Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Kenny Conversation #10

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Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Kenny Conversation #10 · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Kenny Wallace show,
0:04
brought to you by Jegs. Where is it?
0:06
There's that badass. Die, casts.
0:09
Welcome to the Kenny Wallace show.
0:12
As I've already said, why are you repeating yourself Harmon
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brought to you by Jegs the leader in a high performance?
0:19
Aftermarket car parts and remember to go to jegs.com?
0:25
Ricky, I always always want to sing that.
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I always want to go. Not um, But anyway, that's all
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it's good to show my friend. Thank you, thanks for having us
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on glad we're glad, we're doing things to get asked to come on
0:38
the Kenny conversation. Well, I do like to say that I
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think I know you a lot better than the other drivers and I
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think are common place is our love for dirt racing, and my
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dear friend, Nick Hoffman loves you so much, he considers you,
0:56
his brother, what are all those pictures in the background?
1:02
I'm in the our war room. Here at JTG Daugherty racing.
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So you'll see the Watkins Glen win.
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Yeah. I don't know how you point
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backwards out right there. Yeah, it right, it's not.
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Yeah, it's all backwards. But yeah, just over old pictures
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of JTG. Dirty racing from back in the
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day out in the shop. We have all the updated
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pictures. Obviously, we're a single car
1:26
team now. So you see my face everywhere
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throughout the shop, being the single car team here.
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But yeah, so I'm in the throwback room, I guess.
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I always tell my friends on the Kenny conversation Ricky that
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this is a conversation, it can, it can steer all types of
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different ways and I just want to start out like this, you
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know, when I was a kid My hero was Dick Trickle out of
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Wisconsin. Rapids, Wisconsin or Terry
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Bivens from Shawnee Mission Kansas.
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And I'm telling you, third is Ricky Stenhouse from Olive
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Branch Mississippi, that is such a badass name, tell me about
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Olive Branch. Mississippi to do the
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announcers, tell you. They, they like saying it.
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Do you like saying it? It's such a cool name.
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I like it. I love where I'm from, you know,
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I always thought that, you know, when I made it to NASCAR I'm
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like, I'm gonna I'm gonna move back home to Olive Branch and
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I'm going to fly in and out of Olive Branch.
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But obviously, that wasn't the case I'm still in North Carolina
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but now I love being from Olive Branch Mississippi.
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You know, it was a great area to grow up in a lot of racing
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around the Mid-South area which obviously is is the reason that
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I'm in racing my dad, Is in racing and race around the
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Mid-South area, you know, all while I was growing up and, you
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know, obviously a few, I think a few years before I was born but
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yeah, I love where I'm from and I get to go back every now and
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then I got to go back after our big win.
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So that was pretty cool. Going back for four.
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Big reasons is, is always neat. So I want to get to that.
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But before we do, I want to ask you about Out your your
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childhood, your area there and I don't want to dive deep into it
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but let's lay the format out. Am I correct?
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That you came from winged sprint.
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Car racing, is that the first type of racing you did right
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there around Mississippi area. So when I was For years old
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while Star racing BMX, when I was 3.
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But I think when I was wove a couple, that's awesome.
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You're an athlete, I really think most high sickles bicycles
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and then, and I really like that and then I got my first dirt
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bike, I was four and so I started riding it a lot.
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And I think I was 5 years old, my dad took me to a go-kart
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track and there was a dirtbike track right next to it.
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I spent half the day on the go kart track half the day, on the
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dirt bike track. And then at the end of the day,
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Dad was like, which one do you want to race?
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And I picked the go-kart. So that's how I ended up racing
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go-karts at age 5 and race. Those until I was 15 years old
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and then jumped right in this park are so those are the two
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things that I've ran the whole time.
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The first of all, that's an amazing story.
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That your dad gave you the choice, you chose?
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That you didn't have to Pedal so hard and where is elif out?
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But when you got into that sprint car, I mean, like right
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now, I'm too old, but when I got, I got into a Sprint car.
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Say five years ago, it was overwhelming for me.
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What up? What up, was it violent for you
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or winged sprint car when you first got in it?
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So it was a 360, you know? So I feel like the four tens
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when I get in. I'm now I'm like holy cow like
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These are wild. I got so much I feel like almost
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like behind because I've you know ran 360 is pretty much my
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whole life. You know.
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I've had really good success in 410 racing but it's been a long
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time since I've done it you know frequently but I gotten there
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was a new race track down in Tunica Mississippi.
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It was a big 38, small dirt track, you know there was a lot
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of quarter-mile racing you know, around our area and they They
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built this new big track and they had a play day and this was
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about halfway through the season.
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In 2003, I was working on my dad's car, I would get them
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ready for him. He was at the engine shop, you
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know, all week and I would kind of help get the car ready during
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the week and we go racing on the weekend and and dad would raise.
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And so we are all the way down to that, you know, practice day
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and I was like already ready. And so I got in about halfway
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through that practice day, ran 10 laps.
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And then my dad when I came in, he's like all right, you know,
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you're racing next weekend, I'm done he has not got back in a
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car since we're going to get to the Daytona 500 here in a minute
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and your and your new life and your wife, but hold on.
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Your dad builds Motors, he's a mechanic and he's a racecar
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driver and one day he said I'm out your interest in the one day
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the day that I made ten laps at the new practice the new track
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there. In Mississippi made ten laps, he
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had. He had tested, you know, that
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morning or for the first half the day and then I ran some laps
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afterwards and then I ran the next Friday night, you know, at
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our local track There and he has not been back in a Sprint car
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since you know I believe you're the very first Kenny
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conversation where you're. I mean I think Kenny Schrader's
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dad raced a little bit but Tony you know, everybody else we've
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had on here. Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Joey
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Logano, no, but nobody's dad raced.
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I think you're the first one. Where your dad raced a high
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level. Yeah, he was really good locally
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in traveled around race, some Outlaw races never did you know
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Outlaw Racing. Time.
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But yeah, he was, he was really good in a Sprint car and my, my
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parents got married at noon on a Saturday, my dad raced that
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night, I was born at noon on a Saturday and Dad race that night
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Cheryl my mom's the saint, and that's where the phrase and we
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use capital letters racer. That's right.
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You two to be a real racer. You have to have a checklist and
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your dad. Although that was crazy.
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Easy. He's a racer.
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My mom. Let him do it, but she let him
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do it is, it's crazy. Cool story to tell now.
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Yeah. Well Ricky let lets let's start
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the Kenny conversation up. As I tell everybody, I've let
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the fans look at it. I did my notes on you.
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And so, I believe this, I'm not going to say year, but I'm going
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to say, this is a new time in your life where you got married.
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And you won the biggest race. Nascar has to offer the Daytona
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500. Now winning the race.
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Alone is a big deal, but you get married to the love of your
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life. So I draw a circle around those
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two stories. It is this are you living as of
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right now at your age is this the greatest time of your life?
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For sure? For sure, greatest time of my
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life, you know, the first we got married October 26th of last
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year, so there was two two races left in the season.
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Those two races did not go well, but our whole season dingo.
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Well, so yeah, we had a great honey.
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A moon after the season and things have been things have
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been on an upward trajectory. I saw the Instagram and you guys
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did not mess around. I I want to go where you all
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went and yeah, we really enjoyed the beach.
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Went to Bora Bora. That's it.
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Basically, there was nothing to do, but hang out with each
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other, which was fun. You know, we needed that
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obviously after, after a long season and then having everybody
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in town for our wedding, it was, which the wedding was Using it's
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all the pain and yeah, that was that was cool.
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Yeah, I complained about you know, cost and things like that.
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But I told her I told her I was like I would do it again with
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her because because she nailed it with our wedding planner so
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that was cool. But yeah, I mean, you know,
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starting off the season, you know we got a lot of good things
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going here at JTG dirty racing. A lot of people bring up, you
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know, Mike Kelly being back as a crew.
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Chief Madison likes to remind everybody that we also got
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married. So you know, those two things.
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Go hand in hand. And but yeah, greatest greatest
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time period of my life and I'm looking forward to, you know,
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kind of building on that building on our future.
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So Let's talk about your wife and your vacation just for a
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second with my wife. Sometimes, I feel like in my
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house, it's like business, your take the trash out, the Ava
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taxes, and when Kim and myself, when we go anywhere anywhere by
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ourselves, I look at it, I'm like, why how you doing honey?
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So on your, on your vacation? Bora, Bora where?
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It's just you and her, nobody can interrupt you.
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Don't you, did you catch yourself like I say, hey, it's
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just hi. Yes.
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Yes occasion. I like I like to not use my
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phone like I'm like, I'll be off of it.
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I don't have to social media. I don't have to, I don't want to
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check in at the shop like I want a pure vacation and especially
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on our honeymoon. It was you know we worked out
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every day. We just did random stuff you
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know that they had. To offer there and enjoy just
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spending time with each other and yeah not having to take the
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trash out, not having to take our dog out to go to the
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bathroom. She wasn't doing laundry which
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she loves to do, she loves to keep our house spotless before
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the cleaning lady comes. She's cleaning to make sure
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everything's good. So none of that.
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We just hung out with each other and had a lot of fun.
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Yeah, sure. You know, I like that, you know,
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my dad my That was a clean person, he would come in all the
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time and take his hand and go on top of the refrigerator.
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And, you know, listen, I loved my dad but he was Hardcore.
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So it sounds to me like your beautiful wife has got some
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structure built in. Ricky, we're going to be no,
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senior now. I really enjoy.
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Yeah. I love our house, being
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organized and clean and definitely better than than
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messy. Yeah, so let's talk about the
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Daytona 500. And specifically.
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So you win that Rice. We see it.
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We know how you want it. You are a great race car driver.
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You have a hell of a year going, right now?
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And we're going to talk about that, but let's sewn in on the
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Daytona 500, you win the biggest race in the world, okay?
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I mean, we got the Indianapolis 500, I'll give it to them.
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I, you know, I mean they got their deal, we got our deal in
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its right now. I admire everybody.
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But Listen, you win the in. You win the invalid.
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Take winning both. Yeah right.
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You win the Daytona 500. I want to Zone in on how that I
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mean you're still Ricky but tell me how you viewed things in that
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last week. Like you know, you get on the
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plane, you get two hours sleep, the breakfast.
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No work. Tell me about the Daytona, 500
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winning it. I would I would go through that
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again. No sleep, man.
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It was just a whirlwind of a week, you know, we obviously I
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think I I added it up. I think it was like Averaged the
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whole week like three and a half hours of sleep, maybe whole
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week, the whole wait like everyone knows after I slept in
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one night so you know, so being tired running on adrenaline.
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It was it was all worth it, getting to do that with my wife,
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going to Chicago and New York and come into the shop and
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taking pictures with, you know, the crew guys that were not the
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racetrack taking pictures with the trophy and hanging out with
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them. Promoting the sport for a I mean
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that's something that, you know, I I think I used to kind of take
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for granted when I used to, when we used to have to go do all
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these things to promote the sport.
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You know, you're also as you know, promoting yourself and
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your race team and your partners and that was something that I
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got to do for a solid week. I got to promote, you know what,
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we were able to accomplish as a race team.
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You know, are all of our great Partners in the sport of NASCAR
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in its 75th, you know, year and the 65th anniversary of that
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Daytona 500. That was special and and I took
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a lot of pride in that and you didn't complain about being
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tired or the no sleep, just took every opportunity that we could
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get in Chicago and in New York and any phone interviews.
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You know, just took advantage of that.
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Luckily, for us, it rained a lot in California.
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So I got to really catch up on rest and sleep out there.
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But all in all, man, it was, it was just an unreal experience,
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you know? You think you know what it's
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going to be like but you don't really know until you do it so
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when you win the Daytona 500 you get the champion ring and you
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know it was it was a great Kyle Petty that said to me you're not
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the Daytona 500 winner you're the Daytona 500 Champion.
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Yeah you know is a big difference, the crown jewels are
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like championships events. So where is the ring and what
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about a trophy? How that Play out.
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Yes. So I've got the original trophy,
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it's displayed in our house. That's the one trophy Madison.
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Let me put, you know, out and about the other ones are in
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mixed jewelry jewelry. I've got, I got the ring and the
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in the safe, I took it with me, obviously, promote the race, you
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know, that week, but, you know, I wasn't gonna continue to wear
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it. It's pretty Egg got a Rolex,
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which was super cool. What kind of robots?
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The Daytona, the Daytona rolling.
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So, how much you think that rings are that, is that a ten
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thousand dollar watch or like five grand, maybe more?
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I think it might contend it will good.
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We want it to be a $50, right? Yes.
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So I'm not in the safe badass. I wear it on special occasions.
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But yeah, those those three things came with that it was so
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cool and you earned every bit of it, Buddy.
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So when you win the race, you do breakfast the next morning but
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you still don't see your complete teams.
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Are you telling me you don't see the complete team until be like,
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four days later or Wendy? And I came to the shop on
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Wednesday Monday. The chance.
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So, the Champions breakfast on Monday was that like, seven, but
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I had to be in Victory, Lane it. 6:45 doing interviews for Good
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Morning America. My team got a Champions
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breakfast. I did not really get to eat
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because I was doing interviews. Go back to the media center.
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No food for you. Yeah, no food for us.
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Oh, but I had Waffle House about, you know, 1:30, 2:00 in
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the morning. So, I was still full of I was, I
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was ready to go, but then I went to, then we went to Disney
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Monday afternoon, which was so cool.
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And then Tuesday, went to Chicago, got home Tuesday night
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from Chicago, went to the race shop on Wednesday, morning
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through lunch, and then flew out for New York that afternoon.
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So I got back to see the team guys on Wednesday.
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And when you arrived at this shop was a they were ready for
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you. When you, when you walked in,
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you had to be nervous a little bit.
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We go, here we go. The rest of the shop met our
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team guys, back on Monday, when They at the airport, they all
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they were all out there. That was really good videos,
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videos and pictures of that. But yeah, they were all ready
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for me. When I came in, we had a lunch
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took pictures with everybody, but I mean, they were, they were
18:13
digging on our California car. They had to get it ready, you
18:16
know, because it had to leave. So they were thrashing, but
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everybody is working with a big smile on their face.
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So to wrap up the Daytona 500, it's nothing we go also over,
18:29
Ricky See, we take all the time. We need to.
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It's our biggest race. So the car that you won the race
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with Where's it at? Right now it's it's in the 500
18:39
Museum, so the team after the race tears, it all the way down.
18:42
NASCAR inspects literally everything, engine you name it,
18:47
then they got to put it all back together so that it can go into
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the museum Monday morning. I haven't been to the museum to
18:55
see it. So that's one thing I'm going to
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do in August. When we go back is go in the
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museum. Check that out.
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Out I get to see. I think they put my you know
19:06
handprint and footprint and stuff in the concrete asphalt or
19:10
the sidewalk there. Get to go check all that out.
19:15
But yeah, I would say it. Probably costs our team, a
19:17
little bit of money to win because they hadn't by a hold
19:20
another car. See you name it, they admire
19:26
because everything stayed in the car, so the seek the seats are
19:30
like twenty thousand dollars. Or is that too much?
19:32
I think you're like, 15 or so, I don't know.
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I'm glad the team. These are things that fans like
19:39
to know, you know the yeah. I mean like it literally
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probably costs us money to win. Yeah.
19:46
Well crazy, but it's hey, they wouldn't trade it for anything.
19:50
That's right. That's right.
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That that Jay actually the guys yesterday just got they let the
19:57
team guys order like Three-quarter scale or a quarter
20:02
scale of the trophy. So they all got their trophies
20:05
in yesterday so they were all pumped up about that.
20:08
Yeah, I want to go back a little bit brother, Rusty, Dale
20:15
Earnhardt, senior Dick Trickle. So many great people.
20:20
Kenny Schrader. They give me words of wisdom and
20:24
they say Herm, it's sad to say. But you have to remind people,
20:30
because people remember what they want to.
20:32
So I want to remind everybody that you've checked.
20:37
All the boxes, you are a 2011-2012 NASCAR, Xfinity
20:44
Champion, you earned your way into the cup series.
20:50
You, when you got to The Cup Series, your the 2013 Rookie of
20:55
the Year. so you, you've checked all the boxes when you Went from
21:03
Olive Branch, Mississippi to Roush racing.
21:08
Tell me about that phone call. Tell me about how did that
21:12
connection. How did that happen?
21:15
So 2006 we had a really good season in Sprint.
21:19
Car racing running winged sprint cars for tens with the All-Stars
21:25
all throughout Ohio. One, a lot of good races, big
21:28
races you and all the way to Ohio.
21:31
Yeah, we were racing. I was racing for a kind of a
21:33
group of people group effort, with my dad and some car owners
21:37
from back homes, car, owners from Ohio and like, you know, we
21:42
just had a good season in 2006. And then at the end of 2006
21:48
motor sports management at the time.
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Mmm, I was trying to get, he was trying to hire me or to
21:55
represent me. They wanted.
21:56
They wanted to represent me. They wanted me to recognize your
21:59
talent and so I've kind of put them off for Kind of halfway
22:02
through 2006. Well, chili bowl of 2007, yo,
22:07
chilling, it up. I ended up signing with them.
22:09
And so I signed with them, I think around Chili Bowl in 2007,
22:16
and that was in January February.
22:18
I went to Manzanita Speedway out in Phoenix, Arizona, erase the
22:24
non-winged Sprint car and I was racing for Carl Edwards and re
22:28
Technologies racing in their silver.
22:29
Chrome team will back up and we We can't go also to this drill
22:34
for Carl Edwards the race car driver.
22:37
Yes. So Carl would go back and run
22:39
you sack races in the silver crown series and he would run
22:42
for this team based out of Memphis called re Technologies.
22:44
Roger Johnson owned it and he helped a lot of a lot of people
22:49
race in the Mid-South area and even some on the outlaw to or
22:52
so. He's been around Racing for a
22:54
long time. Well Carl you know put his name
22:57
on, it was getting some help from Ford on engines.
23:02
I'd and so had his name on the race team.
23:06
So we took their silver crown car to, I was running all the
23:11
dirt races in the silver crown series and 2007 for them and
23:17
they had room in their trailer to take my Sprint car.
23:19
And so I had ran two or three non-winged Sprint.
23:22
Car races up until that point, but we went to Manzanita and we
23:26
won the sprint car and the silver crown race in the same,
23:30
same night and Tony Had his cars, Tony Stewart, had his
23:33
sprint cars there and midgets and silver crown and case wonder
23:37
you're a cup driver nowadays. So we got in my Lord and so then
23:42
want to Tony's guys got hurt and March or April of that year.
23:48
So because I was signed with Emi, they said hey they called
23:54
me, I was driving down the road. They're like hey Tracy hands got
23:58
hurt. You're going to fill in for
23:59
Tracy for the rest of 2007. Head over to Tony's Shop, you
24:04
know, get your seats and you're going racing over there.
24:07
So I was like holy cow. This is valid at Scripps.
24:10
Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Yes.
24:12
So but after man's, I guess I can back up a little bit after
24:16
we won Manzanita MMI. Flew me to North Carolina and I
24:22
met with at the time, Max Jones was the general manager at at
24:26
Roush Fenway and so I met with him and I said, hey you know,
24:29
what do I need to do to, you know, to get a chance at Running
24:32
said, the Arca series or whatever he's like, just keep
24:35
winning races and we'll talk at the end of the season.
24:38
Obviously, that was a Ford team. Well, then all of a sudden, I
24:40
get a call, you know, to go race for Tony and a Chevrolet team.
24:44
And so we had to kind of let, you know, Rauch known Ford know
24:49
like, hey, I'm going to go run for this Chevy team and they're
24:51
like, all right. Perfect.
24:53
You can go run? Asphalt figure out asphalt
24:57
because I'd never really ran a natural blonde, dark right now.
25:00
I'm a dirt racer. And so, Like get some time on
25:03
the asphalt and then at the end of the year, we'll get you back.
25:07
And so, you know, then 2007 happens Tony's talking to Jack.
25:12
You know, we had kind of had a plan while at the end of 2007, I
25:15
ended up signing with with roush-fenway in October.
25:20
So told Chevrolet, hey I'm going to go race.
25:23
The market cars you're talking Tony Stewart right?
25:27
- yes, sir, Stewart your friend. He is want you to drive for him,
25:32
this Magnum forever, to dry form and then all of a sudden he let
25:35
me and then it's good and I'll stand here, we are racing stock
25:40
cars. That's the sound bite.
25:42
Their then Chevrolet was like well go figure out stock cars,
25:45
then we then we'll get you back. Well obviously I was that you
25:48
know forward and Roush Fenway for A long time and and then now
25:54
I'm on the Chevy Camp. So you know it was just kind of
25:58
a whirlwind I went from 2007 and January sign in with MMI not
26:04
really knowing exactly what I was going to do in 2007.
26:08
Two, women out there Racing for Tony Stewart in the whole you
26:13
SEC series, all of 2007 signed with Roush Fenway in October of
26:19
Owen. And then all of a sudden, I'm
26:21
going through the gates of Daytona in February of 2008 to
26:25
race anarchic our. It was wild crazy as wild.
26:29
So you know, when I look back at your career, There is
26:36
highlights. The one thing I remember is that
26:42
well, let me let me kind of compare myself with you when I
26:46
grew up in a essay where I always ran 200-lap Racers and I
26:50
was never feisty enough. I don't think you were feisty
26:53
right away because you knew you had a sick slapdash.
26:58
That's right. A good to go now.
27:00
So when you went to NASCAR, how hard was it for you to?
27:05
Understand that. Hey, I got to go, I got to run
27:08
to her last breath. How did that takes some getting
27:11
used to that? You didn't have to kill
27:13
yourself, right away. Yeah, for sure.
27:17
You know, I had to get used to a lot of things waking up early
27:21
and going to practice 9:00 in the morning.
27:26
I mean, like I was used to make 30.
27:28
Yeah, I was used to stay at a.m. 2:00 in the morning and sleeping
27:32
in well man, my first few tests, I remember I would be fast in
27:37
the morning session but after lunch, I would just kind of
27:40
start getting slower and slower. I'm like guys I don't I'm worn
27:44
out so I had to get my sleep pattern a little bit but no, you
27:48
know, I think you know, looking back at my stock car career, it
27:53
definitely took some getting used to, you know, even if the
27:57
car wasn't right just take them. What the card gives you make an
28:01
adjustment on a pit stop and you know go out and try it again
28:04
versus hey the cars Not doing what I want.
28:07
Let me try and make it, do what I want.
28:09
You know, on asphalt it's not near as easy as it is on.
28:12
Dirt to make it do what you want and can't shake, you can't shake
28:16
an asphalt car. Now you just got to take what it
28:18
gives you. It took me a long time to learn
28:21
that. And then I finally you know I
28:24
mean I was racing against you in like 2010 when it was still the
28:29
old school, you know, cars and then we I think we ran those
28:34
four races in the the new style, you know, back in Nationwide
28:39
Series cars and those four races man, I felt really good in those
28:45
race cars. I don't know.
28:46
They just, I felt like I could fill them better, you know,
28:49
obviously they were a lot bigger and kind of bulkier than what we
28:52
had been running. And I just, I just loved them
28:57
ever since I got in them, and we were fast and that's when I was
29:01
like, alright, 2011 is going to be a good season like we can, we
29:05
can get this accomplished and get our goals accomplished of
29:08
winning a championship. Nobody really thought we could,
29:11
because we had kind of a rough 2010, at least half the year,
29:15
and then we ended strong, but that new car, definitely helps
29:19
my stock car career. Yeah, well, you're what we call
29:22
a diamond In the rough and a polished you up and look at you
29:27
now you're getting it done. So, okay, this is a point in the
29:31
kidney conversation where we talk about now, we don't like to
29:35
go back, but, you know, Rick, I think it was very important, we
29:38
always want to let the kids that are watching and we know there's
29:41
a lot of people that tune into the kidney conversation because
29:45
they want to know is Ricky Stenhouse like me.
29:48
Can I be like him? And you just told us your path.
29:52
You, you had to earn everything. Arabic go out the Manzanita win
29:55
and you and your dad. So let's let's talk about right
30:00
now. Clean slate.
30:02
So you win the Daytona 500 and now all of a sudden Ricky
30:06
Stenhouse running top 10 every week seven Sabbath you five?
30:11
Top 10s, a handful of top fives your 14th in the points right
30:17
now. Yes.
30:19
That's big time. You know, this is not Formula 1.
30:22
We don't have 20 cars. We have 39 or 40 so you know I
30:27
think we all want to win but listen top 15 s big time.
30:33
Why are you running so good this year huh?
30:41
There's a feel like there's a long list, you know?
30:44
I felt like you know last year we definitely learned a lot
30:47
about this new race car and it as the whole sport was trying to
30:52
learn felt like we learned At a slower rate because we were a
30:55
single car team and so there was a lot of things that we
30:58
couldn't. Couldn't adapt quick enough, you
31:02
know, throughout the season last year and we learned a lot of
31:06
things not to do got married. I do think that, you know, I
31:11
mean, I look back at people's career and it seems like after
31:15
they get married, they definitely.
31:16
You'll seem to race a little better.
31:17
So I don't know. Bar so much.
31:19
Yeah. Partying so much in a whole lot
31:25
of time at the bar but I did hang out with Nick Hoffman a lot
31:28
at my house. So you can stay up a little
31:30
later than we probably should. But you know I think getting
31:34
Mike Kelly back over in my corner you know was it was a
31:39
good you know game changer for me because I feel like he knows
31:45
he knows me really well. He knows how to get the most out
31:47
of me as a race car drivers in your crew chief at one point in
31:51
the you is not good. Jeep in 2011-2012, when we go
31:56
our championships and so we've done a lot of things together.
31:59
We've accomplished a lot together.
32:01
He still feels like he has more left to accomplish in this sport
32:05
as a crew chief on the cup side. He's been a cup crew, chief a
32:09
couple of times, not really felt like he got to show what he's
32:14
worth. And so you got somebody that's
32:15
hungry, you know leading our ship now and who has confidence
32:20
in me probably more than I Myself, but watching him
32:25
throughout this shop, bring that same kind of mentality to every
32:31
single worker that we have. Whether it be our engineer, our
32:35
car, Chief our tire Changers, he brings out the confidence in
32:40
them. And I think that, you know, when
32:42
you have a car that everybody has in this sport, we got the
32:46
same chassis and same bodies as everybody else.
32:49
It's little things like that. That, that pushes Forward.
32:53
We have a stronger tie with Hendrick this year than what we
32:56
had and that we've ever had in years past in the same goes with
33:00
Chevrolet. And so, I think we're putting
33:02
all those things together and I have a different mentality of
33:06
showing up to the racetrack, we have different goals and, you
33:10
know, take Daytona aside. We're hitting the goals that we
33:13
set, you know, the season out to be.
33:16
And, you know, that's, that's cool.
33:19
When you accomplish a goal one week and then you do it again,
33:22
Next week and you just keep doing that.
33:24
You just keep building more confidence.
33:26
And like you said, we're 14th and points.
33:29
We don't get crashed by the. Yeah, my the awesome this
33:34
weekend and we're close to bed and take the points we're you
33:38
know, and so we still feel like we can get there by the end of
33:41
the regular season. And man, that I would say, if we
33:45
could get back to, you know, 10th and points before the end
33:49
of the regular season, that would be almost Just as big of
33:53
accomplishment, as winning the Daytona 500 for us this year,
33:56
obviously, you can't replace the Daytona 500.
33:59
But for us as a race team and what we've said our goals out to
34:02
be this year, that would be a huge accomplishment and we're on
34:06
the verge of that. And so we got some tough tracks
34:08
going forward. But, you know, this this year, I
34:12
felt like we've been strong and every truck, we've shown up to
34:15
erase that and that's been fun. I want to touch on that
34:20
worldwide, technology race. You're going down the front
34:24
straightaway. Once again, you're running in
34:27
the top ten, you were up to six. You were running 64, a lot of
34:30
the race. Yep.
34:32
And in I call it getting bitch-slapped, your you're going
34:36
down the straightaway and it's course I know.
34:40
But explain it to the fans. When you're just running and all
34:43
of a sudden, it's like somebody comes out of nowhere with a
34:45
two-by-four knocks. The hell out of you.
34:47
Yes. What was that feeling like
34:49
getting hit so hard and not know.
34:52
Own. It's coming that, I mean, like
34:54
like you said, you know how it is, but I guess most of the fans
34:57
probably don't I mean it is Just getting blindsided.
35:02
I mean talking, I'm it, you're you're more in disbelief.
35:07
And then like all the sudden you're like, What has happened?
35:10
Like, I feel like I'm running like say, 10th or 11th or
35:16
wherever we were at the time on that restart and bright will
35:19
still on the straightaway. And I get hammered by the, you
35:23
know, in the left side of the door, you know, when I went back
35:26
and watched it, I was like, dang, like it looked like two
35:30
guys have been getting into it and from the sounds of it been
35:33
getting into it throughout the whole race and maybe the last
35:36
restart that kind of pulled over.
35:39
And we were an innocent bystander that which was a
35:42
bummer. I mean, we'd finished every race
35:44
up into that point, we'd been on a kind of a hot streak of top
35:48
15, which I felt like obviously we were going to, you know,
35:51
accomplish that again and my guys had given me a great race
35:55
car. But you know, last year at
35:59
Gateway we were 30th Place race team.
36:04
I think. I mean we were slow we were not
36:06
good and then so for us to like kind of flipped the script and
36:10
now all the sudden we were running the top 10 all day
36:14
still. A lot of positives that take
36:15
away from the weekend even though we were bummed about the
36:19
the outcome. Yeah, I compare what you just
36:23
said, I get it when you get on a roll, you don't want it to come
36:25
to an end as it's like bowling, right?
36:28
Your bowling, all these Stripes. I mean, I got a 300 game going
36:31
and then all of a sudden, Didn't, you know, you have a
36:34
spare. I understand that I get that.
36:36
Well, Ricky we're already at 40 minutes and that's that's how
36:40
these Kenny conversations go. So we do this with everybody, we
36:47
did it with Tony Stewart Mark Martin and I always tell our new
36:51
guest, I tell you I let you know that this is the time of the
36:56
show where we ask every driver the exact same question.
37:00
All right? And we don't want you to get in
37:02
trouble. They're not it's not
37:04
provocative. However it is all about NASCAR
37:07
and the fans want This stuff. It's the stuff we all talked
37:11
about behind closed doors so it's three parts.
37:15
The first one is this, what is your opinion?
37:19
The state of NASCAR right? Now my opinion I think the the
37:24
state of NASCAR you know is in a really good spot.
37:29
You know, I came in in 2008, you know, and I felt like it was,
37:35
you know, massively way up here and I've seen it.
37:38
Go down. I've seen the teams go down but
37:43
I feel like everything from the team's the fans drivers in
37:48
NASCAR. I feel like we're continually
37:50
climbing and we're we're way past where up, you know, I felt
37:55
like we have been that being said, I mean there's always
37:59
there's always room for improvement and I think NASCAR,
38:02
we're trending upwards Network trending upwards.
38:05
I think NASCAR is is way more. Active now than they've ever
38:10
been. You know, there's a lot of
38:13
people that might not agree with everything that they do but they
38:18
are Innovative. They're working and constantly
38:22
trying to do things to continue to grow our Sport.
38:25
And, you know, I think every league is every professional
38:29
sport is doing the same thing. I mean, golf is in, seems like
38:33
it's in shambles right now. Oh yeah, they're all limited and
38:36
BGA. And so, you know, I Like that.
38:38
NASCAR you can't just sit back and let it play out.
38:41
You gotta, you gotta go, try new markets, you got to go back to
38:45
Old markets. They've realized that that's
38:47
something that we had never thought about in the past as a
38:50
sport or at least you know the top.
38:53
The top people in NASCAR haven't thought about going back to
38:57
North Wilkesboro. There we did.
38:59
Matthew, no great crowd, obviously, it's not a massive
39:02
crowd compared to. It looks good, it looks good,
39:05
but compared to like a, you know, you can be Half empty at
39:09
Texas and still have more people.
39:10
But it's about, you know, the excitement that North Wilkesboro
39:15
brought to that weekend and, you know, so I like the sport in the
39:22
state of the sport that we're in right now and where we're going
39:27
a lot of old school fans. You know, don't know about
39:30
Chicago. We don't either we're about to
39:32
find out, right? So, you know, NASCAR doesn't
39:36
either, you know, but If you don't try it and you don't go to
39:42
it, you'll wonder you'll wonder about it and you know, I think I
39:46
think they're doing a good job with it.
39:48
Yeah. Okay, so the next one is the
39:51
next gen car. It is a game changer.
39:53
We've never seen anything like it, you know, some people say
39:57
it's based off the Australian V8 type car.
40:00
One lug nut. You know, everything we just
40:03
said. So what is your opinion on the
40:05
new next-gen car? I think I think we've nailed the
40:12
next-gen car and areas and then I think we've swung and missed
40:16
and in other areas right again you know NASCAR still being
40:23
proactive which is good, they've taken a lot they take a lot of
40:30
input from the drivers and teams especially the drivers with this
40:34
new car when we say Hey you know, these crashes are hurting
40:38
worse, right? When they built the car, they're
40:41
like, hey this is our car. This is what we're racing with
40:44
this is what we're moving forward.
40:46
We're not changing it because we want this car to be the same
40:50
from here on out, but they've listened to us.
40:53
So I think we missed it a little bit on the safety aspect
40:56
overlooked. Some some things you know.
41:00
But okay say Ricky we had flat tires we couldn't move out of
41:03
the grass. We burning the bottom up.
41:06
Yeah you know you're constantly. Changing them to make them right
41:11
and you know us as drivers, appreciate them taking our
41:15
advice at least on some of the things and then taken team
41:18
advice on, you know, on certain areas of the race car.
41:22
So yeah, I think we swung and missed on a few things.
41:25
I think, you know the the competitiveness is unreal right
41:29
now. I feel like the shorts, you can
41:31
show each and every weekend. You don't know who's gonna win,
41:35
you really don't. And I feel like, you know, our
41:37
sport was so Predictive on Jimmie, Johnson's gonna win?
41:43
We get out of these five cars. They're one of these guys is
41:47
going to win and they're going to win five or ten races, right?
41:51
Yeah. The the last season with the old
41:53
Carl Larsson one what 10 or 11 races that year and that can
41:56
still be done with this car but he's got you know that person is
42:01
going to have to be different people every week and so I think
42:04
that's a good thing. Yeah alright and so for the last
42:07
one we are in an Era where we see unprecedented amount of
42:13
fines and penalties. We had never, you know, as we
42:17
speak, we got another one coming out against Erik Jones, you
42:20
know, you're going to see it when you get off here, they
42:23
messed with the greenhouse and, you know, all these points and
42:27
70. But every week, you know, so
42:29
they say the penalty money goes into the NASCAR Foundation this
42:34
year, the foundation is going to have more money and they've ever
42:37
had. So what is your Your opinion.
42:41
On the unprecedented fines and penalties in NASCAR history this
42:46
year. So, NASCAR I would say came out
42:53
when they built this new car and designed it gave it to the team
42:57
said, if you mess with it, it is going to be bad, right?
43:01
Yeah, yeah. So, and we saw that I think from
43:05
the very first race, you know, with RFK and like them drilling
43:09
out their Wills, I mean, they gave him a hundred thousand
43:12
dollar fine, or whatever. That, that penalty was, they
43:15
started looking and everything, you know, Retracted that.
43:18
But, you know, I mean they were, they were pretty clear right off
43:22
the bat and, you know, from everything that I've seen so far
43:27
a lot of the issues that they've had or pretty, you know,
43:32
blatantly obvious. Like it's not like, hey, should
43:36
we find them? Should we not?
43:37
It's just part by yourself. You messed up, right?
43:40
And so but it seemed, you know, I would think that that teams
43:46
would learn Not to do things. After the first few penalties of
43:51
250,000 dollars, out of know, whatever and 100 points but man
43:57
it doesn't seem like they're learning very much at all.
44:00
So you know us at JTG Doherty racing I feel like we've learned
44:06
a lot throughout some of the tests that we've done and
44:09
there's definitely you know areas of the car you want to
44:11
push. But I mean there's there's
44:13
definitely areas that you do not want to go and mess.
44:17
Us with and NASCAR's trying to make that clear.
44:20
But it seems like people are still trying to push those
44:23
limits. So yeah, like you said, the
44:26
NASCAR Foundation probably isn't going to have to do any charity
44:29
events. This year Adam and tick so they
44:33
can cut their budget on charity events.
44:36
Will end it like this, this, this new hooking it seems that
44:41
we've got that about halfway through the year here NBC's
44:45
taken over Fox He's got one more race and it seems like the front
44:49
end is so strong on this next gen car that hitting people and
44:54
spending them out. You can't do it anymore.
44:57
Do you think that's where the hooking technique?
45:00
You know, the is that why the hooking things so popular is
45:04
that the only way to wreck people?
45:05
No, I think that's just because people get frustrated and mad,
45:08
and that's the easiest way to wreck somebody.
45:12
Yeah. That's the easiest way to get
45:16
yourself wrecked, right? Right.
45:17
Like I mean if you hit him in the left rear you don't know
45:19
which way they're going to spin. But you know, if you hook them
45:21
in the right side they're going to the right.
45:23
You're going to the left. So good point.
45:26
I feel like that is that's probably their thought process
45:29
behind that, and it's definitely worked.
45:32
I guess except for Chase. He caught himself up in it but
45:38
yeah, it's not good. You know, Again, NASCAR listen
45:42
to us about, we feel like the cars need to be safer.
45:45
So, When you got guys, wrecking each other, at the end of a
45:51
straight away, you know? Right.
45:52
Hooking them into the fence. You know, those are those are
45:55
things where NASCAR's like hey y'all are complaining about the
45:59
car's not being safe yet. Y'all going to wreck somebody
46:02
intentionally the way you're doing it.
46:04
We're going to step in. So yeah.
46:07
I think I think we kind of made. NASCAR play their hand there a
46:10
little bit. Yeah, well Ricky listen, I I
46:14
could have definitely made this interview longer.
46:17
I could have touched on your great car owners.
46:19
I could have touched more on your relationship with Jennifer
46:22
and Richard Marshall, but we find this time to go of my
46:25
friend and thank you so, very much.
46:28
And I want to remind everybody like I do at the end of every
46:31
show, remember, we are in podcast form.
46:34
You can listen to Ricky Stenhouse as you leave the house
46:37
on your way to work and when you head back home, you listen to
46:40
the rest of the everywhere. What's that?
46:43
You Do it everywhere. That's right.
46:45
We're in Spotify iTunes. Remember to like And subscribe.
46:49
We're getting so close to that hundred thousand subscribers.
46:52
We're going to put that trophy right up here again body but we
46:57
love you all. Ricky on a thank you very much.
47:00
My friend, thank you for having me on.
47:03
Always a pleasure having conversations with you.
47:06
You always think you feel like I'm ready to go out and compete
47:10
when the world. So I'm ready for Sonoma this
47:13
weekend. And you can get it down there
47:15
because that new car is definitely prove.
47:17
The point, then anybody can get it done and it's your year.
47:21
Thank you, bye-bye, everybody. And you can get it down there
47:15
because that new car is definitely prove.
47:17
The point, then anybody can get it done and it's your year.
47:21
Thank you, bye-bye, everybody.