Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Hot Dogs & Cleetus McFarland! | Mast Cast Ep 10

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Hot Dogs & Cleetus McFarland! | Mast Cast Ep 10 · Kenny Wallace Media

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He is former NASCAR cup series driver Rick Mast.
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I'm his non driving son Ricky. Sadly, we don't have my sister
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Rick's daughter Katie with us this week.
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I, I kind of feel like it's, it's, I don't know whether that
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we might have to. I feel like we got to carry a
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big heavy load here now because we don't have Katie with us.
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I mean, I think that that really helped us and I felt like we
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took off like a rocket ship last week and now it's just the two
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of us. So I don't know, Dad, we got to
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work cut out for us here tonight.
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Yeah, she's studying, man, You know what I mean?
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She's, she's in her medical world doing all her studying and
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that's all she does is schooling and medical and studying, it
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seems like. So yeah, it was.
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Pretty cool. It was pretty cool.
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Yeah. She just decided about NASCAR,
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man. She really does.
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She's into it. In fact, all the races everybody
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sees me going to, she's the one that drags me to the races,
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right? And started doing that few years
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ago and you know, kind of wonder what happened.
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It should be like, OK, you want to go to the race some more.
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So we'd go and I'd be dreading going.
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Don't want to go, don't want to do it.
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They want to get there like, man, I'm in my mother's womb,
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right? This were supposed to be and
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have a great time. So kind of got back into it now.
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Well, she's busy studying follicules and others other
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various health and body related things.
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So all good. Anyway, had to get one shot in
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on you before we before we move on everybody point that on the
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mass cast show socials that clip of you talking about follicles
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last week. So, you know, got to go to the
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well one more time while I. Can, the way I look at it is
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everybody knows what I'm talking about.
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Maybe you don't get the explanation exactly right, but
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everybody knows what I mean. So that's that's all it really
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matters. Well, that's a good way of
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looking at it. Well, as you might know, if
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you're if you're watching us on YouTube, on the Mass cast show
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YouTube channel on Kenny Wallace Media, you'll see I decided to
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break. I've had this hat for a little
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while now, but I decided to break out my Chase Elliott hat
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this week since Chase one in my grandfather clock on Sunday, one
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at Martinsville. Heck of a heck of a win for that
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team. I pull for a lot of different
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drivers and teams. By the way, I got multiple hats
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so don't want anybody accuse me of being just one driver.
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I I like got a lot of people I like in the NASCAR Cup Series
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and and others NASCAR series, but Chase one this week.
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So I figured I'd break out my #9 hat.
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Dad. First thoughts Impressions from
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the race at Martinsville last Sunday.
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Yeah, that was pretty, you know, two things with that deal with
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the 9 core #1 Alan Gustafson is his crew chief made the call.
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They're going to, you know, the run, that last run, everybody's
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going to make one stop. Well, Alan decided he's going to
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do 2 stops a short pit, right? And he did that.
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And I'm sitting there trying to figure it and calculate it and
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cypher on it. I'm like during this might just
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work out in the end because these tires were really falling
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off. You know, more than the tire
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they got followed. They running at Martinsville now
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is a good tire because it falls off a lot.
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We saw that with how different it was with the tire change and
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you stop you stop being that way for a lot of races there.
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But so he did that and then what happened?
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What saved him or what made it even better for him?
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The caution came out right. So now he's up instead of
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running 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th where he's been all day married
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back in the back, he's up front. And then the caution comes out
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in the second part of this deal. When they went back to green,
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Hamlin couldn't do anything with him.
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And Hamlin then he had been dominating that race all
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frigging day long. And when the 9 car got out
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front, man chase man, he just walked the dog.
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I mean he, you know, then he waxed everybody's butt the whole
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race till the 9 car got in front.
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And I think we everybody was just waiting on Hamlin to get up
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to him and, you know, work on him and get by him.
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But he'd back a little run and Chase would pull back away.
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He'd back a double little run and Chase would pull back away
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and I'm like, damn, go 9 car's hooked up today.
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And it really was. So, you know, they still, they
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still don't have the 9 car, the Henrik organization, They still
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don't have that thing perfected yet.
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I think it's pretty obvious, but he was able to run the hit on
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the right air pressure tire, set up wedge everything for the last
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last run for that car for that day, for that track condition to
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outrun the fastest car, which was 11 cars.
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So you know, kudos to those guys.
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Maybe they can get it. Maybe they can get it going
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around. Man.
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You know how we always talk here on mass cast, we chase Elliot
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needs to be a winner. He needs to be winning.
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Kyle Busch needs to be winning, right?
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And and oh man, think about Kyle Bush.
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He was not happy after qualifying.
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Did you see his interview? Man, he he was, he was not
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happy. And then, you know, during the
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race just really, really, really run bad.
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And little Dylan did too. So I I've been thinking this
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week right about the the goings on and welcome right now.
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Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, What's going on in you?
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If you know Richard Childress, you know, Richard is a
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competitor. I mean, anybody ever worked
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there? You they know they'll tell you.
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I mean, he's just he's eat up with being competitive.
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You know, and something like this, the way these cars are
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running right now. It it's it it goes against
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everything about Richard childish right now, man, he and
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I just you know, the stuff that's got to be going on down
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there. Welcome on Monday and Tuesday
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after these races and what you know, trying to figure out what
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they got to do to fix this deal to turn it around because you
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know, and this was the first time, this was the first time I
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actually seen Kyle Busch since he's been with RCR.
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First time I've seen that, you know, whatever type attitude
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from him, right when he made when he made that when he had
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that little press conference, it was not good as it reminded me
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of the old Kyle Busch right done had enough done had enough of
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it. So you know, and then that that
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then that this that just naturally starts the rumors.
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You know, Kyle Busch is going to the 48 next year.
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He's going to leave. He's going to do this, he's
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going to do that. I you know, it's too early to be
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putting anything like that in it.
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It's just that, you know, Richard keeps throwing things at
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it with people and, and different things are doing that
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there. They have been.
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And and you know what's weird about the deal?
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You remember when he first came to Childerson, right, Man, they
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won. Where did they win?
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They won Vegas right out-of-the-box, you know.
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Won. They won Fontana right
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out-of-the-box. Yeah.
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Did they win two or three races or a couple or something?
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Real early on, right? Couple, I'm pretty sure that
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first one was and it might have been the last race at Fontana to
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be honest with you, with at that time was what, second or third
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race of the season? I mean, it was right
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out-of-the-box, yeah. And, and, and it stirred up a
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lot of stuff, man. People like, man, this is pretty
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cool, right, With Kyle Busch winning now again, because if
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you remember the last year or so with Gibbs, he wasn't, you know,
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he wasn't really forced to be reckoned with.
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And then with children, all of a sudden he was, he was winning
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again. And then man, the bottom fell
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out of it and it just hadn't got back right yet.
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I mean, I'm with the hope of so many people that get that thing
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turned around. You know, I, I don't know, you
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know, people ask, well, why, why is it?
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Why is it like that? You know, you can't answer that
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question, man. You know, when you're when
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you're on the road, just like a 45 car with ready, you know, how
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do you run all these races? Well, you know, circumstances in
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a fast race car, you know, fast race car and circumstances can
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also make you not win too right. You have circumstances go wrong.
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But I don't know, just very, to me, it's just very intriguing
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with RCR in what's going on down with those guys and, and
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knowing, knowing Richard the way I know him and, and you know, I
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feel for the man because that man, he puts everything into
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that race and then all he wants to do is win, right?
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I mean, that's what he that's what his old deal is winning.
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I mean, he built a big company in all of what he's done.
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But you know, the bottom quarter, that guy is winning
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races and, and to be running the way they're running, man, oh
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man, Oh man, he's not a happy camper.
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And I don't know. I'm I'm pulling for him, but
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we'll see. We'll see.
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Well, I, I thought so. I actually didn't see the full
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clip of Kyle talking. I'll tell you what I did see of
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it. I was, I was at work and busy
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and I had, I had on my second screen, I've got two big screens
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in my office and 1 is just all of Twitter acts, you know, with
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a zillion different columns tracking a zillion different
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things at once. And so I saw that clip of him
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come up on my screen and it auto played for a few seconds and
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then I got I got distracted with something else.
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But what I did see was his facial expression.
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I saw his facial expression and I went, oh boy, I've seen that
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one before. That ain't good.
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Like that's like, I didn't, yeah.
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I'm like, I don't even need to watch the full clip to know
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what's in his mind right now because I've seen that before.
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No, we used to see that. We saw that regularly, yeah.
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So yeah. Well, I what I did think when,
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because I thought the same thing.
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I thought, man, they're just, you feel for them when,
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especially when you're rooting for people, pulling for people
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and you see how poorly things are going as they were going on
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Sunday and you just feel for them.
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And I, one of my things I thought was it's good for them.
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I feel like that the off weekend was this coming weekend.
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I mean, I, I feel like if things are going that bad to me, I
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could be wrong here, but to me, that's when you kind of need a
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breather to reset some things and maybe step back from a for,
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for a minute, clear your head. Gives you a little extra time.
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Not much. I mean, we're talking about one
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weekend off. And of course the O'Reilly
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program, which is, is really good at Childress.
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They're going to be running at Rockingham this weekend.
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But for the cup program, this gives them at least a little bit
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of time to kind of sit back and go, OK, what, what?
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Well, everything's kind of going wrong here.
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How, what? What's our next move?
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How do we fix this? And I think.
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Well, that's yeah, that's one more.
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Well, yeah, I, I don't know. I, I guess I look at it maybe
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from a little bit more of a sticking ball sporting angles
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like baseball's my sport. So you, you come into a season
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knowing that there's going to be peaks and valleys, you're going
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to be on a roller coaster ride and it's can't really ever get
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too high or get too low. But also know that there's going
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to be sometimes when like when things are going really well to,
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to ride it as long as you can, but don't, don't get too high.
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But you have to remember that when things get too low too,
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like, all right, things aren't going well right now.
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What do we need to do to get ourselves out of it?
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You know? So, yeah, I, I don't know if
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that's a fair comparison. That's how I.
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Look at it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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That's that's that's probably right, right way, Ricky.
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I don't know. It's going to be interesting to
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see, interesting to see what goes on.
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Right. So let's see what else?
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Martinsville. Oh, Bubba.
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Bubba had his moment. Bubba had his moment then.
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And I thought I was telling Freddie Kraft to spot her.
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You know what he come out and says we just can't do that.
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We just can't do this right. And to take you into it in depth
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just a little bit for the fans, you know, the 77 car took him
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three wide host of our down the front stretch and went by Bubba.
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And then that infuriated Bubba, right?
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So they go down the back stretch and then in your jumbled up
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Martinsville. I mean, I've been there, man.
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Mentally, I've been where Bubba was mentally many times early
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on, especially on restarts and stuff at at Martinsville, at
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Martinsville's probably the worst one because the other
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cracks do it too, and you get jumbled up and you're back in
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there a little ways and they're jumbled up in front of you.
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And the time it gets to you, I mean, you're going to be going.
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You got to go 30 miles an hour slower to keep from wrecking,
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especially when you get to the center of the turn.
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I mean, you really just feel like you're about stopping, you
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know, and if you're aggravated to start with and something's
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got you hot under the collar, right, and somebody just took
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you 3 wide and you go in the corner and you know, instead of
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because people are saying they're taking up from Bubba say
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we wasn't in the gas, He wasn't in the gas.
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No, he wasn't in the gas. He was in the brake.
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But when you're jumping up like that, you're not in the gas
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anyhow, right? It's just a matter of how much
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how much brake do you use? And he just didn't use, you
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know, he didn't use a lot of brake.
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I mean, he just ran in there and he's going to wreck a guy if he
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turned him and did all that, you know, And you know, I, I, I know
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exactly where he was mentally because like I say, I have been
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there, but I also, that was also early in my career, right?
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And I learned real quick, you know, you've got to temper
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yourself, man. When those things happen,
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especially at a place like Martinsville, you know, it's
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just a matter of, it's just a matter of like Bubba's case, you
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know, instead of pressing the brake pedal a little more right
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now, hell with it, you know, I'm mad he did me wrong.
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I'm I'm not going to press the brake part pedal hard.
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And I, I get that. The problem is, and you know,
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Ricky, you love Bubba and I love Bubba.
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We, we want to see him do good. And I've all we've always
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cheered for him, you know, and you know, there comes a point in
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time in that sport where you've got to, you know, really
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mentally take care of stuff, you know, and I don't know that
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NASCAR gets enough recognition from a driver standpoint how
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Cerebuilt can be or how cerebuilt really is.
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You, you know, one of the best that was Earnhardt senior.
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I mean, he was one of the best for Regal, you know, smart,
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whatever, right, very smart on the racetrack.
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You know, it just like that deal there.
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Bubba's had these things happen, you know, and it you know, it
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happened again. It rare to suck the head,
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although I've been, you know, for a long time Bubba hadn't
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been causing any problems or anything going wrong.
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But you know, the way the points are structured now, you know,
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you can't worry about one of the race and getting in man.
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You've got to worry about finish that race the best you can
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finish. And when you do something like
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that and you end up taking yourself out, you know then that
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that screws that up. And I think that's what the
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spotter for the craft meant when he said we can't do this, guys,
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we can't keep doing stuff like this.
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So, you know, it's just a matter of of of Bubba getting his mind
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right. I mean, he's got God knows, he's
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Got Talent. He can drive a race car.
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That's that's not an issue, you know, and he's got a personality
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that I like, you know, I love a lot of things he does and says
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it, but but you know, in that race car, you know, you've got
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to, you know, you've got to, I don't know, with me, experience
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fixed it. You know, with me, I do
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something wrong. If I did something wrong, I
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really analyzed the situation and screwed things up pretty
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good. You know, I would look at it
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pretty hard and I'd figure out what it did wrong.
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I'd look at other body else see what everybody else is doing and
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I would straighten it out and I would fix it.
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And, you know, but I've seen so many drivers go through through
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this type of thing. Jimmy Johnson, man, when he
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first came in, man, he was fast. But every time we went to
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superspeedway he'd make a lame brain move and wreck.
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I mean, that went on it seemed like for the longest time with
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him. And I remember he did a little
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interview or something. He said I got to stop doing this
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on these, these speedways. I got this, I've got this re
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analyzer how he put it about what I'm doing.
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And from that moment forward, man never caused another
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problem, never had another problem.
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He went on to win 7 championships after that, you
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know, but he took stock on what was going on, what he was doing,
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you know, mentally screwing things up.
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And you know, that's the only hope.
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Hope, you know, the only hold back I see with Bubba, you know,
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it's just a mental thing, you know, getting that right.
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And again, I totally understand where he, you know, where his
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mind was when he didn't push that brake pedal just hard
15:21
enough, you know, but you know, it's just this and it's hard.
15:25
It's hard especially if you're aggravated, if you're aggravated
15:29
too. And then at Martinsville and at
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John. But it's just a, it's a unique
15:33
deal that happens there and you just got to be tempered enough
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or you know, to say I'm not going to cause a problem here,
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you know, even though I'm 30 miles an hour slower, right?
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But everybody around me is too, since it's just what you have to
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do there. So hopefully, hopefully, you
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know, he gets that thing turned around and gets to go now.
15:53
Kyle was that way. If you remember Kyle Bush when
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he came on, you know, good Lord of Mercy, he had a heck of a
15:57
time getting straightened out. I remember years ago a show used
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to do rowdy.com, right? And I remember the guys on there
16:04
and I was telling them, I says Kyle Bush, they talk about how
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good he is. I said he's good.
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They said, we'll, he'll win a championship in a year or two.
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I said no, no, no way. I said he's mentally not ready
16:14
to win a championship. He's still screwing up too much
16:16
on the racetrack. Driving ability.
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Yeah, he's one of the best, you can see that.
16:19
But he don't have his mind right yet, you know, And he's causing
16:22
too many problems and he's taking yourself out of too many
16:24
races, too many good finishing positions.
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And that did it went on for longest time.
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Then all of a sudden something clicked with him, right?
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And he he just kind of like he figured it all out.
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And then he was just fast winning races and not causing
16:36
problems. And, you know, that's kind of
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where Bubba has to get to. Well, you touched on something
16:41
there and it would. It was the first thing I thought
16:44
when that whole deal happened the other day, the point system
16:47
and though then the new old point system will call it
16:49
because it's new, but it's, you know, it's we're taking it back
16:52
to how it was before we had the win then and final four and all
16:55
that deal. I thought that same thing of
16:58
like, I think that's some guys probably have to do a little bit
17:01
of recalibration of their brains a little bit of like it's not
17:04
winning then and when in advance anymore, it's points.
17:08
Points days matter now. It's not quite to the the level
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it was during your day, right where it was just the season
17:14
long points. There wasn't a chase or
17:15
anything, but I thought of it in terms of if you get to the end
17:19
of the season and you lose, let's say you lose a
17:22
championship by, I don't know, four points, five points,
17:25
whatever. We've seen some close ones.
17:26
We've seen some blowouts in your day.
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There was we saw both, right? We saw best whenever in 92.
17:31
We saw Earnhardt wrap it up with two races to go.
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Seen it either way, but if you're the guy that finishes
17:36
second in that deal, let's say you finished second, but I don't
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know 6 points, let's call it whatever.
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If you look back at the season, naturally, I would think that
17:45
drivers going to look back at the season or at least your
17:47
brain would have to go back and think where could have gotten
17:51
those six points. And you know, if you look back
17:53
and like, I like cut a tire down at Darlington or blue motor
17:57
here, whatever, and you think, well, that's just it sucks that
18:00
happened, but that's just the way the cookie, the cookie
18:03
crumbles to me, the ones that are going to really get to you.
18:08
Are the ones. Where you cost yourself, where
18:11
your emotions or your brain or something, you let you let
18:15
things get the best of you and you cost yourself those six
18:19
points. And then you look back at that
18:20
and you go. Well, I I.
18:22
Do wonder if that's that maybe that's a way that you you you
18:25
learn, you gain the experiences at the end of the year, you take
18:28
stock of everything and you just see if you could have just held
18:30
it together in certain moments, how much better off you could
18:33
bend. And that's that's the ultimate
18:36
example or scenario, right? Of like, well, you lose the
18:38
championship by a few points, right.
18:40
But I mean, it could be you missed the chase by a few
18:42
points. It could be.
18:44
Whatever, and. Bubba that team's having so
18:45
they've been having a really good start to the year, you
18:48
know, and then you look at the standings now because, yeah, you
18:50
starting to look at the standings a little bit.
18:52
It's like, remember Bubba was second or third there for a
18:54
little bit and now he's what's he 10th, 11th, somewhere like
18:58
that. And like if, if if I'm them, I'm
19:01
looking at that and going, hey, man, you lost, I don't know, 7-8
19:05
spots in the points this week. Like what, where, where, where
19:09
do we want to what we trying to do here?
19:10
What do you where you want to go?
19:12
Like what are we trying to accomplish here?
19:14
You know, and just you got to approach it that way.
19:17
I totally get what you're saying though, Especially, you know, I
19:19
remember, I remember years ago, God, this is 1012 years ago.
19:22
Remember he had that big win the Truck Series at Martinsville.
19:25
I think he was even driving. I think that was the truck that
19:27
was paying to look like Wendell Scott's number 34, if I remember
19:31
right. And that was so close.
19:32
I'm sure Martinsville's a place that's like a lot of guys are
19:35
special to him, want to do well there, knows he can do well
19:38
there. His teammate Reddick is just
19:42
setting the world on fire and winning seemingly every other
19:44
week. And his boss, most famous
19:47
athlete in the world, is getting interviewed on TV and in Victory
19:51
Lane every week with his teammate.
19:52
And I'm not saying that Bob was upset about that, but I think
19:55
that's probably everybody wants to be the guy.
19:58
You know, you want to be the guy.
19:59
You can be a good teammate and happy your team's doing well,
20:01
but you still want to be that guy, the one that's front center
20:04
winning every week so. I, I, I see what you're saying,
20:08
you know, I see the emotions that could build up there, but
20:10
the end of the day you got to cool, cool down a little bit and
20:13
say, hey man, what, what are we trying to do here?
20:16
And I don't know, I got, I just pulled up the point standings
20:19
here and it says Bubba Wallace and it says lost 8 spots, right?
20:22
So well. And again, the the this new
20:25
point, still it'll, it'll, it'll bring that to the forefront too.
20:29
You know, before I don't think we looked at that much, but back
20:31
this here, this deal now reminds me so much of 90s, eighties,
20:38
90s, early 2000s when I came through, man, every point you
20:41
did was valuable. And you didn't want as a driver
20:43
to you didn't want as a driver to cost you points, right.
20:49
But something foolish. So you learned all that stuff.
20:51
But anyhow, we'll see how it goes Yeah.
20:54
And we? Do pull for Bubba.
20:55
I'm wearing my chase hat this week.
20:56
I've still got my I got my Bubba hat from when he was driving for
20:59
the King. So I'll I'll rock that one of
21:01
these weeks too. We are pulling for him
21:03
absolutely well, we can't get away from Martinsville.
21:07
So Donna we got I want to got a couple questions and some notes
21:11
and some comments here from friends and fans of mass cast
21:14
and Donna had a really good one for you.
21:17
I'll answer it too after you answer it, but this is one that
21:20
that I think you of all people need to address this you.
21:24
Are I don't know how many. Hot dog connoisseurs or
21:29
aficionados there are in the world, but I would think you are
21:32
among the leading ones of of connoisseurs of hot dogs.
21:37
You certainly there's nobody that loves hot dogs that I've
21:40
ever met as much as you. I work in baseball, all right.
21:42
It's all about hot dogs and beers at the ball game every day
21:45
all year long. So I'm around people that love
21:48
hot dogs every day for six months.
21:51
I've still never met anybody that loves hot dogs like you do.
21:54
And as everybody that follows NASCAR knows or should know,
21:57
there is no finer hot dog in the world than a Martinsville hot
22:01
dog. So Donna asks Rick Mast what is
22:06
the most Martinsville hot dogs you have eaten in a single race
22:11
weekend? Oh, man, I don't know, Ricky.
22:16
You know, I think it would go back to the Bush days or maybe
22:23
the late model days. I think it goes back those days
22:28
even before the Bush series when we would do the big double
22:31
hitter, the Dogwood 500, two 150 laps of modified 250 laps of
22:35
late models and you'd be, you'd get there on Thursday, you'd
22:38
start practicing and qualifying the stuff on Thursday.
22:42
So you're there Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
22:44
So you're there four days, right?
22:48
I can remember those days eating 3 hot dogs for breakfast and
22:55
eating 3 hot dogs around lunchtime.
22:59
And then if things were going OK and I had to urge maybe a couple
23:03
mid afternoon, right? And then before you hit out of
23:07
the racetrack and go back to Moat tail or go back on whatever
23:11
it was that it was that and a Fifth Avenue, right?
23:13
So if you go so that would be 368.
23:18
Up to 8A. Day by four days, Thursday,
23:21
Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, I would do the same thing
23:25
on race day too. So 3032, probably 38 * 4, yeah,
23:30
probably in those days, yeah, that, that's a pretty fair
23:34
assessment, might give or take a number might be a little more, a
23:37
little bit less or whatever. But but like with Cup, we got
23:41
Running Cup, you know, you're just there Friday, Saturday and
23:44
Sundays and try to be a little healthier when I was Running
23:49
Cup, try to be a little healthier till I get to
23:51
Martinsville, you know, that would all go to hell 'cause
23:53
there's these hot dogs, you had to have them.
23:55
So you know, but my crew, the all the guys with the school
24:00
team and everybody I was there with it always make fun of me
24:03
eating hot dogs all the time on the truck.
24:05
Every time they come in the truck, I'm sitting there eating
24:07
a Martinsville hot dog, right. And so I don't I really, I don't
24:11
know. I can't imagine in the cup days
24:14
I ate more than what it did on the late model deal.
24:17
That's a lot. What did they say?
24:18
I saw they said they said it on TV 40, about almost 41,000 hot
24:22
dogs sold. Is that what they said during
24:24
the broadcast? I can't remember.
24:26
What? What it was that it could have
24:28
been? Of course I wasn't.
24:30
There. So that kept the number down, I
24:32
was going to say. If, if 41,000 in light of what
24:36
we just learned about you back in the day, suddenly 41,000
24:39
really doesn't seem like all that much.
24:41
Maybe it was just for that day, then then maybe you're getting
24:44
getting up to it. So I was thinking, I was
24:47
thinking, I remember fat back Mcswain, you know, one of your
24:50
crew chiefs, our buddy Michael Mcswain feel like in a 2 day
24:55
span, one time he he put away 20 or so.
24:59
But then that those days that but see, that might have been a
25:01
three three. It might have still been a three
25:03
day show. There, yeah, I don't think.
25:06
However, I run the numbers on this, I don't think that cops 32
25:10
for for you and that folks listen and watching this, I will
25:13
say this and this is a true story.
25:15
This has happened had this happened last season.
25:17
So I live down here in Atlanta, work with the Braves.
25:21
Mom and dad will come down, visit my sisters will come down
25:24
visit when they can. We'll go to some Braves games.
25:26
They come visit my daughter Stevie and my wife Laura.
25:30
But we'll try to at least get to get y'all to a gamer too,
25:32
because y'all are Braves fans too.
25:35
Dad has showed up after the game or we've gotten back to my house
25:40
after the game and will reach in his pocket and pull out a hot
25:45
dog that he got with him just just to take with him on the
25:48
road, you know? And at times he forgets that he
25:51
even had it. But I just want to, I want to
25:54
emphasize I'm not, we're not exaggerating here.
25:58
Nobody loves hot dogs more than Rick Mast.
26:01
And I'm not kidding. He has gotten home, forgotten
26:03
that he had a hot dog in a napkin in his pocket.
26:07
That is a true. Story that has happened it'll
26:10
probably happen again in the future.
26:11
Hey man a couple years ago we were at Martinsville, Katie and
26:14
I, and so we get out of there before the race is over to beat
26:17
the traffic. So I got me it's cold that day
26:19
too and I had my coat on. So I had me a couple extras.
26:22
I I went and bought a couple extras and put them in my coat
26:25
Get on the road going down up to 20 coming home and I reach
26:28
around hot dogs aren't there Damn things fell out.
26:32
Some were in Milwauk or something, and Katie spent the
26:36
rest of the trip riding home laughing at Dad because I lost
26:39
my friggin hot dogs. And you know, mate, you want to
26:42
think about turning around and going back and getting one, but
26:44
I didn't do that, right? I'll tell you about the hot dogs
26:47
at Martinsville, man, that people remember the story.
26:51
Americrown Food Service, owned by NASCAR, They started taking
26:55
over concessions. A lot of the race tracks.
26:58
Well, one year we show up or one year they show up at
27:00
Martinsville. Americrown, take it over.
27:02
Well, guess what the Martinsville hot dog wasn't
27:04
there. You know, the Martinsville hot
27:07
dog is I think it's a Jesse Jones hot dog or something the
27:10
way they make it and steam the bun do that Well, that Merrick
27:13
round come in there and he didn't man.
27:15
It was almost like a revolt. Ask Mike help.
27:17
I remember him, him him commenting on it man on the
27:20
interview. I mean it was a big deal.
27:22
People were mad. I mean people in the garage area
27:25
were mad crew guys and all were mad.
27:28
That happened on Friday when they opened right?
27:30
This probably been 10 or 1215 years ago after I was out of the
27:33
the sport. Of course they should.
27:34
They couldn't have done that when I was there.
27:36
No, no, we didn't. We didn't lock the gates.
27:38
But anyhow, Sunday morning, man, Sunday morning to the race.
27:43
Guess what? Martinsville.
27:45
Hot. Dog was back, right?
27:47
Orders come down from way up in the hierarchy of NASCAR.
27:51
Don't get those, get those things out of there.
27:53
Bring the Martinsville hot dog back.
27:55
So however they work that out, I always thought it's pretty
27:57
amazing they were able to do that for Sunday morning, man,
28:01
they had the Martinsville hot dogs, but it was a, it was the
28:05
wildest thing. It was just crazy when it worked
28:07
out. There's certain.
28:10
Certain things in this world that you just don't mess with,
28:13
you just cannot do it. And the Martinsville hot dog is
28:16
one of those things. That's just that's it.
28:19
You just there's certain things you can't.
28:21
We're always looking for the biggest, you know, best next
28:24
thing and how do we approve on this or how do we make it bigger
28:27
and better? And there's some things that you
28:29
just got to leave alone and that's and that is Martinsville
28:32
hot dog. You just leave.
28:33
By the way, what is your preferred?
28:36
I'm an by the way, I eat a lot of Martinsville hot dogs in my
28:39
day too. I'd never came close to 32, but
28:42
I could put them away and I was a I'm a plain Martinsville hot
28:46
dog guy. Like nothing.
28:47
I always loved them with nothing on them.
28:49
I just thought they were amazing.
28:50
Just the hot dog in the bun. But what was your?
28:52
What? Is your preferred style mustard,
28:55
onions and chili? Mustard, onions and chili.
28:59
In fact, I made it so popular, like when you go up there now,
29:02
they're already made and wrapped like that.
29:03
That's what they hand you when you get a hot dog, unless you
29:06
ask for something different, but it's already prepared.
29:08
I think I did that 30 years ago. They they thought this is a
29:12
popular way to do it and probably probably was for me,
29:15
you know, didn't realize it. You know, you think you set.
29:18
The standard of the default and what?
29:20
The standard minds of Yeah, what?
29:22
Put on the Martins of the hot dog.
29:24
I don't know why. If I get a hot dog from anywhere
29:26
else, my preferred way is mustard, onions and some chili
29:30
on it. For whatever reason,
29:31
Martinsville is just something about the way they're just so
29:33
good. I just liked them playing in the
29:35
bun. I don't.
29:36
You know what? The problem is mustard onions is
29:40
OK. The problem is the the, the, the
29:43
the kicker on these hot dogs is a chili, right?
29:46
You go somewhere you you order hot dog with mustard is a chili.
29:49
Well, the chilies are so many different types of chilies, you
29:52
get some one time. You can't hardly eat the crap
29:54
right And so, but if you if you just go straight mustard onions,
29:58
you know, you know what you're getting.
30:01
Yeah, that's true. You can throw some ketchup on
30:02
there too. That's fine.
30:03
That's fine. Well, when talking about
30:07
Martinsville, so you've told this story and a number of other
30:10
places, but it's one of my favorite stories of yours.
30:16
It's it's, it's just a great story and it's a gives you a
30:19
little bit of perspective and it happened at Martinsville and it
30:22
involves an all time great at NASCAR Hall of Famer, the
30:26
greatest, I would say the GOAT of the modified series, Richie
30:30
Evans. So why don't you just tell, tell
30:33
the Richie Evans story of Martinsville, Because I I, it's,
30:36
it's one I never get tired of hearing.
30:38
I love it, you know? It's we, we put this out there a
30:41
few times, but it's a significant story.
30:45
It's it's really kind of life telling.
30:47
Steve Burns asked me one time, Eric, why are you so happy all
30:49
the time at the racetrack? You're always happy.
30:52
And I relayed this story to Steve and I said a lot of my
30:55
stuff predated that a lot of my stuff after dated that, that
31:00
this incident. I'm going to tell you about
31:02
Steve and the way I look at things, especially around a
31:05
racetrack. So we're at Martinsville early
31:09
80s Bush series, the Dogwood 500 or whatever.
31:12
It's a 250 laps of Bush Grand National, 250 laps of of
31:16
modifieds. And you know, been doing that
31:18
since the late 70s going down to even before the Bush series.
31:21
We still, we're still doing that.
31:22
The top drivers of the country would come down and the
31:24
modifieds will always come down. And it's always Richie Evans,
31:27
man. I mean, it's everything you come
31:29
down to that that orange 61 man just kick everybody's butt every
31:33
time they come down here. It seemed like, you know, and
31:38
don't know what year it was, Ricky.
31:39
But anyhow, what I didn't have radios.
31:42
We didn't have two way radios. I had wiring harness and all the
31:46
hookups and everything in my car, but we just didn't have,
31:49
you know, just at that point couldn't afford radios.
31:52
So I guess it's Saturday. It's Saturday.
31:58
I don't know why I never spoke to Richie Evans in my life.
32:01
And folks, you don't realize you don't never heard Richie Evans.
32:03
He's in the Hall of Fame, by the way, if you don't know who he
32:05
is, most of you do. He was he was the Dale Earnhardt
32:08
or Richard Petty of modified racing in that day.
32:11
He was just that. And still today's his name is
32:14
just reverence when people talk about him because he was so
32:17
friggin good and 1 so much that everybody loved.
32:21
So anyhow, I don't know why I did it, but I just walked up to
32:24
Richie Evans right in the garage area and introduce myself.
32:28
Hey, Richie, I'm Rick Mass. I'm drive that blue 22 in late
32:31
mile and we talked for a little bit, you know, and I said we
32:35
talked for a little bit and I said need to ask you something
32:38
man, What's that? He said?
32:40
I said y'all run first Sunday, y'all run the race and then we
32:43
run second. I said I don't have any radios.
32:46
I got the wire and harness. I said would you would you be
32:49
interested in renting me your radios for the race Sunday,
32:52
right. I remember he looked at me kind
32:54
of funny, you know, if I doubt anybody's ever asked him that
32:57
before. And I don't know why in the hell
32:59
I even went to him about of all people, I've never talked to him
33:03
and never spoke a word to that guy in my life.
33:04
That's right. And I don't know why I did it,
33:07
but I did. And we got to talk in the sure
33:10
enough, the end of the deal. He said, all right, we'll do
33:12
that. We'll work it out.
33:13
The race is over, you get the radios and all that.
33:16
So Sunday morning we're working on the deal.
33:20
We have the radio, have his radio spec, sure they'll hook up
33:23
and we're part that that particular deal.
33:25
His set up his earphone, but he didn't have earphones, but he
33:30
had a speaker mounted in the helmet.
33:32
So I actually had to use his helmet, right.
33:35
So anyhow, I guess Sunday morning I go up to him, I'm
33:39
talking to him. I said, Richie, normally I said
33:42
I would, I would vote. I would vote, I would I put my
33:46
money on you to win this race today like I always would, I
33:48
said, but my guys said they see you coming out of the Dutch Inn
33:52
this morning at 430 Dutch Inn was a motel slash bar slash
33:55
honky tonk, right. And Richie like to have a good
33:58
time like all the drivers did those days and crew guys.
34:01
And I said, you know, coming out of there at 4:30, not maybe not
34:06
the best of shape. I don't know if I'd vote for
34:08
you. He says, oh, hang nothing to it,
34:10
ain't no problem. And do that.
34:11
Well, what I did, I said it something like it three or three
34:14
times, and I finally figured out I irritated him is what I did.
34:19
And he finally looked at me and he says, let me tell you
34:22
something, man or boy, Rick, whatever he said, you only hear
34:28
and he did you only hear for that amount of time.
34:30
He says work hard, treat people right and be happy.
34:36
That's the three things. Yeah.
34:37
I looked at him and said, OK, that's fine, right.
34:40
Anyhow, he runs his race, race is over.
34:43
I get his helmet. Oh, sweaty ass Hamlet too,
34:45
right? Hook up the radios and do all
34:48
that. We run our race, The race is
34:49
over. Take all the stuff, The race is
34:51
over. I take it all back down there to
34:52
Richie and I said, here's here's the radios.
34:54
Ben, appreciate that's what I owe you.
34:55
He says, I don't know what's it worth?
34:58
I said, Richie, I, I, I don't know.
35:00
I said, you know, you have to tell me so I ain't never read
35:02
it. Rented radios out before.
35:04
I don't know what. So I was sitting there trying to
35:06
think, you know, what to pay him and I think he didn't know what
35:09
to charge me. Finally he looked at me, says
35:11
you going to be here for the next race of spring or fall?
35:14
Whenever I said yeah, he said, meet me at the Dutch in on
35:17
Saturday night, buy me a beard, We'll call it even.
35:19
I'm like, well, this is cool. This is like being anointed by
35:22
the Pope, right? I mean, you know, it'd be like
35:25
you doing it with Dale Earnhardt or Richard Petty, right?
35:28
Just that that type of situation.
35:30
I'm like, damn, this is cool. This dude is cool, right.
35:33
City how we go back to the next race, you know, never get the
35:36
timeline, but the very next big race down there the double
35:39
hitter again and we're on pit Rd.
35:42
The modifieds are practicing first and I'm standing on pit
35:44
Rd. and on the backstretch and beside my car and the modified
35:49
you out and I just happened to look over at turn 2 and I look
35:53
and here comes Richie off turn 2.
35:56
I watch him go down the backstretch.
35:57
I I watch him go to turn 3. I see his left left front wheel
36:01
kicks out and locks up in smoke runs right into the wall.
36:04
I mean hard, right? And we lost Richie Evans in that
36:10
moment, and it took a little bit what he hit.
36:14
I'm like, goodness gracious, that guy hit hard.
36:16
And I'll never forget Andy Hall came down through the pits and
36:20
told me we lost Richie, right? And I sit there and I thought.
36:24
For a little bit and I'm like, well, you know, I'm not going to
36:27
be able to pay you back tomorrow night or Saturday night at the
36:32
Dutch Inn with a beer. And then my next thought was
36:37
work hard, treat people right and be happy, right?
36:41
I'm like, damn, this is this is a little bit heavy, but that
36:46
really, really set a tone with me and my attitude at the race
36:51
tracks and a lot of my attitude with dealing, dealing with
36:55
people that are away from a race track too.
36:57
It's just, it's just one of those things you like, you know,
37:00
why the hell did I even go up to rich?
37:01
You have to start with, you know, what was that about?
37:03
Right? And then and then the, the, the
37:06
so neat, cool, you know, communications we had, I mean,
37:12
this, this, you know, it was just a, it was a special little
37:16
deal, man. It was a special little deal.
37:17
The way you communicate, communicated to me.
37:20
And I'm like, goodness gracious, you know, you don't know, you
37:24
don't know what that's all about.
37:25
But all I do is take from it, you know, work hard, people
37:27
right, treat people right and be happy, you know, and, and it
37:30
really, again, it set the tone for me and my attitude with a
37:34
lot of things, you know, after that and made you think about
37:38
things a little bit different, but just just a cool story,
37:41
just, you know, so when it's just another one of our cool
37:44
stories in life, you get to spread.
37:47
I love that story how you can you can tell it as often as you
37:50
want. As far as I'm concerned, I want
37:52
as many people to hear it as possible because I think it's AI
37:56
think it's a wonderful story for for anybody with listening or
37:59
watching this it doesn't know Richie Evans dad said he was he
38:02
is in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He won nine modified
38:06
championships, including eight in a row and he was named one of
38:11
NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers 1998.
38:14
That's when NASCAR did their their 50 greatest drivers.
38:17
Of course, they've since done 75 greatest drivers.
38:21
And if I'm not mistaken, I, I believe that last championship
38:26
was indeed the 85 season we lost Ritchie.
38:28
That happened October 24th, 1985.
38:31
And I think, if I'm not mistaken, I think that he
38:36
posthumously won the won the championship that year, which
38:39
Martinsville would have been, I believe right at the right at
38:43
the end of the right at the end of the season.
38:45
So I'll tell you when I was a kid and you were racing, one of
38:51
my favorite times of the year was when they were still doing
38:56
the Bush series and the Modified series at Martinsville 'cause it
39:00
was my and then they would have some late model races in there
39:03
as well. It was my one time or one chance
39:05
I ever got to see the Modifieds run.
39:07
Never saw him run anywhere else. And I always loved it.
39:11
It was always just fun to see those guys run.
39:13
Of course I was, Richie was gone by the time I, I was old enough
39:17
to even, you know, realize what was happening or, or what
39:20
Modifieds even were. But you know, I would sit, sit
39:24
there on top of your trailer and watch those guys like Reggie
39:27
Ruggiero and and all those dudes, right.
39:30
And I just, I just loved watching those things.
39:32
Those things are bad, fast and cool, cool looking race cars,
39:36
you know, and I just I enjoyed that so much.
39:39
And, well, they were just they were.
39:42
Yeah, they were bad ass drivers, man.
39:44
Maynard Troyer, Kelly, Jerry Cook and Charlie's was on back,
39:48
you know, and just so afraid to Sado to Sado to Sado and and all
39:52
those guys even bow down and those it was just it was they
39:55
were bad ass. They were they were good.
39:57
They were good one. Of the best finishes in NASCAR
40:00
history and I don't even know if video exists of it, but the
40:02
pictures of it do it justice. You said bow down there.
40:05
Bow down and Richie Evans at Martinsville.
40:07
If you if you're watching this or listen to this, go just
40:10
Google it. Jeff, bow down and Richie Evans
40:12
at Martinsville. It it was just an incredible
40:15
finished rack 11 car up on the fence and and the.
40:19
Richie's up in the fence on his side and start finish line and
40:22
Boo dines under right here and Richie wins a race up in the
40:24
fence, right? It's cool.
40:26
It was cool. Deal it is.
40:28
Really. Cool real quick Everingham.
40:31
So we was there one time and during the race modified a
40:34
racing and I'm standing back there on our pit Rd.
40:37
I guess we haven't raced yet. And I got my back to the
40:40
racetrack and all of a sudden I hear something and I feel this
40:43
massive amount of heat on my back right like what the hell.
40:47
I turned around there's a modified wreck right there,
40:49
right cross pit Rd. from me sitting there just almost like
40:53
exploded burning like a Dickens man.
40:55
I don't I forget the circumstances.
40:57
But anyhow the driver is OK. Turns out it was Ray Everingham
41:00
and I'll, I'd always kid Ray everything about damn boy.
41:04
You tried to, you tried to burn me at Martinsville one time and
41:07
he remembered that wreck and it was, it was pretty cool.
41:10
But anyhow. Yeah, Well, I do want to shout
41:13
out our our buddy Kurt. He had some good questions.
41:15
I'm going to save. He had one question.
41:17
I'm going to save for a little bit later when we go to a mile
41:19
and a half. But I did want to give him a
41:20
shout out. He attended.
41:23
He was at the race on Sunday and attended his 54th consecutive
41:27
race at Martinsville Speedway, which I thought was really
41:31
freaking cool. He'd been going every been going
41:32
to every race since 1998 and technically the only one he
41:35
wasn't able to attend was the during the COVID year and I
41:38
don't even think that should count towards the streak.
41:40
So shout out to Kurt. That's 54 straight. 54
41:44
consecutive Good Lord, Clay Clay Cam, are you listening to this,
41:48
watching this? You might all give it boya free
41:51
pass. One week, one race.
41:53
Goodness. Crazy.
41:53
At least a free hot dog. At least a free hot dog.
41:56
Yeah. Yeah, well, as I'll read Kurt's
42:00
comment here because that's I told him I was like, man, that's
42:02
got that might be some kind of record right there.
42:05
He goes well, I'm sure there's some Willie Nelson look alike
42:08
dude out there with an old Winston jacket.
42:10
He won by saving the cigarette points in the 80s.
42:13
That's that probably holds the all time record.
42:15
But but to to summarize, he's like he's going for it.
42:19
He's going for us. I love that.
42:20
I thought that was cool. I I love that hearing that kind
42:22
of stuff. Well, we're talking a lot about
42:24
the old days, as we often do here.
42:26
And this coming weekend, the Cup Series is off as we talked about
42:29
earlier. But the O'Reilly series, man,
42:33
I'm, I'm almost called it Xfinity again.
42:36
The O'Reilly Series and the Truck Series are going to one of
42:38
my all time favorite tracks in NASCAR and that is the Rock
42:42
Rockingham. I will say this that I don't get
42:45
me wrong, I'm very happy North Wilkesboro is back.
42:48
I'm glad that it didn't. Not.
42:52
Expire that it didn't go extinct and not only didn't go extinct
42:56
but it came back if you'd asked me before North Wilkesboro came
43:01
back, hey, if you could bring back one track and the NASCAR
43:03
that's gone my top choice, I'd have said Wilkesboro is number
43:06
2, but Rockingham Rockingham is my number one I I'd love that
43:10
place I love the style of racing at that place you tended to run
43:13
well there. It's kind of it's in North
43:16
Carolina, but it's. It's it's pretty.
43:19
Close to Virginia, it's, it's almost in our neck of the woods,
43:22
I'd say. So a lot of reasons.
43:23
I've always loved that track. So I hope to see it back on the
43:25
cup schedule again someday. But just when I say, when we say
43:29
the word Rockingham, the track Rockingham, like, what are the
43:31
first things that come to mind for you?
43:34
Yeah. Just, it was, it's one of those
43:35
tracks that I loved racing at. You know, the, the, my, my
43:41
criticism is when we took it away and, and I understand we're
43:45
going through different, different markets, new markets
43:47
and all that stuff, right? But the problem I had with
43:51
taking that race away, it was always, always one of our best
43:56
TV races. It was always very exciting
44:00
television. The Rockingham race, just the
44:02
track, whatever. It just produced good, exciting
44:05
racing for television. And we left that and went to the
44:10
track that was born for television.
44:12
I mean, I'm born BORING, boring, right?
44:16
It wasn't a good race. It wasn't a good TV race to to,
44:20
you know, so that, that always bugged me a little bit.
44:22
But I, I understood what they were trying to do, you know,
44:25
with the new markets and all that stuff, you know, but you
44:30
know, let's face it, man, you know what, what looks good on
44:33
television looks good in person too.
44:35
And if you, if you go to Rockingham and it's good racing
44:37
like it always was, it'll be good for television.
44:40
It'll be good. It'll be good for the people
44:42
that show up there, right? It's just just, I don't know
44:45
why. It's just one of those tracks
44:46
that does that. And excuse me, I don't know,
44:51
just all I've always always loved.
44:53
I think Kyle said fill it in and make a fish pond out of it one
44:56
time Kyle Petty and he said same thing about Darlington, I
44:59
believe. I think.
45:00
I think he said same thing about both rich tracks he was he was
45:03
at. Arlington, he said they ought to
45:05
fill it up with with water and have professional bass fishing
45:08
tournaments. And then he followed that up and
45:10
said and next week we're going to Bristol.
45:12
I hate Bristol too. And I can't remember.
45:14
He might have included. No, no, no, no, he wouldn't
45:16
include Rockingham in there because I think he actually,
45:19
yeah, he did. He wanted Rockingham.
45:21
Yeah, yeah, it is the. End of that quote it, Darling
45:23
said. Well, he wouldn't catch any fish
45:25
either because his place is so bad you'd never catch a fish.
45:27
But. That's right, Kale, I remember.
45:31
Kale didn't like that place, right?
45:33
But I think Kale did something going to turn 1 and hit the wall
45:37
for left side of the car one time and you're hauling ass
45:40
there. I mean, you're fast that
45:41
racetrack. And I don't think he ever liked
45:43
that track. But you know, it's just one of
45:45
these deals. It's it's fit my driving style.
45:47
Liked it. I loved it, you know, but always
45:50
most of the time we could we could turn out a good run there,
45:53
you know, and do things. But you know, I'm just I'm glad
45:56
they're coming back. Hope it gets on the schedule
45:58
someday. You know, it's going to be
45:59
interesting this week, man. It's going to be interesting to
46:01
see what goes on down there. We got, we got, we got the hot
46:05
topic going on. We got Cletus.
46:07
Cletus is going to be at Rockingham and you know how his
46:10
leads in the fans better going to be watching that.
46:13
We will too. I mean, I'm pulling for the boy.
46:16
I hope he does. I hope he does well.
46:18
I mean, it's good for a sport if he does, if he doesn't, you
46:20
know, this stuff ain't easy, man, right?
46:22
If it's easy, everybody could do it, you know?
46:24
But that guy sure does seem like he knows how to put his heart
46:28
and soul into something to make something happen.
46:31
After I started watching him more and figured him out right,
46:34
So that's going to be fun to watch all that, see all that how
46:38
that works. What does?
46:40
In your mind, what does a successful O'Reilly Part series
46:46
debut at Rockingham look like for Cletus?
46:49
I, I feel like really, I was just going to say finishing.
46:55
We got to give him more. I thought about finishing Ricky,
46:57
but man, we've got to give him more than that.
46:59
We've got to give him more than that.
47:01
And here's the problem with the dude, man, this friggin stuff is
47:05
so hard, right? Everybody that's into this
47:08
thing, I mean, you sleep it, you eat it, you drink it, you're in
47:12
it all the time. The guys are in simulators,
47:15
They're doing all that stuff full time occupation, doing this
47:18
and hopping in a car every week, right?
47:20
To trying to master the craft and get good at the craft of the
47:24
craft of racing. And this dude is trying to do it
47:28
without doing all that, you know what I mean?
47:30
Because he's got his life, he's got all his other stuff he does.
47:33
He may, he don't have it so much time to put towards, you know,
47:36
trying to do this. So he's putting himself at a
47:39
disadvantage just from that standpoint, you know, But you
47:44
know, quick learners, you know, talented people, quick learners
47:47
can overcome a lot of deficiencies of a deficiency
47:50
being him not being able to do it every week, you know, So I
47:54
wonder about that. I worry about him a little bit
47:56
about that. Not, not, not, you know, not
47:58
being after being able to do it every week.
48:00
Because I'm going to tell you something, man.
48:01
You learn something every lap, every race you ever go to.
48:03
I don't care if you run 10 races or 1000 races.
48:06
You learn every frigging lap of every race you ever run.
48:09
It's just the way, it's just the way our sport is.
48:11
You always, you're always tricking, tricking everything
48:15
you do right and, and, and try to make it better, make yourself
48:18
better and learning what to do here, what to do there, what not
48:20
to do, who to race with, who to get beside on the outside or
48:24
don't get beside this guy and don't get in front of this guy,
48:26
don't get behind him. Don't do this, don't do that.
48:29
It's a million frigging things that goes on, variables that
48:31
goes on. Plus just learning how to drive
48:34
fast around the racetrack without wrecking.
48:36
You know, you got to figure all that out, how to relate stuff to
48:40
your crew and really know exactly what your truck's doing
48:43
or cars doing and be able to relate to do all that.
48:46
And you know, to me that if he was to be able to finish that
48:51
race, to finish the top ten, you know, that would be like a
48:55
miracle deal. You know, it'd be like, man,
48:58
this is so cool to finish the race.
49:00
You know, it's and really he's not running, he's not running
49:03
that many races. And just to finish, you know, I
49:06
guess you're probably with a more reasonable goal there,
49:09
Ricky, because, you know, these things ain't easy.
49:12
They're just not easy to do. So yeah, not.
49:14
To me, everything you just laid out there, you're, you're 1000%
49:18
right. But it also to me, it supports
49:20
my thought that success for him for this particular race for a
49:24
debut is finishing, not not taking anybody else out, his car
49:29
relatively clean at the end of the day, just finishing you're
49:33
probably. Right.
49:34
You're probably right. I thought my goal might have
49:36
been too lofty. Top ten.
49:37
That might have been too lofty a goal.
49:39
Yeah. I mean if he finished the top.
49:40
10 awesome. That's that'd be amazing.
49:43
I think I think that would be cool for everybody involved.
49:46
But to me, especially in light of, you know, how things went
49:50
for him in Daytona with the Truck Series.
49:51
If I'm him, I this weekend, I just keep your nose clean.
49:57
Don't get yourself in trouble. Don't end anybody else's day if
50:00
you can help it. I mean, obviously I know it's
50:02
tough because no matter how much experience you have, how little,
50:05
how much you're racing because you want to compete.
50:08
You know, you, you, you're dreaming of trophies and
50:11
checkered flags and all that kind of stuff like you want to
50:13
compete, you want to finish as well as you can.
50:17
So I, I understand that it's pretty hard to just say, well,
50:20
finishing the race would be a success.
50:22
But to me, I look at it from outside in going man, I again,
50:26
coming off of Daytona, like coming off of that man, you, you
50:30
got lucky that didn't take anybody else out.
50:33
He had a heck of a hit that that Daytona that for a second or two
50:36
there it it worried me a little bit because that was that was a
50:38
tough hit and took. So I look at it like, man, just
50:41
show up, you know, compete, but keep your nose clean and finish,
50:46
finish the race. And if you finish that race and
50:48
that's step one and then wherever the next one is, then
50:51
you say, OK, how can we improve on that a little bit?
50:54
So I well, you know what that regardless regard, I mean, I'd
50:59
be watching the race anyway, but regardless, that's what's the
51:02
first thing you not if you hadn't brought up I was going to
51:04
what's the first thing either one of us thought about when
51:06
we're thinking about the races at Rocky Ham this weekend?
51:09
And it's Cletus. It's not fair, unfair.
51:12
It's not well, Justin Allgire and Junior Motorsports win
51:14
again. Will Will you know, whatever
51:17
it's it's Cletus that that's just that's fact the way it is,
51:20
man, that's. The way it is, yeah.
51:22
I, I, I really truly just knowing how hard this stuff is.
51:26
I truly hope that you know, he and get yourself going to have
51:29
some success that that excites him, you know, and maybe lets
51:32
him afford more time to trying to master this right that that
51:38
that would be great if that was to happen.
51:39
I just, you know, I worry that maybe, you know, he might get
51:44
discouraged. He never got discouraged.
51:46
Anything else he ever tried and been, I've been going back
51:48
watching all the other stuff he's been doing.
51:50
I'm like, well, you know, he's got the mentality to try to get
51:52
it done here. But golly, it's so hard, you
51:55
know, and you know, we'll see. I mean, I like seeing him do
52:00
well enough to stay excited, to get more excited to to put more
52:04
into NASCAR and the stuff he wants to do 'cause he's already
52:08
going to do the deal with Childress, you know, I guess
52:10
later next year is next year, you know, so he's got some of
52:13
that's going on. Hell, he owns a racetrack.
52:15
You got them late models. So, you know, he can do his
52:17
thing. So I don't know, just just an
52:19
interesting storyline to be watching here for for a good
52:22
while. Real good.
52:23
Storyline did you ever we talked before about the race after the
52:27
race go back to Rockingham. Did you have a an exit strategy?
52:30
Of course, the race after the race, for people who don't know,
52:33
the race itself ends, the Cup race, whatever ends.
52:36
And then if you didn't win the race then becomes getting out of
52:40
the racetrack the quickest to either get to the airport or get
52:42
on the road to get home. In our case, we were trying to
52:45
get home in time to watch Sunday Night Football and made with
52:47
children back in the day in the 90s on on Sunday night.
52:51
So was there a race after? The race any any race after race
52:54
match Rockingham, Rockingham was probably of all tracks, that was
52:59
probably the the tamest after the race race to get out of
53:03
there, right? The only problem I'd have at
53:05
Rockingham, when we pull out and you get up there, it's the road
53:09
I needed to go right, either go right, so we'd go up and hit to
53:12
the shortcut to 2:20 to go home driving, or the right to get to
53:16
the airport, Pinehurst or Southern Pines, Aberdeen, where
53:19
we had our plane parked, You know you had to go right.
53:23
Inevitably, every time you come out of there, they want they're
53:25
trying to turn everybody to the left, right, so.
53:30
One time and they have the. Cones set up, stop seeing
53:32
everybody turning left. I'm like, man, if I turn left,
53:34
hell, I'll never get home. We'll never get out of here.
53:36
So I sidestep the cones and turn right to get out of there and no
53:43
problem. Like, well, this is what we do
53:45
every time. Well, then maybe the next race
53:48
or so come out of there and I turned right, might have run
53:51
over a cone this time happened to be a policeman standing right
53:54
up there and he pulled out in the middle of the road.
53:57
Did this at me, right. Well, actually that happened.
54:01
That happened a few times at that racetrack because I'd
54:05
always do the same thing and they always did the exact same
54:07
traffic pattern. But you know, if they would
54:09
stop, stop me and come back to me and once they figured out who
54:14
it was or what I was trying to do, they'd let me go on, you
54:17
know what I mean? And and then in fact, one time I
54:21
come up and went to turn right. Just please stop.
54:23
And I had a hat and I said here, hey, my hat man, the holidays,
54:26
what come here. And I had I said, here, take my
54:28
hat. I just finished the race.
54:29
I got to go to the right. All right, go on, bud.
54:31
Go on, Rick. That's what he said.
54:32
I had him a race hat, right? And he let me go.
54:35
But that was the only problem you ever had getting out of
54:37
rocking in that one little deal. They wanted me to turn left and
54:40
I couldn't turn. I had to go to the right, you
54:42
know. But from there out of there, it
54:44
was pretty clean. It was always it was clear
54:46
sailing. So never really any issues with
54:48
that track, you just. Unlocked a memory for me.
54:52
I was right. I was with you when you gave
54:54
that that cop your hat. Literally took the hat off your
54:56
head you wear. And then he was like, yeah, all
54:58
right, go. I didn't remember that was at
55:00
Rockingham. Hadn't thought about that in a
55:01
long time, but I remember that now.
55:04
That is a true story. Yeah.
55:06
Didn't give him a hot dogs truck.
55:09
Drivers, man. They used to keep a case of hats
55:11
in their trucks. They'd get pulled over by state
55:13
troopers in various states. You know they trade hats for not
55:16
getting a speeding ticket. It didn't always work for them.
55:20
Didn't know it didn't work all the time, but it it would every
55:22
now and then. It would work for those guys,
55:24
right? Just give them a hat and get out
55:26
of the ticket. Am I dreaming or was there
55:28
wasn't there some restaurant and we'd go to Rockingham.
55:30
It was like made look like a barn or or something place we
55:34
would go to. That was Rockingham, right?
55:36
What was that Rockingham? That was an average We we stayed
55:38
up in Aberdeen. It was.
55:40
AI forget the name of that. It was a steakhouse.
55:42
God, it was good. It's probably still there.
55:45
I forget the name of it. Yeah, wonder if it was the.
55:48
Aberdeen Barn or something like that.
55:49
I don't know. I don't I.
55:51
Don't know, I don't know but if anybody.
55:53
If anybody listening watching mass cast, just shoot us a note
55:57
on our socials mass cast show and let us know.
56:01
Or he's Rick Mass 22. I'm Ricky Mass.
56:03
You can just, we're on all the things.
56:05
Just find us and send us a note of what the what the what the
56:08
steakhouse was. It looked like a bar in a rocky
56:10
camp. Because that's another.
56:11
Life memory just unlocked for me.
56:12
I was like, man, I don't know what that place is called.
56:14
I can picture it in my head. Man, it was good.
56:16
It was really good back in the day.
56:19
Another quick, another quick tidbit.
56:21
When we went to Darlington last week for the alumni weekend,
56:24
Katie went with me and we stopped on the way down at
56:27
Clarence's Steakhouse. Katie had never been to
56:29
Clarence's Steakhouse, right? It always go by the Clarence's
56:32
Steakhouse. Do you?
56:33
Do you remember Clarence's Steakhouse, Ricky?
56:35
OK was everybody in racing, huh? Was this in?
56:38
Florence. No, no, no.
56:40
Martinsville, Martinsville. Clarence's Steakhouse, man.
56:44
Right down the road, right down the street from the racetrack
56:47
back in the day, that's where you that's where you ate or
56:50
everybody ate breakfast there early in the mornings.
56:53
Everybody in the race would eat breakfast during and that guy
56:55
always sponsored somebody always all through the years I was
56:58
racing to come up through. He was always sponsoring
57:01
somebody, right, whether it be a modified or late model.
57:04
And but everybody, all the racers would eat there.
57:07
If you didn't eat supper or something when you left the
57:09
track at that place, you were there for breakfast.
57:12
I mean, you couldn't even get in that place on on race weekends
57:15
because we're early tomorrow, like 6 o'clock 6:30 in the
57:18
morning. You couldn't hardly get in there
57:19
because all the race things, everybody's in there eating
57:20
breakfast. So I had to bring Katie in there
57:23
to stop and eat, which so we have.
57:25
And they had a fresh fish fry. All you can eat fish fry going
57:28
on the, the night, Katie not stop.
57:30
So, you know, just a, just a quick tidbit about Martinsville
57:34
before we leave Martinsville. See when I.
57:36
Was oh, well, when I was old enough to remember our thing we
57:40
were doing. I think this was in the end
57:41
towards the end of year Bush Grand National days before you
57:45
got into cup. I believe our deal was after the
57:48
Martinsville race, us and the crew would stop at the Western
57:51
Sizzler there in Roanoke right off right off of 220 of right
57:55
here Royal Tanglewood Mall was I believe that was our our deal.
57:58
Well, maybe this is the way to we.
58:01
This has been another great episode of mass cast.
58:03
Maybe the best way to book in this whole thing.
58:05
You're coming down here. Are you supposed to be coming
58:08
down here next week to my to my neck of the woods in Georgia for
58:12
your granddaughters? My daughter Stevie's second
58:14
birthday. So my wife and I, Laura,
58:17
discovered recently about 20 minutes from our house here in
58:21
Acworth, GA, there is a little tiny hole in the wall Shack
58:27
restaurant. And it is right.
58:29
Next to a. Railroad track.
58:31
It's still an active railroad track, right?
58:33
And it is right there next to the railroad track, small little
58:36
place. I've never not been in there
58:37
yet. And I've noticed because I drive
58:40
by it a lot on my way to and from work or going wherever.
58:43
And I've noticed I'm like, man, doesn't seem like this.
58:46
I was like, is this place even open?
58:47
Like it looks like it's still kept up, like it's open
58:50
sometimes, but I'll be damned, it's never open when I drive by.
58:53
Well, finally one day I was going to work.
58:55
It was about 10:15 in the morning on a weekday and I look
59:00
over and it was open and it was packed.
59:02
I mean, packed, right? So I had to look up after.
59:06
I'm like, all right. I just curiosity is getting the
59:08
best of me. I want to know what this place
59:09
is. It turns out this place, I
59:11
believe it's called Brandy's, think it's Brandy's Hot dogs.
59:16
All right, It's a hot dog stand. Brandy's is only open on
59:20
weekdays, Monday to Friday, and she's only open from 10:00 AM to
59:25
3:00 PM. So basically she's only open for
59:28
lunch and she's only open for lunch five days a week.
59:30
And it's a tiny little shack next to the railroad track, but
59:33
it's a hot dog place. And at 10:15 in the morning, I'm
59:36
telling you, Dad, there are people out the door at this
59:38
place. So all that being said, I think
59:42
you're next time, whether it's next week or whenever you come
59:44
down here, we just wanted to tell you that because we feel
59:47
like instead of us going and trying it, that you will just
59:50
naturally have to go because you won't, your brain won't allow
59:53
you not to go. Try Brandy's hot dogs.
59:55
Oh yeah, that's on the bucket list.
59:57
There's no doubt. Let me tell you something, man.
59:58
I'm a little hole in the wall sometime.
1:00:01
Write this down. I'll tell you about little
1:00:02
little place in Daytona, Little hole in the wall in Daytona, out
1:00:05
in the middle of nowhere. We talked about that at some
1:00:07
point. Same kind of deal.
1:00:08
Write that down. So forget it.
1:00:10
But finding a little hole in the walls, man used to do that when
1:00:13
he's racing, you'd be riding down there in his little shack,
1:00:15
right? Be 10,000 people piled up around
1:00:18
that shot. Like, OK, right there, we got to
1:00:20
stop being here. He would do that.
1:00:21
And you like, goodness gracious. No, we talked about Talladega.
1:00:25
Found one of those little places in Talladega one time, middle of
1:00:28
the summer walk in there and there's water filled balloons
1:00:31
hanging from the ceiling, right? I'm like, what the hell is this
1:00:35
about right? I finally asked the waitress.
1:00:37
I what steal these balloons that keeps the keeps the flies away.
1:00:41
It keeps the flies away. What do you mean?
1:00:44
Well, bees, the flies see that they think it's bee nest, right.
1:00:51
And they won't they won't come in there And sure enough, it
1:00:54
wasn't flying that joint and it was hot.
1:00:55
You know, just a screen door on the on the on the front and all
1:00:59
and never heard that before. But just a little hole in the
1:01:03
wall food thing, man, traveling at these race tracks, you learn
1:01:05
some stuff, dude. So there you go.
1:01:07
Everybody got flies. Perfil you up a balloon, hang it
1:01:10
from the sealer. All right.
1:01:11
Well, the summer's coming, so that's we'll do that around here
1:01:14
and see if it works so well. Dad, this has been fun.
1:01:18
Looking forward to seeing how Cletus and everybody else does
1:01:20
at Rockingham this weekend. Hope everybody has a great
1:01:24
Easter weekend and regardless of how it all goes, how Cletus
1:01:29
does, how, how everything goes, we'll be right back with you
1:01:32
here next week on Mass Cast. So he's Rick, I'm Ricky.
1:01:36
We'll see you next week.