Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Mark Martin Shares Classic NASCAR Stories!

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Mark Martin Shares Classic NASCAR Stories! · Kenny Wallace Media

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You said 2 words on X. You said good grief.
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I was, I was watching it by myself downstairs and I laughed
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out loud. Look, I, I was in, I was
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entertained, you know, like I, that's probably the most
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outrageous one I've ever seen right there.
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You know, it wouldn't have been if it had just been joy, but
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getting two and one whack, man, that was huge.
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It's the Kenny Wallace conversation brought to you by
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Jags. Hello everyone and welcome back
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Remember to go to jags.com to get anything you want to fix
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Well, you're looking at him NASCAR Hall of Famer.
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He's won more races than you and I will ever think of.
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And this is called catching up with Mark the kid.
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Martin, Mark, how you doing? I'm.
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Doing great man. It's good to be with you here,
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Kenny. You know, Mark, I've known you
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my whole life and it just feels so good for me to say, Mark the
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kid, Martin, because you, you started racing at such a young
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age. Do you remember who named you
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that? Pretty sure it was Bob Seneker.
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure Bob Seneker.
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You know, Bob was had one of those real quiet sense of humor
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is kind of like Matt Kenseth, you know, a lot of sense of
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junior, but not not you know, he doesn't say a lot, but when he
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does sometimes it's funny. So I think he did.
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He also called me Captain Crunch once, which really hurt my
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feelings in 1977. But I learned not correct so
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much. I I wasn't wrecking.
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The people in front of me were wrecking and I was hitting them
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and I couldn't understand why Bob and Dick Trickle and those
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guys could miss the wreck and I couldn't.
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But somehow or another, after a couple years I've started
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missing them just like just like they did.
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You know what, you just gave me a very good topic.
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It isn't that something about racing, you know, Rodger Penske
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would say we create our own luck.
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I don't know how much I I mean, I don't know how much I believe
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that because you're right. I mean, there could be a deal
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where you know you're, you're going down in the turn one at
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Dover and somebody blows a motor in front of you and you're in
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their oil it and then it can happen week after week.
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Bad luck does happen, doesn't it Mark?
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Well, you can create your good luck, but you can't create, you
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know, you don't create your bad luck.
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I mean, it's just, you know, some people have more of it than
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others. And I probably had more than my
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share in NASCAR. But yeah, I mean, you know, I
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get what it what Rodger saying, but I also think that you can,
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you know, if you just have untimely 1 untimely event that
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you can't control that can destroy a win or a championship
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or, you know, any, you know, anything that you're trying to
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achieve, you know, sometimes things are just not in your
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control. And before we move on, a great
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example was Dale Earnhardt, senior going down the back
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straightaway, coming to the checkered flag and I guess he
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hits a seagull or whatever, blows the tire out and and
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Derek, Derek Cope wins the race. Now that's bad luck, wouldn't
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you say, Mark? Oh yeah, yeah, they'll had
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horrific luck in the Daytona 500 leading up to his win.
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I think he had won something like 44 races at Daytona, but
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the 500 just would not budget. Finally, they broke through
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there. Yeah, I like that subject.
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And and one more thing, when we create our own luck, I would say
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that's because I'm going to use you as an example.
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Mark Martin is such a great chassis man.
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I grew up watching you work on your cars.
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I think creating luck is Mark would make his car handle for
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his ability and and I think that's, you know, make making a
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fast race car maybe is what Rodger Penske was talking about.
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Yeah, I think so too. All right, Mark, let's do it.
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We're we're catching up with Mark Martin and it is a lot of
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fun to follow you and your son Matt and the Mark Martin
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archives. It's a big hit on Instagram.
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We all watch. We get to see another side of
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you and it looks like you are in that beautiful coach of yours
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bus and you're everywhere. Charlie's going to drop some
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pictures in here, but you all have been everywhere.
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Where you been that is totally different?
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That was really interesting. Oh, my goodness.
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Well, we were just in Newport, RI, for the second time,
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actually looking at old historic architecture, you know, homes
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that were built in the 1600s. We had dinner in the oldest
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restaurant in the United States. Oh my Lord.
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Yeah, almost 400 years. I think they opened in 1670
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something and and it was the best meal we had and we ate good
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the whole trip. But that was absolutely
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spectacular. And it was the old building.
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They preserve so much more there than they do.
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You know, around here, you know, there's old things get tore down
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and new, new modern stuff gets built.
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And that's OK. But it's amazing to see some of
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the old history. So that was probably, that was a
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fun trip. We did the IROC thing and then
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we went to car museums in Newport and saw these homes.
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And then we went up to Bentley Warrens.
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I mean, I'm telling you, Bentley, his saying is who has
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more fun than us? We do, that's for sure.
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I love Bentley and, and just hanging out with those guys and
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we had a, we had just a fantastic trip and I'm off to
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State Park Speedway in Wausau, WI, you know, going to have a
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big time there. It's been, I think I raced
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there. The only time I think I ever
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raced there was 1977. I remember going to Larry
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Dijon's Body Shop and working on the car before that night.
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There was Thursday race, Thursday nights through the
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summer. We went and did that regular
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show when I vividly remember going out to qualify that night
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because I went out on stickers and it was cool and a little
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slip slick, you know, slippery. And I couldn't believe that I
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went faster. Yeah, and, and I remember Larry
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Degen's Rusty and I were in The Body Shop.
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I just want to show everybody look, look at Mark Martin, his
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Instagram. Mark's always advertising
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nowadays. Mark, I, I really like the way
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you have taken to social media. This is your advertisement for
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State Park. Larry Dejan's was a legend.
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I admired that he ran a Body Shop and sadly, we lost him at
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at Kakauna. I believe it was off Turn 2.
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That's another subject. I'd like to go back to your
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northeastern trip in Rhode Island, though.
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What? It's drawn you back to that
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area. Well, it is the most historic.
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I mean, that's where it started. Plymouth Rock, you know?
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Yeah. South America.
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And and they have been very conscious of preserving the
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history there. So the roads, like if you, you
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go into Newport and, and in some of these places like the streets
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or not quite wide enough for, you know, because they didn't
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need wide streets back then with the horses and the, the
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carriages and whatnot. I mean, they have preserved it
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and they're, you know, as you see, if you follow me, what you
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do, you see that, You know, I think Matt's had an influence on
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me to really appreciate the history not only of this
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country, but of Motorsports, which we love so much.
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That's why I wanted, you know, to to pay and, and, and, and be
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at the Larry Phyllis Memorial race there just to show, you
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know, that we should remember and we have to remember where we
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came from, whether it's Motorsports or whether it's, you
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know, as a country itself. You think about those, those
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people sailing over here on those ships for months to get
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to, you know, the news. It is amazing, isn't it?
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It is. And it, I mean, that area is
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called New England because, you know, it was, I mean, it was the
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new country. And it's just fascinating to
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think about what it was like here 400 years ago.
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So I've got some great things to talk about.
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We're going to talk about Iraq. We're going to talk about the
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Larry Phillips Memorial Race that you were just at NASCAR.
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Scott Bloomquist, let's go back real quick.
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You, you look good. You said you ate really good.
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What are you eating nowadays when you have a dinner like
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that? Do they got some things that you
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like? You know, you look good.
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Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm eased up a little bit on my diet now.
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I'm not training, you know, as hard.
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I do exercise, but I don't lift heavy weights anymore, beat
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myself up by my body up pretty badly and I struggle with, you
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know, with pains from all those years of hammering the weights
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and stuff. So I had lobster ravioli and
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every bite of it was like candy. It was so.
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Like ice cream? Man, it was so good.
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I, you know, I do sort of limit my carbs to a degree, but I've
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even eased up on that a little bit.
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I think I, he read it, you know, I think it's hereditary, but I
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am borderline pre diabetic even though I'm skinny.
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And so I try to try to, you know, be easy on the carbs and
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the carbs that I do have, you know, I try not, you know, try
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to have fruit for, you know, carbs, which is like candy to me
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as well. So, but I eat, you know, I eat
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fish and chicken and, you know, vegetables, lots of vegetables,
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lots of protein shakes. My protein shake will gross most
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people out, but I have it for effect.
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I have, I put frozen broccoli and avocado in my protein shake.
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And I mean, it's a health, you know, rocket ship.
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So, you know, when I, you know, I try to get some greens every
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day and I eat, you know, a lot of lot of vegetables and a
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little bit of fruit. My favorite thing about food is
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when I repeat what you taught me, I'll sometimes I go to Texas
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Roadhouse and I'll ask for a plain sweet potato.
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And by the way, Mark Martin says this is rocket fuel.
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It is certainly is. Yeah, I love that.
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You taught me a lot about food. For everybody that is out there
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listening, Mark, I do want to share with you that my blood
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sugar was at one 21122 and my doctor said, hey, you need to
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watch your blood sugar. So I, I, it was hard on me Mark,
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but I quit Coke, Pepsi, sweet tea, I got rid of all that
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stuff. I said, let me try this on my
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own. And if you remember way back
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2012, I called you and I said, Mark, teach me how to eat and I
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want to thank you in front of everybody.
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You've changed my life. You really have.
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And remember, I would text you during dinner, Mark, what about
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this? And you go no.
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That's good. That's good, Kenny.
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And it's hard to do, especially people giving up, you know, soft
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drinks and you know, even the even the artificially sweetened
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soft drinks are not good for you.
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And they're, you know, they do affect your blood sugars as
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well. So I'm glad that you're trying
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to do something about it. You don't want to wind up being
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a full blown diabetic and so and I don't either.
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So that's why I have to watch it.
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But it's funny that, you know, we're too skinny guys, slim
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guys, not what you would typically expect to have, you
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know, high glucose or, or blood sugar levels.
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So your your diet definitely effects it.
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Yeah, well, I will leave it like this.
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My wife is got diabetes too, and she's and she, she got a little
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weight on her, but she's beautiful.
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And and Kim says to me with that mean look, she goes even skinny
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people, you know, can it can be diabetic.
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So she, she's right. And you just and you just proved
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it, Mark. So all right, listen, let's move
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on to IROC. Let's kind of go in
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chronological order here. I saw you up there in the
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northeast. You went to IROC.
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It, it, it looks like Ray Everingham has has started this
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baby up and, and he, he, he called in all the cars.
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Tell me about the phone call. And did you have an IROC car?
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So I did. I actually have two cars, but
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one I would never, never move out of my museum because my 5th
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and final championship was one at Atlanta in 05.
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And I got that car right off the racetrack and it was a little
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physical. It's got front bumper and back
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bumper damage from pushing and shoving and, and all that.
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It's never been cleaned. It's got the rubber on it and
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everything, so that thing's perfect.
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But I had a A-95 IROCK car, it's Avenger, and it's been in the
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museum for 30 years and I didn't even know it had an engine in
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it. You know, I'm just out doing
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everything. I don't pay no attention.
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Got that car. So.
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So when Ray put this thing together and he's gathering up
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cars, I called down to the dealership and I said, go out
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there and lift up the hood and see if there's an engine in it.
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They come back and said, yeah, there's the engine in it.
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And so I, I called Ray and I said, Ray, I'll send this car to
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you if you'll get it running. I don't have anybody to work on
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it. And he said, yeah, send it over.
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He rebuilt the carburetor and the fuel cell and the fuel
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system and change the oil and rebuilt the brakes.
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And my thing ran perfect. We, we ran that thing and oh
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gosh, we had a, we had a blast. And I don't know if it's
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official or not, but I heard it might have been exaggeration.
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I heard it was the biggest crowd Lime Rock had ever had for, for
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that event. So we had a blast and it was so
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much fun hanging out with, of course, you know, Schrader and
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and Biffle and, and you know, all those guys.
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But you know, Danny Sullivan was there and I got to hang with
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Danny and and you know, Skinner or today with, you know, there
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was just it was a racers reunion and I was really afraid because
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practice Skinner those guys still race Bobby Labonte Skinner
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they're. Still going.
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Raider And so I knew that there was going to race, was going to
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break out when we did our exhibition and I didn't want no
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part of that. I mean, I did not.
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I am not going to compete because it sucked the life right
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out of me for 40 years. You know, I let it suck the
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lifeout of me and I got life now and I'm not going to compete.
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I don't even want to play cards. I don't even want to play cards
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because I want to win and I don't like that.
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So anyway, everybody played now they got going fast in practice,
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like and I love trader. You know how trader is traders
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like so they they said like, well, I think trader asked how
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fast they going. Well, Skinner just went up, you
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know, O 5:00 and you're O 9 and he said, and they said you
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worried about that 4 seconds. And Trader said, well, what did
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he exactly say something about? He was whatever age and he's
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going to plans on living 20 more years and that four seconds
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could have a direct effect. He might wreck it.
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Was awesome, man. I loved it.
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So he's right. So everybody behaved during the
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race exhibition, but you know, had cars from 70 representing 73
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all the way through 2006 when, you know, the last year that
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they had it, it was a big hit. And Ray Abraham and Rob Kaufman
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are are, you know, teaming up and working on, you know, doing
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more events, historical events. Would love to have the series
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back in full form, but that's going to be quite a challenge.
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But the historical thing is a great draw for fans.
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You know, they got to come down and see the cars where I hung
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around the whole time, signed autographs, took pictures and
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told stories. Yeah.
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So this is catching up with Mark Martin.
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If you want to go in depth with Mark and hear how a competition
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wore on him, go go right here on YouTube and check out the Kenny
18:30
conversation with Mark Martin. Mark does go in depth about how
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harsh, you know competition is. So we're not going to go down
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that road, but scroll right here.
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We had a good one with Mark about a year and a half ago.
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And he explains why he has chosen not to compete anymore
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because like Mark said it. And Mark, I agree with you
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because Father John told Kim and myself when we did Pre Cana,
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because she's Catholic, he said, oh, be careful young man,
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competition will kill you. And he meant just the way you're
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talking, you know, because we all want to win.
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We're the greatest, you know, and.
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Exactly. OK, so I rock was fun.
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It looks like Ray has got a lot going on there.
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Let's kind of end that I rock conversation like this.
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It looks good. Where do the cars go now?
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Do they stay there with him? When is the next event?
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What's up? I don't.
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They haven't announced the next event yet, but they are working
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on that. My car went back to his shop.
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Some of them may have went back. You know, Bobby Labonte had a
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beautiful car there. I think Schrader may may have
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had his own car there. I don't know if they get them
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back or if they just like, I'm just leaving mine at Ray's
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because it'll be there for next time, you know, and I'm, you
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know, I'm going to go participate.
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As everyone should know, I rock was a crown jewel of my career.
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And I, and I do want to talk about that.
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I'm glad you reminded me because I have the note here.
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Mark Martin, you were by far the greatest, the winningest IROC
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driver. Why were you so good against
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every race car driver in the world that you they brought in
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every discipline, AL Junior, you name it, I line dyke Steve
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Kinzer. But you just, and I'm saying
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this, you kicked everybody's butt.
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You won more races than anybody. Why do you think you were so
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good in IROC? Well, one of the reasons was
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that I excelled at lower power cars like like the busher
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Xfinity, now the trucks. My cup car was under powered for
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many, many years and, and you know, I had to focus on handling
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and on momentum and I became very, very good at center of the
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corner speed and momentum and exit speed.
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My entrance wasn't as good as some people's like I was.
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I was, I'd get in easy, but I would set my car up.
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Actually, it looked loose and it was loose, but it it was usually
21:23
a tighter setup than most, most folks because I actually got
21:27
back in the gas as soon as I got to the corner.
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There's ain't no passing going on going into the corner.
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It's all from the middle off and carrying down the back the
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straightaway. So I was good at that.
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And you know, I like to say that you drew for the car, you know,
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you didn't know What Car you were going to drive until right
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before the race and you drew for the car.
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And I always drew the fastest car.
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Oh, yeah, right. Don't listen to him, race fans.
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He's being humble. You know, Mark, when I think
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about center of the corner speed and keep it rolling, I I think
22:02
of David Pearson and Butch Lindley.
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You, you and I have been racing so long, you know, that we heard
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about how Pearson would let off and he would end.
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They they would say that he started getting on the gas at
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Darlington as he entered the corner.
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And in Butch Lindley, they say he never used brakes, but really
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good stuff. And and thank you for taking me
22:27
down. And now I want to say this.
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I feel a little proud that I knew you were going to say
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momentum roll the corner because boy, when when I would be on top
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that Bush Grande national holler and I would watch you go down
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the back straightaway at Charlotte, you had this big high
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and higher than anybody and everybody.
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We all tried to emulate you and we just, you were just the best
22:53
at it. You would roll in high and go
22:55
down that white line. You would just murder, kill
22:58
everybody and win every Bush race.
23:02
I know you're trying to keep this short, but I got to tell a
23:04
quick story about that Charlotte.
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When it was steel guardrail in the corners, you know you would
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get at the end of the straightaway in the concrete
23:13
with the end and you could actually turn right.
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So I'd go down the straightaway and get right at the end where
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where you turn in to three and I'd turn right.
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And then? Then get my R.
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Get get ready to exit that corner.
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OK, like you said Mark catch catching up with Mark Martin.
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We want to be careful. Some fans do want us to go an
23:36
hour, but we'll try to keep it a little shorter.
23:37
Everybody all right let's move on so far we've we we see
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traveling the United States. We talked about that historical
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sites Rhode Island. We talked about IROC.
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Let's talk about our hero, Rusty Wallace's hero, your hero, mine.
23:55
Many people in the Midwest. You were just at the Larry
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Phillips Memorial and I thought it was really awesome because
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you're somewhat shy. But I saw you giving a little
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talk before the race and that made me very happy and I
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commented on it. You responded.
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Tell me about the Larry Phillips Memorial over the over the
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weekend. Well, it was a great, great
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event and Terry was there. And when you see Terry, you see
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Larry, you know, you see the mannerisms, you see that stuff.
24:29
Smart ass I spent. I spent the whole night telling
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stories and remembering 1977 when we raced out at the
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fairgrounds. And I, of course, every time I
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tell any story back then, Rusty's in it.
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Rusty was a huge figure in my my life and in my career all the
24:48
way back to 1977. But yeah, it was just just a
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absolute honor to be a part of it and to see people and try to
25:00
remind people they don't realize Larry Phillips was a racing God.
25:06
Absolutely. And, you know, I know that
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we're, it's probably going to come up, but I can't.
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I can't hold back here. The reason that Larry, in my
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opinion, the reason Larry's not in the Hall of Fame is because
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none of the people that are voting for him ever had to race
25:23
against him or watched him race. And if they had, he'd already be
25:30
in. And let's start right there.
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I want to, I want to prove to people this.
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I have my notes. And I'm glad you touched on it
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because you just opened it up and and we're going to get there
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quicker than what? So here it is right here.
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You see that right there? I said, is NASCAR it?
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So here's the question the the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
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Now this is my opinion, but I want to hear what you say.
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It just seems like the NASCAR Hall of Fame is northeast
26:01
dominant. Richie Evans Cook.
26:03
It just seems like everybody that votes everybody that goes
26:07
that Hall of Fame. Now listen, I love Dave Moody,
26:10
but he's just Northeast and just everybody in NASCAR is Northeast
26:15
NE. Why, why is Larry Phillips the
26:19
great one of right there with Dick Trickle?
26:21
Why is he not in the NASCAR Hall of Fame?
26:24
And you already said a little bit, but I want you to expand on
26:27
that and and and am I right? What is this voting system?
26:31
Well, you, you know, unfortunately, every year when
26:37
when he misses the cut and doesn't get in, somebody new
26:41
comes into the fold and they, you know, in in their pick, you
26:46
know, above, above Larry now your your little paper there
26:50
should say that he won something like 88% of every single race
26:58
NASCAR, you know, weekly regional race He ever.
27:03
Ran NASCAR regional, yeah. That's not, that's like all but
27:09
12 out of 100 or something like that.
27:11
You know, that's 88 out of 100. It's unbelievable what he did in
27:16
the NASCAR regional. You know, I don't have great
27:22
confidence that he'll ever make it in because they, you know,
27:25
someone new comes in every time that one goes out and you know,
27:30
they, they, you know, he's just not recognized for what he
27:34
really did accomplish. And of course, rest of you and I
27:37
are are biased because we knew him besides NASCAR weekly Rd.
27:41
racing program. We knew that he was just, He was
27:45
racing God, a late model racing God.
27:48
And he built all his own race cars.
27:50
And then he built the the, the Ed Howe by Phillips, which my
27:55
dad had one, Rusty had one. Did you ever have one of Larry's
27:59
cars? Oh yeah, yeah, I took my 55
28:03
Chevy up there my my dad did in 75 and had Larry put a roll cage
28:10
in it because we didn't have, we built our first car with water
28:13
pipe. And so and then and then the
28:17
next year we went to late model and and Larry built a late model
28:22
and hung the body on it, actually put a Camaro body on
28:25
it. And so we ran that all of 76 won
28:28
a bunch of races with it. So, and then in 77, the day I
28:34
graduated from high school, I went to Springfield and got an
28:38
apartment and Larry gave me my first job and the he was testing
28:42
me the first day he opened up that door on Commercial Street,
28:45
that back door, roll up door. Back.
28:48
Door and there was an old Camaro sitting out there and he said
28:51
get streetcar, you know, and I got from a junkyard something
28:55
got that thing out and don't hurt the body.
28:58
You know, cut the all the interior out of it, but don't
29:01
don't hurt the body. That's a nasty job.
29:03
It's a, it's a nasty job and I got right after it.
29:06
I was tickled to death. I was, I was going to learn how
29:08
to be a, a shop guy and a fabricator and all that stuff.
29:12
And Larry. Larry gave me a first job.
29:15
And my experience with Larry is that if you were worried about
29:20
feelings, you should never be around him.
29:26
That's why. That's why us Midwesterners, I
29:29
guess, are a little rough around the edges.
29:32
I'll never forget as a little, little kid, I might have been
29:36
nine years old and I'm at Springfield, MO, where you and
29:40
Rusty and Mark, when you, Rusty and Larry, Ozark, Empire
29:46
Fairgrounds, Springfield, MO, and somebody comes up and
29:49
they're just aggravating Larry for an autograph after the race,
29:52
Larry, Larry signed my autograph and he said, boy, here's a dime
29:59
call somebody who cares. I ain't got time right now
30:02
because that's what the phone call would cost back then, you
30:05
know, $0.10 and that as a little kid, I'll never forget.
30:10
He didn't have time. He was busy making a living.
30:13
That's right, he did. He had very little help.
30:16
He worked on his cars, built those cars and and had some
30:20
volunteer help and that was that was the extent of it.
30:23
Well, Mark, before we go to the next subject, I'm, I'm just
30:26
going to say this. I, I, I just can't fathom in my
30:30
brain that Mark Martin, NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace,
30:36
NASCAR Hall of Famer Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards, four of
30:42
the best NASCAR drivers in history say, hey, why is Larry
30:47
Phillips not in? And that nobody listens.
30:50
It's their loss. And, and I'm going to leave it
30:52
right there. I, I just cannot get over that.
30:56
And Mark, you're right that it's no, you know, I'm saying this,
30:59
they just never raced again. But here you all did And, and I
31:03
knew. So, all right, so I want to talk
31:07
about we're going to end with NASCAR, but I want to talk about
31:12
something that's sad, but we're going to try to have a little
31:17
fun with it. Lately here we lost the greatest
31:21
dirt racer of all time, Scott Bloomquist.
31:24
My disclaimer is this, before we talk about him, I feel like
31:28
Scott Bloomquist had a lot of Batesville, AR in him.
31:32
He won six of the topless races, some of the biggest races, the
31:36
crown jewels. He won 6 topless races, meaning
31:41
the top comes off the car, you can see the driver.
31:44
He won six of them at your home track, Batesville.
31:48
He became friends with your one of your best friends, Larry
31:51
Shaw. And let's go way back Mark, down
31:56
there in Batesville, your track, they said we're going to pay
31:59
$100,000 to win a modified race. Well, your buddy Larry Shaw
32:05
built this car and there are stories galore, but Bloomer
32:11
helped reinvent this car and he won the race.
32:15
What do you know about Scott Bloomquist and that whole
32:18
Batesville, AR story? I just know of the legend of of
32:24
Scott Bloomquist and it it it starts way back when he's a
32:28
teenager is such a character. And you know, he did win all
32:34
those races, including the the 100,000 to win Mod race, which
32:39
was years ago. It was really a lot of money
32:41
back then. But then my partner Lance
32:47
Landers, you know, he's got a race team.
32:50
And he came to me and said, you know, I'm not doing as good as I
32:54
want to do what I need to do. And I said you need to get the
32:57
best cars and the best motors and, and the best people to work
33:03
on it. And that's how you do it.
33:05
And so, you know, we determined that Bloomquist cars were were
33:09
going to be the best car for him.
33:11
And so I went with him to Scott's shop.
33:15
And that's quite a yeah, he's quite a character.
33:19
He he, you know, we're supposed to meet him in the morning.
33:21
He don't. He comes in about about noon,
33:24
comes in the shop. We're sitting in the shop
33:26
waiting for him and he says hi and he says I got to go make me
33:30
a drink. He goes and makes him a drink.
33:33
Crown Royal. Yeah, he goes back and sits down
33:37
and we make a plan and and so so Lance runs these cars for for a
33:43
year and so I go to some of the races and so and talk to Scott
33:49
and stuff. So I, you know, I have had a
33:51
little bit of, you know, a closer time with with him
33:55
through that. And I just think that he's one
34:00
of those guys that was so smart. He was brilliant, brilliant guy.
34:06
And some of those, if you notice a lot of people through the
34:12
years, through the history that are just insanely brilliant,
34:17
also are troubled to some degree or have have some issues.
34:21
Look, Randy Sweets one, you know I can't preach enough to people
34:26
what, you know a genius Randy Sweet was, but he was also
34:31
crazy. Yes, yes, no, no doubt.
34:34
No doubt. And, and, and I think Scott, you
34:37
know, I think Scott was kind of reminds me some of that, you
34:43
know, and he was his own person. He was the best thing that ever
34:46
happened to late model dirt racing.
34:48
He was the Dale Earnhardt in the face forever.
34:52
And he just, you know, he ran into some tougher times the last
34:56
several years. And but you know, when, when
35:00
Lance was running his car, Scott was still winning big time and
35:03
and Jared was driving, you know, that that Bloomberg's car.
35:06
And Jared was, Oh my gosh, he was fast.
35:10
He would take my breath. Absolutely.
35:12
He'd go out to qualify and just take my breath in that car.
35:14
So we had a lot of fun. And I'm it's a real sad thing to
35:19
see see Scott gone so, so early. Yeah, and I do want to fill some
35:28
some dots there for the fans that are listening.
35:32
When you talk about Lance Landers, that is the owner of
35:35
Jonathan Davenport's car. And boy, Mark, just for a
35:40
minute, I mean by far the latest, I'd say 5-6 years.
35:47
Jonathan Davenport and and your dear friend Lance Landers, they
35:51
have just owned dirt racing, won $1,000,000.
35:56
One one it won everything there is to win.
36:00
Lance really has it going on. He really does.
36:03
Not only does he have an incredible organization from top
36:08
to bottom, like he's got the most incredible tote, you know,
36:13
hauler, he's got the, you know, the the most incredible driver.
36:17
He's got great people working on the cars, got an absolutely
36:21
unbelievable shop and he's got the best sponsors and the most
36:27
sponsor dollars of anybody in the sport.
36:32
And he credits me for telling him what to do.
36:37
I encouraged him to spend the money.
36:39
It cost a lot of money to have a Bloomquist car.
36:42
You didn't even own it, You know, I mean, he's like, dude,
36:45
it's like unbelievable. And go get the best.
36:49
At the time, I wanted him to get, you know, Durham Fords, you
36:53
know, Ford engines, get the best motors and the best cars you can
36:57
get. And, and Jerry ran the car for a
37:00
while and and, and Lansing and, and he decided that that wasn't
37:05
for them. And Lance Scott got Davenport
37:08
and it the rest is history. He got all that sponsorship
37:12
because of performance. And you only get that
37:17
performance if you get the best equipment and put the best
37:21
people in place. It's a couple things.
37:23
First of all, I want I want to brag on your father, Julian.
37:29
As a child, I remember your father being first class all the
37:32
time. I remember his jeans being
37:34
perfectly ironed. Harry Gant.
37:36
Harry Gant had his jeans weren't as good as your dad's.
37:40
And and I remember everything. When I would come to Arkansas, I
37:44
would just marvel and how perfectly clean your father
37:48
always was. He would come to the pit gate
37:51
and and I know that's passed on down to you.
37:53
And now I see Lance is the same way.
37:56
Do you think you and Lance are somewhat living through your
37:58
father? Well, I know, I know I am.
38:02
And you know, Lance is the most special friend that I've ever
38:07
had. I mean, we're just Blood
38:10
Brothers. That's awesome.
38:12
And we get each other, you know, we're both off the center line a
38:17
little bit, kind of off the beaten path.
38:20
We're different, a little bit different people, but Lance is
38:23
such a good quality dude and he likes his stuff, you know,
38:30
perfect, absolutely more perfect than mine.
38:33
His motorhome is cleaner than mine.
38:36
No, I mean. There.
38:37
Ain't no way. Well, dude, he never grow it in
38:40
the rain, you know, I mean, he won't drive it in the rain, you
38:44
know, I mean, it's unbelievable. He's unbelievable.
38:46
But back back to him, he's the best partner I could have ever
38:51
dreamed having in those car dealerships.
38:54
I mean, he just, he wanted everything and you know, he
39:00
always were anything. He anytime he made a decision
39:04
that had to do with money, he came to me first.
39:08
He said, look, I'm and I said like Lance, don't worry about
39:10
it, man. You're, you're running the show.
39:13
I didn't run the show. He ran it 100%.
39:16
But he always clued me in on whenever he was making a, you
39:20
know, any kind of decision of consequence.
39:23
And just such a great guy. And, and back to Bloomer one
39:26
more time. I'm going to say what I think.
39:29
And then you make you, you make it right.
39:32
So what I heard was that if you bought a Scott Bloomquist car,
39:37
it was like a automatically $100,000.
39:40
You had to sign a contract that if you no longer ran the car,
39:44
you had to give the car back. Basically, you paid a lot of
39:47
money and you never owned the car.
39:48
Although tell me what you know. Scott really guarded his
39:55
knowledge, like, OK, I'm going to give you the car now if you
39:58
want to know more, you got to pay a lot of money.
40:01
Take me back to what you know about that.
40:03
So that's, that's the way I remember it as well, that that
40:07
was the car. I remember that.
40:09
And I was sold on it and Lance was sold on it.
40:14
And so we entered into it and, you know, I, I, I don't think he
40:18
ever regretted it. He had rocket ships for cars.
40:22
And Scott, what you know, I mean, he was real.
40:27
I mean, he twisted his cars, you know, he knew when it was in the
40:33
fixture in the jig. You know, he, he knew how much
40:36
he wanted, he didn't want it too stiff.
40:39
You know, he wanted it just so so he knew about the seal that
40:43
went into the car. I mean, it was like insane the
40:47
detail that he knew about these cars and he didn't want, you
40:52
know, he didn't want that stuff out there.
40:54
And he did share information with I say Swiss Lance and Jared
41:02
and Jason Durham was was working on the car then was like the
41:07
crew chief of the car. And they did share information.
41:10
He did. He was a good.
41:12
He was good. He made it good.
41:14
And Jared, you know, at times was faster than Bloomer.
41:19
Bloomer had a little bit better race craft because of all of his
41:22
experience. But Jared would take your breath
41:26
away in that car, man, He was fast.
41:28
I remember, I remember and I remember Jared coming to Granite
41:31
City here, Tri-City Speedway and and biking down in Turn 3
41:36
flipped violently. And I think that that listen,
41:39
you know Jared way more than me, but that was a violent wreck
41:43
that took the breath out of him and the whole, whole grandstands
41:46
there. But well, what, what a what a
41:49
sad time, you know, and I want to end like this on bloomer.
41:53
I want to say this and I want you to comment you and I are of
41:57
age now. I'm, I'm going to be 61 Friday
42:00
and you're just a couple years older than me In my lifetime,
42:05
whether it's an Elon Musk or an Einstein or a Scott Bloomquist,
42:10
when those type of people talk, it's like what?
42:14
It's like, what are they saying it?
42:15
It's like they're so different. It's like, I can't even like,
42:20
where are you going? It's strange.
42:22
Like you know what I'm saying? Do you know comment on what I'm
42:26
trying to say? Well.
42:27
I know what you're, I know what you're saying.
42:29
Some of it sounds insanity, but gibberish like, yeah, but
42:35
sometimes there's some knowledge in there that you don't, that
42:39
you don't pick up because you're you're thinking that, yeah, this
42:42
is, you know, some of some of that insanity coming out.
42:46
But if you a lot of times with Scott, if you listen to the
42:50
context of the whole thing, you would there would be a lesson in
42:54
it or there would be wisdom in it.
42:57
And yeah, there, you know, people that are, I mean, you and
43:02
I are, are not that smart. So we're pretty easy to follow.
43:06
But some some people that are really, really brilliant aren't
43:10
as easy to follow well. What I find is that when you ask
43:14
an incredibly brilliant person, and I'm using the word
43:17
brilliant, not smart, when when I ask a brilliant person a
43:21
question, they never answer the question right away.
43:25
They go back with some psychology lesson, lesson, then
43:29
they get. And like you say, you got to
43:32
listen from the beginning. It is interesting, yeah.
43:37
And that's not easy for your you or I, because we don't move
43:40
fast. I'm like, listen to the.
43:43
Psychology, part of. It oh, Mark Martin, here we are
43:46
at 45 minutes. We we did it again.
43:48
So let's let's end it like this NASCAR.
43:53
First of all, I want to thank you for talking about Scott
43:56
Bloomquist. You know, and that story's not
43:59
over. From what I know.
44:01
There's going to be more to come out and we'll just leave it
44:05
right there. So Mark, we, we, we have just
44:08
witnessed one of the wildest 2 weeks in NASCAR history.
44:13
We watched Austin Dillon lay it all on the line and and and
44:19
clear out two cars to move into the championship.
44:23
Then NASCAR three days later said, hold on.
44:26
You get to win the race. You get to keep the money in the
44:28
trophy, but it don't even count it.
44:31
You don't get to go to the championship.
44:35
And listen, Dale Earnhardt Junior is a dear friend of yours
44:38
and mine, and I know you've already talked about it there,
44:42
but maybe some people, maybe we're going to bring something a
44:45
little different up right here. When you watch that you said 2
44:53
words on X. You said good grief.
44:57
I was, I was watching it by myself downstairs and I laughed
45:02
out loud. Look, I, I was in, I was
45:06
entertained. You like I that's probably the
45:10
most outrageous one I've ever seen right there.
45:14
You know, it wouldn't have been if it had just been joy, but
45:18
getting two and one whack man, that was huge.
45:21
But you know, so so I'll give it a 10 for entertainment.
45:29
Obviously it was over the line. Obviously I'm not a big fan of
45:34
of that. I've come to accept bump and
45:38
runs, you know, or even running a guy high because that's the
45:43
day and age we're in now. It wouldn't fly back in in our
45:48
day. But but but you know, that that
45:51
was over the line and, you know, NASCAR was in a horrible
45:54
situation. I don't know how they could win.
45:58
I think, you know, I I neither agree or disagree with what they
46:02
did. I understand what they did and
46:05
I'm kind of in the middle. You know, I don't the the move
46:10
was fun to watch. I mean, I don't know who in my
46:15
era, I don't know who had the balls to do that.
46:18
No, and let me add this, because I was on the receiving end of
46:22
it. That's why I'm going to comment
46:23
on this part. If I did something wrong.
46:27
Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Dale Senior, Terry Labonte, Dave
46:32
Marcus. You guys were going to take me.
46:35
You were going to take me between the trailers and you was
46:38
going to chew my ass out and you was going to make me feel this
46:42
small. It I don't know how it changed,
46:45
but I just think back then it was true.
46:48
We did police ourselves because, you know, that's the way it was
46:53
And and now it's not like that. So I just want to say that it
46:58
didn't fly back then because of what I just said.
47:01
You would have kicked my ass verbally.
47:04
Back then it was policed by the drivers back then.
47:10
It's there's no going back. You may as well embrace it.
47:13
It's the racing that we have today and and you know, you can
47:18
go into all the things reasons that it leads us to that.
47:23
But you know, you watch, I watch racing all the time, late
47:26
models, dirt and asphalt, the dirt still, in my opinion, still
47:32
pretty clean what the dirt late models are and the mods pretty
47:36
clean. But man, those asphalt late
47:38
models, it's just every single race and and that's what you're
47:42
going to have in NASCAR coming up in all three divisions.
47:46
That's that's what you see and what you have.
47:48
So embrace it. That's what we have.
47:50
I love racing and I got a laugh. I got a laugh out of Austin
47:55
Dillon and and I felt bad for NASCAR for having to make a call
47:59
at all because it would have been much better if drivers
48:02
could have handled it, but they can't.
48:04
It's it's beyond that. I'm going to say this, I feel
48:10
like hang with me. This is a Bloomquist moment in
48:13
my brain. We would go to McDonald's and if
48:17
we waited 3 minutes for our food we were screaming and hollering
48:20
Oh my God I've been waiting 3 minutes.
48:23
Then this came about and we got instant gratification of news.
48:30
So today, if the people watched the way you and Rust raced and
48:35
Mark Martin, you took care of your equipment because the
48:38
equipment wouldn't last as good. If we tried to race today like
48:44
we raced back then, the people would fall asleep.
48:47
Oh, they throw us out of out of the place, Yeah.
48:49
So, so now they said, OK, in this era we're going to run
48:54
stage racing because we want these drivers to drive so hard.
49:01
And I think because of what I just said, that's why we're
49:04
where we're at now, you know? That's one.
49:09
Tell me what the other one is. Double file restarts, green,
49:15
white checkered, equal cars you can't pass arrow dependent cars,
49:23
winner take all. When you in all these things
49:28
lead to that, you know, you're you're right in in a sense, but
49:33
there are more components to that in in, you know, all those
49:38
things lead. And you know, the racing was
49:43
good when Rusty and I raced in the 90s.
49:46
It was fabulous, but it's not good enough for today.
49:52
I mean, people still watch it. It's still fun to watch, but
49:55
it's a whole different thing. Oh, I forgot, I left out the
49:59
lack of power. Yeah.
50:01
You know, so, so in one lap, Joey Logano can't get any
50:05
further than he got and it's still, he still wasn't safe.
50:09
Well, that's what they want we got, you know, they have to make
50:12
it entertainment. They have to make it
50:15
entertainment, so, so taking the power away also plays into that.
50:20
You can't get away from one another.
50:23
You double file them on the restarts, you put it all in the
50:26
line. You see where it's all going.
50:28
The intensity builds with every piece and component and you
50:32
know, it just that that's what we have.
50:35
And the new generation sees one hell of a spark fest, you know?
50:45
Yeah, and instead of me using a curse word, I would say it's a
50:49
blank show. I call it everything you just
50:51
said. I call it scrambled eggs, buddy.
50:54
Like you just said, everybody got same horsepower, same car,
50:57
double file, restart. We go down in one, it's going to
51:00
be scrambled eggs. That's right.
51:06
Oh, Mark Martin, you've been wonderful.
51:09
Listen, thank you so much. And there's more to always talk
51:12
about everybody, we can ask more questions, but here we are.
51:18
And thank you so very much, Mark Martin.
51:21
And hey, where are you at? It looks good behind you.
51:24
Yeah, this is my shop. I'm doing a little a little
51:26
tinkering here in my shop. I come here about every day and
51:31
and and tinker on things and just just loving life and I am
51:37
coming to your place for coffee with Kenny.
51:39
I'm I'm going to I'm going to make an appearance when these
51:42
damn. I don't know when because it
51:44
seems like I've been awful busy, but I'm coming to Saint Louis.
51:47
I'm coming to see you park that coach out there by your shop and
51:51
do coffee with Kenny. I can't wait, Mark, I, I'll, you
51:54
know, I mean my place, you and Rusty are just like above me
52:00
with I mean, I just got a normal house, so don't expect a lot.
52:04
I'm going to be embarrassed. I'm going to make sure we clean
52:06
everything up and have my grass cut.
52:09
But but I'm still proud of what I got and I'm looking forward to
52:13
you and maybe Arlene and Matt coming up the driveway and I got
52:17
a big hill. Put it in low.
52:20
It's it's not, it's all concrete.
52:21
But you know, we live on the hill, Herman's Hill.
52:25
Hey, I got that twin turbo on it.
52:27
I can go up any hill. All right, everybody will
52:29
listen. You heard from the great Mark
52:31
Martin. Once again, this is catching up
52:34
with Mark Martin. This is a new segment, and we
52:37
might try to reach out to Tony Stewart.
52:39
It's been 2 1/2 years since we talked to Tony.
52:42
And listen, everybody, we are in podcast form.
52:45
This is a good long one. So you're going to listen to
52:47
Mark on the way to work in the morning and then you turn it
52:50
back on and listen to Mark on your way back home.
52:54
We are on Spotify and iTunes until the next catching up with
53:00
whoever it's going to be. Thanks again, Mark.
53:03
Thank you man, it's fun. Bye, bye everybody.