Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / My Brother Mike Wallace Will Try To Make The Daytona 500 | Kenny Conversation

Transcript

My Brother Mike Wallace Will Try To Make The Daytona 500 | Kenny Conversation · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Hello everyone, and welcome back to Kenny.
• 0:03
  Conversation brought to you by Jags, the leader in high
• 0:07
  performance aftermarket car parts.
• 0:10
  Remember to go to jags.com for everything you need to fix your
• 0:14
  car up or your everyday hot rod that you got behind your house.
• 0:19
  Sit in your garage. Well, you're looking at my
• 0:22
  brother Mike Wallace. Brother, how are you doing?
• 0:26
  I'm excited, I'm good, everything's great.
• 0:29
  I'm excited too, man. Breaking news in the garage
• 0:33
  area. Mike Wallace is going to enter
• 0:37
  the 2025 Daytona 500. Tell me all about this.
• 0:43
  That's pretty bad ass to start with, don't you think?
• 0:45
  I mean, I'm, I'm excited. What happened is real simple.
• 0:48
  Carl Long and I have raced together before in the past.
• 0:52
  And I was reading a little posting Carl put up about all
• 0:55
  the the great things he had going on with his race team and
• 0:58
  had a Yates motor for Daytona but hadn't had a driver aligned
• 1:02
  yet. And I thought, heck, let me call
• 1:05
  him. Let me just see what he's doing.
• 1:07
  You know, And I literally this conversation happened at 11:00
• 1:10
  one night. We we texted back and forth.
• 1:13
  There's no verbal conversation. We texted till midnight.
• 1:17
  And at midnight he goes, I want you to ride my car in the
• 1:19
  Daytona 500. So, you know, it's, it's kind of
• 1:24
  like everything else. There's money involved in all of
• 1:26
  racing anymore. And talent is a part I liked
• 1:29
  about him. He goes, yeah, you can help us
• 1:31
  get the money, he says. But man, I think we'll have a
• 1:34
  car fast enough to qualify well. But if not, I know you'll drive
• 1:37
  it to the front. So that was cool for me.
• 1:39
  That's exactly where I was going.
• 1:42
  You know the couple people that I've told about this, the first
• 1:45
  thing they say is, man, Mike is good on the superspeedways.
• 1:50
  You have always got the job done.
• 1:52
  We even talked about, I believe you drove the O 9.
• 1:55
  That was at the James Finch car. You run 4th in the Daytona 500,
• 2:01
  didn't you? Yeah, that was a finished fourth
• 2:03
  and raced my way into the race on top of it, you know.
• 2:07
  So it was, you know, I, Jenny, I just had, as you know, you've
• 2:11
  been around my career longer than I've been around my career
• 2:13
  almost. I know what's up.
• 2:16
  Yeah, and you kind of see what's happening.
• 2:18
  We both have had great Speedway success.
• 2:20
  So we run well down there and I just man, what a cooler place or
• 2:25
  there isn't a cooler place than saying you get to go to Dayton,
• 2:28
  you know? So everybody's going to say, OK,
• 2:33
  I'm 61, 6263, you're 65 years old.
• 2:38
  Let's get that away. I know everything because you're
• 2:43
  my brother. And we talk.
• 2:44
  Tell everybody why now at 65 years old?
• 2:49
  Well, if you really want to know the honest truth, I mean, this
• 2:52
  is the sincere, honest truth. I had stepped away from the
• 2:55
  sport for a couple years. I was focusing on the health of
• 2:59
  my wife, Carla, who unfortunately passed away in
• 3:04
  January of 2024. And man, I've been a little
• 3:08
  lonesome. You know, I've been a little
• 3:10
  lonesome. And then I'm having a great time
• 3:12
  with my kids, been involved with the political world, go Trump,
• 3:16
  You know, we're going to inauguration here in a couple
• 3:18
  weeks. So I'm excited about that.
• 3:20
  But this opportunity came up and I wasn't done racing when I kind
• 3:23
  of, you know, people say, oh, you quit.
• 3:25
  And I said that I don't know if I quit.
• 3:26
  I says I I just stepped back from it.
• 3:29
  So that's it. I mean, I'm ready to get pumped
• 3:33
  up. I'm motivated for 2025.
• 3:35
  It's a new part of life for me. Totally.
• 3:38
  And what better way to start it than a place that I love to race
• 3:42
  at? I think I still have the
• 3:44
  capabilities. I'll know the first lap on the
• 3:46
  racetrack and I I made a commitment to myself and to the
• 3:49
  team that for some reason I don't feel right or something's
• 3:52
  not cool. I'll just get out of it.
• 3:54
  But I don't, I don't foresee that because you know what's
• 3:57
  happened, Herm, I've been working out, man.
• 3:59
  I've been getting tough. And you know, we're, I think my
• 4:03
  mental awareness is really good still.
• 4:08
  And we'll just see what happens, you know, and, and think, think
• 4:11
  about it for a second, man, 65 years old and you get to go to
• 4:13
  run Daytona 500 or a shot at making the Daytona 500.
• 4:17
  So cool. Well, I've got all the faith in
• 4:20
  you. I'm going to be there.
• 4:21
  I'm going to be cheering you on. Let's talk about this new next
• 4:26
  Gen. car. You and I have talked about it.
• 4:28
  Let everybody know, OK, We got a sequential shifter.
• 4:32
  The shifting is different. It's a new car.
• 4:36
  What are some of the things that you're going to do to get ready
• 4:38
  for this? Well, the, the biggest thing
• 4:41
  that I'm doing right now is I've made an inquiry.
• 4:43
  We'll just leave it out to you. And I know who that person is,
• 4:46
  but they're working hard to get me some spot in the Ford
• 4:50
  simulator space to see if I can get it.
• 4:52
  Maybe an hour just to to feel what the car feels like.
• 4:56
  Because otherwise the only testing I'm going to get is at
• 4:59
  Daytona. Fortunately, they're going to
• 5:01
  test down there for an hour. But our good friend Doug Yates,
• 5:05
  we spoke the other day and Doug says, man, if they if you don't
• 5:09
  get that done, please come up to the shop when we chassis Dino
• 5:12
  some cars and I want you to get into cars and go through the
• 5:15
  gearbox for me. Because I guess one of the
• 5:17
  things that's happening is even though it's a sequential shift,
• 5:22
  mean you just keep pulling it back or pushing it forward,
• 5:24
  which sounds really easy. But I guess for the new guys,
• 5:28
  when you say new guys, old guys coming to the new deal, you go
• 5:31
  through second gear, you think you're going to 3rd.
• 5:34
  You know, you're mine for all these years, shoves the thing
• 5:37
  back in first gear and blows it up.
• 5:39
  You got to just keep pulling, keep pulling, pulling.
• 5:42
  And then when you get to pit Rd. they tell me there's some things
• 5:47
  the guys are doing when they're getting in their pit stall and
• 5:49
  they end up jamming a thing in reverse and it breaks the the,
• 5:53
  the aluminum gear in the trans axle in juncture days.
• 5:56
  So I'm going to work on the shifting part and they tell me
• 5:59
  that's that's the big thing I need to worry about.
• 6:02
  And your car owner, Carl Edwards.
• 6:04
  Carl. Carl Long.
• 6:05
  Wow. We got some Carl's going on.
• 6:08
  Yeah. Carl Long.
• 6:10
  I know Carl as putting on a show in qualifying.
• 6:14
  Carl became so famous he would air it out.
• 6:17
  And when Carl Long would would, you know, get ready to qualify,
• 6:21
  the whole pits, the whole garage area would empty out.
• 6:24
  Everybody go to the top of their truck.
• 6:26
  It's like Carl Long's going to qualify, and boy, he's a gamer,
• 6:30
  isn't he? Mike I, I really feel like he'll
• 6:33
  give you a card that'll get up to speed.
• 6:35
  Tell me your thoughts. Well, I wouldn't agree to do the
• 6:38
  deal, Herm, if I and make the things we're going to make
• 6:40
  happen happen if I didn't believe Carl can get it done.
• 6:42
  Carl is just a true old school racer.
• 6:45
  He was an incredible short track racer back in his day here in
• 6:48
  the Carolinas, Virginia, all that won a lot of races.
• 6:53
  Love talking to him because he he was working in a Domino's
• 6:56
  Pizza when he first got started and that's how he got his money
• 6:59
  to go racing. And when you're talking about
• 7:01
  the highlight reel, you know, Carl would get in the race very
• 7:04
  well and he was always in a not a top notch car, you know, so it
• 7:09
  was a big deal. And I think that the claim to
• 7:12
  fame is when he when he really qualified so good at Charlotte
• 7:15
  and booted Darrell Wall for about of the field, you know,
• 7:19
  that was like everybody paid attention.
• 7:21
  But he's very smart. He's funnier.
• 7:24
  Heck, he reminds me of you. He reminds me of you a lot
• 7:27
  because he's always laughing, joking.
• 7:28
  He knows what he's talking about.
• 7:31
  And so he told me that we, you know, we're going into this deal
• 7:35
  equal to everybody else. And I says, explain to me.
• 7:38
  And he goes, we got the same car.
• 7:40
  Everybody's got the same car. Now good point.
• 7:42
  You know, and they're brand new from last year.
• 7:45
  We all got the same bodies, we all got the same shocks, we all
• 7:48
  got the same brakes. We all, every team's got all the
• 7:51
  same. You know, you, you've talked to
• 7:52
  plenty of people and know that these are kind of a kit car.
• 7:56
  And Doug Yates assures me that the Ross Yates performance
• 8:01
  package is going to be under the hood is going to be as good as
• 8:03
  anybody's down there. I, I told Doug or you didn't
• 8:07
  tell him. I asked him.
• 8:08
  I says, look, if I get in the Daytona 500, you have to come to
• 8:12
  Pit Rd. on Sunday to take a picture with me, you and I on
• 8:16
  that road. He goes, dude, you just put
• 8:19
  absorbent amount of pressure on me to give you better than
• 8:21
  everybody else to make sure you're in the 500.
• 8:24
  I said whatever it takes. We take two pictures at that
• 8:26
  point. OK, so we, we don't, we do not
• 8:29
  have a charter. Explain to me as of right now
• 8:33
  how many cars are entered? How many are they going to
• 8:36
  start? OK.
• 8:37
  We'll start off that. At this present moment, there is
• 8:41
  believed to going to be 44 cars. At least 44 cars entered in the
• 8:46
  race are entered in qualifying. Now we'll start at the front, 36
• 8:52
  of the cars that will be in the race are chartered cars.
• 8:55
  They're already locked into the race.
• 8:58
  So and there's only 40 cars that are going to start.
• 9:01
  So there's only four spots that are available, but there's eight
• 9:05
  cars going to attempt at this time.
• 9:08
  There could be more, but there's eight cars going to buy for four
• 9:12
  spots. So I put that as a 5050 average
• 9:15
  and if I was playing craps, I'll win.
• 9:18
  That's right. I love this.
• 9:20
  OK, Mike. So you're you, you.
• 9:24
  You were doing it. We need sponsorship.
• 9:28
  Where do we go? How do we acquire sponsorship?
• 9:31
  Tell the people where they can call you.
• 9:34
  Well, it's a, it's a unique situation, to be very honest
• 9:37
  with you, Tammy and you, you know the whole story.
• 9:39
  And I got to figure out how to get that, where to call me,
• 9:41
  where to reach out to me. I guess you can go to
• 9:43
  mikewallace.com or you know, MW 91, that's mw91@aol.com.
• 9:52
  And if not, they'll just get a hold of you.
• 9:55
  Call me. Yeah, call, call Herman.
• 9:59
  Everybody knows how to get a hold of him.
• 10:00
  He'll help make it happen. And what it amounts to is that a
• 10:05
  unique situation is I control all the space on the car, all
• 10:08
  the exterior space, the hood, TV panels, quarter panels is
• 10:12
  through me. Our car is fully funded.
• 10:15
  We are going to race the Daytona 500.
• 10:17
  So there's no skepticism on that.
• 10:19
  But we can certainly use a large amount of financial support
• 10:24
  because think about it, worth a Daytona 500 this year.
• 10:29
  NASCAR through their television packages, NASCAR Daytona 500
• 10:34
  will be seen or available to be seen by more viewing audience
• 10:38
  than ever in the past. Has all the Amazon streaming
• 10:42
  service that's worldwide now that's worldwide, you know, so
• 10:45
  it's a a big deal. So and hey, if you just want to
• 10:49
  bring your buddies to Daytona for the weekend, what better
• 10:51
  way? All right, everybody, there he
• 10:53
  is. My brother Mike Wallace,
• 10:56
  attempting to make the Daytona 500.
• 10:58
  It's a feel good story. 65 years old.
• 11:02
  Get a hold of me on that social. 65 years young.
• 11:06
  Yes, I like that. Yep, that's what that's what one
• 11:09
  of my best friends taught me 65 years young and I love the
• 11:13
  positive mental attitude. All right, everybody, follow
• 11:18
  along. Respond right here.
• 11:20
  If you want to sponsor Mike's car and help him make the
• 11:23
  Daytona 502,025, just respond right here.
• 11:29
  We'll get back in touch with you.
• 11:30
  Until then, follow along. Watch Mike make the Daytona 500.