Latest / Top Row Racing Media Monday Night Rewind / Monday Night Rewind | Episode 10 | Aaron Hapner | D McCotter | Midwest Truck Series

Transcript

Monday Night Rewind | Episode 10 | Aaron Hapner | D McCotter | Midwest Truck Series · Top Row Racing Media Monday Night Rewind

• 0:58
  All right, it is the Monday night Rewind.
• 1:01
  We're back again. This is episode #10 with me, I
• 1:06
  have Boujou. I don't know if Drew Jack will
• 1:08
  be joining us tonight. I know he's been really busy
• 1:10
  doing a lot of different things. But meanwhile, we have Boujou,
• 1:13
  the owner of Bullring Chronicles.
• 1:15
  And then I learned a few weeks ago, still has the traveling
• 1:18
  group, the top speed travels, but kind of a thing, kind of not
• 1:20
  a thing. And then Lewis, owner of Top Row
• 1:23
  Racing Media. And tonight we have another huge
• 1:26
  episode that I'm excited for. Again, it's episode 10.
• 1:29
  Who would have thought 10 weeks later, you know, this is still
• 1:31
  going. So let's talk about who we're
• 1:34
  going to have tonight, Buju. So first we're going to have at
• 1:37
  about 7:05, we're going to pull in Aaron Hapner, who's already
• 1:41
  in the stationary. We're having a little bit of a
• 1:42
  conversation before we jumped on and he's with Hapner racing the
• 1:47
  new pair of Shark. If you go to a new Paris night
• 1:49
  of destruction, you'll know when he's on the track because
• 1:51
  there's quite the roar as he comes on.
• 1:54
  And then after him, we have someone who's a front wheel
• 1:57
  drive racer who started because of the night of destructions,
• 2:00
  fell in love with racing and the track and everything and really,
• 2:04
  you know, has an awesome story. We'll have DJ Mccotter joining
• 2:08
  us at 635 his time. So our first Central Time Zone
• 2:12
  guest tonight. And then we have also from the
• 2:15
  Central Time Zone out of Wisconsin, queue up constant
• 2:18
  Badger Band. We have the Midwest Truck Series
• 2:22
  with Drew Krybek, who will be joining us at at seven O 5 their
• 2:25
  time, eight O 5 our time over here in the Eastern Time zone.
• 2:30
  And one more reminder for next week.
• 2:32
  We've kind of had two packed episodes here with three guests
• 2:35
  each. But next week on April 27th,
• 2:38
  we're back down to one guest for now.
• 2:40
  We know Ron has tons of stories and last time we went nearly two
• 2:43
  hours and didn't even scratch the surface.
• 2:46
  So I know Ron will be coming back for Part 2.
• 2:48
  So definitely looking forward to having Ron.
• 2:50
  And then the 4th will be with us.
• 2:52
  And if not, you'll need a fifth after because it is Tim Dibble
• 2:56
  from the Hartford Speedway just before their season and open
• 3:00
  season opener next Friday nights or not next Friday night to a
• 3:04
  couple Fridays from now in May. So again, just last coming up,
• 3:09
  Boozoo over the next couple weeks.
• 3:11
  But I know you and I were both at the same track on Friday and
• 3:16
  I froze my butt off on Saturday on the roof at me there.
• 3:19
  So before we get Aaron in here and and have people jump in,
• 3:24
  what did you, what did you think of the Intimidator?
• 3:27
  It was an awesome race night. I thought there was great racing
• 3:29
  in all three classes. It ended up being warmer at
• 3:31
  Kalamazoo than I thought it was going to be.
• 3:33
  I had I went without the hoodie all night.
• 3:34
  That was nice. The line to get in when I got
• 3:37
  there, that's the longest line I've ever seen to get into a
• 3:39
  racetrack. And at the about 20 minutes
• 3:42
  before race time, I said there's no way they're getting all these
• 3:44
  people in here. And I don't know how they did
• 3:46
  it, but I don't think anybody that was in that line missed a
• 3:48
  lap of race and it was impressive by the Kalamazoo
• 3:50
  staff. Yeah, I know.
• 3:52
  So when I got up to the roof, because I was doing single car
• 3:56
  qualifying for I recorded it and I usually don't do qualifying,
• 4:00
  but with single car qualifying, I try to be up there, make it a
• 4:02
  little special just to have that.
• 4:04
  And I went oh wow. And you know, and I posted a
• 4:08
  video because I that's a good thing, right?
• 4:10
  Like congratulations to short track racing.
• 4:11
  It's their first see, you know, it's the first thing.
• 4:14
  It's the first season opener. I think we haven't rained out or
• 4:17
  had issues because I think last year the season opener, we ended
• 4:20
  up raining out and I think the year before was supposed to be
• 4:23
  like the intimidated 1 100 and that got pushed into a different
• 4:25
  month. And so the last couple years
• 4:27
  Intimidator hasn't rained at the beginning of the year just
• 4:30
  because of weather. And I posted a video of the line
• 4:34
  and of course some people didn't appreciate the line and and
• 4:37
  decided not to come or decided to leave.
• 4:39
  And I get that. I understand that.
• 4:40
  But within about 20 minutes, I know Randy Richie owner was up
• 4:43
  there, Michelle Sexton, Taylor Sexton both popped up there and
• 4:47
  taking money and doing different things, but it was packed.
• 4:51
  It was so awesome to see that again.
• 4:53
  I, I get a nice little view from the roof.
• 4:55
  I can't see under me because of the sky boxes.
• 4:58
  It blocks my view. But that was just to see that on
• 5:01
  an opening night at Kalamazoo. I don't, I forget what the
• 5:04
  official attendance number was. They were talking about it
• 5:06
  afterwards, but I said packed, you know, because that, you
• 5:11
  know, it's just, it's one of those things that especially
• 5:14
  season openers and weather, you just never know what you're
• 5:16
  going to get into. And so, I mean, we had an
• 5:19
  incredible night. The wind wasn't too bad.
• 5:21
  It was just hot enough to be warm, but not hot enough where,
• 5:25
  you know, if you're just sitting to enjoy, you weren't sweaty.
• 5:28
  And so, 'cause we know those months are well ahead of us
• 5:32
  coming up, but. Oh yeah.
• 5:35
  But that's where it kind of excites me too, is not only do
• 5:37
  we have that many people in person, but you know, I'm a very
• 5:41
  metrics driven person. It doesn't change what I do on
• 5:44
  top row, but it's more so you know, I have Elh detailing who's
• 5:48
  the primary sponsor of Taco Racing media.
• 5:50
  We brought on Federated Auto Parts, Joel, Joel helped with
• 5:54
  that with Fisher. And so we have primary sponsors
• 5:57
  and it's someone who's going to try to get sponsors this year
• 6:00
  for my onboard cameras. You know, having metrics helps,
• 6:03
  sharing the tracks helps. And I don't know if you saw my
• 6:05
  little map earlier that I did and excuse the crudity, this was
• 6:08
  like a 5 minute oh shoot, maybe I should do like a little shout
• 6:12
  out on this. But where you see the blue and
• 6:15
  the red that was not touched by top row, at least from metrics.
• 6:21
  Why is that? You know, someone might have
• 6:22
  been there, but when you have Wyoming, there's 4 cows for
• 6:24
  every one person. So I don't know if cows watch me
• 6:26
  or not, but if I counted right between the 50 States and then
• 6:31
  the Canadian provinces, and this is for both New Paris and
• 6:34
  Kalamazoo combine. So over this weekend, you know,
• 6:37
  top rows, not a streaming service.
• 6:38
  And then, you know, you get a lot of people saying streaming,
• 6:41
  streaming, streaming, everything should be on streaming While
• 6:43
  there's people like me who can certainly bring the coverage.
• 6:46
  And if I counted right, I touched 60% of this land between
• 6:50
  US and Canada and the other countries that share the
• 6:54
  Canadian border. So that's just something that I
• 6:57
  thought was pretty cool as I was was going through that.
• 6:59
  Wow. You know, I think 16 states I
• 7:02
  didn't get, which I usually don't get Alaska and Hawaii, but
• 7:06
  you know, it's always that middle there.
• 7:08
  It's like all those cows, I need to get them some TV's and but
• 7:12
  and Mississippi, I was trying to figure out it literally went
• 7:15
  around them except for Mississippi.
• 7:16
  But again, this is what Meta proves that's not this is top
• 7:20
  ten at least once. So again, that's a lot of
• 7:23
  exposure for our drivers in this area who also then put on an
• 7:26
  incredible show. And you just never know who's
• 7:28
  going to come from those areas to come watch a race up here.
• 7:34
  Are you frozen in time? Oh no, you're muted.
• 7:38
  Absolutely. That's great that the can you
• 7:40
  hear me? And now I can we just yes.
• 7:45
  OK. Yeah.
• 7:48
  Sorry, I lost where we were there.
• 7:50
  Oh, we were talking about the map.
• 7:52
  But yeah, I lagged for a second, but I got you.
• 7:55
  Go ahead. Yeah, no, we were just talking
• 7:57
  about the map and the exposure, you know that.
• 7:59
  You just never know, right? So you know little old me, you
• 8:02
  know who's sitting on the roof has a one man band.
• 8:05
  Yeah, all the way to the tip of the tip of Florida and all the
• 8:08
  way to the Yukon up north. It's pretty cool to see.
• 8:11
  I mean, just when you think about that like, you know, I
• 8:14
  don't get way up there, but think of that's some icy
• 8:16
  territory up there territory. So again, that's new.
• 8:19
  Paris and Kalamazoo this past weekend 60% of provinces,
• 8:24
  Commonwealth or states touched by Topper racing media over the
• 8:28
  weekend not physically though not physically but on social
• 8:31
  media but there's a group out from Idaho who follows all the
• 8:35
  time and so I've I've actually looked them up on social media
• 8:38
  and I didn't realize how big they were and went oh I hey I'll
• 8:40
  take that I appreciate that so but with that someone who put on
• 8:45
  a show this weekend and always does at the new Paris Speedway
• 8:48
  when it's night destruction time Are you ready to bring on Aaron
• 8:51
  let's. Bring them on.
• 8:53
  All right, so again, our first guest here will be Aaron Hefner
• 8:57
  from the New Parish Shark. So again, welcome Aaron to the
• 9:00
  Monday Night Rewind. Louis Boujou, thanks for having
• 9:04
  me. It's a pleasure.
• 9:07
  Oh, it was it's so fun watching you right and and and that's
• 9:11
  something that now Boujou, have you seen the shark and and
• 9:14
  performance? I've been to 1 new Paris night
• 9:17
  destruction in my life and when I when me and my nephew Brendan
• 9:20
  left, we followed Aaron on Facebook afterwards.
• 9:22
  Yes. Awesome, awesome.
• 9:24
  Appreciate it. Yes, Sir.
• 9:26
  So Aaron, for people who may not know the shark, like Buju isn't
• 9:29
  a big night of destruction guy. He might go to some every now
• 9:32
  and then, but he's one of those turn left people, you know, and
• 9:36
  and all that. I don't mind those guys.
• 9:39
  We don't mind you either. We're going.
• 9:40
  To talk about that, because Aaron, you jumped into a Hornet
• 9:43
  at New Paris and you did some racing too.
• 9:45
  So for those who don't know you, that's my favorite question I
• 9:48
  always like to start off with is, you know, let everyone know
• 9:51
  who's watching. Who is Aaron Hafner, the new
• 9:53
  Paris shark? Sure.
• 9:55
  Yeah, absolutely. So I was never really a race car
• 9:59
  guy. You know, I grew up, my dad
• 10:02
  would take me up to Warsaw and we'd watch him on dirt up there,
• 10:05
  watch motocross in North Webster.
• 10:07
  But how I got started was we moved into a new house couple
• 10:13
  months after my neighbor invited me over for a poker game.
• 10:15
  You know, the best things always come from poker games.
• 10:19
  So we were there playing cards. Cars got brought up like it
• 10:23
  usually would at a guy's night. And my now buddy Seth had had
• 10:29
  mentioned New Paris and there was a night of destruction.
• 10:32
  And I've never been to New Paris.
• 10:35
  I've never even heard of a night of destruction.
• 10:37
  And I've been to plenty of demolition derbies.
• 10:39
  But this was new. So, you know, he did his best to
• 10:43
  explain, you know, how a night of destruction works.
• 10:46
  I mean, even after 10 years, sometimes it's kind of hard to
• 10:49
  explain to people what it's really like out there.
• 10:52
  So obviously it, it, it caught my interest.
• 10:56
  I was, you know, I was, you know, 1 to go check it out.
• 10:59
  And I was like, you know what, might as well just take a car up
• 11:01
  there. So I worked at a local
• 11:03
  dealership, picked up this huge 87 Olds custom.
• 11:09
  I mean it was a boat, but you know, I didn't know what I was
• 11:12
  doing and I thought it was more destruction than racing at that
• 11:15
  point. Did the minimum busted the
• 11:18
  windows out, you know, took the mirrors out, ripped out the
• 11:22
  interior and just I think we had a a spare, maybe 2 had a truck,
• 11:28
  no trailer to haul it on. Had to go to U-Haul and get a
• 11:31
  trailer. So here I am pulling into a
• 11:33
  night of destruction into the pits for the first time ever
• 11:37
  being there, not knowing what to expect.
• 11:41
  Crazy to say the least. You know, it's an
• 11:43
  understatement. So, so I, you know, I fumble
• 11:48
  through it and get my car unloaded.
• 11:50
  It passes tech, I can go in and I obviously sign up for every
• 11:55
  single race available because I have no idea.
• 11:58
  So we get out there and, you know, we just kind of lumber
• 12:04
  around and these cars are flying by and yeah, we, I think we
• 12:09
  signed up for the, the pole race was one of the first ones we
• 12:11
  did. And I was like, what do I do?
• 12:14
  I was like, oh, they'll explain it to you.
• 12:17
  No, they don't explain it to you.
• 12:20
  So I talked to a couple drivers, got the jest of it, you know,
• 12:24
  went out there and just, you know, probably dead last, you
• 12:27
  know, got cream, couldn't turn. But I was instantly hooked.
• 12:32
  I mean, it was just, you know, an adrenaline rush like no
• 12:34
  other. Great time.
• 12:37
  And I think I've been to about everyone since for the last 10
• 12:43
  years. So it's been an amazing ride,
• 12:46
  yeah, to say the least. Well, and that's something that
• 12:49
  we've had, you know, we had Tabitha on Tabitha on a few
• 12:52
  weeks ago, you know, talk about the night of destruction and
• 12:55
  stuff and auto show and kind of her history.
• 12:58
  And I know I've done a couple spotlights on you where your
• 13:01
  story with just how you got started.
• 13:03
  And So what do you think, you know, you got hooked on this
• 13:07
  whole night of destruction thing.
• 13:09
  So for for people who are maybe not fans of it, what how do you
• 13:15
  see the night of destruction? You know, community that you're
• 13:18
  part of that new Paris and what that means to even the new Paris
• 13:21
  Speedway. Like how does that all work
• 13:22
  together for you? So, you know, I, I love regular
• 13:26
  racing. I love, you know, new Paris
• 13:28
  Speedway. We'll go up there and support
• 13:30
  them on regular racing nights. And I really believe that night
• 13:34
  of destruction is, is kind of like a a gateway to racing.
• 13:38
  I mean, it's an affordable way to get out on the track.
• 13:41
  I mean, you got an old car that that runs and stops, you know,
• 13:45
  for a $35 pit pass, you know, you can go out there and race
• 13:49
  with all those guys. So I mean, it's a it's a good
• 13:52
  way to get your foot in the door.
• 13:54
  I have, you know, great relationships with, you know, a
• 13:56
  few of the regular racing, you know, drivers, you know, some of
• 14:00
  them come down and run nods. So, you know, you hear about the
• 14:05
  the regular racing drivers not being huge fans, you know, we're
• 14:09
  tearing up their track and and you know, not, you know, it
• 14:13
  doesn't work for them, but you know, to each its own.
• 14:16
  You know, I think it's a home for everybody up there, you
• 14:19
  know, regular racing and, and night of destruction.
• 14:21
  And according to the fans and the stands, you know, night of
• 14:26
  destruction is a huge hit. So I mean that that's keeping
• 14:29
  some of these, these tracks alive.
• 14:31
  And I'm I'm glad to help and happy to.
• 14:35
  And that's where at New Paris, you know, Booz, you mentioned
• 14:38
  right following you on social media and there's quite a few
• 14:40
  teams at new Paris who have a very strong, healthy social
• 14:45
  media presence. And, and last year you got into
• 14:48
  a little bit of a fun, playful tug of war between coneheads and
• 14:53
  shark and then road rage. You know, mafia got in and I
• 14:56
  think the minions got in on it. And then I jumped in because I'm
• 14:59
  like, well, this looks pretty fun, right?
• 15:01
  You know, and it's sort of things that again, it's all
• 15:05
  playful. And so who do you look forward
• 15:07
  to competing when you're out there?
• 15:09
  Because I think there are there are more than 100 cars this past
• 15:12
  week and it wasn't as packed as last October with the weather
• 15:15
  and Luke Combs at Notre Dame and everything.
• 15:17
  But it's still, it's a great show, quick show.
• 15:20
  We were done by like 11:00 even with a few downtime cleanups.
• 15:25
  But who do you look forward to competing against when you get
• 15:29
  to get out there? Great question.
• 15:31
  Sure. Now there's a there's a handful
• 15:34
  of us that have been doing it for a while.
• 15:37
  You know, we've we've built relationships over the years and
• 15:39
  you know, those are probably the guys that I I like running with
• 15:42
  best. You know, you do have the
• 15:44
  Coneheads and you know, the road rage mafia, which are great.
• 15:49
  And you know, there's always there's always guys out there to
• 15:51
  run against. And I will say, you know, in NOD
• 15:56
  you can, you know, you're either the hammer or you're the nail.
• 15:59
  So, you know, and you can't be mad at either one of them
• 16:02
  because it just happened. So yeah, guys like, you know,
• 16:07
  Seth Gilbert out there running with us, Michael Curtis is
• 16:10
  always running top, you know, with us, Tony Holly and his
• 16:14
  whole clan, the Chapmans, you know, we we built a relationship
• 16:18
  with them. Austin Richardson's with the
• 16:19
  road rage mafia. So, yeah, we built relationships
• 16:23
  with those over the years. And, you know, it's good to see
• 16:26
  them after a long winter break, you know, go up there for the
• 16:29
  first time after not seeing them for a few months.
• 16:31
  And, you know, everybody's, you know, in their element.
• 16:34
  And everyone looked just happy to be at the track.
• 16:38
  You know, that's even as cold as it was walking through the pit
• 16:41
  area. You know, Tori coming back from
• 16:43
  pregnancy where that was her first race since 2024.
• 16:47
  And, you know, then Tony's down this year, right?
• 16:50
  So, you know, with his injury. But then, you know, I see like
• 16:53
  Pitbull racing is in here with Ralph and you just walk around
• 16:56
  and everyone just seems so excited to be there, happy to be
• 17:00
  there, ready to put on a show. And so it was nice walking
• 17:03
  around and it's kind of like a reunion, as you were saying, you
• 17:05
  get to just see everybody who you haven't seen since like the
• 17:09
  banquet, but in a competitive sense, right?
• 17:11
  We get to see everyone outdoors at the track.
• 17:13
  The vibes are just good from the start.
• 17:15
  And you know, we had a gender reveal and I know you're a part
• 17:19
  of that and and everything. And so it's just, it's like one
• 17:22
  of those, again, cold, but I think the fans more than
• 17:26
  definitely got theirs their money's worth.
• 17:28
  Oh, absolutely, yeah. Yeah.
• 17:30
  The the strange thing about the nods is it is a rain or shine
• 17:32
  event. So, you know, we've been out
• 17:34
  there in the pouring rain, you know, running and, you know, I
• 17:37
  think I had one of my best trailer races out there in the
• 17:40
  pouring rain and I it was between me and Seth.
• 17:42
  I think we're the only two cars left almost.
• 17:44
  And you know, I'll never forget that race.
• 17:46
  You know, it was it was amazing. So yeah, be prepared for
• 17:49
  anything come Nod season, you know you're going to be out
• 17:52
  there watching and we'll still put on a show for you.
• 17:55
  So what? What are some of your top
• 17:57
  memories from your career and night of destruction so far?
• 18:01
  Those memorable races? Sure.
• 18:05
  Well, there was a lot. I, I kind of did a little math
• 18:09
  before the show. So we've been doing it for, you
• 18:11
  know, about 10 years now. Six nights every year.
• 18:15
  So that's sixty nights of destruction on average you run,
• 18:21
  you know, maybe four nights or 4 races a night.
• 18:24
  So we're looking at 240 races in those ten years.
• 18:30
  So there's a lot to choose from, I guess.
• 18:34
  But yeah, that trailer race that I spoke of, that was one.
• 18:37
  I'll, I'll, I'll remember. Me and Spencer rewarding are we
• 18:41
  were doing a Figure 8. I think it's one-on-one, but it
• 18:45
  was like 5 laps or something Dusty couldn't see.
• 18:48
  I think we made contact on every turn and I think the last turn
• 18:53
  was finally enough for Spencer's car where it caught fire and I
• 18:55
  was able to get away from him finally.
• 18:58
  So yeah, that was a good one. But yeah, mostly it's the
• 19:03
  nights, you know that I remember, you know, the the
• 19:05
  Halloween nights. It was 4th of July, 4th of July.
• 19:08
  Always my favorite nods. The weather's usually great.
• 19:12
  It's warm, it's sunny, the stands are packed.
• 19:16
  Usually, you know, I've, I've been the one that was, you know,
• 19:18
  standing room only and you know, that's, that's pretty amazing to
• 19:22
  to fill that place like that. Buju, before I do the one of the
• 19:27
  video clips, I didn't want to, I felt like I've asked a lot of
• 19:30
  questions, so I want to make sure that I'm not cutting you
• 19:32
  off. I know again night instructions,
• 19:34
  not like always your jam, but I know you have questions.
• 19:37
  Thought I'm curious what as as a racing person who casually is a
• 19:41
  night of destruction fan. Asking someone who's a night of
• 19:43
  destruction person who's casual racing fan, What is your
• 19:46
  favorite race to run in the night of destruction?
• 19:48
  I'm sure it's hard to choose, but if you had to choose.
• 19:51
  Well, it's it's not. No, I love running the Pac-Man.
• 19:55
  I love watching the Pac-Man. That that is amazing.
• 20:00
  I think they brought it on about, you know, six or seven
• 20:02
  years ago and I was. One of the first to run it.
• 20:05
  So I've got a little practice in.
• 20:07
  So so I think I'm I'm pretty decent at it.
• 20:10
  And you know, you got to have a car that can handle, you know,
• 20:13
  hitting up the 10 people, you know, in one race and still, you
• 20:16
  know, racing the rest of the night.
• 20:17
  But by far the Pac-Man is, I mean, the adrenaline trying to
• 20:21
  track these cars down, you know, the the head on a swivel, you
• 20:26
  know when you're a ghost and trying to outrun them.
• 20:29
  Yeah, that's by far, Yeah. It's the Pac-Man.
• 20:31
  And I think that's probably one of the fan favorites as well.
• 20:34
  For sure, that's one of mine, absolutely.
• 20:36
  That's what I fell in love with, you know, when I went to my
• 20:38
  first new Paris Knight of Destruction in 2023, I want to
• 20:43
  say it was September 2023. PAC Man's coming out and I'm
• 20:48
  like, OK, what's this going to be?
• 20:50
  And I, and I remember getting down after I'm like, I love that
• 20:54
  Pac-Man, like you, just I didn't know what to expect.
• 20:57
  And, you know, but that's why I call it the Arena of
• 21:00
  destruction. Truly, everything is fair game
• 21:04
  and cars are everywhere. This past Saturday was a little
• 21:07
  different. I felt like we went through more
• 21:08
  Pac-Man than normal, you know? But they were definitely
• 21:11
  delivering. I know you've been a Pac-Man, or
• 21:14
  you've been the chaser, right? So you've been the one chasing,
• 21:16
  and sometimes you're the one chased.
• 21:18
  Not always, but not. Always.
• 21:20
  They they like putting that that the face on your car because you
• 21:25
  get to chase people down. You flipped cars over before,
• 21:27
  not on purpose, right? You weren't trying to flip them
• 21:29
  over, but they just hit that grass, right.
• 21:31
  But I tell people, if you've not seen the Pac-Man race, that in
• 21:35
  itself is worth the price of admission.
• 21:37
  Absolutely, yeah. And I'll tell you what, when I'm
• 21:41
  coming out on the track after all the ghosts are out there,
• 21:45
  and to hear that crowd come alive, it's just amazing.
• 21:50
  I mean, it's just great, you know, and but you put on a show,
• 21:54
  you know, that's what we're there for and we're there for
• 21:56
  the fans. So it's, it's, it's awesome to
• 21:59
  hear from them. Well, and so I want to do this
• 22:01
  video clip. So this is from the Figure 8
• 22:03
  this past Saturday. So for people who aren't who
• 22:07
  don't know so the new Paris has two different kind of drag
• 22:12
  races. They have the spectator drags,
• 22:14
  which that one got super interesting with that red truck.
• 22:17
  I don't know how he did not hit the wall.
• 22:19
  I mean that one made it over to England pretty far and so that
• 22:23
  was very popular in England. But how he's how they suck off
• 22:27
  well, I don't know, but that's one and that's no contact.
• 22:30
  But then they do for the night destruction people.
• 22:35
  They do contact Figure 8 drags 3 on three or I mean it's three,
• 22:40
  you know, 3 going and you eliminate each other where one
• 22:44
  moves on to go back to the pit and they go always get down to
• 22:47
  this championship 1. And so we have, you know, this
• 22:50
  one here, Aaron, if you want to talk a little bit of Oh, I got
• 22:53
  to back it up really quick. If you want to talk about, you
• 22:56
  know this Figure 8 and what it's like to run this when you have
• 22:58
  so many cars. Sure.
• 23:00
  Yeah. So this is the finale.
• 23:02
  We made it to the finale that night and it's Figure 8 style.
• 23:06
  We're all kind of grouped together at first.
• 23:09
  Obviously, no rules, just like like it always is.
• 23:12
  So I think this was 5 laps first across the finish line wins.
• 23:18
  So yeah, it's just a dead from a dead stop.
• 23:22
  We start enter in and then, you know, you just do your Figure 8
• 23:26
  laps. Not a whole lot of crossover
• 23:29
  action. But you know, I'm not kind of OK
• 23:31
  with that. Keeps it a little bit safer for
• 23:33
  some of those, some of those guys.
• 23:35
  But you still get the action in, in every turn, the the crashing
• 23:39
  and the sliding. I think I'm actually ahead here
• 23:44
  maybe, but not for long because that's got a pretty fast car.
• 23:49
  Yeah, this particular race, I think I made it in the like lap
• 23:53
  4 maybe. I think the Oreo car took me
• 23:57
  out. Watch out Oreo coming for you
• 23:59
  the next time. And yeah, and it, you know,
• 24:03
  sometimes you're the the hammer, sometimes you're the nail.
• 24:05
  That's just how it goes. So we live to fight another day.
• 24:09
  But yeah, I couldn't couldn't quite make it back from that
• 24:11
  spin out. That's coming up here in a
• 24:13
  little bit. Well, and so for people who also
• 24:16
  don't know or maybe didn't see, the new Paris Fire department is
• 24:19
  always popular at least once on my page on a, on a new Paris
• 24:23
  night of destruction, usually one of those will start going
• 24:25
  crazy and, and kind of go all over the place.
• 24:28
  And so for people who may not know, they see the track as what
• 24:31
  it's not because it was raining, but the new parish fire
• 24:33
  department has about 5 gallons of dish soap that they put
• 24:37
  inside the tanker and they dump that all over the track just to
• 24:40
  help with speeds and everything like that Enduro, which we'll
• 24:43
  play next. That Enduro got a little crazy
• 24:45
  where they brought the water tanker back out just because the
• 24:48
  speeds were going a little higher than I think they're
• 24:51
  comfortable with. But you're kind of, so in this
• 24:54
  race, you're going from dry pavement in the infield, mostly
• 24:58
  dry. So then you're going to the wet
• 25:00
  track. So does that, you know, does
• 25:01
  that add to any strategy that you might try to do as you're
• 25:04
  going between both surfaces? I mean, it's dry at first.
• 25:09
  It doesn't stay that way for long with guys driving through
• 25:11
  the the infield or, or running through a puddle.
• 25:14
  So the biggest thing I think on the Figure 8 is just kind of
• 25:17
  controlling your speed going into the corner.
• 25:21
  I think Seth and I were kind of running different lines.
• 25:23
  I was kind of blowing it up and trying to take a wider loop and
• 25:26
  coming in harder where he just sent it in the corner sideways
• 25:30
  every time. And he's a little faster than
• 25:32
  me, so I might have to try that next time.
• 25:35
  Well, and and Speaking of fast, if you want to think about two,
• 25:39
  you know, you have oh, it keeps playing in the background on me.
• 25:42
  There we go. So I'll pause it really quick.
• 25:44
  So this is the car in Duro, which had I think 40 cars was on
• 25:49
  it. I can't remember the I'm trying
• 25:51
  to remember what Jeremy said, but a lot I mean.
• 25:54
  Yeah, there were a bunch. Yep.
• 25:55
  And so when you're sitting here in this right, you're so you're
• 25:59
  near the front, so you have a whole pile of cars behind you.
• 26:02
  You have the rum runners who brought like 11 cars over the
• 26:04
  weekend. I see.
• 26:05
  See, Tabitha's in the shot here. So you're at this front here.
• 26:09
  I think that might be Gilbert on the front over there, too.
• 26:12
  But so when you're sitting here and you're getting ready to go,
• 26:15
  what's going through your mind? That is probably the longest,
• 26:21
  you know, two or three minutes of your life.
• 26:23
  You're just sitting there, you know, waiting to go.
• 26:25
  You know, your knuckles are on the steering wheel staring at
• 26:29
  the light, you know, and then you hear Jeremy, you know,
• 26:31
  counting us down. That's that's like the, the
• 26:33
  golden ring right there. And then, you know, hit, hit
• 26:37
  zero and and we're off. And it's just hold on for the
• 26:40
  most part. Well, and I thought there's
• 26:43
  going to be a lot more up front here that all those cars kept
• 26:46
  going. But you know, and you can see
• 26:48
  here the track is a little drier than I think they probably would
• 26:51
  have had it on normal. Usually this this race felt a
• 26:55
  little deeper in the program than than normal, but maybe it
• 26:58
  wasn't. But I felt like, oh, I thought
• 27:00
  that was usually before this race.
• 27:01
  So they had quite a few, you know, they had the ladies in
• 27:04
  Bureau and you can see the speeds increase as the as this
• 27:08
  race goes on. But you know, still people are
• 27:10
  pretty respectful. We didn't have any like violent
• 27:12
  hits or anything. But when you have this many
• 27:14
  cars, Aaron, on the track, it's not like a Hornet race where you
• 27:17
  have 14 to 16 cars. You know, you know, everybody's
• 27:21
  going left. You know, everyone has all the
• 27:22
  safety gear. So when you're racing through
• 27:25
  traffic like this again, what are you looking for move wise?
• 27:28
  Because I mean, you see, even there the vans kind of going all
• 27:31
  over the place. If if Ben was out there, he'd
• 27:34
  just be spinning and doing all these tornado circles.
• 27:36
  But so when you're in a competition like this, you know
• 27:40
  what are you looking for to put yourself in a position to win.
• 27:46
  You're supposed to look because typically I just close my eyes
• 27:49
  and then hit the gas and hope for the best.
• 27:53
  No, I mean, so you got to realize, you know, there's 40
• 27:56
  cars out there. There could be 10 guys that have
• 27:58
  never been on a racetrack before.
• 28:00
  So, you know, there's a lot of driving, there's a lot of luck
• 28:05
  involved. You just, you try to look, look
• 28:09
  ahead, you know, kind of see what's up around the corner
• 28:11
  rather than right in front of you because there's no telling
• 28:15
  what some of these cars are going to do, which, you know,
• 28:17
  makes the enduro so much fun and so scary at the same time.
• 28:22
  So I definitely agree that they when they put that water on that
• 28:26
  track because, you know, the higher the speeds, the more risk
• 28:30
  for injury. So, you know, kudos to New Paris
• 28:33
  for slowing things down a little bit, and it makes for even a
• 28:36
  better show with the slipping and sliding, I think.
• 28:39
  Oh, yeah. Well, and that's where, you
• 28:42
  know, there's usually someone on their whole comment going all
• 28:44
  this taxpayer money wasted. It's like they pay for the
• 28:47
  water, you know, they pay for the use of it.
• 28:49
  It's like, and it's fun for the kids, right.
• 28:52
  And I think the drivers, I mean, I, I've not heard the driver
• 28:54
  complain about the water on there because again, it adds
• 28:57
  that it adds an element to the race, you know?
• 29:00
  Sure. Absolutely.
• 29:01
  And so have you been on there when the water was fresh fresh?
• 29:04
  Like have you had to get on there when it was like absolute
• 29:07
  just soaked? Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 29:10
  And typically, you know, the the trailer races, they usually run
• 29:13
  it right before the trailer race.
• 29:15
  That's the end of the night, you know, where it's kind of a
• 29:17
  little bit cooler mostly, you know, it doesn't evaporate as
• 29:20
  fast and it can get pretty slick out there during the trailer
• 29:23
  race. So Buju, any other questions
• 29:27
  that you have? Because I know again, I, I, I
• 29:29
  know Aaron, you know him and I get to talk a lot.
• 29:32
  So I want to make sure that you, you know, get your questions in
• 29:35
  too. I think you guys did a great job
• 29:37
  covering everything. Like I said, I'm always more
• 29:39
  curious about the night of destruction stuff than I am
• 29:42
  informed about it, so it's always cool hearing the night of
• 29:44
  destruction driver side of everything.
• 29:48
  So Aaron, what do you think stands out then about the New
• 29:52
  Paris night of destruction? Like if you had to promote it,
• 29:55
  if Chris and Tracy came to you and said, hey, we're going to
• 29:59
  put you in front of 500 people who have never been to a
• 30:02
  racetrack before Salem. What would be your pitch to
• 30:06
  those people who have either a never been to New Paris and
• 30:10
  maybe not know what to expect or be we're going to bring them to
• 30:13
  New Paris and now they're going to see a night of destruction at
• 30:16
  New Paris? OK, well, thanks for winding her
• 30:19
  down with a super easy question there.
• 30:25
  So you know, I've I've been all all over, you know, we've raced
• 30:30
  that New Paris, Angola, South Bend, Kalamazoo, M40 even did a
• 30:36
  a 24 hour race out of Barefield a couple of times.
• 30:40
  But New Paris Speedway does it right.
• 30:43
  I mean by far, hands down, they run the best NOD out there.
• 30:50
  You know, we're doing in person and guy and people are coming
• 30:53
  out to watch, you know, the stuff that you can only see on
• 30:57
  on YouTube or on TikTok. I mean, this, this stuff is, you
• 31:02
  know, kind of next level crazy, you know, in my opinion, and you
• 31:06
  got to be a little crazy to go out there.
• 31:08
  So it, like I said earlier, it's really hard to kind of explain
• 31:13
  the insurance and outs of a, of a night of destruction.
• 31:16
  But once you see it, I, I feel like you're, you're going to be
• 31:19
  hooked. Well, and Speaking of hooked, we
• 31:21
  have Heather Clark who's in here.
• 31:23
  The YouTube is at least Heather Clark and and and they ask, can
• 31:26
  you explain the wrench it up Grace?
• 31:27
  So that's why I was pulling up the clip.
• 31:29
  And then we got Jeremy yelling because I didn't get to this
• 31:31
  time of time. But have you?
• 31:33
  I can't remember if you're in this one or not.
• 31:35
  Did you do the wrench it up? I, no, my car went out before
• 31:38
  that, which, you know, it happens about every time I go
• 31:41
  out, but we rebuild her and bring her back.
• 31:44
  So the the wrench it up is it's a it's a fun race that kind of
• 31:49
  clogs everything up there in the middle middle.
• 31:52
  It's kind of like Figure 8 style, but there's no crossing
• 31:55
  in the middle. So you don't use the front or
• 31:59
  back stretch. You start going through the
• 32:03
  middle through the turn back into the middle.
• 32:05
  So it's kind of like almost a a road course, you know, for lack
• 32:10
  of a better term. But you know, bunch of turns,
• 32:13
  you know, terms is where you know, the magic happens in nods,
• 32:16
  I feel like. So the more you can add, the
• 32:18
  more you can bunch this up together, the better it is to
• 32:22
  watch. So I think they added that
• 32:24
  wrench it up a couple years ago and it's been, it's been a
• 32:27
  favorite since. So hopefully next time I have my
• 32:30
  car makes it long enough to run it.
• 32:32
  Well, they've done the trailer races, Figure 8 or not Figure 8
• 32:35
  as the wrench it up. And they did that last year for
• 32:37
  October, they did the Lights Out race and the, and the wrench it
• 32:41
  up style. They just ran the rest of the
• 32:43
  night after they got everything because the fire truck even went
• 32:46
  through and and and did that and like watered the wrench it up
• 32:51
  course. So I thought, oh, the lights out
• 32:53
  race that way. I mean, that's really adding a
• 32:55
  little extra spice to the night, too.
• 32:57
  Absolutely. Yeah, a little bit more danger.
• 32:59
  So yeah, it's put you on your edge, your receipt.
• 33:03
  Are there any events you'd like to see added?
• 33:04
  Do you have any ideas that you'd like to see added to the Night
• 33:07
  Destruction show? You know what they, they, they
• 33:11
  change it up a lot. They switch it up.
• 33:13
  You know, it's hard to come up with new races.
• 33:17
  I, I, I've asked them before and they just refused to do it.
• 33:20
  But if they could change the name of the Pac-Man race to
• 33:23
  Shark and Minnow. But.
• 33:26
  They they said they wouldn't do it.
• 33:27
  So but other than that, no. I think they run a really good
• 33:30
  show out there and and I'm glad, glad to be a part of it.
• 33:33
  That's like a good PE game. You know, when I, when I first
• 33:37
  subbed for a gym class, when I was subbing before I went into
• 33:40
  full time, it was called sharks and minnows and the different
• 33:44
  ways that I went. But that would be really cool
• 33:46
  getting a shark out there and have a bunch of minnows that
• 33:49
  you're chasing down or whatever. And you have how many sharks
• 33:52
  now? Because you have, you know, the
• 33:54
  main shark and then you had a baby shark and then you have
• 33:56
  like a Mama shark or so how many, how many sharks are in the
• 33:59
  tank? We've had quite a few.
• 34:00
  Sharks over the years, the the one I'm driving now that I drove
• 34:05
  last, this is its sixth year out of the 10.
• 34:08
  So yeah, I told my wife when this car is done, I might be
• 34:12
  done. So or I told her I would be
• 34:14
  done. So I think we got a few more
• 34:16
  years out of this car. We just need to unbend her a
• 34:18
  little bit every time. But what was I saying?
• 34:24
  Oh, how many sharks you? Have oh OK yeah so.
• 34:28
  I'm kind of glad I did, but when we started, I started always
• 34:30
  with the 11 and then my next car I think was an Alero or
• 34:35
  something that was the 11B. So and then every car we've
• 34:40
  added, you know, specialty cars. I think I did the the pink shark
• 34:44
  one time. That was a different car.
• 34:47
  We've done the the baby shark, the van and a few cars in
• 34:51
  between since the last one. So the current car is 11 H and I
• 34:59
  think the last one that we took to the scrapper was the 11 J.
• 35:03
  So we've made it that far in the alphabet.
• 35:05
  I don't want to do the math right now.
• 35:08
  It's Monday night. No math over here.
• 35:10
  OK, awesome. Thank you.
• 35:12
  Yeah. But other than that, again, I
• 35:16
  know I, I love the new Paris Knight of Destructions and, and
• 35:20
  I promote the heck out of those things because I just want
• 35:23
  people to experience it. And then again, I'm so glad
• 35:26
  having you on here. And I know I want to get a
• 35:27
  couple as we get closer to the next one in May, I want to get
• 35:31
  Coneheads on here, you know, probably Ralph from Pitbull,
• 35:33
  just get a couple people on here just to, you know, continue to
• 35:36
  help promote that, right? We have, you know, a big
• 35:39
  platform to do that on. So I definitely appreciate you
• 35:41
  taking the time, you know, on a Monday night to to talk with us
• 35:45
  and everything. So before we go, obviously the
• 35:49
  Hepner Racing new pair of shark people can find you on social
• 35:52
  media, but beyond that, who helps get you to the races or
• 35:56
  you know who helps you when you're there?
• 35:58
  Cars always have sponsors, right?
• 36:00
  But you know who helps you? Sure, absolutely.
• 36:03
  Well. I am so thankful my wife loves
• 36:06
  this stuff, you know, because it, it can be a lot.
• 36:09
  So I, I, you know, I'm thankful for her.
• 36:12
  She's my #1 my, my kids help out in the garage.
• 36:16
  Ralph Reese is always, you know, willing to come over and help.
• 36:20
  But kind of what's crazy at the NO DS is if if you break down or
• 36:24
  if you're having problems, there's always somebody willing
• 36:27
  to help. You know, there's always a
• 36:28
  couple guys, you know, coming over.
• 36:30
  Hey, what's going on? You need some help, you know,
• 36:33
  anything I can do. So there is definitely no lack
• 36:36
  of help at at the track. So which is which is an awesome
• 36:41
  little kind of NOD community we got going on here.
• 36:44
  Well, and I think it. Was last year that someone was
• 36:49
  it a something majorly broke and they had it fixed within a
• 36:53
  couple races and that guy and that guy was back out there
• 36:56
  racing and he was by himself. But it was everybody in that pit
• 36:59
  area came, you know, came together to help get him back on
• 37:02
  the track. And then they ended up putting
• 37:03
  on, you know, another good fun show.
• 37:05
  And that's what I, again, that's something I just really
• 37:07
  appreciate the about the group down at New Paris.
• 37:09
  And not that maybe that doesn't happen elsewhere, but, you know,
• 37:12
  when you get to watch things like that where it's like, I
• 37:15
  want to win, but I want you on the track because if I want to
• 37:18
  win, I want to beat you. And I want to beat, you know,
• 37:20
  like we go put on a show, right. And I think even last year was
• 37:25
  it you broke and maybe came back up with them broke again?
• 37:28
  I think maybe the same part or maybe it's two years ago, but
• 37:31
  that's something again, it's just impressive to watch as a
• 37:33
  fan. And then there's a media side
• 37:35
  that like, this is a community in here.
• 37:37
  Absolutely, yeah. So again, Aaron?
• 37:41
  I know we have DJ on. He's he's done a night of
• 37:43
  destruction. I don't know if you have met DJ
• 37:46
  Mccotter or not, but he did night destructions at South Bend
• 37:49
  and that's how he fell in love with racing.
• 37:51
  And then now he got on the racing side.
• 37:53
  And so I know he's in the staging area and, and so he's
• 37:57
  all familiar with night instruction too.
• 37:58
  He's he's done both sides of it but awesome.
• 38:01
  Again I just appreciate you coming on tonight and again, if
• 38:05
  for people, if you've not gone out to watch the night
• 38:07
  destruction at New Paris, it's coming up at the end of May head
• 38:10
  on out there. The shark is always there, easy
• 38:12
  to find, and you'll know when he's on the track, that fence
• 38:15
  will pop up and all you need to do is look for something like
• 38:18
  this that there you go now. And so, so again, Aaron, thank
• 38:23
  you so much for joining us tonight.
• 38:25
  And I look forward to seeing you here in a couple weeks.
• 38:28
  Yep, Thanks for having me on guys.
• 38:29
  Appreciate it. Yep, have a great rest of your
• 38:31
  night. You too?
• 38:33
  Yep. So again, that was.
• 38:34
  The new Paris shark from Aaron Hapner, The new Paris shark.
• 38:38
  And so let's have that over. If you've never even heard DJ do
• 38:42
  the national anthem, man, you know he can sing and do the
• 38:46
  pipes and do all the things. But we now have DJ Mccotter with
• 38:51
  us. The six never quits from LHR
• 38:52
  racing. I know you were working today
• 38:55
  and, and you're an hour behind us.
• 38:56
  So how is it living? And 6:30 we're we're already at
• 39:01
  7:38. So we we've already lived 630
• 39:03
  over on this side. So what's the 6:30 like down
• 39:06
  there in Indiana? I mean it feels.
• 39:08
  Like that? I still have an extra hour left
• 39:11
  in my day so I got my kids out playing in the yard right now
• 39:16
  and I'll be getting supper ready to go here.
• 39:18
  And I know some of y'all probably already eaten but you
• 39:21
  know, it feels like in some cases I'm behind but in other
• 39:24
  cases I'm like I got all this time.
• 39:27
  Yeah. Well, and that's where.
• 39:29
  Again, you're just your energy. So I need that.
• 39:32
  I was up until 6:00 this morning editing the Intimidator program.
• 39:35
  And so I I on fumes a little bit.
• 39:38
  But you always seem to come energetic and I know you've been
• 39:41
  working all day and doing all that.
• 39:42
  So for people who don't know who DJ Mccotter is, I know I've been
• 39:46
  fortunate enough to meet you. Buju's been fortunate enough to
• 39:49
  meet you. And I think you can race against
• 39:50
  each other, right? Yeah.
• 39:53
  And so. So for for DJ, let everybody
• 39:57
  know who is the biggest Cody fan around DJ Mccotter.
• 40:04
  Well, ladies. And gentlemen, I.
• 40:06
  Of course, DJ Mccotter, I come originally from Durham, NC, but
• 40:10
  in 2018 moved here to Northwest Indiana, currently residing in
• 40:15
  Griffith, and it was early 2021. I was going through some
• 40:20
  personal battles, which included the divorce and I was not in a
• 40:24
  good headspace. But then a good friend of mine
• 40:27
  named James Woods, who's actually in the night of
• 40:29
  destruction at South Bend at the time, he introduced me to say,
• 40:33
  man, why don't you come to the track with me on on Memorial
• 40:36
  Day? I'm like, what track?
• 40:37
  He's South Bend Motor Speedway and where's that?
• 40:39
  He just just follow me. OK, So I I went out there with
• 40:44
  him and I grew up a racing fan. I always loved watching Mark
• 40:47
  Martin Dr. that Valvoline car And and so the so I got into the
• 40:52
  pits and I'm seeing all these speed up cars and trailers and
• 40:57
  decorations and stuff and my head's on a swivel the entire
• 41:00
  time. And I'm like, there's a hundred
• 41:02
  and some odd cars here and I don't see a single number six
• 41:04
  car out here. What in the world?
• 41:06
  And so I, I've watched the races that night and at that moment I
• 41:13
  was hooked. And two weeks later, I got a
• 41:15
  hold of, of my first car, a Pontiac Sunfire.
• 41:18
  I bought it for 200 bucks from Hyles Anderson College in Crown
• 41:20
  Point. I've still got heavy
• 41:22
  affiliations with them. It's a Christian college out
• 41:24
  here. The foreman out there, Jerry
• 41:27
  Oswaldi, he was very instrumental in helping me get
• 41:30
  that car, get it together. And then I ran a few raisins
• 41:34
  before I ever turned laps. I had people like Buju, like
• 41:37
  Tyler Casper, Ben Kolowenko, among others.
• 41:40
  Go dude, this car is clean. You need to turn it into a
• 41:43
  Hornet. I'm like a what?
• 41:45
  And so and and so. I'm like, what's a?
• 41:49
  Hornet. They're like.
• 41:50
  Oh, you put a. Roll cage in and you run and
• 41:52
  I'm, I'm just like, what are you guys talking about?
• 41:55
  And so after, after that night, after I had beat the crap out of
• 41:58
  that car, I went home and I punched in on YouTube Hornet
• 42:04
  racing at South Bend Speedway and I said, that's it.
• 42:08
  That's what I want to do. So I finished out the couple
• 42:11
  three nights that there were that year at South Bend running
• 42:14
  the night of destruction and then put a put some fresh body
• 42:18
  panels in Tyler Casper, put a roll cage in that car and I
• 42:22
  crossed over into Hornet Racing. I still teeter back and forth
• 42:25
  here and there, but I've run nights of destruction at South
• 42:28
  Bend, Plymouth, New Paris, which is a very fun show, I might add.
• 42:33
  And, and while I'm thinking about it, Aaron Hapner, if
• 42:35
  you're still, if you're still on here listening, J is the 10th
• 42:39
  letter of the alphabet, just so you know.
• 42:42
  But anyway, so I, I, I've done a lot of that.
• 42:46
  And, and then the Hornet race. I personally like Hornet racing
• 42:49
  myself. And I think there's, there's a
• 42:53
  skill level, a challenge you you challenge yourself when you're
• 42:56
  out there doing some Hornet racing.
• 42:57
  And, and I've had some highs, I've had some lows and learned a
• 43:02
  lot what to do and a lot what not to do.
• 43:04
  And certain people who think they're experts, I've learned
• 43:07
  who to listen to, but who not to listen to.
• 43:11
  And so, but I've got, I've got a ton more that I can say.
• 43:16
  But you mentioned LHR, Linda Hughes Racing.
• 43:19
  Linda Hughes Racing was formed late in it.
• 43:22
  It came to me because I started under the brand of Mccotter
• 43:26
  Motorsports in 2021. Of course, Mccotter being my
• 43:29
  last name, but then my mom was battling cancer pretty hard and
• 43:34
  I kept thinking to myself, she's 800 miles away in North
• 43:36
  Carolina. How can I support her in her
• 43:39
  battle with cancer from so far? How can I show her the hey, I
• 43:43
  love you. I'm still here for you trying to
• 43:44
  do what I can to show you that you know, I care.
• 43:48
  And and it's a whole lot easier if you knew my mom to ask
• 43:53
  forgiveness than it is permission.
• 43:55
  Because if I told her this is what I wanted to do and ask it,
• 43:57
  she would tell me, no, do your own thing.
• 43:59
  So I just did it. And Easter Sunday of 2022, I
• 44:04
  rolled that #6 Pontiac out of the shop at HAC and, and had my
• 44:10
  sister was up here for that and she had my mom on the video call
• 44:14
  and I, and I introduced her and the world to Linda Hughes
• 44:18
  Racing. And from that point, that's been
• 44:20
  my banner ever since. And so I, I go out there and I
• 44:25
  have a lot of fun doing it. Yeah, of course I'm, I'm out
• 44:28
  there getting wins, trying to get wins and stuff.
• 44:30
  But, you know, you mentioned about the, the community.
• 44:34
  That's a huge thing that I enjoyed.
• 44:36
  See, to me, racing, at least in this area, is a lot more than
• 44:40
  just standing on the gas and turning left.
• 44:42
  It's the band of brothers and sisters that are out there with
• 44:45
  us. The, you know, just all around
• 44:48
  good people, all that are willing to help, willing to
• 44:51
  listen. You're having a bad night.
• 44:54
  You know, people are willing to jump in to help you and, and you
• 44:58
  know, I've got a list of people that I could talk about here
• 45:00
  tonight, but how much time do we got?
• 45:03
  Well. You haven't talked about.
• 45:05
  Eight O 5. So we got time.
• 45:08
  I mean, it's it's now wait a minute.
• 45:10
  Eight O 5, your time or my time, our time.
• 45:13
  So how about that? Seven O 5 your time.
• 45:16
  So you're not. You're not.
• 45:18
  That big of a headliner, DJ, Settle down.
• 45:19
  You don't get an hour now. All right, All right, but DJ,
• 45:23
  you are someone who. I definitely would want to bring
• 45:25
  back on already just because just you have such an incredible
• 45:29
  story, plus you're such a fan of so many different things that
• 45:34
  again, it's one of those that as I was going through thinking of,
• 45:37
  OK, who can I reach out to and bring on?
• 45:39
  You are definitely, you know, one of those names that I wanted
• 45:41
  to bring on just because, I mean, just listen to your story
• 45:45
  now. I think you and Ron could fill
• 45:47
  up like 4 hours of episode time, you know, between the two of
• 45:51
  you. But that's where, you know,
• 45:53
  watching you grow and then watching the extra things you've
• 45:55
  done, like when you sing the national anthem and you've
• 45:57
  announced and you've done different things, like you're
• 46:00
  just super passionate, you know, about this and you're just
• 46:03
  passionate about life. I mean, you went through a
• 46:05
  pretty crappy situation a few years ago.
• 46:08
  I felt so bad. You came up to Springport and
• 46:10
  raced Springport for the first time.
• 46:11
  And then that following, I think Monday or Tuesday, you know,
• 46:14
  you, your life changed drastically, you know, and even
• 46:19
  though you were down, you weren't out, you still kept that
• 46:22
  passion and still kept that hope and still kept that positive
• 46:25
  message. And, and again, I just think
• 46:28
  we're in a world where we need a lot more of that, you know, and,
• 46:32
  and that's where. I just appreciate who you are
• 46:36
  as. A person.
• 46:36
  So one of the things that I Oh no, absolutely.
• 46:41
  I mean, I'm just. Such a huge fan of yours.
• 46:43
  And I think a lot of people who interact with you are just
• 46:45
  because of that, like 6 never quits.
• 46:48
  And so if you want to talk a little bit about how that came
• 46:50
  around, because you've, you've really lived that, you know,
• 46:54
  life where, you know, I used to teach the seven habits and I, I,
• 46:57
  I use a lot of that too. Or like, what's a big rock?
• 47:00
  What's a Little Rock? You know, trying to figure out
• 47:02
  what's worth solving right now and what's not maybe worth the
• 47:05
  time. So for your six never quits,
• 47:07
  you've not only say it, but you live it.
• 47:10
  I try. To for sure I.
• 47:12
  Mean we all have shortcomings, but as far as the six never
• 47:16
  quits, I I'm, I'm going to be honest here.
• 47:18
  I may or may not have stolen that from Brad Keselowski
• 47:21
  because when he first took over the six car for RFK, they were
• 47:25
  trying to find some catchy hashtag and and I saw that and
• 47:31
  I'm like, you know what? I'm going to use that.
• 47:34
  And, and, and then of course, you mentioned that I'm a fan of
• 47:37
  Cody Rhodes, huge fan of Cody. If anybody watch WrestleMania,
• 47:41
  Congrats to Cody on that. But, but you know, my, my
• 47:46
  parents as a kid instilled in me, if you want something, you
• 47:50
  got to go get it. You got to work for it.
• 47:52
  And, and so when I got into racing, I knew that nothing was
• 47:58
  going to be handed to me. And so I had to go out there and
• 48:02
  figure out what it is that I needed to do to get where I
• 48:06
  needed to be or wanted to be for that matter.
• 48:09
  And I've got a ton of people that I could list right here,
• 48:13
  including Keith Barringer, Junior Ken, Darren the Squirrel,
• 48:17
  Dustin Smith. Let's see, there's just so many
• 48:20
  more names that I could list off right off the top of my head who
• 48:23
  have helped me get where I need to be and where I want to be.
• 48:26
  Who have been there every step of the way.
• 48:29
  People like Keith who've been there talking me through if I've
• 48:32
  had a bad night at the track or if I got in a bad wreck or
• 48:35
  something and he would be there helping me out.
• 48:38
  Kurt Grubb, of course, is someone that was there helping
• 48:41
  me along the way with getting cars ready to go and testing and
• 48:46
  things of that nature. But you know, I faced early
• 48:51
  season adversity in 2022 and it could have been very easy for me
• 48:57
  to walk away. So well, that was my car.
• 49:00
  I'm done. But at that point, like I had
• 49:03
  mentioned before, a fire was lit in me a year before South Bend,
• 49:07
  and I knew this is what I wanted to do.
• 49:09
  Because to me, there's more to life than just getting up, going
• 49:13
  to work, coming home, get in the shower, going to bed and doing
• 49:16
  it all over again the next day. And everyone has to have
• 49:20
  something that that they can they can do that brings them
• 49:25
  just positivity, joy and things of that nature.
• 49:27
  Of course my kids do do that alone, but you know, I, I love
• 49:32
  being able to participate in, in, you know, like you say, with
• 49:37
  the, with the singing of the national anthem and with the,
• 49:40
  with the announcing and things like that.
• 49:42
  Many people have told me I've got a, a face, I mean, a voice
• 49:45
  for radio. So I just try to use that to my
• 49:48
  advantage. And, and so I've gone up there
• 49:51
  at South Bend, called some of the races and had a big time
• 49:54
  with it and then with the national anthem.
• 49:58
  I grew up singing, I grew up in the church singing in in our
• 50:01
  youth choir and did some solos and things like that.
• 50:04
  And so there was one night where I guess they were having audio
• 50:08
  issues at South Bend. So I walked up to Chris
• 50:11
  Highball, say, hey man, you ever need anyone to fill in?
• 50:15
  Will you ever let? Me have a chance at.
• 50:16
  He said sure, and so he turned me loose with a mic and and
• 50:20
  everybody loved it. So every now and then I get a
• 50:23
  special request. And so I'm like, all right,
• 50:24
  cool. So and I just thank the good
• 50:27
  Lord above for the for the abilities that he's given me.
• 50:30
  But as far as, as far as the never quitting part, you know
• 50:34
  that just, that's just been instilled in me from my
• 50:36
  childhood about just not giving up.
• 50:40
  And I don't know what quit means.
• 50:44
  You mentioned a few minutes ago about the devastation that took
• 50:47
  place in 2024 when I came up to Springport.
• 50:49
  I'll just talk briefly about this in fact, but the, the
• 50:53
  picture you had up there of my car was from Springport a few
• 50:56
  minutes ago, but it was about a week and a half mate, maybe not
• 51:01
  even a week later. It was on a Thursday morning.
• 51:03
  I got up like every other Thursday morning, got myself
• 51:06
  ready to go about 7:30 in the morning, pulled out of my
• 51:10
  driveway, got to work, put on my uniform and then was punching in
• 51:15
  and, and about 8:00 my phone was ringing off the hook like why
• 51:20
  are all these people trying to call me?
• 51:21
  Then I then the one call I did answer was from the lady that
• 51:25
  managed the trailer park that I was living.
• 51:26
  Excuse me, mobile Home Park. We got to be politically
• 51:28
  correct, but mobile home facility.
• 51:33
  So, so she called me and said, hey, your house is on fire.
• 51:37
  I'm like, what? So I turned that 25 minute ride
• 51:40
  to work into a 12 minute ride home and.
• 51:44
  And the only reason it took me that long since I caught a red
• 51:47
  light, but nonetheless. So of course the shock factor of
• 51:52
  the of my home burning to the ground, losing everything, but I
• 51:58
  didn't even have a chance to process.
• 52:00
  This is where I believe that the racing world is full of good
• 52:03
  people and. And I.
• 52:06
  Again, believe that this is a God thing that I'm even here in
• 52:10
  the racing community is because I didn't even have a chance to
• 52:14
  process everything. I made like two or three phone
• 52:18
  calls racing home saying hey, I've got a major emergency.
• 52:23
  And so I, I one of the guys. That I contacted was.
• 52:30
  Was Keith Behringer, Keith junior #3 I call him Mr. 311,
• 52:35
  that dude. I call him a mentor because he
• 52:38
  has been so good for me mentally, physically among other
• 52:44
  things. But I I filled him in like dude
• 52:47
  I just lost everything. And before I could even process
• 52:52
  the next thought there was already a post that he had made
• 52:54
  on my behalf about how I lost everything in a house fire.
• 52:58
  And two days later was a night of destruction at South Bend.
• 53:03
  And he told me that day he goes, you're going to be at the track
• 53:08
  whether you want to be or not. And if you're not there, we are
• 53:11
  going to hunt you down, hog tie you, toss your butt in the back
• 53:15
  of the pickup and drag you to the track whether you want to be
• 53:17
  there or not. And then he followed it up with
• 53:19
  because I mean, it's not like you have anywhere else to be
• 53:22
  anyway. But so, so.
• 53:27
  Oh, yeah, yeah, Keith and I have that type of relationship.
• 53:30
  So, but it was a blessing because so many people stepped
• 53:35
  up last minute Motorsports, Bree Celski, Austin Wheeler, they
• 53:39
  stepped up with putting a putting together a raffle car
• 53:42
  and over $3500 was raised, Justin, that night alone for me
• 53:46
  and my family and the amount of donations, the amount of love
• 53:49
  that was shown to us is incredible.
• 53:52
  And so, you know, after that, like at that point again
• 53:57
  Thursday morning, sitting there watching my home smoldering
• 54:00
  what's left of it, I'm going, what do I do?
• 54:03
  What do I do? By Saturday, I had already
• 54:07
  acquired so much stuff and fundage from people of the
• 54:11
  racing community and from the church that I was just like,
• 54:13
  Lord, thank you. And so with that, I try to use
• 54:19
  that as a catalyst to be a positive encouragement to those
• 54:23
  around me, whether it be upcoming racers, whether it be
• 54:27
  guys that are that are having a bad night or even if there's
• 54:31
  someone else who's experiencing A tragedy.
• 54:33
  I try to share what I know on Facebook, like a pass along what
• 54:38
  what you like with the dominant and Charles Anderson situation
• 54:40
  that recently arisen. I shared that online trying to
• 54:43
  help them out as well. But you know, the racing
• 54:47
  community has been good to me and to my family.
• 54:49
  And, and so I got, I got the car put together for last year.
• 54:54
  And in the last two years I've spent traveling more so than
• 54:57
  anything. And I've learned a lot by
• 55:00
  traveling. I learned that I need a better
• 55:02
  platform than what I had for a car.
• 55:05
  But but that's one thing that I love about the sport.
• 55:08
  It's about growing and learning. And and so, you know, there's
• 55:13
  just, there's a lot more that I can say, but, you know, time is
• 55:18
  expiring rather quickly. Oh, hey.
• 55:22
  You just keep talking and you're doing you things right?
• 55:24
  Like that's where again, it because it's a, it's an
• 55:28
  incredible story, right? And even in the face of
• 55:33
  adversity, right, you stuck to your core values.
• 55:36
  You stuck to that and, and, and it's just, there's so many
• 55:40
  different ways in life to just throw in the white towel, right
• 55:43
  and just give up and you know, and say, you know what?
• 55:46
  This, this was it, this was the TKO moment, not TKO, but you
• 55:51
  know, like this was the knockout moment that, you know, just, but
• 55:55
  you just never seem to find that gear.
• 55:57
  You're always, you know, always looking forward, always looking
• 56:01
  how not only you can help people, but then I think, like I
• 56:04
  said, you have a lot of fans and that's why so many people you
• 56:07
  know, helped you because you, you bring so much value to
• 56:10
  people's life and they're better for having you in it.
• 56:13
  So. Your story is just amazing.
• 56:17
  In itself, you know, that's where, excuse me, sorry, I took
• 56:22
  a drink really quick 'cause my throat was getting dry while
• 56:24
  you're talking and, and I just burped so I apologize, but that
• 56:28
  was not on purpose. But but it's one of those that,
• 56:31
  again, just listening to, you know, to your story and what you
• 56:33
  do again, that's just I'm so. Glad that people get to.
• 56:37
  Hear that right, Because truly you got knocked down and you're
• 56:41
  able to get back up and, and keep going.
• 56:43
  And so when you've traveled around, you know what, what
• 56:47
  track have you found that you've liked so far that you know you
• 56:50
  didn't, wasn't in your arsenal? Again, you were only introduced
• 56:52
  to South Bend a few years ago. And So what have you enjoyed as
• 56:56
  you've gone around? I know you raced Montville there
• 56:58
  for a little bit before, you know, it became a church and you
• 57:01
  went up to Springport, M40, South Bend, Plymouth.
• 57:06
  So what? What have you liked?
• 57:09
  So obviously every different trend, I've also visited
• 57:13
  Galesburg and yeah, Galesburg. And then there was one more that
• 57:17
  that escapes me. But every track has their own
• 57:21
  different unique characteristics.
• 57:23
  Mottville, Galesburg, they're flat.
• 57:25
  M40 South Bend, highly banked, very fast.
• 57:29
  But I learned just by traveling. I'll get I'll answer your
• 57:33
  question here in a second, but I learned just by traveling of how
• 57:38
  adaptive I needed to be when going from one track to another
• 57:42
  because my South Bend setup doesn't work at Plymouth, My
• 57:45
  Plymouth setup does not work at M40.
• 57:47
  And so it's learning how to be versatile and how to it it, it
• 57:52
  made me better as a as one to set the car up and it taught me
• 57:57
  more as a driver what I am and am not capable of.
• 58:02
  But I would say that as of right now, kind of neck and neck of my
• 58:07
  two favorite tracks right now are South Bend because that's
• 58:10
  home. That's going to be difficult to
• 58:12
  top. Amen, Buju and then and then
• 58:16
  M40, the speed that I've gotten from M40I love it.
• 58:23
  I and I've figured out that that infamous dip in turn 3 when I
• 58:27
  bottom out, if I mash on the gas just right hitting that dip,
• 58:31
  it'll set me up perfectly for this for the front stretch.
• 58:34
  But M40 is a blast and and I love running there and I'm
• 58:39
  probably going to frequent there quite a bit this year as well
• 58:42
  just because Plymouth is, even though Plymouth is the closest
• 58:44
  to me, they're running Friday nights.
• 58:46
  I work up until 6 O clock y'all's time on Friday.
• 58:48
  I can't make the races that like that, but I can at M40 on
• 58:52
  Saturdays. But M40, what Bill and Judge are
• 58:56
  doing up there is amazing and you know, got a good group of
• 59:01
  people up there. But while I'm thinking about it,
• 59:05
  I want to share. I mentioned Ken Darren, the
• 59:07
  squirrel a few minutes ago. He drives the number 13.
• 59:10
  For those of you that don't, that don't know, there's a
• 59:12
  reason we call him the squirrel. Dude is nuts.
• 59:16
  But and that's putting it mildly.
• 59:19
  But one thing he did give me a solid piece of advice a couple
• 59:22
  years ago. He said, you know, know, you
• 59:24
  love racing. Just whatever you do, don't
• 59:27
  forget your kids. And, and at first I didn't know
• 59:32
  quite what he was talking about, but you know, Ken and I have
• 59:36
  developed quite the brotherhood over the last few years and we
• 59:40
  butted heads a few times. But there have been times where
• 59:42
  I've talked some sense into him. There's been times he's talked
• 59:45
  since into me. But he said don't forget your
• 59:47
  kids. And basically what that meant
• 59:49
  was what he was meaning by that is don't get so caught up in
• 59:52
  racing that you forget about them and miss watching them
• 59:55
  grow. And so I try to involve them as
• 59:58
  much as I can whenever I can. And we got some special events.
• 1:00:03
  If I miss a week here and there, if I'm not competing for the
• 1:00:06
  championship, then, you know, just know that I've got some
• 1:00:09
  plans with the kids that we're going to be spending doing some
• 1:00:11
  stuff away from a track. But I know my son Jody
• 1:00:15
  absolutely loves it. My daughter Erica, she loves
• 1:00:18
  coming out. They've made some some friends,
• 1:00:21
  you know, in in the playground area of M40.
• 1:00:25
  About in the pit area of of South Bend and Plymouth and
• 1:00:28
  other tracks and and so I'm very fortunate for them to be on this
• 1:00:33
  journey with me and they get to learn and grow with me as as the
• 1:00:39
  the the racing team of LHR grows and develops and their key
• 1:00:44
  factors into that. Their names are all over my car
• 1:00:47
  and and Jody's already told me he wants to drive the 8 car.
• 1:00:51
  Erica wants to drive the 10 car and I'm over here going.
• 1:00:54
  I can't afford many wedges yet. Guys slow down.
• 1:00:58
  But but you know, and Ken is right.
• 1:01:02
  I, you know, as a father, that's my first priority.
• 1:01:05
  And and so, you know, I don't want them to feel like they're
• 1:01:09
  left out in any of this. No.
• 1:01:13
  And again, that's again. That's I Can't Sing your praises
• 1:01:16
  enough as a person just because of just your foundation.
• 1:01:20
  Your core. Values that you just really
• 1:01:22
  possess and have. And I think what some people are
• 1:01:25
  wondering as one of your core foundations, not to sidetrack a
• 1:01:29
  little bit, but everyone's wondering where the fire suits
• 1:01:31
  are because that's been in the comments.
• 1:01:33
  Where are the fire suits? I think you let people down
• 1:01:36
  tonight. You did not get in one of your
• 1:01:37
  fires. Oh.
• 1:01:39
  Lord, have mercy. We're going to have them
• 1:01:41
  changing on podcast now. All right, everybody get 20s.
• 1:01:45
  And 10s out, you know, but. Now that I've only I've.
• 1:01:50
  Only got a couple of, but you see, I'm, I'm a telling myself a
• 1:01:54
  little bit. So with working at a bus garage
• 1:01:57
  in Hammond, I I've been blessed to make a decent wage and I have
• 1:02:03
  a pretty decent tax return at the end of the, at the end of
• 1:02:06
  the year or the beginning of the year, I should say.
• 1:02:08
  And so for the first couple years I'm like, all right, you
• 1:02:12
  know, I, I need a fire suit. So what I'm, what am I going to
• 1:02:15
  do? This one got tore up over the
• 1:02:16
  last season. So, oh, here's an idea and I'll
• 1:02:21
  draw up a sketch and I message the guy that I get him from and
• 1:02:24
  say, hey, can you make this? Yeah, we can do that.
• 1:02:28
  And so I didn't do it this year because I had other areas of
• 1:02:33
  finance that I had to cover. But but yes, the fire suits, I,
• 1:02:38
  I pride myself something someone once told me why I wear the fire
• 1:02:43
  suit from the time I get there to the time I leave is 1.
• 1:02:47
  It's easier recognizable as a driver for the fans if I'm
• 1:02:50
  walking through or whatever and they can say, oh, he's a racer,
• 1:02:53
  Let's let's go talk to him and introduce myself and strike up
• 1:02:55
  conversations that way. People call me nuts, especially
• 1:03:00
  on the dog days of summer and I'm all suited up.
• 1:03:02
  But I can promise you if I'm wearing a pair of shorts, you
• 1:03:05
  don't need sunglasses. So, but, but no, I, I just feel
• 1:03:10
  like it's, it helps identify me as a driver to those who may be
• 1:03:17
  new to the racing scene and again, help strike up
• 1:03:20
  conversations and, and introduce people to the sport who may be
• 1:03:24
  new to it. And so yes, they've always been
• 1:03:28
  good conversation starters. People like to pick on me
• 1:03:31
  because I, I wear flashy suits or whatever.
• 1:03:33
  But hey, I've got a few wins and a fast qualifier, my name.
• 1:03:37
  So where's your fire suit? All right, while we're changing
• 1:03:43
  gears. I want to, I want to tell my
• 1:03:44
  favorite DJ Mccotter story. I think he probably knows.
• 1:03:49
  So we put, here we go. We put it next to DJs out then
• 1:03:52
  for a long time. So we have a good humorous
• 1:03:55
  relationship with DJ as well. So somebody was borrowing,
• 1:03:58
  somebody was borrowing DJs car running down to Plymouth a few
• 1:04:01
  years ago. That was a mistake, Yeah.
• 1:04:05
  We won't mention the name. D JS Live DJs live on Facebook
• 1:04:08
  during this heat race. So the guy's driving the car,
• 1:04:11
  dude, there he goes. He's Wheeling on the outside.
• 1:04:14
  Oh, here he comes. Car and then all of a sudden.
• 1:04:17
  The video is very grainy. It looks like DJ might have
• 1:04:19
  filmed it with a with a potato, but we'll cover that at a later
• 1:04:22
  date. So yeah, all of a sudden you
• 1:04:25
  hear the car skidding and you can't really see it because of
• 1:04:27
  the video quality. But all of the car is just at a
• 1:04:30
  stop in front of you. And the perfect comedic timing.
• 1:04:33
  There's a pause. DJ goes and he just wrecked my
• 1:04:36
  car. Come.
• 1:04:38
  On man. Video, Yeah, yeah, that on
• 1:04:43
  video. I remember that night and then I
• 1:04:46
  when I saw the live, I went. I mean, how else he responds to
• 1:04:50
  that, right. So and he wrecked my car.
• 1:04:54
  And. The Davis clan has yet.
• 1:04:56
  To let me forget. Now that that.
• 1:05:03
  That there. Go ahead.
• 1:05:06
  Yeah, no. So I.
• 1:05:08
  So the deal between him and me, because he lived close to me and
• 1:05:12
  I had to work again. It was a Friday night.
• 1:05:15
  I says, all right, I'll tell you what.
• 1:05:16
  If you haul my car to the track, that'll save me a few minutes
• 1:05:19
  getting from work to the track. If you hot lap it, if you haul
• 1:05:23
  it there, you can hot lap it. And if I'm not there in time,
• 1:05:25
  you can run the heat race, but I'll take it over for the
• 1:05:28
  feature. He said, all right, cool.
• 1:05:30
  So he he qualifies. He decent, I think.
• 1:05:34
  And of course he's talking up the car like how this might
• 1:05:36
  convert me over from a neon to AGM or whatever.
• 1:05:39
  I'm like all right, cool, whatever.
• 1:05:40
  Well, I show up and he's strapping in for the heat race.
• 1:05:43
  So what does he do? He's hey man, he sticks his
• 1:05:46
  phone out the window, says can you film on my Facebook live?
• 1:05:50
  Can you film this while I'm on track?
• 1:05:51
  I said sure, I watched him get loose lap after lap after lap
• 1:05:57
  and I'm like, please don't tear my car up, man.
• 1:05:59
  And sure enough, and but in the back of my mind, I'm like, I am
• 1:06:03
  live. I don't know how many people are
• 1:06:04
  watching. You know, I can't lose my cool
• 1:06:06
  while I'm on camera, you know, so so that's where the infamous
• 1:06:11
  and wrecked my car. That was completely genuine.
• 1:06:15
  But as soon as I hit stop, oh I was.
• 1:06:19
  Lighting. Him up like a fireworks stand.
• 1:06:22
  But I was. Mad, Oh my, I was, I was madder
• 1:06:27
  than a albino trying to hitch hike in a snowstorm.
• 1:06:29
  I was pissed. So, but you know, again, Keith
• 1:06:35
  Barringer, Dustin Smith and and actually Dakota Millbourne as
• 1:06:38
  well, they all banded together. They got, I got another car out
• 1:06:43
  of it and Glenn Cormac and 4C's North Fabrication.
• 1:06:46
  Awesome work, I might add, if you need roll cage or fab work
• 1:06:49
  done. He helped get the new car ready
• 1:06:51
  to go in the next two weeks. And yeah, so that night I
• 1:06:56
  learned be very particular of who you let in your car that's
• 1:07:01
  back, back to the where you started.
• 1:07:02
  With knowing who to listen to and who not to listen to, right?
• 1:07:05
  Did he? Exactly.
• 1:07:07
  Exactly. Well, DJI know Drew is.
• 1:07:10
  Popped in from the Midwest Truck Series, but we're going to have
• 1:07:13
  to I see that's eight O 5 where I'm going to message you after
• 1:07:17
  this because we're going to bring you back on because I
• 1:07:19
  don't think I've laughed this long or that much in the long
• 1:07:22
  time like that because that I mean, I remember recording that
• 1:07:25
  and then I was in I was up top and I heard the stories of how
• 1:07:29
  mad you got and I went DJ and because came up to talk with me.
• 1:07:34
  He was hanging out with me a little bit.
• 1:07:37
  So I, I remember all that And I know maybe we get you, Keith,
• 1:07:40
  you and Keith on at the same time and just have, just have a
• 1:07:43
  group because I mean, just the stories you all could tell too.
• 1:07:46
  And I know the Behringers are, are too who I want to get on
• 1:07:49
  here. So, so again, I'm I'm going to
• 1:07:52
  reach out to you that way we can get you back on because we
• 1:07:54
  haven't even scratched the surface with everything that
• 1:07:56
  you've done too. And so and Buju, Can you imagine
• 1:08:01
  him and run on the same episode? Oh yeah, I know.
• 1:08:04
  I don't. Think we'd even need to be here.
• 1:08:05
  You could just press play and I could go to, I could go to work,
• 1:08:09
  you could do whatever. How much?
• 1:08:13
  Time you got. So so.
• 1:08:16
  Again, DJ, like I said, I Can't Sing your praises enough and I,
• 1:08:20
  we will be getting you back on. You'll be someone who will, you
• 1:08:22
  know, we'll look into May because then you'll have some
• 1:08:24
  races under your belt by then too.
• 1:08:26
  And I know you're talking about dinner and everything.
• 1:08:28
  So it's at central time zone, right?
• 1:08:29
  We've already lived 7:00. It's 8:00 here and and now both
• 1:08:33
  of our guests are living an hour that we've already lived.
• 1:08:35
  So so again, DJ, thank you so much for joining us tonight.
• 1:08:41
  And I still that I'm I should have had that clip.
• 1:08:44
  I did not come prepared for that.
• 1:08:46
  I could have played that and we could have got a live animation
• 1:08:48
  on. It.
• 1:08:52
  But again, DJ, thank you so much for joining us tonight on the
• 1:08:55
  Monday Night Rewind and I will be talking very, very soon.
• 1:08:58
  That was good. Thanks man.
• 1:08:59
  Thanks for having. Me.
• 1:09:01
  Oh, no, again, thank you. And that was DJ.
• 1:09:02
  Mccotter and so really quick since we're at the top of the
• 1:09:06
  hour before we bring on Jude just as a reminder for next
• 1:09:09
  week, we do have Rod Vrash Part 2 who will be here with stock
• 1:09:13
  car extreme. He gets the whole episode
• 1:09:15
  because we know last time he almost went two hours and if it
• 1:09:18
  wasn't for work, he could have kept telling more stories.
• 1:09:21
  And so we didn't even scratch the surface with him.
• 1:09:24
  And then on May 4th, the like I said earlier, the 4th will be
• 1:09:27
  with us as Tim Dibble. We'll be telling stories and
• 1:09:30
  talk about owning the Hartford Speedway with his wife Leah.
• 1:09:33
  And if you, you know, do shots on that day, then you can have
• 1:09:37
  some fifth because May 5th is the next day with Cinco de Mayo.
• 1:09:40
  But anyways, as we move forward, one more shout out to for the
• 1:09:44
  Thursday night Throttle, which is live this Thursday at 7 O
• 1:09:47
  clock right here on top of racing media, Facebook and
• 1:09:50
  YouTube, we'll be previewing the upcoming weekend.
• 1:09:52
  Boozoo and I especially so many tracks opening this week and I
• 1:09:55
  know we just came off the Kalamazoo Speedway event and
• 1:09:58
  they'll have weekly racing this week and then new Paris has
• 1:10:01
  weekly racing after their night of the attraction.
• 1:10:03
  So, so much to cover. Again, the Thursday show's a
• 1:10:06
  little shorter. This is guest centric on
• 1:10:08
  Mondays. Thursdays, more of a
• 1:10:10
  infomercial, talk about headlines, those sort of things.
• 1:10:13
  So with that said, we're going to bring on Drew Krybic from the
• 1:10:19
  Midwest Truck Series. So again, Drew, welcome to the
• 1:10:22
  Monday night Rewind. Hey, thanks for having me.
• 1:10:24
  Wow, what? A what a guest to follow here.
• 1:10:27
  I just jumped into the room and stories are flying and hopefully
• 1:10:32
  I can piggyback off this a little bit well and I'm excited.
• 1:10:36
  To bring you. On because I know we've not met
• 1:10:38
  before I don't think we've crossed paths, but you put out a
• 1:10:42
  social media post a few weeks ago and so in doing my research
• 1:10:45
  because I wanted to know like even like how do I say the last
• 1:10:48
  name because you just never know right Sometimes the the vowels,
• 1:10:51
  you know throw you off there. But but with that, I came across
• 1:10:54
  a couple podcasts that you've been a part of and obviously
• 1:10:57
  with the truck tour. But you had posted something
• 1:10:58
  that really stood out to me and I read the comments about, you
• 1:11:01
  know, you have a series in Wisconsin over there that is
• 1:11:04
  growing. I I bet that most people
• 1:11:06
  watching right now who are Michigan and Indiana may not
• 1:11:10
  even know the Midwest Truck Series, especially being
• 1:11:12
  Wisconsin based. So you put out how can a series
• 1:11:15
  that's doing all these wonderful things get any kind of coverage?
• 1:11:18
  And the comments were interesting to me too, where I
• 1:11:20
  went well, OK, you know. So that's why I reached.
• 1:11:25
  Out to you because it's like I'm not national although I did show
• 1:11:28
  graphic earlier where what I touched you know and I don't
• 1:11:31
  stream or anything but you know 60% of from Florida on up to
• 1:11:35
  Canada and over you know I touched some way somehow over
• 1:11:38
  this weekend with my coverage so that's why we reach out because
• 1:11:42
  it's like OK how can we help because this is short track
• 1:11:44
  racing and we need all these different kind of things to
• 1:11:47
  succeed whether it's financially viable or not for you know a
• 1:11:50
  media person it's like we got to do our part you know so for
• 1:11:53
  people who I'm guessing is a lot who may not know about not only
• 1:11:57
  you and your story I learned that you've grown up around
• 1:12:00
  racing and you've I think flagged and concessions and all
• 1:12:03
  these things so if you want to tell a little bit about you and
• 1:12:05
  then jump into what the Midwest Truck Series is yeah absolutely,
• 1:12:09
  I've I've. My story is similar to most
• 1:12:11
  everybody else is in the racing world.
• 1:12:13
  As you know, really grew up in this sport.
• 1:12:16
  My dad was an official, my mom worked at the racetrack.
• 1:12:19
  And so it was, it was something that that I just knew and and
• 1:12:24
  did. And so when the.
• 1:12:28
  Opportunity. Presented itself with Midwest
• 1:12:30
  Truck Series in 2018. I've been kind of helping out a
• 1:12:34
  little bit to go a little bit more full time.
• 1:12:37
  It was it was a perfect opportunity for me to jump in
• 1:12:40
  and help out this series. And So what I've, what we've
• 1:12:44
  been able to build since that 2017 timeframe has been a truck
• 1:12:49
  count that averaged roughly 15 trucks give or take all the way
• 1:12:55
  up to right now. We just opened a couple weeks
• 1:12:57
  ago at the Bells Racing Park with 34 looks like our entry
• 1:13:02
  list for a week and 1/2 is another 34.
• 1:13:05
  And so we have been able to build this series into something
• 1:13:10
  that's cost affordable. So it's, we're, we're a stock
• 1:13:15
  6O2 crate engine fab chassis. It's, it's similar to a late
• 1:13:19
  model, but it is a truck. So the cages are a little bit
• 1:13:22
  taller to fit the truck body in. Really I want we wanted to bring
• 1:13:26
  fun back to racing in an affordable way.
• 1:13:29
  Something that's something that's competitive, that it
• 1:13:32
  means something to win. And it's become a proving ground
• 1:13:36
  for young and up and Comer racers, as well as the veterans
• 1:13:39
  that maybe went and did the late models.
• 1:13:41
  They went and did the Super late model stuff and it's just gotten
• 1:13:44
  priced too high for them that they can come back, have fun.
• 1:13:49
  We limit what MSD box they can run.
• 1:13:51
  We limit the shock package they can run.
• 1:13:54
  It's A1 tire race deal. So it's most travelling series.
• 1:13:57
  You're going to the show or the racetrack, you're buying four
• 1:13:59
  practice tires, you're buying four race tires.
• 1:14:02
  So it's one tire that you can buy each race until it rewards
• 1:14:06
  the consistency. So maybe maybe if you have a
• 1:14:08
  third place truck that night, maybe you just settle in, you
• 1:14:10
  ride, you save it for the next race.
• 1:14:12
  You also can't beat up your tires at all.
• 1:14:14
  You can't just roll in and and kill your tire cuz you need that
• 1:14:18
  tire next week. And so it's been awesome to see
• 1:14:23
  the excitement level and when you go back through the lineage
• 1:14:26
  of the trucks. And that's kind of where the
• 1:14:28
  posts stem from. It was me.
• 1:14:29
  Sometimes I just get bored on social and like, let's just see
• 1:14:33
  what happens with this post. And that was one of those posts.
• 1:14:37
  But you look at the lineage, a guy like Parker Exloff who's in
• 1:14:40
  the O'Reilly series, he has like 17 starts in the Midwest Truck
• 1:14:44
  Series. Sam Mayer has a win in the Truck
• 1:14:46
  Series, Time Majeski is running the Truck Series.
• 1:14:48
  Luke Thanos has ran in the Truck Series.
• 1:14:50
  Like all the way up through. We have drivers at at the levels
• 1:14:56
  up into the top three that have come through the Midwest Truck
• 1:14:58
  Series. And most people just don't know
• 1:15:00
  that when you look at the Super late models last week, it was
• 1:15:05
  like 38 percent or something like that of the the field of
• 1:15:09
  the 36 drivers have had a a Midwest Truck Series start.
• 1:15:13
  And so it's a series that's gaining a lot of recognition
• 1:15:17
  here locally. We're only at the big shows.
• 1:15:20
  And that's not like a humble, like a humble brag.
• 1:15:22
  But you look at the shows in the Midwest here, especially in
• 1:15:25
  Wisconsin, we're there. So it's a great it's it's great
• 1:15:29
  for the fans too, because I met you guys have different like
• 1:15:32
  models over by you, but over here a late model and pro late
• 1:15:35
  look from the fans perspective look identical.
• 1:15:39
  A casual fan can't. Walk up.
• 1:15:40
  The ramp and look at the two. However, it's pretty obvious
• 1:15:44
  what a truck is. It's easier to tell a super late
• 1:15:47
  and a truck. And so from the promoter side,
• 1:15:50
  it's it's really made it to where from a from selling
• 1:15:54
  tickets. If you have a six O 2 late
• 1:15:56
  model, which it looks like your outlaw late model is kind of
• 1:15:59
  more of a sportsman type car, very similar to what we're
• 1:16:01
  building in the Truck Series. It's easy for the fans to be
• 1:16:04
  able to see all three of those and and be able to recognize
• 1:16:07
  which ones which on the racetrack.
• 1:16:09
  There's nothing worse than a fan being like, what class is this?
• 1:16:13
  I kind of feel that way. I watch the the the down in row
• 1:16:17
  4. What's the before the the knocks
• 1:16:20
  or the knock, the shootout, the Tulsa shootout And I'm like, I'm
• 1:16:24
  not a dirt guy, but I turn on TV and I'm like, I have no idea
• 1:16:27
  what I'm looking looking at and then.
• 1:16:29
  The same. Car can put a wing on and now
• 1:16:30
  it's in another class where you put a restrictor plate like it's
• 1:16:33
  too confusing for me. So I just I'll watch Saturday
• 1:16:36
  and they'll they'll tell me what's what's on TV.
• 1:16:40
  And so from the promoter side, it's it's made it so where the
• 1:16:44
  the fans can tell. The other nice thing is that
• 1:16:46
  they're so close because when you get to kind of be a spec
• 1:16:49
  car, and NASCAR's kind of dealing with this right now is
• 1:16:51
  when the cars get to be so close, the field tightens up and
• 1:16:55
  it makes the competition level so important.
• 1:16:57
  And so things like qualifying, you know, to get into the show
• 1:16:59
  last week, I think it was a tenth and a half between 1st and
• 1:17:02
  5th or 14th. And so that makes qualifying
• 1:17:06
  exciting. We've had the last two points
• 1:17:08
  series or seasons, it came down to 12 points last year and it
• 1:17:11
  came down to 9 points the year before.
• 1:17:13
  That's literally 8. That's four positions on the
• 1:17:16
  race track at 2 points. Of position I'm back.
• 1:17:19
  You know, 1st and 1st, 1st a second is a 7 point difference
• 1:17:23
  in the feature. So you're talking where
• 1:17:25
  everything matters, qualifying matters, heat races matter,
• 1:17:28
  feature matters all throughout the season.
• 1:17:30
  To have it come down to, to be that close.
• 1:17:32
  And so there's so much excitement building around it
• 1:17:35
  and and through that post out there to be like, how do we go
• 1:17:39
  get national media? When you look at things like the
• 1:17:42
  cars tour, when you look at these what you call support
• 1:17:45
  series, we have the best support series to any show.
• 1:17:48
  I hands down across the country that when you show up to the
• 1:17:52
  Midwest and you see a super late model show and a truck show, you
• 1:17:55
  know you're going to be entertained well, and that's.
• 1:17:58
  Where, you know, just even. Reading the comments and kind of
• 1:18:00
  getting some of that perspective and that's, that's why I reached
• 1:18:03
  out. I'm like, I'm not a big fish,
• 1:18:04
  you know, but I, I don't think I'm a small fish anymore either.
• 1:18:08
  But, you know, unless you compare me to the flows and the
• 1:18:10
  racing Americas and, you know, but they have quite a different
• 1:18:13
  budget. I always say, yeah, bigger
• 1:18:15
  house, more expenses, you know, like I have a small house, but
• 1:18:19
  it's, I have smaller expenses. Although they do grow up, you
• 1:18:22
  know, but it's one of those it's like, OK, I'm, I'm in this area.
• 1:18:25
  I'm not that far from Wisconsin, right?
• 1:18:27
  I, you know, if I stand at a certain part of the lake, I can
• 1:18:29
  see across, you know, too. So it's like, that's why I
• 1:18:32
  reached out because again, I just think, how can we help each
• 1:18:36
  other? And I know when I'm in, I'll be
• 1:18:38
  at Slinger in in July with Drew Jack in the National compact
• 1:18:42
  Tour And, and, and I know some trucks were there.
• 1:18:46
  I don't think it was yours. You gotta come a week.
• 1:18:47
  You gotta come a week earlier. Like this year, I see.
• 1:18:50
  That's right. I I was.
• 1:18:51
  Looking at your schedule because I see like you're even in Grundy
• 1:18:54
  and that's the only one that right now for people who don't
• 1:18:57
  know, they can watch you, whether it's pit Rd.
• 1:18:59
  TV, track TV, flow racing. The only one that's not
• 1:19:03
  streamed, it will be Grundy, but you'll have Dimmitt race videos
• 1:19:06
  there. And James does a great job with
• 1:19:08
  what he does. And so that's the only one that
• 1:19:11
  stands out right now that doesn't have that.
• 1:19:12
  But do you want to talk a little bit about, you know, your
• 1:19:15
  scheduling and what you look for, especially being a local,
• 1:19:18
  you know, but putting on such a show?
• 1:19:20
  And two, you had a racer, what, 4200 days or something between
• 1:19:24
  when's. Yeah.
• 1:19:26
  So he yes I just post. That today I was going through
• 1:19:28
  stats and I'm a big stats guy and I, I'm, I believe in, it's
• 1:19:32
  similar to baseball. The, the, the, the legend of
• 1:19:34
  baseball was built on numbers and, and racing's the same way.
• 1:19:38
  And I think as promoters, we've gotten away from that a little
• 1:19:40
  bit, that it means something. And so I believe that everything
• 1:19:42
  should mean something. And in order for him to mean
• 1:19:44
  something, you have to make it mean something.
• 1:19:46
  And so Blake Brown, he's actually been at, he's been at
• 1:19:48
  Grundy for the last couple years racing a super late model came
• 1:19:53
  back into the Truck Series. So his, his first and only win
• 1:19:56
  was back in 2014 and then he won.
• 1:19:58
  He picked up the win couple weeks ago at the Dallas.
• 1:20:01
  Raceway Park in our opener and and I'll get to another story
• 1:20:04
  about that, but so I was like. I when I was going.
• 1:20:07
  Through the stats, I first win, last win in our drivers stats
• 1:20:10
  column. So I was like, wait a second.
• 1:20:12
  Like this has to be like, nobody's done this.
• 1:20:14
  And when you think about it, like, yeah, he went away.
• 1:20:16
  So it makes that he's he's joking on there.
• 1:20:18
  Like it makes it seem like he's terrible because he hasn't won
• 1:20:20
  in that many days. But he's he hasn't raced with us
• 1:20:23
  since 2015. But still, when you think about
• 1:20:25
  it, for him to go away and then come back, there's not many
• 1:20:28
  people that have wins, have a span of almost 12 years that
• 1:20:32
  they're still winning. And so especially in the as
• 1:20:36
  competitive as this series is, like I said, the Top 14 are
• 1:20:38
  separated by a tenth and a half. And so for him to jump right
• 1:20:41
  back in was was pretty awesome. And so when we look at the
• 1:20:44
  schedule and it's something that Berlin has reached out to us, I
• 1:20:48
  think I'm I'm acquaintances. I'm friends with you, Jack.
• 1:20:52
  So he's talked about, you know, Kalamazoo, some of the things
• 1:20:55
  like that. And it's just, yes, we would
• 1:20:57
  love to go do it. However, we just can't.
• 1:21:01
  And so when we look at the core of who we are, we want to become
• 1:21:04
  that regional series that has national exposure.
• 1:21:07
  Come watch, watch us, stream us online, come to one of the races
• 1:21:12
  again. We're at all the big shows.
• 1:21:13
  And so make it, especially those of you in Michigan, like come
• 1:21:16
  around the lake and come to the Slinger Nationals.
• 1:21:18
  Come, come on Sunday, come to the Prelude, drive over to
• 1:21:21
  Madison, drive down to Grundy. Wisconsin has so many awesome
• 1:21:25
  tracks. Like if you've never been to
• 1:21:26
  Jefferson Speedway, it is 1/4 mile Bullring banked in one or
• 1:21:30
  banked in three and four flat and 1:00 and 2:00.
• 1:21:32
  And you go watch super late models or late models or trucks
• 1:21:34
  RIP around there and a quarter mile like there's not one track
• 1:21:38
  that's the same or two tracks that are same in Wisconsin.
• 1:21:40
  And so I think that's my, my ask is get to know us on the stream
• 1:21:45
  and then call your boys and make a road trip over and, and make a
• 1:21:49
  weekend out of it. You can go to Kakauna on
• 1:21:51
  Thursday, you can go to Golden Sands on Friday, you can go to
• 1:21:54
  one of three tracks on or Madison on Friday, one of three
• 1:21:59
  tracks I believe on Saturday. And then you can hit Slinger on
• 1:22:02
  Sunday and go home. And so it's like you can get to
• 1:22:04
  4 race tracks all different in four days and be home by Sunday
• 1:22:10
  night. And so that's what when we look
• 1:22:13
  at the schedule, we we look at distance, we look at, we don't
• 1:22:18
  want back-to-back because racers today are different than racers
• 1:22:21
  20 years ago. Yes, we get it.
• 1:22:23
  We used to raise 18 to 20 * a year, 22 * a year.
• 1:22:27
  And that's all you did. You missed graduations and
• 1:22:30
  weddings and the reality is, is the most racers aren't doing
• 1:22:34
  that anymore, that those days are gone.
• 1:22:36
  And so we need to plan in the camping trips because people
• 1:22:39
  have 40,000 or $70,000 campers that the wife is going to get
• 1:22:44
  pretty upset at if they're making a payment on it and never
• 1:22:46
  go use it. Same with their boat.
• 1:22:48
  And so we try not to schedule anything back-to-back.
• 1:22:52
  And so to give our teams time off throughout the year.
• 1:22:55
  So 14 races is our sweet spot. Someone like 12, someone like
• 1:23:00
  18, the thought is 14, two rain outs.
• 1:23:03
  We get to 12. We still have a legitimate point
• 1:23:05
  series. If we went to 10, have two rain
• 1:23:07
  outs. Now it's 8 races.
• 1:23:09
  And so that's my thought process there.
• 1:23:11
  And then we we see where our races are from.
• 1:23:13
  Last year we went to Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, one of
• 1:23:16
  the most badass race tracks that I think you can go to.
• 1:23:19
  However, it's far for our guys. And so we we ran that race, race
• 1:23:24
  3 of the season. And so we made racers decide at
• 1:23:27
  race three if they're running for the points or not.
• 1:23:30
  And then we saw truck count dip. We had averaged over 25 trucks a
• 1:23:34
  race last year. We averaged 23.5.
• 1:23:36
  Not a ton difference. It's 1.5.
• 1:23:39
  However, I didn't want to make that decision again.
• 1:23:42
  And so we we've partnered up with Mid am Series to go to
• 1:23:45
  Kurundi again. We were on the traditional tour
• 1:23:48
  dates, the Midwest tour date, but they've flipped weekends.
• 1:23:50
  I think they're doing the Benton house and now.
• 1:23:52
  And so that kind of left U.S. Open for that weekend.
• 1:23:56
  And so we're going to join. The mid AM.
• 1:23:57
  And kind of go do a fun deal down there.
• 1:24:00
  And so I try not to do any track more than three times.
• 1:24:03
  Really two times would be ideal. But Dallas Race for the Park is
• 1:24:06
  our 1:00. That's three times.
• 1:24:07
  But we are literally the first race, the last race and one in
• 1:24:10
  between. So it's like right now we
• 1:24:12
  wouldn't be racing anywhere else.
• 1:24:14
  We literally race April 12th and then we race there again in
• 1:24:17
  October 24th. You know, so it's not, it's the
• 1:24:21
  furthest time part. So it allows us to do three.
• 1:24:24
  If they were during the middle of the year, we wouldn't do
• 1:24:25
  three there. Plus it's centrally located.
• 1:24:28
  We got guys from Minnesota that can come down.
• 1:24:30
  Yeah, it's a little ways for the guys from Illinois to come up,
• 1:24:33
  but a lot of our racers in that Madison, Cambridge area.
• 1:24:36
  So that's we just look at the geographic and luckily the
• 1:24:40
  promoters here in Wisconsin all believe in traditional dates.
• 1:24:43
  And so our schedule is pretty much copy and paste every year,
• 1:24:46
  maybe move a few things depending on what shifts. 4th of
• 1:24:49
  July, Labor Day all and Easter actually all are the three
• 1:24:52
  things that make everything else shift in the schedule.
• 1:24:56
  And so we just have a really good thing going up here that
• 1:24:59
  you know, it's a good thing when tracks want more races.
• 1:25:01
  However, we have to throttle it back a little bit and just say
• 1:25:03
  no, like we need to keep this 14 when I think that's.
• 1:25:07
  That was going to be one of my questions again, you know, for a
• 1:25:10
  lot of people who are watching this, I I would say probably a
• 1:25:12
  lot of people are watching this or who will they may not know
• 1:25:14
  like Midwest trucks are. That was one of my questions is
• 1:25:17
  on average, where are your drivers coming from?
• 1:25:18
  So you answered that, but that's also that's your scheduling
• 1:25:22
  class is even interesting to where you know you'll only go to
• 1:25:25
  track so many times and and then that gives your fans who do
• 1:25:28
  follow you a chance to see at different places.
• 1:25:31
  And so sometimes do you feel like promoters?
• 1:25:35
  And this obviously is not a Drew Jack thing, because I know he
• 1:25:37
  goes all over and now he'll have a series out in the East side of
• 1:25:41
  the United States. And so I get a chance to talk
• 1:25:44
  with him. But we obviously know promoters
• 1:25:47
  just nationally who sometimes overreach, right?
• 1:25:49
  They they stretch their teams far and wide.
• 1:25:51
  And so how do you, how do you think you found that balance?
• 1:25:55
  Like do you have a lot of younger drivers?
• 1:25:57
  Do you have drivers who have families?
• 1:26:00
  Like what is your range? And then how do you find that
• 1:26:02
  that balance with them that you keep them committed to coming
• 1:26:05
  even when there's like weeks between your events?
• 1:26:08
  Yeah, I do a lot of talking with our.
• 1:26:09
  Racers and a lot of it's feel, you know, and it's numbers and
• 1:26:12
  it's looking at the data and it's just I don't want to say
• 1:26:15
  it's common sense, but if we can't, we can't drive these guys
• 1:26:18
  all over and expect them to continue to show up.
• 1:26:22
  Fuel prices are going up. And so it's it's just this early
• 1:26:26
  on I had this philosophy of we weren't going to do more than
• 1:26:29
  two Rd. trips a year. I still think there's value to
• 1:26:32
  have the road trip to because those are the stories that get
• 1:26:35
  told. When we go back to the numbers
• 1:26:36
  and the stories, I think when we look at this, when we look at
• 1:26:40
  this season, we have that trip to Grandy.
• 1:26:42
  There's some teams that are going to travel 6 to 8 hours and
• 1:26:46
  those are the stories of in the back of the car or in the back
• 1:26:49
  of the trailer or the truck. They caused some trouble or did
• 1:26:52
  whatever they did. You know that shop stories are
• 1:26:54
  get told. You know, a couple of years from
• 1:26:55
  now. We also have the back-to-back
• 1:26:58
  two night event at Jefferson. And again, those are the stories
• 1:27:01
  I remember when I raised go karts.
• 1:27:02
  Some of some of the most fun times we've had is when you
• 1:27:05
  travel and stay in a hotel and race 2 nights in a row.
• 1:27:08
  And so, but we just do a lot of talking to the racers.
• 1:27:10
  And so like I said, the, the, the racers have been kind of
• 1:27:13
  telling us this 14 number when I worked at Tundra, the Tundra
• 1:27:17
  Super Late Models, if I don't know if you're familiar with
• 1:27:19
  them, they're here in Wisconsin too.
• 1:27:21
  We started off at 5 races, we went up to 8 and we quickly
• 1:27:24
  learned that 8 was too much for those guys.
• 1:27:26
  It doesn't sound like much. It's only three more.
• 1:27:28
  And so we dropped it back down to six races.
• 1:27:31
  And so it's so much of it for me is an intuition.
• 1:27:34
  Like I said, I've been around since I was literally like 2
• 1:27:37
  years old at the racetrack or probably even before.
• 1:27:41
  And so it's just it's this feel of going, OK, where what are
• 1:27:44
  what's the pulse of the series? What are people saying?
• 1:27:47
  Where are they showing up? What do they, what do they sound
• 1:27:50
  like when they get to the racetrack?
• 1:27:52
  Like if they're half of them show up to this racetrack and
• 1:27:55
  like, we don't want to be here, it's probably going to be like,
• 1:27:58
  OK, why, why are we, why don't we want to be here?
• 1:28:00
  Maybe it's the pick a person. Maybe it's something that's
• 1:28:02
  happening and you go, OK, maybe if, if the culture of our series
• 1:28:06
  doesn't want to be here, maybe, maybe we'll look at some place
• 1:28:10
  that is more welcoming, more friendly, more whatever.
• 1:28:14
  I give Drew all the credit in the world for going down to
• 1:28:16
  Freedom Factory and putting deals like that together and,
• 1:28:18
  and what he does that somehow works for those 4 cylinder guys.
• 1:28:24
  They're willing to travel. Tim Z with the Mid Am series is
• 1:28:27
  starting to travel a little bit more and getting those guys to
• 1:28:29
  to travel. I think they're going to
• 1:28:30
  Winchester and IRP. I just don't think that's the
• 1:28:34
  core of who we are. And so maybe someday, you know,
• 1:28:39
  I would love, we're working with some promoters down South
• 1:28:42
  because they have trucks down there.
• 1:28:43
  But those are all metric chassis air bodies, similar but way
• 1:28:46
  different. If we could get the rules
• 1:28:49
  package the same, I think it'd be fun to do like a NS shootout.
• 1:28:52
  But again, it's once a year like we're not, this isn't going to
• 1:28:56
  turn into a national deal because then what we did is then
• 1:28:59
  we took 34. We have, we have actually 60
• 1:29:02
  turnkey trucks up here right now that we can pull from in a
• 1:29:05
  regional deal. It would take 20 of them and,
• 1:29:08
  and they go maybe commit to part of a season and we run them out
• 1:29:13
  of money, they're done. That doesn't cost the money to
• 1:29:15
  sit on the Jack stands. And so we got to keep the money
• 1:29:18
  in their pocket. And sometimes we have to keep
• 1:29:19
  racers from themselves, from from spending too much
• 1:29:23
  themselves. You're talking.
• 1:29:26
  To I'm the video guy, so I don't have that problem.
• 1:29:29
  I spend my money on Gopros, but you know, Buju, he races a, a
• 1:29:32
  front wheel drive and all that. And we just talked to was that
• 1:29:36
  last week. We were talking about the the
• 1:29:37
  how sometimes drivers are their own worst enemy just because
• 1:29:41
  want to go faster. Want to do?
• 1:29:42
  Faster things. But then the budget sometimes
• 1:29:44
  says, well, you really can't do that.
• 1:29:46
  And I I realize this it. Doesn't matter the form of
• 1:29:48
  racing around here. I'm no racer, I'll tell you
• 1:29:50
  that. Like I raced a go Kart, I
• 1:29:52
  flipped it four times in three years, never got hurt.
• 1:29:54
  And I said, you know what, I've, I've used up my luck like I'm
• 1:29:57
  done. But so now we, we do other
• 1:30:00
  things. And so like HO slot cars, it's
• 1:30:01
  little 164 slot cars. We'll spend $200 on that because
• 1:30:04
  that'll go fast. I raced an RC car, 10 scale RC
• 1:30:07
  car and I was sitting at the, I vividly remember I was sitting
• 1:30:10
  in my basement and I looked at my up at my RC car and I'm like,
• 1:30:13
  I got $1000 into this RC car and I pay a $50 entry fee.
• 1:30:17
  And at the end of the day, if I win and only if I win, I get a
• 1:30:20
  sticker. And I didn't need to have a.
• 1:30:23
  $1000. In it but I could I couldn't
• 1:30:26
  build a new car I. Could buy.
• 1:30:28
  New motors I could and eventually I got sick of buying
• 1:30:31
  this stuff and finishing third or fourth to the guys that had
• 1:30:34
  more technology and more ability.
• 1:30:35
  To me that is quit. Like it didn't cost me anything
• 1:30:39
  to stop driving to the racetrack.
• 1:30:41
  And so we have to have the same mentality no matter it can be a
• 1:30:45
  160 or 164th HO slot car, it can be Gopros, it can be whatever it
• 1:30:50
  is, at some point you have to have and it'd be nice in the
• 1:30:54
  video world. I own a marketing company, so
• 1:30:55
  I'm the same way. I'm like, oh, this new toy, this
• 1:30:57
  new toy. I wish we had somebody.
• 1:30:59
  To be like, no, you're not. You don't need that.
• 1:31:00
  It's like you don't. You just haven't used your GoPro
• 1:31:03
  9 that you have there. A GoPro 13 isn't going to make
• 1:31:05
  you use it. And so, but so as a sanctioning
• 1:31:09
  body, we have to be the ones to do that.
• 1:31:11
  And that's why we limit the shocks.
• 1:31:12
  There's three shocks they can run.
• 1:31:13
  They have one MSD box, they have one set of headers they can run.
• 1:31:16
  Because otherwise they're going to go and find, try to build a
• 1:31:19
  new better mousetrap. And we don't need them building
• 1:31:21
  better mousetraps. We just need them coming to the
• 1:31:23
  racetrack. Well, and do you think?
• 1:31:25
  That's like Drew. Talked about this a few weeks
• 1:31:27
  ago with like his compacts and that and how he's been able to
• 1:31:30
  build like a consistent like he knows he can go to a track
• 1:31:34
  pretty much anywhere in Michigan.
• 1:31:36
  He's going to Indiana this year, but you know, Michigan's his
• 1:31:40
  primary spot, right? And he knows he can go and he'll
• 1:31:43
  get 30 or, you know, for dirt, maybe 2530.
• 1:31:46
  So do you think by keeping the rules and and keeping everything
• 1:31:50
  contained and like you, you said mousetrap, right?
• 1:31:52
  Like this is the trap and this is what you get here you go and
• 1:31:56
  do you think that's helped you with your car counts or do you
• 1:31:58
  find people like we have a track in 40 here with Russell's?
• 1:32:02
  They kind of to do their own thing and it rubs some people
• 1:32:05
  the wrong way because their rules are maybe a little
• 1:32:07
  different where they want their St. stocks kind of how you
• 1:32:10
  talked about, like we want our fans to know what they look
• 1:32:12
  like. They want their St. socks to
• 1:32:13
  look like street socks. They they want their crown vics
• 1:32:15
  to look like crown vics. They don't want these built
• 1:32:18
  things. So do you think that that has
• 1:32:19
  helped you by keeping that contained?
• 1:32:21
  And do you get any pushback or is most people on or are most
• 1:32:24
  people on board? Yeah, I think now they're on
• 1:32:26
  board. I can, it's that old.
• 1:32:28
  Like look at the scoreboard again.
• 1:32:30
  I can tell you 6 years ago we averaged 14 trucks.
• 1:32:34
  Now we average 25 and we have 60 that are out there.
• 1:32:37
  Like you cannot like it, but people are building new trucks
• 1:32:40
  and buying them. And the only place that the the
• 1:32:42
  fascinating thing is the only place they can race these trucks
• 1:32:44
  is with us. These rules are nowhere else.
• 1:32:47
  They can run some like misfits at Madison, like kind of some
• 1:32:50
  hybrid which we saw at Slinger. You can run some kind of some of
• 1:32:53
  those hybrid divisions, but the only place they can run is with
• 1:32:56
  us. And one thing that Drew does
• 1:32:58
  well is that I think we do is people, and I think.
• 1:33:01
  Promoters forget. That people have to like you.
• 1:33:04
  They don't have to. They don't have to.
• 1:33:05
  We don't have to be friends, but they need to like you and
• 1:33:08
  respect you because if they don't like you and respect you,
• 1:33:11
  they're not going to come, right.
• 1:33:13
  And so Drew's a grinder. He pushed it.
• 1:33:15
  He, he's, he's all about the relationships.
• 1:33:17
  He knows everyone. He knows who's coming.
• 1:33:19
  He, he's, you know, he's active on social, he's active in
• 1:33:22
  messaging with his drivers. He's open.
• 1:33:25
  The dialogue's open and that's the, that's what I believe as
• 1:33:29
  well. My phone.
• 1:33:30
  There's a reason I get upset when anybody blasts us on
• 1:33:33
  social. It's not, it's not that we're
• 1:33:34
  perfect. It's I literally, and probably
• 1:33:37
  one of the most open people, my phone number's on my Facebook
• 1:33:40
  page. My phone number's in the
• 1:33:41
  procedure rule book. Like you have my, you have
• 1:33:43
  access to my Snapchat, you have access to my messenger.
• 1:33:45
  You can text me. Like you can e-mail me.
• 1:33:47
  You have so many avenues to come talk to me and tell me what I
• 1:33:51
  can do better versus just spewing it online.
• 1:33:54
  And I think the Midwest compacts is very similar to that.
• 1:33:57
  Drew is so open about what they're doing that it allows
• 1:34:01
  people to know that when they show up to the racetrack, they
• 1:34:04
  know who's in charge and they also know that they're going to
• 1:34:06
  show up and and probably aren't getting outspent.
• 1:34:09
  And with the trucks is that was me in the RC car.
• 1:34:12
  I knew it's the end of the day when I saw people swapping out
• 1:34:16
  electronics in between heats and I'm like, I already have $1000
• 1:34:20
  into this car. I don't need to go spend 700
• 1:34:22
  more. Then I'm like I'm done.
• 1:34:25
  And so if people are showing up to the racetrack and like I'm
• 1:34:28
  already spending my Max budget and they're spending more than
• 1:34:32
  me, this is this is a no win situation.
• 1:34:36
  And so you got to control the cost.
• 1:34:38
  People have to know who they are or who's in charge and they just
• 1:34:41
  need to like you and respect you and it has to be fun.
• 1:34:43
  We're we're racing for $750 in the Truck Series.
• 1:34:47
  Like we're not, we're not even racing for $5000.
• 1:34:50
  Like nobody's making money on this unless they have a hell of
• 1:34:53
  a sponsor that's bankrolling it all.
• 1:34:55
  And so they have to like you. And so there's beer in our
• 1:34:58
  cooler afterwards, there's music playing, there's lights on the
• 1:35:00
  tent. We're one of the last ones that
• 1:35:02
  the series trailer, it's always one of the last ones to load up.
• 1:35:05
  And if our owner has to leave early, I'm we're going to other
• 1:35:08
  trailers. And so that's just the culture
• 1:35:11
  that we want to build is we're there to race, but then we're
• 1:35:15
  there to have a good time because we actually all, for the
• 1:35:18
  most part, get along well and. That's there might be some
• 1:35:22
  people listening who are promoters or whatever, who might
• 1:35:24
  be like, how do we do that? You know, just because again, I,
• 1:35:27
  you know, it's one of those things that I've seen that
• 1:35:29
  sometimes with like the Great Lakes super sprints where
• 1:35:32
  there's not only are they like a convoy come down 94, like when
• 1:35:35
  they come to Hartford, but you see them hanging out afterwards.
• 1:35:38
  And, and MCR dwarf cars is another one that I think of that
• 1:35:41
  you see a lot of them hanging out afterwards and they seem to
• 1:35:43
  generally enjoy being around each other.
• 1:35:45
  So you can. And we had someone from the
• 1:35:47
  night of destruction earlier at New Paris, where it's kind of
• 1:35:49
  like Kumbaya in the pit area, you know, go smash each other a
• 1:35:52
  couple times and come back and, you know, talk about it.
• 1:35:54
  And so, you know, that relationship building does go a
• 1:35:57
  long ways. Yeah.
• 1:35:58
  You just have to curb it like. Don't get me wrong, it's when
• 1:36:01
  you come to the trucks like I'm not.
• 1:36:03
  I'm probably, I believe in dictatorship at the race track.
• 1:36:07
  It's just how I am. But we'll we'll also be able to
• 1:36:12
  drink a beer later afterwards. But at the end of the day, like
• 1:36:14
  there is a hierarchy when we're here and what that does though?
• 1:36:18
  Is everybody. Everybody wants to live in a
• 1:36:20
  box. They want to know where their
• 1:36:21
  lines are, what the boundaries are.
• 1:36:24
  It's that's a societal thing. It's parenting, it's society.
• 1:36:27
  Like this is no new phenomenon. And so you have to have somebody
• 1:36:31
  that's in control. They can't be a complete a hole,
• 1:36:36
  don't get me wrong, right? Like there, there has to be
• 1:36:38
  procedures and rules and stuff like that that go with it.
• 1:36:40
  But once you get that, once you establish that everything else
• 1:36:44
  honestly falls into place. And then if 2 drivers don't like
• 1:36:46
  each other, just curb it. Just bring them together like
• 1:36:49
  say, hey, we can choose how to race, you know, at the end of
• 1:36:53
  the day. And I tell people at the end of
• 1:36:54
  the day, it's not my money. So if they want to go.
• 1:36:57
  Destroy this 50. $1000 trucks and toys and have two weeks of
• 1:37:01
  work to put into it. Like that's on them, not on me.
• 1:37:04
  I'm still going to sleep OK at night, but I'm here to try to
• 1:37:08
  stop this from happening. But it's ultimately their
• 1:37:11
  decision. And the more, again, the more
• 1:37:14
  dialogue you have and the more you can't have it be like the
• 1:37:17
  madhouse. Don't get me wrong, They're,
• 1:37:19
  they're doing something right there.
• 1:37:20
  They packed 30,000 people in there.
• 1:37:22
  Well, however many that's not, that's not what we're about in
• 1:37:25
  the Midwest. We're, we're not, we're not here
• 1:37:27
  to smash them up. There's there's shows for that,
• 1:37:29
  like you mentioned the night of destruction shows, if you want
• 1:37:32
  to see that and go do that, go, go over there.
• 1:37:36
  But again, it's, it's really not that hard.
• 1:37:37
  And so any promoter that wanted to talk, they could certainly
• 1:37:40
  give me a call chat. But if, if you know your drivers
• 1:37:44
  and you demand they're respected, but then you respect
• 1:37:46
  them, everything, everything tends to work out.
• 1:37:50
  And again, it comes down to that.
• 1:37:52
  Respect factor right? Like at the end of the day, I
• 1:37:55
  used to be a full time teacher and I would always tell my
• 1:37:57
  students, you know, we we don't have to send each other
• 1:38:00
  Christmas cards, but it's respects, right?
• 1:38:02
  Like you can get mad at the playground and you can have all
• 1:38:05
  these things happen and it's really big fish to fry for you.
• 1:38:08
  But at the end of the day, in the grand scheme of this little
• 1:38:11
  world, it's not that big of a problem or it's not that big of
• 1:38:14
  a deal. And but I don't need you to, you
• 1:38:17
  know, I don't need you to send each other Christmas cards.
• 1:38:19
  But you got to respect at the end of the day, minimal.
• 1:38:23
  And that's how our tech staff is too.
• 1:38:24
  That's how our. Tech staff is with the drivers.
• 1:38:25
  We'll pull a couple of crate engines a year to send them to
• 1:38:28
  the dyno. We probably one of the strictest
• 1:38:30
  tax tech staff because we again, we need the integrity again.
• 1:38:34
  Another thing is I'm built on integrity.
• 1:38:36
  Like if, if I have no integrity, it doesn't matter what else I
• 1:38:39
  do. And so you can't be wishy washy.
• 1:38:41
  One of the earliest things that somebody told me in this sport
• 1:38:44
  is be firm, fair and consistent. Like if you're those three, like
• 1:38:47
  if you're wrong, just be wrong the same way every time or say,
• 1:38:49
  hey, I'm gonna learn, right. People just wanna know where
• 1:38:52
  they're at. But then at the same time, the
• 1:38:54
  respect goes to the tech staff. And so too often races, if
• 1:38:58
  you're listening and you're a racer, just remember there's two
• 1:39:01
  people that you don't want to make upset at the race track.
• 1:39:03
  It's the tech staff and the race tracker, because they can make
• 1:39:06
  your life a living hell at the race tracker and they're going
• 1:39:09
  to win. They're the ones that are in
• 1:39:11
  control. And so the tech staff's job is
• 1:39:14
  to go find the teams that are pushing the edge.
• 1:39:18
  The racers are there to push the boundaries.
• 1:39:21
  The tech staff's there to try to catch it if you both understand
• 1:39:25
  that. And when it happens, when you
• 1:39:27
  get caught, hold your head up high.
• 1:39:29
  Now the tax app has to be consistent.
• 1:39:32
  So this is where they need to be firm, fair and consistent.
• 1:39:34
  You can't pick and choose what you're going to do because once
• 1:39:37
  you do that, then they do have a reason to to gripe.
• 1:39:40
  But I tell people. Like you listen if you.
• 1:39:43
  Want if you want to blast on social, you want to blast out to
• 1:39:46
  the letter of the law. I can call the rules to the
• 1:39:49
  letter of the law, the text app you want to start mouthing off.
• 1:39:53
  Those cars can go home in boxes like they have a really long
• 1:39:56
  list that as soon as you stop talking, they stop asking for
• 1:39:59
  things to be done. But.
• 1:40:02
  That's how it needs to be. And so and if it's.
• 1:40:06
  Not if the. Racers are the ones running it.
• 1:40:09
  Trust me again, we go to society.
• 1:40:10
  If, if, if everybody is running and there's no leadership, it's
• 1:40:14
  not it's going to collapse. Yeah, there.
• 1:40:18
  Has to be that. Authority throughout everything
• 1:40:22
  and again. But we all still want to.
• 1:40:24
  We have all that in place, but then we also want to go drink
• 1:40:27
  beer with each other afterwards, so yeah, So what?
• 1:40:30
  Track. And I know Buju, I'd certainly
• 1:40:32
  jump into Buju if you have questions, but what track on
• 1:40:34
  your schedule are you looking forward to?
• 1:40:36
  I know you have an event coming up.
• 1:40:37
  What is it, May 11th or no? May 3rd?
• 1:40:40
  Yeah, I'm coming up here. Big one or was.
• 1:40:42
  That Dell Madison International, yeah.
• 1:40:45
  So that's like the birthplace of the of the trial.
• 1:40:47
  This is going to sound so cliche.
• 1:40:50
  You know, the whole I'm excited for all of them.
• 1:40:54
  I'm a I'm close to lacrosse. So again, if you're looking for
• 1:40:56
  an event to come to, I could pick throw a dart at our
• 1:41:00
  schedule and come to one of them.
• 1:41:01
  They're all big events. And again, that's not hyperbole.
• 1:41:05
  Like it's just go look at the Midwest schedule and you know,
• 1:41:08
  OK, yeah, there it's a big show. But Oktoberfest is where I'm
• 1:41:13
  from. It's where I grew up.
• 1:41:15
  It's four days of racing from 5:00 till 10:30 at night.
• 1:41:21
  And if you have a camper, it's you're camping until 3:34 AM and
• 1:41:27
  you're doing it all the next day again for four nights.
• 1:41:31
  So that's one. I do love Slinger.
• 1:41:34
  If you've never been to Slinger you watching on TV.
• 1:41:38
  Doesn't do it. Justice and so I love Slinger,
• 1:41:42
  but Madison will always be the birth place of the trucks and so
• 1:41:44
  we've two big events there. There's something cool just
• 1:41:47
  about seeing the trucks on 1/2 Mile High banked half mile
• 1:41:51
  that's fun to watch. I know, Slinger.
• 1:41:53
  Buju, you've been the. Slinger too, right?
• 1:41:56
  I have not, No, not that I. Thought you'd been.
• 1:41:58
  To just know it's all uphill, everything is uphill, and the
• 1:42:02
  moment you think you're going downhill, you're actually still
• 1:42:04
  going uphill. No matter where you walk on that
• 1:42:06
  property, it's like everything's uphill.
• 1:42:07
  But that's a fun, you know, that's a fun track.
• 1:42:11
  And I can only imagine the trucks on that.
• 1:42:12
  Just from what I saw, the trucks that were there, I'm like that.
• 1:42:15
  That was a pretty good race. I enjoyed that one a lot and you
• 1:42:19
  know, but Booja, I know you, you went to ask something, but
• 1:42:21
  that's where, you know, I, I being this close, I mean, where
• 1:42:25
  I am, I'm at lower Michigan. So I'm like 3 hours, 3 1/2
• 1:42:29
  hours, stuff like that to Slinger it's you got to get to
• 1:42:31
  Chicago. Once you get to Chicago, you're
• 1:42:33
  pretty safe because then you don't quite go through Milwaukee
• 1:42:36
  to get there. But but Boosie, I know you're
• 1:42:39
  gonna ask a question, Lewis mentioned.
• 1:42:42
  How televised? Your schedule is this year for
• 1:42:44
  somebody tuning in for the first time for your series like I will
• 1:42:47
  be who are some drivers they should watch this Yeah.
• 1:42:50
  So when we look at. So Brandon Reichenberger is our
• 1:42:52
  last two time champion or two time champion, super consistent.
• 1:42:57
  If we go back, he actually hasn't finished outside the top
• 1:42:59
  ten in a points race. He did it in a non points race
• 1:43:02
  last year, but since 2013. So he's almost pushing 2 years.
• 1:43:06
  I think it counts up to like 27 races or 26 races.
• 1:43:08
  He hasn't finished outside the top 10.
• 1:43:10
  So just a model of consistency. James Swan, the 97 built a new
• 1:43:14
  truck this year. Six time champion.
• 1:43:16
  Nick Vance. Fun to watch Blake Brown again.
• 1:43:18
  He's kind of he he race at Grundy jumping back in.
• 1:43:21
  He's going to be bad fast this year.
• 1:43:25
  If you just go look at our points, Eugene Gregor at Chester
• 1:43:27
  race, like there's wouldn't they?
• 1:43:29
  We show up to the racetrack, there are probably 15 drivers
• 1:43:32
  that could win. Last year we kicked off the
• 1:43:35
  season, we had 10 different winners in the 1st 11 races.
• 1:43:39
  And so when we talk like it's anybody's game based on tire
• 1:43:43
  strategy because because the trucks are so similar, it's who
• 1:43:47
  nailed it that day, who saved tires.
• 1:43:49
  But those are kind of some of those those champions.
• 1:43:51
  James Bond's also the winningest driver broke A2 year winless
• 1:43:55
  streak last year. So he'd gone 2 years without
• 1:43:57
  winning. And so to to see him, he's also
• 1:44:01
  he's one guy that's usually we call him pit wars here in
• 1:44:04
  Wisconsin, which means who's the last to load the truck up like
• 1:44:06
  these guys? What I'm saying we're like
• 1:44:08
  drinking in the pits like they they haven't even loaded the
• 1:44:10
  truck up before 2:30 AM And so it's just sitting on Jack stand
• 1:44:14
  sitting outside. So he's 1 though that watch him
• 1:44:17
  come to the race. You can either TuneIn or come to
• 1:44:19
  the race and then go down by his trailer and be in for a be ready
• 1:44:22
  for a long night and then. For the drivers.
• 1:44:26
  What track do you think gives them the most?
• 1:44:28
  Like maybe not even. Technical difficulty.
• 1:44:32
  But what what track just really seems to challenge your group
• 1:44:35
  the most. Like every time you go there,
• 1:44:37
  you know, you're like, hey, you guys have the, you know, I don't
• 1:44:40
  want to say vacation, but you know, this last couple races
• 1:44:42
  have been pretty easy on you. But we're going into this event
• 1:44:45
  and and then right, like NASCAR has Darlington and, you know, a
• 1:44:49
  few others who are just always like that wrench and the plan.
• 1:44:52
  So do you have a track on your schedule that you look forward
• 1:44:55
  to? Because you know, for your guys,
• 1:44:56
  it's going to be a challenging 1 for them.
• 1:44:59
  Yeah. So there's really three and.
• 1:45:00
  For three different reasons. It's kakana, it's AD shaped
• 1:45:03
  Oval. So again, what's the the
• 1:45:06
  difference in tracks here in Wisconsin out of the 11 asphalt
• 1:45:09
  tracks? So I think it's 11 now are so
• 1:45:12
  different. And so it's AD shaped Oval haul
• 1:45:16
  down the male or haul the male down the front stretch.
• 1:45:18
  You kind of have to stop. That's one that the locals do
• 1:45:21
  have an advantage just because they didn't know the lines, they
• 1:45:23
  know the bumps. And so we did a video last year
• 1:45:26
  that the character of that track is it's like a 2 inch patch down
• 1:45:31
  the middle. It's a seam.
• 1:45:32
  And so like you're like literally trying to like
• 1:45:34
  straddle the seam. Otherwise you're going up and
• 1:45:37
  over it. And then when you get down the
• 1:45:38
  back stretch, it's though it starts to crown towards the
• 1:45:41
  wall. And so if you don't, if you're
• 1:45:43
  not careful, you'll actually get up too high next to the wall and
• 1:45:45
  then it'll you into the wall. So that's one and the the other
• 1:45:49
  one's Slinger. The the locals always have an
• 1:45:52
  advantage of Slinger just because it's, it's so fast.
• 1:45:54
  I think Alan Quick, your Mark Barton said it was like flying
• 1:45:57
  fighter jets in a gymnasium. And that's truly what it is.
• 1:46:00
  And our trucks are so momentum based.
• 1:46:02
  And so you can't lift. So Superlate has.
• 1:46:04
  Power to be. Able to get up off the corner
• 1:46:06
  these these trucks, you get wound up and so a lot of times
• 1:46:09
  you'll see us go to the outside. The other one is, and it's for a
• 1:46:11
  completely opposite reason is Plover.
• 1:46:14
  It's golden sands. It is a very low grip.
• 1:46:17
  And so you're talking you're a quarter to half throttle on
• 1:46:22
  corner exit. And so that one is it's all
• 1:46:25
  about and it's a bowl. You never stop turning.
• 1:46:27
  And so I don't know if you guys I race, I consider it like a
• 1:46:30
  linear that's you're just constantly going in a circle and
• 1:46:34
  that's that way, but you can't if you slip up and you you hit
• 1:46:37
  the throttle too hard, you're sideways.
• 1:46:38
  It's like a dirt track in a sense.
• 1:46:41
  Sometimes they do put track stick and it's common over here.
• 1:46:44
  I don't know if you guys do it a lot In Michigan, we put lane
• 1:46:47
  count, lane choice down on the outside.
• 1:46:49
  And so our trucks again, being momentum based, being that six O
• 1:46:52
  2, you'll see them go to the outside a lot because they can
• 1:46:55
  actually keep the momentum going.
• 1:46:57
  And so at Madison, if you tune in on May 3rd on track TV,
• 1:47:01
  you'll see the preferred line actually move up, which then
• 1:47:05
  again, if you're an iracer, you, you start talking, you know,
• 1:47:08
  like a new Smyrna turn one that the bottoms open if you can get
• 1:47:11
  it to stick. But often times you can't, you
• 1:47:15
  know, without moving them. And so those are the three, the
• 1:47:19
  three tracks. That's like for three completely
• 1:47:21
  different reasons that that that they that they're challenged and
• 1:47:26
  tested, but then for fans. That means it's not the same
• 1:47:30
  movie every time you go out right?
• 1:47:31
  Like that, they're going to see those different kind of things.
• 1:47:34
  And that's something that a few weeks ago Chris and Tracy from
• 1:47:37
  new pairs kind of talk about. People don't want to see the
• 1:47:39
  same movie all the time, right? And so and, and a schedule like
• 1:47:42
  that, you, you already know, like, hey, we're going to have
• 1:47:45
  some challenging tracks in here that our drivers are really, you
• 1:47:49
  know, they, it may look a little different for them, but then
• 1:47:51
  even you saying like the locals have that advantage.
• 1:47:53
  It's like then you know, that crowd, right?
• 1:47:55
  You get that crowd energy behind them too, because it's like the
• 1:47:58
  locals are hanging, you know, with the big dogs.
• 1:48:01
  And so, so that adds some excitement to probably the
• 1:48:04
  Racing 2 for fans to go. They have someone not only to
• 1:48:07
  cheer for, but then they maybe know these big names who they
• 1:48:11
  know are going to struggle a little bit or maybe have to
• 1:48:13
  think a little bit more than the locals.
• 1:48:15
  So that's cool to see, yeah. And when you look at our.
• 1:48:18
  Schedule last year, like I said, you know, 10 winners in the 1st
• 1:48:20
  11 races and it's really anybody's race.
• 1:48:22
  And to add to that, then we have two back-to-back slingers which
• 1:48:25
  kind of turns us into almost a weekly series.
• 1:48:27
  So when I say like we, this schedule is like a perfect
• 1:48:30
  schedule for me because we go to one of the toughest tracks and
• 1:48:33
  these teams don't have to switch a whole lot over.
• 1:48:36
  They get to turn around and go right back to that track 3 weeks
• 1:48:39
  later. And so even from the fans
• 1:48:41
  standpoint, it's like, oh, we just saw him three weeks ago,
• 1:48:43
  now we get to see him again and it's right in the middle of our
• 1:48:45
  season. It's race 5, five and six of our
• 1:48:47
  season. And so, you know, it'll be fun
• 1:48:50
  for them to to have like almost this weekly feel instead of
• 1:48:54
  needing to travel someplace new or reset up the truck.
• 1:48:57
  And so we kind of take the opposite of that and give a
• 1:49:02
  little sprinkle of it into the middle of the middle of the
• 1:49:05
  schedule. Oh, no.
• 1:49:06
  Absolutely. And I know we're.
• 1:49:08
  Running on time here so really quick.
• 1:49:10
  Where can people follow the Midwest Truck Series?
• 1:49:15
  I know Facebook is obviously a big one, but you know, websites
• 1:49:19
  anywhere else obviously there the schedule for streaming you
• 1:49:22
  like, where can you even find all that information?
• 1:49:25
  So where can people go to follow you guys?
• 1:49:27
  Yeah, so Facebook page is our best.
• 1:49:29
  It's it's where we're most active.
• 1:49:30
  We're starting to build out the Instagram I'm a little bit, but
• 1:49:33
  we just have more engagement on Facebook.
• 1:49:34
  So we do a lot more there. midwesttruckseries.com and
• 1:49:37
  actually gives me a good reminder.
• 1:49:38
  I need to go put the streaming on there.
• 1:49:41
  I have a love hate relationship with streaming.
• 1:49:44
  Our goal is to get people into the stands.
• 1:49:46
  But guys like you, I'll gladly give all the streaming too
• 1:49:49
  because you're not coming to all of our races.
• 1:49:51
  And so as a series, we kind of, we play around with that a
• 1:49:54
  little bit. But if you follow our socials,
• 1:49:56
  we'll tell you where our stream is.
• 1:49:57
  The next one, May 3rd is on track TV where you can see the
• 1:50:00
  ASA stars ASA Midwest Tour, which they both have a race this
• 1:50:03
  weekend. And so if you bought today, you
• 1:50:06
  can for 30 bucks a month. And I'm, I'm, this is not even
• 1:50:08
  an ad for me, but we're trying to push subscriptions.
• 1:50:12
  You get Midwest tour, you get the ASA stars and you get us the
• 1:50:15
  next weekend as well at the Midwest in the US tour.
• 1:50:19
  If you use code MWTS, Midwest trucks use MWTS, you actually
• 1:50:24
  get 50% off an annual subscription.
• 1:50:27
  So it drops takes that $300 subscription drops down to like
• 1:50:29
  160 for you. So something that if you want to
• 1:50:32
  do that gets us some credit. We don't get any money for it,
• 1:50:35
  but I like seeing our I like to win.
• 1:50:38
  You know who, who had the most code promo codes used.
• 1:50:41
  So Yep, I was going to ask because.
• 1:50:43
  You know, that's where I, I tell people I'm not pro streaming or
• 1:50:48
  anti streaming. I cannot, I know I physically
• 1:50:51
  cannot sit and watch racing on TV.
• 1:50:53
  It's just I I have to attract. That's my thing.
• 1:50:57
  But then I also look at my metrics.
• 1:50:59
  I'm a big metrics guy, so I appreciate a data person too.
• 1:51:02
  And you know, like we started the show, like I think it was
• 1:51:06
  out of the 68 different states, provinces and Commonwealth and
• 1:51:10
  everything, I can count, you know, I 60% of them, somebody
• 1:51:13
  was in the top 10 on metrics at least once on Facebook.
• 1:51:17
  And it's like, and that's a little guy who I'm the
• 1:51:19
  videographer, I'm the audio guy now.
• 1:51:21
  I post the clips, I edit right on the spot at the racetrack to
• 1:51:24
  post updates. Like I'm that I have one person
• 1:51:27
  helping with on boards in the middle because I can't be in
• 1:51:29
  both places at one time. But other than that, all the
• 1:51:31
  editing, graphics, all that, that's me.
• 1:51:33
  I don't have a production team to do that.
• 1:51:36
  I'm even, we're here managing the stream.
• 1:51:38
  You know, I don't have a production.
• 1:51:39
  So it's one of those that I'm like streaming.
• 1:51:41
  I don't know. You can't just say streaming can
• 1:51:43
  only do it because there's there's people like me all
• 1:51:46
  around the nation who can bring that exposure too.
• 1:51:48
  Yeah, I have a love. Hate with it.
• 1:51:51
  I think it's forced promoters to make sure they're at track.
• 1:51:55
  Experience is better if you're just showing up in racing
• 1:51:58
  weekly. I think streaming is hurting if
• 1:52:01
  you have a big event. Case in point, Snowball Derby
• 1:52:05
  really started to grow once they started to stream.
• 1:52:08
  However, it's turned into an event and so not only are there
• 1:52:13
  streaming subscriptions up, and they have to be because flows
• 1:52:16
  bought the rights for it. So they wouldn't do it if there
• 1:52:18
  weren't streamers, but it's also helped the at track.
• 1:52:22
  Now the opposite to that is your weekly show, your car counts
• 1:52:27
  aren't great. It's not a great atmosphere.
• 1:52:29
  You're just it's just a old school 1990s race.
• 1:52:34
  I don't think I don't think you need to be streaming those races
• 1:52:38
  because I think people are going to choose to stay at home.
• 1:52:41
  And I know some are spending, you know, charging 30 bucks a
• 1:52:44
  month for just for that, but I think people are just choosing
• 1:52:48
  they'll, they can open this thing up and have endless
• 1:52:51
  YouTube shorts and endless entertainment for two hours or
• 1:52:54
  three hours. Now that being said, big events,
• 1:52:57
  Midwest tour show, things like that that we're trying to pull
• 1:53:01
  in a national audience absolutely can be streamed.
• 1:53:04
  I just, I struggle when weekly shows, unless you're going to do
• 1:53:07
  something different, you're going to start, you're going to
• 1:53:10
  start jumping cars and burning stuff up and you're going to
• 1:53:13
  make it a show, an event that you don't get to see and feel
• 1:53:17
  and smell that. It's just forcing promoters to
• 1:53:21
  change their at track business model a little bit more.
• 1:53:23
  Yeah. And so one.
• 1:53:25
  More before we let you go. I know you're talking about the
• 1:53:28
  streaming, you're talking about the website, you're talking
• 1:53:30
  about that kind of deal now for the Midwest Truck Series.
• 1:53:33
  Who are yours? Do you have, like series
• 1:53:35
  sponsors who helped kind of bring this all together and help
• 1:53:37
  you do what you need to do? Yeah, we're bootstrapped, you
• 1:53:40
  know. We, you know, we do this.
• 1:53:42
  I'm very similar. I am the guy for the Midwest
• 1:53:44
  Truck Series. If there's something posted
• 1:53:46
  online, it's me graphics, all that.
• 1:53:48
  And so we, we're fortunate to have a quite so many different
• 1:53:51
  sponsors. I'm not going to read them all.
• 1:53:52
  Go go check our website out, you know, support, support racing.
• 1:53:56
  You know, some of the big ones are five star Gandru,
• 1:53:58
  left-hander performance, Pickeru BBQ.
• 1:54:00
  If you need some BBQ sauce, check out Pickeru BBQ sauce.
• 1:54:04
  Or we try to post about them on our social channels just because
• 1:54:08
  it's something that's that's what allows us to do what we do.
• 1:54:11
  We we're self funded. Yes, the promoters help cover
• 1:54:14
  the purse. Everything else that we do
• 1:54:16
  though is luckily I own a marketing and media company to
• 1:54:19
  be able to offset some of it. But we're always looking for
• 1:54:22
  sponsors, we're always looking for the help.
• 1:54:23
  You know, it's anywhere from $500 up to $2500.
• 1:54:27
  You know, we're not talking $10,000 here.
• 1:54:28
  And so we have, we had in the last 28 days, we had over
• 1:54:32
  700,000 views on our content for our little support, our little
• 1:54:36
  support series. We're doing the right things.
• 1:54:39
  And so we're going to keep doing what we do and keep putting on a
• 1:54:42
  good show. And hopefully I appreciate it so
• 1:54:44
  much. You guys just reaching out and
• 1:54:45
  giving us some exposure over to Michigan.
• 1:54:47
  I can tell you we'll probably never, our series will never
• 1:54:49
  come over there. However, TuneIn online, TuneIn
• 1:54:52
  and watch come over to Madison, come over this way, make a road
• 1:54:57
  trip out of it. And, and who knows, maybe maybe
• 1:55:00
  our guys will will come watch a big show over at Berlin or
• 1:55:03
  Kalamazoo or something like that as well in the future.
• 1:55:06
  Yeah, not to look like in Michigander.
• 1:55:07
  Here for a moment, but like, you know, I'm like down this way.
• 1:55:10
  So for me to go to Wisconsin, my brother lived up that way in
• 1:55:13
  Green Bay for a little bit. He introduced me to the the it's
• 1:55:17
  not Sheboygan County Fairgrounds, but it's it's
• 1:55:19
  Plymouth dirt track racing there.
• 1:55:21
  I love that track. That's one of my favorites.
• 1:55:22
  Obviously went to Slinger and at PRII met quite a few of those
• 1:55:26
  promoters over there and got a chance to talk with them and and
• 1:55:29
  learn about what they do. So, you know, for there's in my
• 1:55:32
  area, there's a lot of like Green Bay Packer fans.
• 1:55:35
  So you know, it's not just because you're in Lions country.
• 1:55:37
  They've been. They've been good.
• 1:55:39
  Yeah, well, that's kind of the other.
• 1:55:40
  Side of the state, I mean, we get a lot of them, but we're in
• 1:55:42
  that weird spot where I can see Chicago from my shoreline.
• 1:55:45
  So, you know, it's one of those that we're more down this way.
• 1:55:49
  We got that mix and we do have a guy from Michigan that races.
• 1:55:52
  With us, he's from the UP, so I don't know.
• 1:55:54
  You're like probably coming down that way.
• 1:55:55
  They're more Wisconsin than they are Michigan.
• 1:55:58
  They drive like 9 hours. To come race with us.
• 1:56:01
  Yeah, up in Big Bay, I think they're.
• 1:56:03
  I. Think they're in Canada.
• 1:56:04
  Last week at the race they told us they still have 3 feet of
• 1:56:06
  snow. Yeah, no.
• 1:56:09
  After they. Had a ridiculous amount that's
• 1:56:11
  why it was all that flooding too.
• 1:56:13
  But yeah, I will take the I'll just take the big puddles that
• 1:56:17
  we have in the farm. But but other than that, Drew,
• 1:56:20
  that's where I definitely appreciate you taking time out
• 1:56:22
  of your Monday night to come on. And that's where I reached out.
• 1:56:26
  And if you said no, that's OK. Well, we have something else
• 1:56:29
  planned. I would be like, hey, OK, that's
• 1:56:30
  cool. You know, But when I saw that
• 1:56:32
  post, it just made me think like, you know what, how what
• 1:56:35
  can I do? Because that, you know, I do
• 1:56:37
  have a, again, not at large when you compare me to others, but
• 1:56:41
  you know, for my size and being one, basically one person
• 1:56:44
  managing a lot of that. That's, you know, quite the
• 1:56:47
  following in a short amount of time.
• 1:56:49
  So it's like, how can I help? Because you just never know who
• 1:56:52
  might see this and go, I'm going to make a trip or already
• 1:56:54
  planning a trip because of camping and, you know, going
• 1:56:57
  over to even great, you know, great America and, and grunt or
• 1:57:00
  and Gurney, we'll go a few more miles and you're already in
• 1:57:04
  Wisconsin and now you can hit up some tracks.
• 1:57:06
  So you just never know when people travel where they're
• 1:57:08
  going. So it's like you're not that far
• 1:57:10
  away, even though you're far away, you're not that far away.
• 1:57:13
  Well, absolutely. So you have to come out to the.
• 1:57:14
  Racetrack hit me up otherwise hit me up when you're PRI we we
• 1:57:18
  go every year so Oh yeah, I'll be there and I and I learned.
• 1:57:21
  Last year I went to the top floor in the tops area for the
• 1:57:24
  first time. Absolutely.
• 1:57:25
  We probably. We would probably.
• 1:57:25
  Sell each other and the beer, the BS and brews and all that.
• 1:57:28
  So. Oh yeah, probably so.
• 1:57:30
  And. It's just you'd never connect
• 1:57:31
  the dots. But but again, Drew, I
• 1:57:33
  definitely appreciate you coming on tonight.
• 1:57:35
  So with that said, you know, guys who've been watching, make
• 1:57:39
  sure to go follow them and you know, give them support one way
• 1:57:42
  or another. If you can't go to the track in
• 1:57:43
  person, as he said, as Drew said that they're on track TV,
• 1:57:47
  they're on pit Rd. TV depending on the track.
• 1:57:49
  You know, I think a couple of those are partner media partners
• 1:57:52
  for like pit Rd. TV and all that flow racing when
• 1:57:55
  you're at Slinger. So there's lots of ways to watch
• 1:57:57
  what you guys are doing. I appreciate everything you
• 1:57:59
  guys. Do thank you so much.
• 1:58:01
  Thank you man. And so let's do one more shout
• 1:58:04
  out because we're almost here at the top of the hour again.
• 1:58:07
  And Buju, that was another incredible episode having all,
• 1:58:12
  you know, everybody talking from Aaron Hafner to DJ.
• 1:58:17
  I'm definitely going to be messaging DJ to get him back on.
• 1:58:20
  We might just let him take over the show.
• 1:58:22
  He can be like best host and we'll just sit in the
• 1:58:24
  background. But the Thursday night throttle
• 1:58:27
  again is live this Thursday at 7:00 PM.
• 1:58:30
  It'll be a very, very similar format to last week where we'll
• 1:58:33
  just, we're not doing it schedule per track.
• 1:58:35
  It'll be here's what's running Friday, here's what's running
• 1:58:37
  Saturday. Just to be mindful to watch
• 1:58:40
  social media. I'm making the graphics on
• 1:58:42
  Wednesday night. So some tracks may cancel by the
• 1:58:45
  time we get on and I may not have a chance to change it.
• 1:58:48
  So we're going to have a little asterisk at the bottom of each
• 1:58:51
  graphic that says please check social media check of your
• 1:58:54
  choice to make sure that they're still running or not.
• 1:58:58
  Because I know there's supposed to be rain on Friday and I
• 1:59:01
  didn't look at Saturday. I just heard rain Friday and
• 1:59:03
  they went like Archie Bunker. One more reminder for.
• 1:59:08
  Next week. Ron Brash takes over at Seven O
• 1:59:11
  5 and he has the whole episode to himself again, so you never
• 1:59:14
  know what stories he'll tell. I do know some of the stories he
• 1:59:17
  will tell though. He was giving me preview.
• 1:59:20
  I promise you, you'll want to come there and listen to his
• 1:59:22
  stories because there's some incredible ones that he has
• 1:59:25
  lined up for us. And then on May 4th, once again,
• 1:59:27
  we have Tim Dibble. Tim also will have the whole
• 1:59:30
  thing to himself because not only will we, will we be talking
• 1:59:33
  Hartford? Things but.
• 1:59:34
  We'll also be talking just Tim things and Timmy might make an
• 1:59:37
  appearance. I was struck with Leah that, you
• 1:59:40
  know, he might be on there a little bit.
• 1:59:41
  So again, with the Monday Night Rewind, I will download this
• 1:59:45
  afterwards after we're done and you'll be able to watch it on
• 1:59:49
  YouTube where it is right now. I'm trying to be mindful because
• 1:59:52
  I'm loading a lot of stuff from the Intimidator.
• 1:59:55
  I have all the on boards. A couple of them are just
• 1:59:56
  sitting there right now, not published.
• 1:59:59
  They're already there, but they're not published.
• 2:00:01
  I apologize to everyone. This morning it was supposed the
• 2:00:03
  Intimidator was supposed to publish at 8:00 AM somehow.
• 2:00:06
  It was 8:00 AM tomorrow and so I had to change that when I saw
• 2:00:11
  some comments. It's not there.
• 2:00:12
  What do you mean it's not there? So I do apologize for that, but
• 2:00:16
  it did. It was published a few hours
• 2:00:17
  later. It's just when you get on
• 2:00:18
  YouTube, it defaults to the next day.
• 2:00:20
  I don't know why, but I have to change it.
• 2:00:22
  And I just at six AMI didn't catch it.
• 2:00:24
  But again, this will also be on Spotify, where we actually have
• 2:00:28
  quite a few people who TuneIn and then Apple podcast seems to
• 2:00:30
  be our other big one, but it's also on Amazon Music and it'll
• 2:00:34
  be on iHeartRadio. I'm trying to think if there's
• 2:00:38
  anything else that we we're not. Aaron Hecker clicked the wrong
• 2:00:42
  one. Anything else good for the
• 2:00:44
  group? I thought the Midwest super.
• 2:00:47
  Truck interview was super interesting.
• 2:00:48
  I we didn't know a lot about the series.
• 2:00:50
  We weren't sure how the interview was going to go.
• 2:00:51
  Going in not knowing a lot about it not being in our area.
• 2:00:54
  And I'm pretty interested now. 15 cars within 1/10 and 1/2 of
• 2:00:57
  each other is a good sell. Yeah, real quick before.
• 2:01:00
  We go though I I want to show this.
• 2:01:01
  Let me I got to put it on here because I know how much you love
• 2:01:05
  racing and I'm going to do the audio for this just so we get
• 2:01:09
  what it was like let's let's see what people thought of this this
• 2:01:14
  finish. Oh.
• 2:01:17
  Yeah, we sort this out. Real fast green flat drops.
• 2:01:22
  We are racing one more time. Lead change.
• 2:01:28
  Bad restart there, Brock Ganis finds himself behind Jeffrey
• 2:01:32
  Town. Jeffrey Town up to the front
• 2:01:33
  spot that #2. Car sees.
• 2:01:37
  The white flag, just one more left to hold them off.
• 2:01:39
  This would be a huge upset. Down the backstretch.
• 2:01:46
  Jeffrey Town has Ganis cleared as they enter turn #3 roll into
• 2:01:50
  turn #4 it's going to be a photo finish.
• 2:01:53
  No whoa Jeffrey Town. Jeffrey Town comes home with
• 2:01:58
  your tech work trailer sales 3 stock waste.
• 2:02:04
  So we had about, we had about. 15 of us in our group or.
• 2:02:07
  So, and we were all. Putting bets down.
• 2:02:10
  And then there was a group of about 6.
• 2:02:11
  I think we had five bucks each. I had Brock in the street stock
• 2:02:15
  rate. What a heartbreaking loss.
• 2:02:18
  Well, he took the white. Flag.
• 2:02:20
  Yeah, he took the white flag. Before the.
• 2:02:22
  I think it was an incident on the there was 2 I think.
• 2:02:25
  Wasn't there the 1st? I believe so, yeah, four and.
• 2:02:28
  Then again and so. That race, I'm just sitting up
• 2:02:33
  at the top and I'm one I'm going wow, this is going to go green,
• 2:02:37
  white checkered. I was really, you know, but it
• 2:02:40
  also again, we have such an incredible St. stock talent
• 2:02:43
  group. But and look at how many
• 2:02:45
  champions were in that one. Black former champion Cody
• 2:02:48
  Lawler Former champion Logan Logan named your.
• 2:02:53
  Two time champion. Rock and Jeff.
• 2:02:55
  Yeah, whole field. You just start going through.
• 2:02:58
  All those names and just champion, champion, champion,
• 2:03:01
  champion, champion, right? And so and you have front
• 2:03:04
  runners. Alex Sexton was right up there.
• 2:03:06
  So watching him do this again, that's where.
• 2:03:11
  I just, I felt for Brock. Right, because it's one of those
• 2:03:14
  that man, like you took the white flag and just how quickly
• 2:03:18
  things change. And I've watched that, I've
• 2:03:21
  watched that restart so many times where I'm and I'm not a
• 2:03:24
  racer. I'm not I've never I why
• 2:03:26
  shouldn't I've never been a race car thanks to Drew Ritter, I
• 2:03:28
  have been in a race car, but I've not been the one steering
• 2:03:31
  it or anything. And I'm just thinking like, man,
• 2:03:34
  what would go through your head in that where you literally saw
• 2:03:36
  the white flag and and within a few minutes, all of a sudden,
• 2:03:40
  like everything changed. And and Jeff Town, he's a good,
• 2:03:44
  he's a damn good racer. Yeah, that's off to Jeff.
• 2:03:46
  Hats off to Jeff Town for racing to the end and capitalizing
• 2:03:49
  there. You know him and Alex had that.
• 2:03:51
  Close finish, the closest finish in Kalamazoo history.
• 2:03:55
  But again, and I'll show it one more time because, you know, I
• 2:03:58
  just, you know, I want you to be the racer.
• 2:04:01
  You know, obviously you're not in the you're not in the boat in
• 2:04:04
  this case. But yeah, well, so when we're
• 2:04:06
  coming. To this.
• 2:04:07
  Right, so. Outstanding.
• 2:04:11
  You know, so when we're coming. To.
• 2:04:12
  This right we're. What's you know?
• 2:04:15
  What do you see? As a racer.
• 2:04:17
  The only thing the Latin. Alls Brock is thinking here.
• 2:04:21
  Go ahead alls. Brock is thinking.
• 2:04:22
  Here is. I don't want to see a nose and
• 2:04:24
  then he sees one right here. And I mean, I don't want to
• 2:04:27
  speak for Brock, obviously, but you're driving changes once you
• 2:04:31
  know that you're you're not just playing.
• 2:04:34
  Defense with the car. Behind you anymore, You're
• 2:04:35
  racing the guy next to you and now he's at me.
• 2:04:38
  He's also worried about his his dad behind him now.
• 2:04:41
  So yeah, I mean a heartbreaking watch.
• 2:04:44
  You go, you lead the. Whole thing coming, like you
• 2:04:46
  said, take the white flag and then slips away in that way.
• 2:04:50
  Hats off to Jeff Town for winning it, but it's always
• 2:04:53
  going to be a tough. I think that's going to be 1.
• 2:04:54
  Brock will always think about Yeah, And that's where I.
• 2:04:58
  Just wondered as a racer. And I, I, like I said, I don't
• 2:05:00
  race. I, I get to video it and I just,
• 2:05:03
  you know, I go through all the emotions on top of the roof
• 2:05:06
  because again, I, you know, I'm internally, you know, I want
• 2:05:11
  everyone to have a great night with the race.
• 2:05:12
  I want them to succeed. I, you know, I want it to be a
• 2:05:15
  good race. I don't want shenanigans to be a
• 2:05:17
  reason somebody wins. You know, I want like go out
• 2:05:20
  there, put it online, do your thing as a driver, you know, put
• 2:05:23
  on the show, leave it all on the track, you know, just and be
• 2:05:28
  safe, right, Like go do all those things.
• 2:05:29
  But then when you when you just go through those emotions like
• 2:05:33
  that, that race was pretty exciting, you know, to watch how
• 2:05:36
  rock was in the whole different zip code there for a while.
• 2:05:39
  There's a lot of battling going on behind him.
• 2:05:41
  And I just thought, I thinking if there's a caution at some
• 2:05:45
  point and when that white flag came out, I didn't, I didn't
• 2:05:48
  even see the spin over in turn 4.
• 2:05:51
  But when that white flag came out, it's like, wow, I won.
• 2:05:55
  I was in like 35 laps with street stock recent all green
• 2:05:58
  like signing, but just the number of battles are going.
• 2:06:02
  I I kept thinking to myself, if there's a caution at some point,
• 2:06:05
  this is going to get interesting.
• 2:06:07
  And you know, and that's, and as I said, Brock.
• 2:06:11
  'S cruising that whole time, and all he has on his mind is as
• 2:06:14
  long as nothing crazy happens in front of me and as long as the
• 2:06:16
  yellow doesn't come out, I'm OK. And yeah, well, and I felt that
• 2:06:22
  way, you know? Watching Phil out front, you
• 2:06:25
  know, Phil Bozell and the out for so long and then they ended
• 2:06:28
  up having, you know, different issues.
• 2:06:30
  I don't know all what happened, but you know, with all the
• 2:06:33
  issues. And then I I really thought Mark
• 2:06:35
  shook. I thought Mark was going to get
• 2:06:38
  to catch up to Tyler just watching it, you know, again.
• 2:06:42
  And I and I have a chance because I edit it.
• 2:06:45
  Then I get to watch it back before it gets published again.
• 2:06:48
  And so, you know, I just kept even in watching it back and
• 2:06:52
  editing. I I would wind, wind it back and
• 2:06:55
  go, you know, like there's a moment like you just think like,
• 2:06:57
  man, if it if it's something happened differently here.
• 2:07:01
  And so, so again, O'Donnell, no, we're just doing a wrap up
• 2:07:05
  because I really wanted to show we we were going to save it for
• 2:07:08
  Thursday, but I thought, well, it's Monday and we've already
• 2:07:11
  committed this long. But you know, that's where just
• 2:07:15
  watching even that outlaw race, it's like there's a lot of
• 2:07:17
  exciting moments. Yeah, and there was.
• 2:07:20
  There's a restart early on where Tyler and Phil Bozell were
• 2:07:24
  starting side by side. You're kind of already thinking,
• 2:07:27
  well, Tyler's about to jump out ahead and it's over.
• 2:07:29
  But he didn't. And Phil got that jump on that
• 2:07:31
  restart. And I'm talking, I'm talking
• 2:07:32
  trash to my nephew, 'cause I'm rooting for Phil.
• 2:07:34
  Yeah, it was a good time at Kalamazoo on Friday.
• 2:07:37
  Well, and Phil had an onboard camera.
• 2:07:38
  So you'll be able to see from his perspective.
• 2:07:41
  And then Matt Frazier, who is also up front there for a bit,
• 2:07:44
  had an onboard camera. Bryce Bozell did well.
• 2:07:46
  He hung up with. He did for a while.
• 2:07:49
  It was very cool watching 'cause I mean, I grew up watching Andy
• 2:07:52
  and then Phil obviously, and then Scott Hans is one of my all
• 2:07:55
  time favorites. I have a picture in here
• 2:07:57
  somewhere, but watching Bryce battle Scott Hans for quite a
• 2:08:02
  handful of laughs was cool to watch.
• 2:08:04
  Well, and that's where sometimes.
• 2:08:05
  It's tough. As the, as the videographer,
• 2:08:07
  because I'm A1 camera crew, right?
• 2:08:08
  I don't have, you know, a second person who can, you know where
• 2:08:12
  like I've talked with Cody Geyer about this because he does Great
• 2:08:15
  Lakes super sprints, right? And so sometimes they have one
• 2:08:17
  camera, sometimes they have two. And he'll, and I've asked him, I
• 2:08:20
  said, so when you do things for racing America, how far back do
• 2:08:23
  you go? And, and he said 7th place is
• 2:08:25
  the furthest he'll ever go back. Anything after 7th, they don't
• 2:08:28
  go back. And, and, and it's like, OK, but
• 2:08:31
  if the leaders like way out there, I, I want to jump around
• 2:08:34
  and try to at least get everybody.
• 2:08:36
  And so it's, you know, everyone has a different philosophy and
• 2:08:39
  what they do and, and how they, they shoot, right?
• 2:08:42
  But it's one of those that I try to get everybody.
• 2:08:44
  But when there's battles up front, that's where it's harder
• 2:08:47
  because like, well, I'm not leaving the battle up front.
• 2:08:49
  And so sometimes they feel bad that people don't get as much
• 2:08:51
  time. But if you go back, you can see
• 2:08:54
  some of it in the shadows. I call it where there's a lot of
• 2:08:57
  good battles. I do try to jump through Once
• 2:08:58
  Tyler had it for a little bit, you know, you kind of judge the
• 2:09:01
  timing on the laps as a video guy, you kind of judge OK, I I
• 2:09:05
  can pan off of this for a little bit because this is going to be
• 2:09:08
  at least four or five laps before it gets exciting again.
• 2:09:10
  So that's four or five other laps.
• 2:09:12
  I can try to get other people some time but but that that.
• 2:09:16
  That's true stock. Race, that was one.
• 2:09:18
  And then just, you know, when Phil had to pull off after being
• 2:09:21
  out front, you know, it's like, man, that you know, you just
• 2:09:24
  feel for those, right? You feel for those moments and
• 2:09:26
  then. Yeah, I just, I thought.
• 2:09:31
  That was for a packed crowd. The drivers did their job on
• 2:09:35
  Friday. They left it out there.
• 2:09:37
  The front wheel drive a feature was a little exciting, you know?
• 2:09:40
  Yeah, it was. It was.
• 2:09:42
  And I had the turn. 3 camera, which if you haven't seen the
• 2:09:45
  full program, there is a view from turn 3 of, of you know,
• 2:09:51
  what happened in the race for people who want to go back and
• 2:09:55
  watch it. It's in the poll program just to
• 2:09:56
  see how it all kind of shut down because I, I, I missed it.
• 2:10:00
  So I, that's where I'm lucky that I have other cameras around
• 2:10:03
  the track where I can generally find something that happened
• 2:10:07
  somewhere. I don't have everything covered.
• 2:10:09
  There is like 2 blind spots that I just don't IA camera there
• 2:10:14
  just doesn't get what I need. But, but yeah, that one, you
• 2:10:18
  know, but again, Elsie Junior and a front wheel drive.
• 2:10:21
  That's, you know, I, I was impressed with Scott.
• 2:10:24
  He had a lot go on with Scott Gates in the 46 and then he kept
• 2:10:27
  going and everything. So other than that, we can talk
• 2:10:31
  more about it on Thursday. I don't want to keep people
• 2:10:33
  longer since it's already 910. But it's like, you know, I, I
• 2:10:37
  spent time loading some of those clips earlier.
• 2:10:39
  So I'm like, I wanted to get to those clips really quick because
• 2:10:41
  I wanted to see your perspective as a driver.
• 2:10:45
  Oh, Tina. I did not post it.
• 2:10:47
  It won't be posted on Facebook if people want to watch it and
• 2:10:50
  take the time. Yeah.
• 2:10:54
  They can go to YouTube and. See it, but I'm not posting it
• 2:10:56
  on Facebook, but so it's a cheap pop for YouTube.
• 2:11:01
  But other than that, we're back on Thursday.
• 2:11:02
  So I have editing to do. So I'm going to go do that.
• 2:11:06
  And you know, my favorite thing is to turn left and go fast
• 2:11:09
  because see you at the races. We'll see.
• 2:11:12
  Everybody at the races.