Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Meet Dirt Racing Star Taylor Kuehl!
Transcript
- 0:00Hello everyone and welcome back to any conversation brought to
- 0:05you by Jags, the leader in high performance aftermarket car
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- 0:13everything you need to fix your hot rod up or your everyday
- 0:16vehicle and remember they have truck parts and Jeep parts.
- 0:22While you're looking at her, you're you're saying to
- 0:25yourself, now who is this girl lady?
- 0:28The great Taylor Cool. And the reason I say great is
- 0:33because you are living in a man's world and you're doing
- 0:36good. You're winning.
- 0:37How are you doing, Taylor? I'm doing well.
- 0:40I just got back from racing in South Carolina this weekend.
- 0:45I was racing one of those Mid East modifieds and I had a
- 0:48blast. I got home really late so I'm
- 0:50still trying to catch up. Boy, isn't.
- 0:53Isn't this the truth? Let's just start right there.
- 0:56This up, you and I race a lot of dirt modifieds and it it's this
- 1:01Vagabond lifestyle. I mean, I just shaved.
- 1:05I was so dirty, so junkie. I'm exhausted.
- 1:08I ran three nights in a row. So tell me everything you just
- 1:12got done doing. Yeah.
- 1:14I did the same exact thing. I saw all your posts on
- 1:17Facebook. I raced on Friday at Cherokee
- 1:20Speedway in South Carolina for the first time, and that track
- 1:24was such a blast. They say it's the place Your
- 1:28Mama warns you about. Yeah.
- 1:31I don't know why my mom doesn't know about that racetrack, but I
- 1:35love it. Yeah.
- 1:36So you're running that, that's a what I call a UMP modified.
- 1:40Is that for Matt Crafton? Yes.
- 1:42Yeah, the NASCAR truck racer. So how'd you get hooked up with
- 1:46him? We met at Kokopa Speedway in
- 1:49January when we were racing Winter Nationals and he was
- 1:53actually pitted across from me and he said, he said this is how
- 1:57he first noticed me. I got my race car torn up in a
- 2:02heat race and I came in and I was scrambling and I tore the
- 2:06nose off. I tore the balance off of it.
- 2:08I got all the tools we had to cut the collector off the header
- 2:13and the muffler off the header, pull a new muffler on, and we
- 2:16were just kind of scrambling. It was just me and my crew guy
- 2:19and then a couple of people jumped in and help.
- 2:21And so he was like, I saw you working on your car and then
- 2:25after that I watched you all week just kind of like a fan.
- 2:30And he was like, I saw you working on your car the whole
- 2:33week and you were looking at your Dino sheets for your shocks
- 2:36and figuring out what you need for the next night of racing.
- 2:39So he said he mostly just appreciated me working on my car
- 2:45and having the same passion that a lot of grassroots racers like
- 2:49him have. I love that story.
- 2:52OK, so here's what we're going to do to introduce you to
- 2:55everybody. Charlie Marlow, who runs, you
- 2:59know, the Kenny Wallace show here on YouTube, he his, I
- 3:03caught his archives are the best.
- 3:05SO people going to say, Kenny, how do you know about Taylor
- 3:10cool? And I'm going to say, well,
- 3:11everybody knows about Taylor cool.
- 3:13So what we're going to do is instead of explaining how I know
- 3:17you, we're going to let we're going to let it roast.
- 3:20So Charlie Marlow, Charlie, let's put the video up and let's
- 3:24all sit back for a little bit. And this is How I Met Taylor.
- 3:29Cool. All right, we're doing a video.
- 3:34So 21 cars. I started 11th.
- 3:40Where'd you start 4th? 4th.
- 3:42I drove as hard as I could drive, and she finished second.
- 3:47I just get better life. I just want everybody to know
- 3:51what a great race car driver you are.
- 3:53Tell everybody your name. Thank you.
- 3:54I'm Taylor. Cool.
- 3:56Taylor, you're cool. Thank you.
- 3:57Anyway, I had to do this video. I mean, I aired that son of a
- 4:01bitch out, you know? B mod 6O2 Crazy you?
- 4:04Gave me a run for my money that. Was yeah, but you were
- 4:07incredible because I mean, you outran all of them in you run
- 4:122nd 21 cars. You're really good.
- 4:15I think you're as good. I think you're as good as Danica
- 4:17Patrick. Thank you.
- 4:19Darts hard. I mean these six O 2 crates,
- 4:22you're like, where'd you learn to drive like that?
- 4:28Takes a lot of time and discipline.
- 4:29She got a good car too, though. Look here, really nice race car.
- 4:34So you got to have a good race car too.
- 4:38All right, I wanted to give you a shout out.
- 4:40You're incredible. Thank you so much, it's fun
- 4:42racing. With you.
- 4:42Thank you. OK.
- 4:44So that night I will never forget you and I are running,
- 4:51you know, B modified whatever you want to call Northern sports
- 4:55mods. And I start around 14th and and
- 4:59I get the 3rd and and the and the caution comes out and I'm
- 5:02like, I'm going to get this second place person.
- 5:05And I air that thing out. I mean, no lie, my gas was like
- 5:09this and I couldn't get this second place driver.
- 5:16I go to the scales, you know, IMCA right, tech inspections,
- 5:21everything and you get out of the vehicle and I was like,
- 5:26that's a girl. And you were you were you were
- 5:28tiny. I thought, you know, you growed
- 5:31up a little bit. I feel like, but do you remember
- 5:34that night? Yes, I do very well.
- 5:37I didn't really realize who I was racing with.
- 5:41And then you got out and you were so excited and just you,
- 5:44you had fun during the race and you were so excited.
- 5:46You had a big smile on your face and we just talked about the
- 5:49race and you were like, I didn't even know you were a girl.
- 5:52Yeah, well, you know, my disclaimer has finally come out
- 5:56over the last month. I always put up for the girls
- 5:59because my mom, Judy was a great racer, powder puff racer.
- 6:05And then of course, my my niece, Chrissy Wallace, which is my
- 6:09brother Mike. She's a good racer.
- 6:10And I was just talking with Hayley Deegan.
- 6:12She sent me a note thanking me for always putting up for it.
- 6:15And I said, well, here's why. And then at the very, very end
- 6:19she goes, oh, I get it. So kind of on that that same
- 6:24lay, I guess, wavelength. How's it been for you as as a
- 6:28lady racer running an IMCA? It's been a challenge.
- 6:33I think just like every other racer, we all face our good days
- 6:37and our bad days, and any racer knows that the lows are really
- 6:41low and the highs are really high.
- 6:44I think just for the racing that I do, the grassroots dirt
- 6:48racing, you're at a lot of people's local home tracks and
- 6:52then you go out to these big shows.
- 6:54You're kind of just a racer to everyone, I feel like.
- 6:59And I remember you asking Haley, you're like, does everyone wreck
- 7:03you or why does everyone race you so rough?
- 7:06Yeah. And I, cuz I watched your whole
- 7:09video with her and I, yeah. And I figured all of us racers
- 7:15are kind of the same. We're all a little bit different
- 7:18in our own way. Some of us are really
- 7:20aggressive, some of us are really respectful and we're not
- 7:24aggressive. And we can all kind of be one or
- 7:27the other at times. And so I feel like everyone
- 7:30races me for the most part, just like they race every anyone
- 7:34else, any other male or female. And some guys are just overly
- 7:39aggressive. And you can either talk to them
- 7:42about it or you can't, or you just race in the same way, or
- 7:45you don't. And you just, my dad's taught me
- 7:49the way of beating them is just to pass them, beat them in the
- 7:52race. You don't need to beat the crap
- 7:54out of their car just because they did to you, but I feel like
- 7:58for the most part people race me the same and people treat me
- 8:01about the same way. I I feel I'm going to say this
- 8:04and then you comment on it. We, we race these dirt cars so
- 8:09much, you know, three nights in a row, three different tracks.
- 8:14Do you feel like you're starting to just wear the guys down like,
- 8:17oh, that's Taylor? Are they starting to understand
- 8:20that you're going to be there and you're going to race them?
- 8:23Have you trained them yet? I think so.
- 8:27For the most part, people know how I race and why I'm there.
- 8:30I want to win and I'm aggressive, but I try to be very
- 8:34respectful at the same time. I know what goes into it, all
- 8:37the work and time that goes into the race cars.
- 8:40I want to ask you a unique question that that I kind of
- 8:43face with with my own demons. And it every once in a while I
- 8:49struggle with it. I'm like, OK, we're running.
- 8:53As my brother Rusty. Rusty Wallace would say, Herman,
- 8:57why are you running those old dirt cars?
- 8:59Ole old dirt cars? Do do you ever catch yourself?
- 9:04Because I do. I feel like when I run these
- 9:07little dirt tracks and nobody even knows we're racing, you can
- 9:10go to the corner gas station. They don't even know we're
- 9:12there. Do you ever feel like if we win
- 9:16a race, like, like, all of a sudden we're the greatest of all
- 9:19time and we can solve World Peace.
- 9:21But then on Monday, everybody's got to go back to their jobs.
- 9:26I mean, do you understand the dynamic and can you comment on
- 9:29that? Yeah, I feel the same way.
- 9:31I I know on the bigger scale of racing, I see something happens
- 9:35on a Friday night race or Saturday race and NASCAR and
- 9:40they'll be talking about it for the next week every single day.
- 9:43And there's there's drama or there's good news or bad news
- 9:46that it's just continuously flowing.
- 9:49But yeah, I definitely feel the same way for our stuff.
- 9:53I won a big race A qualifier at supranationals two years ago.
- 9:57And on my list, on my list, yeah.
- 10:00My phone blew up all night long and threw a good part of the
- 10:04next day. And then after that, I feel like
- 10:07just nothing, 'cause we then we go into the big race that we
- 10:11that I won the qualifier for and you're the same nerves kick in.
- 10:16They're they're wanting you to, some people are wanting you to
- 10:19win and some people are just watching you a little bit more
- 10:22closely. But yeah, I feel like it wears
- 10:25off really quickly. I'm glad.
- 10:27I'm glad you said it that way because I also agree with you.
- 10:32I have a dear friend named Donnie Jumper and he says,
- 10:34Herman, you sure do promote yourself.
- 10:38And I said, right, because nobody cares about dirt racing.
- 10:42We have our cult. We have our small cult.
- 10:45But but for the most part, sometimes I wonder, why do I put
- 10:50so much effort into this? Do do you ever feel like that?
- 10:54Like what am I doing? Yeah, it's there's a fine line
- 11:00between like doing too much, maybe not doing enough.
- 11:04And sometimes I'm like, oh, I've been really active on social
- 11:07media and trying to promote this and get people to know what dirt
- 11:10racing is actually like behind the scenes.
- 11:13And then sometimes I'm like, I should just be enjoying this and
- 11:17not really putting so much into it.
- 11:19But when when I look at it that way, then I kick myself in the
- 11:23butt, like, OK, I'm not doing enough.
- 11:25I can't relax. I need to keep going and keep
- 11:27promoting this and getting a word out.
- 11:30So yeah, I'm kind of in between there.
- 11:34I I'll end like this on that small subject.
- 11:37I have some great races around this area.
- 11:41Mike Harrison, he's an 8 time UMP, one of the greatest and
- 11:46he's having a rough year. But I reminded him, Mike,
- 11:49you're, you're great. And then some of my friends that
- 11:52run good that don't run good. I said, come on now we're just
- 11:55running an old dirt car. We all still go to work on
- 11:58Monday, but that's how I help some of my friends when we have
- 12:02these dry spells in dirt racing. OK, let's start like this.
- 12:07I I, I tease sometimes. Let let's start the interview
- 12:10right when I met your dad in Yuma, AZ.
- 12:16We go out there in January. Big beautiful half mile.
- 12:19Your dad comes up to me and you know, we got the Green Bay
- 12:23Packers gear on and we're from Wisconsin, but then everything I
- 12:28see with you is Arizona. So Taylor, I'm confused.
- 12:32Explain to everybody what the deal is.
- 12:35Who's from Wisconsin? Your dad knew the great Dick
- 12:39Trickle and everybody where, where are we from?
- 12:41And explain it. OK, my dad, he's from Wisconsin.
- 12:45He's from Sheboygan, a small town there.
- 12:48Love that name. Sheboygan.
- 12:50Sheboygan and my mom's from like central California, and they
- 12:57both met in Arizona, and that's where I came into the picture.
- 13:01Yay. And so I was, I was born and
- 13:06raised in Arizona. I lived there my whole life for
- 13:09about 20 years. And I grew up racing there.
- 13:13I raced asphalt, go karts at PKRA in Phoenix and then raced
- 13:18there my whole life, did other stuff, went to school,
- 13:20everything grew up there. And in 20, in 2020, I went to
- 13:27Montana and worked on a farm all summer so I can buy my first
- 13:30race car because my dad owned all my stuff before that.
- 13:34And I did that. And then in 2021, I started
- 13:37racing in Iowa for a couple months, went back home in
- 13:40Arizona. And then the next year I decided
- 13:43that I absolutely loved Iowa. I loved the people, I loved the
- 13:47dirt track racing, mostly the dirt track racing.
- 13:50That's what drew me here. And that's when I moved to
- 13:53Arizona. So I'm, or to Iowa.
- 13:55So I'm permanently in Iowa now and I still call Arizona home,
- 14:00but I I guess I'm an Iowa girl now.
- 14:02I see a lot of you IMCA racers and by the way, I want to remind
- 14:06everybody IMCA is no joke. They are the oldest racing
- 14:12association in America, older than NASCAR, and they got it
- 14:17going on. You know, I hear some racers
- 14:20might complain about IMCA, but listen, I've seen them all.
- 14:24They got their, the rules are very tough, but they enforce
- 14:27them. I think IMC is good for you.
- 14:31Do do you like IMCA? Yeah, definitely.
- 14:35They, like you said, they keep a really strict guideline, but
- 14:40they they're very reputable around the country.
- 14:43There's a lot of states that are IMCA sanctioned a lot of their
- 14:48race tracks. So they obviously do a really
- 14:50good job having racers race under under them.
- 14:56I guess that's a it's a popular thing.
- 14:59As you started talking about your career, I, I did a lot of
- 15:03studying on you and you, you got some good social media out
- 15:08there. And you know, I googled you as
- 15:11you said, you started asphalt kid karts at five years old all
- 15:17the way to 13. You moved up the cadet karts
- 15:19with the big engines, big chassis, but, but something
- 15:23stuck out and I want, I want you to just touch on it.
- 15:28You had the opportunity to go race for Team USA World Finals
- 15:32in New Orleans, LA, karting's biggest show on an international
- 15:37level. Tell me about that experience.
- 15:41Yeah, So it's it is asphalt go Kart racing's biggest event on
- 15:46an international level. We have drivers from almost
- 15:51every country that allows go Kart racing that the top drivers
- 15:56from those countries join this, join this race, they qualify
- 15:59into this race somehow. And so I raced an 8 race series
- 16:03for that and it really came down to actually me and another girl.
- 16:08This was in 2013 and it was just my dad and I and she had a big
- 16:14team behind her. And like the CRG Karting, that
- 16:19represents a lot of people. People pay to be under their
- 16:21tent and stuff and they have really good resources, good
- 16:24coaches and stuff. So we were like, well this is a
- 16:29once in a lifetime opportunity that we get to race for this and
- 16:33I really wanted the ticket to it.
- 16:34I felt like we had good equipment and my dad and my
- 16:38brother were kind of my coaches and so they helped me win the
- 16:42eight race series. I think I ran.
- 16:44I won five out of eight races. I think I won actually 7 but I
- 16:49got docked for two of them which which kind of.
- 16:54What'd you do, cut a corner? No, I started dead last one
- 16:58time. This sticks out in my head.
- 16:59I started dead last one time and they said I jumped the start.
- 17:03I didn't pass anyone but they said I was out of line and I
- 17:07ended up winning it from last and they docked me.
- 17:10That that break my heart at that age.
- 17:12Yeah, Oh yeah, you know it. And but anyways, we ended up
- 17:17prevailing and it went really well.
- 17:19So we got to the World Finals, which was the coolest thing back
- 17:25then. I'm sure it still is in go
- 17:26karting and that's probably one of my favorite memories in
- 17:30racing. So as you move forward,
- 17:34something that sticks out in my mind and we're going to roll
- 17:39another clip. I find as I follow you on social
- 17:45media, you're a little bit like me.
- 17:46It's either me or somebody that can like plug the battery
- 17:51charger in for me. And so many years ago, not long
- 17:55ago, you rolled up in this big old motorhome to Yuma again,
- 18:00because I see you every January just about we go from you racing
- 18:03on an international level with your, your brother, your dad,
- 18:08you're surrounded by family and you roll up in that motorhome
- 18:13and I'm like, where's everybody at?
- 18:15How do you find yourself by yourself sometimes?
- 18:20Or would you say sometimes you're on an island by yourself?
- 18:25I definitely used to be. I like I said, I went off on my
- 18:28own in 2020 so I could buy my own race car.
- 18:32I've been raised to be really independent and use your
- 18:36resources. Figure it out.
- 18:38If you if you can't figure it out, well, find a different way
- 18:42to figure it out. Don't ask till you figure it out
- 18:45until you absolutely can't. So I've just been raised that
- 18:49way and I wanted to go racing in Iowa and obviously my dad and my
- 18:56mom have their jobs so they can't just drop everything and
- 18:59take me to Iowa. So I luckily I met my car owner
- 19:06now in Arizona when I was racing and he said, Hey, I have a shop
- 19:10for you you can use come to Iowa.
- 19:12I really want you to race. I see potential in you and I
- 19:15want to help you out. Whatever I can do.
- 19:17So he gave me a shop to work out of and my dad and I drove the
- 19:23truck and trailer to Iowa and he kind of just dropped me off.
- 19:27He was like, right, good luck. I'll be watching on TV and I
- 19:31knew nothing, absolutely nothing, looking back on it.
- 19:34And I'm like, what was I doing? But that was the year that I
- 19:39probably saw the most growth in myself as a driver and just as a
- 19:43person too. I, yeah, I was dropped off in
- 19:47Iowa by myself and I basically just was thrown to the wolves.
- 19:51I had to learn everything that I know now.
- 19:53I had to learn from other people or just figuring it out.
- 19:57So I. I didn't.
- 20:01I don't mind at all going off by myself.
- 20:03If I, if that's what I have to do to go racing, enjoy what I
- 20:07enjoy, then that's definitely what I'm going to do.
- 20:10And I think back when I saw you and I pulled up in the
- 20:13motorhome, that's when it all started.
- 20:16So I'm sure your father has taught you who one of the
- 20:20greatest racers, short track racers of all time on asphalt
- 20:25was Dick Trickle. And Dick.
- 20:26Dick ran dirt too. He could.
- 20:28He could do it all. He said something, you know, he
- 20:32tutored me. Without Dick Trickle, I would
- 20:34not be where I'm at right now. But he said you got to wanna.
- 20:40Basically meaning you got to want it.
- 20:42You got to. But but Dick made a shortcut.
- 20:45He said you got to wanna. Seems to me like you really want
- 20:50to You want to do this, or else you wouldn't put yourself
- 20:54through all that. Yeah, yeah.
- 20:57I think it's like anything, if you really, if you really want
- 21:00to and you have the passion and you have the drive for it, then
- 21:03you're going to make it work no matter what it takes.
- 21:08I, I see a lot of pictures and, and I want people to know this
- 21:11about you. You're a pretty lady, but there
- 21:15you are under your race cards on Jack stands and you're, you're
- 21:19just destroyed. You're dirty.
- 21:22You're, you're junkie, you got the transmission out, the drive
- 21:26shaft out, you're putting a new flywheel in or whatever you're
- 21:30doing. Do you do you do that because
- 21:34you have to or do you do that because you feel like it?
- 21:37It's got to be done and you're and you're learning the process.
- 21:42At first I was learning the process.
- 21:44I one thing would be wrong, like something in the transmission
- 21:47would be wrong and then it would go to the drive shaft and I'd
- 21:50break a gear and I'm like, what's going on?
- 21:52Well, first fix the First things first, fix the transmission.
- 21:57So when you go to the transmission, you find out that
- 22:00maybe the throw out bearing and clutch were misaligned.
- 22:02So you line that all up. Well, then you find out the
- 22:05pilot bushing and the motors misaligned.
- 22:07So it's like I was just trying to make it to the racetrack and
- 22:11I, I was learning all that stuff as I was going.
- 22:15And now that I know a lot of that stuff, that's something I
- 22:19look for when I'm just doing my regular maintenance and I know
- 22:24if it has to be done, it's going to be done right.
- 22:26Otherwise we're not going racing because we're going racing to
- 22:30win. So we need the right stuff to do
- 22:32that. And nowadays I do it because it
- 22:35has to be done if I want to win. It reminds me of my brother
- 22:40Mike. Take the trash out, pay the
- 22:43taxes, and Mike would say, erm, it's got to be done.
- 22:49Yeah, good stuff. OK, I hope everybody understands
- 22:53that you're not just a pretty lady racer, You're really good.
- 22:57Obviously we've watched the video of, you know, me talking
- 23:00to you after the race, you roll up in the RV by yourself.
- 23:05There's plenty pictures out there.
- 23:06You got a great Instagram page where you're extremely dirty.
- 23:09You're under the car. I hope people understand how bad
- 23:14you want it and and what a great racer you are.
- 23:17And that that leads me to 2022. You qualified for the IMCA
- 23:23Supranationals. Now this ladies and gentlemen,
- 23:27let me say this, this is big. This isn't something to take
- 23:32lighthearted. I think that to me to for me.
- 23:37Now I want you to tell me to me, that's the biggest thing you've
- 23:40ever done. Is it?
- 23:42Tell me about that 2022 qualifying for the IMCA
- 23:47Supranationals and starting on the front row.
- 23:50Yeah, I'd agree. That's the biggest thing I've
- 23:52done in racing so far. I watched Supranationals for
- 23:56years before I actually went and raced it.
- 23:59And I would get tears in my eyes like just them starting four
- 24:05wide for this big race. And it's the best drivers in the
- 24:09country in this IMCA modified racing.
- 24:11And you, you get like this bulge in your throat and tears in your
- 24:15eyes and you're like, this is what we freaking live for.
- 24:18This is what we've been waiting for all year long.
- 24:21It's coolest thing ever. And there's thousands of fans
- 24:27watching in person and online. And it's just like, you want to
- 24:30be on that stage. That's what you want as a racer.
- 24:33And so it was always my goal just to make the show.
- 24:36I didn't, I was like, I'm not going to win that thing.
- 24:38I want to make the show and, and watching it before I race, I'm
- 24:44like, I just want to be there and race it.
- 24:45I don't even care to make the show.
- 24:46I want to be there. And when I started racing it, I
- 24:48want to make the show. And then that year it was kind
- 24:51of the same thing. I didn't have huge expectations.
- 24:55You can't really have expectations going into that
- 24:58week because you never know what's going to happen.
- 25:00There's a thousand other racers just in that week that are
- 25:04racing for the same thing you are.
- 25:05So you you can't have low expectations and you have to
- 25:11hold yourself to a higher standard to know that you're
- 25:14going to be toward the front that week.
- 25:17But just we started the qualifier on the front row that
- 25:22week or that night and I was really nervous.
- 25:25I had some big hitters behind me.
- 25:27People who have previous previously won the
- 25:29Supranationals, previously won qualifiers there when weekly at
- 25:36Boone or weekly at their track, weekly at these big events.
- 25:40And so I was really, really nervous and we ended up holding,
- 25:44holding it off for the win and getting that win.
- 25:46And it was just it was really bittersweet because I just I
- 25:51always wanted to make the race and then to be on that stage in
- 25:54front of all these people and be all these really good racers was
- 25:59just kind of insane to me. I'm like, this isn't real.
- 26:03This doesn't make sense. I just wanted to be in the show,
- 26:06but it was really incredible. I was kind of speechless.
- 26:09So let's move forward a little bit.
- 26:10And another thing that that stands out is you've got a car.
- 26:15You, you come up with some really good paint schemes.
- 26:18And I saw Rosie. Rosie is this lady during the
- 26:24war years ago that went to work for a living.
- 26:28And we, we see her, she's got the bandana on.
- 26:30She's a tough girl. And and you have that paint
- 26:33scheme. Tell me about this paint scheme.
- 26:36How did it come apart? And I love it.
- 26:38Thank you the Hunting with Heroes.
- 26:42They put on this three race series every year in the end of
- 26:45July and it's called the Salute to Veterans Tour and you get a
- 26:50pretty good car count for it. But the whole purpose of it is
- 26:54to salute our veterans and just honor our veterans and what
- 26:58they've done for all of us, all the sacrifices they've made.
- 27:01So I was the first woman that they ever had representing the
- 27:05Tour and I, I didn't know what to expect when I met with him
- 27:11and he asked me to be a part of it.
- 27:13I came into it very professional.
- 27:14I had everything laid out on my laptop.
- 27:17Like this is my idea of how I'm going to promote it.
- 27:20This is the theme I want to go with.
- 27:21I've designed this. It's a really rough draft, but
- 27:24we're going to go into it and make this thing look really cool
- 27:28so we can bring some attention to it.
- 27:30So we we ended up having Rosie the Riveter on the car and it's
- 27:36kind of stuck ever since. I skipped a year doing it and
- 27:39then I did it this year again and we decided to bring Rosie
- 27:43back because it was pretty iconic.
- 27:46I want to make a comment I hope everybody out there that has
- 27:50made it 27 minutes into this see and listen and realize how you
- 27:55promote yourself. I have so many fathers.
- 27:57Call me my my boy is, you know, 8 years old.
- 28:02He's won 12 championships. He's going to be Kyle Larson,
- 28:05Kenny Wallace. What's the next thing I should
- 28:08do? I'm going to answer him right
- 28:09now. Be like Taylor cool.
- 28:12Create, create a platform, go get money, get sponsorship.
- 28:16Tell them what you're going to do for them.
- 28:18I always tell people, look, I've I've run my mouth my whole life
- 28:22and I've got great sponsors. I mean, here's one right here.
- 28:25Crow Crow equipment, Scott Crow. He he said to me, hey, man, can
- 28:31I get a little more publicity? I'm like, sure.
- 28:33So I put that right there. And so, yes, good job, Taylor.
- 28:38I mean, that's the way you got to go after you.
- 28:41You can't just have people. I mean, yeah, they do just give
- 28:44you money sometimes if they like you, but for the most part, you
- 28:48got to sell product and that that's really awesome.
- 28:51What what other sponsors you got a car owner?
- 28:55What else has got you to where you're at?
- 28:58Just a lot of connections. That's what a lot of sponsorship
- 29:03and partnerships and stuff in racing are, just having
- 29:06connections and meeting people. I know you told me a long time
- 29:09ago, Taylor, I I enjoyed talking to you and racing with you.
- 29:13It's cool to do a video with you, but you're really quiet and
- 29:16you don't go out and talk to people.
- 29:17You don't approach people. So I, I don't know if I ever
- 29:22told you, but I took that into account and I really started
- 29:25trying to get myself out there a little bit more.
- 29:27And at the racetrack, I'd stop by and talk to people.
- 29:30And if I saw promoters, I'd thank thank them for having us
- 29:34at their show and stuff. So I've tried to be a little bit
- 29:38more approachable and also approach people on my own.
- 29:43Yeah. And that's how I've made a lot
- 29:45of my connections. And I've, I've had Carl Customs,
- 29:49they've given me a crate loader and they've given me some good
- 29:53support in the last couple of years.
- 29:55We have an open motor with them now and I still represent them
- 29:58the best I can. And then I have a lot of people
- 30:01from home, home in Arizona. And then just people seeing me
- 30:06race and me going out and meeting people here in Iowa.
- 30:10I've made some pretty good partnerships with people here.
- 30:14I, I took a liking to you because you're a lady in a man's
- 30:19world and like Matt Craft and that story you told earlier, I'm
- 30:23like in my mind, I'm thinking, I think this, I think this lady
- 30:27wants it. She's got that Dick trickle
- 30:30gotta wanna and thank you for you know what, when I, when I
- 30:35say something to people, I want to make sure it's good hearted,
- 30:38good spirited and I'm like, OK, she wants it, but now she's got
- 30:43to talk, you know, and I and I say that, you know, to some
- 30:48people that really want it, they want to move forward.
- 30:50So I'm glad that you didn't get mad at me.
- 30:54I'm glad that you took it to heart.
- 30:55Because Taylor, that's the only way I made it, you know, is I
- 31:00tell people, look, the only reason I didn't have enough, I
- 31:03mean, people get mad at me when I say this.
- 31:05I'm not that talented. I'm OK.
- 31:08But the only reason I made it is because I was able to sell
- 31:10product. There's an old saying, if you're
- 31:13going to play, you got to pay, got to get the money somewhere.
- 31:18And that's awesome. That's really awesome.
- 31:22I'm proud of you. That makes me super happy.
- 31:25OK, Another thing that I see stands out.
- 31:30There's always been this talk the ladies should race against
- 31:35each other. And, you know, Danica Patrick
- 31:38says, I find that I want to beat the ladies more, and they want
- 31:42to beat me more. So I mean, Danica Patrick
- 31:45acknowledges that the girls are harder on each other.
- 31:51I see that you had this IMCA Lady Eagles points.
- 31:58Explain that to me. Yeah, so IMCA, they do like a
- 32:03special point series. You have your Rookie of the
- 32:06Year, you have your national point leader and then they do
- 32:09our special series, the Lady Eagles series.
- 32:12So it's just accumulating points throughout the year and
- 32:16obviously the more wins and the more seconds top threes that you
- 32:20have, you're going to have more points than all the other women
- 32:24that are racing. So we raced quite a bit last
- 32:27year and we got eight wins, 8 IMCA wins.
- 32:31And I, we, we really weren't shooting for this championship,
- 32:40but we ended up on top at the end of the year and I didn't
- 32:43really expect it, but it was pretty cool.
- 32:47But yeah, I think Danica's right.
- 32:50All the other lady racers, we're all trying to be all the boys,
- 32:54but there's far, far and few in between in racing all these
- 33:00girls. So when there's only three
- 33:02girls, you, I want to be the best girl.
- 33:06I want to stand out and be the best girl, but I also want to be
- 33:09all the boys. Well, you are standing out as #1
- 33:12in my opinion and IMCA, I'd be remissed.
- 33:17In other words. In other words, I should ask
- 33:19you. This is the way I feel, Danica
- 33:22Patrick, who to me is the greatest lady racer of all time.
- 33:25That's my opinion. OK.
- 33:28She said something that just struck me so truthful.
- 33:32She says stop and think about it, Kenny.
- 33:34There's thousands of men racers out there and, and all you're,
- 33:38you're trying to find Kyle Larson and and Christopher Bell
- 33:43and there's maybe ten of us. So it, it, it's really hard on
- 33:48you. What, what do you think of that
- 33:49statement that Danica said? That there's less girls than.
- 33:55They're they're just, you know, when you put 1000 men in there,
- 33:58you're going to, there's an opportunity to find a lot and
- 34:02there's not very many of you girls.
- 34:04It's it's so hard to make it to NASCAR or to be able to do it
- 34:08for a living. What are your thoughts?
- 34:11You got to really stand out. Yeah, and I think nowadays the
- 34:15social media marketing plays a huge part in this.
- 34:19You you need to be able to promote yourself.
- 34:22But I think for the dirt racing stuff that I'm doing, the
- 34:26biggest thing is just knowing your car, knowing the mechanics
- 34:29and being a smart driver. And I think whether you're a boy
- 34:34or a girl, you have to just, you have to know the basics.
- 34:37Taylor, I've had a wonderful time talking to you.
- 34:42You're a winner. You're, as I've said, for the
- 34:45third time, you're in a man's world.
- 34:47You showed how hard you want it. So it leads me to this.
- 34:52What, what is your end game? I mean, for me it was like, I
- 34:56want to make it the NASCAR now I'm old.
- 34:58I'm going to be 61 August 23rd. You're a baby.
- 35:02You're only 23. What, what is what is your end
- 35:06game? What?
- 35:06What's your goal? Making a living out of racing is
- 35:10really what I want to do. I have great partners right now,
- 35:14but to be able to represent good people in racing, that's really
- 35:18important in the marketing side. But being able to race every
- 35:23week like I'm doing, I mean, you can't do it forever on your own.
- 35:28So just to be able to go racing, have good partners to help
- 35:33support me. I think I've looked a lot at
- 35:36dirt late model racing. I think that's a suitable thing
- 35:40for me in the future. But just being realistic at the
- 35:44moment, I think just to continue dirt modified racing.
- 35:48I've raced for Matt Craft and that was my sixth race this
- 35:51weekend and his modified and that's my that's actually my
- 35:55first time in a four link car. So I'm I'm picking a lot of
- 36:00these things up and we're trying to make that dirt modified
- 36:04racing work. I might hopefully be racing with
- 36:07you and the UMP modified soon. That's what we're shooting for.
- 36:11And obviously you do OK with that, doing that maybe as a
- 36:16living or being able to have it pay for itself.
- 36:20So yeah, that's that's what I want to do.
- 36:24If I can make it to NASCAR or different types of dirt racing,
- 36:28I would love the opportunity. I always try to push for new
- 36:32opportunities and take everyone that I can.
- 36:36What I hear is you're a racer and you love racer and what I've
- 36:40learned in life is we have to have purpose and and Taylor, you
- 36:44have purpose. You you've been you've been
- 36:46wonderful. Thank you for coming on Kenny
- 36:49Conversation. Yeah, thank you for having me.
- 36:53All right, everybody, remember we are in podcast form.
- 36:56You can listen to Taylor Cool on your way to work and on the way
- 37:01back home after work. And we are on iTunes and
- 37:06Spotify. All right everybody, until the
- 37:08next Kenny conversation. See you next time.
- 37:12Thank you. See ya.