
- 15:26done it at the dirt really the grassroots level.
- 15:29So when COVID hit we were the first ones to bring brat bring
- 15:33back dirt Late model racing It. Ray Cook's track and I will
- 15:36always be indebted to Ray Cook. We were the first Dirt Late
- 15:38Model race back in America after COVID and we did a studio show
- 15:42that night because we have my studio here.
- 15:43Me and D Suave Derek Kessinger. We hosted Flo Racing Night
- 15:46America. Yeah, I'm a Bloomington.
- 15:49Yes, Sir. Got.
- 15:50It so. It was.
- 15:51And we did it that night to massive viewership and it was
- 15:55like, whoa, my idea is right here, a midweek racing series
- 15:57could work. So we, with the help of the
- 16:00amazing Ben Shelton who is the general manager of our series
- 16:02and Ben's one of my best friends, put together a 10 to 12
- 16:05race schedule which will return this year.
- 16:07Our first race is at Spoon River coming up on May 8th, Wednesday,
- 16:10May 8th, 11:50. Race schedule, $75,000 to win
- 16:15the championship foul of. I think it's 12 or $1500 to
- 16:18start these events this year. It's just a cool series that's
- 16:23separate of the other series, right?
- 16:24You can run Lucas or you can run the Outlaws, but you can also
- 16:27run this and run both those a chance to make more midweek
- 16:31money and we have fun with it right?
- 16:32We have a an hour long pre race show in the studio.
- 16:35We've got gambling segments we do.
- 16:37Derek's giving me shit about everything.
- 16:39I'm teasing him about loving Kevin Weaver right We're we're
- 16:42constantly it's it's a it's a studio presence that does not
- 16:46exist anywhere else in dirt track racing.
- 16:48It really feels unique in the space and that's what I love
- 16:52about it. It's different than any other
- 16:53programming in dirt track racing.
- 16:55It feels, I hate to say it this way, but it feels bigger than
- 16:58dirt track racing. This is stuff you'd see in Major
- 17:00League Baseball or the NFL or places like that.
- 17:03Speaking of Kevin Weaver, So when Major League Baseball had
- 17:08COVID, they made these and they put me in a seat at Busch
- 17:13Stadium. It, you know, it's authenticized
- 17:16back to Fairbury for a minute. This is just a coincidence.
- 17:20Everybody, please forgive me. So these are big at Fairbury.
- 17:24Yeah, the fatheads, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think that's the
- 17:27other legend that, you know, kind of adds to Fairbury, right.
- 17:30It did it start there at Fairbury.
- 17:32Yeah, it did. It's a Fairbury is the 1st place
- 17:34to do it. We love all of us.
- 17:35I think one cool thing about Fairbury, a lot of sports fans,
- 17:38racing and sports marries each other, right?
- 17:40Tons of college sports fans in Fairbury.
- 17:42We love college game day. You see those at college game
- 17:45day, people holding them up on Saturday mornings for college
- 17:47football and we're like, wouldn't it be kind of cool to
- 17:49marry that and bring it to Fairbury?
- 17:52So you I've been on the bus before doing the pre ratio on
- 17:54the bus. It's rowdy.
- 17:55People are holding up giant fatheads of people.
- 17:58It's. It's just unlike any other place
- 18:00in that way. It really is OK, So you are in a
- 18:05vulnerable spot, so I'm going to throw one dart at you.
- 18:08Hit me. Like I did with Brian Carter in
- 18:11the tower drama. We're not going to talk about
- 18:14tower drama right now. I do want your opinion on it.
- 18:16Sure. So I'm going to say what all the
- 18:19racers say I'm I'm going to imitate right now instead of
- 18:23asking the question. OK.
- 18:25Well that flow night in the middle of of the season, in the
- 18:31middle of the week, it don't even need people in the
- 18:33grandstands cause Flo's got so much money we don't need people
- 18:37in the grandstands. That is the biggest phenomenon
- 18:41thought that needs to be de bullshitted.
- 18:44So flow racing, No, I'm still acting.
- 18:48OK, Low racing has billions and trillions of dollars and and
- 18:55they don't need people in the grandstands because it's made
- 18:58for TV. Now you can go on percentages
- 19:00here. It does not need to be one or
- 19:02the other. How true is that?
- 19:05Very not true. And especially as someone who is
- 19:08an owner of Fairbury and hosts an event, we very much like
- 19:11people in the stands if floor racing night in America.
- 19:14I think that's why I've got, I'm a unique perspective because I'm
- 19:17a track owner and I'm a I'm in the streaming business, right.
- 19:20So without question, when we conceptualize floor racing night
- 19:23in America, and obviously we don't, we don't just do midweek
- 19:26shows, right? We have Lucas Oils on our
- 19:27platform. We have a lot of promoters and
- 19:29stuff we work with, but when we conceptualize Flo Racing night
- 19:32in America, we knew on a Tuesday or Wednesday, Bob Sergeant or
- 19:36Ray Cook or Lernerville Speedway, you're not going to
- 19:39get as big a crowd on Tuesday as you are a Saturday.
- 19:42We know that. So we compensated them what we
- 19:45think is very fairly on what we would call a rights fee.
- 19:48So in order in our rights contracts all work a little bit
- 19:51differently whether it's with the series or with the
- 19:53racetrack. But we said hey, we know Tuesday
- 19:55night you hope to have 12/13/14 hundred people in the stands.
- 19:59Because of that we will pay you a little higher rights fee in
- 20:02order to have the event right. And to to date virtually every
- 20:06race on our calendar wants to come back every year, right?
- 20:09Every promoter goes, hey we had a good event, we had enough
- 20:12people in the stands that we had a good event.
- 20:13We'd like to do it again next year.
- 20:15So the the fallacy that we don't want people, I never want to do
- 20:19this without people. Dirt track racing is fans in the
- 20:22stands. I don't ever want to do that
- 20:24without. About people, Covad sucked when
- 20:25we had to do that. I don't want to do that again.
- 20:27So the idea that we don't want to do it without people is just
- 20:30lunacy. And it's also not true.
- 20:32I I probably have this a little wrong.
- 20:34On average, I'd say attendance at a flow racing night in
- 20:37America of event with Pitts and and Grandstand both 1800 to 2017
- 20:42hundred to 2000 people. So on a Tuesday night with the
- 20:45rights fee we're paying these folks, they can really have a
- 20:47nice night. So I feel like I debunked that
- 20:50piece at least. Yeah, and I appreciate you doing
- 20:54that. I think part of Kenny
- 20:56conversation is what you said at the start.
- 20:58We we de bullshit some things. You're nice, you say?
- 21:00Debunk. So dirt racing today.
- 21:06OK. We still have a little bit more
- 21:08to talk about. Tons.
- 21:10Yeah, dirt racing today with the I'm hearing these things like
- 21:16that. I don't like I'm hearing these
- 21:18things you know arrow push it's hard to pass and heat races
- 21:24droop rule. Shocks are $20,000.
- 21:28Cars are one. Let's go to let's go to Mark
- 21:31Richards. Let's buy a turnkey rocket car
- 21:34which you can now $130,000 with everything I just said what are
- 21:40what are your. Thoughts.
- 21:42That's open-ended, but I like it being open-ended.
- 21:45I I say this about dirt racing right now.
- 21:47What an interesting time and the fact that I believe it is more
- 21:51popular than ever and I believe it's maybe it it's one or one of
- 21:57its more dangerous points cost wise than ever.
- 22:00So that's kind of a dangerous position right in there.
- 22:03One hand and I think the Kyle Larson effect in 2020 had a lot
- 22:06to do with this, right? He comes back and barnstorms the
- 22:09country and sort of unites NASCAR and dirt track fans and
- 22:11that was big. Streaming platforms make dirt
- 22:14track racing more accessible than ever.
- 22:16The audiences are great, but at the same time the cost of doing
- 22:19this is disproportionate. Right now I will say purses are
- 22:23getting better without question. There's more money for these
- 22:26guys to make than they've ever made before.
- 22:29That's good. I don't pretend you.
- 22:31You know far more about. I know enough about the
- 22:33mechanics of a race car to be just dangerous enough.
- 22:36Jason Fager always tells me you're just dumb enough to be
- 22:38dumb enough. It's good, though.
- 22:41Yeah, right. It's good.
- 22:42And I don't pretend to know everything about the mechanics
- 22:45of a race car, and I don't want to say that, but it's clear what
- 22:48worries me the most. Kenny is car owners right now
- 22:50because racers who race on percentage are doing pretty good
- 22:54because of the more money and and but don't.
- 22:56I'm not trying to pretend that racers are getting rich, but
- 22:59T-shirt sales are better than ever, right?
- 23:00Purses are better than ever. So the racers are kind of coming
- 23:03up a little bit. I worry about the car owners
- 23:05right now. Car owners who, let's face it,
- 23:07millionaire hobbyists, A lot of them.
- 23:09Right. And I say that as a compliment.
- 23:11Yeah, guys who have built incredibly successful businesses
- 23:14away from this, who don't mind losing a couple 100 grand at the
- 23:17racetrack. But when they start getting into
- 23:19losing 500, six, $100,000 at the racetrack, which some of our
- 23:23dirt late Model team owners are now and Sprint Car team owners
- 23:26are now and asphalt team owners are now, that's when you cross
- 23:29the Rubicon and go into how much longer can.
- 23:33I'm just using him as an example.
- 23:34He's not a guy. I know his money.
- 23:35But David Wells, who owns Brandon Overton's car, David's
- 23:38one of the best humans on the planet.
- 23:41How long is David going to be willing to do that?
- 23:43That's what we've got to figure out.
- 23:45But don't you feel like that conversation has been being had
- 23:48For how long have you been in racing now?
- 23:50It cost too much it, but it do you, in your opinion, is it
- 23:53truly now cost too much? It isn't there.
- 23:56And I I do want to talk with you about this just a little bit
- 24:00back and forth. So I've always told people, you
- 24:04know, and I created controversy last year by saying you can't
- 24:07make money running dirt cars and they're like, yeah, I can't.
- 24:10So had a conversation with Brad Sweet and he said, no, Kenny,
- 24:14you're right. It was just hard for us to hear.
- 24:17Maybe the top three in the world of outlaw Sprint cars can make a
- 24:20little money. They got big sponsors like Napa.
- 24:24The only way you make money in dirt racing is you have a sugar
- 24:27daddy. OK.
- 24:29And and and like you just said OK.
- 24:32You know my dear friend Nick Kaufman, he don't know none of
- 24:34that. He don't know none of it.
- 24:37But he is the greatest for his owner because Nick saves his
- 24:42owner so much money because Nick can do everything Nick can do
- 24:47five man's work. So everybody that races in dirt,
- 24:54super late model racing, the only way they make money is they
- 24:58have a car owner that will do like you just said.
- 25:02Good point wasn't even a subject really of mine.
- 25:04I just wanted to know your opinion.
- 25:07Yeah, and it's it's what's what's It's kind of makes me sad
- 25:10because we are absolutely more popular than ever, right?
- 25:12Like when the Jeff Glucks and those guys of the world are
- 25:15tweeting about dirt track racing every Saturday night.
- 25:18Right. And and Kenny Wallace.
- 25:19When Kenny. And not that you don't love dirt
- 25:20racing, but you're so invested in it.
- 25:22Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet have their own new series which is on
- 25:25flow with high limit. There's this tornado of
- 25:28popularity about dirt track racing, but over here in the
- 25:31corner, it's like, holy shit, this cost too much.
- 25:34This is a problem and and I don't have the fix for that I'm
- 25:38but I know, I know that I'm hearing it more and more every
- 25:42week cost too much and that's that's that's on my brain that
- 25:48we need to fix in the next 18 months.
- 25:50It really is. What?
- 25:51What series will it be, Michael, that finally has the balls big
- 25:56enough to put them off the dashboard?
- 25:57Whether it's Lucas Oil, whether it's World of Outlaw.
- 26:01Now, listen, I'm not an idiot, OK?
- 26:03I know, Lucas Oil is on flow, and I know World of Outlaws is
- 26:06over on Dirt Vision. Yeah, but you and I love it all
- 26:09I do. What series is going to have
- 26:11enough balls to go, guys? You know, call up Penske, Call
- 26:15up Bilstein. Look, you got to get your shocks
- 26:17at this. This is so.
- 26:21Listen, I love everything, but my checkbooks are right next to
- 26:25me right now. Here it is.
- 26:29That's the one. OK, that's Kenny Wallace Racing
- 26:33Incorporated. Have two checkbooks and that's
- 26:37Kenny and Kim. That's me and my.
- 26:39Wife that No. That that one's Kim Incorporated
- 26:41is. That one is.
- 26:43Kim gets whatever she wants. That's right.
- 26:45I I pay all my own bills. I know everything.
- 26:48So I don't even need anybody to tell me anything, 'cause I I do.
- 26:52I know it all myself, 'cause I own my own deal.
- 26:55And I ran a super late model right there.
- 26:59I know, I know. So who's Who's going to do it?
- 27:04Who's going to be the ones that go?
- 27:05OK, Hoosier, here's the deal, OK, shocked.
- 27:08Here's the deal. OK, why are our noses 10 feet
- 27:12wide arrow push? I thought you guys made fun of
- 27:15NASCAR for that. Now you got a narrow push. 10
- 27:19second aside on that, I'm with you.
- 27:21I get along with everybody like Brian Carter's pretty good
- 27:23friend of mine, Brian Dunlap at World Racing Group.
- 27:25I I've worked with Dirt Vision, I get along great with them.
- 27:27I watch Dirt Vision all the time, right?
- 27:29And I'm a slow general manager and I love them.
- 27:31So I think there's only one answer to that and it's got to
- 27:35be both. It's got to be everybody.
- 27:37It doesn't matter in our sport, late model racing particularly,
- 27:41and Sprint car racing, I think the way Sprint car bodies and
- 27:44everything works a little bit different, right?
- 27:45There's not as much engineering to a Sprint car as there is a
- 27:48dirt late model. It has to be both.
- 27:51And I know Rick Schwali and Steve Francis continue to work
- 27:53together. The two series directors, if
- 27:55they both don't do it and we'd fall right in line with flow
- 27:58racing night in America, whatever those two told us we do
- 28:01has to be both. If it's not both and they both
- 28:04can't do it, it doesn't really matter.
- 28:07They both have to do it together.
- 28:09Candidly, they have to. Yeah, Kenny Schrader, Some
- 28:13strange man walked up to Schrader, I think maybe
- 28:16Springfield, MO. Jerry Hoffman's track and did a
- 28:20little minute 32nd video that was so profound.
- 28:24The man asked Schrader tell me about dirt racing today and he
- 28:28says, you know basically we keep we spit a series out like you
- 28:33know like the B mods or what the A mods used to be and now we
- 28:37keep we keep adding more parts onto these cars you know?
- 28:40And Nick Hoffman tells me, he says I make more money when I
- 28:44can keep selling more parts to put on the car because welding
- 28:48is gone nowadays. Nope, nobody even know knows how
- 28:51to Weld. They just bolt the clamp on the
- 28:53car, which is fine, but but Schrader, I would say to him,
- 28:58oh, the sport costs a lot of money and and here's what I'll
- 29:01here's the point I'm getting to, he says.
- 29:04Same story, different year, but but it seems like it's way, way
- 29:11out of more proportion than it's ever been.
- 29:14I think we've tipped the scale on professionalism in the sport
- 29:17is why. And what I mean by that is there
- 29:20are, you know, you say you can't make any money.
- 29:22I think team owners definitely can't make any money.
- 29:24But you know, they're drivers now and God bless them because
- 29:28they're talented guys. These are the athletes.
- 29:30These are the show. I'm glad they're making money.
- 29:33They can. Drivers are doing pretty well
- 29:35now through merchant merchandise.
- 29:37Sales is bigger than ever. Purses are bigger than ever.
- 29:40So once, once to me, you tip that scale and these guys really
- 29:43become dyed in the wool professional athlete because you
- 29:47know, back in the day, like Billy Moyer raced for a living.
- 29:49But Billy Moyer was doing other things also, right?
- 29:51And him and Scott were kind of the first two professional Dirt
- 29:54Late Model drivers. These guys are professional
- 29:57drivers now. And once you do something for a
- 29:59profession, all the things you just talked about with Nick
- 30:01Hoffman and Schrader, that becomes part of it.
- 30:04And I'm not saying that's a bad thing at all.
- 30:06I'm just saying, OK, you want that part now you're going to
- 30:09have this part, every nuance, an inch and quarter, inch and
- 30:12square inch that these guys can get to get an advantage.
- 30:14Why? Because they're professionals.
- 30:16They're just like athletes who train and train and train.
- 30:19It's the same thing. And.
- 30:20And I think we've become so professionalized now, sort of
- 30:24under our noses without even noticing it.
- 30:26Oh yeah, this is a professional sport.
- 30:28All that stuff you talked about comes along with it.
- 30:31One more dart. I wasn't going to throw another.
- 30:33One to hit me with it. OK, local racing is dead.
- 30:37Shouldn't even have it anymore. But by God, El Dora, the World
- 30:41Finals at Charlotte Knoxville Nationals.
- 30:47So dirt local dirt racing is gone. 600 people in the
- 30:51grandstands. Why are people doing it?
- 30:53And Lincoln, IL. Bob, Sergeant every other week
- 30:57now. Jacksonville, IL, every other
- 30:59week now. Kevin and Tammy, they're getting
- 31:03tired. You know, whenever they want to
- 31:05race and and listen, they're my family.
- 31:08We just race whenever Kevin and Tammy want to.
- 31:11They mean well, you know, thank God that Josh Carroll has
- 31:16brought back, you know, Brownstown, IL, the Bull Ring
- 31:20whenever. I mean, great schedule.
- 31:23So we're seeing this new phenomenon where local racing is
- 31:26racing and then we see this track down here down South that,
- 31:28oh, we're packed every week. But for the most part, that's
- 31:32the subject. What do you say about local
- 31:34racing's dead? Big shows are bigger than ever?
- 31:37Yeah. And I've got interesting
- 31:38perspective on that. That Fairbury store races 22
- 31:41Saturday nights a year, right? We start and we don't stop.
- 31:43And I'm not going to pretend it's not tougher than it was
- 31:46five or six years ago. I think that's more of I think
- 31:50it's it's twofold I think 1. I I feel like I'm such a cliche
- 31:55when I say this but the amount of stuff people have to do now
- 32:00is insane. If I and I'm I'm joking says so
- 32:03I get my phone out right here my my gorgeous my gorgeous my
- 32:06gorgeous wife. Right if I we were talking about
- 32:09this this morning. She told me to say oh tell she
- 32:11goes. I like that Kenny Wallace.
- 32:12Tell him I said hello. Amber, tell her I love her.
- 32:14And our calendar now through November booked.
- 32:18I bet you're the same way, right?
- 32:20Not just racing stuff. Weddings, birthday parties, baby
- 32:22showers, da da, da. I feel like when I was a kid,
- 32:25I'm 42 years old, We have my dad said once every six weeks.
- 32:29We got something on a weekend, right?
- 32:31The amount of stuff human beings are doing now, mainly because of
- 32:34this, because you can stay connected with this and
- 32:36constantly do things with this. There's a just a ton of things
- 32:41to do and that people are doing. So when you have that dichotomy
- 32:46you're only going to achieve, you're going to cut off the
- 32:48bottom stuff, right? And in this case, the bottom
- 32:51stuff is local and weekly racing.
- 32:53It is. You marry that with the cost of
- 32:57local and weekly racing is high. So less local and weekly racers,
- 33:02less people who want to attend local and weekly racing fans.
- 33:05Now go, we're going to level up one level and we're not going to
- 33:08go to this. Less guys to see, less time to
- 33:11go do it. Or just going to level up.
- 33:13We're just going to level up. So now the big shows become
- 33:16gigantic. Prater Classic World 100 World
- 33:18Finals, Kings, Royal Knoxville Nationals.
- 33:21They are huge. Bigger than they've ever been.
- 33:24Bigger than they've ever been. And I just want to comment on
- 33:26this a little bit. My dream in life because I went
- 33:30to ASA right away, 1986, you know, I went, I'm almost
- 33:34embarrassed to say this, but I, my brother Rusty helped me with
- 33:37a shortcut. Not financially whatsoever.
- 33:39That was all me. Well, my old eyebrows got real
- 33:42protective right there, but it's just true.
- 33:45I went to the big time right away.
- 33:47I went ASA and I went to the Busch series, NASCAR and I never
- 33:52did any local racing. So myself and Dale Junior, he
- 33:56said, man, when I'm done, I'm going to go late model stock
- 33:59racing. And he is.
- 34:00And I said, I said I'm going to go run every week at Pevely.
- 34:06And I did, and I won the championship and I ran really
- 34:09good. But what was shocked to me was
- 34:13that locals really don't run for championships anymore.
- 34:16They'll they'll say silly things like me and my family are going
- 34:20to Six Flags this weekend, and I'm like, what in the world?
- 34:24My family win points, right? My family.
- 34:28My dad, Russ Wallace and my mom, Judy, she won powder puff races.
- 34:33We never took a weekend off. The winters were too long.
- 34:36What is your thoughts on what you just said?
- 34:39I mean, people, people, they're gonna be leading the points,
- 34:42right? Yeah, we're going to the lake
- 34:44this week and I'm like, no, you you race this week, you're that
- 34:48dynamic has changed. I think there's there's I love
- 34:51people who obsess over things. I love it.
- 34:53It's like one of my favorite. It's like one of my favorite
- 34:55things is people who like pick something out.
- 34:58You and I don't really have. Like we we were just born into
- 35:01obsessing over this, right. So the idea that someone and so
- 35:06like, let's take a step back, it take a step back.
- 35:09And if you view that person who's going to Six Flags, Six
- 35:12Flags might not be be my choice. But hey, they're going to Six
- 35:14Flags. They're going There is something
- 35:16like there's something beautiful about them having the ability.
- 35:20I can never do it, but there's something beautiful about them
- 35:23having the ability to like prioritize life over Motorsports
- 35:28a little bit. And I'm.
- 35:29I'm self aware, I know, seems nuts, right?
- 35:32But I'm self aware enough to go like that's.
- 35:35I actually kind of appreciate that it's not a life I would
- 35:38choose to live. But this person is saying I have
- 35:41a wife and a family and a life and I racing is not everything
- 35:44to me. And I'm going to go do this and
- 35:46disrupt this season points thing or whatever where you and me
- 35:50they might as well be alien foreign beings speaking that to
- 35:54me and you like what in the hell are you talking about?
- 35:57But the older I get, I can appreciate it.
- 36:00I can, and it's it's not something Kenny Wallace or
- 36:03Michael Rigsby would do, but I can look at it and go, I don't
- 36:06know, there is some sort of beauty, twisted, weird beauty,
- 36:09but but beauty to it, you know? Ray Bollinger is the most
- 36:14obsessed. I mean, yeah, I think he's more
- 36:17obsessed than Schrader Bollinger.
- 36:19Now, Ray, as you watch this or you're Ray Bollinger's friends
- 36:23will tell him. But maybe 10 years ago, Ray said
- 36:26he missed his son's graduation because he had to run Lincoln or
- 36:29Fairbury. And I understand it, you know, I
- 36:33had to make peace with my family because thank God for my awesome
- 36:36wife. I've been with my wife since we
- 36:40were children. You know, she was 15.
- 36:42I was 16. We met each other.
- 36:45My wife raised my kids because racing became my life.
- 36:49Later on in my life, you know, I said to my oldest daughter, said
- 36:54Brooke. Mom says you hate NASCAR.
- 36:58Dad, I hate NASCAR because I saw what it did to you.
- 37:01It it tore you apart, you know, competition wise and and and and
- 37:06then Brooke said I don't want you to quit racing, Dad, I want
- 37:09you. She said this last year, she
- 37:11said I don't want you to quit racing.
- 37:14I just want you to remember that you're we we have your
- 37:17grandchildren's birthdays and I don't want you rolling down the
- 37:20driveway because I did it, you know?
- 37:25So yeah, my early, my career is same way, right when you're
- 37:27building a company. It was every a a friend's
- 37:30weddings. I mean it was just like at the
- 37:32beginning of the year my wife and I would just buy 10 cards
- 37:34for weddings and graduations knowing we weren't going to any
- 37:37of them. We're we're not.
- 37:40We're not going to. Any of these.
- 37:42We'll be at Florence OR Dixie or West Virginia Motor and I'm
- 37:45glad. I don't.
- 37:45I don't know if you're. I do have a question for you
- 37:47about NASCAR. I you don't know if you're done
- 37:49with me yet, but I'm going to hit you with one too.
- 37:51Well, no. Listen, I respect you immensely.
- 37:54Interview me. Ask me.
- 37:55I mean, I I got. I got.
- 37:57I want to talk to you about Pierce going.
- 37:59No, no, I want you to keep your question.
- 38:01Remember, I want to talk to you about Pierce.
- 38:04I want to talk to you about high limit.
- 38:06And I want to talk to you about my controversy that I said.
- 38:11It looked to me like the World of Outlaws was stronger this
- 38:13year. But ask me your question first
- 38:15all. Right.
- 38:16We'll start because I do want to talk about Bobby, because Bobby
- 38:18to me is like the most fascinating Dirt Late Model
- 38:20driver since Scott Bloomquist. I have a lot to say.
- 38:22Yeah. And I I have an opinion on the
- 38:24tire thing too. So I'm happy to talk about that.
- 38:26You brought up NASCAR. We have of course a flow now we
- 38:29have the grassroots NASCAR contract, right.
- 38:31We have any anything that's below trucks basically so to
- 38:34speak, we have right from wheel and modified tour to all that
- 38:39stuff you got, you got that on there.
- 38:43It's NASCAR part of flow racing now.
- 38:45It is. It is.
- 38:47There we go. Yeah, and we've got more more
- 38:49news coming soon on our short track pavement offerings as
- 38:53well. One thing that I love before I
- 38:55get to my NASCAR question, 30 seconds, What I love is we're
- 38:57starting to see is I'm making these short track pavement fans,
- 39:00dirt fans. These dirt fans are becoming
- 39:02short track pavement fans. When I sold dirt on dirt to
- 39:05flow, Mark Floriani, the CEO of Flow, sat in my kitchen, which
- 39:09is right above me and him and I talked about he said what do you
- 39:11want to do? I said my dream is to make it 1
- 39:14Motorsports fan, not ten. I want Pavement fans to love
- 39:18drag, Drag to love dirt. We're doing that and we're
- 39:20seeing it that that audience is crossing over like crazy right
- 39:23now, which is super exciting. We've got some awesome stuff
- 39:26planned for the next year to really hype that up.
- 39:29But my question for you on NASCAR is I see I watch every,
- 39:32every Friggin Twitter video you do.
- 39:34I watch whether it's Kenny, Coffee with Kenny, Kenny
- 39:37Conversations. I watch them all right.
- 39:40And you talk so much about NASCAR.
- 39:41I have an opinion on. You asked me a lot about the
- 39:43problems with dirt track racing. I have an opinion on what I see
- 39:48as an issue with NASCAR. I think it's the only
- 39:51professional American sport that is not a meritocracy.
- 39:55And what I mean by that big word I know for for all the viewers
- 39:58out there, it's it's a big it's a big word for me.
- 39:59I I learned it recently. It a meritocracy.
- 40:02Meaning it's not totally merit based.
- 40:05When I'm watching the NFL or the NBA or Major League Baseball.
- 40:08I know these are the best baseball, football and
- 40:11basketball players in the world. Without question, you can't
- 40:15start a middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears if you're not.
- 40:17You've earned your way there. I believe that NASCAR has lost
- 40:22that. I think I had someone that you
- 40:24and I respect very much in the NASCAR world we both know and
- 40:26love. Tell me that half the field are
- 40:29those dudes. They're incredible.
- 40:31The other half, Michael, you might be right.
- 40:33They may not be the best drivers in the world.
- 40:36I think the fans are smart enough to know that and pick up
- 40:38on that and go, man, that guy's, you know, he sort of was
- 40:42interconnected and was able to get his ride and brought.
- 40:44And to me, I just think that's a fault.
- 40:46It's the only professional American sport that exists in
- 40:49that way where you don't know if you're watching the best.
- 40:53Tell me if I'm right or wrong about that.
- 40:56I'll meet you halfway out at 5050%.
- 40:59So my Mama taught me this. Don't insult my intelligence.
- 41:06So I agree with you, OK, We cannot insult NASCAR fans.
- 41:11Intelligence. OK, dirt racing fans absolutely
- 41:15did love. Now I say that past tense.
- 41:18They loved NASCAR. I mean, we would, you know,
- 41:21Bruce Patron, we do these Race of Champions deals a Bob Sargent
- 41:26and Schrader, they were teamed up.
- 41:27We would do NASCAR nights. And I'm telling you, if we did a
- 41:31NASCAR night 20 years ago, it was unbelievable.
- 41:36Dirt racing fans worship NASCAR. What pissed the dirt racing fans
- 41:42off is NASCAR started getting greedy.
- 41:45They said, OK, we're going to Texas and the dirt fans are
- 41:48like, hey man, listen, I'm not insulting dirt racing fans, but
- 41:53they're like, we got $60.00, that's we got 60 bucks, We want
- 41:56to go to Sunday's Cup race and Texas Motor Speedway said no,
- 42:01you you got to buy the the truck ticket, the Xfinity ticket.
- 42:05And now and then the hotel rooms are $300.00.
- 42:08And now everybody became angry because they didn't have enough
- 42:12money to go to a NASCAR race. Now they're now they're mad.
- 42:16Then they go, well look at this guy over here.
- 42:17Who is that? And I can name names all day
- 42:20long they brought money to get in the seat.
- 42:24OK, now you're right, 100% right.
- 42:28But here's where the problem lies.
- 42:30Junior Motorsports. That's all Rick Hendrick.
- 42:34But you know Rick Hendrick owns those cars, owns those motors to
- 42:40keep junior Motorsports doing something.
- 42:43It it's a it's a really, you know, and and there's Kelly and
- 42:46her. But all all those cars, that's
- 42:48all Rick Hendrick stuff. So you go, OK, Justin Algar, you
- 42:53cannot race. And then all of a sudden Justin
- 42:55goes, I got Brandt money. Yeah.
- 42:59And then all of a sudden, Kelly's like, OK, we'll let you
- 43:01drive the car. I just, I just acted it out for
- 43:04you. And then all of a sudden, Joe
- 43:08and Bob and Dan, they're not fired.
- 43:12So as soon as we make fun of the people that bring the money,
- 43:17it's like, OK, they're out of the ride.
- 43:20Well, let's put a guy in here that has no money, but he's
- 43:22talented. Well, he ain't got no money.
- 43:24So then the team shuts down South.
- 43:28I know all these things. And the people at Fox Sports
- 43:31said, Kenny, you're too jaded. I'm like, what do you mean?
- 43:34They said, you know, too much. You tell too much truth.
- 43:38You got to let some of it. You know, it's it's like I said
- 43:41this Alcatraz prison, the Birdman of Alcatraz.
- 43:45Yeah, Birdman. The man had one bird, but by the
- 43:49time it got going, he had a hundred birds.
- 43:52Same thing with NASCAR. And you.
- 43:54Yeah. And you brought up Bobby Pierce.
- 43:56And the reason I feel so passionate about this is when I
- 43:58spend my life watching, whether it's Bubba Pollard in the
- 44:01Asphalt Late Model side or Bobby Pierce or Brad Sweet or or Corey
- 44:05Day, who is the next Great American Sprint Car superstar?
- 44:08I believe in my hearts and I'm going to stake my flag.
- 44:11Those guys are better than a lot of the guys we, and I'm listen,
- 44:14Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin. Those guys are good.
- 44:16They're good at anything anytime those guys we know who the studs
- 44:19are right. Tyler Reddick I believe is is
- 44:21good anytime anywhere. But when I watch Bobby and Corey
- 44:24Day, I go, son of a bitch. These guys are as good as these
- 44:27guys and and that bothers me and it's hard.
- 44:30And that's not like a knock on the guys in NASCAR as much as it
- 44:33is me identifying talent and going, If this was the NFL,
- 44:38there'd be a New England Patriots scout in some small
- 44:41town in Minnesota watching some kid run the 40 yard dash going,
- 44:45I'm going to take this kid from Minnesota and he's going to play
- 44:48for the Patriots. That dream is hard to accomplish
- 44:51in the highest level of American Motorsports.
- 44:53And that makes me sad and it makes me.
- 44:55Sad. So I agree with you and
- 44:57psychologically what I hear from you and and this is a positive
- 45:02what I hear from you, I'm going to put it in a mean way.
- 45:06You you want Bobby Pierce gone from dirt racing and you want
- 45:10him in NASCAR. So when we want these people to
- 45:13move on, remember we're going to lose them and and there'll be
- 45:16another one to come. I'm with you.
- 45:19It's not as much as I want them gone.
- 45:21And in NASCAR, I kind of want the world to identify.
- 45:25And you know, you can say whatever you want about Chaz.
- 45:27Chaz Thompson's been talking about this topic for a long
- 45:29time, and I said the same thing to him.
- 45:31I said I agree with you. I want people.
- 45:33I just want somebody to go. Bobby Pierce is as good as
- 45:36driver XYZ on Sunday. That's all I need.
- 45:39That's all I need to hear. He brought up Chaz, and Chaz is
- 45:42going to watch this because people are going to tell him
- 45:44Chaz could be better, but he's so damn mean about it.
- 45:48He, you know, it's like I can tell you to, you know, I can be
- 45:52mean to you, but I can give you some respect.
- 45:55Chaz could have way bigger numbers.
- 45:57And I, me and Chaz have talked about this before.
- 45:59Chaz wants me to be part of him. I said, Chaz, you're so mean.
- 46:04I said, Jesus. I mean, see Chaz hates me but
- 46:07but he doesn't. That was part of his act.
- 46:10He said his his part of his act was to hate me, to get bigger
- 46:14numbers. I mean, no, you know, you you
- 46:17can't hate Kenny Wallace because I was NASCAR.
- 46:20That's so stupid. And he's got genuinely some of
- 46:23his perspectives are very good on Motorsports.
- 46:25I'm with you. Let's, let's flush him out.
- 46:27Let's hear him right. Yes, yes, yes.
- 46:29Yeah, it's just, it's just don't be so damn mean.
- 46:32So it was Kyle Stephens that had to sit Chaz down and go Chaz.
- 46:37You don't understand. Herman gave me money and pit
- 46:40passes and get you to go to, you know, I mean, I give everybody
- 46:43money, Michael, everybody. I mean, I can take pictures that
- 46:46I give Bobby Pierce $2500. I give Billy Smith 10 grand, I
- 46:51get shit. I write the flock of money
- 46:54coming out my ass. I give everybody as much money
- 46:56as I can give them. Chad should call me and say, you
- 47:00know, I didn't know all this about you, Kenny.
- 47:03I'm like you're so busy being mean that you're blinded.
- 47:06Well, I think he and he, he discovered with me too.
- 47:09I think he thought like, oh, who is this flow racing guy?
- 47:11Then he looked into my back story and he was like, oh shit,
- 47:13this guy rode around in a minivan for a year, built a
- 47:15company from nothing like, OK, I kind of like this guy.
- 47:18Similar, similar to you, same story, right?
- 47:20Like you. You've done this.
- 47:21You're we're grassroots. Guys, I built my own race cars,
- 47:25then the tubing. Well, then I made it to NASCAR,
- 47:27right? I always say people, all that.
- 47:30You know, the generation gap. Now here I'm talking about me
- 47:33because you because we both are talking about each other and and
- 47:36Chaz this segment is about you just you know I I said what I
- 47:40said just now but you know listen you and I have done too
- 47:44much when we were children to be disrespected because you know
- 47:49ask my brother Rusty ask my brother Mike ask Donny Jumper
- 47:53with impressive race car. So anyway, all right, so.
- 47:56That was my NASCAR question. Now hit me.
- 47:58That was my NASCAR. Question.
- 47:59OK, so let's go to Bobby Pierce and always, always my
- 48:03disclaimer. That way no people, nobody can
- 48:06pop in on the backside and go remember my disclaimer.
- 48:11Angie Pierce calls me up. We talked for 40 minutes, me and
- 48:16Angie. OK, I love her to.
- 48:17Death. I love her.
- 48:18To death. I call Angie.
- 48:19I say Angie, I need to send Bobby some money because he's
- 48:22looking for a sponsor. What's his address?
- 48:25Bob's too busy being a man, you know.
- 48:29Bobby's too young, so we got this weird dynamic.
- 48:36We got this Pierce family that they live, eat and breathe.
- 48:41If if Bobby doesn't win, there's this vision out there that the
- 48:44Pierces are are going to be poor right now.
- 48:47We all know this and and they're watching right now.
- 48:50So Bob and Angie have Bobby. Bobby, you're going to drive
- 48:54this race car if you don't win, you know, that is about the only
- 48:58team we see out there. Just like, you know, so now they
- 49:03say your your tires don't meet the benchmark.
- 49:07Angie is devastated because you know, she's defending her son.
- 49:14My boys tires are not illegal. Damn it.
- 49:18They messed up. And I said, Angie, are you
- 49:20saying Brian Carter's out to get your son?
- 49:22No. But they but Blue Ridge just
- 49:25messed up. But I like the lady at Blue
- 49:27Ridge, but she's in a basement. So I'm telling you all the
- 49:31truth, OK? We love Bobby Pierce.
- 49:35He's also loved to be hated for the early days of dirty sliders.
- 49:39But he had to do that dirty slider, else they don't make no
- 49:42money. I understand this whole damn
- 49:46dynamic. And his sponsor called me.
- 49:49Gary St. Sen said, hey, I want to sponsor
- 49:52Bobby Pierce. I said yes.
- 49:54I've. I've given money to Bobby and I
- 49:57support them all right now. I painted the whole damn
- 50:01picture. I painted the whole damn
- 50:03picture. Go ahead about the tower drama.
- 50:07I I will start here. So another business venture that
- 50:10I have is I'm half owner of the Wild West Shootout in New
- 50:14Mexico. So Chris Kearns, Chris Kearns
- 50:16and I own that event together. Bobby's family's out there.
- 50:18Bobby's family's always out there and and and I I love the
- 50:21Pierce family dearly like you do.
- 50:23I our. Disclaimer.
- 50:25Those those 45 minute conversations with Angie, I've
- 50:27had many of them with Bob. Bob.
- 50:28Bob was my dad hero growing up. My dad loved Bob.
- 50:31That big Bush across the front of his car, right?
- 50:34That man helped me. Loved him.
- 50:36So the reason I bring up the Wild West Shootout is this and
- 50:39I'm getting to the tire stuff. So Bobby runs incredibly well
- 50:43every year at the Wild West Shootout.
- 50:44We test tires at the Wild West Shootout every single year.
- 50:46Bobby's tires this year and every other year have come back
- 50:50correct from the Wild West Shootout.
- 50:52The reason I bring that up is there is a $300,000 bonus to be
- 50:57won at the Wild West Shootout if you win all six races.
- 50:59There's $100,000 bonus to be won if you win 5 races.
- 51:03Bobby was on the precipice of winning five races this year.
- 51:06He ended up wrecking and and didn't get there.
- 51:08I say all that to say, his tires come back clean and if if one
- 51:13was going to cheat, it might make sense that he would try to
- 51:16cheat during that event, right? With a 300 that that pays more
- 51:20than the World Outlaw Championship.
- 51:21Non sanctioned event. Bingo.
- 51:24Bingo, right? Let's cheat now.
- 51:26That one might do that. And again, I am not an expert on
- 51:29tire dope. I am not pretending.
- 51:30I know all the new, new stuff that's out there or any of that.
- 51:34What I will say is when I I'm giving you my perspective, I
- 51:38tell you about the Wild West Shootout.
- 51:39When I talk to them, Devin, Bobby, those guys, genuinely I
- 51:45believe them. I do.
- 51:47All I can do is sit in my seat and say I believe them, that
- 51:51they did not do this. There are people that are going
- 51:53to hear me say this and say you're a naive idiot.
- 51:55Grigsby, how stupid do you think you are?
- 51:58All I can do is judge a man and a person and a family, whether
- 52:01it's Miranda or Pierces, whoever on their character, my
- 52:04experiences with them and what they've told me, I don't believe
- 52:07that they knowingly treated their tires.
- 52:10Now, I also think Brian Carter is an honorable and noble man.
- 52:14I believe that Brian Carter believes what he and Steve, the
- 52:16process they've gone through and everything they've done.
- 52:19So if they think they're correct, and I believe, Bobby,
- 52:22somewhere out there, this result has manufactured itself.
- 52:26And I don't know, I'm not even saying it's a lab problem.
- 52:29I believe there's something that we don't know.
- 52:31I believe there's something that we don't understand or know.
- 52:34And again, whether it's Kim from Blue Ridge, who I've been told
- 52:38is an incredibly nice woman, or Brian Carter, someone's going to
- 52:41watch this and go, you're an idiot, you're an idiot for
- 52:44saying this, you're naive. But for when I look at the body
- 52:48of evidence, it doesn't support the idea that they would have
- 52:52knowingly cheated these tires. It just doesn't.
- 52:55From where I sit, particularly as an owner of the Wild West
- 52:57Shootout, it doesn't make sense that they would do it here and
- 53:01not here. This one select night here and
- 53:03not here. I just don't find that to be a
- 53:05logical conclusion to the story, right?
- 53:08And this is probably is about as publicly as I've spoken about
- 53:11it. I've been a little guarded
- 53:13before, but that's just how I feel.
- 53:15You know, if if six years from now it came out like the
- 53:18Zapruder tape and the Kennedy assassination that there's a
- 53:21picture of Devin Moran's treating a tire, Sure, I would
- 53:23accept that. Devin, I'm just using you as an
- 53:25example. But that's how I feel about it.
- 53:28My honest opinion is, logically, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
- 53:31This guy knows it could submarine his entire season.
- 53:34This guy didn't do it in New Mexico.
- 53:36With the $300,000 bonus on the line, 120 of his tires have been
- 53:39taken over the course of the last 365 days, all of which came
- 53:43back clean. It just doesn't logically make a
- 53:45lot of sense that on this one night, in this one instance, in
- 53:48this one place, that they would elect to do this.
- 53:51So that's my position on it. That's no disrespect to Brian
- 53:55and Steve. That's no disrespect to the
- 53:57folks at the Blue Ridge lab, 'cause.
- 53:59I think they're all honorable and noble.
- 54:01I really believe that Brian Carter cares about short track
- 54:03racing. I believe that he does.
- 54:05You think Brian Carter wanted to suspend Bobby Pierce?
- 54:07Hell no. That only hurts him.
- 54:10He doesn't want to do that, right?
- 54:12So I think everybody has noble intentions.
- 54:15There's just something we're not understanding in this process or
- 54:18there's something we're missing. And that's about as honest of a
- 54:21take as I can possibly give on it.
- 54:23Now I want to go because it's been long enough.
- 54:26So I interviewed Brian Carter two times neutrally.
- 54:31So I was, I was given on the backside asking this, asking
- 54:35that, asking this. I'm like, I got it.
- 54:38So I throw 22 darts at Brian Carter.
- 54:41And of course when the interview is over, there were, you know,
- 54:44my friends. Well, he answered it wrong.
- 54:48You should ask him. I said I I asked him everything
- 54:50you asked me to ask him. But the interview didn't go in
- 54:53their favor. So here's after all these after
- 54:59all these weeks, months, I'm going to tell you what I think.
- 55:04Remember, Remember I talked about being jaded when you know
- 55:07too much. So I know everything like you do
- 55:10and I'm going to pick the one that kind of will create more
- 55:15controversy and it's this one years ago, so and so bought 4
- 55:24tires and he soaked them and but didn't think it was a big deal.
- 55:31And then they weren't the right circumference.
- 55:34They were not the right size. He soaked them and then when
- 55:38they were mounted, he couldn't use them.
- 55:41So they're cheap. They're going to go to Hoosier.
- 55:45Look, they got the tits on them. We haven't even mounted them.
- 55:48OK, gave them back to Hoosier, got four more.
- 55:54There is this theory that is, that is true, 110% true, that
- 56:01people are soaking their tires and then trading them in and
- 56:05they're getting mixed into the Hoosier trailer.
- 56:08Now, whether that happened or not, I'll go with that.
- 56:12Yeah. Because because of everything.
- 56:16So I'm going to go with that one.
- 56:17Because that one's the the real one.
- 56:19I heard that that really happened.
- 56:21So now I know that. So now that cannot even.
- 56:24That's the bullshit that happened.
- 56:26Yeah. And and I think when I'm looking
- 56:28for the something we're missing, I keep saying that is a possible
- 56:31something we're missing kind of thing.
- 56:33Am I saying that happened here? I don't know, but we have
- 56:35evidence and we know that happened.
- 56:37So it just seems I like that they back the penalties off.
- 56:40I like that they did those things.
- 56:42In my mind they did it because they even realized maybe what
- 56:45are we missing here? Are we missing something To your
- 56:47point, right? Something like this happening.
- 56:49Bobby comes right back out on the outlaws and kicks their ass
- 56:51at Farmer City and and he's right back in the hunt.
- 56:54So I just, I also don't think and it's hard to tell these guys
- 56:58this. I don't think it's I'm going to
- 57:00say this and then let me put the brakes on.
- 57:02I don't think it's that big of a deal anymore.
- 57:04And what I mean by it is don't cheat tires, that is, don't do
- 57:07that, don't cheat. But what I mean is even if they
- 57:11didn't do it and get, I don't think people look at it, Kenny,
- 57:13like they did in 2004 or 2005. Quickly people will get over
- 57:18this, right. Easy for me to say that Angie
- 57:20Pierce is going. I got to deal with my sponsors
- 57:22and she's right and that's not great, but I think we'll move
- 57:25past it. Yeah.
- 57:27So let's end this like this. And you can have the last word
- 57:32on, but I want to say this. It's 110% true that there are
- 57:38hundreds of people soaking their tires.
- 57:40I know, I know the people. And and and the tire soaking
- 57:46industry, they're selling product.
- 57:47It's flying out the window. So here, let me ACT again.
- 57:51I'm going to act. Nobody's soaking their tires.
- 57:54What about this picture of these people buying the tire softener?
- 57:57What about these, this picture of the people, you know now
- 58:01there's evidence. You know, it's like and it's
- 58:04like we all know there there are people out there selling it all
- 58:09day long, right? I mean, I know my locals that
- 58:12soak and I just laugh. I'm like, I ain't got time for
- 58:14that. So.
- 58:16So we know what's happening all day long.
- 58:18And I think that's the issue is, is these divisions like Lucas
- 58:23Oil and and you know World Outlaws they're like these son
- 58:27of a bitches are selling it right in front of our face.
- 58:30Oh there he is he's in the pit area here at Evolution.
- 58:33There's the guy you know, and I think that's the problem,
- 58:37Michael, is that they're selling it right in front of their face
- 58:41to to their they're in their pit area because everybody knows
- 58:45everybody. What did you say earlier?
- 58:46It started with a hundred birds and or what 1 bird went to 100.
- 58:49I've never seen anything in my life like a dirt track pit area
- 58:53when I can start at one end. By the time I walk to the other
- 58:57end. How the rumor has moved past me
- 58:58and escalated. I've never seen anything like it
- 59:01in my life. So that's why you're right.
- 59:03I know there's guys soaking tire, but you never know.
- 59:06Like I walked into the you, you know, Volusia.
- 59:07You go through that pit gate first there, Mark Richards
- 59:10there. All right.
- 59:10On your right. Then you go all the way down to
- 59:11the Gator pond. I am not bullshitting you.
- 59:14I've started at Mark Richards pit. 90 minutes later, got to
- 59:16the Gator pond. The story's not even remotely
- 59:19close to what I heard at Mark Richards pit.
- 59:22So that's what like troubles me a little is that you know is,
- 59:26is, is. You never know what to believe
- 59:29in the pits either And I think even you know that you know so.
- 59:32OK, so we're dealing with the tire debacle, which is really
- 59:35good. OK?
- 59:38My God, I told Charlie you were going to be 30 minutes.
- 59:42I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Molly.
- 59:44Charlie. I'm sorry, buddy.
- 59:46No, no, that was just, but this is too good, 'cause I love dirt
- 59:49racing so much and and and the great thing about dirt racing is
- 59:52it's so controversial. It's.
- 59:54I know it's just he he slid him. He should he should go to jail.
- 59:59It's like calm down. My Sprint car friends tease me
- 1:00:01too, 'cause obviously high limit now and great partnership with
- 1:00:04Kyle and Brad. High limits on flow.
- 1:00:05They're always like Jesus, you late model guys.
- 1:00:07My God, there's something going on every week with.
- 1:00:11You it's it's fun. It it's like that.
- 1:00:14There's that meme out that I just saw.
- 1:00:16It says. I don't like drama, but.
- 1:00:19Yeah, right, right. And all you dirt people that are
- 1:00:23listening to this, you all know you love, you eat it up and
- 1:00:25y'all give us something to talk about.
- 1:00:27OK, so I got two more questions. It's going to be thoughts on the
- 1:00:32high limit and then the controversy that I started which
- 1:00:35is funny. OK.
- 1:00:37So Brad sweet on Kenny conversation last year I said
- 1:00:41why are you starting high limit. He's basically said we want to
- 1:00:45give teams more of an opportunity to make a living.
- 1:00:50We we want to you know we see what's going on.
- 1:00:54They're wonderful people. I was just at the high limit
- 1:00:56race. I created controversy by
- 1:01:00standing right here and saying hey, I'm going to the high limit
- 1:01:03race while Wes Irwin with the World of Outlaws souvenir
- 1:01:06trailers right behind me and and and I had I had a very powerful
- 1:01:10person call me at me go. How in the hell did you pull
- 1:01:12that off? I'm like, what, Brad Sweet's
- 1:01:16going to run Eldora and he going to run when, I mean all the high
- 1:01:20limit guys are going to go run Eldora.
- 1:01:22So what am I missing here? Right, right.
- 1:01:24OK. So your thoughts on what Brad
- 1:01:27and Kyle are doing? I I said last year in the I did
- 1:01:30my podcast and I said it was inevitable.
- 1:01:34And what I mean by that is you have you have the sport of dirt
- 1:01:39late model racing growing with two or three national tours
- 1:01:43maybe even some people say 4 national tours, purses exploding
- 1:01:47bigger midweek purses etcetera, etcetera.
- 1:01:50That's one factor. You have Kyle Larson, who I
- 1:01:53believe to be the greatest American Motorsports talent, if
- 1:01:55not the greatest global Motorsports talent outside of
- 1:01:57Max Verstappen, maybe doing this barnstorming tour across America
- 1:02:02where he's connecting NASCAR and dirt track fans together.
- 1:02:08And Kyle's this, this national phenomena of a dirt track racer
- 1:02:12who happens to be a NASCAR champion.
- 1:02:14And oh, by the way, Kyle Larson, all he's ever dreamed about his
- 1:02:17entire life is running. He'll tell you like he wanted to
- 1:02:19have a Sprint car tour, right? Like he loves the outlaws and
- 1:02:22always has, but he wanted to have a Sprint car tour.
- 1:02:24So. So #1, you've got late model
- 1:02:26purses getting bigger than ever. You've got Kyle Larson's a
- 1:02:28national phenomena who would love to have his own tour.
- 1:02:31You've got Brad. Sweet.
- 1:02:33And who is, by the way, I don't think I ever gave Brad credit
- 1:02:35for how smart he is. Me.
- 1:02:37Either. He's smart.
- 1:02:38He is a smart MF. Uh, OK, let me be very clear.
- 1:02:41About that. And I and I really is, you know,
- 1:02:44I was a general manager of Flow Racing.
- 1:02:45I deal with him a ton, getting high, low and you know we're an
- 1:02:47investor in high limit and getting them going and talking
- 1:02:50to Brad regularly, Brad's really smart.
- 1:02:52Brad's won five consecutive World of Outlaw championships,
- 1:02:56and I think you would know that you know this as much as
- 1:02:58anybody. When you've done something for
- 1:02:59so long, you kind of want to see what else there is to do, right?
- 1:03:04So that's a factor. And I think he had a group of
- 1:03:06outlaw drivers that felt the same way.
- 1:03:08You throw all of those three things in the big money in late
- 1:03:11model racing. Kyle's a phenomena, kind of
- 1:03:13wants to have his own Tour. Brad's done this thing and
- 1:03:15dominated it. It was inevitable.
- 1:03:18It was inevitable that there would inevitably be a competitor
- 1:03:22to the world of Outlaw Sprint Car Tour.
- 1:03:24And I'm sitting over here in Late Model World going, shit, we
- 1:03:27got four national tours. What are these people
- 1:03:28complaining about? Who cares?
- 1:03:31I got competition out my elbows over here, right?
- 1:03:35So I'm like, what's the big deal?
- 1:03:37So I think when you factor in all those things, it was simply
- 1:03:40inevitable, Kenny, that someone was gonna do this.
- 1:03:43And I do know for a fact Brad was not the only group and
- 1:03:47people that were considering this.
- 1:03:49There were other people out there matriculating the idea of
- 1:03:52starting a national Sprint Car tour to compete with the World
- 1:03:55of Outlaws. It just so happened Brad and
- 1:03:57Kyle were kind of the perfect combo, right?
- 1:03:59You can use Kyle Larson's celebrity to elevate the tour in
- 1:04:03the immediate respect that Brad Sweet rightfully commandeers and
- 1:04:07gets because of his status in the sport.
- 1:04:10So I think both of them will exist.
- 1:04:12I think both of them will exist very well.
- 1:04:13I think big outlaw events are going to be big.
- 1:04:15I think big high limit events are going to be big.
- 1:04:18Had a great event at Red Dirt last night, really good crowd,
- 1:04:20big crowd at Texas that you saw right over 6000 people on the
- 1:04:23property at Texas Motor Speedway there.
- 1:04:26It's going to be fine. And I just if from a late and
- 1:04:29I'm that's my late model perspective like telling all my
- 1:04:31Sprint Car people, guys, it's going to be OK just calm down.
- 1:04:34We're going to get through this, right?
- 1:04:36Yeah, I think it will be totally fine and it's exciting for
- 1:04:39Sprint Car. Corey Day is becoming a star
- 1:04:42right before our eyes because he's got a bigger national
- 1:04:45platform to go compete on and win races.
- 1:04:47Now Mark Martin said Joey Logano was going to be the next best
- 1:04:51thing, and he was. And Kyle Larson told me Corey
- 1:04:55Day is me. And of course that ricocheted
- 1:04:58SO22 things about High Limit 10,000 to win now is gone.
- 1:05:04It's 12,000 to win. So they bumped everything up two
- 1:05:07grand, which is a lot of money. So that 12,000 must help cover
- 1:05:12everyday racing. My point is, as you know as a as
- 1:05:16a dirt racer myself, it's like what was the importance of
- 1:05:1912,000 versus 10? What, besides being more money
- 1:05:22that 2000 must have been important because now I noticed
- 1:05:26that Sprint car racing, now everything's 12,000 to win.
- 1:05:30So I just want to, I want you to recognize that we all see that
- 1:05:3410 is over, it's now it's 12 and I see that.
- 1:05:38I don't know what it means. I'm just saying I see it it that
- 1:05:41must have been the number. Priority Aviation, Jennifer and
- 1:05:45Richard Marshall. Great people.
- 1:05:47Yeah, they sponsor me. They're wonderful.
- 1:05:50They they got Tyler Courtney Sunshine over here with High
- 1:05:54Limit and they and they got Sheldon Hanshaw over here with
- 1:05:57the World of Outlaws. So Jennifer was the one
- 1:06:00screaming for more money and and then the Internet beat her up
- 1:06:05and and so they they split split them up and they said OK both of
- 1:06:08you go each way. I just thought it was funny as
- 1:06:11hell and Jennifer and Richard know how much.
- 1:06:15Listen they're they're so good for the sport.
- 1:06:17If Jennifer and Richard were to quit the sport, it would it
- 1:06:21would hurt bad because they got a lot of wing, non wing,
- 1:06:25midgets, you name it. OK, let's sound like this.
- 1:06:31I know that Lucas Oil is on flow.
- 1:06:35That's my disclaimer. I was kind of having fun.
- 1:06:40So over the week Wheatland MO, Lucas Oil Speedway, MLRA,
- 1:06:47$20,000 to win the same. The same that Farmer City paid
- 1:06:53you. You had Marler, you had Thornton
- 1:06:57and you had JD They were there, the Lucas Oil guys and I and I
- 1:07:04said in a fun way. I said, man, it seems like World
- 1:07:08of Outlaw Lake models are stronger this year.
- 1:07:12And I said that to Nick Hoffman two months ago.
- 1:07:17So I'm not. I'm not.
- 1:07:19I I know you're Lucas Oil. I know you're everybody but D
- 1:07:23bullshit that for me. Why did I mean 20,000 win and
- 1:07:28you're a Lucas Oil guy. Why didn't you go there?
- 1:07:31So I think where you got again the no bullshit zone where you
- 1:07:35got in trouble is, is this. My wife is always says to me,
- 1:07:39honey, where you got in trouble was here.
- 1:07:41Where you got in trouble was it was not, it was not a Lucas Oil
- 1:07:44race, right. It was an MLRA race.
- 1:07:46It was a regional race that happened to pay $20,000 to win.
- 1:07:51So many of the Lucas Oil regulars like Turbo and those,
- 1:07:54they didn't even attend Wheatland.
- 1:07:56So I think people thought just on the surface you were saying
- 1:08:00here's an outlaw race, here's a Lucas race, which was not really
- 1:08:03a Lucas race. And and I'm comparing these two
- 1:08:06head to head. So I followed along the entire
- 1:08:08Twitter saga all weekend. When people are hammering you,
- 1:08:10you know, like. I love going back to them.
- 1:08:12Well I know, I know you do. And the worst part is, is they
- 1:08:15don't realize that you just eat it up and they keep coming right
- 1:08:18back to you is these were not sanction outlaw sanction Lucas.
- 1:08:21It was only a sanction outlaw race.
- 1:08:23So I think that's where people were like, hey, this isn't
- 1:08:25exactly a fair comparison because it's not a Lucas Oil big
- 1:08:29series event, it's simply an MLRA regional event is what
- 1:08:32people were trying to say to you.
- 1:08:34So if we're going to compare them, let's compare them in two
- 1:08:36weeks. When it's a proper Lucas race,
- 1:08:39it's a proper outlaw race. Let's stack the rosters up next
- 1:08:42to each other and then we'll determine who's stronger.
- 1:08:44I think that's what because there was Lucas guys at Farmer
- 1:08:46City, right. And those guys, when Lucas has a
- 1:08:49race, they would not be at an outlaws race, they would be at a
- 1:08:52Lucas race. So you will see kind of the
- 1:08:54proper comparison here in a couple weeks when they're head
- 1:08:56to head. So it's not a big thing, but I
- 1:09:01love calling me out because see and I try to explain this to
- 1:09:05people. I say, look, I say what I'm
- 1:09:08going to say and your job is to comment on it.
- 1:09:12It's called content. It's it's, it's it's what we do.
- 1:09:16I got to say something and you got to be mad at me if you're
- 1:09:18not mad at it's. I grew up on this.
- 1:09:20It's AM debate radio. So they fell right into my hands
- 1:09:25and I tried to explain to him that they fell right into my
- 1:09:28even my buddy Ted Brown. I'm like Ted, you know, I'm
- 1:09:32like, so my point would be this, You're saying Turbo is a Lucas
- 1:09:37Oil guy? Was it the was it the six more
- 1:09:42hour drive? Why didn't why didn't they go to
- 1:09:46the same? It paid the same.
- 1:09:48Yeah and actually the the payout was probably better at the
- 1:09:51Outlaw race. I think my guess is the top paid
- 1:09:54the same. I'm I'm getting MLRA purses
- 1:09:56traditionally through the field or not as good as world of
- 1:09:59Outlaw purses through the field. I'd have to compare them.
- 1:10:01I'm going to guess the meat of the Outlaw purse was better than
- 1:10:04the meat of the MLRA purse at Lucas Oil Speedway but a lot of
- 1:10:08factors Turbo loves Farmer City. He's very good there right he's
- 1:10:11he's really good there. I think he got second last
- 1:10:13Saturday night, so that's a factor.
- 1:10:15Distance closer to Ohio for him. The purse, the, the starting
- 1:10:19money I think was better at Farmer City for all the reasons
- 1:10:22you mentioned. There's there's reasons for
- 1:10:24those guys to go do that. I'm thinking to myself, we'll
- 1:10:26end like this. And on on your point, high limit
- 1:10:31Sprint Car versus world of Outlaw Sprint car.
- 1:10:34Here you got these Lucas Oil guys that just can't wait to go
- 1:10:36run this world of outlaw race because it suits them.
- 1:10:40I love that and I love it. That dirt racing is that dynamic
- 1:10:44and that awesome. So what, my friend?
- 1:10:47Listen, we'll end it just like that.
- 1:10:49You were wonderful. You know, I've been bragging on
- 1:10:53you forever and and congratulations on being the
- 1:10:58most influential person in dirt racing history.
- 1:11:01And listen, everybody, if you want to argue about that, please
- 1:11:04comment below and and 'cause that will be more content.
- 1:11:08I say he is because he is the one that put Bloomquist and
- 1:11:12Moyer on the map. And now the rest of the drivers
- 1:11:15are reaping the rewards of what that man.
- 1:11:17Well, let me see. Yeah, right there.
- 1:11:19You did. You did.
- 1:11:20Remember, we are in podcast form.
- 1:11:23Please tune in on iTunes and Spotify.
- 1:11:26This is a long one. So you're going to want to
- 1:11:28listen to Michael Rigsby on your way to work.
- 1:11:30You're going to go to work and turn around, turn it right back
- 1:11:33on. This is a good one.
- 1:11:34So Michael, thank you so much for being on Kenny conversation.
- 1:11:38Yeah, Kenny, thank you. Thank you for being so
- 1:11:40complimentary and thank you for being what I say earlier.
- 1:11:43Thank you for being so obsessed with this thing.
- 1:11:45I love it. So I appreciate it and thank you
- 1:11:47very much. All right, everybody.
- 1:11:49We got more than they can. We got Tim McCready coming up.
- 1:11:53Herman shares his love with everybody.
- 1:11:55Drag Racers Motorcycle. Herman, you know what you should
- 1:11:57do? What?
- 1:11:59Respond right below. Tell me the next person we
- 1:12:02should talk to, but Tim Mccreede is coming up next.
- 1:12:04Mark Richards from Rock and Chassis is coming up next.
- 1:12:08Why do those cars cough so much? All right, until next time.