Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Meet Ashly Burnett, Owner of Millbridge Speedway!

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Meet Ashly Burnett, Owner of Millbridge Speedway! · Kenny Wallace Media

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I've been accused of going in the tire shed and soaking
0:03
someone's child's tire. I've been accused of that.
0:08
That post that you had said, they were saying that unless
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you're a part of our clique, you won't pass tire samples.
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It's the Kenny Wallace conversation brought to you by
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everything you need to fix your vehicles up.
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And they are telling me they have Jeep parts and truck parts
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in stock right now. All right, you are looking at
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mini me. This is my sister.
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We are the same. I love her so much.
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Ashley Burnett. Ashley, how are you doing?
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Good. How are you?
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So I was on social media and you say I've had enough, I need a
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break. So let's start right there
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before we get to what you're all about.
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Have you have you been going pretty hard?
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Yes, yes, we've been going very hard.
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Yeah, and garlic, North Carolina, Mooresville,
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Kannapolis, all that. You all have got what, like 10
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inches of rain? What is going on down there with
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this? Rain, yeah, the, the hurricane
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just came through all day yesterday, so I think at one
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point we got one to two inches in an hour.
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So I have a pretty messy racetrack at the moment.
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Yeah. So Ashley, her husband Jeremy,
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they own the legendary, the most famous short track in the world,
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Millbridge Speedway. And we're going to get to that.
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We're going to talk all about Millbridge Speedway.
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But Ashley, let's start with you.
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I was thinking about how to introduce you, but I just went
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to your Facebook page and I just absolutely, I absolutely love
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this because your family dynamics are incredible.
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And I'm just going to read what you wrote and then we're going
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to talk about it. You said, and we're introducing
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Ashley right now. You said Mason's mommy, Jeremy's
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wife, Nick Hoffman's sister, and the boss at Millbridge Speedway.
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That's all. I love it.
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So Oh my God, you are so dynamic.
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You do so much stuff. Born in Belleville, IL and you
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just said you own Millbridge Speedway.
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You do so much stuff. But let's let's just start right
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there. So many people actually say I'm
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going to move South, I'm going NASCAR.
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So how did you get out of Belleville, IL?
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What do you remember as a child? How did you move South?
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Well, my dad just came home one day and said we're going to
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North Carolina. And I said I'm not going.
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And I really, when dad says we're going somewhere, that's
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about the end of it. So then we moved to North
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Carolina. Dad wanted to pursue engine
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building and NASCAR and I call it my brother Carl Carl Edwards
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wanted to go NASCAR racing. So we all just packed up and and
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moved to North Carolina. Yeah, it reminds me of the
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Beverly Hillbillies, everybody so.
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Pretty much what it was. Yeah, you know, the Wallace
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family, of course, my family, we all moved to North Carolina,
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1984. I went down as a crew chief.
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I came back, went back. But anyway, I feel like we were
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doing this. Ashley here you all come.
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I didn't know it. Your father, Darryl Hoffman,
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built my motors when I started racing at Kern Racing Engines.
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So it's kind of weird, like 30 years later, we all meet up.
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I'm like, who's your dad? Oh my gosh.
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So this whole dynamic, your dad, Darryl, was a really good
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winning race car driver. Uncle Dean, you love Carl
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Edwards from right here. Yes, the NASCAR driver.
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Tell me about this dynamic. And then your your husband and
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y'all are go Kart racing. Tell me about this racing
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family. Yeah, we, well, we both kind of
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grew up two very separate lives. I grew up at the dirt track,
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Belle Claire, Saint Charles Pevely, and he grew up with his
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brother Randall Burnett, right around running go karts and it
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after we kind of met here, we met here in North Carolina.
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He grew up in Fenton. I grew up in Belleville and we
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met here in North Carolina. And when we did, we started
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would talk about things like he helped Schrader.
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So half the times when he was at Peebley with Schrader, I was
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there with my dad and we did not know each other.
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I mean, I'm sure we crossed paths many times, but my dad
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would buy go Kart parts from his dad and we just never knew any
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of that until, you know, here we are, you know, 20 years later
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meeting up here in North Carolina.
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So he grew up asphalt and he did a lot with with Schrader and his
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brother was into the go Kart stuff, the road course, asphalt
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go karts and and then eventually into the asphalt late model
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world. And I grew up on the dirt world.
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I didn't want to have anything to do with asphalt anything.
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So very big dynamic. And then I kind of pulled them
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into the dirt world and we kind of left the asphalt stuff
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behind. Before we let things go away,
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right? So when when people talk, I am
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listening as as much as I talk. I do hear one thing that we got
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to we got to talk about you just said and you just glossed right
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over your husband, Jeremy. Brother is Randall, who is Kyle
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Busch's crew chief. Yes.
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OK, you say that so easily. Like, yes, but I mean, you know,
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this is an incredible dynamic. What is it like at Thanksgiving?
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What is it like at Christmas? Are are you a family or, or do
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you just ignore each other? I mean this dynamic.
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What's it like? It it's hard for us, we don't
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ever really everyone get together.
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Holidays are a little different because we're just everybody's
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everywhere. You know, whenever NASCAR's off,
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they're traveling. When we're off, we're traveling,
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so it's hard to get everybody together.
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It's really funny how Milbridge not only made me and my husband
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close and we work together, but also now my brother's son Maddox
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races here and his brother son Tatum races here.
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So now on Tuesday nights, we're all together and that, you know,
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that's, that never happens. So it I'm very proud of my
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family. I'm not only am I proud of what
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Jeremy and I have accomplished, but I was there with Randall
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when he, you know, graduated college and went on to be an
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engineer. So to see him go from college
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running dirt late models, I mean, or I mean asphalt late
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models, we, we wanted to go to Martinsville one year and we had
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to raise money just for him to be able to race at Martinsville
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one year for the big late model race.
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So it's just crazy to see how far he's gone, how far my
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brother's gone. Us as a family, as a whole,
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everyone goes their separate ways, but we're always here to
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support and kind of push each other along here.
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OK. So we we have kind of laid the
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groundwork. You come out of Belleville, IL,
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which is basically St. Louis, MO, right across the
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Mississippi River. My husband will say no, I was
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not from Saint Louis. He'll tell you that.
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Well, he'll say. You from, are you from from a
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whole different state And I'll say it's still the same.
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So this is all about you, Ashley.
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We've already introduced, you know who you are, who your
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family members are. I want to talk about that
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racetrack you have there, Millbridge Speedway.
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I think that your personality shines.
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You don't put up with any bullshit.
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You're like me. People always say Kenny Walsh,
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you're a nice guy, but you say it the way it is.
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I'm like, oh, wait till you see Ashley Burnett.
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Super nice until you try to do her dirty, you try to do it
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wrong, and we're going to get to that, OK.
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But I love your personality because it takes a strong
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promoter because there's an old saying competition will kill
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you. They try to walk all over you to
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get an advantage. Tell me about now.
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We're going to back up a little bit.
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I just want to explain to people the way you are, Millbridge.
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What'd you do? Drive out this country Rd. one
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day and say hey, let's buy this little racetrack.
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Well, there's two stories. One years ago, I tell the story
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all the time that years ago me and dad did drive by Millbridge
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and it had a for sale sign up and it was all weeds up and I
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said dad we need to buy that racetrack.
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This is before I even met Jeremy so we need to buy that
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racetrack. He said you crazy, the race
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tracks this way too much time and work and we don't have any
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of that. And I said OK, and here I don't
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even know how many years later, 5-10 years later, we had a
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traveling series for our outlaw carts and Milbridge was one of
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the stops. And the promoter decided that he
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was done in the middle of the season.
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So we couldn't finish out our season at Milbridge and it was
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our favorite stop with the outlaw carts.
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So Jeremy and two friends got together and they're like, hey,
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we're gonna lease Melbridge to the end of the year so we can
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finish all our season and and we'll be able to have our
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racetrack that we want. And he just kind of came home
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and said, hey, we're releasing this racetrack.
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And I said, I that's way too much work.
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I said I don't have time and I'm not getting involved in that.
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And he said, OK, he said, we'll do it.
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And I said, that's not going to last long.
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And sure enough, it took a couple months for the other two
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friends to say, yeah, that's a lot of work.
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And it just kind of fell in our lap.
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And we took it over for what was supposed to be probably a couple
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seasons or one season. And here we are today, 14th
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season I think. Yeah, when when you took over
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Millbridge or the beginning of Millbridge, it it looked like
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this cart track in somebody's backyard.
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Year by year, you you kept getting the banking better, you
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kept getting the walls better. You just made everything better
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every single year. Now the track is so awesome.
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You have open wheel midgets, full blown midgets like they run
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at the Chili Bowl. The constant progress of this
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racetrack. Tell me about that.
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You know, you know, it just gets better and better.
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Yeah. Well, when Jeremy and I first
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took over, we always say that we like to go.
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I mean, obviously it's easy for us to go to big race tracks
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because we follow my brother around.
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But we always said that when you grow up in the Midwest and you
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go to these race tracks, like when you grow up at Pevely and
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Tri-City and places like that, you want to be that.
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And obviously we're not going to be anywhere near that.
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But I mean, we're, we're building to be that.
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So every year we take every bit of our sponsorships.
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All billboards we sell are billboards all the way around
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the racetrack. I completely sell out every
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single year and I take every bit of that money to some kind of
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upgrade. This year, the Whelan or the
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they came to me, Musko came to me for the the lights.
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And they were like, hey, we're doing this little youth program
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and we do a lot of youth baseball fields and soccer
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fields and we think it would be cool to do a youth racetrack.
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And you came to mind. And I'm like, OK, so just stuff
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like that that upgraded our lighting.
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Whelan came to us with their caution lights and you know,
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obviously when we took over they were just little lights that
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were painted yellow. So every year we just try to buy
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new things, scoreboards and and video boards and just to try to
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advance and get a head up. We don't want to be considered a
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go Kart track. So we just really want to put
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everything into this and hope that we can be the top tier,
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micro track, go Kart track, whatever you want to call us,
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but we want to be the top. I was at Mill Bridge.
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I was at your racetrack about two weeks ago, 3 weeks ago.
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I love your complete family. I hung out with you, your
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husband a little bit, but mostly I hung out with your dad.
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Darrell, we're the same age. We get along really well and we
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were driving around the racetrack, you know, we were
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pushing go karts off. Actually, we're going to have CC
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pop that picture in right now. There we are.
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But your dad, I was holding this conversation.
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I said, Darryl, the the walls around this racetrack, he goes,
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oh, yeah. That's when we were getting
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ready to promote an indoor Midget race at the RCA Dome.
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We made these walls. My point is, is you guys work so
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hard. So you take these walls, I
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guess. Tell me the story.
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What is the story from your mouth about the walls?
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I mean, did you build the walls? So we were, we're friends with
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Cody. Summer and Cody came to us.
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We wanted to do an indoor race. So we got together with him and
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Co promoted the Indian doors and the walls were Indian door
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walls. So he dropped all the metal off
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here. Funny story, I we were just
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getting ready for Indy and it was over the winter.
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So I was out here spraying every wall to make them white to load
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them up to go to Indy. And I sprayed them and then
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overnight it froze and it made them all look like they had ice
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on them. So I had to redo them all
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because obviously when you take them inside a lighted basketball
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court, you're going to see the little icicles all over them.
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So we loaded them up, took them to Indy, and when we realized
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that we weren't going to do Indy again, we just put them up here
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at Millbridge. And so they're the the walls
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from the Indian doors race that we did.
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Yeah. And and I just want to paint the
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picture, as they say, in AM debate radio for all of you that
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are listening, this family, this Hoffman family, Ashley, husband,
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brother, sister, mom, dad, they are nobody, nobody outworks you
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all. I mean, these are big metal
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walls and you, you're you're a girl.
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You're a beautiful lady, but you got that tomboy quality.
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I mean, you're out there painting what it seems to me
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that you just don't complain. You just do whatever it takes.
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Where did you get that? Dad.
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Dad boy, he, he is, he is unbelievable.
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Uncle. Uncle Dean brags on your father
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something immensely about how his motor, his eight cylinder
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motor, would break. One cylinder would be ruined.
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He'd shut it down so he could run on 7 cylinder.
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Your dad never gives up, does he?
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No, no. And kind of, I guess after that,
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the accident with the truck and trailer that kind of showed that
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he never gives up. I mean, he's starting to slow
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down. I mean, he broke his back.
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So obviously it takes a toll on someone that's older.
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But he's still out here every single race day.
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And I know it's hard on my parents.
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I mean, they are getting older. So it's hard on my mom to, she
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watches my brother's kids and then she comes out here and she
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runs my concession stand and then dad will go to work during
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the day and then come not here and push cars off.
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But if my brother's racing, they'll take my brother's
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souvenir trailer and go racing with my brother.
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So it's, it is a big, it's, it's really hard for them to decide.
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You know, I'm really open about it.
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You know, I tell mom all the time if you have to go with
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Nick, like just make sure somebody's covered in the
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concession stand. Dad knows that he can go
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whenever he wants, so it is hard on them because I'm sure it is
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hard to. I know they're not choosing
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which child to come help, but it it probably is hard on them to
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leave me and go somewhere. We were in the middle of seven
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races, seven races in six days. Yes, I said that right.
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We did race 2 race and we did races at the.
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That's when you came and see me. I was at the fairgrounds and you
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showed up at Millbridge. I was doing a race at the
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fairgrounds while they were here at Millbridge doing a race and
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they had to leave the day after and leave me to go to Eldora.
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So they never stop. I mean, he'll come work out here
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and then leave the next morning to go drive wherever to go watch
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Nick. So it's hard to keep up with two
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very busy children. But I think that that keeps them
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young and I think they enjoy to be a part of everything that
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we've that we've accomplished in life.
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So that's good for me. You're you're a beautiful
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daughter where you you recognize mom and dad are getting older
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and same here. I hear my girls whispering, but
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being so hard on mom. She's watched these grandbabies
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all week long. It's it's nice, Ashley, that you
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recognize that. So I want to tell you a little
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secret. While I was riding along with
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your dad, you know, at your racetrack, he loves it.
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He loves you, he loves you. You and Nick have given your
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parents something to do. And I know they love you all
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equally. Yes, they work and yes, they
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watch them babies. But boy, you and Nick and
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Jeremy, you have all given your mom and dad more life he enjoys
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right in that side by side, you know, gives us something to do.
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I'm speaking for myself, too. I run this modified.
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So, OK, I want to brag on you more.
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As I say, I have my notes, my Larry Macrell notes.
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You can chew gum and walk better than anybody I've ever seen in
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my life. And I'm going to put you at the
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top of the list. I'm going to put you better than
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any NASCAR Cup people. They, they can't hold a candle
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to you. Here's why.
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When I came down there, you were promoting the Iredell County
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Fair. So yeah, you had a race over
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here. OK, you were doing that.
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Then that night you had a race over here. 2 races going on the
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exact same time. Now, here's what you do, and I
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wrote this down. Let me tell you what you do,
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Ashley. You and Jeremy run the
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racetrack. You have a vinyl business.
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You you print off decals for people and you decal race cars.
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You build trophies. You build all the trophies with
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your own hands. I see it.
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You take these vacations that are phenomenal, you go, you go
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to Vegas, you like gambling, my wife loves gambling.
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You go to the F1 race. You are in this new modern era
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lady where I this, this has to be your best friend.
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The apps actually, How do you do it all?
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How do you do it all? I, I don't know, people get it's
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funny whenever me and you talk about going on vacations and you
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love it, the whole must be nice. I hear it all the time.
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Must. Must and well, it must be nice
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to have your husband home at 5:00 when he's done working and
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you do laundry, make dinner, and you sit down and watch your
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favorite show. We literally work from the time
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we wake up to the time we go to bed.
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Obviously last night was different because it was
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raining, so he couldn't do anything at the track.
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Well, where was Jeremy? He was in the office printing.
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He had two, two raps to do. So he literally will run in the
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office, hit print on a wrap, come out to the racetrack, prep
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it, water it, whatever he's got to do for that day, and then go
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back and either hit print again, cut something out, whatever.
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So scheduling is we're very big on schedules, 100% on schedule.
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Every single day when we wake up, we have a schedule.
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What a lot of people don't know, our locals know, but a lot of
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people don't know that this racetrack goes seven days a
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week. We do track rentals every single
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day. I am booked up to a track rental
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to almost October and in the summer it's about two months
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out. And when I say track rentals, I
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don't just mean at night. There's a track rental going.
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I just looked at my schedule this morning and Sunday I have
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39 AM, 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM. So you literally come up here,
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get it ready, one starts and you can go.
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Do you have 3 hours to go do something?
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Because once that three hours is up, you're back up getting ready
22:44
for the next 1. So I I've tried in the past to
22:49
really start help Jeremy as much.
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He got a little overwhelmed a couple months ago and I could
22:56
see it taking a toll on him. So years ago I obviously I know
23:01
how to drive a water truck. I can't really fix anything, but
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I can box blade it and I can water it.
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So I I try to do as many track rentals as I can for him.
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If he's really busy or has to go wrap a car for my brother, I'll
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get on track, water it, get it ready for a rental.
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But we just kind of help each other out.
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We know when 1 is getting overwhelmed and needs help.
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So I just say, you know, stay here, do what you got to do.
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I'll go do the truck rental or I'll fill up the water truck for
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him so that it's less work for him when he gets up here.
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So we work together 24 hours a day, seven days a week, live on
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property of our businesses. All of it are all done here on
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property at Millbridge. So it's just a lot of
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scheduling. And then when we do not have
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races, we literally, it must be nice, go on vacation because
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that's the only time that we can really get away from our phones,
23:59
people, everything. When you live on property of
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your business there, even on a rainy day, there's no getting
24:05
away from it. You find something to do.
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So when you leave and actually go on vacation, that is the only
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time that you can just get away from your business.
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So yeah, absolutely. Whenever we're off, we're going
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to go on vacation. We're going to spend our hard
24:20
earned money that we work really hard for and we're going to go
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on vacations. So we have a 10 year old son, so
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that's about the only time that we can really spend.
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I mean, we spend every day with him.
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He's homeschooled, so he's here with us, but that's the only
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time that we really get to spend family time with him.
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So absolutely, we're going to go on vacation.
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I I want to go down this path because it bothers me a little
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bit and I want to talk to you about it.
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When, when my wife Kim and I got married, we went to Father John.
24:53
She's Catholic, I'm Lutheran. And I he said, what are you
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going to do? I said, oh, I'm going to be a
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race car driver. He said be careful, competition
25:03
will kill you. I see this play out every night
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at your racetrack. These parents.
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Now listen, I'm not calling anybody out.
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I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it.
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But if but if it's you and you're listening, you're guilty.
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These parents, these these people, they're they're insane
25:24
with competition. They think they're the greatest.
25:27
Nobody's better than me. And they bitch and they moan and
25:31
they come to you. They scream at you.
25:34
You're a lady. They scream at you.
25:37
What is it like to deal with these grown men or mean ladies?
25:42
Do you destroy their their 8 year old kids race?
25:46
What is that like for you? It used to eat me up.
25:51
I'd go home and just cry because did I do something wrong?
25:55
Obviously probably not. But I've gotten to now where
26:02
I've set some and said, OK, if you want to come scream at you,
26:08
you can stay at home next week. And I've been just parking them.
26:13
They don't come race the next week.
26:16
If you come in the tower during the race, you're parked
26:19
immediately. So me being an absolute sorry
26:25
bitch has helped because just last week I had one that said
26:32
some nasty things to my front gate lady because he didn't want
26:35
to simply do what my front gate lady said.
26:37
I went down there and snatched his wristband off and I said
26:40
here's your $15 and you can go home.
26:42
And people have realized that that you either come here, have
26:46
fun, enjoy it, or you just go home.
26:50
And we honestly, I'm going to say this and it's race night
26:54
tonight. Lord, please.
26:56
I haven't really had many problems lately because they
27:00
know that if we have a problem, if they're fighting with each
27:05
other or they're fighting with me, they don't come back next
27:08
week and or they get banned. And we're about the, I mean,
27:14
there's some races that run a couple times a month.
27:18
We're the only track that runs their cars every single week.
27:23
Everybody wants to be at Millbridge.
27:25
They want to be here. So if you're going to come here
27:28
and abide by every rule, like you're not going to argue,
27:31
you're not going to fight with each other, with me, with my
27:34
officials. I don't, I don't, I don't put up
27:36
with it. I don't deal with it.
27:38
My officials, they're not here making millions of dollars.
27:41
They're they're not here making the calls.
27:44
It's me and Jeremy. So I think that's the best thing
27:47
about our track too, is Jeremy and I make 100% of the calls.
27:51
Jeremy sits right here at this laptop and scores every single
27:54
race and I'm standing right next to him on the race seaver and
27:57
making any of the calls we make together.
28:00
There's no like so and so made the call.
28:03
Go talk to him. We are the ones making 100% of
28:06
the calls. Anything that goes through the
28:08
tech shed, as long as you know, obviously if it's black and
28:12
white in the in the rule book, we don't have to get involved.
28:15
But if it's anything that's a question, we get involved.
28:18
So we're involved in 100% of everything that happens at this
28:21
facility. So we're having more trouble
28:25
with our micro field than we are with our kids and our parents
28:33
just simply because like you had said, the dynamic, there's a big
28:37
dynamic. We, you know, you have guys that
28:40
work a nine to five job, blue collar that comes out just to
28:45
have fun. And then you have teams like
28:49
Chad Boat and Mike Carver that are leasing cars to Chevy,
28:54
Toyota and it's Gibbs and Hosavar and there's a big
29:00
dynamic there. So the NASCAR people think that
29:04
we're picking on the NASCAR people because they're NASCAR
29:07
people. And the people that aren't
29:08
NASCAR people think that we're picking on them because they
29:11
shouldn't beat the NASCAR people.
29:12
So it's, it's really hard. Our dynamic here is nothing like
29:16
any other racetrack in the country.
29:19
So it's it's hard to balance that, but they all know that
29:24
it's a straight line here. I don't care your last name.
29:28
I mean, people ask me all the time about Kyle Busch and he
29:33
pays at the front gate just like everybody else.
29:36
It no one gets in free. You know, if you're coming to
29:38
play, I don't care your last name.
29:40
You play, you play by the rules and you go home and that and
29:43
that's kind of kind of what we've embedded in everybody.
29:48
Most everybody listen to this, knows about Millbridge, but let
29:52
me just say this, everyone, her racetrack on any given night,
29:57
you're going to see Kyle Busch, you're going to see Kyle Larson,
30:01
you're going to see Christopher Bell and they're hanging out
30:03
like everyday people and it is a sight to behold.
30:07
It makes you take a double look. So when we talk about the
30:10
dynamics, that's what we mean. You got the world's great
30:13
worlds. We're not exaggerating.
30:16
You have the world's greatest race car drivers there with
30:19
their children up against somebody down the street that
30:24
wants to race. OK, so I read this and I'd like
30:32
to talk about you and that's what we're doing.
30:36
This is what you said on your post.
30:39
Love starting the day out, getting go Kart racers butt hurt
30:44
about taking tire samples. And I love this part.
30:48
Pretty simple. Don't put anything on your tires
30:52
and you will pass. What what is the deal?
30:55
I mean, you can go up and down Pit Rd. and they're soaking and
30:57
their tires, but I'm like you're you're you're doing it right
31:02
there. What is this dynamic and
31:04
everything's the dynamic. What?
31:06
You can't soak towers, but yet they're soaking towers.
31:08
What is this all about? So we are a no soak racetrack
31:13
period even with we have a go Kart series, the D&Q series,
31:17
that's the only go karts that we race flat carts.
31:21
I mean so they are a huge a Hoosier treaded only no soak.
31:28
So Hoosier gave us these the treaded tires, they go on go
31:32
karts and there's no prep at all.
31:35
And the go Kart world is not only are they not used to no
31:41
soak at all, but they're really not used to a racetrack that
31:45
takes tire samples and send them to the lab.
31:49
So when we started this, we said, look, we told the guy that
31:52
runs the series, we said if we're doing this, we're doing it
31:55
100%. We're taking tire samples.
31:57
They're getting sent off. I've been, I've been accused of
32:04
going up the our kids stuff on Tuesday night.
32:07
They buy a set of tires from us. They get them about 30 minutes
32:12
before we race and they're right over there in the shed.
32:16
They go in a shed, they stay here all the time.
32:19
You come here, we check out your tires, you put them on, you
32:23
race, you clean them in our sinks right after your feature
32:26
and you put them back in the shed period.
32:28
We take tire samples every Tuesday night.
32:30
We take tire samples from our micros and stuff Wednesday
32:33
nights and we take tire samples from our go Kart stuff on on
32:36
whenever they come on Wednesday nights.
32:40
I've been accused of going in the tire shed and soaking
32:43
someone's child's tire. I've been accused of that.
32:48
That post that you had said they were saying that unless you're a
32:52
part of our clique, you won't pass tire samples.
32:56
Well, Jeremy takes the tire sample, puts it in a bag, seals
33:03
the bag and hands it to me, and I go to UPS every whatever
33:07
Thursday and it goes right to the lab.
33:10
So you have no clue? People have no clue about that.
33:16
Every time that a tire sample has come back wrong, almost
33:20
every single time it's somebody that we questioned that said we,
33:24
you know, we'll say that's not coming back.
33:26
And that's exactly what happened with this.
33:29
We knew it wasn't going to come back.
33:30
We took it and it came back wrong.
33:33
So it's funny that everybody moans and complaints about it,
33:36
but almost every single time we, we send out hundreds, probably
33:41
more than anybody because we raced more than anybody,
33:44
hundreds of tire samples a year. I mean, I think I just sent out
33:48
four from one week last week. That's $400.00 that you know,
33:53
it's $100 a tire and we do it every, you know, tonight we'll
33:57
probably take two or three tonight.
33:59
So people just they don't, they don't get it.
34:02
You know, you literally I, I, people want to fight it till
34:06
they're blue in the face that I didn't put nothing on my tires.
34:08
Well, I, I am a testament that we send out hundreds a year and
34:14
I probably only get a handful that come back wrong.
34:17
And out of them over 5060% are once that we sent off and said
34:23
they're not going to come back right.
34:25
So just keeping a level playing field spent with the kids, with
34:29
adults, we are no prep for nothing and we plan to keep it
34:33
that way. We like it like that.
34:37
It's makes a big difference. At the Racer and myself when I
34:41
came to your racetrack, it's like, OK, here's everybody's
34:43
like combined, you know it's I mean you can see it and smell
34:48
it. So that's when you say we're
34:50
going to take a tire sample because we know people rat each
34:54
other out. Competition will kill you.
34:57
There's your trailer. We smell it, we see it.
35:00
What are you doing? It is pretty crazy, right?
35:04
Yeah, yeah, we even if we don't suspect something.
35:08
I mean, if you win, we have, well we have four classes, but
35:13
three that we actually take tire samples on on a Tuesday night
35:17
and we'll either do a random, we have a spin wheel where you spin
35:21
it. So top 3 is not safe.
35:23
So it could land on box stock 3rd and the guy that got third
35:27
in box stock gets their tire. So we do a random.
35:30
If someone is a little faster than the field, we'll do it even
35:35
though we know that some of them are just on it.
35:38
Sometimes, you know, obviously some kids are on it and they're
35:41
going to be faster. But the best thing about our
35:43
Tuesday night stuff is they all have the same sealed brakes
35:46
motor and they all have the same tires from the tire shed.
35:51
So I read a lot of posts about Braxton Bush when he wins and
35:55
always got the best of everything here at Milbridge.
35:58
That does not matter. They have the same carts, they
36:01
have the same motors, they have the same tires.
36:04
There's really not much that you can do.
36:07
It is strictly all driver. You've literally with them
36:13
tires, you can change your air pressure and that's about all
36:16
you're doing. So it's driver.
36:20
When I was there, there were people there racing from Canada.
36:24
There were people there from all parts of the United States and
36:29
they looked me right in the face and they were kind of excited.
36:31
They didn't think I'd be there. And they looked at me and and
36:34
they said, Oh my gosh, we win everything where we're from.
36:39
Coming to Millbridge has really humbled us.
36:42
And I said, honey, and it was a nice Mama.
36:45
And I said, honey, you're in NASCAR land.
36:47
You're going to have the smartest, it's not the money.
36:51
You're you're going to have the smartest, most innovative
36:54
people. You know, no different than your
36:56
brother Nick. Nick doesn't have any money, but
36:59
he was smart. He is innovative.
37:01
He's got friends. So my belief, Ashley, and I'm
37:05
just backing you up. When you come to Millbridge,
37:08
everybody from all over the world comes to North Carolina
37:11
that wants to race. There's a difference that people
37:15
that come to North Carolina because they want to be part of
37:18
racing. They're the smartest and your
37:21
racetrack is the toughest competition in the world.
37:25
And the these people get humbled real quick because everybody's
37:30
so good. I guess you recognize you have
37:34
the best in the world right there.
37:36
Yeah, we, we actually go to the Outlaw Cart Nationals out in
37:42
Iowa every year. We take time to go out there to
37:46
kind of support all of our kids that go out there.
37:48
I think this year we had 30 something kids entered out
37:50
there. We pretty much win just about
37:55
every class that we're entered in.
37:57
And everybody tells me all the time, like, why?
37:59
Why don't we have a Nationals? Well, we don't have a nationals
38:02
because if we go out to Iowa and kick their ass, they're not
38:08
going to come all the way out to North Carolina to get their ass
38:11
kicked. So, and that's how it it
38:13
happens. You know, we when you were here,
38:15
that was our East Coast nationals and we just did it to
38:18
kind of give back to everybody and thank you for the year or
38:21
whatever, but no one's going to come.
38:24
The open drivers came from all over, but box stocks, stuff like
38:27
that, they're not going to come, whether it be different motor
38:32
rules, tire rules, whatever, but they're not going to come and
38:37
race against our kids when they see what comes to them and races
38:41
against them. So yes, I I know that my kids
38:44
are the best in the nation in the outlaw carts.
38:49
I have a lot of them that have moved up that are older kids now
38:54
that are still doing just as well.
38:56
And I'm everyday proud of every one of them, no matter if
38:59
they're in cadet and they're just starting out all the way up
39:03
to Max McLaughlin, who I've had since he started, and Gibbs and
39:08
all of them, Ethan Mitchell, Brent Cruz, Quaples.
39:13
I follow them as much as I can. So it's a breeding ground.
39:19
Everybody's smart. The track is banked and it just
39:25
makes a driver. It makes a driver not having
39:28
the, the prep on the tires. It makes a driver that, you
39:33
know, they have the same sealed engine and they can't just smash
39:36
the gas and turn the wheel and it goes, you know, you got to
39:39
put a driver in it. So it it does make them a driver
39:43
and and I'm really proud of that.
39:46
I want to keep bragging on you. I, I noticed out of all the
39:49
years that I've been around you, you always talk about my kids
39:55
and, and I, and I'm proud of you too.
39:57
Like you said, these kids start out there, you know, for lack of
40:01
a better term, you do, you breed them there, they start there.
40:05
Do, do you have any families? Because listen, they ask me all
40:09
the time. Hey, my kids, 8 years old.
40:11
He's won 22 championships and I want to go.
40:14
Well, have you been to Millbridge?
40:17
Do do you have any families that you know of that have and you
40:21
don't got to say their names? Has anybody moved to North
40:26
Carolina to run Millbridge? Has anybody rented apartments?
40:30
Yes. For the.
40:32
I have a family from Texas that comes.
40:37
They're here now, so kind of after the school year they come
40:44
for a while. I have another family from Texas
40:47
that actually moved here. They used to travel here every
40:51
race day and then decided they were just going to move here.
40:53
And I actually just have one. I don't know where they came
40:57
from, but again, they literally moved here.
41:00
And in their moving post they posted we are excited to have
41:04
Milbridge as our home track now. So yes, a lot of them.
41:10
And this is still all about you, you know, this is about
41:13
everything you go through. What what drivers?
41:16
You mentioned some of them, Max McLaughlin, the Quapples, What
41:21
drivers are those? The ones which ones like stand
41:25
out like they ran Millbridge, They started at Millbridge as
41:28
kids and like, they've made it, I guess.
41:31
Max Yeah. Waffles.
41:33
Any others? I had Brett Cruz when he first
41:35
started, and he was really good here.
41:39
Yeah, the quapoles continue. But yeah, there's a lot of them
41:45
that it's amazing how far they've gone.
41:48
And obviously there's, you know, and, and not only that, not only
41:55
the kids that started, but like the ones that came in later.
42:00
I was proud the other day that that Zilich he, I mean, yeah,
42:04
Connor. Connor.
42:05
He came and ran. He I had him for a while in
42:08
micros. So not necessarily just as
42:13
starting out as little, but like Ethan Mitchell, when he first
42:17
started, they knew nothing about racing.
42:20
I mean, his dad Bundy, wearing a Kyle Larson shirt and he's like,
42:26
who's Kyle Larson? Yeah.
42:30
Like they just knew nothing about racing, nothing about
42:34
circle track. They were motorcycle family.
42:36
And it was. It's funny that now they're so
42:40
successful and everything that they do with the Midget and the
42:44
Honda engines and now they're in the short tracks and dirt tracks
42:49
and it's funny the difference that they came from where they
42:54
are now, so. We're we're looking inside your
42:58
world through your eyes when I see the races run and, you know,
43:04
listen, everything you do is about that racetrack and you're
43:07
a wonderful lady. You take the vacations because
43:09
you deserve them. You need them.
43:10
Me too. Me too, sister.
43:12
I take vacations too. One thing I noticed about
43:16
Millbridge, it makes the drivers nervy.
43:19
It's almost as if the kids on purpose try to see if they can
43:24
run the wall as close as they can.
43:27
Do you ever hear conversations like RIP?
43:30
They're always talking about ripping the lip.
43:32
That's kind of an honor at your racetrack.
43:34
What do you think? Yeah, yeah.
43:36
Especially in the opens when we have the open Division, they
43:41
always ran the top. You know, when it was the
43:43
Quappals and the Brent crews and stuff like that, they were
43:47
always ripping the lip right on the top.
43:48
Well, then the micros took over and when we first started
43:53
bringing the opens back there on the bottom and Jeremy is like, I
43:55
got to get these opens off the bottom.
43:57
So that's why he built the burns in to kind of to kind of push it
44:02
out a little bit so they get back on the top.
44:04
And he was so excited at the race that you were at that they
44:07
were ripping the lip. They were on the top.
44:09
So the to be able to how technical Millbridge is and
44:16
everybody's realizing that. So that's why we do have the the
44:21
Chevy and the Toyota. And, you know, they bring their
44:24
drivers out here. They test on a weekly basis with
44:27
drivers. You know, they'll be a Monday
44:30
night and I'll have just random hosts of R and whatever they'll
44:34
come out here because the reaction time and the the
44:38
technical of running the top in a it's more like just training
44:44
for them. So it's really cool to see them
44:47
come out and use us as as a training ground to kind of just
44:52
keep them sharp in the car. Obviously they're not learning
44:56
anything here compared to going to run Daytona, but just the
45:01
reaction time and it's just amazing that they use it as a
45:06
training ground for that. And that's what they do is you
45:10
run all the way against the wall and you got to be all the way up
45:13
against that wall. Or it could, you know, it could
45:17
mean a lot in qualifying if you're not all the way up
45:20
against it. Yeah, high is fast.
45:25
Here we are again. I always remind our guests, 46
45:28
minutes in and we're just touching the surface.
45:32
You've got to be proud. You, you have to be.
45:36
When you look at these major car companies coming to your what at
45:41
one at once was a little old racetrack.
45:44
When when corporate America rolls in, we seen Jade
45:48
Avedisian, all these girls do these major national TV
45:53
commercials that show up on everybody's TV in the world.
45:57
What does that make you feel like when you, when you see, for
46:01
lack of a better term, you know, Hollywood move in to do these?
46:06
What's what's that make you feel like?
46:08
Yeah, it's kind of crazy because to me, I don't, I don't know if
46:12
Jeremy feels this way, but to me it's still just a little old
46:17
racetrack. To me, even with all the
46:20
billboards and all the lights and this and that.
46:24
I don't know. I think what helped me realize
46:31
it's really special I think is when I racing came in and and
46:37
now we're on the World of Outlaws game.
46:40
So to see my kid plug in his Xbox and go to Millbridge and
46:44
start running laps, it's just is crazy to me.
46:49
Yeah, so, and I think it's really cool for our kids to say
46:54
that this is our racetrack, You know, this is my home track.
46:58
I think it's really cool for the sponsors because all of the the
47:01
billboards are, I mean, you can run a Midget right up to the
47:05
wall and read billboards like you're standing right in front
47:08
of them. So I get excited for myself, but
47:13
more of I get excited for everyone else.
47:16
I get excited for the kids and the publicity they get out of
47:20
it. They're all famous.
47:23
I mean, with Dirt Vision coming in, we go out to Iowa and it's
47:28
like these kids were on a reality show or something.
47:31
I mean, they know every one of them.
47:32
They know what they've done and it's amazing to me that they can
47:37
go there and be famous, you know, even if they don't know me
47:41
or I mean, there's times where I'd go places and no one knows
47:45
who I am. But if you say something about
47:46
Millbridge, oh I know Millbridge or I know that driver, so and so
47:50
races out there. So that's what I'm happy about
47:53
is everyone else gets excited and gets well known out of it.
47:58
That's all I care about. Ashley, you come out of
48:02
Belleville, IL, you matter. You're somebody.
48:07
You are a boss. There has to be a boss in
48:10
everything in life. You, you, you got to be a boss
48:14
and you are a boss and you are somebody if you don't do another
48:18
thing in your life, You and your husband, you made Millbridge and
48:22
you made all these race car drivers.
48:25
That leads me to this. You literally love capital,
48:30
love, LOVE. You love racing.
48:33
There you are in Vegas, 3-4 in the morning, you and your
48:37
husband on Snapchat or Instagram for the Formula One race.
48:42
Then all of a sudden you leave at 3:00 in the morning after the
48:47
nationals that I was at, and you're going to Eldora.
48:50
So you're over here with Formula One.
48:53
You're over here at Eldora. I mean, you love racing, don't
48:59
you? Yeah, yeah, we, the F1 thing,
49:04
we're really obviously we love racing and we love Vegas.
49:08
So when you put racing into Vegas, we were not big Formula
49:13
One people, but we said this is cool.
49:15
It's the first time we got to go.
49:17
Well, we've now already got plans to take Mason because he
49:21
he really does like Formula on. So it's really neat to be able
49:24
to take Mason next year, this year in a couple months.
49:29
Lord and I love my dirt tracks, but Mason was just asking me the
49:38
other day about Bristol. Bristol's coming up on when can
49:41
we go? So I'm not a big asphalt person,
49:47
but I just want to see a good race.
49:50
So any dirt track I'll go to, I don't care if it's a good race,
49:55
I'll go to it. But it, it seems that lately a
50:00
lot of our so-called vacations are, have been spent at the
50:04
racetrack. So, and I'm fine with that.
50:07
I think the only way that you can be good in your your
50:11
business is if you go and see what other businesses are doing.
50:15
So that was our big thing when we first started was I leaned on
50:19
Tammy and Kevin Gondaker over at Tri-City a lot, asked them a lot
50:23
of questions. We if you want to be as good as
50:28
they are, you got to go. And you know, I like to go sit.
50:31
I sit in the green and say there's a lot of race tracks
50:33
that I go to with with Nick that when the support divisions are
50:36
out, Jeremy's going to work on the racetrack.
50:38
I race car, I sit up in the stands and I watch.
50:43
I want to see what everybody's doing.
50:44
Like what are they doing with fan interaction?
50:47
What are they doing, you know, calls that are made or did that
50:50
work out good? No, what's not to use that?
50:54
We like to look at a lot of formats on races like you know
51:00
what it what is other, what is other places doing?
51:03
What can we tweak to make it better?
51:06
So you're only as good as what they're doing.
51:09
So you know, we go to the spend money to go to the Eldora and
51:13
any time that we can go to Mod Mania at Tri-City and we go to
51:17
Chili Bowl every year. So whatever, we can go out and
51:21
not only learn what they're doing, but also get the
51:25
Milbridge name out and and kind of just push the racetrack as
51:29
much as we can. I like to go do that as well.
51:33
I admire you, I respect you. So I'm going to ask you this
51:36
question. It could be a tough one and
51:38
we'll end like this. Actually, you know me.
51:43
I've I've run asphalt and I've run dirt.
51:47
I always remind everybody for anybody that's never heard, I've
51:50
ran 905 NASCAR asphalt races and concrete and I grew up in ASA.
51:57
So I've run thousands of asphalt races and that's where I made my
52:01
life. That's where I made my money.
52:04
And then I found dirt and I love dirt.
52:06
It saved my life. So when you see people, dirt
52:12
racing people especially, this is me, but then I'm going to ask
52:16
you, OK, They're mad at NASCAR for because they're too big.
52:24
They think there's somebody, they think they're the man.
52:29
What is your thought when you hear this battle cry for some of
52:34
the dirt racing fans? I hate NASCAR, but we know they
52:39
don't hate NASCAR. They're just pissed.
52:43
What is your? What is your thoughts on that?
52:46
I mean, it's it's no different and and our stuff as well, you
52:50
know, you go to a track and then you complain about whatever.
52:56
I think what I talk about a lot is you got to think about how we
53:01
were during COVID. During COVID, we would have give
53:07
anything to be at the racetrack, anything.
53:11
And when we got back, everyone loved NASCAR, everyone loved
53:17
dirt tracks. Everyone didn't complain about
53:19
anything at all because they were grateful to be where
53:22
they're at. And I think we've lost that
53:24
again. I think we've forgot how we felt
53:28
during that time when we couldn't see our racing family,
53:31
when we couldn't be on the racetrack, when we couldn't work
53:33
on our race cars. I think we forgot that that felt
53:38
the feel that we did when we could go and do it.
53:41
So I love social media. It's it helps race tracks a lot.
53:49
But the people that just get online, I mean, we see it with
53:53
my brother and we see, you know, there's people that doubted my
53:56
brother in the late model and now we're top three in World of
54:00
outlaw points. I mean, and they'll still come
54:03
up with an excuse of why he's up there.
54:05
So people are just hateful. I always say that you got to be
54:09
grateful, not hateful. It it's NASCAR the same, you
54:15
know you don't like oh, they shouldn't go here.
54:17
Well, you want them to do something different.
54:19
So, you know, you got to throw something and see what sticks.
54:22
Sometimes it doesn't stick. Was the Colosseum race an
54:25
amazing race and whatever hope they dreamed?
54:29
No, but I sat and watched it and they probably did too.
54:34
They probably sat there just to critique it all, but they still
54:38
turn their TV on to watch it. So I think that, yes, NASCAR
54:47
knows that everything that they do, it's not going to stick.
54:51
Same with us. I mean, we tried Indie Indoors.
54:53
It was an absolute disaster and people bashed us and we went
54:58
back a couple years ago and started with Cody, the Gateway
55:02
Dirt Nationals. We weren't afraid of people that
55:05
were online talking because they weren't the ones putting up the
55:08
money or putting up the work to to try an event.
55:12
So NASCAR's the same way. You know, I applaud them for
55:16
trying different tracks and trying different events and
55:20
getting the fans involved and giving us something else to
55:24
watch. You're turning on your TV and
55:26
watching it whether you don't like it or not.
55:28
So some people, I just want to just shut your TV off.
55:32
You know, you don't want to watch it or you think it's
55:34
horrible, just shut it off. Don't watch it.
55:36
Go watch basketball. I don't know.
55:38
So I, I applaud everything that everybody does.
55:44
Owning race tracks, doing big events, It's a lot of work, it's
55:49
a lot of money. And you never know if you're
55:52
going to fail or if you're going to succeed.
55:55
So NASCAR is the same way. You got to just help each other
56:00
out. If it's something that was shit,
56:03
then obviously a promoter's going to know shit and they're
56:06
probably not going to do it again.
56:07
But us as promoters have to try because if you don't try,
56:11
someone down the road's going to try.
56:13
So you got to be that one to just push any kind of racing
56:17
forward, make racing as a whole bigger.
56:21
And that's our job as promoters. So yeah, I, I love new events
56:27
and different race tracks and I wish I had, I always say that I
56:31
want a big racetrack. I would love in my lifetime to
56:35
be able to promote a big racetrack and have the Late
56:38
Model modified St. stock event, but obviously that's not in my
56:41
cards. So yes, I, I applaud everything
56:47
that NASCAR does. And if they don't like it, then
56:49
they can just watch something else.
56:52
You, you have been absolutely fantastic.
56:56
I love racing like you do and I love what you just said.
57:01
All right, listen up everybody. That's it.
57:04
And we are in podcast form. You can listen to Ashley Burnett
57:08
on your way to work on your way back home.
57:12
We are iTunes and Spotify. Ashley, thank you so much.
57:17
Thank you. I think we got to look inside
57:21
Ashley Burnett. So everybody that's headed to
57:23
Millbridge, watch this first. I respect you immensely.
57:28
All right, the Kenny conversation just keeps on
57:32
rolling. We have great guests lined up.
57:34
And until the next Kenny conversation, we'll see you next
57:38
time.