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NASCAR Made Mistakes & Now It's Time To Fix Them | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Happy Friday morning everybody. Today's subject.
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  I know for a fact that NASCAR is all hands on deck.
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  They are going to make it right. This does make me happy.
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  They realize what happened and now it, it took them a while and
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  they definitely made some decisions that were not.
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  We're not the way to go. Let's put it that way.
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  You know, when you think of people, it's easy for all of us
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  to look back and go, yeah, we shouldn't have done that.
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  I'll never forget, you know, do you older people, do you
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  remember when I had that Dirt Devil sponsor?
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  Well, they sold the heck out of those and it was a big success.
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  And the president, his name was John Balch.
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  I think of it, or Mr. Balch, whatever.
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  Anyway, they sponsored us. It was a huge success.
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  Sold millions of those little Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners.
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  They were a hit. And as the year ended, you know,
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  they had a contract to sponsor me again and let's say in 1994.
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  So that was 93. They were going to go in again
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  in 94. Well, they had a meeting with
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  Felix Sabatas and they they told Felix, they said, man, we need
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  out of this contract. We messed up.
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  It's like, my God, this is one of the greatest sponsor, you
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  know, interactions we've ever had.
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  And they said, yeah, what we did was we made a lot of money, but
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  we spent all the money on marketing.
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  Think about it. You make so much money, but you
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  spend all that money on marketing.
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  Now I will say that that dirt devil, if you remember, there
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  was a little dog in that commercial and that was the
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  president. But they, they put all these TV
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  commercials up. They, they made a lot of money,
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  but they spent too much money. So there's got to be a balance.
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  And I look at NASCAR like that. They just went All in, all in
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  they, you know, and now you look back and and you realize how
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  much they messed up. But you don't know that until
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  you messed up. But it takes a mature business
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  person to say I'll never do that again.
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  And so just for a minute, let's talk about what NASCAR did bad
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  and what they can do to make it right.
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  The first thing NASCAR did bad was they, this is my opinion.
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  They built too many big mile and a half race tracks.
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  You know what, we had the perfect tracks.
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  We had Atlanta, we had Rockingham, you know, I mean,
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  really at that point, that was it.
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  Charlotte was in there. Respond right here.
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  But you know, back in the 8 late 80s, early 90s, you had the
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  perfect amount of mile and a half tracks.
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  And then all of a sudden they said, wow, we got such a big
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  crowd and we, we need more seats.
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  So we'll build bigger race tracks.
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  That was the wrong thing to do. They should have just done what
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  they've done at Bristol. They should have built the seats
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  up because they went out to California and they built that
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  big old mile and a half track, which was fine.
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  But then the first 10-15 years it was boring.
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  We had to wait till the asphalt to mature and it was boring.
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  You know, they went to Chicago, they built that big old mile and
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  a half. They went to Kentucky, they
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  built that big old mile and a half.
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  OK, that's fine, you say, but here's what they did wrong.
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  They got rid of Rockingham, they got rid of Wilkesboro.
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  They left the tracks that were exciting.
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  You know where you'd get into each other.
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  You, you, you can't get into each other on those big mile and
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  a half race tracks or else you're out.
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  So it was just about it was kind of like flying a, an airplane.
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  Now, listen, I know there's a lot of race car drivers that
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  like those mile and a half, but let's admit it, they're not as
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  exciting as a Rockingham or, or you know, I think Rockingham to
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  me, I love that track because you were always on each other
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  and the fans recognized and they were on their feet.
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  How about coming off at turn 4 there that dog leg.
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  Those finishes were awesome. So I think they built too many
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  mile and 1/2 right away. Then the next thing they did
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  wrong was they got greedy. They were so big that they would
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  say OK you got to buy 1 ticket for everything.
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  You got to show up Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the dirt
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  racing fans are like, man, we just want to show up Sunday.
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  Some of the tracks were guilty of no, you got to buy the truck
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  taken on Friday, you got to buy the Xfinity, take it on
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  Saturday, you got to buy the Cup, take it on Sunday and just
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  priced everybody out. So I'm going to end like this.
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  They did a lot of wrong things, but I do know that they have
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  been humbled mightily. NASCAR has been humbled mightily
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  and I know for a fact they hear y'all and they are going to go
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  on tour in 2026 and they're going to make it right now.
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  I know they did hire. If you remember, I cracked a
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  joke. They hired this new media
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  company to bring, you know, that rally cry back.
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  Earnhardt's my man to the front. To the front.
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  And at first I thought, well, that sounds funny.
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  They could have called me up. I'd have helped them.
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  I will help them this year. If NASCAR calls me, I will help
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  them. And here's what I'm telling
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  them. I will come to a couple race
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  tracks and I will work on bringing my friends, my great
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  race car driver friends. I'll call them up and I'll say,
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  hey, you want to go here, You want to go there and we'll have
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  a good old bull session. Maybe Mark Martin will come,
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  maybe Dale Junior will come, maybe Kenny Schrader will come,
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  Maybe I can get brothers, Brother, Rusty and Mike to come,
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  Who knows? And what, we'll go behind the
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  midway and all of you can listen to us tell some old stories.
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  But we got to repair NASCAR and we got to get back.
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  And that's a couple of my ideals.
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  Respond right here. It is the day after Christmas
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  and we had a wonderful Christmas, maybe one of the best
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  Christmases we've ever had because the grandbabies are
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  little more grown up. They know what Santa Claus
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  brought them, and yet the youngest one is maybe 6-7 months
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  old. Lenny, she's a girl, she's so
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  sweet, she smiles all the time. We really had a good time.
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  Now Sunday we're going to go downtown Saint Louis and
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  celebrate all the birthdays that we have.
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  We got a lot of birthdays right around this area.
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  Oldest daughter Brooke is January 4th.
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  We got my wife Kim. January 14th we got my youngest
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  1, Brittany. December 28th, Justin, my gosh,
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  we got Jacob. Anyway, you get the point.
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  We got like 5 or 6 birthdays right there.
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  So we decided every year from now on, we're going to celebrate
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  everybody's birthdays at one time because if we don't, we'll
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  just be going from house to house and everybody agrees with
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  it. So Sunday we go down to Union
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  Station, downtown Saint Louis, and we go to Landry's Wonderful
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  restaurant right behind Union Station.
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  The aquarium's there, the big Ferris wheel, merry go round for
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  the kids. So we're looking forward to
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  that. Have a great Friday, everybody,
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  and a great weekend. And remember, as always, go to
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  shopkennywalls.com. We got a new special, it's
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  called Coffee with Kenny Kit. You can get a coffee mug, a
• 8:48
  shirt and a decal for $5 off Shop kennywalls.com.
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  Have a great weekend.