Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Rick Mast Shares Vintage NASCAR Memories!

Transcript

Rick Mast Shares Vintage NASCAR Memories! · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
Connor Zilich, so the news the last couple days, basically he's
0:04
going to race full time in the Xfinity Series next year with
0:08
Junior Motorsports. He's going to drive the the
0:10
number 88 car. And you've been hearing about
0:13
this kid for the last six months to a year.
0:16
He seems like the next big thing.
0:18
And for me, the last person I could think of with with this
0:22
type of hype. I don't know if you have to go
0:24
back to Joey Logano, but when I say kind of the next big thing,
0:28
somebody who's really hyped up from your career, which drivers
0:32
stick out and and maybe they were a hit or they were a miss,
0:35
but who comes to mind? Probably #1 on the list and this
0:40
is just a little bit before my time, although I did run some
0:43
races with him or guess him in the Bush series was Tim Richmond
0:47
right? He was the next big thing and
0:49
then we lost him and honestly, we went to a void for a while
0:54
and really the next big thing that happened, this is no joke,
0:58
was Jeff Gordon. He was the next big thing, a
1:00
void of probably 4-5 years. We didn't have a next big thing.
1:04
Jeff Gordon comes along and the first year, I think Ray Abraham
1:08
told me he put 15 front stouts or clips on race cars at Jeff
1:12
Wreck, right? You're just figuring it out that
1:15
first year. And then of course after that,
1:17
the rest is history. So what happened, Charlie?
1:20
We had some folks come along. Jeff was young and remember
1:23
those days. Y'all heard me talk about it.
1:25
You know, you need to be in the late 20s or 30 before you could
1:28
get in a cup car. That's just the way the owners
1:30
felt about it. And Jeff came along and kind of
1:33
changed that. So what happened?
1:34
We had three or four next big things pop up right after Jeff
1:38
Gordon. Well, guess what?
1:40
They didn't. They weren't the big thing, all
1:42
right? They didn't make it.
1:43
They didn't last. So the owner started thinking,
1:47
well, maybe Jeff Gordon's. He's an adopt.
1:52
Anomaly. Yeah, that's a word.
1:54
He's exception to the rule. And so they got away from it.
1:58
Then the next big thing that came was Tony Stewart.
2:01
And Tony came in. He was really, everybody was
2:04
looking at Tony. Gibbs took a chance on him and
2:06
everybody's looking at Tony like, well, he's awful young
2:08
you. This has only worked one time
2:10
before and it's Jeff Gordon, so we're not, you know, the juries
2:12
out on him. Well, guess what?
2:14
He made it work. And from that moment till now,
2:18
you know, the age, if you look at a graph of the age of a of a
2:22
rookie cup driver, that number started going down drastically
2:26
over the years. And it and it really started
2:28
from the time Tony came in, you know, then we had other guys
2:32
through that whole mix, you'd have a next great thing about I
2:35
mean, hell, Joe, Joe Logano is a good example.
2:37
I remember Mark Martin. What did Mark call him?
2:39
Best thing since sliced. Bread.
2:42
Yeah, and you know, with, he went with Gibbs and he faltered,
2:46
right. I remember being at Richmond one
2:49
time. I was in the, I was on pit lane.
2:52
I was in, for some reason, I was in Logano's pit box when he was
2:55
with Gibbs. And I remember Joey getting
3:00
lapped. And I remember the crew guys,
3:02
everybody look at each other and I've seen this look before.
3:06
And they would just look at each other, disgust and shake their
3:08
head, right. And I'm like, oh hell, Logano's
3:12
in trouble here. You know, the guys are not
3:14
really liking what they see. Then it doesn't it doesn't work.
3:18
Well, then, you know, he left and then he got picked up by
3:21
Penske and look at here the rest of its history, right?
3:24
I mean, he Gibbs, he couldn't, he was he was the next big thing
3:28
and this close, that close to when Gibbs got rid of him to not
3:33
ever hearing the Joey Logano again.
3:35
But then he gets picked up by Penske and now he's a world
3:37
beater champion and the whole deal.
3:40
So it's hard to judge these things, but I'm going to tell
3:42
you something. We got all these rides open
3:45
right now. I've never seen this many rides
3:48
available and we're talking about the next big thing.
3:51
Why are we talking about the next big thing, Charlie?
3:53
I'll tell you why, because we don't have a next big thing to
3:56
fill these rides. They're open and cup right now.
3:58
I've never seen this time of year, this many rides available
4:03
for the next season, right? There's just not, there's not a
4:07
Kyle Larson out there right now to to put in your race car.
4:10
So what are you going to do? You know, you get the next big
4:13
thing. Well, it ain't no next big
4:14
things coming, but Junior's going to make him one.
4:16
He's going to make a next big thing, right with this kid.
4:19
That's just kind of way I look at it.
4:22
All righty. We're starting to get some good
4:23
questions, so here we go. OK.
4:25
We'll start with Scott Parton, he says.
4:28
Where did Rick start his racing roots from?
4:32
Where did your racing roots come from?
4:35
Hey Scott, my dad, my dad always said, oh, I'm so sorry.
4:39
It's all good. Hey, this is live.
4:42
That's what we do too. Look, look at here what I'm
4:45
going to do see everybody that says Sharon and she's calling me
4:49
and I'm going to say doing podcast that's.
4:55
Right. Right now and then she's going
4:58
to text back and say sorry. So anyhow, my dad when I was a
5:04
little boy, my dad had a little race car.
5:06
Well he might have they might have been illegal stuff a little
5:12
bit maybe I don't know. I always they always ruined my
5:15
dad used to drive fast with bottles of stuff in his car.
5:18
I don't know. But anyhow, my dad had a little
5:20
race car and when in 1967 he built.
5:23
Women models? You're saying women models?
5:26
No, no, that was my grandfather. My grandfather I never met.
5:30
He died before I was born. Every picture I see of my
5:33
grandfather, he's on the back of a car short with his leg propped
5:36
up. He's got, he's got a bottle of
5:39
liquor in one hand and a, a woman around his arm in the
5:42
other hand. Right.
5:43
And I'm like, I don't know what kind of dude he was.
5:46
But anyhow, my dad built Natural Bridge Speedway here in Natural
5:49
Bridge, little dirt track in 1967.
5:52
And when I was a little boy, of course I had to work down there.
5:55
But I remember whitewashing the fences and sickle, grass sickle.
6:00
We didn't have weed ears. A sickles, a big old long thing
6:02
that you chopped grass with. Anyhow, he had that.
6:05
He built that track. So I was 10 years old when that
6:07
track opened and it, it was just all consuming for me, man, it
6:12
was fascinating being around racing, being around race cars.
6:15
I mean, that's that from the time I was little, OK up up till
6:20
now, that was always my main fascination.
6:22
And that's where it all started from.
6:23
Scott, thank you so much for that question.
6:25
Cool and cars and planes die cast reviewer.
6:28
Basically this the same type of question what inspired Rick to
6:32
become a race car driver. So I wanted to mention cars and
6:35
planes die cast reviewer as well, but but similar questions.
6:39
How about this one here from Chris Bird?
6:43
What's your best memory, Rick, of racing in the Bush?
6:47
Series, man, let me tell you something, Chris, the, the Bush
6:50
Grand National days again, it's kind of like I've talked about
6:54
ending the Brickyard magical those, those that decade of the
6:58
80s was, was, was a little bit magical just because everybody,
7:04
all of it, all of the competitors, man, we're all,
7:06
we're all kind of the same. We're all had our buckets of
7:08
boats that we throw up on a trailer and we drag up and down
7:12
the East Coast or would hit the Milwaukee or whatever, the Bush
7:14
series and, and make a race car of this bucket of boats.
7:17
And everybody was trying to make a living at it or trying to
7:20
survive doing it. Some of the guys like myself
7:23
were were aspiring Cup drivers and wanted to be in Cup.
7:25
Some of them were making their living but by being Bush drivers
7:29
and it was a commodity. Commodity.
7:33
Is that the right word? It was.
7:36
A no it. Was a brotherhood.
7:38
Oh, camaraderie. It was a it was a brotherhood
7:42
amongst everybody being very fierce competitors.
7:45
I've been I've seen fights, you know, been involved in
7:47
skirmishes. But at the end of the day,
7:50
everybody would still could look out after after each other.
7:53
Is it was AI don't know. It's a weird kind of deal.
7:56
I remember, I remember when when I got in Cup, I was flying to
8:00
Atlanta in the right seat of my plane, right?
8:02
And I'm listening up to on the radio and you can you know who
8:06
everybody's airplane is by the tail number like 500RM or five O
8:11
1RM. That's Rick Mast, right?
8:13
Or Rusty Wallace was five O 1 or 500 WR, you know.
8:17
And so you knew who all these guys were.
8:18
And I remember riding down to Atlanta in my plane, listened to
8:22
all this. And I remember telling my pilot
8:23
William, I said, man, this is just like it was a few years
8:26
ago. He said what I said, we're
8:27
riding on these planes. I'm listening to everybody.
8:29
Years ago, we spend our old pickups and trucks and trailers
8:32
with CB radios and I'm listening to all the guys going up and
8:35
down the road. I said, hell, it's the same
8:36
people. Instead of being in pickup
8:38
trailers, pickups and trailers, now we're on friggin airplanes,
8:42
right? It the Bush series evolved to
8:44
that. But you know, so many cherry
8:46
spimmers, man. My first victory at Dover, my
8:48
first, you know, my first Bush Grand National victory at Dover,
8:52
you know, then the next week we back it up.
8:54
Two weeks in a row we went at Martinsville big big time deal
8:57
big time deal the the time at Indianapolis in 1990 when I was
9:02
broke. I was leading with 18 laps to go
9:04
a lap car erect me and only by this, only by the saving grace
9:10
of God or who or intervention or whoever I I didn't go to jail
9:13
for murdering the guy right? I was after him.
9:16
I was really going to kill him. I thought at the time and and
9:18
and some interventions happened and I didn't and you know, just
9:23
being broke ass poor, not knowing how you going to pay for
9:26
the tires the next week. And then you know, you go to
9:29
Bristol and you win a race, you win twelve 12,500 bucks, right?
9:35
Week or two later, you go to Richmond, you win a race,
9:38
another twelve 13,000 bucks. The week after that you signed a
9:42
contract with Skull to drive in the whistle Cup series, right?
9:46
Just so many emotions of high and lows in that Bush series
9:50
and, and, and the stories out of that Bush series, the 80s, some
9:53
of the greatest, the greatest, greatest race car drivers I ever
9:57
competed against. And really the guys that taught
10:00
me right, my dirt days a little bit before the Bush series.
10:03
A lot of those guys taught me how to how to kind of conduct
10:06
yourself or not conduct yourself, but you know how to
10:09
you're going to race, you're going to fight.
10:10
You know, what kind of sport is? What kind of sport is it or is
10:13
this and what kind of person are you?
10:15
But the Bush series, man, just so special.
10:17
So special. Sorry I rambled on but it.
10:20
No, no, I love it. That's great.
10:22
We might combine two questions here because Corndogger asks how
10:27
does it feel to win the first pole of the Brickyard 400, which
10:30
of course you've talked about a lot, but you can a, you can
10:33
always tell that story a million more times.
10:35
But also this next one, Derek Mcdee, what's your biggest
10:38
memory from your racing career? So my question is, is that pole?
10:42
Is that your biggest, best memory or is there something
10:45
else? No, probably, probably my, I
10:50
don't know. Over the years it's, it's
10:52
changed a little bit. The Indy, the Indy PO was so
10:55
big, but in, in the bigger, the biggest thing probably in my
10:59
career that we did as far As for the sport and helping myself and
11:02
helping the sport. But really the, the, the 89
11:05
Daytona 500 is the deal. I mean, we go to we go to
11:10
Daytona with Travis Carter, right?
11:12
The car is unsponsored. This is by third time ever in a
11:16
Cup car. We go down there to run the Bush
11:19
class. We run good all day and that we
11:21
qualify good for the 500. For the 500 on Sunday, it's me
11:25
and Earnhardt and Schrader out front for the biggest part of
11:28
the day. I lead to Daytona 500, not by
11:30
flute, OK, because that was a bad ass race car I had and you
11:34
know, had a chance to win the race.
11:36
We pitted for fuel. We didn't run the waste, didn't
11:38
win the race. Daryl won the race.
11:40
He didn't put for fuel. My gas man's bad at Travis
11:44
Carter because we had enough fuel to make it.
11:46
And if we had to pit it and did not run out, then I'd have won
11:48
the race, right? But you know, you're in the Bush
11:51
series in 89 and and and my ultimate goal is to be a Cup
11:54
driver. So I hear some guys out here
11:56
talk about it all the time. You know, like Jeff Burton was
11:58
talking the other day when he's running Bush.
12:00
He had no idea that he wanted to run Cup.
12:02
It wasn't his goal to run a Cup, right?
12:04
Ended up being a good, good Cup career.
12:06
And my whole goal was to be a Cup driver and the deal at
12:10
Daytona kind of he kind of set me apart a little bit for some
12:14
guys that that kind of fast tracked me to get get
12:16
opportunities to run, run the Cup series.
12:18
And that, that, that's really still probably personally the
12:23
most special thing, the 89500. OK, cool.
12:26
How about this? By the way, look at this, Rick,
12:28
we got This is the official account of Dale Earnhardt
12:31
Junior's Dirty MO Media. I don't know if this is actually
12:34
Dale Junior or somebody that works, but either way, they're
12:36
watching right now saying hi, Charlie.
12:39
Hi, Rick. Great show.
12:40
The good old days, we're the best.
12:42
So that's great to see right there.
12:44
OK, got to go back here. We're getting a lot of
12:47
questions. Somebody wanted to ask a
12:49
question about Kyle Busch. Here we go.
12:51
Jason Moore says do you think Kyle Busch has a big chance to
12:55
win anywhere this year? I do, and I'll tell you why #1
13:01
Kyle Busch, we know what he can do when the car is under, OK?
13:05
Obviously they don't have those cars under him right now.
13:08
They're not handling properly, right?
13:10
It's it's just, that's just the fact the the the the way the
13:14
cars are right now. They're so they're so finite
13:16
with the adjustments, right? The and and I hear guys that I
13:19
talk to guys about it. I mean, we talked about this
13:22
before on the show. You're talking about instead of
13:24
three turns of wedge, you're talking about a 30 thousandths.
13:27
It's bump, stop, Shim, OK, that that's getting so finite on, on,
13:32
on set up. So if it's like that, you could
13:35
throw something at the car real small and all of a sudden you've
13:39
got a lap down Cobb Bush car that's got a chance to win the
13:42
race. Right now.
13:43
We haven't seen the pattern. A lot of times these guys will
13:45
will get onto something and head down a certain direction and and
13:49
come across stuff that makes it work.
13:51
But I have noticed with this new car that all of a sudden
13:55
somebody never even heard of. All of a sudden you look up one
13:58
week and he's up there vying for the winner, leading the race,
14:00
right? Or he's been leading the races
14:03
and all of a sudden he's getting he's a lap down car, right?
14:06
That's just because, I think because of the everything being
14:09
so close with the car and, and, and it changes.
14:11
So to answer your question, yeah.
14:13
And I, I, I wouldn't say that if it wasn't Cobb Bush.
14:16
If you just look at the way the team's been running this year
14:19
and listen, man, I know Richard Childress.
14:20
There's nobody more competitive than Richard Childress or nobody
14:24
wants to win more than Richard Childress.
14:26
And I I know this stuff has to be killing him.
14:28
I know that mean Petri left, right?
14:30
I'm sure they fired him, but hell, he might have left on his
14:32
own. I don't know what happened, but,
14:34
you know, it's all because not running good.
14:36
And, you know, we cannot question Kyle Busch's abilities.
14:40
I don't care who you are, you can't question that right now.
14:42
So yeah, to answer your question, it wouldn't surprise
14:45
me one bit to see what a race. How about this one?
14:48
This is just a comment. I have to read them all.
14:50
Rick, Rob C. The redneck rebel, says Kenny.
14:54
Not here. I can't stand Charlie.
14:56
What did I do? The redneck Rebel?
14:58
What did I ever do to you? OK, I want to know.
15:00
Well, the rendeck rebel, Charlie, it's hard to say.
15:02
Loans is done a bot. I learned about bots last week,
15:05
man. I did a deal on the the men and
15:07
the transgenders and the women in the Olympics and all that.
15:09
And man, that the people lit my ass up right?
15:13
And I'm reading all these, these these things comments towards me
15:17
and I finally get the notice of Charlie.
15:18
They're all got 35 followers and they're all calling me the same
15:22
names. And I'm like, oh, this is what a
15:24
bot is, right? So what we need to do, Charlie,
15:28
is being you need to figure out how to become bots.
15:31
Yes. And have fun with people that
15:33
don't like you. I mean, we could do that.
15:36
I don't know. I don't know how to do that.
15:38
We'll call it. We'll call Elon up.
15:39
See what he says. I like.
15:41
That call Elon, he's got more clout.
15:43
There you go. We'll make the call after this
15:45
live stream here. Here's a good question, I think.
15:47
I think this will be a good one, rubbing and grubbing.
15:51
Rick, did Dale Senior wreck you in 1994 at Rockingham?
15:57
That was a great race. Yeah, no, he did not.
15:59
He we had that race one and take my car 10 laps after each.
16:04
After each caution, my car would be stuck and tightened about 10
16:07
laps. The car would set sail and from
16:09
there to the end of the tire run, it was we had the fastest
16:12
car each time and we we got out towards the end of the race, the
16:16
same thing happened. You know, we long into the run.
16:20
All we had to do is get to the friggin checkered flag, man. 18
16:23
laps to go. I go in turn 3 and there's Daryl
16:25
Walter all piled up in the wall right wreck.
16:28
I'm like, damn, Daryl, why'd you wreck dude?
16:30
Right. So we all pit time they get him
16:34
off the wall, we pit. Earnhardt beats me out of the
16:37
pit. He was running second, but I we
16:38
had his butt covered that day and we come out of the pits.
16:42
He beats me off pit Rd. We take off.
16:45
I know Kevin though, they put the tires up a little bit.
16:47
We didn't get enough. But then we take off for a lap
16:50
or two. He gets away from it and then
16:52
the last lap or two I run it back down and you know, I get
16:55
get these bumper to get under him coming off for turn 4 to
16:59
take the checkered right. That's how close the thing was.
17:02
Another lap or two out of gotten him didn't really didn't really
17:07
have a chance, even though I I it was quickly changing my car
17:11
against his when we got to three of that last lap in the middle
17:15
of three or four. If I could have got to him right
17:16
there, I could have bumped him and moved him right, which is
17:19
what I would have done at that point.
17:21
Kind of like he did the 43 car the exact same deal there a year
17:24
or two later or whenever it was. But you know, I just missed by
17:28
inches of being able to nudge him in the bumper and then turn
17:32
under him getting off the turn. So but no, he didn't.
17:35
He he didn't direct me the the deal was, and I'm still mad at
17:38
Daryl for record, because he had to recommend it was that we had
17:41
in the bag. But you know, that's the way it
17:43
goes. That's racing, all right.
17:46
How about John Baird? What was it like being Harry
17:50
Gant's teammate? Oh my Lord, Harry Gant, God
17:55
almighty, we got to do a show, Charlie, just an hour long show
17:59
on Harry Gatt isms Harry Gatt stories because I could go on
18:03
and on and on. Harry, Harry, I tell people all
18:07
the time, Harry got more out of what he has to use in his brain.
18:11
In other words, however smart he is or whatever his intellect is,
18:15
it's at 100%, right? He, he gets he, there's no lazy
18:19
parts in Harry Gatt's brain, right?
18:21
And absolutely one of the funniest guys you ever met in
18:25
your life. And you don't need to he'll be
18:26
telling you a story and everybody's on the ground
18:29
laughing and and he's sitting there like what?
18:32
Why y'all laughing right? It's just it's it's just very
18:37
unassuming type guy, very humble, right?
18:40
Drive the crap out of a race car.
18:43
His what was his famous saying? I can't three things you had to
18:46
be. It's three things in life you
18:48
had to be to be success. And I can't remember, it was a
18:51
57 Chevrolet, Elvis Presley, something Harley-Davidson,
18:55
Harley-Davidson motorcycle, 50 Chevy Chevrolet and something
18:59
else. I forget what it was.
19:00
If you had those three things in life, you were successful.
19:03
But he loved Elvis, he loved Elvis.
19:05
I think that's why Harry combed that hair back the way he did.
19:07
Is there was always like Elvis's hair, right?
19:10
But this golly, so many stories with him.
19:13
You know, Harry, Harry wrecked out here on 81 where I live a
19:18
few years ago. He he and and Tilly Tilly was a
19:22
the famous guy doing Tilly Harley-Davidson that everybody
19:24
that buys their Harley's from Tilly.
19:26
We lost him a couple years ago, but Harry was riding with Tilly
19:29
and a bunch of bikes going up 81 and he wrecked the thing just a
19:33
mile from my shop. He they had the Rescue Squad had
19:36
bought him to the hospital. He had drove right by my office
19:39
here to the hospital. He was in the hospital overnight
19:43
and he was back home the next day before I knew he'd even
19:46
wrecked right. And I called him.
19:48
I said, Dan, Harry, wish somebody let me know where are
19:51
you? I said, you went right by me.
19:52
He said, oh, I was right there, Rick Nashville, right?
19:54
I said, yeah, he said so. But you know, it was to answer,
20:00
to answer your your question, John, Harry would help me and
20:04
anything I asked him about, right.
20:07
You know he we would. You know we would.
20:10
Harry wasn't really into the chassis that much, right?
20:13
Like I was with some of the guys, you know, he just knew if
20:16
the thing felt right, he he knew the car felt right and if it
20:19
did, he could drive the crap out of it.
20:21
But he was great with me with Skull.
20:23
The Skull people loved Harry, right?
20:25
They just did. I loved Harry and we never had
20:30
one crossword, one anything, nothing.
20:35
In a lot of times the time I would spend with Harry would be
20:37
talking about his cattle, right, or build the fence or working on
20:41
his house or just all that kind of stuff.
20:43
It would, it would kind of kind of veer away from racing and
20:47
into personal stuff and cherish memories that I was very, very
20:53
fortunate and blessed to have. Harry's my teammate.
20:56
Very cool. That's awesome.
20:58
Here we go. How about Chris Frazier?
21:01
Chris Frazier says. Who were your heroes in racing
21:04
growing up? Didn't have heroes, had a hero.
21:08
Richard Petty, plain and simple. Case closed.
21:12
Nothing else to discuss, right? I remember, man, when I was a
21:15
little kid where I lived, had my bicycle and had a little stop
21:19
sign out at the end of the road. And I remember being out on that
21:21
bicycle, that stop sign. And I would race around that
21:24
stop sign on my bicycle and I was Richard Petty.
21:27
OK? And I was racing against Curtis
21:30
Turner and Fred Lorenz Lorenzen and all those guys, man.
21:35
And I, I was flipping their butts every time I go around
21:37
that stop sign. Richard Petty would be, I was
21:40
flipping all those guys, Samba Quags and Daryl, Daryl
21:43
Deringer's right, Wendell Scott's all those guys.
21:46
And it was so cool that man, what was so cool?
21:51
He was like my idol. I don't know, I don't know what
21:53
the deal was, but he was my idol.
21:54
He's my hero. He always was.
21:56
He still is today. And, and, and one of the cool,
21:58
and this goes back to one of the other questions, coolest memory
22:02
maybe in racing. That was BG in question set on
22:06
the pole, the 92 Hooters 500 with Richard Petty's last race,
22:12
right? They lined Richard up.
22:15
I forget where he qualified, but I'm on the pole.
22:17
They took Richard's car and put it in front of all of us on pit
22:19
Rd. So he would pace the field on
22:21
the parade lap for a lap or two. Then he would fall back and get
22:24
in line and would start the race.
22:27
He sat there, you know, people getting in their cars.
22:29
And I go to get in my car and I see Richard's in front of me and
22:32
I go up to him. He's already in the car and I
22:34
just go up to him and grab him, talk to him for a minute and
22:37
give him a hug. And I remember walking back to
22:39
my car thinking, how friggin cool is this?
22:43
I was on a bicycle 30 years ago racing against this guy in my
22:47
imagination, and here I am on the race track with the fragging
22:51
Richard Petty racing against him.
22:53
You can't, you can't make that stuff up, dude.
22:56
That was just that was just like the coolest thing that ever
23:01
happened, you know, and everybody knows everybody knows
23:04
the reasons that Richard Petty is my hero, right?
23:06
I always tell people if you're going to be in a Cup Dr., if
23:09
NASCAR needs to institute this rule, if you're in NASCAR, if
23:12
you're going to be a cup driver before you're allowed to sit in
23:14
a Cup car or interact with fans or media or NASCAR for that
23:18
point, you've got to go to the one O 1 Richard Petty media fan
23:24
relation school. OK, you've got a you've got a
23:27
master that school and pass it with with flying colors before
23:30
you're allowed in a car, 'cause he set the standard.
23:32
He set the standard for Al. We're supposed to act and react
23:36
and interact. All right, that's a great
23:39
answer. It's a great story.
23:41
OK, let's go to Nicholas Dove. Hey Rick, what is the solution
23:47
or the short tracks? Oh, man, man, Nicholas, you
23:52
know, that's, that's the $1,000,000 question we're fixing
23:54
to find out this week. They're taking, they're taking
23:56
two compounds to, to Richmond, right?
23:59
And what this is all about. This all stems from what
24:02
happened in Bristol in the spring, right?
24:04
When they had the tires, it would go 30 laps to come apart,
24:08
man, One of the best races we ever saw because it threw
24:11
everybody for a loop. You got to understand these,
24:13
these crew chiefs of these engineers, man, they've got
24:16
everything figured out. As we talked about on this show
24:18
before you start there, when that race starts, most of those
24:21
guys are looking at the at the end of the race.
24:23
If it's 500 laps, they're looking at 500 laps and working
24:26
back. You work back in the race, which
24:28
is kind of a weird concept, and whenever you throw something
24:32
unknown out of like happened at Bristol, everything goes out the
24:35
window and it's all kinds of strategies and stuff being
24:38
played out. You know the deal, the deal at
24:43
Richmond I, you know, the short tracks, you know, I don't know
24:46
the answer other than trying to do this tire deal, have a tire
24:50
that gives up in, in 35 laps it's shot or 40 laps it's shot.
24:54
The problem with that is to do that, you got you, you make a
24:58
tire that's got a soft compound and you wear it out, right.
25:01
You wear it out in 40 laps. Well, the problem is the the
25:05
soft compound generates tons and tons of heat.
25:09
So before you get to the 40th lap, because it's generating so
25:13
much heat and the tires wore out, you start blistering the
25:16
tire at 20 laps or 25 laps and the tire explodes or comes
25:21
apart. That's the issue.
25:23
If if Goodyear could figure that out, how to make a soft tire
25:27
that would run 40 laps and be wore out without blistering, all
25:30
right, and blowing out that I think would fix short track
25:35
racing. I mean, I, I really feel like
25:37
that with what we've got right now, because we're not going to
25:39
NASCAR said we're not going to get more horsepower.
25:41
We're not going to give you more horsepower.
25:42
The car we've got is a car we're going to be running for a number
25:45
of years. They've they've done everything
25:46
around dynamic to that car. They can.
25:48
Do they realize aerodynamics does not affect that car or it's
25:51
not going to affect the racing on short tracks, right?
25:54
They don't want to give you more horsepower.
25:56
Whether that'll help or hurt, I don't know.
25:58
So the only thing left is the track surface itself or the
26:01
tire, right Where we go, Iowa and the track was, you know,
26:05
messed up sort of you might say. And they put on a good race out
26:08
there, right, Because losing grip and heavy grip, you have a
26:12
tire that just gives up a ton of grip.
26:14
And I ain't talking about, and I'm not talking about a tire
26:16
that gives up in 80 laps or 90 laps.
26:19
I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a tire.
26:21
This thing gave up. It's giving us all in 40 laps.
26:24
It's giving it all up. That's that's what to answer
26:27
your question, Nicholas, that's what I think needs to happen.
26:30
If they can do that, they can figure that out.
26:31
Cool. Let's let's bring it on.
26:35
Maybe a small indicator will be this week at Richmond with the
26:37
two different compounds. Nobody knows crew chiefs, nobody
26:41
knows what to expect with that, right?
26:43
So that's going to make a little bit interesting.
26:45
But to answer your question, that's that's my take.
26:49
All right. You already talked about Kyle
26:51
Busch a little bit. This question is similar.
26:55
Ronnie McKee, do you think RCR needs a complete reboot and
27:00
should have hired Rodney Childers?
27:03
You know, I was thinking about, you know, Ronnie, I was thinking
27:06
about that this morning actually coming in and I was thinking
27:09
about, I was thinking about Rodney.
27:10
And I'm like, I kind of got an idea that Rodney, I got an idea
27:16
that Rodney was probably offered that position, you know, and I
27:20
don't know this. I haven't talked to RCI, haven't
27:22
talked to anybody. But I find it hard to believe
27:25
that a call wasn't made in a discussion head between those
27:29
two. Knowing Richard way of knowing
27:33
his attitude and Rodney Rodney's kind of from the same mold or
27:37
same mindset. It wouldn't surprise me at all
27:41
if Rodney had went there now while Rodney went with spy or
27:44
whatever he did. I don't know any of all that,
27:46
but I could bet you, I can bet you, Ronnie, that they had a
27:50
conversation. All right?
27:52
Why it didn't happen, I have no idea.
27:55
A complete reboot. And you know, you kind of felt
27:57
like when Petrie left, when Andy Petrie left, that a reboot was
28:01
going to happen, You know, I mean, but what do you mean when
28:04
you say reboot or what do you do?
28:06
I mean, you you fire everybody in the shop, right, And start
28:09
over with all new people. No, you don't do that.
28:12
I mean, do you, do you, you know, however many engineers
28:16
you've got, do you fire all those guys and start with, with
28:19
all them? No, you don't really do that.
28:20
You just have to, you know, you just have to have a lot of the
28:24
right people in the right positions making decisions and
28:28
coming up with hypotheses, right?
28:30
Because that's what it is. We call it throwing something
28:32
against the wall. It sticks.
28:34
Or you can call it hypotheses about these race cars.
28:36
What you know, here's what the car is doing.
28:39
What you what avenues do we go down to try to change this car?
28:43
There are are in their setups to make the thing handle right,
28:46
because that's all you're trying to do is get the car, the four
28:48
contact patches to stick to the racetrack when it gets down to
28:51
that, you know, All right, well, what are we doing?
28:53
Well, it's about the people doing it.
28:55
So, you know, you know, it depends on all the people.
28:58
And I don't know about a complete reboot.
29:00
Obviously some parts need to be rebooted.
29:03
Yeah, I agree with that. Complete reboot.
29:05
I don't know that you, I don't know that you could do that it
29:08
would have any effect, you know, so, but I get your point,
29:10
Ronnie, It makes I know what you're saying, but and it is
29:13
frustrating. It's frustrating for Kaboose
29:16
fans, it's frustrating for Richard Children's fans.
29:18
Everybody gets frustrated. They want quick answers.
29:21
Problem in our sport, dude is not quick answers.
29:23
I mean, in our sport, you know, we, you hear us talk about how
29:28
hard it is all the time and you really like a deal with Kyle
29:32
Busch. You like, why did he win?
29:34
And he's the best, one of the best that ever was.
29:36
Well, that goes back to what we talked about, folks.
29:38
This is a very, very, very hard sport, right?
29:41
You don't, you don't just go from college ball to starting in
29:45
the NBA. It don't happen, right?
29:47
You don't go from running start night race tracks as an owner or
29:51
a driver in winning Winston Cup championships.
29:53
It it don't work that way. It's just very hard.
29:55
It's very professional. And you know, the, the, the
29:58
margin between success and failure is, is, is as small now
30:04
as it's ever been, right? That, that edge of that little
30:08
line that you're good or you're bad, it's never been as
30:12
magnified as it is right now. And it's it's made, it's made it
30:15
tougher, tougher, tougher. And you know, I don't know,
30:20
we'll see what goes on, but but I'll tell you one thing, I'm
30:23
glad I'm not an engineering sport right now.
30:25
I can tell you that. All right, Andy Coffey, I don't
30:29
know this story here. Andy Coffey talk about you
30:32
letting Tommy race your Bush car at Richmond.
30:36
Which Tommy? Oh, I know who that I know what
30:40
this is about Tommy Houston. We we were maybe 93.
30:46
I forget what year it was. I I was already running cup and
30:49
we we were scheduled signed with skull to run 10 or 12 Bush races
30:53
with my own team. OK, right here out of Lexington,
30:57
VA and we go to Martinsville, I mean Richmond and I'm out there
31:03
practicing. I'm like, my God, this car is
31:06
good, right? It's like, even though I had
31:09
just won a race at Richmond a couple years before that, this
31:13
car was like, damn, it turned it hooked up well.
31:17
What time come time to qualify? We had a big rainstorm was
31:21
coming in there. I was one of the last ones
31:23
qualifier, if not the last one. And when I come off turn two,
31:26
man, the big win and rain blew across turn 2 right and I can
31:29
get into the wetness coming off turn 2 down the back straight
31:32
away and I'm asses and elbows right.
31:34
Car skid is spinning and slipping when hell I get around
31:38
and I qualify like last or did last or whatever.
31:41
We're at the tail end of the field.
31:42
And I remember telling Rick the the Goodyear engineer, I'm
31:45
telling man, you know what? The best car on this racetrack
31:48
should be sitting on the pole and we're starting dead last.
31:51
The best racing car here at this race is probably not going to
31:54
win the race cause of that stupid wind rainstorm back
31:57
there. Anyhow, Tommy Houston, very
32:00
close friends of in those days of ours, didn't make the race.
32:06
He failed to qualify, but he had a streak and I don't remember
32:09
the number. He had so many races in a row
32:11
that he had run, He had run, he had started and competed every
32:14
Bush race since the beginning of time, right?
32:17
And this is going to be the first race that he missed.
32:21
And Tommy came to me. He said, Rick, would you be
32:23
willing to let me start your car?
32:26
And I said, sure, dude, make shit to me.
32:29
Crap me. But we got to clear it with
32:31
skull, right, the sponsor. So I went to Johnny Hayes's
32:34
skull and yeah, they they cleared it.
32:36
And so I talked Tommy a little bit and I told him, I said,
32:38
Tommy, I'll tell you something, dude, you're going to set the
32:41
race car that you've never felt before.
32:42
I don't think all right. I said this car is bad ass fast
32:47
and he says OK, what we're going to do.
32:50
I said, well, we had it all worked out with the sponsor and
32:53
my team and me. He would run to the first
32:55
caution, right? And we'd come in and change
32:58
drivers. All right.
33:00
So he started, we started that race and run to the run a long
33:05
time. The first caution, I think he
33:06
got up to third or second. He passed the whole freaking
33:10
field dude, right? We come in, we they pit.
33:16
I get in the car, he gets out, I get in the car, go all with the
33:19
tail end starting to race over about to tail end, right?
33:22
I come up to third, the frigging widow net comes down and I'm out
33:29
here trying to get the widow net up right.
33:31
And however the deal was, we pit for the last time, I go back to
33:36
the rear again, the widow net's down.
33:38
I forget what all went on, but I'm back to the rear again.
33:41
When we come back to the end of the race, I come back to 2nd
33:44
right and the the race is over. The right front tires wore out,
33:48
but that was one of those deals like golly bum, if you get if if
33:53
where I tell you where I messed up.
33:54
I should have never got in the fragging car.
33:56
I should have let Tommy stay in the car.
33:59
Then he would be at the front and and more than likely if he
34:01
hadn't screwed up, we hadn't screwed up.
34:03
The car hadn't screwed up. We'd won the race, right?
34:05
And so it was just set in stone. I was going to get in the car no
34:08
matter what was going on and, and we did that.
34:11
But I come to the back once, he come to the back twice in that
34:13
race. It was it was wild.
34:15
It was wild. This is fun.
34:18
We got 7080 people watching live and and it's going to be
34:21
hundreds if not thousands when we add it all up for the for the
34:24
whole hour here. So next question is from random
34:30
a comment and a question. I honestly think you deserved a
34:32
better ride in Cup series and you were sometimes outperforming
34:36
your equipment. What do you think would have
34:38
happened if you landed a ride in a top tier ride?
34:44
Yeah, that that question, I've kind of reconciled with that
34:50
years ago. You know, I'm, I'm not one to
34:52
look back. You know, I look back at every
34:55
decision I made at the time and I can rationalize each decision
35:00
I made at the time with what my mindset was at the time and the
35:05
reasons I turned down rides I did at the time.
35:08
I would still do the same thing because that's just me.
35:11
But I mean, when when you have Robert Yates comes to you,
35:14
right? You turn him down.
35:16
You have Junior Johnson comes to you, you turn him down, right?
35:20
You got Pitt Enterprises, you turn them to all these people at
35:26
various points of my career, I look back and think, you know
35:28
what I should have or if I should have, if I would have
35:34
went with that team, then my chances of of winning a bunch of
35:38
races significantly would have would have would have went up
35:42
right. And there were just different
35:46
things going on at different times when these when these I
35:48
was presented tons of opportunities, man, in my
35:51
career. There's there's no doubt about
35:52
it with with top with top deals and it kind of led to what
35:58
happened towards the end of my career when I got screwed up.
36:00
It was without without a a without a real good ride.
36:03
You know, Richard was going to start a third team and he came
36:06
to me about starting the third team during the third team and I
36:09
agreed to do that. And I had a couple offers at the
36:11
end of the year, Atlanta to do something different to next
36:14
year, right with with decent, good teams.
36:17
And because I'd made so many other decisions I felt at that
36:21
point were wrong. I was going to go with Richard
36:23
because I felt that was my best shot.
36:25
Well, after the season's over and everything's gone, the deal
36:28
fell through with Richard. The sponsorship didn't happen.
36:30
So where I am in the winter at Christmas without a ride next
36:33
year. So I spent the next year or so
36:35
working made by way around with different teams and cars and
36:38
getting get myself work back in a position.
36:41
And we ended up with Judy Don Levy with Dukes and starting off
36:45
that year. And then I guess at Charlotte, I
36:47
was going to made an agreement after Charlotte race, I was
36:51
going to go with another team, which is a real good race team
36:53
to finish out that year and the next two years of their contract
36:56
they had with their sponsor. And then I got sick.
36:59
All right, So that that ended the whole deal.
37:01
I ended my career. But yeah, I don't know if I was
37:06
outperforming my equipment, but I do know that that now looking
37:10
back and talking to different guys, I had a good conversation
37:13
with her. Abraham at Darlington a few
37:16
months ago and we we talked a lot about 94959697 seasons, 98
37:22
seasons. And he was telling me a lot of
37:25
the stuff that he was doing right with Jeff Gordon, with the
37:28
race cars, a lot of stuff going on.
37:30
And I'm sitting there like, how in the hell was I even even able
37:36
to stay on the same lap with these guys, right?
37:39
When I found out the stuff that they were doing with the race
37:41
cars, right? And then other teams were doing
37:44
a lot of similar stuff. And the guys I with, we weren't
37:47
we weren't doing stuff we just didn't know, didn't know the
37:49
resources or whatever. And you know that that makes
37:53
you, I don't know, Charlie or I don't know, random, you know,
37:59
The thing is in in O2, and I've been full time since 91, haven't
38:03
won a points race. But I had a in in O2.
38:07
I had a team want me to drive for them the next year, that
38:10
year, in the next two years, a damn good race team.
38:13
And So what I always said was, you know, the people in the
38:18
garage area knew me. They knew my talents.
38:21
They knew what I guess they knew what they thought I was capable
38:24
of. I knew what I was capable of.
38:25
I thought that. And you know, that that was
38:28
always kind of the the rewarding part for me is that people still
38:32
thought I could do the deal right, even after 10 years of
38:35
not winning a friggin race, Charlie.
38:37
And that's pretty tough. You know, that's pretty unheard
38:39
of. So, yeah, the answer to the
38:42
answer your question, Don't know what have happened.
38:44
Cannot go down that road, dude, but I appreciate that.
38:49
I appreciate the thought. And you talked about getting
38:52
sick and rubbing and grubbing his back.
38:56
And he says, Rick, I think your legacy in racing was making
38:59
NASCAR address the ventilation systems for drivers.
39:02
You paid the price, but every driver should thank you for
39:05
that. Well, you know what?
39:09
When that happened, honest to gosh, I had a friend that worked
39:14
at NASA, right? And he called me up, said Rick.
39:17
I think we got some technology can help you guys.
39:20
So I was working with NASCAR at the time about my problem when
39:25
we made the announcement. So they set up a lab right there
39:28
in Concord. My account was headed up Gary
39:31
Nelson. They set up a lab trying to come
39:34
up with a filtration system. It's not really a filtration
39:37
system. It's it's, it's not really a
39:39
scrubber. It's a what this, it's a
39:42
catalyst. And what the catalyst does it,
39:45
it takes carbon monoxide out of the air and replaces it with
39:49
carbon deoxide. It turns carbon monoxide into
39:52
carbon deoxide, just exactly like your catalyst converter on
39:55
your passenger car does, right? The problem was with the
39:58
catalyst, they're all designed to, to, to, to operate at a
40:02
certain temperature. In other words, like in your
40:04
car, you know, it's designed to start operating at like maybe
40:07
900° or 1000°, right? And that was a, that was a
40:11
downfall with this stuff. NASA's technology at that time
40:15
was when they made the catalyst, they could alter it or alter it
40:21
to alter it to activate at whatever temperature they
40:24
wanted. So you took that technology and
40:27
put it in our cool box. You know the cars run a little
40:30
cool box that cools into your helmet.
40:32
So if an ambient comes in at 120°, it blows out at 100 on
40:37
your on your helmet hose. And, but honestly, it feels like
40:40
it's 50° what it does that believe me, but so in how they
40:44
did that deal and they made it activated whatever temperature
40:48
it was 100°. I remember smoke was the first
40:52
one to try it at, at, at at Martinsville that year, right?
40:56
Martinsville. And I remember talking to me
40:58
said, man, I've never felt this good after Martinsville, right.
41:01
Well, the neat part was I knew then we're on to something
41:03
because that particular system they come up with was only a 28%
41:07
reduction. In other words, it only took 28%
41:10
of the carbon monoxide out of the, out of the oxygen
41:14
molecules, right? So I knew then we're onto
41:17
something. So then I think it was Wix and
41:19
another company, I can't remember the name of it took the
41:21
thing over the over the years. Then then they perfected the
41:25
deal, right, and got it towards 99% or 98% reduction.
41:30
So yeah, it, it, it works well. It works very well.
41:34
All right, Seth Devault Racing asks.
41:38
Hey Rick, what was your worst wreck in your career?
41:44
Watkins Glen, I forget what year, go in turn.
41:49
I don't know the turn numbers. It's seven.
41:51
It's a sharp left-hander before the final turn.
41:53
Maybe it's not. Now whatever turn that is, we
41:56
have it run five or six laps, go into that turn.
41:59
You go in 160 or 70, done that straight away.
42:02
You got to brake hard, slow way down and make a 90° left-hander
42:06
before the last right-hander. I hit the brake, brake pedal,
42:10
went to the floor, went off the racetrack.
42:12
It's one of those deals, guys, if you, when you race long
42:14
enough and you've wrecked enough, you know, hidden towards
42:19
the wall or in a situation, you know what's happening.
42:23
This particular deal, I knew when I went off the track, I
42:25
knew the speed I was carrying. I knew where the wall was back
42:28
there, and I knew that, OK, I might just this one, this one
42:33
might kill me, right? Because you just know what the
42:36
impact's going to be. And luckily, the car slid is
42:40
probably 100 yards, maybe not that far where the wall is off
42:43
the track, but it hit with the right rear #1 the softest part
42:47
of the car. It was a couple rows of these
42:49
big old tractor tires stacked up or tires maybe stacked up and in
42:54
behind that was guardrail fencing, right?
42:57
So it hit with the softest part of the car.
42:59
It, it hit tires, it hit a guardrail, it all absorbed and
43:02
the thing hit and it just went straight up there and spun
43:05
around a time or two and come back down, right.
43:07
And I remember, I can remember seeing blue clouds.
43:11
I can remember seeing blue swirling.
43:13
And I'm like, 'cause the hit happened and instantly I see
43:16
blue. And that was me looking at the
43:18
sky swirling with the car spin and thinking, ah, you didn't
43:21
kill me right. Then it set back down.
43:23
I'm sitting there and I did the same thing I always do after a
43:27
hard impact. I would just sit there for a
43:29
little bit and I would just kind of keep the head down dude.
43:31
And this is my own Rick Mass thing.
43:33
I would I would kind of look, look open my eyes, look down
43:36
towards my feet and I would I would take my right foot and
43:39
work my toes. I take my left foot and work my
43:41
toes. I can feel them working right.
43:43
Then I would take I would look at my right hand and I would
43:46
work my fingers. I would look at my left hand and
43:48
work my left fingers. I did this.
43:51
I don't want to started doing this crap, but I knew.
43:53
But at that point, I knew both, both all four limbs were
43:57
working. Then I could pretty much manage
43:59
anything after that, right? And and I remember doing that
44:03
when it stopped, but God had tremendous pain in my shoulder
44:05
that it tore up my shoulder. But that was in the week before,
44:09
man, I had hit tremendously hard at Talladega.
44:12
That's the race where Jimmy Horton went out of the racetrack
44:15
in Turn 1. I remember seeing him through my
44:19
windshield, a red car up in there going through my wind or
44:22
out of my windshield over the wall.
44:23
And I'm like, damn, dude, this ain't good, right?
44:26
And I just hit the wall. A tremendous amount of
44:29
tremendous amount of impact. And it ended up Jimmy was OK.
44:33
Kenny, Kenny was in that wreck with me.
44:34
Kenny Wallace, fact, he and I were riding in the ambulance
44:37
back and we stopped and Stanley Smith was in that wreck.
44:41
And Stanley, Stanley was in bad shape, right?
44:46
Very, very forced. Stanley survived, but he spent,
44:50
he spent a long time getting, getting, getting out of that
44:54
deal. But that was probably the
44:56
Watkins Glen deal was the one that could have gotten me and
44:59
probably one of the hardest hits I ever took.
45:02
All righty, Chris Grace. Hey Rick, what did you say to
45:06
Earnhardt when he hit the wall on lap one of the 1994 inaugural
45:12
Brickyard trying to pass you? Well, I don't think we ever
45:15
talked about it afterwards. It's it's it's been documented
45:17
on this show and other reports riding around on the pace lap
45:21
before the race. He says, Rick, I see you bud.
45:24
You know I'm going to win that y'all going to lead this first
45:26
lap, right? I said bring it on big boy
45:29
right. So that that was our
45:31
conversation leading in leading into the race.
45:34
And then I kind of knew what he's going to do.
45:36
The only shot he had is turn one and make it happen and it didn't
45:39
work. But I'll tell you something very
45:41
uncharacteristic about how much, how much it meant to do
45:45
everything. And we've talked about this,
45:46
Charlie and I've talked about it, the blue of my face, how
45:49
much, how much it meant for everything going to India, being
45:52
first at right, being the 1st on the racetrack, being the first
45:54
by a hot dog, being the 1st to win a pole, being the 1st to win
45:58
the race, being the 1st to lead the first lap.
46:00
It was a big, big ass deal. You can't.
46:02
You can't. It's hard to explain that to
46:03
people. Dale did something very
46:06
uncharacteristic. You never see Dale Earnhardt do
46:08
he trying to lead that first lap coming off the turn off.
46:12
It was two or four. You know, he was outside of me
46:16
where the car is a little bit tight.
46:17
Well, when that happens, you know, when you come off the
46:20
turn, it's a little tight. You got to feather the gas
46:22
little bit or whatever. You know, you've, you've lost
46:25
your grip and you, you know, you got to control it.
46:28
He didn't do that dude, when he lost the nose of that car, he
46:31
kept that thing wide open, right, and just run right into
46:34
the wall. I mean, it didn't break his race
46:37
car, but I know it, I know it had to hurt his car.
46:39
It probably knocked the toe out or something.
46:41
But that dude did something the first lap that you never, ever,
46:45
ever saw Dale Earnhardt do, right?
46:47
That was a last lap maneuver that he made that first lap,
46:51
trying to lead that first lap. That's how bad he wouldn't leave
46:54
that first lap. I never, I never seen Dale
46:56
Earnhardt do I want to say mistake, but it wasn't a
47:00
mistake, right? It wasn't a mistake because he
47:02
wouldn't leave that first lap, you know, and it consequently I
47:05
it cost him fight, I think far as performance of his car the
47:09
rest of the day. But you know, I don't think I
47:12
ever talked about that before and all the interviews I did.
47:14
I never talked about how uncharacteristic that was a day
47:17
off, but it just showed showed his determination and what he's
47:21
willing to do. It didn't matter to Dale, man.
47:23
He's he did whatever he'd do to win.
47:24
That's the way he was, dude. Lap one, I love it.
47:28
Here's a nice comment, Brian Kidder.
47:30
Rick Mast will always be the working man's NASCAR driver, and
47:34
I'll always respect him for that Hall of Fame.
47:38
Well, thanks, Brian. OK.
47:40
You know, we man, it's it's generational.
47:43
You know, everything we do is generational.
47:45
I mean, the guys I, you know, we talked about what we did and all
47:47
the guys did it the same. I mean, you know my race cars.
47:51
I built my own race cars, dude. Right.
47:53
I built the very first asphalt car I had.
47:56
I bought the actual chassis, just the bare frame for Bill
47:59
Thunderbird. Thunderbird in Charlotte.
48:02
Brought it back. Did the roll cage, interior,
48:04
sheet metal, the body, everything right.
48:07
The complete from one end to the other.
48:09
The motors. We, we did.
48:11
We did our own motors. Heard by my good friend here at
48:14
the machine shop. He'd do all the machine work.
48:16
You know, we put the things together.
48:19
Golly, bum. I remember.
48:20
I remember welding a skirt on a piston one time.
48:22
I remember welding or hilly ark and on the cylinder head where
48:26
the stud goes that holds your rocker on him.
48:28
I remember that that mounting balls had broke.
48:31
I remember hilly ark and that thing back together, right?
48:34
Hilly ark and this stuff, welding these engines, doing
48:36
that stuff. We all had to learn how to work
48:38
on the chassis. I mean, I knew, I knew my car
48:41
from one end to the other, right?
48:42
And what what, what's not strange, but looking at it now,
48:48
you know, I'm going to say 70% of us did the exact same thing.
48:52
70% of all the drivers did the same thing.
48:55
I mean, he'll, they will talk about Dale all the time.
48:57
He did it doing that crap. Rusty did it.
48:59
You know, Mark Martin did it right.
49:01
All these guys did it the same way.
49:03
And when you got the cup, you know, you were, you were more
49:07
involved with what was going on with the car and more forceful
49:10
because you knew, I mean, crew chiefs would go pull crap over
49:12
our eyes. You know what I'm saying?
49:14
You're not going to say this and that and, and, and get away with
49:17
it because we know better. You know, we knew better.
49:19
You're not going, you know, we know what's going on with our
49:22
race cars. And you know, you just you
49:25
become, but with that you learn. You learn like with my deal, but
49:30
in my Bush deal, I couldn't afford to pay by guys.
49:33
My guys were all volunteer. In fact, my guys, we, we would
49:37
go to motel if there's eight guys right, or six guys or
49:40
whatever, we would buy 2 motel rooms bumped together and
49:44
everybody would split the motel bill themselves separately.
49:47
Wasn't there was no, you know, there was no.
49:49
So from that, as a driver or as Rick, I learned, you know, to
49:54
appreciate these guys and treat them respectfully, right, and
49:58
honor their wishes and, and, and, and treat them the way they
50:02
they should be treated. And that carried over into the
50:05
Cup deal when, you know, everybody's getting paid to work
50:08
on the cars to do all that. I still kept that same mindset
50:11
with everybody that I ever worked with with race teams,
50:13
because those guys yet what it wasn't a hobby or something just
50:17
for fun. It was their way of making a
50:19
living. So you know it.
50:22
But to me it was still the same thing.
50:24
You know, if they don't do what they do that I can't do what I
50:26
want to do. So you keep those guys respect
50:29
and I respect. And I think a lot of those
50:31
attitudes were the same with of a lot of drivers, right?
50:35
And not everybody, you know, you, you tell us about cast
50:38
those days that didn't come up that way or do it that way.
50:41
And, you know, nowadays, you know, it's just it's completely
50:44
different from that, right? You got the young guys nowadays
50:47
that are they're doing their thing.
50:48
And I'm not knocking guys down. I mean, good God.
50:51
So God bless them, man, 20 years of age, getting these
50:53
opportunities. I think it's great.
50:55
I think it's great. It's just a maturation process
50:58
that these younger guys have not gone through right now, OK?
51:03
And they get thrown in a cup situation.
51:05
They're on TV and they're out there.
51:06
Their names are out there on social media.
51:08
You know, they haven't had a chance to mature as a young man.
51:12
You're much less a young man in racing.
51:14
And consequently, I think it hurts these guys a little bit
51:17
and it hurts our sport just a little bit, you know what I
51:19
mean? And because they're so they have
51:21
to be so buttoned up with with what they can say and do that
51:25
it's it doesn't come across right.
51:27
So, so yeah, for that reason, I give these guys a pass on that.
51:33
But man, that's an awful long answer to that question.
51:36
I'm sorry, sorry, Brian. But anyhow, I get off all the
51:39
edges. Thanks, Brian.
51:40
It's a good question dude. We love that.
51:42
That's a comprehensive answer. Let's do.
51:44
Let's do a couple more here. Back to Nicholas Dove, who was
51:49
the smartest driver and who was the most talented driver in your
51:53
era? You know I can't.
51:58
You know, people keep keep hearing this.
52:00
They hate hearing it. To me, the smartest driver in
52:05
that era, and it was also the most talented.
52:09
It took me a long time to know this.
52:11
I knew the guy was the most talented, but it took me a long
52:14
time to figure out crap, this guy's smart and that's Dale.
52:19
It was Dale Earnhardt. Dale does not get the credit for
52:24
his race and intelligence. All right, we would talk.
52:30
I would talk to Dale about things later on in the career,
52:32
at our careers, you know, towards the late 90s, I was
52:36
having, I mean, two or three conversations with Dale and we
52:40
talked about racing and things. And he would bring up, he would
52:43
bring up lap 368 in Atlanta in 1983, right?
52:50
And he would bring up in your lap 70 at Bristol in 1992.
52:56
You remember Rick, you was trying to lap you, you was
52:58
running 4th or 5th. You was trying to lap, what's
53:00
his name? And I'll come up on you.
53:01
And that other guy did this right and and I started list of
53:05
this stuff and I started putting it together.
53:07
How in the hell does he remember all this right?
53:10
I mean, very specific about things.
53:13
And that's when it started dawning on me.
53:16
I'm like, oh hell, not, not only this guy's gifted from God about
53:20
driving a race car, he's also smart.
53:23
And there's no, I don't I don't know that Dale.
53:27
You know, we always talk about the great.
53:29
So they always throw Dale in the mix with the other names, but
53:31
I've never seen much about been so great.
53:35
And but I've never seen much about his intellect.
53:38
Right. And I'm telling you, I'm telling
53:40
you right now, the guy was smart and I don't what happened to
53:42
these kids. I don't want the junior.
53:44
I don't know how you got to be so dumb.
53:45
You know what I mean? Sorry, junior had to get that in
53:47
there. No, we'll talk.
53:49
We'll do a junior segment someday about how great he's
53:51
been for a sport. But but really that to answer
53:54
your question, that got to me. That was it, That was it.
53:57
All right, Richard Hall asks Rick, if you had not developed
54:02
carbon monoxide poisoning, would your career have been even
54:05
longer? Yeah.
54:06
The when that happened, the spring of O2, I had verbally
54:11
agreed, we haven't signed it, but I'd verbally aggrieved to go
54:15
drive for another team the rest of that year.
54:17
And that team had a sponsorship that had two more years on it.
54:21
So the agreement was I was going to finish that year out, then I
54:25
was going to drive the next two years at least until that
54:28
sponsorship ended. So that would have gotten me to
54:31
age 48 right now. Past that, that might have been
54:35
the end of it, I don't know. But that was that's that's what
54:39
that's what I had in agreements basically to do when I was 46
54:44
years old to get to get and it wasn't really looking at
54:47
retiring, but, you know, just keep it going and doing that.
54:49
So yeah, that's what I can tell you for sure, Richard.
54:53
But past that I don't know how it worked out.
54:56
Let's do, let's do at least one more here.
54:59
OK, Another Dale. God I love these, right?
55:03
I love you fans. God I love.
55:04
You fans, I love this Jason Moore.
55:07
Do you think DEI would still be around today if Dale Senior
55:11
would have survived the crash at Daytona?
55:13
No doubt. Oh yeah, it'd still be there.
55:16
And it'd be one of the, it'd be you got Hendrick Penske, DEI,
55:20
Childress, Gibbs, right? Didi would still be there.
55:24
And it would be, it would be one of the top ones, if not the top
55:26
one, You know, I mean it, you know, so sad all that happened,
55:30
man. Just so it'd be so, so, so many
55:32
things that would have happened with our sport or should have
55:35
happened or could have happened the day we lost Dale, you know,
55:40
and and and and and and DI is one of them.
55:42
There's, you know, we don't really hear that question much,
55:45
do we, Charlie? And we always talk about mean
55:48
Teresa and all that and how she destroyed it and all that stuff.
55:51
But, you know, you don't hear this question very often.
55:54
Jason, That's a good question. Would DEI still be around today
55:58
if Dale Senior would survive the crash?
56:00
No doubt. No doubt he'd still be there.
56:03
Probably, you know, probably juniors would be there.
56:07
You know, I would assume. I don't know.
56:08
But yeah, that thing would be there to be thriving.
56:12
Believe what I'm telling you. All right, you want to, you want
56:15
to wrap up on that one? We've had almost 700 people
56:18
watching Sweet during this hour, Rick.
56:21
That's pretty good. Charlie, how can you do
56:24
baseball, right? Well, not you.
56:25
You do baseball and you do other things.
56:28
And now you, man, you're hooked on this racing thing.
56:30
How can you not? How can you not love racing
56:34
fans? I.
56:35
Do dude I put out a thing on X the other day about buy tires on
56:39
the back about zero turn gravely.
56:41
I I bought that tractor in O2 brand new here we are in 2422
56:46
years old. It's got this original rear
56:48
tires on it. But I then lost grip dude.
56:50
The things gotten hard. So I went on X and I went on
56:53
Facebook and I said what should I do to my fellow racers?
56:57
What should I do knife them or or or soften them.
57:00
Dude, I'm telling you, my race fan buddies have given me every
57:04
friggin example of what to do, right?
57:07
I mean, you ought to read some of that stuff.
57:09
It's funny as hell, but I but each time I'm always reminded
57:13
about how I love race fans, right?
57:17
It's just, I don't know man, I guess because I'm a race fan too
57:20
and y'all are just as silly as I am, but I.
57:23
But thanks for thanks for all this guys.
57:25
I love you guys, I really do. Yeah, this is fun.
57:28
And and, and I, I said this at the beginning, but Rick and I
57:31
were talking and we were going to just record this.
57:33
And I'm thinking, you know, there hasn't been a NASCAR race
57:35
in freaking three weeks. Let's be real, there's not as
57:38
much to talk about. Let's just do AQ and A.
57:40
And we didn't actually advertise it.
57:41
So next time we'll advertise it as well and get even more
57:44
people. But still, like I said, 700
57:46
people in here and a lot of great questions.
57:49
We got to almost every question. So, all right, Rick, this was
57:52
fun, man. We'll see you next week.
57:53
And thank you everybody. Please comment like subscribe.
57:56
This was the Rick MASH show live.