Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Rick Mast Talks Talladega, NASCAR Lawsuit & Hurricane Helene Recovery!
Transcript
- 0:00Boom, There we go. We are live.
- 0:02You are looking live. It's the Rick Mast show.
- 0:05I'm Charlie Marlow. That is the great Rick Mast.
- 0:08It is. It's ten O 8 central time on
- 0:11this beautiful Monday morning. Rick Mast.
- 0:15How are you, Sir? Man, Charlie, again, I couldn't
- 0:18be any better if I had to be, OK?
- 0:20Just beautiful boarding. No hurricanes around here.
- 0:24We got sunny skies, you know what I mean?
- 0:26We had a heck of a race yesterday with all kinds of
- 0:28controversy and we got controversy going on in the
- 0:31country and in the world is just all kinds of stuff going on,
- 0:34dude. All right, let's start with,
- 0:36let's start with the race. We're going to get to the
- 0:37controversy in the world. But before, before I throw it to
- 0:42you and I and I tee you up, just tell me, what do you think was
- 0:45the biggest controversy for Talladega?
- 0:47What? What's the first thing that
- 0:48comes to mind for you? First thing comes to mind to me
- 0:51is the car sitting there with flat tires and bringing them
- 0:54back to the pits and not bringing them back to the pits.
- 0:56And it's the it's a fiasco, right?
- 0:59We, we got to fix this dude. We got to fix this man.
- 1:02I mean, you know, it's been the same.
- 1:04It's always been there since we've had this car, but it's
- 1:06it's it's rare, this ugly head the last couple weeks and
- 1:09created controversy because you spend the car spins out and
- 1:13you're sitting there with nothing wrong with the car and
- 1:15you get towed to the garage area, right.
- 1:16And that's what happened for a couple weeks ago, the last two
- 1:19races and here with Barry and children stalling, raising cane
- 1:23and all that stuff going on. And then was a Blaney's car.
- 1:26He wouldn't walk his Glen, but he did have a broken steering.
- 1:29So it was, it was obvious or not obvious, but it was, it was the
- 1:32right call. And then we get the deal
- 1:34yesterday at Talladega and you know, you have cars that are
- 1:38maybe damaged or maybe not, but they're able to come on Pit Rd.
- 1:41and they're able to fix them. So that kind of goes, I guess
- 1:44what went on the week before. So that gets the four team all
- 1:48up in the air again. OK, It's it's it's something
- 1:53that's always been there with this car, but it's got to be
- 1:56fixed, man. We could we could fix this.
- 1:58I know they got the the deal they put on the rear shocks to
- 2:00raise the back of the car up where they can move, but that
- 2:03just buries the nose so you can't steer it right.
- 2:06So you know, that's not a fix. I guess if you could do that on
- 2:08all four shots and get the car jacked up, then that would
- 2:11probably fix it for a nice car. But for those guys, and you
- 2:16know, like yesterday, man, you had 25 cars sitting down there,
- 2:19right? 25 cars involved in the big one.
- 2:22And you know, NASCAR has got so much or so many records and so
- 2:26many officials, how, how could they look at that many cars and
- 2:30determine who, you know, who could go in the garage and who
- 2:33can get tires put on? Who do we who's not broke, who
- 2:35is broke? You know, man, it's just a mess.
- 2:39You know, the car is what's causing this.
- 2:41This car the, the because of the low profile tire and it goes
- 2:45flat and the car sits there and won't move.
- 2:48So, you know, NASCAR makes a determination, do we does he
- 2:51keep racing or not? You know, in the last two or
- 2:55three weeks, man, this, this whole thing is just blown up,
- 2:58right? And it's not a situation, it's
- 3:00not something that's new that just come up.
- 3:02I mean, this has happened in the past, but it's never caused the
- 3:05controversy that we've had the last two weeks or last three
- 3:08weeks. 443 races actually. So, you know, and they're
- 3:12talking about and they will fix it this winter.
- 3:13I wish they could fix it this week, right?
- 3:16And I'm not sure exactly how they do that.
- 3:18Man. Could you imagine going to
- 3:20Phoenix and the guy spinning out and he sit there with four flat
- 3:24tires and the official makes a call?
- 3:28Yeah, there's something broke under his car.
- 3:30So we just pulled him into the campground or the infield.
- 3:32You know, he's out of the race and there's nothing wrong with
- 3:34the car. Can you imagine the headlines
- 3:37we'd have if that was to go on at Phoenix at the last race
- 3:40going for the championship? Man, We've got to get this
- 3:43fixed. We've got to get this corrected.
- 3:44That's that's my big take away from from Talladega dude.
- 3:49Yeah, so I was right before we started this, I watched Elton
- 3:52Sawyer's little press conference from last night.
- 3:55It was about 7, seven and a half minutes.
- 3:57And it seems like they're already modifying the policy mid
- 4:02season. It it sure sounds like they're
- 4:04they're going to change the actual rule in the offseason.
- 4:07But he was asked basically, look, I mean, it looks like
- 4:09you've already kind of changed the policy because you realize
- 4:12what's happened the last couple weeks.
- 4:14And he, he essentially even acknowledged that and said, Hey,
- 4:17we want to air on the side of the competitors.
- 4:21But when asked about, Hey, what if this happens again?
- 4:23And I, I think this is important to know, you know, you said, and
- 4:26by the way, whatever the number is, I've seen 25 cars, 27 cars,
- 4:3028 cars based on different articles.
- 4:32What whatever amount of cars it was, it was the largest wreck in
- 4:36the history of NASCAR. And I mean, I don't know, how
- 4:40long did it take? Did it take 45 minutes to clear
- 4:43whatever it took? I, I do think that was very
- 4:45unique circumstances. So look, could that happen again
- 4:49at Talladega or Daytona down the road?
- 4:51It's probably very unlikely that something like that happens in
- 4:54the next four or five races this season, but you never know.
- 4:58But I think NASCAR is realizing that they have to fix this.
- 5:03Yeah, there's no doubt, you know, and and again, it won't
- 5:06happen like that again, but you still.
- 5:08But what, you know what it is, it's really a, it's really a
- 5:10preview for NASCAR to say here's the problem to fix it, OK,
- 5:13before it gets to a championship deal, OK, where we affect the
- 5:18championship. So at least the deal yesterday
- 5:23that pointed out, it pointed out what can go wrong, right?
- 5:26Even even more so than what happened to Blaney and Josh
- 5:29Berry in the preceding races. So, you know, it's a good thing,
- 5:33kind of a godsend for these guys that it went on like this,
- 5:35'cause that that puts you worse, really puts you worst case
- 5:38scenario to this, this area of the flat tire fiasco we've got
- 5:43going on, right? And it shows, it exposes, it
- 5:46exposes all the flaws, right, with what we're doing right now
- 5:50with this, with this procedure. So, you know, and they know that
- 5:54and, and, and you know, the, the thing about NASCAR from the
- 5:57beginning, they've always been reactive, always reactive to
- 6:00situations. The, the, the thing that I do
- 6:02like about the new regime in NASCAR, they, they do try to be
- 6:07more proactive than they've ever been as a sport.
- 6:10And you hear that the phone's ringing.
- 6:12I like it. There's a little hey, folks,
- 6:15there's a little button on the side where you flip that button
- 6:18and they can't bother you. You don't hear the ringing it.
- 6:21You know, technology. I love it, right?
- 6:24But anyhow, in the realm we're in with this deal, I just think
- 6:28that, you know, they've it's rare this ugly head.
- 6:31I mean, I always talk about being progressive.
- 6:33We've been regressive or reactive.
- 6:35Now, what I was saying before was interrupted, NASCAR right
- 6:39now is more proactive than they've ever been since my time
- 6:43in the sport, all right? And, and we still give the
- 6:46situations where they have to become reactive to the situation
- 6:49that happened because of a rule or because of something going
- 6:52on. And they they typically over the
- 6:54years have been pretty good about that.
- 6:56But trying to get ahead of this stuff, especially with this new
- 6:59car, the new rules, the new inspection procedures, the way
- 7:01we're doing everything. I mean, they've had to really
- 7:04completely revamp their mindset, man, to be proactive with, with
- 7:08stuff and trying to figure out what's coming down the Pike and
- 7:11how to fix it before it gets here instead of watching it
- 7:14happen and then reacted to it, fixing it.
- 7:18And, you know, some newer fans might look at her sport and
- 7:21think, man, you know, they don't get ahead of anything.
- 7:23Well, yeah, they do. If if you look at the past, the
- 7:26way we used to do things and the way it is now, totally
- 7:29different, totally different. This is one of those areas that
- 7:32falls into all right, We're we're being reactive with this.
- 7:35So now we've got to fix it. So yeah, we've got to fix this
- 7:38deal, man. And folks can get their
- 7:40questions in our guy and comments.
- 7:42Tennessee Smokey with a couple here.
- 7:44He says Bill France senior and Dale Earnhardt senior would have
- 7:48already fixed this issue. And he also here's a good
- 7:50question for you. He says this is his opinion.
- 7:53He says engineers have replaced mechanics on these race teams.
- 7:58Engineers are notorious for not really being able to fix
- 8:03anything. What do you think about that?
- 8:05Are the engineers, are they are they too smart?
- 8:07Are they not the good wrench guys from from your era or what?
- 8:11There's a mix. There's a mix that's got to go
- 8:13on with this stuff, Charlie. I mean, I, I can go back to
- 8:16stories, man. I remember, gosh, when I first
- 8:19came in the cup, the, the, the manufacturers would have their
- 8:22engineers, right? And they'd be down here, they'd
- 8:24be down at your garage area and they'd be you studying and doing
- 8:27all the stuff. Well, what happened?
- 8:29These, the different manufacturers decided that they
- 8:32let engineers design race cars, right?
- 8:34And these engineers would get on their computers and do their
- 8:37thing and design this beautiful race car.
- 8:39Really, really neat looking stuff, right?
- 8:43And they come down here and the the race team would build the
- 8:45car to those specs. And you know, once it those,
- 8:49once the thing was built, they would we'd go test it.
- 8:52And a lot of the drivers that get out wouldn't get off pit Rd.
- 8:55to be screaming. The cars were absolutely the
- 8:59worst thing you've ever tried to drive in your life.
- 9:02I got in one time, I got a Hendrick car one time.
- 9:06It's Charlotte. We were down there testing and
- 9:08Schrader was there and they had another car and I was not doing
- 9:11anything or whatever's going on. Anyhow, they said jump in this
- 9:14car, right? I said, OK, it was one of the
- 9:16cars Schrader supposed to be tested and I went out there and
- 9:20sure enough, it was, it was a pretty quick race car, but God,
- 9:22that thing was wicked. It was really wicked to try to
- 9:25drive it. Anyhow, I swapped ends with it
- 9:26in three and four and I came in. Well, when they asked me to
- 9:29drive it, Schrader was sitting in his car.
- 9:31They were working on it in the garage and Schrader hollered at
- 9:35me and sitting in the car said how about trying this car out?
- 9:38So I drove it. When I came in from spinning out
- 9:40and going down all through the grass, I never hit anything.
- 9:43I came in, Schrader still sitting in his car and I get out
- 9:46and he looks up and he's laughing and I said, what are
- 9:48you laughing at? He said there's a reason I
- 9:50didn't get out of my car 'cause if I got out of my car, I'd have
- 9:53had to drive that car you was getting ready to get into.
- 9:55And I didn't want to do that right?
- 9:57But anyhow, these guys, the engineers would build these
- 9:59cars. I know 33 race cars that were
- 10:02built, 2 engine specs from Detroit.
- 10:04And all the three of those things, man, were just wicked.
- 10:07And what happened? The engineers would go back to
- 10:10Detroit with the tails tucked between their legs 'cause they
- 10:13just could not understand why their design didn't work.
- 10:18OK. And it was really simple.
- 10:20The, the, the guys in the garage area had been working on the
- 10:22same basic chassis for 20 or 30 years, basic chassis design.
- 10:27And they had done everything to that car over those two or three
- 10:30decades to make it work to perfection for what it was.
- 10:34You all right? And so when you brought bring a
- 10:37new design in and, and nothing works right.
- 10:40And the guy, anyhow, the end result was there's one guy, his
- 10:44name is Terry Satchel. He came down from Oldsmobile.
- 10:46He had a car and it wouldn't work.
- 10:48But Terry had enough humbleness about him and fortitude that he
- 10:53stayed around. All right, He stayed around and
- 10:56he became one of the main players in our garage areas as
- 10:59kind of as an engineer. And he was with Leo Jackson for
- 11:01a while because of the Oldsmobile connection.
- 11:04And Terry started dissecting these cars that were built and,
- 11:08and then dissecting the cars that we ran and try and, and put
- 11:11together. Why the engineering mode car
- 11:14didn't work and while the old cars, the old redneck dummy race
- 11:18car crew chiefs made work, right.
- 11:20And he he made a lot of advancements.
- 11:23He did a lot he did a lot to help our sport with with that
- 11:25part of it back. But back to the question.
- 11:28Yeah, yeah, there's there's got to be a mix engineers design
- 11:31things and then the people out the field have to figure out how
- 11:34to make it work. And that that's true.
- 11:36You'll see YouTube videos and stuff going on all the time
- 11:39with, you know, a mechanic changed an oil in a car and
- 11:41you've got to take the right left rear wheel off to change
- 11:44the oil in the car and he's sitting there fussing about
- 11:46engineers. You see a lot of these videos
- 11:48that a lot of those things are kind of comical and funny, but
- 11:50it is true. It is it that is true.
- 11:53So, you know, I just think there's a mix there, man.
- 11:55I think it's a mix. OK, how about Ricky Stenhouse
- 12:00Junior? Here's a guy, a dirt guy, but
- 12:04then Xfinity and this guy won two Xfinity championships.
- 12:08Then he gets into Cup and he's essentially become the
- 12:11superspeedway guy. He has four wins in his career,
- 12:172 at Daytona now and two at Talladega.
- 12:20So So what do you think about Ricky?
- 12:22It is that a guy who I, I think we all know you have to have a
- 12:25certain amount of luck to win superspeedway racing, but also
- 12:28is this a guy that just kind of knows how to win on the big
- 12:31tracks or what? You know, it, it kind of goes to
- 12:34his style. I mean, you know, Ricky, Ricky,
- 12:38Ricky gets he gets a lot of heat.
- 12:39He has his whole career, he gets he takes a lot of heat for cause
- 12:42and crashes or wrecking people, right.
- 12:44And he's so much better at that than the earth.
- 12:46Better not wrecking that he used to be.
- 12:49But that aggressiveness that he that he's shown then get himself
- 12:53in trouble over the years. He's still very aggressive on
- 12:56the speedways. You know that the problem with
- 12:58these cars great deal on speedways ban.
- 13:01It's like I saw did you see Denny Hamlin, screw chief
- 13:04talking about it yesterday and he's talking about these cars
- 13:07you get back in 20 spot and you're stuck in 20th at Daytona
- 13:10or Talladega and your driver ability takes the car takes away
- 13:13driving ability at these speedways because you can't do
- 13:16anything, right. Well, yeah, there is there is
- 13:18some truth to that. But you take somebody like a
- 13:22Stenhouse, right, that it's got that, gosh, he's got that
- 13:25aggressive this that he makes work for him on these super
- 13:29speedways. And he he he's obviously
- 13:31understands, you know, where what where to put his car, where
- 13:35his car needs to be and what place to put it in and see that
- 13:37the momentum and of the other lines and all that stuff that
- 13:40goes on for the drafted at these race tracks down.
- 13:43You know the the thing about it, I heard that crew chief talking
- 13:46about that and he's talking about, you know, we just can't
- 13:49drive our abilities taken out with his car at these race
- 13:51tracks. Well, the heck of it is man, if
- 13:54you look there at the end yesterday, before the big before
- 13:57the the the green white checker, who did you see at the front?
- 14:00You saw all the winners that win at superspeedway towards the end
- 14:04of the race. These guys always have a way of
- 14:06getting up there towards the front, right.
- 14:09And it's just that it's a it's a knock.
- 14:11You know, I don't know, there's something you'd really you can't
- 14:14really pinpoint it exactly. You could talk about, you know,
- 14:16with Earnhardt was so good at it.
- 14:17We call it he could see air. That was that was a take on
- 14:20Earnhardt. He could see the air.
- 14:21Well, you can't see air, but you could feel it, right?
- 14:24And you look in the mirror and you can look around and you can
- 14:26see what's happening and you can take make, you know, take
- 14:29advantage of it. Do that.
- 14:31And Dale's very good at that, right.
- 14:34Stenhouse is in that category. You know, it's he and it's
- 14:36Logano. It's it's, it's about to hit
- 14:40Denny. Well, except for the last couple
- 14:41of races, but there's a handful of those guys that just have a
- 14:45knack for being towards the front of these restrictor plate
- 14:49tracks, we call them at the end of these races.
- 14:51And it's just, you know, that's one thing that he excels at.
- 14:55Ricky Stenhouse is a very, very, very good superspeedway plate
- 14:59type racer, and you leave it at that.
- 15:02Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Chris Gabehart.
- 15:04So I was watching so Matt Weaver interviewed him and I thought
- 15:08the way Chris Gabehart described it made a lot of sense and I
- 15:12agreed with him. He basically said when I watch a
- 15:14race at Bristol, when I watch some of these Rd. courses with
- 15:18this car, I see greatness. He said.
- 15:20I'm able to see the the greatness of of drivers, the
- 15:24greatness of a sport, which I think why we all watch sports.
- 15:27He said. When I watch the superspeedway
- 15:29racing with this car, I just don't see that greatness and I
- 15:33think it's it's hard to argue with that.
- 15:36Yeah, yeah. You know, I heard that and I'm
- 15:41like, man, if you'd have won the race today, we wouldn't be
- 15:44having this interview. OK, Frustration, you know that I
- 15:48think it's frustration on his part.
- 15:49And but that's what he that's what he truly feels.
- 15:52You know, I mean, he's one of our great better crew chiefs in
- 15:54the sport and that's the way he sees it.
- 15:57And he put it out there for everybody to hear.
- 15:59So, you know, there's, there's, there's some truth to that there
- 16:02and it really is. But you know, we've been how
- 16:06many, I mean, how long we heard about super Speedway racing and
- 16:09we're stuck. We're stuck.
- 16:10We came. Hell, what's happening when I
- 16:11was going on, man, you know what I mean?
- 16:13I mean, you guys see if we dissect this a little bit more,
- 16:17you know, you go back and and all through your racing career,
- 16:22there's guys that you learn, you learn that you know every driver
- 16:24on that racetrack. You know who they are, you know
- 16:26their tendencies, you know what they do.
- 16:28And you know, there's drivers that you know, I I don't go and
- 16:31turn one on the right rear of this driver, right, you'll get
- 16:33wrecked or I don't I don't get under this driver in the apex
- 16:37exit and four at at Darlington there.
- 16:39There's just drivers that you know, you don't put yourself in
- 16:42certain positions at anywhere and you know all these guys.
- 16:46So you avoid that right, and you avoid wrecks and you avoid
- 16:50crashes that way. You finished races that way.
- 16:52You go to Talladega Daytona, you don't have that option if you're
- 16:56if you're, and I was in that, I mean every race you'd be in that
- 16:59position. Many times you're in the middle,
- 17:013 wide, 10 rows in front of you, 4-5 rows behind you and there's
- 17:05a guy on the right side of you that you don't want to be around
- 17:08in that position. There's a guy on the left side
- 17:09of you. You know you don't want to be in
- 17:11that position. There's a guy right on your
- 17:13front bumper that you damn, I don't need to be around this
- 17:16guy, right, But you have no choice.
- 17:18You're stuck. You know, there's nothing you
- 17:20can do about it in that moment. So you know that that breeds
- 17:25that that type of situation breeds, and it has since the
- 17:2890s, man, breeds these big crashes on these race tracks.
- 17:30But you're around drivers that, you know, you're not supposed to
- 17:33be around and you shouldn't be around in certain situations.
- 17:36And, you know, you can't get out of it.
- 17:38So what what Gabe was talking about.
- 17:40Yeah. But, you know, we, we man, I was
- 17:42stuck in the 90s in positions I didn't want to be in and I
- 17:45couldn't do a damn thing about it other than trying to wait to
- 17:49make a move to get away from that guy or, or the big crash
- 17:52happens, right? And, you know, but you know,
- 17:55that, that that was for me, that was one of the most frustrating
- 17:58parts of plate racing or big track racing was being in
- 18:02positions you didn't want to beat because, you know, you
- 18:04sooner or later there's going to be a damn wreck.
- 18:06Yeah, you're going to be caught up in it.
- 18:08So, you know, I I understand what Gabe's saying.
- 18:11I go along with what he's saying.
- 18:12But I'm telling you, Gabe, this is something that's not new.
- 18:15That's more pronounced, little more pronounced straight now,
- 18:17probably, but it's not new. It's not new.
- 18:20It's always been around here. Yeah, I do like the fact that it
- 18:23seems like the crew chiefs are talking more after races.
- 18:26Not not just guys who who win the race, but Gabe Hart, Cliff
- 18:30Daniels recently on Twitter getting involved.
- 18:33Rodney Children, yes, which? Is really good for the sport.
- 18:37And also it's funny because we're talking about Denny
- 18:40Hamlin's crew chief and then just, you know, he didn't win
- 18:43the race, but look at Denny's strategy.
- 18:45So and then I was watching Denny's post race interview as
- 18:49well. So he realized after a while his
- 18:52car was not good. So he's saying, you know what I
- 18:55mean? What's what's my best strategy
- 18:56here? Just hang back.
- 18:58And you hate to say it like this, but hope for the massive
- 19:02wreck, which did happen. 28 cars, whatever it is involved.
- 19:07And so Denny Hamlin with with not a fast car ends up with a
- 19:10top 10 because of that. So, and you know, Denny's gotten
- 19:14some Flack for for his strategy. Remember kind of hanging back
- 19:18for the first playoff race. And if you watch his podcast
- 19:21actions detrimental, there's an ongoing running joke about how
- 19:24many points are you going for? And people have kind of kidded
- 19:28him about that. But for that particular
- 19:30strategy, hey, if I don't have a good car, why even try to fight
- 19:32my way back? Let's just hope for the big
- 19:34wreck, stay out of it. And he got a top ten out of it.
- 19:38Yeah, it wasn't like Atlanta. I mean, Atlanta he went back
- 19:40because I was at that race and I kept watching him, right.
- 19:42But when you go to when you go turn it on, He never did.
- 19:44But yesterday or Talladega, he felt, you know, he was up there,
- 19:48he was up towards the front doing his thing and he got to
- 19:50the outside line and went straight back and I'm like,
- 19:52damn, you doing this again, dude?
- 19:54And then he they played the recording.
- 19:55You come on the radio so well, that didn't work out or that
- 19:58sucked or something like that. And then he he kind of kept his
- 20:00nose in there all day more than he did.
- 20:02Atlanta, at least, was. You know, it wasn't embarrassing
- 20:05for him, I guess, what he was doing.
- 20:07But yeah, he got through there. But I'm telling you, Charlie,
- 20:09like we talked about a couple weeks ago, man, I've watched
- 20:11this stuff. I've watched Daryl do it and
- 20:12Harry do it. In the 90s, we started doing
- 20:16this three wide pack races so much when all that stuff started
- 20:18with us. And I noticed Daryl and Harry
- 20:21would do that. And I'm telling you, if you did
- 20:23it 10 times, it only worked out one time.
- 20:25It just, it just seemed like it, it just seemed like it never
- 20:28worked out for the guys, right. And but it is comfortable being
- 20:32back there in the back, not in the middle of that, right?
- 20:36Because I've been, I've been on both ends of that stuff.
- 20:38And it's a lot easier and it's a lot less mental taxing to just
- 20:42be in the back of the draft following everybody around.
- 20:44You know what, you're not doing anything.
- 20:45You just got to ride around. But that's a that's a tough deal
- 20:48as a race car driver to do that. That's a very, very tough deal
- 20:51because you want to, you want to be dicing and fighting and
- 20:53trying to get up front doing all that stuff.
- 20:55So, you know, that's a different mindset to be able to do that.
- 20:58But it worked for dinner yesterday.
- 21:01We got some good comments on this GZ crazy one says twice
- 21:05Hamlins line fell apart lol but still finished top ten.
- 21:09We got the DG1 says 4 wide, 6 deep is nuts.
- 21:13And then Sharon says hanging out at the back of a restrictor
- 21:18plate race is nothing new. Kind of speaking to what you
- 21:20said, Rick. Hey, because we're on the topic
- 21:23of Denny, it seems like Denny is always in the middle of
- 21:26everything in NASCAR, which I appreciate.
- 21:28I think we all do as especially now as we're NASCAR content
- 21:33creators, but you gave your opinion the other day when the
- 21:37the lawsuit news came out. So we'll give you another
- 21:40opportunity. And, and plus you've had four or
- 21:42five days to kind of listen to everybody's take and, and hear
- 21:45from the lawyers. And Denny talked the other day
- 21:48and Michael Jordan even talked a little bit.
- 21:50So give us your thoughts on this lawsuit 2311 Racing Front Row
- 21:55Motorsports suing NASCAR for for antitrust on antitrust grounds.
- 22:01Yeah, I think there, there's two different sides here.
- 22:05All of a sudden, Charlie and I think Larry McReynolds probably
- 22:09is the strongest with that side and his side.
- 22:11If we, we've all heard, if you haven't heard it, Larry stated
- 22:14on XM. You know, here we got Rick
- 22:17Hendrick, we got Rodger Piski, you know, smart, smart, smart
- 22:22businessman outside of the world of racing, Richard Childress,
- 22:25Joe Gibbs, you know, Jack Rouse, everybody agreed to do this.
- 22:28We've got a team that came in here.
- 22:30It's been here four years and they're telling us that we've
- 22:34done it wrong for the last 70 years or whatever.
- 22:37OK. And Larry was like very, very
- 22:39adamant that he does. He does not like it.
- 22:42How dare A-Team that's only four years old come in our sport and
- 22:46tell us we're doing it all wrong.
- 22:47We've got the mainstays here, right?
- 22:50That that say this is OK, that this new charter deal is OK.
- 22:53We can live with. We're going to keep racing and
- 22:55everybody's going to be happy. And then of course, you got the
- 22:59other side saying, well, all these guys were forces charters,
- 23:03not what all these owners wanted. the IT was forced on
- 23:07them. And, you know, they got to go
- 23:09along with it because if they don't sign it, then maybe their
- 23:14team goes there's not existed any longer.
- 23:17OK, there's your two sides, Charlie.
- 23:19That's the two sides of this thing.
- 23:23And again, it's like anything that happens, man, it comes down
- 23:26somewhere in the middle. You know, I don't, I don't, I
- 23:28don't go along with 100% of what Larry said, although I
- 23:32understand what Larry said. I totally understand that.
- 23:35But and then if you go in depth a little bit more about it, it's
- 23:38like, well, you know what, maybe we need to be modernized more.
- 23:43Maybe we're not, We're not like the other major professional
- 23:46sports, right? You know, we need to be more in
- 23:48line with those guys. I heard, I heard their lawyer
- 23:51speaking the other day and he's talking about get this thing
- 23:54straightened out and it's going to be for the betterment of the
- 23:56sport down the road. He said all the antitrust suits
- 23:58that this lawyer has been involved in, he's been involved
- 24:01in when they won, the sport just became better.
- 24:03It became a lot better sport. I understand.
- 24:07I understand on the surface what he's saying.
- 24:09The problem with that is Charlie, we're not like any
- 24:12other sport. Our business model is not an NFL
- 24:16franchise league type thing. It's not the MLB deal.
- 24:20We don't you know, it's not NBA. We don't have revenue sharing.
- 24:24All right, these the all these teams operate under that banner
- 24:29as part of that system in NASCAR.
- 24:32We don't do that. We are we are independent
- 24:35contractors, right? And as such, that sets up a
- 24:39whole completely different business model.
- 24:41And so I think just for that lawyer just to put a general
- 24:45blanket over. So yeah, you know, we're
- 24:47professional sport and and this is going to help it and we're
- 24:50not like, you know, we'd be in line with everybody.
- 24:52That's not true. How many professional sports,
- 24:54Charlie, in the last five years, 678 years that you know, have
- 24:59the, the the athletes salaries come down right.
- 25:03None. That's what Kyle Larson said.
- 25:06NASCAR drivers salaries have come down the last few years,
- 25:10right? And it's because of the the
- 25:12financial deal, the economics, what it costs to rate to run a
- 25:14race team, right. And so that that argument goes
- 25:18over back to the other side. Well, yeah, look at there.
- 25:20That's wrong. Something's wrong with the
- 25:21bottle. When when the when the when the
- 25:23athlete salaries come down. So we got to fix that.
- 25:25Well, it's also about preserving the race team, right?
- 25:28I mean, the race team lives off sponsorship money and now TV
- 25:32money. So, you know, I don't know that
- 25:34the team's all said that the publicly anyhow.
- 25:38And the ones I talked to Atlanta, they were, how can I, I
- 25:44told you this before. They, they, they, they, they
- 25:47were all happy that it was over with everyone until fault.
- 25:51No, we didn't get everything we wanted, but we got enough to
- 25:53make this work that SCAR didn't get.
- 25:56They had to give up stuff they didn't want to give up, but you
- 25:59know, they felt like they could make it work.
- 26:01There's a more out there is a more that pie.
- 26:03We get this anti law, this, this antitrust lawsuit is going to
- 26:07point that out. And that's what it comes down
- 26:08to. You know, how much more of that
- 26:10pie, right, can can NASCAR give to the teams?
- 26:14And then they're talking about other stuff and I don't even
- 26:16know the particulars. We hear we hear things about the
- 26:19particulars what they are, But hell, I don't know that I do
- 26:22know this. It's just a shame it had to
- 26:24happen. You know, we're we're in the
- 26:26we're in the championship mode, man.
- 26:28We're getting we're doing all this, but now we've got to deal
- 26:30with this out of trust, out of trust lawsuit stuff.
- 26:33And it's a shame. But you know what other side of
- 26:35it, Charlie? Like a wheelchair, like old Bill
- 26:38France used to say, man, yeah, it's bad publicity, but it's
- 26:41publicity, you know what I mean? So hey, hey.
- 26:45I'm not even going to say, I hate to say it.
- 26:47I hope this thing lasts the entire offseason and we.
- 26:49Talked Well, I'm sure it will. I'm sure it will.
- 26:52So I think there's there's an interesting side of this though
- 26:56from the other owners that didn't go along with with 2311
- 27:01and front row. And I'm basing this on on some
- 27:04interviews I saw recently and you can go back to the press
- 27:07conference from Rick Hendrick when they announced Kyle Larson
- 27:10doing the double when he was asked about signing that
- 27:12agreement. I'm paraphrasing, but he said
- 27:14something like, I was just tired, like right, Like I'm
- 27:17tired of fighting it. I don't know if you saw the
- 27:19interview, I believe it was Bob Pockras the other day.
- 27:22He put it on X with Richard Childress.
- 27:25I mean, look, it sure sounds like all of these owners to me,
- 27:28from what I've seen, it sounds like all of these owners, they
- 27:32might not say it, but they're happy that this lawsuit is going
- 27:36through. And there's been some anonymous
- 27:38quotes. Jordan Bianchi from the Athletic
- 27:41has said, look, I'm glad it's happening.
- 27:43I'm talking about other owners have told him I didn't have the
- 27:45balls to do this right. I didn't have the balls to to
- 27:50file this lawsuit. And Richard Childress in that
- 27:53interview, you can you can go back.
- 27:54I don't have the exact timeline. So, so I apologize, but he said
- 27:59something like they got that, you know, DocuSign, you get the
- 28:03DocuSign. I, I do a little rental property
- 28:05stuff. So you get the DocuSign, you got
- 28:07to electronically sign it. I think he said they got it at
- 28:09like 6:47 PM or 547, whatever it was and they had to sign by
- 28:14midnight. So whatever the number was, they
- 28:17got 5-6 hours for 100 page document.
- 28:20That doesn't seem super fair to me.
- 28:22And again, I I'm coming at this from a neutral, from a neutral
- 28:28spot, it sure seems like all of the owners are pissed at the
- 28:32current model. And even if they don't say it
- 28:34publicly, they're happy this lawsuit is being filed.
- 28:38Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're exactly right.
- 28:41And I, you know, again, it goes back what I just said.
- 28:43The guys all Toby, they're just happy that it's over with.
- 28:46They can go and make it work. It's good enough for them to
- 28:48make it work. Now you dive deeper into it by
- 28:52him by by 2311 in front row doing this, then that gives
- 28:57these guys like, oh, yeah, OK, OK, yeah, maybe maybe we'll get
- 29:01a little more out of this. Maybe we'll get a little more
- 29:03out of this. You know, here it is, man.
- 29:06What they got, they were still able to operate.
- 29:09They were still they or they felt like they were going to be
- 29:11able to operate and still go, right?
- 29:13And they've been warded out two years.
- 29:15They've been fighting this thing for two, two years, Charlie,
- 29:17remember that. And and they kept waiting on the
- 29:20chart or the the TV package. Everybody said when ATV package
- 29:23hit, then we would get serious about this and make it happen,
- 29:26right? So the TV package hit and they
- 29:28got serious negotiations and you know, NASCAR didn't move enough
- 29:33for for 2311 front row. They just didn't move enough in
- 29:36the negotiations. So they didn't they just stalled
- 29:38it and now they're suing them. The other drivers, I mean the
- 29:42other team owners, yeah. I mean, you're probably right
- 29:44there. You know, they can get more out
- 29:46of it. They're going to they're going
- 29:47to get more out of if they can. So again, I just think I just
- 29:52think it's the timing of the distraction man had been needed
- 29:56for the big winter time which championships over that.
- 29:58That's really, really the time of it, because whatever happens
- 30:02is going to happen in border law and all this stuff, you know,
- 30:04whatever goes on is going to happen.
- 30:06You know, the 2311 front, where they're still going to be here.
- 30:09Whatever goes on, whoever gives what, you know, we get to watch
- 30:12it in court. But I just wish it would have
- 30:14waited till they dropped the checkered flag after Phoenix or
- 30:17after the award ceremony, anyhow.
- 30:19So yeah, it's interesting. I saw somebody, I think it was
- 30:24on X or maybe it was on YouTube in a comment here, I can't
- 30:26remember exactly, but they basically said this is NASCAR's
- 30:29Curt Flood moment. And if people don't know Curt
- 30:31Flood, Saint Louis Cardinal back in the day and he he essentially
- 30:35lost his career. Great player.
- 30:36You could make the case he should be in the Hall of Fame,
- 30:39but he's the one that challenged free agency in baseball and he
- 30:43suffered, but everybody after him benefited.
- 30:47Now, I don't think that Denny Hamlin and 2311 and Michael
- 30:51Jordan, I don't think they're going to suffer like Curt Flood
- 30:54did, right? I think they're going to be able
- 30:55to race. They're going to try to get this
- 30:57injunction here. But I do think this is NASCAR's
- 31:01Curt Flood moment. And in business, I'm always
- 31:04about about fairness. Now, if you're telling me it's a
- 31:07tie, just me personally, I probably will, I'll probably err
- 31:11on the side of, of labour. And I know it's when you say
- 31:14labour, it's the kind of it's, it's millionaires versus
- 31:16billionaires, right. So it's to the average person,
- 31:20you know, the drivers are making millions, the teams are in
- 31:23theory worth millions. You know, NASCAR, it's, it's a
- 31:25billion dollar industry. But I don't know.
- 31:28I, I think just from what I've read and seen, I, I think NASCAR
- 31:33is going to have to budget a bit eventually.
- 31:35I don't know how much, but I feel like they're going to
- 31:37probably lose. I don't know if it goes to
- 31:39court, but I feel like they're going to have to give up a
- 31:41little bit. Yeah, no doubt they're going to
- 31:44have to. I mean, there's there's, you
- 31:46know, and it all comes down to court.
- 31:49It comes down to judge, you know, again, the only, the only
- 31:52thing is the only flawed. They said I listened to that
- 31:54lawyer the other day, his hope, his whole interview and he's got
- 31:58a flaw at his flaw again goes back to our models, not like any
- 32:01other professor sport model. So you know, he's he's basing a
- 32:04lot of what he's thinking and doing off of that and I get
- 32:07that. So I don't know I have no
- 32:09frigging idea. I mean that's like 25 layers
- 32:12above my expertise, Charlie. So I have no idea what's going
- 32:18to what the end result's going to be.
- 32:19But you know, I just don't want it bad to distract from what
- 32:23we're doing. I don't want, I can remember bad
- 32:26when our sport benefited. I mean, we took a big hit
- 32:29benefiting attendance and popularity in the 90s when MLB
- 32:33went on strike. And I'm of the opinion, Charlie,
- 32:36that there are still to this day, ramifications from that
- 32:40strike that still still harms an MLB.
- 32:44I mean, we gained we gained fans and followers in our sport.
- 32:49When that happened, baseball people got fed up and got mad,
- 32:52turned it off and started watching NASCAR, right?
- 32:55I mean, I, I can I relive that. I know about that.
- 32:58It's still vivid in my memory. That's what I think of when I
- 33:00think about what we're getting ready to go through with this
- 33:03deal. All right, We don't you know,
- 33:05but it's not like a complete strike and shut down, right, But
- 33:08it still has a the negative consultations and and and and
- 33:11you you don't want that, but you know, it's on now, baby, it's
- 33:15on. So something it gives us fodder.
- 33:17It's going to give us fodder for a long time to talk about.
- 33:19I will say, though, he was questioned hard about the time
- 33:22frame and he says one to two years.
- 33:24You don't want to get like the UFC or UCF, whatever that was is
- 33:2710 years. You know, that deal was going on
- 33:29with that rest of the deal, 10 years, finally got it settled.
- 33:32Then the judge threw it out. He didn't like to settle, but
- 33:34right, yeah, 10 years. But I did like what the lawyer
- 33:38said. You know, one to two years, one
- 33:40to two years, it's going to be over with all.
- 33:43Right, Get your questions in, get your comments in.
- 33:46I put a bunch of the, the questions and comments up
- 33:49because they're all pertaining to the to the lawsuit.
- 33:51And I want to give my guy Trunk Monkey the credit because he's
- 33:55the one that initially asked the question about the lawsuit.
- 33:58So I'll put it back up. Trunk Monkey, you get the credit
- 34:01there. It's all good.
- 34:02We'll go for another 25 minutes or so.
- 34:04We'll go close to an hour here. So get your questions in and
- 34:09then Rick, you want to, you want to in the meantime, I mean, we
- 34:13can go to story time. We can go to What's pissing Rick
- 34:15Mastoff on this Monday. Yeah, we can do that.
- 34:19Let's go. And what's pissing me off right
- 34:22now, we're talking about the the flooding.
- 34:25We're talking about Western North Carolina, Tennessee,
- 34:27Virginia, Georgia, Florida, all the states hit.
- 34:30And you know, we did a little deal last Monday about it.
- 34:33And Biffle would the hurricane hit Thursday and Friday, right?
- 34:36Biffle Greg gets in his helicopters.
- 34:38Little Robinson. He's up there by Saturday or
- 34:40Sunday running. And then he comes back and he
- 34:43spent all week, you know, I mean, before it's over, I guess
- 34:46he'll get a Nobel Peace Prize out or Pulitzer, if I get a
- 34:49Pulitzer. He.
- 34:49Should or the the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
- 34:53I think Marty Smith from ESPN said they should give Greg
- 34:56Biffle the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which I agree with.
- 34:59And it, it's not so much what he is running.
- 35:01Well, maybe it is someone's just running, but what he's put
- 35:04together, right? I mean, he, I mean, how many
- 35:07friggin helicopters have come up there doing their deal because
- 35:11of right. And I was fussing Monday about
- 35:14where's our military? All we got to do we get we fit
- 35:16the helicopter, military helicopter, military helicopters
- 35:19on the dropping supplies, evacuate people, getting them
- 35:22out. Here we are what, a week and two
- 35:25or three days later and we still, we've still got people
- 35:28hung up, man. We still get people hung up.
- 35:30Now what happened, Charlie? All these videos start coming
- 35:35out of the mountains, all the people up there, the video start
- 35:38coming out. And I mean, I watched this thing
- 35:40intently all week long on social media.
- 35:43And but by the middle of the end of the week, what was going on?
- 35:47You had you had the two sides. All of a sudden it became
- 35:51political, right? We had the one side saying we've
- 35:55got all the resources and everything's up there.
- 35:58The government's done everything.
- 35:59We've got people everywhere doing everything.
- 36:01You know, everything is perfect. Then we've got the other side
- 36:05saying, no, that's a lie. They're not here.
- 36:09The ones that are here are causing us problems.
- 36:11And you know, you've heard the stories, you've heard all that,
- 36:14you know, and with all this bicker that argued going on, we
- 36:18still got frigging people that haven't been looked after and
- 36:23haven't been rescued. And then, then you go down these
- 36:26rabbit holes and you get, you talk about all the horrible
- 36:30things that people are seeing. And you know, I, I tend to try
- 36:35to figure it out when I watch this stuff or I try to figure it
- 36:39out because there's bullshit on both sides.
- 36:42I've, I've already figured that out.
- 36:44I've seen bullshit on both sides of this thing, right.
- 36:47But I talk to people, I try to talk to people down there,
- 36:51right? And that that I know that.
- 36:54And then a couple of three of the people I watch on doing
- 36:57their videos and doing this stuff.
- 36:58I know these people are who they are, the cassette connections
- 37:01they have and all this. And I'm like, you know, these
- 37:03are the people I trust, right? And it's a very dire situation,
- 37:07a very dire situation. But because I guess it's
- 37:10election season, right? It's become a fragrant political
- 37:13thing. And the thing of it is,
- 37:16Appalachian mountain people, man, I mean, you hear about
- 37:20them, you talk about them, but Appalachian, if people want, you
- 37:23know, they talk about all the dead bodies everywhere, right?
- 37:26Well, you got this. People on the other side.
- 37:28That ain't true. That ain't true because I ain't
- 37:29seen any videos of dead bodies. Well, folks, it is true.
- 37:33They're dead bodies, right? But what you won't see is you
- 37:36won't see a true Appalachian mountain person filming dead
- 37:40bodies and putting it out there for people to see.
- 37:42You won't see a truth about in that mountain person,
- 37:44Appalachian person sitting there videoing their despair, right?
- 37:49And going on and on about it. They don't want that.
- 37:51They don't want a video. They don't want a video cabin
- 37:53around them, right? In fact, if you come up start
- 37:56video and stuff, you probably going to smack or slap, right?
- 37:59It's, it's a mindset that that people don't understand you and
- 38:04I know these folks have a little, have a little bit of
- 38:06that myself. I'm at the spine, you know, I'm
- 38:09down off the spine of the Appalachians.
- 38:11As it goes up. I'll tell you what I think about
- 38:12these Appalachian people, Charlie.
- 38:14I think back in the 1600s or whatever it was, there's a man,
- 38:19this biggest, strongest Brutus man you ever seen and with an
- 38:24intellect intellectually through the roof, smart.
- 38:28And he met, he met a lady of the same type, physically strong,
- 38:35mentally tougher than nails, and smart as hell, right?
- 38:39I think they had about 10 boys or children in Pennsylvania.
- 38:46And the old man decided someday he's going to get on top of that
- 38:48mountain and go South. And he took off on top of that
- 38:51mountain in Pennsylvania, in the Appalachians, and he with old
- 38:55horse and buggy and he went all the way down those Appalachian
- 38:59battens on the spine. And every so often he'd drop off
- 39:03a child, right? And he got to the end of the
- 39:06mountains down there, wherever it is down below Georgia.
- 39:09He got to the end of that mountain.
- 39:10And when he got down there, that was the end of it.
- 39:12And those ten children for the next 300 years spawned some of
- 39:16the toughest, smartest people that inhabit this earth, right?
- 39:23That's I think that must have been what happened.
- 39:26You get to know these folks. You if you get to know these
- 39:28folks, you understand what I'm saying.
- 39:30Now they might, someone might be toothless.
- 39:32They might have beers and talk real funny.
- 39:34But don't don't let that fool you.
- 39:36Don't don't let that fool you. These guys.
- 39:38So they were toughness and their resilience helps these people
- 39:41down there, you know, because they're all pitched in and doing
- 39:44their thing. And this is a long term deal for
- 39:46these people. I just, you know, what's got me
- 39:48pissed off is political ramification that, that that
- 39:51that set in on this thing. It just, it just, you know, it's
- 39:53screwing things up. Yeah, and you mentioned the
- 39:56politics. I don't even think now, now
- 39:59clearly, because it's an election year, a presidential
- 40:01election year, it's going to get even more intense.
- 40:04But I I feel like it's it's every year now.
- 40:07I mean, look at so Maui. Maui was last year, right?
- 40:10Look at Puerto Rico during the Trump administration, right?
- 40:14I mean, the other side is always going to criticize the federal
- 40:17response if if they're not in in power.
- 40:20And I'll say this. So I'm not there and I'm not.
- 40:23I'm not talking to people on the ground, but I've obviously I've
- 40:25seen all Biffle stuff and I think we're we're trying to get
- 40:28Biffle on again this week for a Kenny conversation.
- 40:31I think that's going to be Wednesday.
- 40:34But one thing I do know that and and I get it, it's politics.
- 40:39But if you go back to Maui, the whole deal was these, these
- 40:42folks only got 600 bucks. And now you've probably seen the
- 40:45reports, these folks only get 750 bucks.
- 40:48And this is where you can actually go right to the FEMA
- 40:51website. And, and that is the immediate
- 40:54money that's given out for like literal necessity for a couple
- 40:58days for food, for a hotel, for baby formula and all that.
- 41:03And I was kind of looking into this a little bit.
- 41:05The reason for that, and this is kind of like with any government
- 41:09program, if, if a government is giving out money, there is so
- 41:14much fraud that goes on. Like look at all these people in
- 41:17North Carolina. All these people need help.
- 41:20But there are so many bad folks who are going to try to take
- 41:24advantage of the federal program.
- 41:26And it sucks. But a lot of the resources have
- 41:29to go to making sure the right people get the money.
- 41:32And I know this because during COVID, I've said a couple times,
- 41:36I got a small rental property business, they had this eviction
- 41:39moratorium where basically they said for about hell, about 6-9
- 41:43months, essentially, people didn't have to pay their rent,
- 41:46right? Which was crazy.
- 41:48Different counties in Saint Louis had different rules.
- 41:51But then they had this assistance program where it was
- 41:55so much money that people again stopped paying their rent
- 41:59because they knew they would get this assistance.
- 42:01And so I'm having to do all this paperwork and I'm calling the
- 42:05the people and talking to them. And this woman said to me,
- 42:08because it was taking a while and she goes, she goes, you
- 42:12would have no idea how much fraud goes on when money is
- 42:17given out. She goes, we're taking 90% of
- 42:20our time to go through the fact that 90% of these applications
- 42:25are fraudulent. They're coming from other
- 42:27continents and making fake leases and fake houses and fake
- 42:33residences to try to get this rental assistance.
- 42:35So it's just part of this whole deal.
- 42:37It sucks, but like even when you have these people struggling in
- 42:40North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, they're still going to
- 42:43be just evil. It's like those those people
- 42:46that steal the, the give a penny, take a penny at a right,
- 42:50or they steal the church money that's sitting out there for the
- 42:53kids baseball team. Like there's, there's people
- 42:55that are just, they're just the worst people on earth.
- 42:57Yeah, and Charlie, I know what you're saying, but it's just
- 43:02idiotic what they did. I mean, the vice president lands
- 43:05on the ground, we're going to give you $750 each, right?
- 43:08The next day or that day or the day after the the what's his
- 43:11name? Macorius?
- 43:12What is his name? He he gets on their own.
- 43:15Mayorkas. Mayorkas says.
- 43:19We spent all our money. We don't have money.
- 43:21We've got, we don't have any money for any more hurricanes.
- 43:24And at the same time period you're you're, you're, you're
- 43:27it's, they're announcing how much money is going to Ukraine,
- 43:29right? So that it sets up this
- 43:31narrative, right? That that creates all this
- 43:34stuff. And I'm like, why don't y'all
- 43:36just keep your damn mouth shut, right?
- 43:38Don't tell us we don't have any more money.
- 43:40Don't tell us how much more we're going to get.
- 43:42And they just, and in the middle of all that they announce
- 43:44however many million it was to get to Lebanese right in the
- 43:47middle of all this, I'm like, just stop this stuff.
- 43:49Just just stop. I do know this man.
- 43:52When I was flooded out in 85, the Red Cross came in.
- 43:55They gave us two or three buckets and a couple mops,
- 43:58right? And we got $100.00 gift card at
- 44:00the grocery store, $100.00 gift card at a clothing store.
- 44:03That's all we got. We were wiped plumbing out.
- 44:05Then the government gave me a 4% loan to build my house back, but
- 44:10I had to buy, I had to buy a national flood insurance to get
- 44:13the loan, right. But you couldn't get the flood,
- 44:17flood insurance unless you've been flooded.
- 44:19I tried that summer to get flood insurance for my place just for,
- 44:23for some reason, I'd say I'm going to get flood insurance for
- 44:25you. Lloyd's of London was the only
- 44:27place I could get a policy written.
- 44:29And it was as much as my damn house, right.
- 44:31So, you know, when that was over, you know, and again, we
- 44:35talked about this last week, you know, a month later they had a
- 44:39hurricane or earthquake in Mexico.
- 44:41We gave him $35 million the, the Mexico people, right?
- 44:44Not a, not a loan, just give him 35 million.
- 44:47And we don't get, you know, we get a couple $100 voucher and a
- 44:504% loan. And this stuff evidently hasn't
- 44:54changed much over the years, right?
- 44:56So, you know, I get both sides of this.
- 44:58I, I understand, but man, oh man, oh man, all I know is thank
- 45:04God for people like Biffle starting this thing and
- 45:06everybody, all the volunteers going in.
- 45:08I mean, it's, it's really, you know, the volunteers is what
- 45:10saved all these people. I mean, that's, that's, that's
- 45:13the bottom line, the, the average everyday person and the
- 45:16people sending stuff up there like Elon Musk in the * lake
- 45:19communications and everything that goes on.
- 45:21You know, the teams pesky give a million.
- 45:23Who was the first team give a million 20232311 They gave a
- 45:27million, right? Just all these people donating
- 45:29all this stuff. That's not the government,
- 45:31that's that's you know, that's us, Charlie, it's me and you,
- 45:34that's us doing our thing and making it work.
- 45:36So you know, it's bottom line is bad people still suffering up
- 45:41there. We got to keep them in our
- 45:42thoughts. We all and it's going to go on a
- 45:43long time. So you know, in the racing
- 45:46community has been one of the best.
- 45:48I mean everything, everybody in the race community man has
- 45:50jumped on this sleeve. So I I just think it's so cool
- 45:53that part so cool. Can't take away from that.
- 45:56Yeah, no, I feel like, and that's the the shame of it too,
- 45:59is. And hell, there's another
- 46:00hurricane coming right to Florida.
- 46:02I was watching the news last night.
- 46:05The shame of it too is, you know, I've heard people say kind
- 46:07of like we've forgotten about Maui.
- 46:09And unfortunately that that's what happens is we have so many
- 46:13of these that look, right now, everybody's focused as they
- 46:17should on North Carolina. And then next year,
- 46:20unfortunately, there's going to be another natural disaster
- 46:23somewhere else. And the news cycle kind of moves
- 46:26on to the next one. Yeah, Yeah, it does.
- 46:29I mean, we, you know, Katrina was terrible, right?
- 46:32Right. He was the president then Bush,
- 46:35he was the president. He caught him for non responsive
- 46:38Katrina. So, you know, to me it's like,
- 46:40and then we talked about this other day, why don't we have a
- 46:42damn quick response team, right? I mean, just have a quick
- 46:46response team across America. You got 50 frigging helicopters,
- 46:50right? Military helicopters staffed
- 46:51with people and supplies. And you could, you don't even
- 46:54have to have a Major General to put this program in place.
- 46:57When a natural disaster happens, fire police fit the helicopters
- 47:00and head out. Right This head out.
- 47:02I mean, yeah, you set up for other kinds of problems and
- 47:05commute, all kinds of stuff. I get all that.
- 47:07But you're trying to save frigging lives, man.
- 47:11You know, quick response, deal. Then when that's done, then let
- 47:13FEMA come in and do their thing. Right.
- 47:16And and or hopefully do their thing like that.
- 47:18I don't know. I don't know.
- 47:20I digress. I digress.
- 47:22You know, I, I think first of all, as you mentioned, NASCAR
- 47:25has done such a great job, drivers, teams, everybody.
- 47:28And then you have this race coming up in North Carolina at
- 47:31the Rowville. I, I bet you NASCAR is going to
- 47:34go all out raising more money. I mean, especially this week
- 47:38with a race in Charlotte. Yeah, oh, they will, it'll
- 47:42it'll, it'll be rolled out man on the red carpet.
- 47:43They'll you know, they'll do all kinds.
- 47:45It'll it'll be it'll be a good deal to watch.
- 47:47It'll be a good deal to watch TV.
- 47:48It'll be good it'll be good TV pre race stuff, you know what I
- 47:52mean? What they're doing, showing what
- 47:53they're doing and going to do and the and the end result is
- 47:56it's going to be good stuff. It's going to be good stuff for
- 47:58people that have suffered. And that's just the racers have
- 48:01always been that way, man. You know, my family, family of
- 48:04racers, we've always been like that.
- 48:06And whenever especially somebody within our sport, it was in
- 48:09need, you know, racers would would kind of rally around and
- 48:12do. And then we've seen it so many
- 48:14times that that's the charity, you know, the charitable
- 48:17organizations that spawned from NASCAR and still still part of
- 48:22NASCAR, man. You know, I mean, it's just, I
- 48:26mean, heck, the Rick Mass Foundation, we, we ended up
- 48:28doing our golf deal for 10 years.
- 48:30That's over $3,000,000 worth of services that that the clinic
- 48:34was able to provide it. We're going to do it.
- 48:36We're going to do a special in the Rick Mass golf tournament
- 48:38one week. OK.
- 48:39And talk about, I mean, because $3,000,000 a lot of money in
- 48:42this little area I live, dude. And but it's cost of NASCAR and
- 48:46the people that were involved doing all that.
- 48:48And that's, you know, those numbers you cannot, I don't
- 48:52know, I don't know if there's another organization or another
- 48:55group that cost rallies the way NASCAR does and spawns so many
- 49:01get so much giving, right? That, that, that that happens
- 49:04for this, for me. Look at Bevel.
- 49:05Hell, he's not been a driver for a few years, right?
- 49:08But all of a sudden he's right in the middle of it doing it.
- 49:10And then then that spawned all these other people bringing in
- 49:13helicopters and that spawned everybody else coming in.
- 49:15So, you know, anytime NASCAR is involved and there's a need,
- 49:20they step up. And I, I will say this, I'll put
- 49:23NASCAR's charity thing. I put them at, I put them on
- 49:27kill with anybody, right? With, with what they tried to
- 49:31do, all right, and what they try to help out.
- 49:34I put them on kill with anybody. Probably both above most, you
- 49:37know, I've just washed it and lived it.
- 49:38I'm sure they're, they're, they're good ones all across the
- 49:40country. I mean, I mean, the, the, the,
- 49:43the golly, the Victor Junction count.
- 49:45I mean, just, it's just endless. It's just endless.
- 49:49And everybody and everybody gives.
- 49:50So cool to be part of this man So cool.
- 49:53Yes, it is. And folks, get your get your
- 49:55questions and comments in. We'll go another 10 minutes or
- 49:58so. We're we're we're about 50
- 50:00minutes right now. How about story time, Rick, Mass
- 50:03story time. Anything on your mind?
- 50:05We had Daga. We have the the roval coming up.
- 50:08I mean, it could be about baseball.
- 50:10I know you're mad because the Braves aren't in it.
- 50:13I'm a I'm a guardians fan now. I got to tell everybody my one
- 50:16of my best friends is the assistant hitting coach.
- 50:18His name is Dan Puente of the Cleveland Guardians.
- 50:21So I'm a Guardians fan. Plus where I'm from, Toledo, OH,
- 50:25it's kind of like 2/3 Detroit Tigers fans and 1/3 Cleveland
- 50:30Indians now Guardians fan. So like they're playing each
- 50:33other. So people where I'm from are
- 50:34very excited about that series. So I don't know.
- 50:36What do you got? Anything?
- 50:38Yeah, you know, I'm sitting here watching.
- 50:40The Redskins are playing very well right now.
- 50:45Jayden Daniels. J Daniels And I'm like, you
- 50:48know, when, when, when when the Redskins lost their name, they
- 50:51went the Commanders the dumbest damn.
- 50:53Who in the hell? Why would you name your team the
- 50:56Commanders? Man, they had so many good names
- 50:58to choose from and they picked Commanders.
- 51:01Well, nobody really cared, Charlie.
- 51:03And I tell you why, because they hadn't been relevant for 20
- 51:06years, right? And nobody give a crap.
- 51:08Now all of a sudden the Commanders slash Redskins or
- 51:12man, we got something going on. They're 4:00 and 1:00 and you're
- 51:15like, it's Washington. No, it's it's the Commanders.
- 51:19No, it's not. It's the friggin Redskins, man.
- 51:22We did change the name. They need to change the name.
- 51:24The Redskins. It, it it's the Redskins.
- 51:27Better stop. Commanders and Guardians.
- 51:29Yeah, that kind of sort of baby. But, but no.
- 51:34But Commanders, for God's sakes. Yeah, I agree on both of those.
- 51:41Like, remember, you'd watch a movie where they can't use.
- 51:45I always think of those Keanu Reeves movies where he would
- 51:48play football. There's one called like the
- 51:50replacements. And so they couldn't use the NFL
- 51:53team's real names. So they always had really kind
- 51:57of stupid generic names. And I feel like all these teams,
- 52:00they've changed to these dumb generic names like commanders,
- 52:05guardians. And by the way, everybody in
- 52:07Cleveland wanted them to be called the Cleveland Spiders
- 52:10because apparently that was the name of it back in the 1880s or
- 52:13whatever. Cleveland's got these, these two
- 52:16guardians that are on a bridge as you get into the city and see
- 52:20the stadium. But still, they all feel like,
- 52:24so now that we don't have an NFL team in Saint Louis here, the
- 52:26Rams left, so we have an XFL team.
- 52:28It's called the Saint Louis Battle Hawks.
- 52:30But all the teams in this XFL league, whatever the hell it's
- 52:33called now, they all have those dumb names like the Sentinels
- 52:37and the Commander. I mean, they, they all sound
- 52:40like these real generic names. It it sounds like a replacement
- 52:43name, which is what it is. Yeah, I, I guess you could
- 52:47equate it to what Mark Martin said last week, right?
- 52:50Put the damn numbers back in the middle of the door.
- 52:52These ain't race cars. These don't look like race cars,
- 52:54right? It's it all comes down that same
- 52:58deal, man. But, you know, I mean, I grew up
- 53:01on the Redskins, a little kid watching the Redskins, the hogs
- 53:05man, you know, Josiah Theisman and all those cats and
- 53:11commanders. We're the commanders.
- 53:14We're not the commanders. We're the Redskins, or at least
- 53:17we're we're something different. And I, you know, I mean, but if
- 53:21it made it better for the politically correct people than
- 53:23fine, That's the way it is or that's good.
- 53:25It's good for them. But, you know, not really
- 53:28fussing about losing the Redskins name.
- 53:30I'm just fussing about the name we've got right.
- 53:33And somebody told me, Ricky, Ricky told me the other day that
- 53:36the list of names that they had to choose from, and I'm like,
- 53:39wow, boom, man. They had two or three real good
- 53:41ones. And how about look for that year
- 53:46or whatever they called him, the Washington Football Team.
- 53:48I like that. I like that better than command.
- 53:51Oh, yeah, it's same with this. That hockey team left what?
- 53:55Phoenix, AZ, the Arizona Coyotes?
- 53:58And I don't know, don't quote me on this.
- 54:00I think they're being called the Utah hockey club or the Utah
- 54:04hockey team because they moved to Salt Lake City.
- 54:06Now, I don't know if that's going to be the name long term,
- 54:09but I think in the interim, I'm telling you like I liked
- 54:12Washington again, I liked Washington football team better
- 54:16than commanders. I'm not saying it was the
- 54:17greatest name ever, but I'm like, it's kind of neat to just
- 54:20kind of have it just the Washington football team.
- 54:23It's it's different at. Least yeah, it is.
- 54:27I don't know, Charlie. It's just it's the it's the
- 54:30world we live in these days. Band and we just.
- 54:34I don't know. I've got a story, but it's going
- 54:35to take too long. I'm probably better wait to the
- 54:37next one. It's about athletes.
- 54:40Probably take me 5 minutes to talk about.
- 54:42You can do it. We got.
- 54:43Well, you know what? My little girls came along
- 54:46playing, playing sports. And guys.
- 54:52Are y'all talking to NASCAR? Yes.
- 54:53I think that was a typo. OK.
- 54:55No, he was. He was actually complimenting
- 54:58us, I think. OK, All right.
- 54:59Well, that girl, my little girls come along playing sports,
- 55:02right? And we played travel ball.
- 55:05I mean, from 5th grade through senior year, we trade a bunch of
- 55:07played a bunch of travel ball and doing different things.
- 55:09Well, what happened? I had a little story and first
- 55:12thing, you know, these coaches around the different high
- 55:14schools and stuff, they started calling me and, and I would go
- 55:19talk to their teams and I would tell them a story.
- 55:24I would talk about what it meant to be an athlete, what it really
- 55:27truly meant to be an athlete. The, the I met Tiger Woods at
- 55:32Darlington. He was, he was a guest of, of
- 55:35Jeff Gordon's, right. And this is before Tiger Woods
- 55:39became Tiger Woods. He was just fresh out of
- 55:41Stanford. Everybody kind of knew at that
- 55:43point who he was, but he hadn't become the icon that he later
- 55:46became. And I was with you there one day
- 55:49and we were talking, we were talking about being prepared and
- 55:54how we did what we did as an athlete.
- 55:56And I asked, I was telling him what my routine was, right.
- 55:58My day was iron 10 minutes, iron 20 minutes.
- 56:00Basically every day that University of Virginia athletic
- 56:03department set up for me. That's that's what I operated
- 56:06on. And I was an athlete, Charlie.
- 56:07I really was, man. I probably run 30 laps, stayed
- 56:09to have a heart attack. But anyhow, Tiger talked about
- 56:13he would get up, you know, and don't quote me because I've done
- 56:16forgot it. I've told it so many times.
- 56:18But he'd he'd be out of bed hitting his first golf ball like
- 56:21at 8:00 in the morning, right? And he would hit to 11/11/30.
- 56:24Then he'd break an hour, hour and a half for lunch and he'd be
- 56:26back out there at 1:30 or two hitting the golf ball.
- 56:29And he hit all day long. And then at the end of the day,
- 56:31he had a deal where he would putt and he would putt when it
- 56:35was getting dark, dusk. And he had his for some reason
- 56:38he was talking about putting when it was starting to lose
- 56:41light would help him, right? And we were saying, yeah, how
- 56:45many times a week you do that? He said every day if I'm not
- 56:47working or traveling every day, right.
- 56:50And I remember, you know, one time at the racetrack, I had a
- 56:55little this years ago and he I don't even remember it.
- 56:58Little conversations about Jordan talking about that stuff.
- 57:03And he's talking about 5 O clock in the morning right by self in
- 57:08a cold basement gym somewhere with two or three chairs and a
- 57:13basketball. I don't remember what the hell
- 57:14he was talking about. Something about two chairs, 3
- 57:16chairs. And he was doing his routine
- 57:18right and doing all this stuff. Lawrence Taylor, you know, even
- 57:22though, even though you wouldn't have thought it had a
- 57:24conversation with him one time about it.
- 57:26Joe Klecko had a conversation with him with that.
- 57:28And all these great athletes that you see on TV and all the
- 57:33good things they do and how how special they are and great they
- 57:36are. They don't you don't see as a
- 57:39kid, you don't see 5:00 in the morning in a cold gym by
- 57:44yourself working or 8:00 in the morning at a golf course
- 57:48somewhere swinging right or or doing the weights offseason out
- 57:52of the limelight. But what you do see are the
- 57:54results of those when the when the TV cameras on right and
- 57:58doing the things and and, you know, it was just a deal that
- 58:01that it's and if we had a head, maybe 20 athletes or high school
- 58:06students sitting there listening to the story, I could see about
- 58:09three of them taking it in, about 17 of them not paying any
- 58:14attention to me. But, you know, just a cool
- 58:17story, man, just a cool story about athletes all.
- 58:21Right. I like this comment here from
- 58:23Joe Tompkins. Getting back to our previous
- 58:26topic, he says they were going to call them the Washington
- 58:28Rats, but people would have been confused between the football
- 58:31team and Congress. That's well.
- 58:34Joe Pumpkins, you are the man. How about this?
- 58:38You are the man, Joe. Now we can either end on this or
- 58:41if you can't think of them, we can.
- 58:42We can wait for next week. But I think this is a good
- 58:45question from Sharon here. How about a good story of a
- 58:48prank you pulled or had pulled on you from your racing friends?
- 58:54Anything come to mind? Yeah, my dad there was this Bush
- 59:01team, it was a Houston's and we were all buddies with Tommy
- 59:06Houston and their team, their team members and my team members
- 59:08were all bud good buddies still are today really.
- 59:11And they were you know Tommy it was always prolific winner did
- 59:14ran good. They were, they went through a
- 59:16section of not running good or a period of having a bunch of bad
- 59:19luck and all of a sudden they're upturned and all of a sudden
- 59:24they're running good. I mean, every week, you know,
- 59:26they were doing good and it, it came on us it every week
- 59:31something went wrong. You know, I never do, you know,
- 59:35it's just one of those deals, man.
- 59:36Everything went wrong. My dad, we were at Martinsville.
- 59:42My dad goes to our car, reaches inside and peels a banana open
- 59:48right inside of my car, gets carries, pulls back, takes that
- 59:54banana and goes down and sets it right in Tommy Houston's seat.
- 1:00:00And the whole big deal was what? What is Arcade doing?
- 1:00:04That's my dad's name. Arcade's doing.
- 1:00:06Dad's like I feed the damn monkey.
- 1:00:07The monkey's sitting here in Rick's car, and I just let him
- 1:00:11out of this car, out of Rick's car, over to Houston's car.
- 1:00:15He's over in Houston's car right now eating that damn banana.
- 1:00:18And then at some point the Houston boys seen the banana and
- 1:00:21it was a big deal, right? Big uproar or fun uproar and
- 1:00:25all, but it worked because my bad luck stopped then, man, I
- 1:00:28think Houston, he had, he tore his car up, I don't know, 30th
- 1:00:31or 40th lap or something. He got the big Rep.
- 1:00:33He was out of the race. So that was, that was a prank
- 1:00:36that my dad pulled on another race team.
- 1:00:38That was pretty friggin cool. I like it.
- 1:00:41Let's let's end on that, unless you got anything else anything
- 1:00:45else in. Your notebook.
- 1:00:47Not right today, baby, Not right today.
- 1:00:51All good, but no, this is good. We're right at an hour, hour O
- 1:00:54one. I think we hit on all the
- 1:00:56pertinent topics. I think people, obviously
- 1:00:58Talladega was great. I think the lawsuit talk, people
- 1:01:02are very interested in that. You mention obviously everything
- 1:01:04with Hurricane Helene and you've been talking to people there.
- 1:01:07So I think we covered it all Rick Mass.
- 1:01:09So I think we should shut her down.
- 1:01:11Thank you everybody for for watching for commenting.
- 1:01:14And once we're done, they can continue to watch the show and I
- 1:01:18will put it on podcast. So if you like to listen on
- 1:01:22podcast, I'll put on podcast right when we're done, once I
- 1:01:25edit it up. Tennessee, Smokey says.
- 1:01:26Thanks guys. Thank you all for for watching
- 1:01:30and commenting, Rick. We'll talk to you next week,
- 1:01:33man. See you later.
- 1:01:34Alright guys, take care. Bye bye.