Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / My Awesome Time At Cleetus McFarland's Freedom 500 | Charlie Marlow Show

Transcript

My Awesome Time At Cleetus McFarland's Freedom 500 | Charlie Marlow Show · Kenny Wallace Media

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  What's up everybody, Charlie Marlowe here jumping on to talk
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  about my awesome experience last weekend at the Freedom 500 put
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  on by the one and only Cletus McFarland at the Freedom Factory
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  down there in Bradenton, FL. First of all, I love the vibe of
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  that Bradenton Sarasota area. Hadn't ever really been down
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  there. I covered a Rams football game
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  in Tampa probably 10 years ago or so, maybe even longer than 10
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  years ago. Didn't get much out of Tampa
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  though, just pretty much hung out at the hotel.
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  So I flew into Tampa for the Freedom 500I flew out of
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  Bradenton. But that drive down from Tampa
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  is really, really nice. Right there on the water.
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  You have that amazing bridge right there, what after Saint
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  Pete? So just first of all, a really
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  cool area, Tampa, Saint Pete, Sarasota, Bradenton, I know it's
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  a big area for for spring training and all that.
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  What you have Sarasota Orioles, I believe, I believe, don't
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  quote me on that. I believe that's the case.
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  But you're here to talk about racing, to hear me talk about
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  racing. So basically got in super early
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  on Friday and I'm going there with Kenny Wallace and his buddy
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  John Scotone. So I fly commercial, big timers,
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  big timers. They're flying down on John
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  Scotone's airplane, pick them up from the airport in Bradenton.
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  And this is, I don't know, 3:00, whatever it was.
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  And we go right to the track, right to the Freedom factory.
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  We'd already missed the drivers meeting, but we're we're there
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  in plenty of time. Right when we get there, right
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  when we get there, Cletus grabs Kenny and they start doing that
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  drifting, which was crazy. We put that video on Kenny
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  Wallace's YouTube channel did really well.
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  Just amazing them going around. You should see their their faces
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  just lighting up as they're spinning and drifting and
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  burnouts and all that. Really cool.
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  Then they qualify. Kenny qualified second, but then
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  they kind of flipped the field, whatever it was.
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  I think he was 7th or 8th when the race actually started.
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  And we'll, we'll talk about the race.
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  But to me, what was so cool about this event, it was such a
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  celebration of Motorsports, such a celebration not just of, of
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  NASCAR and the history of NASCAR, but all forms of
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  Motorsports. Just think about some of the
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  people that were there. So I'm obviously there with
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  Kenny Wallace. Kenny Wallace raced in NASCAR
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  for 20 years. Whatever.
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  He's 62 years old. You got Wyatt Miller, the
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  grandson of Dale Earnhardt Senior, the son of Kelly
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  Earnhardt Miller. Kelly Earnhardt Miller was there
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  as well. You have Bobby Earnhardt racing
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  in this event, another grandson of Dale Earnhardt Senior.
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  That's Carrie Earnhardt's son. So think about just tying in the
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  history of racing with some of the people I just discussed, the
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  history of NASCAR. You got the Earnhardt family
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  represented. You got the Wallace family
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  represented. We're talking about two of the
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  most famous Hall of Fame type families in the history of
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  NASCAR. When we're talking about the
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  Earnhardt's, the Wallace's. I mean, obviously you got the
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  Petty's, you got the Allisons Labonnies.
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  I'm sure I'm forgetting some of them.
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  I said Allison's right, but just think about the history of
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  NASCAR. So if you're 70 years old, you
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  can enjoy watching that race because you're watching Kenny
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  Wallace. Maybe you were in an Earnhardt
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  fan, a Dale Senior fan. Maybe you're 75 years old,
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  whatever it is, and you're watching now the grandkids of
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  Dale Senior Racing in this race. Maybe you're a fan of Kenny
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  Wallace, Mike Wallace, the Hall of Famer, Rusty Wallace.
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  You have the Wallace family represented.
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  And then also just think about that.
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  Think about that length of time that that span of ages.
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  So Kenny Wallace is 62, 62 years old, racing in the Crown
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  Victoria race for the Freedom 500.
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  Wyatt Miller, who's a super talented kid, really nice kid by
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  the way, youngest person to ever race the Crown VIX with Cletus
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  in the Freedom 500. This kid who's going to be a
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  superstar talent already is, but you would think he's going to
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  continue to be a talent in NASCAR moving forward.
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  But he's 14 years old. You got a 14 year old kid
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  racing, you got a 62 year old man with his AARP card and Kenny
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  Wallace, who I love. I say that with love, but you
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  basically have a 50 year difference almost in in people
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  competing in this race. So it's just so cool to see the
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  history of NASCAR represented with the families, with the next
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  generation, with the third generation in terms of of Wyatt
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  Miller and Bobby Earnhardt in this race.
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  And then also not just NASCAR. Let's talk about Motorsports as
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  a whole. You got Travis Pastrana in the
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  race. You got Brian Deegan in the
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  race. Brian Deegan ends up coming out
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  of nowhere at the end to win the race.
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  But so it's not just NASCAR. We're talking about all the
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  different racing that Pastrana does or did, bikes and rally car
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  and Deegan with the motorcycles and X Games.
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  Brian Deegan I think is 50, early 50s, fifty 152.
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  Don't quote me on that. I think Pastrana is about 42.
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  But you're talking about a 25 plus year, probably rivalry
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  going back to the X Games and all that and Moto with Pastrana
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  and Brian Deegan and that rivalry.
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  So you got NASCAR, you got Moto, you got X Games.
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  I mean, think about that. We're talking about Wallace's
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  Earnhardt, Pastrana Deegan, 40 years, 40 years of racing
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  history across all these different forms of Motorsports
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  represented at the Freedom 500. That was so cool.
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  So again, I've never been to the track.
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  It used to be called what DeSoto.
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  I know Kenny raced there back in the day, but sold out.
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  However many people were in there.
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  I'm not sure I, I googled it and said the capacity was 5000.
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  So let's say there was 6000, I don't know what the number was
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  because you had VI PS and all that, but the grandstands were
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  absolutely packed and, and you walk around, I walked around the
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  track probably 3-4 times, get into the media area to post some
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  content. The fans are so excited.
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  It was just fun. Like everything about the event
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  was fun. And you have the streaming
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  aspect. I I'm sure 10's and 10s of
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  thousands of people connecting on the stream, maybe 100,000
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  plus. I don't, I don't know the
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  numbers on that, but five 6000 people there in attendance.
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  They stayed the whole time. And, and this was a show, right?
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  It wasn't just a race, it was an event.
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  And I'll tell you what, Cletus is so impressive because that
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  dude does it all. And I've watched some of his
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  videos and I've watched his interviews when he's racing
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  NASCAR and all that, but I mean, literally a freaking one man
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  show where he's out there racing.
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  But every time he's not racing, he's on the mic and he's
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  grabbing the microphone and you got the live aspect at the
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  track, but it's also going out there on the stream and he's
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  doing all the interviews like he's having fun.
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  He's a bit of a comedian. I mean, during cautions, the
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  dude is literally jumping out of his car during a caution to grab
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  the mic to talk about what's going down to chirp other
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  drivers, right, If they're crashing each other.
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  It was just a, a really, really cool show.
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  I mean, there's a, a, a point where they put the dude on the
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  screen with his sleeves off and they ripped his sleeves off.
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  They put that on on the broadcast, on the stream and
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  just just a fun experience and there wasn't downtime.
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  That's why I'm talking about it wasn't just a race.
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  It was an event. You had Cletus starting out
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  there with the with the drifting car.
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  They had these these vehicles, these trucks basically that had
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  no back end. I'll put a picture up here.
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  No back end. But they were just like racing
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  around the track and just dragging, dragging around the
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  track. It was pretty cool to see.
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  And then, man, I'm telling you, a firework show that rivals 4th
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  of July. I mean, an insane firework show
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  at the end that seemingly didn't end.
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  And I was probably honestly what, 50 yards away watching it.
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  I'll put some video of that as well.
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  And then the pyro and I, I felt the pyro.
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  I felt the pyro from 50 yards away.
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  That's how crazy the pyro was. So just just such a fun event.
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  You understand why the dude's so successful.
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  You understand why he has 5 million or whatever it is
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  YouTube subscribers and, and look, you call him a showman and
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  all that, but also a businessman.
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  I mean, you walk around the track dude, and, and what it
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  takes to put on an event in a race like that.
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  How many, how many employees were there?
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  Hundreds, I'm guessing between all the tickets, the
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  concessions, think about all the people that have to work on the
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  track. I, I'm guessing 100 plus
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  employees that are collecting paychecks from these events and
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  just how many people the, the, the business impact to the
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  community for people coming from all over the place, not just
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  Florida. We were walking around with
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  Kenny talking to people. There were folks I remember
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  saying they came from Detroit, they came from Pittsburgh, PA
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  just to see this race to come down to Florida, not for a
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  NASCAR race for Cletus Mcfarland's Freedom 500.
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  So just a really, really cool, impressive event.
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  They had music playing in between.
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  You can tell he likes $0.50. That's what I'm saying.
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  No downtime and I I think the stream started with qualifying
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  what maybe like 5530. They had to be out of there by
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  10, but it was just non-stop and walking around.
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  You know, I don't know all of Cletus's characters.
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  I know I know about squirrel, right, But there was this older
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  dude that I think is a guy that's featured in a lot of
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  Cletus's videos and he was signing autographs right there
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  on the on the midway. Just so many fans having fun,
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  like just due to their sleeves off dudes with their girlfriends
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  there. Just such a fun time at the
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  Freedom 500. So I made some notes.
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  I think I've touched all the bases here.
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  Let me make sure. Sometimes my handwriting is so
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  bad that I, I can't even, I can't even read my own
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  handwriting. I think I touched on everything.
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  Just a fun time, man. A fun, fun time at the Freedom
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  Factory for the Freedom 500. And if Kenny Wallace goes back
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  there, I'll be going back as well.
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  We had so much awesome content. It's all there on the Kenny
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  Wallace YouTube channel. You know, originally we were
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  going to go to that Berlin race in Michigan.
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  I was actually going to make a vacation out of it.
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  So I like the vacation with my family in that South Haven, MI
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  area. I'm actually from Toledo, OH,
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  but I've lived in Michigan three different times.
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  So I love Michigan even though I'm an Ohio State fan.
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  But so whether it's the Freedom 500 next year, whether Kenny
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  does one of these other races, whether it's Indianapolis,
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  Berlin, I promise if Kenny's racing there next year, I'll be
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  there as well. Because just such an awesome
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  experience, such a celebration of racing and Motorsports and
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  fun. And, and one more thing, I'm
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  essentially a full time content creator.
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  YouTube. I worked in TV and radio, local
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  TV and radio for about 20 years. But I've been full time YouTube
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  since I left radio, probably 2 1/2, three years.
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  I left TV for good 4 1/2 years ago.
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  That's another thing. You got to give Cletus all the
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  respect in the world, man, for what he's built in terms of his
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  just content industry. That's the other thing I was
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  about to stop, but I forgot about this.
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  Like everybody there is a content creator.
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  If you walk around, you're on somebody else's stream or
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  somebody else's YouTube channel. Everybody had their own content.
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  You know, camera person, Pastrana Deegan, Wyatt Miller's
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  14, he's got somebody following him.
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  You got Kenny Wallace, you got all these other big Youtubers.
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  And I say this with no disrespect, I don't know all the
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  big names. So there was these other dudes
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  that had hundreds of thousands of subscribers, millions of
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  subscribers. And I don't even know him
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  because I'm not really in that in that realm like that.
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  But like for, for people that are in the content creation
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  business. Like you got to give Cletus all
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  the respect in the world for what he's built.
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  It's pretty freaking amazing the views he gets and the, and the
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  passion of the fans and the following and all that.
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  And you see it on YouTube when we post stuff on Kenny Wallace's
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  channel. I think we've added like 3000
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  subscribers in the last 5-6 days and the Cletus fans seem to love
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  Kenny and Kenny loves the Cletus and the Cletus fans.
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  So it's it's really cool to see the the synergy there.
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  All right, already went too long, but awesome experience.
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  Freedom 500. If you got this far, please
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  comment like and subscribe. We're trying to get this channel
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  above 1000 get this baby monetized.
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  So we have kind of a second channel where I can talk about
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  NASCAR and racing also. All right, Charlie Marlowe
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  signing off. Peace.
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  Awesome time with Cletus McFarlane at the Freedom 500.
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  See ya.