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Transcript

I Won at Pevely! Plus How I Made It To NASCAR | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Happy Saturday morning, everybody.
• 0:05
  There's Dee. She looks good.
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  She's all fixed up. She got to go to a funeral
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  today, so I'm sorry about that. Long, long distant friend of
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  hers she's had for a long time. All right, hold on.
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  I got you. Got to see this.
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  What are you doing, King? You're a lion, OK?
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  We won last night, man. I didn't think I was going to
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  win. I mean, it's not that I didn't
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  think I was going to win, but I battled side by side with Chase
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  Holland. He come up from Mississippi,
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  Louisiana, but he's a hot rod. He's fast.
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  We ran side by side for five laps and used little technique
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  and let that baby roll the middle use the minimal brake.
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  My car was handled good early. I was using a little too much
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  brake entering and we had one caution, 1 caution.
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  It was a 20 lap. A main had one caution.
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  And what's that about? What's that a little about, huh?
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  She she gave the little what's going on now simmer down.
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  I'm telling the story, dammit. So I adjusted my driving a
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  little bit and was able to pull off the wind.
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  OK Tonight is pevely Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park.
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  They added the park on the end there.
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  So I was thinking to myself, what am I going to talk about
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  today? Well, last night there is a
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  really good race car driver. He's fast, he's in my division
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  and his name is Owen Stein king #5 And out of nowhere, I mean
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  this, this kid will say hi to me, but he don't talk to me very
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  much. He's kind of quiet.
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  He came up to me and it shocked me.
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  He looked at me and he's, and it was early in the night and he
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  said, Kenny, how did you make it to NASCAR?
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  Just as simple as that. And I looked at him and for a
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  minute I thought, you know what? This is a generation gap.
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  He's a young race car driver. He, he knows about me, but he
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  don't know of me. In other words, he wasn't there
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  for it because he probably wasn't born yet.
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  And I thought, you know, I I told this story, I think before,
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  but I really haven't told it in detail.
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  So Owen Stein, King, local race car driver, good racer, Winsor
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  race here or there. He said, Kenny, how did you make
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  it to NASCAR? So I grabbed my phone and I put
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  it in my notes. Oh, now you want.
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  Well, now he's seeking attention.
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  Look at him. He was over there, but he knows
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  the camera's rolling now, Louie, see, you know the camera's
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  rolling now, don't you, buddy? Oh, now, now he wants attention.
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  OK, so I'm going to tell you how I made it to NASCAR.
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  Please listen. Because it's you know, when you
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  have these journeys, you don't tell people because it's
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  exhausting. The reason I don't tell
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  everybody my journeys because it's exhausting.
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  OK, so here we go. When I was born, my dad was a
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  race car driver for a hobby and it's what he did when I when I
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  grew up, my dad was racing locally.
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  That's because of what my dad did.
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  So then there was three boys, no girls.
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  Rusty Mike Kenney. Rusty is the oldest.
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  He's seven years older than me. Mike is 4 years older than me
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  and I'll be 60 due August 23rd. So we grew up as a racing family
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  around this area and grew up in Rolla, MO, about 80 miles West
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  of here, Southwest. And Dad, Dad was always doing
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  good. That's what I remember.
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  Dad was always doing good, winning, running competitively.
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  Dad's won like 400 races. And Rusty came along, Big
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  Brother Rusty Wallace, I say his full name.
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  So some people that don't know me very well, I see people on
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  here all the time. They go Kenny Wallace, I started
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  following you and they usually like my life stories.
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  By the way, I do try to mix the stories up.
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  Do you like it? Respond right here, my daughter
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  say dad, when I see you promoting a race, a race coffee
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  with Kenny. We don't even watch.
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  I said thanks kids. So I've been doing some life
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  stories lately. You know my health update from
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  Mayo, the dementia deal. Peep Dad's in their 50s.
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  I hope you enjoy them. I'm doing that on purpose,
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  trying to mix it up a little bit.
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  It's not all racing all the time.
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  It's not all racing all the time.
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  So anyway, I set the stage for you.
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  My dad was a local race car driver and won a lot of races.
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  Then Rusty was born. Rusty's the alpha male and Rusty
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  was always a gadgeteer. He was always a fixer.
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  Rusty come along and he started doing everything himself.
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  Dad got older, all of us boys started helping Dad.
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  And Fast forward, Rusty started travelling.
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  We had some local sponsors here in town.
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  Don Kern. Kern Racing Engines built the
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  motors. John Child's child's tire out no
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  Foulon him and his brothers owned some tower stores and they
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  liked racing. So when I was a kid, I started
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  helping Rusty. Of course I helped dad too.
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  I changed the gears. I you know, pulled the brake
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  drums off and wire brushed the, you know, brakes and blew them
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  out with the hose. And dad ran dirt on Friday at
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  Tri-City and then on asphalt on Sunday.
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  So we took the same car. So it was a it was a family
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  tradition. What you did is, you know, when
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  you got done running that dirt race on Friday night, Saturday
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  you swap the car over. You used the dirt car on an
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  asphalt track. So I started learning how to
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  fabricate. Well, when Rusty went racing,
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  Rusty recognized I'm, I'm Kenny, little Kenny, me.
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  I'm full of piss and vinegar. I'm a worker.
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  And like Rusty says, to this day, he says, Herman, you're a
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  wiry little son of a bitch. It's true.
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  Nick Hoffman calls me Skinny Kenny.
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  I can't help it. It's just I was born hyperactive
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  and I dig. I go hard.
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  I feel guilty if I don't. It's it's I think my dad taught
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  me that I feel guilty if I sit around too much.
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  Maybe maybe it's a curse. Maybe I should learn to relax.
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  We're going to Cabo tomorrow. We're going to Cabo tomorrow.
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  I'll relax there. So Rusty recognized that I was a
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  go getter. Mike wanted to stay here at home
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  and race. So Mike stayed here and Rusty
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  started travelling. Fridays, Rusty would wait for me
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  to get off work and we'd go to, we'd go to Springfield, MO.
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  Springfield, MO and we erase Mark Martin, Larry Phillips.
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  There you go. It's like, oh, we were born in
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  the Midwest. What kind of races are from the
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  Midwest? Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, Jamie
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  McMurray, Kenny Schrader. Not everybody from California
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  and New York. So we had some, we had some hot
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  rods around here. Now you know, Carl Edwards,
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  Jamie McMurray, they all copy Rusty.
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  I think Schrader realized that the place to make money was full
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  bodied cars. Schrader came NASCAR because
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  there wasn't that much money. I mean, you the Indy 500 was
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  really the only deal. I mean, you look at the the deal
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  with Jeff Gordon. You asked Jeff Gordon, you asked
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  Kenny Shrader. Why'd you go to NASCAR?
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  That's where the show was and that's where the money was.
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  There's a lot, there's not a big salary in Indycars.
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  You make way more money being a race car driver in NASCAR.
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  That's just that's the way it is.
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  There's more races too. IndyCar, they only got like 1216
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  races a year. There's more of an opportunity
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  in NASCAR because you run 39 races.
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  So I painted the picture for you and I worked hard for Rusty.
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  So I started traveling well, when I started traveling, and
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  this is what I told Owen Steinking last night when I
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  started traveling with Rusty, I met Phil Homer at Goodyear
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  Racing Tires. I met George Gillespie with Pro
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  Shocks. I met the MSD ignition box guy,
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  I met John Childs who bought Rusty's race cars or helped
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  Rusty financially. I knew Don Kern for the motors,
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  so when Rusty moved South in 1984 when he made it, I went
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  with him with my girlfriend Kim. Kim was my girlfriend.
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  So we followed Rusty and Patty down South in 1984 and Rusty
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  drove the Gatorade car, the number 88 Gatorade car for Cliff
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  Stewart right up there in Winston Salem.
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  We went down Interstate 40 together.
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  I made a right. I went S on 85.
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  I went down to Charlotte and I got a job.
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  Joe Rutman. I, I saw Joe Rutman in
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  Jefferson, GA and he said would you come to work on our NASCAR
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  Cup team? Man, I thought about it at the
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  time. I'm repairing vacuum cleaners
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  now. Remember that my real jobs, I
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  repaired vacuum cleaners and I cleaned sewers out in the city
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  streets and I repaired telephone cables underground in the city.
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  So those were my 2 jobs. I was a vacuum cleaner repairman
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  and I worked for Arnold Reuter and it wasn't all poop and pee
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  and cleaning sewers out. It was my job was to maintain
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  the sewer lids. You lift them up and the
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  telephone wires were spliced underneath there.
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  I maintained all those underground telephone wire
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  splicing stations. So in other words, your
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  telephone wires underground in the city of Saint Louis, they're
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  just not one continuous. They cut in half a time.
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  So the telephone people that they'd lift the lid up and I'd
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  have it all ready for them. That was my job.
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  My friends would see me in the city of Saint Louis.
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  So Joe Rutman saw me in Jefferson, GA and I came back
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  home and I told my girlfriend, not my friend, Said if you don't
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  take that job, I'll regret it. So I moved S at the same damn
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  time. Rusty got that ride, that
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  Gatorade ride. So me and Kim in my old 1976 GMC
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  pickup truck where I would pull in the gas station and I would
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  say check the gas and fill it up with oil.
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  It made it to Charlotte. We packed up like, oh, the
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  Beverly Hillbillies. I spent a year down there and I
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  met everybody. I met everybody in NASCAR.
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  Now follow along here. This is very important.
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  I met all the people that make parts through Rusty because I
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  was Rusty's kid brother and I was paying attention and I'm a
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  talker, so I'm talking to all the sponsors the whole time.
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  And then I go to NASCAR and the crew chief quits.
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  Jake Elder. Jake Elder quits in 1984.
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  Gas, who becomes a crew chief? 1920 years old.
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  Me. I think me and Doug Ricker were
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  the youngest crew chiefs in NASCAR Cup history. 1920 years
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  old. I was a Cup crew chief for Joe
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  Rutman in the 1984 year. Levi Garrett was the sponsor.
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  OK, let's Fast forward. That team shuts down and my dad
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  misses me and dad goes, I'll pay you 20,000 a year to move back
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  to Saint Louis. I was kind of missing home.
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  We moved back home. We moved back home and it was
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  duh. Listen, that that song is true.
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  Life's a journey. Life is a journey.
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  So I moved back home and man, they started that Daytona 500
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  without me. I'll never forget it.
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  I was crushed. I used to be down there and I
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  found myself here and devastated that I decided to come home.
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  But it turned out to be the best thing to ever happen.
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  I called John Childs up. I said, John, I want to be a
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  race car driver. Now.
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  This is after after becoming a Cup crew chief.
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  After this is 85. I go back to work on vacuum
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  cleaners. I'm in day.
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  I'm at the Daytona 500 and I moved back to Saint Louis and
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  I'm repairing vacuum cleaners now.
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  I'll Fast forward. I went straight to ASA.
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  You talk about crazy. I was not even a race car
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  driver. I guess I won that 1982 Illinois
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  St. Stock state championship on the
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  one mile dirt. That was an 82.
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  But 8384 I never drove a thing. So my very first race on asphalt
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  was ASA against Dick Trickle, Mike Eddy, Bob Seneca.
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  So when I went to ASA, I'd never even drove a race car.
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  My second race in my life, I finished fourth at Cayuga,
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  Canada to Bob Seneca. I forgot who won that day and
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  the rest is history. But here's the shortcut that
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  you're wanting to know. You're wanting to know how I
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  made it financially? Kim worked at Pope's cafeteria.
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  She bought my Dylan trailer with her cafeteria money.
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  She spent $2500. That's one reason we married.
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  That was a joke. That was a joke when your
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  girlfriend slash wife buys her. Well, we got married June 23rd,
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  1984. So this is 86, 86.
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  Kim knows. She knows she's in for the long
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  haul. She knows I'm going to be a race
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  car driver. So that's a bonus right there
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  boys. I'm she don't bitch about
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  racing. She knows this is what we're
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  going to do. I got, I struck gold.
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  So when it came time for me to race, I got 3 free tires from
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  Phil Homer. I got free shots.
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  I got free MSD boxes. Don Kern gave me my motors, but
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  I had to pay him a third. So if I won $1000, I had to give
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  Don $300.00, so on and so forth and that is how I became a race
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  car driver. Well then it's like how did you
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  make it the NASCAR? Can he answer the question?
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  Well I put in my reps I ran 1980680788 in ASA.
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  I got a phone call November of 88, Big Brother Rusty Herman.
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  Now this time Rusty and Patty are settled.
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  Rusty says you want to run the Bush Grand National Series.
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  Are you kidding me? Rusty got the Cox treated lumber
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  sponsorship. He said you got to bring your
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  truck and trailer down and all your equipment.
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  This is the second trip back to North Carolina and the rest is
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  history. Rusty.
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  Rusty said I'm going to treat you like a bird.
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  I'm going to teach you how to fly and then I'm going to let
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  you go. I would have never made it
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  without Rusty and Patty. I would have never made it
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  without Rusty and Patty. I love my Big Brother so much.
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  I love Patty. I would have never been there
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  without them. However, I kept track.
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  All those people I met. All right everybody, I hope you
• 17:38
  enjoyed that 18 minute story. Have a great Saturday and I'll
• 17:43
  see you at Pevely tonight.