Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Kenny Conversation | Kyle Petty | Episode #21

Transcript

Kenny Conversation | Kyle Petty | Episode #21 · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation, brought
• 0:04
  to you by Jags, the leader in high performance aftermarket car
• 0:08
  parts. Please remember to go to
• 0:10
  jags.com for anything you need for your vehicle to fix it up.
• 0:17
  Well, you know what? There's a there's close friends.
• 0:20
  There's friends that are closer because you're able to talk to
• 0:25
  them the way you really want to talk to.
• 0:27
  And and this man right here is a dear friend of mine, Cal.
• 0:32
  Petty Cal. Thank you for coming on Kenny
• 0:35
  conversation. Man, I have been.
• 0:37
  I have so been looking forward to this.
• 0:40
  I was in Bristol this past weekend and they said it was
• 0:42
  going to rain. I said it better not rain.
• 0:44
  I got to be home by Tuesday. I got to be home by.
• 0:46
  I got to be home to talk to Kenny.
• 0:48
  That's all I know. See you were up there, man.
• 0:50
  You are. That's what you eating wings?
• 0:53
  Yeah, we did. Hey, you know, we haven't even
• 0:55
  started the show yet, but how about Bristol?
• 0:58
  Man, it had that feeling that it was, you know, it's starting to
• 1:02
  come back. Yeah, it really did.
• 1:04
  The fans brought that feeling, you know, I mean, I the
• 1:07
  competitors, you know, you listen to what the competitors
• 1:09
  say and it's added, added I whatever it may be.
• 1:12
  But the fans were pump man and it was a good race.
• 1:14
  It didn't disappoint. I mean they were, you know, you
• 1:17
  get caught in traffic, the high groove.
• 1:18
  It took about 1/3 of the race for that to come in.
• 1:21
  I wish they didn't have a gear rule so you could run on the
• 1:23
  bottom and beat somebody up off the corner and take that
• 1:26
  position away like the old days when you run high and run low
• 1:29
  but you bog it down on the bottom.
• 1:31
  But it was, listen, it's a solid race.
• 1:33
  Denny had the best car. Denny was just, I mean he was on
• 1:36
  another planet, but he has been the first three races.
• 1:39
  If you really go back to Darlington and and Kansas.
• 1:41
  He's been the guy to beat the first three races.
• 1:43
  See, this is where the Kenny conversation is so awesome
• 1:46
  because you talk about running the bottom and I I believe you
• 1:50
  are one of the very best at running the bottom.
• 1:53
  You did it so well at Rockingham and Dover and you know Kyle
• 1:57
  before the show gets going. I mean, it takes throttle.
• 2:01
  I know this is a fancy word. It takes throttle manipulation
• 2:05
  to roll that bottom. Yeah, and I this interesting,
• 2:08
  interesting little tidbit of information here.
• 2:10
  So Dale Junior ran the Xfinity race on on.
• 2:16
  On on Friday night. But the world already knows that
• 2:18
  I'm not. That's old.
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  But it was funny talking to him Saturday morning.
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  He came in and was talking. We were talking, it was he and I
• 2:26
  and Dale Jarrett and he said guys, he said it's exactly like
• 2:31
  it used to be. Let off.
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  Just pass the start, finish line, roll off into the corner
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  don't use a lot of break. Pick up the throttle about 1/4
• 2:39
  of the way and just slowly accelerate up off.
• 2:42
  And he said next thing I know I'm driving away from him.
• 2:44
  And he said it was fascinating because these young guys drive
• 2:47
  all the way to the center of the corner until they see God, then
• 2:50
  try to get the car to turn and go again.
• 2:52
  And he said it drove exactly the way it did back in the 90s, back
• 2:56
  in early 2000. So that that was an interesting
• 2:58
  piece for me to hear somebody who had just been out there.
• 3:01
  But I I I said when I when we did the introduction for for
• 3:06
  junior on on Friday night, I said.
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  So here's a guy who's won, who had won seventeen races and two
• 3:12
  championships before Sam Mayor was born.
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  And Sam Mayor, Sam Mayor was his driver, you know, his teammate
• 3:18
  and then racing for a championship.
• 3:20
  That's fascinating to me. But he did a great job.
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  He did do a great job, man, and the racer in me knows that.
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  Like you said, you know you you give the fans a little sneak
• 3:29
  preview and you know Rusty's the one that taught me.
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  I mean, my brother would pull me to the side.
• 3:34
  You know, you roll off like you said and, you know, squirt that
• 3:37
  baby across the middle. Then if you got too much head
• 3:40
  speed, roll up a little bit. But that's center of the corner
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  speed so important. Well, all right, listen, here we
• 3:47
  go yesterday, I think Monday. I love your social media and I
• 3:54
  want to start conversation out like this.
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  You put a beautiful family picture and you and all the kids
• 4:01
  at the swimming pool and you said one last plunge in the pool
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  before winter starts in. Where are we at with kids?
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  I mean, I mean, you're knocking them out, man.
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  How's the kids you got now? Here's the way it works.
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  It's like I've always said, everybody lives life this way.
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  And the only time that I met up with everybody was when I was
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  going that way. So it went like, that's the way
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  it is, man, you know? So in the picture you know
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  there's over 10. He's my 5 year old and we're
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  going to drop that picture right now, right here.
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  Yeah. So Morgan and I, Morgan and I
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  have been married seven years. Overton is our five year old,
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  Cotton is the three-year old and the van is 1314 months, I think
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  in the picture. And then there's Austin and
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  Austin's 41. So Austin is my middle son from
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  my first marriage, Adam's brother and and Montgomery Lee's
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  brother, he's the middle child. And the two little boys, Stone
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  and Red, that's that's Austin's little boys.
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  They're. 7:00 and 6:00 or 8:00 and 6:00, I think so.
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  They're right in there. So it's crazy you you think you
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  get confused. You ought to see my dad when
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  everybody comes again. He can't tell who the grandkids
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  are or who the great grandkids are.
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  And sometimes he forgets who his kids are.
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  He forgets myself and Sharon and Lisa and Rebecca.
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  He didn't even know where we fit in.
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  There's just a bunch of kids at the family.
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  I I, I am going to tell you this. 1992 when my dad retired,
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  we took a picture out in front of his house.
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  With the race car and all of our families and all the kids,
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  grandkids and kids at the time, and there were nineteen of us at
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  that time, we did this same thing, did the same photo this
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  past Christmas because he wanted to recreate it.
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  And even though my mom's gone and and Adam's no longer here,
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  there were 43 of us. So from 92.
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  Yeah, that's what we said. So from 92, from 92 to 2022,
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  there's 43 of us that that come out of that house.
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  That's unbelievable. How many square foot is that
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  house? So here's the funny part.
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  I won't tell you what it's 10,000 square feet.
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  This is the funny part. It's a 10,000 square foot house
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  that the man actually lives in, 600 square foot.
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  He goes in one room and watches TV and then he passes through
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  the kitchen. And grab something to eat.
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  And then on the far end of the house, that's how he gets his
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  exercise. On the far end of the house,
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  it's where the bedroom is. And that's it.
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  Those are the only rooms in the house he uses.
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  And he lives there by himself and loves it.
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  I'll tell you, yeah, somebody could break in the house and
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  take everything. From the living room all the way
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  out to the to the no. He'd never know.
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  He'd never know what's gone, man.
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  He probably won't not do it and not know what's gone.
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  I'm scrambled age right now because you know the cow petty
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  charity ride is just is just wonderful and you are such a
• 6:51
  good father. You help your wife Morgan so
• 6:54
  much with those those babies. But remembering you tell stories
• 6:59
  of growing up with your dad and he would come in in the middle
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  of the day and he'd lay down on the hard floor and and making
• 7:06
  some southern type of country sandwich look.
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  What is that? That's no kind of sandwich, man.
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  He made a mayonnaise sandwich. You take two pieces of white
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  bread and you put mayonnaise on both sides, and then you
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  sprinkle pepper on it until it's solid black.
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  And then you put them together, and then you eat it.
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  And that's why he would go to work 8:00 or 9:00 in the
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  morning. They'd work till lunchtime, 12
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  or one. He'd come home, make a
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  mayonnaise sandwich, lay down the middle of the floor, sleep
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  until maybe 2-30 or three, take about an hour, hour and a half
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  nap and then go back to work. Then you come home and have have
• 7:39
  dinner with us and then they go back to work again because
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  that's the way people worked on race cars then and they'd work
• 7:45
  until 10 thirty 11:00 at night. So so they worked on those
• 7:48
  things. There were only three or four of
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  them, him and Dale and Uncle Maurice and those guys.
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  So they worked on these those things all the time.
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  I so I have to say this. So I told somebody he was
• 7:58
  inducted into some Hall of Fame at some point.
• 8:01
  Yeah, And I had to do a thing for him.
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  And I told him, I said, I just want you to imagine what Richard
• 8:06
  Petty what he could have accomplished in life if he had
• 8:09
  worked more than half a day in his life because he slept half a
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  day. That's what I always used to
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  tell people. He's a sleeper dude.
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  He's a sleeper. He can.
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  He goes to sleep about one or two in the morning and he can
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  sleep until 10/30/11 o'clock 11:30 the next day.
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  He he's a good 12 hour sleeper. He's, he's easy.
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  All right, well, listen, this is the cow petty conversation.
• 8:32
  So we could go on. And it's been documented so much
• 8:37
  in that awesome book right here. What a book.
• 8:42
  I mean, I love this book and you know, so I mean I don't want
• 8:46
  Kenny conversation. I want to talk about.
• 8:49
  I want to talk about how I know you.
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  So let's start like this. Kyle Petty 829, NASCAR starts
• 8:59
  88, NASCAR Cup wins and and Kyle eight Cup wins is no joke.
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  I'm telling you this. This finger here is already a
• 9:11
  little abused. I'd cut that off.
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  I really would. I'd cut it off to do what you
• 9:17
  have done. So when you look back 829 starts
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  and that's way up there in cup. What do you think about when you
• 9:28
  look back and and and see those stats?
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  You know what it it's funny, King.
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  So I obviously I grew up beside a race shop and grew up going to
• 9:37
  the race track and that's just all I ever wanted to do.
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  From the time I was little, I'd go to the race shop and sweep
• 9:42
  and then they let me. Sandblast parts and then they
• 9:45
  let me spray bomb parts and paint them and Magna flux them
• 9:49
  and then they taught me how to Weld when I was 12 or 13.
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  So they they let me come through the cycle and I had to work in
• 9:56
  every part of the shop for a year.
• 9:57
  I worked in the engine room for a year, worked as a fabricator
• 10:00
  for a year, worked as. As a mechanic worked in The Body
• 10:03
  Shop. Hated The Body Shop.
• 10:05
  Oh my God. Me too.
• 10:06
  I coughed up petty blue paint for about a year after I worked
• 10:08
  in there. So that's another store petty.
• 10:12
  But I love, I love the fabricating stuff.
• 10:14
  I love, I love being there. So I kind of fell back into that
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  when I when I went through the cycle.
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  But you know what? That's all we did.
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  And it was so funny when I started and you know, I started
• 10:25
  in an ARCA race at Daytona because that was an old Cup car
• 10:29
  and my dad said. You know, we have Cup cars.
• 10:32
  We we don't have late model cars.
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  We don't have what was Grand National, which became Bush,
• 10:37
  which became an Xfinity. We don't have those cars.
• 10:40
  Those cars at the time were the 311 engines, the wider wheels.
• 10:44
  It was just a different animal than what a Cup car was.
• 10:46
  And my dad said we're not buying that stuff.
• 10:48
  If you want a race, you're going to have to run a Cup car.
• 10:50
  So I ran that ARCA race and then the next race I ran was
• 10:52
  Talladega, which was a Cup race. So I had run two races in my
• 10:55
  life, one ARCA race and 1 Cup race, because that's what I did.
• 10:59
  And and that's what our family did.
• 11:00
  We run Cup cars. So you know I I look at it and
• 11:03
  it's funny because I came along at a time when my dad's career
• 11:08
  was at the back end of his career.
• 11:10
  He wasn't as successful. They could win races but not
• 11:13
  like he had won before 1 Daytona.
• 11:16
  You know, won another championship when when we were
• 11:20
  there and we had gone from the bigger cars to the small cars.
• 11:25
  Which is the Buick Regals, the Pontiac Grand Prix, That stuff.
• 11:28
  That's from the old Monte Carlos and the old Dodge Chargers.
• 11:31
  That's that's my reference from old cars, the downsizing, you
• 11:34
  know, we had the Oldsmobiles and then we kept Oh my God.
• 11:37
  Yeah, it was just it was a totally different car.
• 11:41
  Visually, it was totally different compared to that 74
• 11:43
  Dodge Charger, that 76 Charger or that old 7778 Monte Carlo,
• 11:48
  which was huge, man. And all of a sudden you show up
• 11:50
  with a Buick cut or with a Oldsmobile cut list or a Buick
• 11:53
  Regal. And the Pontiacs.
• 11:56
  So it was just a different time. So we were, we were struggling
• 12:00
  at petty enterprises and I was there for a couple years and I
• 12:03
  went to The Wood Brothers and they had never run all the
• 12:07
  races. They had always just run a
• 12:08
  limited schedule. So when I went there, we started
• 12:11
  and got up and running and I was there for two or three years and
• 12:14
  we ran all the races and it took a while for for us to get in the
• 12:17
  rhythm of running all the races as as that group, as Eddie and
• 12:21
  Leon did a tremendous job. Of hiring people and running
• 12:24
  that. And then funny, I told Eddie and
• 12:28
  them. I said one day I was up there
• 12:29
  and I said I know I'm the only one up here that doesn't have
• 12:31
  the last name Wood. So when you get ready to fire
• 12:33
  me, just tell me, man, it'll be okay.
• 12:35
  I understand completely. I got to stop you right there.
• 12:38
  Because when I go to, you know, I wake up and I, I make my
• 12:42
  notes, not like Larry Mac Reynolds and I'll make my notes
• 12:47
  and I'm going to skip way down, you know, And my notes say this.
• 12:54
  One of the questions that I have for you that is to me
• 12:57
  interesting is what you just said.
• 12:59
  You're with Petty enterprises. But I feel like you went out and
• 13:05
  and made your own name. You mean you made Kyle Petty.
• 13:09
  So you you drove for Felix, you drove for The Wood Brothers.
• 13:13
  And I want to be significant on this.
• 13:15
  What team was it, Felix? Was it Woods?
• 13:19
  What team did you have the most fun driving for and meant the
• 13:22
  most to you? So that's a good question.
• 13:27
  That's a good question because it and and this and I'll let me
• 13:31
  finish my other thought when, when so as when I left the the
• 13:35
  woods, I went to Felix and then I started my own team.
• 13:37
  So it seems like if you look back at my career, I was always
• 13:39
  starting a team. You know I was either I was
• 13:42
  either with a team towards the end or either starting something
• 13:45
  to get going. So I've been a part of a lot of
• 13:48
  startups. If anybody wants to start a team
• 13:49
  call I can tell you, I can tell and and you struggled for four
• 13:53
  or five years, three or four years when you start.
• 13:55
  I had. I had a blast driving for The
• 13:59
  Wood Brothers and and let me tell you why, I was 2324 years
• 14:04
  old working with Leonard Wood. A guy that I considered the
• 14:08
  smartest man, maybe ever to walk through a garage bumper, bumper.
• 14:13
  He knew engines, he knew gears, he knew transmissions, he knew
• 14:15
  chassis setups, he knew everything.
• 14:18
  You could not throw a problem at Leonard Wood and probably still
• 14:21
  can't today that he can't figure out on a car.
• 14:24
  It's a different animal now, but the stuff we ran, there was
• 14:27
  nobody in that garage area is smarter, smarter or willing to
• 14:30
  work harder than he was. So I learned a lot from Leonard,
• 14:33
  and I learned a lot from Lynn and Eddie.
• 14:35
  Because they were just taking over their business.
• 14:37
  They were just, it was being handed down to them and it was,
• 14:41
  it was fun. When I went to Felix, I had no
• 14:44
  idea what to expect. Yeah, I rode that roller coaster
• 14:49
  for those first few years, just I rode that roller coaster for
• 14:53
  those first few years. But Felix and I, through time
• 14:57
  became incredibly tight personally, even though we we
• 15:00
  struggled as a team. It didn't mean that we weren't
• 15:03
  good together as people and that that's that's the one thing I've
• 15:07
  taken away through my whole career.
• 15:09
  And and you're the same way, man.
• 15:11
  You are The same way is, yeah. You drive a race car and you're
• 15:15
  loyal to the people you drive for.
• 15:16
  You could have gone a lot of different places there.
• 15:19
  There may have been a chance for me to go other places, but I was
• 15:22
  loyal to The Wood Brothers, loyal to Felix.
• 15:24
  Until they said it's time, it's over.
• 15:26
  I'm going to stay here because I told you that's what I would do.
• 15:29
  I told you I'd come drive your race car, and that's the way it
• 15:31
  was. No matter how we run, we just
• 15:33
  got to keep working and fix it. And I got that the same way you
• 15:36
  did. You grew up with your dad and
• 15:38
  your brother's working on something and that's the car you
• 15:40
  took to the race track on the weekend.
• 15:42
  You took your car and you made the best of it.
• 15:44
  We took our car at Petty Enterprises and we made the best
• 15:47
  of it. We didn't fire people and hire
• 15:49
  people and rotate people. We just dug a little deeper and
• 15:52
  tried to make things work. So that's kind of the way I I I
• 15:54
  approached those, but I I enjoyed Felix.
• 15:57
  Being with Felix was fun. It was different.
• 16:00
  It was a different kind of racing than I had ever done
• 16:02
  because I had been with the family.
• 16:05
  I've been with the Woods family and here all of a sudden I was I
• 16:08
  was with Felix and Felix was was just different.
• 16:11
  It was. The sport was changing during
• 16:13
  that time and you know that when Rick and Roush and Gibbs and
• 16:16
  everybody, the Super teams, were coming in, yes.
• 16:19
  Yeah, yeah, they were. It was not that.
• 16:22
  It was not the family farm anymore.
• 16:23
  It was, it was a corporate farm and and we just weren't a part
• 16:28
  of the corporate farms. It's interesting because I asked
• 16:31
  you, you know, I said you have 829 NASCAR starts, you got eight
• 16:36
  Cup wins and I said what did you think about and you didn't say
• 16:39
  anything about your success. You went right back to being a
• 16:42
  kid. And you know, Kyle, I, I noticed
• 16:45
  that when great athletes, they're really good and then all
• 16:51
  of a sudden like say 10 years goes by after they're done, they
• 16:57
  they skip that, that part. They go right back to their
• 17:00
  childhood and you just did the same thing.
• 17:03
  And I guess I would too, you know, it's like it's like I kind
• 17:05
  of forgot about that whole hardcore life in NASCAR and you
• 17:10
  just did the same thing. Do you think most athletes do
• 17:13
  that? That you ask them about all
• 17:15
  their greatness and then they go right back to their childhood?
• 17:18
  Yeah, because that's where it starts, man.
• 17:20
  That's where it starts. That's where your dreams are.
• 17:22
  You know, I, I, I tell people all the time and and this is a
• 17:26
  part and and listen, you are a phenomenal dirt racer and a
• 17:31
  transition and you and you are and you're still a driver.
• 17:34
  You, you are still a driver. And I I think of, I think of
• 17:37
  Kenny Wallace as a driver, as as a race car driver.
• 17:40
  I still do. There's going to come a day.
• 17:43
  I don't know. Kenny Schrader is still out
• 17:45
  there doing it, so there may not ever come a day.
• 17:49
  But but what I'm But here's what what I tell people all the time
• 17:53
  when I was a little boy, When I was a little boy, we had all
• 17:56
  these crash cars out behind the race shop over there.
• 17:59
  Some of my granddad's cars, some of my dad's convertibles from
• 18:02
  when you run a convertible. And they had 43 painted on the
• 18:05
  side of them, or 41 for for Marvin Patch or or Jim Pasco,
• 18:09
  guys that drove from my father. And these were just torn up race
• 18:12
  cars. They would just strip stuff them
• 18:14
  out in the woods. If you've seen Junior's
• 18:16
  graveyard, we had an incredible graveyard.
• 18:18
  I'm going to tell you because it was 58.
• 18:21
  Yeah, it was 58 in the early 60s, Plymouths and stuff like
• 18:25
  that. When I was a little boy, we'd go
• 18:28
  out in the woods and we'd climb up in those cars and set in the
• 18:30
  seat. And hang on to that steering
• 18:32
  wheel and play like we were driving, man.
• 18:34
  And you're out in the woods, you know, and you look over and
• 18:36
  there's a 42 car beside of your 43 and you're racing that thing,
• 18:39
  man. And I tell people from the time
• 18:42
  I was five or six, six or seven years old, that's all I dreamed
• 18:45
  about was hanging on to a steering wheel and sitting in a
• 18:48
  seat. I didn't dream about BS ING on
• 18:50
  TVI, didn't dream about big time sponsors.
• 18:53
  I didn't dream about commercials.
• 18:55
  I didn't dream about fans. I'm so sorry.
• 18:57
  I didn't dream about you guys. I dreamed about hanging on to
• 19:00
  that steering wheel. And sitting in that seat and
• 19:02
  then you get out of the car and that's the one thing you can't
• 19:06
  do anymore. You you still can do the fan
• 19:09
  thing. You can still have work with
• 19:11
  sponsors and and do all that stuff.
• 19:13
  But the piece that you truly dreamed about when you were a
• 19:15
  kid, you have to put in a box and put somewhere.
• 19:17
  So that's that's always sad when I watch guys.
• 19:20
  That's why I've always been happy for you, because you just
• 19:22
  transitioned into something else and you're still hanging onto a
• 19:25
  steering wheel and then that's so you're living that dream,
• 19:28
  man. You're just living that dream,
• 19:29
  so. I think that's a lot of times.
• 19:31
  That's why you go back to to the beginning and athletes do.
• 19:34
  Because you know you you dream about standing at the plate and
• 19:37
  hitting a home run in the in the World Series or you dream about,
• 19:40
  you know, that buzzer beater when you're a basketball player
• 19:43
  kicking a field goal or running a touchdown or throwing it,
• 19:46
  whatever. You don't dream about all the BS
• 19:48
  that goes along with sports. You dream about the sport
• 19:50
  itself. We don't know.
• 19:52
  We don't. We don't know all the business
• 19:54
  behind that. You know, so much money to do
• 19:56
  this. Yeah.
• 19:57
  True. So, so you know, I can easily
• 20:00
  tell this could be 5 hours. It really could because I have a
• 20:05
  lot in common with you. I I know a lot about you because
• 20:08
  we were teammates. Let's remind everybody that
• 20:13
  let's go like this right now. I believe that after you got
• 20:19
  done racing, I believe you became way more famous because
• 20:25
  you're a rebel. And your your quotes, your your
• 20:29
  answers, your phrases. They ricochet throughout the
• 20:33
  world and media grabs your quotes because you're strong
• 20:38
  minded. They they they found you.
• 20:41
  Media, they found you. You didn't ask for it.
• 20:46
  I feel like you're more famous right now than you've ever been.
• 20:49
  You're on NBC, you're on on big TV and and they still pick your
• 20:53
  quotes up and cow you. You matter because you're a
• 20:59
  historian and that's another subject.
• 21:01
  When I say all that, what do you think?
• 21:05
  Thank you. First I'll say thank you and and
• 21:08
  and I think and I think it all ties together.
• 21:11
  I'm a little bit I'm I'm in in these ways.
• 21:14
  I'm a lot more like my mom. Like my mom was and I'm sure
• 21:18
  you. Do what?
• 21:21
  Opinionated. Opinionated, I got it.
• 21:24
  You're going to hear. But but here's the here's the
• 21:26
  thing. The thing is, it's just like we
• 21:29
  were, we were talking just a minute ago.
• 21:32
  When I think back to the old car, I think back to the Super
• 21:37
  birds of the early seven of 70s of the Ford, you know of the
• 21:40
  Torinos and the and the and the Talladegas, the, the, the and
• 21:45
  the Mercuries that The Wood Brothers would bring to the
• 21:47
  racetrack. And those, those cars are the
• 21:51
  cars of my youth. And those are the cars I think
• 21:53
  about and I started driving them.
• 21:54
  I drove a Magnum, I drove a Monte Carlo, that old Monte
• 21:57
  Carlo like you see so many times.
• 21:59
  Earnhardt drove that number two car, that old Monte Carlo that
• 22:02
  body style. So I drove those cars and then
• 22:05
  transitioned to the small Buicks and all that stuff and then
• 22:08
  transitioned to the next car with the offset body and
• 22:11
  everything and then to the COT's of the early.
• 22:13
  So I've driven a lot of stuff. And The thing is, so I grew up
• 22:17
  going to the racetrack. When I was six, 7-8 years old,
• 22:20
  going with my dad and during the summers and on the weekends,
• 22:23
  hanging out with Pearson and Kale and Bobby and Donnie, even
• 22:27
  though you were a kid, you saw those guys, man.
• 22:29
  You got to hang out with them and they're gods.
• 22:31
  They are gods. They're the sport.
• 22:33
  And then I had an opportunity. Later in the 70s when I started
• 22:37
  racing, Bobby was still here and Kale was still here.
• 22:41
  Kale and I had a hell of a race at Talladega when Bill Elliott
• 22:44
  and lapped himself twice for 2nd.
• 22:46
  And I ended up beating him just barely at the line.
• 22:48
  And that's one of my greatest moments was beating Kel
• 22:51
  Yarbrough to the line at Talladega.
• 22:53
  So there's moments like that that I look at and that's where
• 22:58
  my opinions come from. My opinions come from how I grew
• 23:02
  up. What I've seen in the sport, so
• 23:05
  when somebody says, well, this, this and this and I'm like,
• 23:08
  yeah, but I remember back to 68 and 69, Yeah, I remember back to
• 23:14
  76. You know what I mean?
• 23:17
  So it's different and and so I have an opinion and and you know
• 23:21
  and and you and I are the same way and and this way we've seen
• 23:25
  a lot of drivers come and go. You know what I mean?
• 23:27
  And there's I know a lot of nice guys that can't drive race cars.
• 23:31
  I'm sorry. And I know a lot of, you know,
• 23:34
  horses, rear ends, they can drive the crap out of a race
• 23:37
  car. Ain't that a shame?
• 23:38
  Ain't that a shame? Everybody that drives a race car
• 23:43
  is not a nice guy, but they're not a bad guy either.
• 23:45
  You know what I mean? And and you know, but we've seen
• 23:48
  guys come in with all the hoopla and all the pomp and
• 23:51
  circumstance and never do anything, never do anything.
• 23:54
  And we've seen guys that come in quietly, that just excelled and
• 23:59
  and this Matt Kenziff is a guy that just kind of slid into the
• 24:02
  sport. Went and won a championship and
• 24:04
  just kind of disappeared. Yeah, yeah, Terry Lobonnie, I
• 24:08
  mean, so many guys like that. But they left a mark here and
• 24:11
  because they're great race car drivers.
• 24:12
  So I have opinions when I see somebody drive and just taking
• 24:16
  up, taking up a seat and and wasting oxygen because they
• 24:20
  shouldn't be in that seat because somebody's got more
• 24:22
  money than God and they bought them a seat.
• 24:24
  I don't like that. Yeah, I just don't.
• 24:26
  I'm sorry, because you were in the race shop, you were playing
• 24:29
  in places, sanding things. You used wheel bearings.
• 24:33
  That's right, you packed wheel bearings, you put rear ends
• 24:36
  under the so I I don't like that because I know there's a kid out
• 24:39
  there somewhere who has worked his knuckles and worked his
• 24:42
  fingers until they are bloody dreaming about sitting in that
• 24:46
  seat and holding that steering wheel.
• 24:48
  And he's not going to get a chance.
• 24:50
  Because some 14 year old decided he saw Jeff Gordon on TV.
• 24:53
  And I want to be a superstar like Jeff Gordon.
• 24:55
  Daddy, can you buy me a seat? And he gets a seat.
• 24:58
  And I'm sorry, I I just, I'm not a, I'm not a huge fan.
• 25:01
  I've seen guys come in that way who have been phenomenal race
• 25:05
  car drivers. But I know there's guys in the
• 25:07
  sport right now who are just wasting oxygen, man, just taking
• 25:11
  up a seat somewhere and a good car.
• 25:13
  Somebody else could get in that and maybe we're missing an
• 25:16
  opportunity. At the next Earnhardt.
• 25:18
  At the next Jeff Gordon. At the next Rusty Wallace or
• 25:21
  Jimmy Johnson or whoever. That may be because he's never
• 25:24
  going to get a chance to set in a seat.
• 25:25
  Yeah, you know, I'm going to broach this subject just because
• 25:30
  I feel like I grew up in this era I when I raced locally
• 25:34
  around Saint Louis. So first of all, I never raced
• 25:36
  around Saint Louis. I was with my dad, my brother
• 25:39
  Rusty, Kenny Schrader and ladies and never were allowed in the
• 25:46
  chittery because that's that was a man's world and it was thought
• 25:51
  of as too rough. The the ladies are are
• 25:54
  goddesses. Let's keep them out of harm's
• 25:56
  way, you know. And I feel like here's where the
• 26:00
  Kenny conversation comes in. I remember your father more so.
• 26:05
  And I'm not. I don't want you to answer for
• 26:06
  him, but I kind of, I kind of remember you on this bandwagon
• 26:10
  too. Ladies in the pit area.
• 26:15
  Back in the day, the Pet Petty Enterprises wasn't you.
• 26:19
  You guys didn't like the ladies in in the garage in the pit
• 26:22
  area? It it had never been.
• 26:25
  And and I think that's that's it just never happened.
• 26:28
  You know what I mean? Listen, I remember that this
• 26:30
  true story. I remember being in Riverside,
• 26:33
  CA when Dick Brooks had a sponsor.
• 26:37
  That had a a female. This was back in late 70s, maybe
• 26:42
  early 80s. Had a female VP and she couldn't
• 26:48
  get in the garage area to see a car that her company was
• 26:50
  spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on.
• 26:53
  Hold on, let me back up. NASCAR didn't not allow.
• 26:55
  Ladies, NASCAR didn't let women in the garage.
• 26:58
  That's exactly, yeah. So NASCAR did not allow women.
• 27:01
  In the garage area, yeah. And here and and again here is a
• 27:06
  corporation who is sponsoring a car in a NASCAR series, in the
• 27:10
  elite NASCAR series. And the woman who is in charge
• 27:15
  of the, the finances for that, that company can't get in the
• 27:18
  garage area to see the car because they don't allow women
• 27:20
  in the car. And that's the way the sport
• 27:22
  was. That's just the way the sport.
• 27:24
  And and I'm going to say something.
• 27:25
  So my dad did an interview. I'm going to throw this out
• 27:27
  here. My dad did this.
• 27:29
  Ought to be good. Yeah, my dad did an interview.
• 27:31
  And he was asked that he said what do you think about ladies
• 27:34
  in racing? And and my dad's answer was
• 27:39
  there are no ladies in racing. And the the reporter that asked
• 27:43
  it said named off rattled off 5 or 6 And he said, oh, you mean
• 27:49
  women in racing? My mother's a lady, my
• 27:52
  motherinlaw is a lady and my wife is a lady.
• 27:54
  And a lady would never drive a race car.
• 27:56
  A woman might, but a lady would never drive it.
• 27:59
  So it depends on the phrasing in the South on which way you want
• 28:02
  to go, you know what I mean? And and that's the way he looked
• 28:05
  at it. And you know, I think his
• 28:07
  opinion has changed. But, you know, the the
• 28:09
  technology's changed, the cars have changed, Everything has
• 28:11
  changed. You know, Rusty's a big old boy
• 28:15
  man. Rusty's tall y'all are big old
• 28:17
  guys, you know, and and you look at it and now you look around
• 28:20
  the garage area and yeah, you know.
• 28:25
  We grew up with manual steering, You know what I mean?
• 28:27
  We grew up with so many different things that that it's
• 28:30
  just different. It's not better.
• 28:32
  It's not worse. It's not easier.
• 28:34
  It's not harder. That's not what I'm saying.
• 28:35
  It's just different And and the world changed along with it.
• 28:39
  And that's why, you know, we went at pity enterprises when in
• 28:44
  the early 2000s, you know, we had a couple of female engineers
• 28:47
  that were the smartest engineers we had.
• 28:50
  They were incredible and they looked at the sport totally
• 28:54
  different. Because they looked at it
• 28:55
  strictly engineering. And it was so refreshing to sit
• 28:58
  down with Margaret and a couple of them and just go through the
• 29:01
  data and she would pick things out that I would take for
• 29:04
  granted and I'm that's good. And she's like, no, that's bad.
• 29:07
  And This is why it's bad. And you get to think and it's
• 29:09
  like, Oh my gosh, I understand, Alba, that was Chevrolet.
• 29:14
  Man, incredible woman, incredible woman and an
• 29:18
  incredible pioneer in the sport for that part of it.
• 29:21
  And I had an opportunity to talk to Janet Guthrie and what she
• 29:24
  went through. I can't imagine what she went
• 29:26
  through it that that was tough for her.
• 29:28
  We talked so much about what Bubba goes through or what, you
• 29:32
  know Bill Lester or or other people have gone through in the
• 29:35
  sport. What she went through at a time
• 29:37
  in the 70s is, is was horrific. So, but the world changes and
• 29:42
  the whole sport changes, and it changes for the better in a lot
• 29:45
  of ways. But let me say this from my
• 29:47
  viewpoint. I always like to me the ladies.
• 29:52
  You know like when I would talk to my wife about this Kim, she
• 29:55
  would say, Kenny, I'm a girl. I, you know I don't want to be
• 29:58
  in The Dirty old garage area. It's dangerous.
• 30:00
  So from my viewpoint, Kyle we didn't say ladies who weren't
• 30:05
  shouldn't be in the garage. From being mean it was like,
• 30:08
  hey, you ladies are are dainty. You're you're the love of our
• 30:12
  life. We don't want you in this dirty
• 30:14
  nasty. Scary area.
• 30:16
  Yeah, it was just a different way.
• 30:18
  Listen, there was a different way of looking at it.
• 30:19
  We grew up at a different time and and that didn't make it
• 30:22
  right or wrong. That's not an excuse one way or
• 30:24
  the other. It's just different.
• 30:26
  Listen, I can't go back and fix my childhood.
• 30:28
  I can't go back and fix how I was raised and I don't want.
• 30:31
  So I'm going to keep some of those values and and that's what
• 30:34
  I'm going to do and I'm going to move forward from where we're at
• 30:36
  now. That's all.
• 30:37
  That's all any of us can do, whether on anything like that.
• 30:40
  The way I look at it moving forward now, so you are a When I
• 30:45
  say when I say this, I mean capital letters.
• 30:48
  You are a free spirit. Free spirit means your hair's in
• 30:52
  a ponytail. Lynyrd Skynyrd, you're from the
• 30:54
  South. However, you're going to go to
• 30:57
  New York to get your hair cut. You know, 30 years ago the media
• 31:01
  followed you there. You know you're going to grab a
• 31:05
  guitar like you did one week ago to an unbelievably sold out
• 31:11
  concert. So is the free spirit.
• 31:14
  And I see the Wood Brother kids are a little bit like that from
• 31:17
  being in the mountains of Virginia.
• 31:18
  It does shock me that you all are like this.
• 31:22
  The Wood Brother kids you this free spirit.
• 31:25
  Does it come from your Mama? A little bit.
• 31:28
  A little bit. I think it does.
• 31:31
  Are you? Rebellious.
• 31:33
  Yeah. More from her.
• 31:34
  Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing.
• 31:37
  I think this is what she taught me, OK?
• 31:40
  I think this is what she taught me and this is what you learn.
• 31:42
  I I think you learn this, this racing.
• 31:45
  OK, so yeah, And. And what's that number again?
• 31:48
  I ran how many races, 800 and what 829?
• 31:52
  NASCAR starts with eight NASCAR Cup wins. 829 and I lost 821 OK
• 31:58
  no. No, no, no.
• 32:01
  Yeah, but here's here's my point.
• 32:02
  Here's my point. I lost 821 times, which means
• 32:06
  that I failed to reach my objective 821 times because
• 32:11
  that's that's the way you look at my dad won 200 races.
• 32:14
  But he lost 915 or or something and you look at it like that.
• 32:20
  So the point is I think the way I was raised and what and
• 32:24
  growing up that way is I was not afraid to lose.
• 32:29
  And I'm not afraid to fail. I'm more afraid not to try.
• 32:32
  I just want to go try things and and that's where that free
• 32:35
  spirit and that that rebellion comes from.
• 32:37
  If somebody says let's go ride a bull, I'm like, let's go do it,
• 32:40
  man, somebody says. Jump out.
• 32:44
  And because I don't want to be, I don't want to get to be 96
• 32:48
  years old and in an assisted living home and hear everybody
• 32:53
  else's stories. I want to hear when I'm at the
• 32:55
  nursing home and somebody says, anybody ever ride a ball, I'm
• 32:57
  going to raise my cane in the air and shake it.
• 32:59
  And then, you know, anybody ever fly around the world, I'm going
• 33:04
  to raise my hand, You know, just whatever it may be.
• 33:08
  I I I was only on that bull for like .9 seconds, man.
• 33:11
  It wasn't like I rode the bull. I just said on the bull and he
• 33:14
  threw me off. But at least I said on the
• 33:15
  thing. You know what I mean?
• 33:16
  So that's my point I think. I think that's the way I I was
• 33:20
  raised not only from my mom but just the atmosphere you're
• 33:25
  raised in. You're going to lose.
• 33:26
  You're going to get beat. But that doesn't mean you don't
• 33:29
  embrace it. You got to go try.
• 33:31
  You got to go try and you got to give it everything you can while
• 33:33
  you're trying and then pick yourself up off the ground and
• 33:36
  go do it again and. My granddad did, and that's what
• 33:37
  my dad did. And that's what I do, Yeah.
• 33:40
  And in that same arena, you've been to the Grand Ole Opry.
• 33:46
  You know, when you and I work together at Speed or FS1, you
• 33:50
  would bring your guitar and you know you don't drink, but we'd
• 33:55
  all grab a little bit of beer and we come into your hotel
• 33:58
  room, be about six of us and you're not shy at all.
• 34:02
  You just picked that guitar up so and and and we'd have a good
• 34:05
  time and I love that so much about you and you've taught me
• 34:10
  to be who I am. But you just got done playing a
• 34:13
  concert last week to sold out. Where where do these songs come
• 34:19
  from? Where do your where do your
• 34:21
  guitar skills come from? Because I couldn't play a good
• 34:24
  if you if I tried I want to because I want to be cool as
• 34:27
  you. That's.
• 34:30
  So awesome. The songs, you know, I I don't
• 34:32
  know. Where the songs come from?
• 34:34
  I I honestly don't listen. I I tell people all the time.
• 34:37
  I was when I went to school. This true story came when I went
• 34:41
  to school. I hated reading, man.
• 34:43
  I hated reading one time and and I had a teacher.
• 34:47
  Finally when I got got to the 4th grade, 5th grade, right
• 34:51
  along there I had a teacher and she talked, told my mom, she
• 34:55
  said he's got a reader, we're going, we're just not going to
• 34:56
  let him go forward. He's This is as far as he's
• 34:58
  going to make it. So my mom said, so the teacher
• 35:02
  said what does he read? And my mom says he he reads,
• 35:07
  he's constantly in with his nose in Speed Sport News or in stock
• 35:13
  car racing magazine and the teacher said send me some of
• 35:16
  them. So my mom took a stack of stock
• 35:20
  car racing magazines and a stack of speed sport news and my
• 35:23
  teacher circled him with a a magic marker and she said I want
• 35:27
  you to read this story. And write me a report on it and
• 35:30
  I would read it. Anything, man.
• 35:32
  Man. I read about Lloyd Ruby, I read
• 35:34
  about David Pearson. I read stories about guys that
• 35:37
  run Ritchie Evans running Modifieds.
• 35:39
  And I'd write a write a report and that's how I that's how I
• 35:41
  got through 4th or 5th grade was because the teacher had enough
• 35:45
  sense to know I didn't care about the other stuff.
• 35:47
  But she said you got to read no matter what.
• 35:49
  So the song stuff has kind of. That's really and doing that
• 35:55
  it's just. Kind of stuff I've done and
• 35:57
  stories I've I've experienced. I just started writing stuff
• 36:00
  down. The music stuff come from Marty
• 36:01
  Robbins because Marty Robbins used to, you know, Paso.
• 36:07
  He used to come to the race track and hit set by the pool
• 36:09
  and play guitar. Oh, really?
• 36:10
  That had to be unbelievable. Oh, it was crazy, man.
• 36:13
  You'd. Be out by a swimming pool in
• 36:15
  Talladega, AL and Pearson be sitting there, my dad, Bobby or
• 36:18
  Donnie and they'd be a bunch of fans.
• 36:21
  Whoever stayed at the hotel, you know, it'd be 20-30. 40 people
• 36:23
  hanging out. And Marty just be sitting there
• 36:26
  singing, you know, big iron on his hip or El Paso or something.
• 36:29
  What a great story you saw. And I thought, Oh my God.
• 36:32
  Man, I'm gonna learn to play that box, man.
• 36:34
  I'm gonna. I'm gonna get me one of those
• 36:36
  things and learn to play it. And that's I was 12 years old, I
• 36:39
  think then. So I learned to play when I was
• 36:40
  12 or 13. I've never got any better.
• 36:42
  I'm 63 now. I never got any better.
• 36:44
  But I still play. Tell you what now out of out of
• 36:47
  everything we just talked about to me, that takes my mind.
• 36:50
  And I'm. I'm like in a hallway.
• 36:52
  I'm focused in because I can remember, you know, us staying
• 36:55
  at. Was it Thunderbird in Florence?
• 36:59
  And all the teams were white. And you know, I I came in in 84
• 37:03
  and you know, all the crew members would drag a cooler out
• 37:08
  of their bedrooms and we'd. All from say they kick us out of
• 37:12
  the garage at 5:00 and we drink beer till seven.
• 37:15
  And those were the days, weren't they calm?
• 37:18
  They were man remember and. Listen, you talk about carrying
• 37:21
  a cooler. We you get a cooler, you order
• 37:23
  pizzas, hang out in the parking lot, whatever it may be.
• 37:25
  Remember, we went to Riverside and changed over those cars in
• 37:29
  the parking lot, switched over the the the fuel necks and
• 37:32
  everything, and we're just out in the middle of the American
• 37:34
  Motor Lodge in Riverside, CA, welding and grinding and
• 37:38
  cutting. So everybody's working on
• 37:40
  everybody else's cars. That's the cool part about it.
• 37:43
  I got to tell that story real quick because I'm proud of that
• 37:46
  1984. The team that I was with, the
• 37:49
  Levi Garrett team, we took our car and we piggybacked is what
• 37:53
  they called it back in the day. And we put that Levi Garrett car
• 37:57
  with driver Joe Robin on your hauler.
• 37:59
  The 711, I was at the 711 car. Well, I wanted to help you and
• 38:06
  you said Kenny, you know, take my battery from the left, put it
• 38:10
  on the right, take my fuel neck. And I kind of, you know, when I
• 38:14
  look back on, I said holy crap, you know here I am out of
• 38:17
  Arnold, MO working on, you know, we we were all together.
• 38:22
  That's right, we were all together.
• 38:23
  Man it you know how it was. You travel down the road truck
• 38:26
  breakdown. Everybody had stopped pull off
• 38:28
  and you and you went together and then you you you go again
• 38:30
  and and trucks broke down then you know what I mean?
• 38:33
  It's not it is now, man. You used to break down on the
• 38:36
  side of the road. Have to change the tire by
• 38:37
  yourself. On one of those big trailers and
• 38:39
  stuff. So but that's that was the
• 38:41
  spirit that was for me. And you talk about coming out of
• 38:45
  Arnold, MO and going with your dad to the race track.
• 38:48
  That's what people did at a local race track that they
• 38:50
  helped each other. Man, something happened.
• 38:52
  You helped each other. You just happen to be with in a
• 38:54
  different league in a different place.
• 38:56
  But the people were the same people.
• 38:57
  They were the people that came from from Arnold, MO.
• 39:00
  They were the people that came from, you know, the mountains of
• 39:02
  Virginia or or. You know of or Tennessee to work
• 39:05
  on race cars. And that's what they did because
• 39:07
  the race car was the common denominator and that's all they
• 39:10
  loved and all they cared about was being able to to go and it
• 39:12
  was listen, you know it there was nothing better than loaning
• 39:16
  a guy your parts or your springs and then going out and kicking
• 39:19
  his butt, you know? But you loaned it.
• 39:22
  You tried to help him. Hey, I tried to help you, dude.
• 39:24
  I just had to beat you in the end.
• 39:25
  Sorry. Yeah, you, you know, there's an
• 39:27
  old saying, be careful young man, competition to kill you.
• 39:31
  But on the other hand, you don't want to race by yourself.
• 39:35
  You you, you have to have people to race against to be good.
• 39:39
  Well, I believe, you know, obviously that's where your
• 39:43
  historian, your storytelling comes from because you know,
• 39:46
  Petty Enterprises. Who were you without racing
• 39:49
  against Kale or Donnie? We we got to have competitors.
• 39:53
  Yeah, you and you know it. You.
• 39:54
  Saw it. You saw it when you came up.
• 39:57
  You saw it in rusty first. You You probably saw it in rusty
• 40:00
  first. You saw Rusty.
• 40:02
  Race local and then moved to a SA and he had to up his game
• 40:06
  when he went to a SA because he raced against better people.
• 40:09
  Mark Martin, Dick Trickle, Seneca.
• 40:12
  Those guys made him a better race car driver, you know what I
• 40:15
  mean? And then when he came to cop
• 40:17
  those guys, Earnhardt and and all those guys made him a better
• 40:20
  race car driver. Same with you.
• 40:22
  As you come up and and you're racing against Tommy Ellis and
• 40:25
  and all these guys, they make you a better race car driver.
• 40:28
  And I'm saying you've got to get better or you get out.
• 40:30
  That's the way that that's what I learned to get gnarly at South
• 40:33
  Boston and Rouge. Yeah, that's exactly.
• 40:35
  You got to go, you've got to go do it and you got to stand toe
• 40:38
  to toe whether you have the experience or not.
• 40:40
  You got to make them believe you can stand toe to toe with them
• 40:44
  and you get better because of that.
• 40:46
  And when that race is over with and you've run second to Jack
• 40:49
  Ingram and you've been banging on his rear bumper, you go back
• 40:52
  to the hotel and you look at yourself in the mirror and you
• 40:54
  say, damn good job, man, I'm becoming a race car driver, you
• 40:57
  know what I mean? Because those guys, even when
• 40:59
  they beat you, they made you a better race car driver.
• 41:02
  So that's that is that's always, yeah, competition.
• 41:05
  You play against better people. There's a lot of big fish and
• 41:08
  little ponds that think they can do it, but when they get to a
• 41:10
  big pond, they don't always get to do it.
• 41:12
  They don't. They're not always that good.
• 41:14
  But a lot of guys rise to that occasion and that's when you get
• 41:17
  to Xfinity and you get to the Cup series.
• 41:20
  Those two pawns are are big, big pawns, man.
• 41:22
  If you can win in those series, you're doing good, you know.
• 41:26
  You, you mentioned something right there that just really hit
• 41:29
  home. First of all, NASCAR is the
• 41:31
  biggest form of Motorsports in America.
• 41:34
  You know, Formula One's doing their own deal, But everybody.
• 41:38
  I even talked to Jonathan Davenport about this.
• 41:40
  You know the greatest dirt racer in our world?
• 41:43
  Everybody says. Oh yeah.
• 41:45
  I mean, everybody wants to be in NASCAR, so you bring up a good
• 41:50
  point when you go to NASCAR. I mean, in reality, most of the
• 41:55
  drivers, if you put them in dirt car, they're going to kick ass.
• 42:00
  You know, everybody is what is that cow?
• 42:04
  The best get to NASCAR. Why is that?
• 42:07
  You know what? They just find their way there
• 42:11
  and I don't know. And listen and I don't.
• 42:13
  I don't know I don't know how I I always and and I know you're
• 42:17
  you're the same way you know when when you run a cop and you
• 42:21
  run the Xfinity and you and you look and you roll into a
• 42:24
  racetrack and and let's let's throw the truck let's Truck
• 42:27
  Series if you say the truck and the cop our truck Xfinity and
• 42:31
  cop on any given weekend and and you roll in there and there's
• 42:36
  we'll just use the #35. So that that's what 70 that's
• 42:40
  105 in my opinion there's 100 and 105 of the best drivers that
• 42:47
  that that we have that NASCAR has in that racetrack on that
• 42:52
  weekend. You know what I mean.
• 42:53
  And and but the fascinating part is there's somebody out in Iowa
• 42:58
  that's kicking butt that could do it too.
• 43:00
  There's somebody down in South Florida who's kicking butt that
• 43:03
  could do it too. There's somebody running midgets
• 43:05
  in Texas or Sprint cars in Texas they could come and do it too.
• 43:09
  He just hadn't had the opportunity.
• 43:11
  The trick is when a new one comes in one gets kicked out and
• 43:16
  and we're seeing that this year with some guys retiring like
• 43:18
  like Harvick and those guys retiring.
• 43:20
  But the the The thing is, is you want to get there because it's
• 43:25
  like the big stage, the automakers, the.
• 43:27
  Automakers are trying to find the best, right?
• 43:29
  Like with Kyle. Yeah, they're trying.
• 43:32
  You know Toyota, remember we used to have a gong show with
• 43:36
  with Ralph. Yeah, the owners used to try it
• 43:40
  and now the manufacturers do it, you know what I mean?
• 43:43
  And and some of the manufacturers do a good job.
• 43:45
  Toyota does a great job at it. But the problem is and and this
• 43:49
  is the problem with with any of these scenarios is so Kevin
• 43:54
  Harvick retires and and there's an opening there.
• 44:00
  But when you look around the garage area and you look at and
• 44:04
  and I'll take the Hendrick organization, when you look at
• 44:07
  William Byron Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman,
• 44:14
  listen, there may not become a seat.
• 44:15
  Open up there for another 10 years. 10 years.
• 44:18
  They're young, yeah. They're incredibly young.
• 44:21
  So that means there's a 7 or 8 year old out there, okay or 8 or
• 44:26
  9 year old that if he starts now, he may get a Hendrick ride
• 44:31
  in 10 years. But that that guy that's 16
• 44:33
  probably not going to get a Hendrick right, because there's
• 44:35
  just no opening. You know what I mean it it's a
• 44:37
  it's a crazy, it's a crazy way of looking at.
• 44:40
  But there's listen, there's a lot of people and and my dad
• 44:43
  used to say this and he'd get mad at me because I wasn't doing
• 44:46
  something right and he'd say, you know, I I could probably go
• 44:49
  up in the grandstand and get somebody to do about this.
• 44:52
  And and I used to laugh at him, but the older I got, I realized
• 44:56
  there probably was somebody sitting in the grandstand on
• 44:59
  certain days that it would have been a better choice than Kyle
• 45:02
  Petty's sitting in a race car. And in all honesty, because
• 45:05
  there was probably somebody there who run a local short
• 45:08
  track who would give his little finger, like you said, to just
• 45:12
  sit in one of those things and hang on to a steering wheel.
• 45:15
  And. And when you have that desire in
• 45:17
  that heart, man, you can't see that.
• 45:19
  You can't see that from the outside.
• 45:20
  You can't see it until they get in the car.
• 45:22
  You know Kenny Schrader. Used to say something that made
• 45:25
  me laugh and he and he still will say it, but I mean this
• 45:28
  serious. It's almost what we're talking
• 45:32
  about right now that you know, and Dale Senior told me this,
• 45:35
  Herman, there's thousands of great race car drivers all over
• 45:38
  the world. And Schrader would say it's not
• 45:42
  how you run, it's how you place the blame.
• 45:45
  And we'd all laugh, but you know Kyle, it is extremely hard and I
• 45:51
  think it's impossible to have the greatest drivers.
• 45:55
  So I mean it's just something that it's a conversation point.
• 45:58
  It's something we live on. And and one more quote, I'm I'm
• 46:01
  that old now that it was Bill Elliott, he said, Herman, it's
• 46:07
  all about timing and circumstances.
• 46:10
  So, Kyle, I don't think this subject ever gets solved and
• 46:14
  that no, it doesn't. It it listen it never does and
• 46:16
  it never will and it never will and it and it is all it's all
• 46:19
  about timing. Being in the right place going
• 46:23
  left instead of going right whatever choice you choose That
• 46:25
  day you got up at 6:05 instead of getting up at at 6:30 that
• 46:30
  day. You were the first one there.
• 46:31
  That's just the way it is. Yeah.
• 46:32
  And I used to tell people all the time we used to get we used
• 46:35
  to get 1000 resumes at petty enterprises for people to come
• 46:38
  to work and we never really paid attention to them.
• 46:41
  But if a guy quit and you walked in you got the job.
• 46:44
  That's how simple it was because you were right place right time
• 46:47
  that that's. But it is the the funny part to
• 46:50
  me is I don't think as you look back through and everybody wants
• 46:56
  to you know this guy was great. This guy was great.
• 46:59
  This guy did this, this guy did that.
• 47:01
  Yeah, it's hard to compare errors in this sport because
• 47:04
  they just continue to change. We have been incredibly blessed
• 47:08
  I think in this sport to have so many great drivers who have won
• 47:13
  championships who have won you know 50 plus races that that 50
• 47:18
  number and and I'm going to I'll say this that 50 number and and
• 47:23
  and Rusty's in the 50 what's rusty 15555.
• 47:27
  So that 50 number is in the future and in the future to me
• 47:33
  and the not too distant future it's going to be like that 200
• 47:36
  number of Richard Petty. You're not going to get 50.
• 47:38
  You know what I mean? You come along now.
• 47:41
  Yeah. And.
• 47:41
  And if you you end your career with 30 or 35 wins because these
• 47:44
  guys are going to retire a little bit sooner, the
• 47:46
  competition is so much greater. You don't see guys winning 10
• 47:49
  races a year. You don't see guys winning nine.
• 47:51
  I can't believe William Byron has won five this year.
• 47:54
  You know what I mean? Yeah.
• 47:56
  So you get that's a huge, huge year five wins, but you get
• 48:00
  three or four wins, you get two or three wins, you know you get
• 48:03
  three wins a year and you run 10 or 15 years you're only at 45
• 48:06
  wins, you're not going to get to 50, I'm sorry.
• 48:09
  And and it's it's that number is going to be so elusive man.
• 48:12
  So if you've those guys that have won, that are are rare
• 48:15
  talents who have gone above that 50 mark or rare talents in this
• 48:18
  sport, so here we are at 40. 6 minutes already and you're
• 48:22
  making me think differently and and we got to start wrapping it
• 48:25
  up but I knew this would happen so so my I want to hear your
• 48:30
  opinion on this. Here's what I believe.
• 48:34
  I believe 40 years old is the new 50.
• 48:38
  So we saw Harry Gant, we saw Rusty, we saw your dad.
• 48:43
  But as you bring up. You said this, now these kids
• 48:46
  are starting racing at 5. Tony Urry Junior's got his five
• 48:51
  year old kid the helmets just to bopping around in the go Kart.
• 48:54
  They're starting at 5 and when they get to be 40 it's like
• 48:58
  being 50. So, so Cal, more drivers are
• 49:02
  retiring at 42 now more than ever.
• 49:06
  What's your thought on that? I think you're going to see that
• 49:09
  and and for for a couple of different reasons.
• 49:12
  You know, we look at, you know what's Joey Logano 3132,
• 49:17
  something like 33. Yeah, he's early 30s, he's early
• 49:20
  30s. Kyle Larson, you know, late 20s,
• 49:23
  early 30s, you know, William Byron, mid 20s right along
• 49:27
  there. So I see this point.
• 49:29
  They've already. Done it all?
• 49:30
  Yeah, they've already done. They've already won
• 49:32
  championships, championships, yeah, they've already won races
• 49:35
  and and The thing is that they don't.
• 49:37
  They're going to get to that place.
• 49:39
  That and and Kyle Bush is a perfect example.
• 49:42
  I did it. I did an interview with Kyle
• 49:44
  Bush and we were talking about the truck.
• 49:46
  I love your all your shows. Dinner with coffee.
• 49:49
  It's all good stuff. Thank you, ma'am.
• 49:51
  But we were talking about the Truck team and his goal is to to
• 49:55
  run long enough to run a few more years in Cup, whatever that
• 49:58
  number may be. Then step back and run the Truck
• 50:02
  Series until if Brexton comes then so Brexton comes then they
• 50:08
  run together for a year or two and he steps out.
• 50:11
  So that's his exit strategy. That's not Kyle Bush running a
• 50:15
  Cup car at 45 years old. That's just not his strategy is
• 50:19
  already in place for where he wants to be.
• 50:22
  And and that's what I'm saying, these guys will get to their
• 50:24
  late 30s and the point is at 37 or 38 if if I take, if I take
• 50:30
  some kid out to 37 or 38, you've got Braxton Bush coming along
• 50:35
  who's got tons of experience, They're in the pipeline.
• 50:39
  Yeah, already there. He's coming along.
• 50:41
  So The thing is, the younger drivers with that and with all
• 50:46
  this simulation that they got now, they can experience days
• 50:50
  and days and days in a simulator and just get so much.
• 50:54
  You and I, we would go, you know, you go to Martinsville,
• 50:57
  you get 2 hours of practice in the morning, two hours, so 4
• 51:00
  hours. They can spend 4 hours in a
• 51:02
  simulator before lunchtime, go eat lunch and come back and
• 51:05
  spend three or four more. They get double the experience.
• 51:08
  It's simulation. Don't get me wrong, it's really
• 51:10
  good. I've never even.
• 51:11
  Seen it? Yeah, but we.
• 51:12
  But. But The thing is, you're seeing
• 51:14
  these guys learn a different way.
• 51:17
  They don't have to wreck cars. They don't have to do it.
• 51:19
  They learn and the way the car is with all the simulation and
• 51:23
  all the things engineering wise, it's just a different animal.
• 51:25
  So it's going to trend to a younger driver and the older
• 51:29
  drivers I believe are going to be have to retire a little bit
• 51:33
  earlier. So like you say, I believe
• 51:35
  you're that's correct. The 40 is 40 is the new 50 you
• 51:38
  know from from that perspective. And when you get to that, that's
• 51:41
  where the wind total comes down, that's where the top fives come
• 51:44
  down, the top tens come down. All those numbers are going to
• 51:47
  have to be adjusted to a different place because we're
• 51:49
  not going to see guys you know run 7800 races in a career
• 51:54
  anymore. It's just not.
• 51:55
  It's it's that the market that won't stand it anymore.
• 51:58
  We. We.
• 52:00
  Got a group that goes to the movies every Tuesday night?
• 52:02
  It's we're cheap here. It's like $5 night at the
• 52:04
  movies. Well, last week we saw a really
• 52:07
  good movie called Gran Turismo. True story about SIM drivers.
• 52:11
  You know over in Formula One or you know the 24 hours end up I
• 52:16
  am caught off guard. You know, I guess there is
• 52:19
  simulation for airplane pilots. Yes.
• 52:22
  And I guess they've really made this real for racing.
• 52:25
  I mean, it's the real deal, ain't it, Cal?
• 52:27
  Yeah, it is. Idiot.
• 52:28
  Listen, I was I have a pilot's license.
• 52:31
  Rusty has a pilot's license. Long.
• 52:33
  Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to to go to Winston and
• 52:36
  get in a simulator and try to land a jumbo jet in Chicago.
• 52:42
  And let me tell you something, when you miss the runway and a
• 52:44
  jumbo jet, even if it's on a simulator, it is a weird feeling
• 52:48
  because you feel like you are in there, you know what I mean?
• 52:52
  And the adrenaline's pumping. And that's the way these cars
• 52:54
  are. That's the way the simulation is
• 52:56
  now. It's it's not, you know, there's
• 52:58
  our racing and there there's all this, but there's so much.
• 53:01
  It is so technical and and you know a lot of guys are, you
• 53:07
  know, I don't want to do that. You know Martin Truex, I don't
• 53:09
  ever go do that. But we heard this week Martin
• 53:11
  Truex spent hours in the simulator getting ready for
• 53:13
  Bristol because he needed to move out of this round to the
• 53:16
  next round. Kevin Harvick, Guys like that
• 53:19
  who didn't grow up that way are having to relearn it, are having
• 53:23
  to go back a little bit. But now we see guys like Alex
• 53:26
  Bowman, who's just spent years in a simulator, like William
• 53:29
  Byron, who has spent forever on our racing and in a simulator,
• 53:32
  you know, Josh Berry, who came up that way.
• 53:34
  And that's it. That's how people begin to know
• 53:36
  who he was from our racing and stuff.
• 53:38
  So when you look at it, there's another door that's opened up
• 53:41
  for these guys to come into the sport and they're going to come
• 53:43
  in younger and they're going to be better at a younger age.
• 53:47
  But I just don't think they're going to.
• 53:48
  They're going to ride that wave like like Rusty did, like my dad
• 53:52
  did, like Bobby Allison did, like those old guys did.
• 53:55
  But the other thing, too, is this.
• 53:57
  And I will say this is another factor.
• 54:00
  Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Kale, my dad, all those guys,
• 54:04
  they drove until over 51 or 52 because they had to make a
• 54:08
  living. That's how they made a living.
• 54:10
  That's it. They didn't have the option to
• 54:13
  retire at 38 or 45. They had to make a living for
• 54:16
  their family and they had to keep the businesses that they
• 54:18
  were part of in business. Now these guys make so much
• 54:22
  money. Yeah, honestly.
• 54:24
  You know, they could retire 28. Carl Edwards, yeah.
• 54:28
  And they're out. They don't have to and they
• 54:30
  never, they never look back and they don't, they don't regret it
• 54:33
  from a financial aspect. If if those old guys retired
• 54:37
  early like that, man, they would have regretted it for the rest
• 54:40
  of their life. They could.
• 54:42
  And. And they love the sport.
• 54:43
  It was a different love than it is now.
• 54:44
  I think we're coming to. The End of Kenny conversation
• 54:48
  and. I have something on my mind and
• 54:51
  you know I can be a prick like you can, but but I also am a
• 54:55
  lover. And you know my I I was
• 54:58
  miserable my whole life in the Cup Series, just miserable.
• 55:02
  And my momma knew it and she would always try to help me
• 55:06
  through it. And she would say, you're going
• 55:08
  to get your new. And here I am, 60 years old now,
• 55:12
  and I love my life. This is the happiest I've ever
• 55:16
  been. And my momma would say, see.
• 55:19
  I told you, and I just want to say, from my viewpoint, you're
• 55:25
  the best Kyle Petty that I've ever seen.
• 55:28
  Right now, there's something about getting older that I
• 55:32
  appreciate more. And Kyle, I appreciate you more
• 55:36
  right now for what you do. Like I said, you and I can be
• 55:41
  smart asses and we'll go to war. But what you do for that banner
• 55:46
  behind you for your son Adam, the Kyle Petty.
• 55:49
  Charity ride. It is unbelievable and you told
• 55:53
  me you said Kenny, you know I went on it.
• 55:56
  I'm going to continue to go on it.
• 55:58
  Yes, you are. Yeah, you said.
• 56:00
  And I want you to comment on this.
• 56:01
  I know I'm long winded, but you said I used to think it was
• 56:05
  about motorcycles and you said it's it's about the people.
• 56:09
  We're in a good place. Aren't we right now, Kyle?
• 56:12
  You know we are and and and and that.
• 56:15
  That's the funny part, Kenny. I think, and I think it does
• 56:18
  come with getting old. I think it comes with with with
• 56:22
  going through a lot of stuff in your life and you've been doing
• 56:25
  a ton of stuff in your life, You know, we both have and and you
• 56:29
  learn from that. You know, if you don't learn
• 56:30
  from it, shame on us, you know. But but The thing is, you wake
• 56:34
  up one day and you realize, man, I don't have to be the center of
• 56:39
  attention. I don't have to be the
• 56:41
  superstar. I don't have to work my butt
• 56:42
  off. I seek attention.
• 56:44
  Yeah, I just. I like people.
• 56:45
  I like being around people and so and the motorcycle thing man
• 56:48
  I always just love motorcycles and the more I ride and the more
• 56:52
  people that come and ride and and you met all the people on
• 56:55
  our ride wonder if this good people.
• 56:57
  Man, they have good hearts. They have caring hearts.
• 57:00
  They're in every line of business, from working on race
• 57:02
  cars to owning multimillion dollar corporations.
• 57:06
  It's crazy, the diversity of the of the people that come and
• 57:08
  ride. But the one thing they have in
• 57:11
  common is they care. They give back.
• 57:13
  They want to do something special for camp.
• 57:15
  They want to do something special for kids.
• 57:17
  And they like being with each other.
• 57:19
  And for me that that's that's the deal, you know, is I don't
• 57:23
  have time and and and you mentioned, you know, the Cup.
• 57:28
  Listen, there were years I was miserable driving a Cup car.
• 57:31
  The only time I was never miserable was sitting in the
• 57:33
  seat. And I say that the only time I
• 57:37
  was getting in that seat and hanging on and I'll say that
• 57:39
  forever. But but The thing is that you
• 57:43
  you get to that place in life where you just don't want the
• 57:47
  negative stuff. Man.
• 57:49
  I I don't exhausting. Just be positive.
• 57:52
  You know I'm I'm a I'm a glass half full.
• 57:54
  Just let's do it. You know looks like and and it's
• 57:57
  like well it looks like that house is burning down.
• 57:58
  Yeah. But none of the trees got
• 58:00
  killed, so that's. You got to find the bright
• 58:04
  spots, man. You got to find, and that's kind
• 58:06
  of the way you are. And when you look at life from
• 58:08
  that side and you don't surround yourself with people that are
• 58:12
  complaining because you don't drive hard enough or you don't
• 58:15
  get get the most out of car. Yeah, he's driving 2 car leads
• 58:19
  further into every corner than you are.
• 58:21
  Well then get him over here. Let him drive with this piece of
• 58:23
  crap because it won't go two cars further and there we're
• 58:25
  going to wreck it, you know? But it's one of those things
• 58:28
  where you just get rid of that negativity, man.
• 58:30
  That's what's been that Morgan and these little boys are are
• 58:34
  the most precious thing. And I know Kim's always been.
• 58:37
  And your your your girls have always been.
• 58:39
  You have always been an amazing dad that just heap praises and
• 58:44
  heaps love on those kids and and you always man I I remember
• 58:48
  working with you and we do stuff and you call your daughters a
• 58:51
  call or they come to the race track and Kim was always there
• 58:54
  man and and that that's special and that says a lot that says a
• 58:59
  lot about you you know and that says a lot about the man.
• 59:02
  I think. I think, you know I will say
• 59:05
  this. I think we all grow up and we
• 59:08
  all, we do things, you know, and and you become known as this guy
• 59:12
  or that guy or whatever. And that's what you do.
• 59:16
  But who you are is how you treat your wife and how you treat your
• 59:19
  kids and how you treat other people.
• 59:22
  And you are the man of the mountain when it comes to
• 59:24
  treating people right and being being kind and being nice.
• 59:28
  You're an example for for everyone and always have been
• 59:30
  for me, because you always laugh, always smile that you may
• 59:33
  go in the room and bang your head against the wall.
• 59:35
  I don't know. Yeah, we all do that.
• 59:38
  We all do that. But I'm telling you, man, you
• 59:41
  are I I still let me, I I have to tell you this.
• 59:44
  I was at a thing last night in this true story and I told
• 59:49
  somebody I was coming to this thing and I was at an event for
• 59:52
  camp and a guy said, hey, I got a friend.
• 59:55
  It goes on that ride with you and his name's John Gurley and
• 59:58
  he goes on the ride and he said, and John Gurley was talking
• 1:00:01
  about when you did that, that thing on stage with Kenny
• 1:00:04
  Schrader and Kenny Wallace. And I said one of the greatest
• 1:00:07
  nights on ride history. And listen, here I am in North
• 1:00:11
  Carolina with. Somebody who wasn't.
• 1:00:13
  Even there and he's going to drop that picture right here,
• 1:00:16
  he's talking about the Kenny and Kenny.
• 1:00:18
  Show on the charity ride and I'm like that was that was a
• 1:00:20
  fantastic night and that's who. That's what I take away from all
• 1:00:24
  my years in racing, is nights like that and times like that
• 1:00:28
  and conversations like this. So I appreciate you more than
• 1:00:31
  you'll ever know. And I love you.
• 1:00:32
  You know that. Listen, I put it on Twitter all
• 1:00:34
  the time. People think I got a bro crush
• 1:00:36
  on you because I tell you all the time on Twitter that I love
• 1:00:38
  you. But we care about each other
• 1:00:41
  quickly before we get to the hardcore ending, which is going
• 1:00:44
  to be your opinion on some NASCAR stuff.
• 1:00:47
  I know Morgan will like this. Where are we starting this year
• 1:00:51
  for the Kyle Petty charity, right?
• 1:00:52
  And what are the dates? Oh man, Jenny.
• 1:00:55
  When's the dates? What?
• 1:01:01
  May 4th through the 10th are the dates.
• 1:01:02
  May 4th through the 10th and we're going.
• 1:01:05
  We're going from Deadwood, Deadwood, SD and we're going
• 1:01:10
  coming back to camp, coming to Victory Junction.
• 1:01:12
  We hadn't ended at camp in a long time, but there's some
• 1:01:14
  surprises in between. You got to stay tuned.
• 1:01:17
  We're going to go to some cool places this year.
• 1:01:19
  It's going to be fun. Forward to the OK, so I'll me
• 1:01:23
  and my wife Kim, will be on the Cal Petty Charity ride, Kim
• 1:01:26
  said. If I ride a trike, to ride with
• 1:01:29
  me, so I'm going to get a trike. Not going to buy one, but I'm
• 1:01:33
  going to be like your dad, so just bomb one man.
• 1:01:36
  That's what my dad does. He just bombs them.
• 1:01:38
  I'm going to give you a try. OK.
• 1:01:40
  So Kyle, we're going to end like this.
• 1:01:42
  This will be the the controversial take.
• 1:01:44
  So I do this with all the drivers your thoughts on and I
• 1:01:49
  have three of them today, Your thoughts on NASCAR today?
• 1:01:58
  You know, I think NASCAR's in a transition, but in a good place.
• 1:02:01
  I think that they have finally decided that if you can't bring
• 1:02:04
  the fans, if the fans won't come to the sport, take the sport to
• 1:02:07
  the fans. And I think the LA Coliseum and
• 1:02:10
  the Chicago street race are two perfect examples of that.
• 1:02:13
  We went to Joliet and couldn't get the crowd from Chicago to
• 1:02:17
  come out. So 50 miles away, yeah.
• 1:02:19
  So we went to the streets. Same thing with LA You couldn't
• 1:02:22
  get them to come to Southern California so much, so we went
• 1:02:24
  to them. So I think they're they're good.
• 1:02:26
  I think this car, if they continue to do what they're
• 1:02:30
  doing with this car, continue to be open to suggestions to tweak
• 1:02:34
  it, whether it be stiffness, whether it be Arrow, whatever.
• 1:02:37
  If they continue to stay open, I think, I think they're headed in
• 1:02:41
  the right direction. I think there's still some some
• 1:02:43
  weak spots in it. I don't think they're short
• 1:02:45
  track program. They don't put on great short
• 1:02:47
  track races. That's not a good good thing for
• 1:02:50
  this car. The Speedway stuff is always
• 1:02:52
  going to be whatever it is, as long as we run those.
• 1:02:55
  The engines and try to restrict them, that's always going to be
• 1:02:58
  what it is. But then but the intermediate
• 1:03:00
  tracks and some of it is in in pretty good place and I think
• 1:03:03
  the leadership is open to to change and that's a good place
• 1:03:06
  to be. I think Jim France has taken it
• 1:03:08
  more of a of a role, but him and Steve Phelps and Mike Hilton and
• 1:03:12
  and O'Donnell and all those guys are doing a good job.
• 1:03:14
  Yeah, I like seeing Jim around. He's a pretty cool character.
• 1:03:18
  Where's those jeans and just fits right in.
• 1:03:20
  So the second one is elaborate a little bit more on that if you
• 1:03:23
  don't mind the next Gen. car, yeah, see.
• 1:03:28
  The next Gen. car is such a departure, such a departure from
• 1:03:32
  anything that you and I ever, ever messed with.
• 1:03:34
  Independent suspension, yeah, you know, we had, yeah, we were
• 1:03:38
  still running trailing. Arms and track bars and stuff.
• 1:03:41
  Just like out from under, you know, out from under.
• 1:03:43
  No for old Chevy pickup. And the front suspension, yeah,
• 1:03:47
  front suspension after out of a 68 Chevelle with the rear steer
• 1:03:50
  and all that. You know our front steer and all
• 1:03:51
  this. So when you start looking at it,
• 1:03:54
  we were running antiquated technology.
• 1:03:56
  You know when they came in think about it, you couldn't you you
• 1:04:00
  couldn't even go to to an auto parts store hardly and buy a
• 1:04:03
  carburetor off the shelf. But NASCAR was still running
• 1:04:06
  carbureted engines, you know, and that is because nobody had
• 1:04:09
  got had they, everybody had abandoned that technology.
• 1:04:12
  So. I think what they did, they
• 1:04:14
  basically jumped with this car. If you really look at it from
• 1:04:18
  the car that we were running before and I and when I say the
• 1:04:21
  car we were running from, it's been a smooth or a slow
• 1:04:24
  transition through the early 2000s into to to where we are
• 1:04:29
  now. But it's basically a transition
• 1:04:31
  of about 15 or 20 years. It's like they just went the
• 1:04:35
  other. Yeah, sequential shift,
• 1:04:37
  independent suspension rack and pinion.
• 1:04:39
  I mean, they just did everything all at once and threw it in
• 1:04:41
  there and then. Six races into the season,
• 1:04:44
  people wanted to complain about the car and it's like whoa,
• 1:04:46
  whoa, whoa, whoa. They put 30 years of technology
• 1:04:49
  into a car and just say go race it.
• 1:04:52
  Now there's going to be some weak spots.
• 1:04:53
  We're going to have some things that fail.
• 1:04:55
  We're going to have some things that work.
• 1:04:56
  We're going to have to change some things.
• 1:04:58
  And that's why I say I think if they continue to to be that and
• 1:05:02
  continue to look at stuff like that, then then the car will get
• 1:05:06
  better. But the car is a good jumping
• 1:05:08
  off spot to be in two thousand 2324.
• 1:05:12
  Yeah, and and the final question, your opinion on the
• 1:05:16
  incredibly hardcore penalties, now they seem to have calmed
• 1:05:20
  down, but your your whole opinion on the $400,000
• 1:05:26
  penalties to Rick Hendrick and have the teams got the message
• 1:05:30
  now? See, there's the question, I
• 1:05:35
  think because and really because I think as a racer you never get
• 1:05:39
  the, you never get the message, you know, because that's not
• 1:05:41
  what you're paid to do. You're paid.
• 1:05:44
  You're paid. And racing.
• 1:05:46
  Racing, unlike any other sport. Nobody takes the NFL rule book
• 1:05:52
  or or Major League Baseball rule book.
• 1:05:54
  Or or or golf. And they say.
• 1:05:58
  Maybe I could do this? How can I get?
• 1:06:01
  Yeah, how can I? How can I get?
• 1:06:02
  In between these rules. But everyone would take the
• 1:06:05
  NASCAR rule book and say, how can I get in between these two
• 1:06:10
  rules, you know, And that's just what you did and that's what you
• 1:06:12
  did from 1949, the first time they ever run a cop race until
• 1:06:18
  Rick. Rick was fine recently.
• 1:06:20
  You know what I mean? I mean that's that's just what
• 1:06:21
  you do. And and we're going to continue
• 1:06:23
  to see that whether it's with hoodlouvers or whether it's
• 1:06:26
  underbody, no matter you're going to see somebody trying
• 1:06:29
  something because that's the nature of the sport.
• 1:06:33
  I think in a sport where and and I will say this again, I think
• 1:06:36
  this and and and I've said it before, a sport where 20 or $30
• 1:06:40
  million is spent on a car, I'll pay a $400,000 fine all day
• 1:06:44
  long. Until you start taking the win
• 1:06:46
  and the points and everything else away and make it like I
• 1:06:49
  wasn't even there, like I wasn't even there and then it's going
• 1:06:52
  to hurt me. But you know, the money is it
• 1:06:55
  goes up. I think they, I think they do a
• 1:06:59
  good job. I think NASCAR does a good job,
• 1:07:02
  but they have to do a good job now because they have so many
• 1:07:05
  rules and so many things that you can't touch if I allow Kenny
• 1:07:10
  Wallace's team to touch it. It's going to spread through the
• 1:07:12
  garage area like wildfire. So I have to slap you hard to
• 1:07:16
  send that message. And I think that's where they're
• 1:07:18
  at with with all their rules and all their penalties is I don't
• 1:07:21
  like it and I don't like to see them because I like creativity
• 1:07:24
  and I like to see people use their minds.
• 1:07:27
  And I'd like to see another Leonard Wood in the sport.
• 1:07:29
  I'd like to see another Ray Abraham in this somebody
• 1:07:32
  creative like that, but that that they kill the creativity
• 1:07:36
  with the rules. And that's just the way it is.
• 1:07:38
  And and this is not on my list, but as I listen to you, I I
• 1:07:42
  that's the only thing I try to do when I do these Kenny
• 1:07:43
  conversations, I try to listen. So just recently in the news is
• 1:07:49
  that you know when we watched Bud Moore quit you know, and we
• 1:07:54
  watched Junior Johnson quit, they had nothing.
• 1:07:57
  All they had was their building and then years later junior
• 1:08:00
  auctioned it off. So now we got the franchises and
• 1:08:05
  one reportedly, and you would know more than me, just went for
• 1:08:09
  $40 million. Now for $40 million we give you
• 1:08:13
  the franchise and you're guaranteed to sell sponsorship
• 1:08:16
  because now you are locked in every race.
• 1:08:19
  Your opinion? Boy, don't you wish Junior and
• 1:08:23
  Bud would have seen those days? What's your opinion on $40
• 1:08:27
  million? That's fascinating because I
• 1:08:31
  will go back. Let's go back to.
• 1:08:33
  When LG, to wit, and when when Junior went out of business and
• 1:08:37
  Bud went out of business and all these guys went out of business,
• 1:08:40
  they had a brick. They had a brick.
• 1:08:41
  Yeah, they had a brick and mortar business.
• 1:08:43
  They had, you know, 60 years worth of Ford rear end houses
• 1:08:48
  and gears and and and lower control arms and cars.
• 1:08:52
  And they were lucky to get $0.10 on a dollar for everything they
• 1:08:55
  sold. Yeah, because it put your whole
• 1:08:58
  life in it. Yeah, their whole life.
• 1:09:00
  Everything they'd ever done and they were lucky to get $0.10 on
• 1:09:02
  a dollar. Now we're in a sport where
• 1:09:06
  somebody paid X for a a a charter and sold it for almost
• 1:09:13
  400 times what he paid for it. That's not $0.10 on the dollar,
• 1:09:17
  that's 400. That's a multiple of 400 almost,
• 1:09:21
  Which is crazy which? Which is crazy to me.
• 1:09:24
  And it's just a piece of paper. It's not anything, it's just.
• 1:09:29
  Here's my charter, Kenny. You can have it, you know what I
• 1:09:31
  mean? For this much.
• 1:09:32
  So it's just a piece of paper. It's just and it means
• 1:09:34
  something. Don't get me wrong, it's
• 1:09:36
  tangible and it has a value. But I think that totally
• 1:09:39
  changes. Because here's the thing.
• 1:09:41
  You got to remember too, the charter that was sold as a
• 1:09:45
  charter on the low end of the income spectrum, it got so much
• 1:09:51
  money guaranteed before the year started.
• 1:09:54
  You guaranteed to start every race.
• 1:09:56
  And you're guaranteed X number of dollars.
• 1:09:59
  Yeah, you're guaranteed X number of dollars now.
• 1:10:01
  So I'm let me, let me get my picture here.
• 1:10:03
  So that charter was down here, okay.
• 1:10:06
  So if that charter is worth 40 and Rick Hendrick owns 4
• 1:10:11
  charters that are up here, what's the Rick Hendrick charter
• 1:10:13
  worth? Is it worth 60?
• 1:10:15
  Is it worth 80? And he's got four of them.
• 1:10:18
  What's it worth? And that's the fascinating piece
• 1:10:21
  for me. I easily see a charter being
• 1:10:24
  worth $100 million and here's why.
• 1:10:27
  Because by by a by an NFL football team and and that's
• 1:10:32
  what you pay to get in because you're guaranteed a starting
• 1:10:36
  spot. Now I can sell sponsors.
• 1:10:39
  Well listen, Kyle. But we set a new track record
• 1:10:43
  here a minute, a minute and 14 and I think the most is maybe
• 1:10:47
  Tony Stewart at a minute and eight, whatever it is.
• 1:10:49
  But thank you so much. I appreciate it.
• 1:10:54
  And as you know we we covered so many topics that you can listen
• 1:10:59
  to this everyone on podcast form, We are starting to show up
• 1:11:04
  on podcast form now. Charlie says we're doing pretty
• 1:11:06
  good and you can listen to us on Spotify or iTunes on the way to
• 1:11:11
  work and then turn it back on and listen to it up on the way
• 1:11:15
  home. So until then, thank you Cal and
• 1:11:20
  we'll see y'all later. Thank you, Kenny.