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Me & Rusty Wallace | Classic Kenny Conversations · Kenny Wallace Media

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I'll start with Rusty and tell me how young you were when you
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first were were driving a car even or a go Kart and you said,
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you know what man, I wouldn't mind making a living doing this.
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Well, I started out, you know, driving these cars back in Saint
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Louis when I was about 14 years old, 15, a lot of stuff going on
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there. But I my very first official
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race was the day I turned 16 years old.
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I remember my dad and mom had to go to the court and get a court
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order waving all the making sure that the racetrack was clear of
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anything that might go wrong if I had a wreck or something.
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So they left me on the track at age 16.
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You're supposed to be 18. But it got cleared and that was
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it. That was the start of my career
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right then. And Kenny, you were, how old
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then? Do you remember going and
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watching Rusty? Well, I spent a lot of years
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early in my life helping Rusty. You know, I'm not just Rusty's
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little brother, but I'm a big fan of Rusty.
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So I didn't start racing until I was 22 and but, but my very
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first race was 1982 Illinois St. Stock State Championship in
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Springfield. And then I didn't race for a
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while. I spent my time, you know,
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always helping Rusty or my brother Mike or my dad.
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And so, yeah, those were. That's when it all started here
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in Saint Louis. And did you show up, Kenny, and
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say, hey, I'm Rusty's little brother?
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I'm did you? Do you wear that like a badge of
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honor when you go to a track? Absolutely.
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And I'm proud of Rusty, proud of Mike.
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But Rusty, you know, he was the he was the risk taker of the
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family. You know, we came out of Saint
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Louis and you know, we'd go across that Poplar Street
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bridge, head up 55 N and and Rusty would race against the
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great AJ Foyt in a great series called USAC up in Milwaukee, WI.
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And I'll never forget bringing back those trophies to Valley
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Park, MO. And you know, I tagged Rusty's
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coattails my whole early life and it can't it, it turned out
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really good. And Rusty, you were having a
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great career, but when you win the Cup title in 89, how much
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does that change your whole life?
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That pretty valid, pretty well validated everything I wanted to
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do. I mean, I did a lot of short
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track racing. I grew up in Saint Louis.
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Our shop was down in Valley Park.
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We lived over in Fenton and but I was always on the road, always
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gone all the time. That was kind of like my base
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camp back in the back in Missouri.
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But I I felt as though that I needed to build my name and I
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had to get my name out there all over the place since that's what
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I did. I was in Bakersfield, CA,
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Jackson, Ms. Mobile, AL's Milwaukee, WI.
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I was everywhere. And then one day something
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clicked and I said, look, I have got to slow down and quit going
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all over the place. And that was a time that I said
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I'm going to try to win the American Speed Association
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championship. And that was the biggest short
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track series back there then. So I did it in 1983.
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I won it and right away I got a phone call 1984 come down and
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NASCAR give you a shot race for a couple years for Gatorade.
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Everything went pretty good. And then I got the big shot to
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go with the guys Raymond Beatle out of Dallas, TX and drive the
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the car. And then we won the title in 89.
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And after all that stuff I went through when I finally won that
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title in 89, it was just my gosh, I finally made it and I'm
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officially making a living at this deal.
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Although that's before I was relying on that money from those
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short tracks to keep on going. But I was making a a a real
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legitimate living then after I won the 99 championship, that
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really set me on top do. You guys think that NASCAR is
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sort of shifting back to the to its roots, you know, like you
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see in the dirt stuff and the shorter track is, is there kind
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of a movement right now? And, and Kenny, you're, you're
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out there still racing. Do you think NASCAR is trying to
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get back to their roots? I do.
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I really do. You know, Steve Phelps, you
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know, who runs NASCAR right now, he came out in the middle of the
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winter and said, listen, we, we made a mistake.
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We're trying to make it right, You know, and it's, listen, it's
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no secret that NASCAR's down some 60%.
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You know, we used to go to the Brickyard and there'd be 300,000
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people. And I believe years ago we only
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had 40,000 people in the grandstand.
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So you see NASCAR running dirt at Bristol, they're really,
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really changing it up. You know, they're adding on a
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lot of Rd. courses in Texas at Circuit of America.
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I never thought I'd see that happen.
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That's the same track that Formula One race is on.
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I mean, I really think NASCAR's trying to make it right and and
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gain some of those fans back that they lost, you know, some
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1520 years ago. I personally think that that's
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that's that's one way to put it. And I agree with what Kenny's
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saying, but I also think that they really feel as though they
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got to change something. They got to change it up to try
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to peel to the masses and and television is that has a bit to
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do with that also. And then they're really
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researching ideas. I mean, who would ever think
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that, you know, when you were growing up, you were on the dirt
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tracks and you're thinking, I want to make a big time.
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I want to make it the NASCAR. And you get the NASCAR and it's
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all the big Oval tracks. It's Daytona and Talladega and
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Charlotte and all the places you dreamed of going.
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And now because of COVID and different reasons, let's focus
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on two of them. COVID number one really killed
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everything last year. Before that, we had issues with
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people retiring. I retired, Dale Earnhardt lost
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his life, the Labonte's retired, Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, Tony
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Stewart, the list goes on and on.
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So a lot of people's, you know, people, their driver that these
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fans would pull for are gone. They're retired.
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And so they're really soul shirts and who they want to pull
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for. Who can fulfill that void?
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And it's been a real hard deal. And now you got Chase Elliott
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coming on and people are starting to sign on to him.
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You got Ryan Blaney coming on. They're finally starting to sign
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on to him. And the the race fan is finally
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starting to find a new hero to pull for.
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And that's really, really helping.
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Just about the time we had momentum going there, then COVID
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hits and slows it back down again.
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But the fans, every time they open the track up for, you know,
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30% of capacity, they sell it out.
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They sell all 30%. So it it it's on a climb.
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I think that the dirt track thing in Bristol was a was a
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neat deal. One thing that kind of made that
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popular is a lot of the drivers like, you know, the, the Kyle
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Larson's and the I just Kenny knows more about their, their
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background. Yeah, Christopher Bell.
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Yeah, Christopher Bell, that's one of them.
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A lot of those guys come from dirt, so they're really, really
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promoted. They love having that dirt race
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at Bristol and they were really pushing to get that, you know,
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so that that was a good popular thing.
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It worked out great for the racetrack.
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As I'm doing this interview, they're still up there racing.
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They got a huge race this weekend up there for World of
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Outlaws and that doggone the, the dirt is still on the track
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and it's going to stay on the track for a long time, probably
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before the night race happens at Bristol.
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But they're trying everything they can to, to make everybody
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happy and build that sport back like it used to be.
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Look, do you think there's going to be 158,000 people like they
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used to be like you used to be show up at Bristol?
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I don't know if they're ever get that back or not.
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I'll never forget the last year I race 2005 at Bristol, we had
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158,000 people sitting at grandstand and every single race
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was sold out. But then after that, everybody
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started retiring and it really slowed that stuff down.
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I feel like people really enjoyed rivalries, too.
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I mean, not that you got to punch somebody like a Kale
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Yarborough would do, but who? Who was it?
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The Cardinals and Cubs? You got these, you know,
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rivalries sell. How about for you, Rusty?
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And then you, Kenny? Who?
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Who was your was there a driver you just hated?
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And if you could put them into the wall, damn it, you would.
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Yeah, I had kind of a weird deal.
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Dale Earnhardt senior was a rival of mine, but where He was
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a great friend of mine, so much so that we did some vacationing
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together and our wives and everybody got along great and
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all that. But boy, when it come race time
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and the race would start, we're like, you couldn't tell we were
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friends. I mean, he was trying to steal
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my money. I was trying to steal his money.
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And then late my career, Jeff Gordon came on and he started to
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be just a real thorn of my side. He, he was so good that I'd be
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leading these races and he'd pass me with 10 laps to go.
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I'll never forget I'm in the big All Star race in Charlotte.
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Run along. It was like 8 laps to go and I'm
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leading the race and I did right side tires, probably should have
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did four. He did 4 drove right past me and
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passed me. I'm like, Can you believe it?
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This kids got my money again and it, and it was always big money.
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It was big races. It's a million to win and things
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like that. And, and he got to be a real
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pain in my butt for a long time, but now he's doing television
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for Fox. We've hung out a little bit
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together and we get along great right now.
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We get along real good. So we get along good because
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we're not racing against each other any longer and we can
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reminisce about the way it used to be and what we did before and
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and we get along great now. You know, Martin, one thing I'd
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like to add to that is that, you know, when we say back in the
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day, you know, 1520 years ago, there's no doubt there was
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characters. You know, my brother Rusty, I
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love him dearly, but he was not afraid to say what he what he
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what he thought, you know, and that's where I got a little bit
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of who I am. Rusty spoke his mind and, you
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know, and and so did Tony Stewart and you had the the late
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great Dale senior. He was the he was the Marlboro
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man. He was the man with the Black
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Hat on it. And we had characters back then
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and the fans really dug into that.
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And, you know, along come, you know, the TV deal where we had
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to clean our act up. And, you know, you know, the
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characters are gone. And, you know, Rusty and Dale
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Senior, they put on a hell of a show back then.
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The fans would rise at her feet to see, you know, Big Brother
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and and Senior go at it. So they need to they clean, they
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clean the sport up a little bit too much.
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And that's my opinion. Does it ever piss you guys off
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when they say, oh, you guys aren't athletes?
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But yet I don't ever see a fat. I never I never see a fat guy
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driving a car. You know, you guys are still in
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good shape And you know, it's funny.
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They're always oh, they're not athletes.
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And I'm like, did I see you guys know everyone's training,
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watching what they eat? And again, like, I mean, Tony
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Stewart was Husky like a guy like me, but you never see an
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out of shape driver. What do you guys think about
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that debate? Well, that for a while that used
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to aggravate me and then I started thinking, so wait a
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minute, I don't care if I'm called an athlete or not.
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I'm a race car driver. I'm a professional race car
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driver. And when I think of athletes, I
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think a stick and ball. I don't think a stick it I don't
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think the word athlete attached to racing.
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A lot of people disagree with me because I'm I live the time when
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we get those questions. You guys aren't athletes, you
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aren't athletes. So I went well, OK, I'm a race
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car driver is what I am. And then?
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I can't hit the ball and you can't drive this car, that's for
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damn sure, you know. And so then we get all the
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athletes would come to our races and they would just have such a
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great time, you know, whether it's football, baseball or
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singers or movie stars or whatever.
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They'd all be in the drivers meetings and they would just oh,
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and I to be at a NASCAR race and I got to tell you when I get to
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go to Saint Louis Cardinals game, I'm the same way.
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I just love it, you know? So that really never did bother
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me. The athlete thing, it didn't
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bother me. Maybe some other people that
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didn't meet though. Yeah.
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You know, Martin, it was Donovan McNabb with the Philadelphia
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Eagles that, you know, he was working for Fox Sports for a
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little bit and he said that one day on one of his pre show, you
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know, NFL games. And then, of course, you know,
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we had a debate about it. Jimmie Johnson got involved in
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it and you know, Jimmy Johnson, he was winning a lot of
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championships in a lot of races and all of a sudden Jimmy
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started that lifestyle of, hey, I'm going to work out now.
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Listen, it might have made him feel a little bit better, but he
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didn't run any better. Let let's make that.
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You know what I mean? Rusty's automatically in shape
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and so am I. So I'm with Rusty 110%.
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You know, everybody knows that. You know, I, I was good friends
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with Albert Pools. And of course he left Saint
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Louis and he would say to me, Albert Pools would say, how do
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you drive that car 200 mph? I'm like, Albert, how do you
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stand up in front of a standing room crowd and hit a damn home
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run? You know, So it's two different
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disciplines. How do you guys get in the car
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and go to the speed limit? I've always wondered, you know,
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like it's got to be hard, like to get in a normal car and just
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drive around and you know it. Your wife says, hey, will you
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run to the store? You're like, you damn right.
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Well, I'm going 90. Like can you drive a normal car
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at a normal speed? It's yeah, you can.
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I will tell you, though, when people are thinking so hard
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about different things, whether you're thinking about your
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profession or, you know, we're back here now I'm doing, I'm
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doing the, the, the analytical work for a motor racing network
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to voice the NASCAR and radio. And so when I'm thinking about
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the race that, I mean, I find myself going to the track and
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putting right along because I'm, it's not that I'm distracted,
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but I'm not in a big hurry because I'm focusing on things.
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Now you get me going to the airport here at Charlotte
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Douglas Airport and I'm stuck in traffic and the flight leaves in
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30 minutes. Yeah, I'm in a hurry.
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Maybe I'm going to press my luck a little bit on the speed limit,
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but when I was driving, just because I was always wanting to
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go fast in the race car didn't mean I wanted to go fast on the
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track. And I will tell you, I've had
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some hot rodder cars, street cars, one of the first
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Corvettes, a 200 mile an hour car.
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You're getting cars like that. They just want to go fast.
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I mean, you're sitting here, you feel like you're running 60 and
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you look down, you're running 95.
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Oh, man, I better throttle back. You know, those cars just want
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to go, you know, Like now I drive an SUV and when I feel
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like I'm running 70, I look down, I'm running 70.
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I said OK, it just kind of feels right.
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Yeah, You know, Martin, we would race in Bristol, TN, about 3
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hours from Charlotte. And I, of course, Rusty had his
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helicopter, but I would drive my vehicle up there, we'd get done
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with the race and we'd get on Interstate 81 and head back to
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Charlotte. And my wife would say Kenny, So
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down I'm like, why? And I look down and I'm running
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90, you know, So you get out of those race cars and sometimes
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you feel like you're crawling in a passenger car.
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You ever let anybody else drive? Yeah, I, I let somebody else
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drive almost all the time, like especially when I'm at the
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racetrack. We had our motor coach there.
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And so I've, Kenny's had different guys, I've had
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different guys help me drive these motor coaches.
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And so when you get there, you got a support vehicle, you got
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like an SUV or something that's getting you around all the
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drivers meetings, the appearances from Miller Brewing
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Company or whoever your sponsors are.
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There's quite a bit of work going on at the racetrack.
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And so you'll get there in town, you'll stay in your motor coach
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and who drove your motor coach will be with you all week long.
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So most of the time I just put them in there.
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So you drive, I'm just riding because a lot of times they'll
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do what they call, I call a Recon run when they get there,
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they'll go where we're going to have these appearances and they
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know how to get in the back door, they know the sideways to
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get in. They got that pre planned.
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Everything's all done. Many, many times I just jump in
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that vehicle and we go through back roads and all kind of stuff
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getting to these appearances. I'm like, man, how'd you figure
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this out? He said I pre ran everything and
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and so the pre runner driver drove me basically everywhere.
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Kenny, Kenny, what did you learn from Rusty?
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What great advice over the years or watching him, what did you
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take from his his skill set? Yeah, on a very serious note,
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Rusty taught me a lot. You know, there's, there's a
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couple people taught me it. It was always Rusty and then the
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Great Dick Trickle. But Rusty taught me one of the
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most important lessons in my life.
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It's hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
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And, you know, that was the number one thing we learned.
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You know, it's no secret that the great Bobby Allison was
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Rusty's hero. And, you know, Bobby got hurt
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and, you know, and then the other one Rusty taught me was,
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you know, save your money for a rainy day.
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You know, we can listen. We're Missouri boys.
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You'll never see our last dollar, you know, so and there's
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there's so much more that Rusty's taught me.
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A lot of it is is what he's went through and he shared with me
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and he knows how much I appreciate it.
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Rusty, do you ever call him and say can he get off Twitter or
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don't ever tell him to calm down?
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No. I actually don't.
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I enjoy watching him doing what he does and of late I've got
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myself involved in some really high end custom built
16:57
motorcycles and my son is building those things and I
17:00
really, really love that business and it's got to be
17:03
pretty exciting. And so we started the brand new
17:06
company called Southern Country Customs and we're building high
17:10
end, what they call bagger Harley Davidsons.
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And these are 70 to $90,000 motorcycles.
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And so we went to Daytona Bike Week and I talked Kenny into
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coming with me and I tell you what, he did a great job riding
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that motorcycle. He laughed like crazy.
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And the whole time he was there, he was tweeting and tweeting and
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tweeting, showing everybody what's going on.
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And the whole industry in NASCAR, they almost got jealous
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because. They did get jealous.
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They got. Jealous.
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They really got jealous because what they're doing, they're
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doing their nine to five deal, They're going to work and
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they're going to that racetrack every single week and they're
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doing the same thing repetitively all the time.
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And they got to see us having a great time and building this
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really exquisite, beautiful motorcycles.
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And they loved it. They really did.
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I was getting phone calls like crazy, you know, from people.
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And then when it was all said and done on Bike Week, because
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of Kenny doing all the tweeting and all the stuff he did, we
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sold five extra motorcycles. You keep.
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You keep on tweeting Kenny, you sell what?
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How about how about as a kid he always says how hyper he was
18:10
Rusty. Did you guys ever say, oh Kenny,
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knock it off? You have to like lock him in his
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room or anything. No, no, Kenny's got a distinct
18:16
laugh that everybody can tell and pick up from anywhere, and
18:20
that's his trademark. And they'll go, oh, that's
18:23
Kenny. You know, listen, I, I,
18:28
honestly, I was Born This Way. I don't mean any harm.
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I'm going to be the first person down at Busch Stadium and I'm,
18:36
and Martin, I'm going to see you doing your stand up after the
18:39
game. And I love, I think my deal with
18:43
social media is I'm, I'm just excited and I, I, for some
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reason, I just want to share it with everybody, you know, And
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when I'm at the Cardinal ball game or I'm in Daytona Beach, FL
18:54
for bike week with my Big Brother Rusty, his son Steven.
18:58
And you know, listen, I'm really proud of, you know them And you
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know, everything I do on social media is I'm always bragging on
19:06
others. So, you know, there's every once
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in a while you're going to get my mouth.
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But you got it. You got to take it all.
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You know you can't get just a little bit of it.
19:14
Martin, I think a lot of people misunderstand Kenny personally.
19:18
They, they all love him and they, they, he, they all say
19:21
he's so funny and he's such a comedian.
19:23
But I said, I tell people one thing you don't understand about
19:26
Kenny. I said he's got a real business
19:27
sense to him too. He's, he's a real smart kid.
19:29
He knows how far to take it. He knows what he's doing and
19:34
for, for he, Kenny could stop right now and do nothing and
19:36
retire. So he was pretty doggone smart
19:38
with his money also. And yeah, but you are.
19:42
I want you to. I don't think a lot of people
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hear that all the time. They.
19:45
Oh, Kenny's funny. Kenny's funny.
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Yeah, Kenny is funny to me. Kenny's really smart, too.
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It worked out good for him. And and he's real patient, real
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loving and caring, passionate person too, You know, just a
19:54
neat, a neat person that they all tell you.
19:56
But yeah, I mean, that's my story about Kenny.
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I can go on and on and on, but I try to give him advice that I
20:03
thinks. And when I give him this advice,
20:05
he might look at me like, man, you're boring.
20:07
You're just too boring. No, Hey, Martin, by the way,
20:11
edit that clip right there and send that to me.
20:14
Rusty just now bragging on me. I really appreciate that.
20:17
But no, you know, but one thing I do want to say that I wish a
20:22
lot of people out there had the guidance that Rusty gave me.
20:26
Listen, I love my dad Russ, and we miss him more than life.
20:30
But it's no secret. I, I was with Rusty 24/7.
20:33
You know, I love racing. And, you know, these old, these
20:37
old hands and Rusty's hands, too, they're pretty messed up
20:39
because we're fabricators, you know, we, we can make a speech
20:43
and we can go to the White House, but we're, we're in that
20:45
shop and our hands get dirty, you know?
20:48
So Rusty taught me how to fabricate.
20:51
I was just in Charlotte, NC yesterday watching Rusty rebuild
20:55
the transmission on one of those Harley Davidsons.
20:57
So we're all together now, but you'll get us all.
21:01
You're going to get everything we got kind of kind of like Adam
21:03
Wainwright, right? He's one of the greatest
21:06
baseball pitchers of all time. But when we see Adam Wainwright
21:09
in the dugout, he's like me. He's having a good time.
21:13
You know, and what what Rusty said reminds me, we did a piece
21:16
at Fox in their football studio and I had Terry Bradshaw and
21:20
Howie long together because they've worked together for 25
21:23
years. And we were kind of joking about
21:25
Terry being this country bumpkin and how he goes, hold on, hold
21:29
on. He said he is laughing his ass
21:31
all the way to the bank. He goes, you guys are all
21:33
getting reeled in. And he said Terry is a shrewd
21:36
dude and he is laughing all the way to the bank.
21:39
So you're right, sometimes that laughing and lightheartedness
21:42
people like, don't mistake that. That person we know, Kenny, he's
21:45
pretty Missouri frugal, I believe, is what he.
21:47
Calls. You got it.
21:49
Laughing all the way. Do you, Russ?
21:51
Did you? Do you miss it?
21:52
Like do you miss the competition?
21:54
Yeah, I do. I I don't miss it as much as
21:56
people think I would miss it. I mean, there's so many things
21:59
when I was driving that I wanted to do but I couldn't do because
22:03
I was driving my dad, we'd fly to the races and he would go
22:08
with me quite a bit. And I get to the track, we'd
22:11
land a plane. I was my own pilot, had a fellow
22:14
by name of Bill Brooks, who was our chief pilot flying with us a
22:17
lot. And we would land And I said,
22:20
what are you guys going to do is, oh, me and dad and me and
22:22
Russ, we're going to go up here, we're going to do this.
22:23
And I'm like, man, I wish I could do that.
22:26
And there's everybody wanting, everybody saying, I wish I could
22:28
be a race car driver. But after you're a race car
22:31
driver for a long, long time and he gets repetitive, it almost
22:34
gets boring a little bit. And the stuff that my dad and
22:37
Bill were doing, I was almost jealous of because they were
22:40
having some fun times. They were out hunting for old
22:43
tractors. They were at the military based
22:45
on at Leavenworth and Kansas. I could go on and on about stuff
22:48
they done. I couldn't do it.
22:50
So now I can do things like that.
22:52
I can vacation a little bit more.
22:53
I can be with my family a little bit more.
22:55
But I'll tell you, when Martinsville, VA comes around or
22:58
Bristol, TN pops up and I'm like, oh man, I wish I was
23:00
behind the Wheeling, at least making some laps and that stuff.
23:03
That was I, I missed those tracks.
23:05
You know, you remind me of another story.
23:07
Dan Geordorf, you know, plays in the NFL Hall of Fame player and
23:11
immediately becomes a broadcaster and does football
23:14
forever. He retired from CBS and he got
23:17
called his alma mater was Michigan, and he's doing their
23:20
games now. And he said, Martin, I hadn't
23:22
been to a college football game in 45 years, He said, because I
23:26
was always at a football game Saturday before in the hotel
23:29
studying for Sunday, either playing or broadcast.
23:32
He said, can you Can you imagine that?
23:34
I haven't been to a college football atmosphere for 45
23:37
years? And he finally got that
23:39
opportunity. You know, to your point about
23:41
getting to do do something once you're out of your normal
23:44
routine, driving the car. Well, how about for both of you
23:47
guys, most harrowing experience, like where you really were like,
23:50
oh, my God, this is scary. Or do you know it Like it
23:52
happened so quick, Rusty And then Kenny went like a moment in
23:56
the track where it was really frightening.
23:58
Well, for me, it had to be. It was definitely 1993.
24:02
It was at Talladega AL, our fastest racetrack in the
24:05
circuit. It was the last lap, checkered
24:07
flag is waving and I'm coming to the line and I'm running, I
24:10
think 3rd or 4th I think, and Dale Earnhardt and I, my rival,
24:16
we get together. I go end over end.
24:19
The car went up in the air. It flipped 20 sometimes and it
24:23
went across the start finish line upside down with the roof
24:26
pointing down, barrel rolling. I think I finished 5th or 6th in
24:31
that race. As the car went upside down
24:33
across the start finish line, it ripped the body off.
24:36
It ripped the motor out of it, broke my left wrist, knocked me
24:40
out. And when you go back and you
24:42
watch that race on television, you're going, man, you look at
24:44
the safety stuff we had back then.
24:46
I really shouldn't have survived that race, but somehow I
24:49
survived it. And it was like flying razor
24:53
blades, the bodies flying off at metals going everywhere.
24:57
And I missed all that stuff. And so that was my very worst
25:01
accident ever. You go to, I talked to people
25:04
every then about it and they'll say, hey, what was your worst
25:06
wreck? And I'll say Talladega.
25:07
And they just kind of roll their eyes like, Oh yeah, whatever.
25:09
I said, well, go to go to YouTube and look at Rusty
25:12
Wallace. Talladega wreck.
25:13
They look at it and their eyes get this big and they go, Oh my
25:16
God, Oh my God, I can't believe you're alive.
25:18
Oh my gosh. I said yeah, it was a bad one.
25:22
Hey, real quick, you know, you always ask me what Rusty taught
25:25
me that. That's another thing Rusty
25:27
taught me one of his greatest quotes of all time.
25:31
You got to remind people they remember what they want to.
25:35
So you know that that was a great reminder.
25:38
Rusty and I, I, I run like 11th in that race and I flew
25:42
underneath of you and that was devastating to me.
25:45
But I would say the wreck that changed my life, I needed
25:50
therapy for. It was 1991.
25:54
I'm going to win the Xfinity championship and I'm up in
25:57
Loudon, NH which is a tractor Rusty and myself both ran good
26:02
at. I want the blood 300 there.
26:04
But like 8 months later I go up there in the rear end, brakes in
26:07
my car and I go flying into turn 3 driver's side and hit my head
26:14
close to the wall. And I remember getting out of
26:18
the race car and the corner workers saying can he just lay
26:21
down here, let's wait for the ambulance to get here.
26:25
Next thing I knew, I thought I was at home sleeping and I hear
26:28
Kenny, Kenny and I open my eyes and I'm laying on the racetrack
26:33
in the middle of turns 3 and 4 Loudon, NH.
26:35
And it was devastating to me. You know, I look back on that
26:40
time and thinking, man, if not for that wreck, you know, I'd be
26:44
wearing a, you know, Xfinity championship ring and it's
26:47
taking me. I'm not.
26:48
I don't know if I'm over over it still, but that was the worst
26:52
wreck I ever had. A crack 3 ribs had a positional
26:54
Vertigo and but we've done our best to overcome and done and
26:59
prevail after that. Yeah, Kenny's like Martin.
27:02
Thanks for bringing that up. Let's let's.
27:04
Yeah, damn it. Back, back to therapy.
27:08
I'll buy you a Bud Light at Applebee's today and you'll be
27:11
fine. What?
27:12
How about then let's more positive favorite moment?
27:15
Do you? Can you narrow it down to a
27:16
favorite race or win or moment of your career?
27:21
Wow, favorite moment. My I got two favorite moments.
27:25
It had to be my first victory in NASCAR because that pretty well
27:29
signaled that I kind of made it my first victory.
27:34
That was a you know what, Martin, I'm going to change that
27:36
answer. My it's actually my second
27:39
victory because my first victory when I won the race of Bristol,
27:41
I thought, man, I won the race of Bristol.
27:43
This is great. But I went home that night and
27:45
said it was so hard to get to this point to win this first
27:47
race. You think of the second one ever
27:50
happened? Was that a fluke that I won?
27:51
Was just, is this real? Is this going to happen again or
27:54
I just get lucky? 3 weeks later I go to
27:57
Martinsville, VA and I win again.
27:59
I'm like now I'm in the club now.
28:01
I made it. I have won two races.
28:04
I've won two races and now I'm legit and I won.
28:07
So that was a huge deal. The, the second one had to be
28:11
when I was put in the Hall of Fame.
28:13
And then watching my son Greg get up there and induct me into
28:18
the Hall of Fame. It was emotional.
28:20
It's it's still emotional. Think about it today.
28:23
It was a big, big deal for me. And then when I had people like
28:26
Dale or who was it, Ned Jarrett came up to me and he said, he
28:30
said your life's going to change.
28:31
I go why? He said people are going to look
28:33
at you different. They're not going to look at you
28:35
as a competitor. They're not going to think
28:36
about, oh, I hate this guy. I'm going to talk good about him
28:38
or I'm going to talk bad about him.
28:40
You are now. Nobody can say nothing bad
28:43
because you're in the Hall of Fame.
28:45
And when I got put in that Hall of Fame, that was just a huge,
28:47
huge deal. Yeah, for me, Martin, you know,
28:52
it was not my 9 Xfinity wins or, you know, polls or things like
28:56
that. I believe the most exciting
29:00
moment of my career, there was a couple of them, just like Rusty.
29:03
Number one was 1998, the Bud Shootout in the Cup Series.
29:09
I had a choice to either push Jimmy Spencer to the win or my
29:15
Big Brother Rusty to the wind. This is on, you know, all over
29:18
the world. You go back, what race?
29:20
Was this one not Kenny? The Bud shootout.
29:22
Oh yeah, yeah, big. Deal and it was a big deal.
29:26
Remember brother, you got to remind people because you
29:28
remember what they want to so. So one of the most exciting
29:32
moments for me was 1998 Daytona Beach, FL, the Bud Shootout.
29:39
Rusty Wallace and Kenny Wallace finished 1-2.
29:43
And our whole family goes to eat that night across the street
29:46
from the Daytona Speedway. And you look up and all over
29:49
national TV it says Wallace Brothers finished 1/2.
29:53
And I'm like, damn, we're from Arnold, MO, baby.
29:55
You know, that was cool. Yeah, that was.
29:59
You know, that was, that was such a great race because I'll
30:01
never forget I'm sitting on the front row and my, my rival Jeff
30:05
Gordon is on the inside and we're both in the front row and
30:08
I look at my rear and Kenny's on my rear bumper.
30:10
I'm like, oh, what? It's going to be good.
30:12
I got Kenny pushing me, but I got Gordon trying to, you know,
30:15
out outshift me and get through the gearbox and get those babies
30:18
going. I'll never forget, I'm outside
30:20
alongside him when I started cracking the throttle, just
30:23
revving it up. And every time I'd Rev it up,
30:24
he'd look over at me. He would just look like this.
30:29
And so I'm going, OK, I'm going to do something here.
30:32
I'm going to crack the throttle. And when he looks at me, I'm
30:34
going to nail the throttle. I'm going to nail the gate.
30:35
I'm going to drop the clutch. I'm going to go and and
30:37
hopefully when he goes like this and I nailed the throttle and
30:41
go, he's going to be caught off guard.
30:44
Sure enough, man, I I cracked that throttle.
30:46
He looked over and I dropped the clutch and off I went and he
30:49
grabbed that gear shifter and he's pulling that thing in the
30:51
second gear and tore the transmission out of the car
30:54
right there to start finish line and Kenny get locked on my
30:57
bumper. We won on and we won that
30:58
doggone race. But you know, you talk about
31:02
playing games on the track. I'll never forget, man, when I
31:05
when I rub that baby up and he tore that transmission out
31:07
because I rattled him. That was so cool and it was one
31:10
of those fun moments and look in the mirror and see O Kenny
31:13
there. That was just great.
31:14
Yeah, we, we got, we were, we were coming off a turn 2 side by
31:18
side and Rusty was locked. Jimmy Spencer, you know, at
31:21
Daytona, it's all about aerodynamics and they're locked.
31:24
And I was pushing Rusty so hard off a turn 2 that I was
31:29
literally lifting the rear of his number two.
31:32
You know, the blue Deuce, the Miller, I was lifting it up and
31:35
I was getting ready, spinning out and I had to start letting
31:38
off the gas. I remember after the race,
31:40
Rusty, you said, Oh my God, you're lifting the whole rear of
31:43
my car. It, it took forever, but it was
31:46
about a second. I finally got Rusty, you know.
31:51
You know, we broke that connection aerodynamically, got
31:55
away from Jimmy Spencer and the rest was history and done.
31:59
That was a lot of fun. We we needed a thought bubble as
32:01
Rusty's driving look in the rearview mirror like, oh, it's
32:04
that pain in the ass, Kenny, right?
32:07
Oh, now I like. It Hey guys, thanks so much for
32:11
the time. And you know, it's been great
32:13
fun for Saint Louis too, to have a rooting interest in NASCAR.
32:16
And I think it's it's kind of fun when they look up and see,
32:19
hey, there's one of our own racing at the big tracks around
32:21
the country. I know Saint Louis has gotten a
32:23
big kick out of it.