Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Legendary Racer John Force Shares Epic Stories!

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Legendary Racer John Force Shares Epic Stories! · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation, brought
• 0:04
  to you by Jags, the leader in high performance aftermarket car
• 0:09
  parts. Remember to go to jags.com for
• 0:13
  everything you need. Well, I don't think I've ever
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  been this nervous in my life. Maybe when I started some
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  Daytona 500 races I might have been a little nervous, but this
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  is definitely my hero and the most important interview in in
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  two years for me. He's entering his 49th
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  consecutive season of NHRA drag racing and and we did some
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  research, he is the oldest full time athlete in any professional
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  sport. My hero, the great John Force.
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  John, how you doing? Hey, I set another record right
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  there, you said. Do you know I still hold the
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  record in high school as a quarterback?
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  Three years. I lost every game.
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  Stop. 20. Seven games.
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  Well, well, you, you've made-up for it now.
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  Man, oh man, are you a winner. So listen, before we get
• 1:08
  started, I want to let you know this is my disclaimer and I know
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  my my face is a shade of red right now because I look up to
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  you and I want you to know that I'm 60 years old.
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  I've. RAN.
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  I'm 160. Listen, I've.
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  Raced in 905 NASCAR races and I'm sixty and I was thinking
• 1:31
  about calling it quits. But because of you, I'm serious.
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  I'm still, I'm still running the dirt car and competing at a high
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  level. I want you to know that that I
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  really appreciate you, John, and thanks for inspiring me.
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  Well, I do it because I love NHRA drag racing.
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  I was on the phone with Cruz Petragon this morning getting my
• 1:51
  butt kicked by him verbally. These are the only friends I got
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  in my life. But him and I've kind of grown
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  up out here and just the day-to-day stuff.
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  These are all the friends I got. I got my wife at home.
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  I got my grandchildren. I got my daughters, Ashley,
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  Brittany, Courtney and Adra. But I love getting in my hot
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  rod. It's it's like another grandkid.
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  My grandkids are driving junior dragsters, Autumn Robert Height
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  and my daughter, Adra's daughter that she went to Indy, Indy.
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  She's going to go to college there because she wants a drag
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  race and she's moving up to, I think, super comp this year.
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  That's autumn height. So we're we're excited about
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  that and my kids love it. And you know, people ask me what
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  would you do if you retired? I'd go get another race car.
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  I'll do it to her one day. I'll go back to Australia and
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  England and all them places. But I really like drag racing.
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  We got the pro organization. There's a lot of stuff going on.
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  They're doing a race after testing down there in Bradenton
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  and it's just going to be a lot of fun, something a little bit
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  different and we'll see where the world goes.
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  But I love it, so I'm happy to be here.
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  I love the race and and and that's all I've ever known, you
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  know? So we're going to get to all
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  that. The fans really wanted you and I
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  together, so I wished I was there with you.
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  But you're in California, you're at your museum.
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  I see it. It looks beautiful in the
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  background. But for the fans, I'm going to
• 3:36
  let everybody know that I was born hyperactive.
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  They they put me on Ritalin when I was in grade school.
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  It's my mom's fault because my mom took the Ritalin away from
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  me, so I'm still just wild and hyper.
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  So what is the deal with you? Why are you like me?
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  Or why am I like you? Or did they put you on anything?
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  You're you're hyper like me. First of all, I'm not handsome
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  like you. But I am not.
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  I am hyper. You look good.
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  But no, I just. My dad taught me to get up and
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  outwork everybody and if you do you'll always have a job because
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  the ones on top want to stay on top and and and they need you to
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  do the work. And I've lived that way.
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  I grew up in a little trailer court in Bell Gardens course
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  logging camps. We film for a week up in
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  Northern California on our documentary that we keep doing
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  it but we never get it out. Got a Got a book written
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  upstairs. It just never comes to an end.
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  Every time I think it's over. My producer of Brent Travers was
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  jumping up and down at Pomona when I crashed because he said
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  we finally got the closing. He thought I killed myself and
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  then I come back in the fence and he goes, well now he thought
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  he could do the movie. But yeah, I ain't no hurry to do
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  a movie. My daughter actually has our TV
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  production company here in Yorba Linda and and you know she knows
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  the book and and and she's got it all.
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  All they got to do is do it. But I want to finish it out.
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  But I raced and I won and then my kids started racing and they
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  won and then Robert Hyde and Tony Petragon.
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  It just kept going on and on people.
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  It kept happening. And so I'm still here and I
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  don't I'm too stupid. I don't know how to quit.
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  So you talk about your girls. First of all, this is all about
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  you. But I had your girls in my
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  notes. I was going to talk about them
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  at the very end. But I want to know the moment
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  that you went to Ashley and you said, OK, you're going to be a
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  race car driver or or did she want to be?
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  How did that? Do you remember that moment that
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  you wanted your girls to be drag racers?
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  Yeah, but you got to understand before I answer that.
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  And I always go a different direction.
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  Me too. This is what I'm saying is my
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  kids grew up at the race tracks, but my wife used to back the car
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  up. She mixed up, packed the
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  parachutes and and mixed Nitro and and wrote my contract.
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  I got a contract from Wendy's Hamburger.
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  They said we'll take it, but could you have somebody rewrite
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  this because the spelling is terrible.
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  And my wife, you know, she's a college graduate with with her
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  degree from San Diego State. She rewrote it, sent it in, and
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  they life went on. But here we are at Indy, and
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  I'll never forget Larry Frazier. I love him.
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  One of the, you know, the handful of crew chiefs that I
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  had in my career, Larry Frazier. We were out there and I think it
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  was Larry Frazier. Yeah, might have been Austin
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  Coyle, but and hey, by by the way, I'm going to Daytona Beach
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  because Austin Coyle's getting inducted.
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  What a name. What a legend he was for you.
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  Greatest of all time, you know, people say.
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  Why don't you let him call you the goat?
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  You won 16, I said. Because I am not really the
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  GOAT. Austin Coil's the GOAT.
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  He's the guy that took me, taught me, took me down that
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  road and and and and won all those championships.
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  And if anyone's going to get credit, I give it to the ones
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  that deserve it. I'm just an old truck driver.
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  That's where I come from and I love driving that hot rod and
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  I'm very lucky. But I do live it.
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  I take care of the sponsors like Peak and Chevrolet and Auto Club
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  and Cornwell Tools. Hey, I'm sneaking them.
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  I'm sneaking them in here. Monster Energy.
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  That's another reason why I'm so hyped.
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  I probably drank too much coffee.
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  I drink coffee. I'm I'm on.
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  I'm on iced tea right now, but I drink 3 cups of coffee in the
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  morning. The great, the great great
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  monster. Energy like me and boy, it'll
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  it'll change your life. OK, let me go back to.
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  The girls. To the girls.
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  And here we are at Andy. I think it was Larry Frazier.
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  May was Austin Karl, Remember I've been hit the head too many
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  times. OK, so in the middle of this,
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  it's hotter than Heck and my wife can.
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  So I sent my guy down to local store and and got a little
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  swimming pool. I brought it back, put it up
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  underneath the front of my 18 Wheeler and right underneath
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  where the water is and everything that they use for the
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  race car. And I filled up that little
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  pool. And through the course of two
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  days, you know, we used a lot of water, but it'd get dirty from
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  the dust and the Nitro and I dump it out, we clean it and
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  then we'd fill it up again. And here we are.
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  My little girls are in there underneath.
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  I got pictures. It's unbelievable.
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  Ashley, Brittany, Courtney, Adriel was older than she was
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  helping run the business. In the middle of it, on Sunday,
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  they turned on the water and said there ain't no water in the
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  car. In fact, when we put water in
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  the engines and like what happened and oh, my crew chief
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  went ballistic because I put all the water in that swimming pool
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  and we couldn't raise. So my kids, my kids grew up out
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  there and dirty, no noses clutch this.
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  Always wiping cars. And Adra, my oldest girl, she
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  never wanted to to drive race cars but I got pictures in my
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  Museum of her and I selling T-shirts out the back door in my
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  first office that I had OK, I had.
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  I was in a gas station. This goes way back and I and I
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  had A and I I know nobody cares about all this, but it matters.
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  I'm in a gas station where a buddy of mine, Ron Rose, gave me
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  free place to keep my race car. I used to keep it on the street.
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  Had to get up every Wednesday morning and run out to my crew,
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  my Crew Cab. It was a Chevrolet and my
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  Chaparral trailer, and I had to move it so the street sweepers
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  could go by. The cops let me get away with
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  that for a long. Time.
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  But here I wasn't at gas station.
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  I said, OK, Adria, you sit on that side of that desk and I'll
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  sit on this side and if the phone rings, tell him, oh, you
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  want Mr. Force. Let me see if I can get him.
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  He's pretty busy. Let him sit for a minute.
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  Give me value and she'd say, OK, he's got time for you.
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  And and that's how we started in this business.
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  And now I don't. I got chassis shops, paint
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  shops, I got engine building shops.
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  You know, we build all that safety because that was about
• 10:29
  Eric Medlin. We had to get into that and and
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  make it, you know, make race cars better, you know, we lost
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  him in a crash in Gainesville and heartbreaking.
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  Loved him to death. Still do and and his dad's John,
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  good friend of mine. But what I'm getting at, my kids
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  grew up there. I'm getting back to that
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  question. Now it's OK.
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  I'm with you. But.
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  But Adrian, is your Is she your COO right now?
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  Well, they call me the CEO, but after I didn't know what it
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  meant, they quit calling me that.
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  She runs all my money upstairs. Yeah.
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  And and what little bit there is, but.
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  But Robert is a president of John Force Racing and they call
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  me the CEO. I don't know.
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  I don't care. I just want to race.
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  That's what I want. But Adria lives in it day-to-day
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  with Johnny Lew and Tori and everybody upstairs, and they
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  keep me afloat out here. Then I got the shops in Indy, so
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  I got people there. But what I'm saying is my girls
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  grew around and they loved it. So the first time they never
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  went in the junior dragsters like Jacob and Noah or in the
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  junior dragsters and and and and Autumn has moved from juniors up
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  to super cop. So next will be a fuel and then
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  the pros. But I don't make the calls on my
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  my grandkids, you know what I mean?
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  That's Ashley's two boys and Daniel Hoodies, my crew chief.
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  They make the calls what their children do.
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  So so in the midst there's Ashley at the races and I knew
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  she always loved it. Every time she got a chance she
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  jumped in the car and I'm a driver dad and she was just and
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  so we started her out right in super comp and we hired Jerry
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  Darian and then along come Brittany and and Courtney and
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  they started the same process and it evolved.
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  But probably the worst was the first time I put them Ashley in
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  a fuel Funny Car because that's what she wanted to drive.
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  Courtney wanted to drive a Fuel Funny Car.
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  Brittany wanted the top fuel dragster.
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  So anyway, Brittany was always different but those all the
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  girls did good. But I remember Ashley I was
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  terrified for all of them because even her mom said I want
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  to go to Frank College driving school and get licensed while
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  you want to drive and she said no.
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  I just want to know what they're going through so I can watch it
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  and know what's happening. And anyway, and Ashley beat me.
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  Her first race was at Atlanta and she had outrun me.
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  So she got lane choice and put me on the bump and went down to
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  the other end. She won.
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  I jumped out of the car and said, God, how can that happen?
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  Let that girl beat me. Oh my God, that's your daughter.
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  And she's over there in her first interview for women.
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  Shut up and go over and hug her. And then I because my
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  adrenaline, it's the way I am. But I got on that bump and I
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  couldn't recover it. And I got over to her and
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  started hugging her. She was crying.
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  I was crying. So God has been so good to me.
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  I don't know what he's going to do in me at the end, but I can't
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  wait to see what's coming. So John, let me ask you this.
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  You you started in 1978 and you've seen it all.
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  So what was it like when like your daughters and like Shirley
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  Muldani went when the girls lined up next to you, You're
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  you're a man's man and and they beat your butt.
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  What? When when the girls started out
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  running, the guys tell me about that moment in time and drag
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  racing. Was that hard on you guys?
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  Well, first let me jump back. You said 78.
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  I graduated from high school in 67 with that football record,
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  right? OK.
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  You're a bad ass. But you got to understand
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  something. I raced in high school.
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  I had Henry Jay's. I had the Corvette, Chevrolet
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  Corvette with a with a blower on a small block.
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  People don't even know that I got out of high school.
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  I was driving truck and and I had a front engine dragster We
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  we always said it was the old Albertson's hoes caught on fire
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  at at Lions drag strip and and almost ran over my brother Louis
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  who was waiting for me at the other end on fire coming down
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  through there. But what I'm saying is I went
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  and and I owned race cars. I had to the Night Stalker, the
• 14:47
  Origin Sidewinder built by Jack Chrisman.
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  I had, I got, I had Steve Bovans car, it was bought at at a car
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  auction and and I took it out and tried but I never did
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  anything with it. Then I had fuel orders, the
• 15:02
  short wheelbase. I won't get on a motorcycle.
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  I won't get into fuel order, but I drove one and turned them
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  over. I did stuff you wouldn't
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  believe. Crashed on a back street in
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  town, went out to the floor. He had a race.
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  And I said you got to see me drive this.
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  She goes well, I was at Lions last night.
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  She was just a kid. She thought I was taking her to
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  the horse races like her dad. And she said, you know what?
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  I don't even know what this does.
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  It just makes noise. Let me show you.
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  I was on a back street over by my high school.
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  Did a burnout in the throttle, stuck.
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  I went down, jumped the curb, jumped the railroad tracks.
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  I went into the side of a guy's house.
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  And here come the cops. Wasn't for my brother, wasn't
• 15:41
  for my brother being a sheriff. He come there and they said we
• 15:45
  got a guy down here named Forest that almost went through a guy's
• 15:48
  house. And what happened?
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  Well, what'd he say? He said he was going by and the
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  car came off the trailer and ran over the fence and the railroad
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  track. So because it was my brother,
• 15:58
  they cut me loose. So.
• 15:59
  You know, I got to interrupt. You hold on.
• 16:01
  You and I are the same. I asked you a question and while
• 16:05
  I'm asking you the question, you hear something else and you go
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  to that. So I talked to you about girls
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  lining up and out running you or any drag racer, but you heard
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  1978. Yeah, but well, that's with them
• 16:23
  and and I'm brain dead. No, me too.
• 16:26
  Let's get it out to the listeners.
• 16:27
  I love what we're going to. Do fire me.
• 16:30
  OK, so took me 5 years to get on your show.
• 16:33
  Stop it. I thought you loved me.
• 16:36
  OK? Your brother loves me, though.
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  He loves. Me.
• 16:39
  OK, so in the middle of it, no, you know, Shirley and other
• 16:44
  women, but mostly Shirley, open the door, won championships,
• 16:49
  beat the men. I watched her in gartlets
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  verbally out there in the parking lot, going to fight, you
• 16:55
  know what I'm saying? Oh, just just at races, Salt
• 16:58
  Lake City garlets didn't take no from anybody and either did
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  Shirley. So my girls came up in a
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  different world, you know, You know, they had to earn their
• 17:09
  way, those guys. Gartlets and and and Shirley,
• 17:12
  the lady. But my daughter's.
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  I was already racing. We had it.
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  So I was able to give him the best crew chiefs, the best
• 17:20
  budgets and the girls found the money.
• 17:23
  I mean it was Brittany, the big boss over at at Monster Energy.
• 17:31
  Rodney, he said. Love John Forsman.
• 17:35
  Don't bring him back no more. He worked me out.
• 17:37
  Bring his daughter. Because you don't need energy
• 17:40
  drink. But my daughter went down there
• 17:43
  and sold the program. Brittany, come back with a
• 17:46
  contract. Dad, what do I do?
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  He gave me this money and and they they've been a great
• 17:51
  partner. She won a championship with
• 17:53
  them. So what I'm getting at is
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  getting beat by the girls. It don't matter to me because
• 17:59
  when I'm in my race car I'm racing the other car.
• 18:02
  And I in the old days, I used to race the Word the Snake, the
• 18:06
  Mongoose, the Blue Max jungle gym.
• 18:11
  You know oh, Oh yeah. Raymond Beale.
• 18:12
  These are unbelievable people. And and Raymond Beale used to
• 18:16
  with with Dinsmore, used to come every day to the hospital when I
• 18:20
  was in there. And I was in there for six weeks
• 18:22
  in Dallas when I broke, when I crashed, broke my arms and legs,
• 18:24
  I was ruined. But in the middle of it I came
• 18:27
  back, still won a championship. So not done yet.
• 18:31
  But what I'm saying is, racing the women to me was an honor to
• 18:35
  see a young girl out there like my girls or or or Leah.
• 18:40
  Now it's not Leah Prude, It's Stewart.
• 18:44
  She married my buddy and I don't even know him.
• 18:47
  I tell everybody he's my buddy. You don't even know him.
• 18:50
  Still my buddy. I like him.
• 18:52
  But he's a good guy. He's great for our sport.
• 18:54
  And you know, NHRA said the greatest thing that ever
• 18:58
  happened. You know what I'm saying?
• 19:00
  Because he's going to bring fans from NASCAR.
• 19:04
  Joni Stewart. Yep.
• 19:06
  So a great guy and he's really doing good as a driver and he's
• 19:12
  got Hagen of course we got our stars.
• 19:15
  Austin Proc has jumped into the game here giving Robert Height a
• 19:19
  little bit of a break and and so in the middle and Robert will be
• 19:23
  back. But Cornwell, Tools, Monster,
• 19:26
  all these people, Chevrolet, they always work with me because
• 19:29
  we always over deliver and I got to get my stuff together and
• 19:33
  start winning some races, some championships.
• 19:36
  So John, one thing that you and I share in common is, you know,
• 19:40
  we grew up watching the movies and you know, I remember Telly,
• 19:44
  Cevallos, Beretta. If you're going to play, you got
• 19:49
  to pay you. And I learned that if we want to
• 19:52
  race, we got to get sponsorship. You and I are the best at it.
• 19:56
  I've had sponsors my whole life 'cause I was broke.
• 19:59
  I was broke, I had no money and and I think you're the same way.
• 20:02
  You are the best salesman. You sell product and I think you
• 20:06
  have an advantage over the other races.
• 20:09
  What we do, they didn't. They didn't hire us just to go
• 20:12
  racing. They hired us to get out there
• 20:14
  and be pitchman. My first sponsor was Don Steve
• 20:18
  Chevrolet and I went up to number that.
• 20:21
  Yep, I did a burnout in his parking lot ended up out of
• 20:24
  Whittier Blvd. and the cops come trying to arrest me.
• 20:27
  Are you nuts? But when I went to Australian in
• 20:29
  7475 they said hey will you do a burnout downtown?
• 20:35
  What the hell was that? Australia Serpers paradise.
• 20:41
  We stayed in a hotel, the Travelodge that only had an ice
• 20:45
  cube, a big ice block in the refrigerator.
• 20:50
  That's why I learned how to drink beer.
• 20:51
  I never drank beer till I was 25 and nothing, just didn't drink
• 20:54
  alcohol and and grew up on milk. You know what I'm saying?
• 20:59
  That was my life. Milk and Coca-Cola.
• 21:01
  So anyway, now it's monster and coffee.
• 21:05
  Yeah, and hey, listen, I want. To Did I answer your question
• 21:08
  about the women? I was honored to race any of
• 21:10
  them and I've been beaten by them all.
• 21:12
  Now don't don't talk about Dale Earnhardt Senior yet, but Dale
• 21:16
  Earnhardt Senior, He was the, you know, the Intimidator.
• 21:20
  I'm the Herminator. Great nicknames.
• 21:23
  So this brute force just is so bad ass.
• 21:28
  I know it's, I know that's a nickname.
• 21:31
  But when did that brute force start?
• 21:34
  Who did that? Do you remember who it was that
• 21:36
  first came up with it? My uncle Jean Beaver that took.
• 21:41
  Me down? Took me to Lions drag strip.
• 21:44
  They used to let me wipe the tires on David Connick's car.
• 21:47
  Yeah, and. And my cousin Steve, we just
• 21:52
  lost him here a few weeks ago. I'm sorry about that, John.
• 21:55
  And yeah, and but they were the ones that taught me the
• 21:58
  business. When I was driving a truck,
• 22:00
  that's How I Met Steve Pluger. They had a guy that that did my
• 22:04
  first lettering on my car. Kenny Youngblood was always part
• 22:08
  of our family, OK? And he was the best.
• 22:11
  But I remember they wanted to name John Force.
• 22:16
  They wanted a name that meant something, and Beaver came up
• 22:20
  with brute force. Brute.
• 22:22
  You're the Brute. And it was like, OK, I don't
• 22:25
  what does that mean? You're going to be racing these
• 22:28
  guys. You're the brute.
• 22:31
  Five years went by, right? Beaver passed away.
• 22:37
  Love dream to death in the middle of it.
• 22:40
  I'm with the guy one day that that was a relative.
• 22:45
  And I said to him, you know, brute force, Beaver come up with
• 22:52
  brute force. It was his idea.
• 22:54
  I said. Because I'm a brute, you know,
• 22:56
  and I'm a guy and and they. I think they came out with
• 23:00
  Cologne. Also Brute.
• 23:02
  I think there was a Cologne. But my cousin said I I get
• 23:06
  thinking about these stories. I want to cry.
• 23:07
  I know, I know. My cousin said, John, I'm going
• 23:14
  to bring you something tomorrow. And he came over the next day
• 23:18
  with a porno tape. What is that?
• 23:21
  And he said, here's where the name come from.
• 23:25
  He had got these tapes from Beaver after he passed away.
• 23:31
  There's a tape in here called Brute Force.
• 23:34
  You were named after a porno movie.
• 23:37
  Finally. I've told that before but I
• 23:39
  shouldn't tell it. Look, but that's where the name
• 23:41
  came from. I love it.
• 23:43
  OK, so listen. I embellish, I never lie.
• 23:47
  You're awesome. I love you so much.
• 23:49
  And I mean, and when I say I love you, I mean that you know,
• 23:52
  I I don't say it. So I'm.
• 23:55
  I'm going to say something. I'm going to tell you something
• 23:58
  and then I want you to respond to it.
• 24:00
  OK. Here we go.
• 24:01
  OK. John Force, 74 years old, the
• 24:05
  most dominant drag racer of all time, 16 time NHRA Funny Car
• 24:12
  champion. And of course we all know you
• 24:14
  won the AHRA champion. But listen, this is
• 24:18
  unbelievable. 155 wins. Now, when I tell you all that,
• 24:24
  what do you think about when I tell you all that?
• 24:27
  I think it's 157, but I can't remember.
• 24:31
  Yeah, but yeah. But I don't look in the rearview
• 24:34
  mirror in life. I know.
• 24:36
  OK. I look ahead and and that's
• 24:38
  where I want to be. I want to win again because I
• 24:41
  don't do it. Just we'll give you a we'll turn
• 24:45
  this camera. But this is my showroom here.
• 24:48
  But my shops in Indy are full of trophies and they're not all me.
• 24:52
  They're Tony Petragon. You know what I mean?
• 24:54
  They're they're Gary Densham drove for me and and and one
• 25:00
  Indy. You know these these are big
• 25:02
  things. It's just I didn't come.
• 25:07
  I come to beat Don Perdome and Raymond Beadle and Mongoose and
• 25:10
  Jungle Gym, and that was my reason in life for doing it.
• 25:16
  A paycheck. I starved to death for 20 years.
• 25:19
  People don't know that. And I'm working my way back
• 25:21
  there. It's getting closer.
• 25:23
  But. These hot rods.
• 25:26
  I was a kid. I grew up in a trailer house.
• 25:28
  My kids went during my TV show on driving force.
• 25:31
  My mom's trailer house. We kept across the street and
• 25:35
  just in a dirt field. And my kids went there and they
• 25:37
  cried like, how did you live there, Dad?
• 25:40
  Where there was no bed. I slept on the couch in the
• 25:43
  living room, but I couldn't go to bed till Mom and Dad finished
• 25:47
  watching, you know, whoever was on the late, Late Show.
• 25:51
  Yeah. So what I'm saying is I grew up
• 25:53
  in a trailer house. You know what the escape was?
• 25:56
  What? Bicycle and then you know when
• 26:01
  the first time I got a motorcycle I remember yelling
• 26:03
  freedom in the parking lot I'm free and I drove off on a
• 26:07
  motorcycle and and then I got a car.
• 26:09
  It was freedom and all I know is cars.
• 26:12
  I had polio as a kid and when I got to college at East LA always
• 26:16
  joke. I went till noon the first day
• 26:19
  and but the coach said you got more heart, you can lead you do
• 26:23
  everything but you got bad legs because you got a polio leg And
• 26:28
  he said you're never going to make it.
• 26:30
  You think you're going to be a pro someday.
• 26:32
  And I went and got a car that could do the running for me,
• 26:37
  right? OK And then I took my stories.
• 26:40
  I was at Orange County Raceway caught on fire just come back
• 26:45
  from Australia. Bought a trailer from Joe
• 26:47
  Paizano. They all love me because I was a
• 26:49
  nutty kid and I had the brand new Monza body and and I got
• 26:54
  them all in my museum. I'll have my guys send you stuff
• 26:57
  if you want. I got my whole history of cars,
• 26:59
  every championship car. I keep everything.
• 27:02
  Now I don't know what I'm going to do with all this stuff, but I
• 27:05
  might have taken all of Barrett's.
• 27:06
  Jackson going to be like Don Garlett's going to be a, but
• 27:09
  you're going to keep racing, so it's always going to be a
• 27:11
  museum. But here, what was I talking
• 27:14
  about? You got?
• 27:14
  You said Garlett's name and my brain went because I love him.
• 27:17
  But. I forgot what I asked you.
• 27:22
  Don Garlets came over, I won two or three championships with
• 27:26
  HRAADRA and Garlets come over to my car because I wouldn't start
• 27:30
  one day and we were in awe. Oh my God.
• 27:33
  And he said let me look at this barrel valve and there is to us
• 27:37
  and there's only one God, but the expression is he's like God.
• 27:41
  And there he was, messing with that injector and he got my car
• 27:46
  to start and he was gone. He didn't want no credit, didn't
• 27:49
  want no thank you. You know, he just, those are the
• 27:52
  people that I love. I won in those days and I've got
• 27:55
  all of this, but it doesn't matter.
• 27:57
  I never came for all of this. I just wanted to be Don Perdome.
• 28:01
  I wanted to do a burnout. I mean, I've won more
• 28:04
  championships than anybody, but I'm still trying to be like
• 28:07
  them. They walk the walk.
• 28:09
  They they are the legends to me and I I just keep going down
• 28:12
  that road. OK, let me talk to you about Don
• 28:17
  the Snake Perdome. That's what I love about drag
• 28:19
  racing, Big Daddy, Don Garlets, John Brute Force, all the
• 28:23
  nicknames. Now, I want to tell you a story
• 28:25
  real quick. You know, I'm very good friends
• 28:28
  with Perdome to this day because he's a dear friend of my brother
• 28:32
  Rusty's. You know, we all had the Miller
• 28:34
  Brewing sponsorship. I had Red Dog, but I was out in
• 28:38
  the Sturgis two years ago with Don Perdome.
• 28:41
  He loves the motorcycles. Yeah, well, he's slowing down a
• 28:44
  little bit now, but I want to tell you this story and I want
• 28:46
  you to respond to it. I said that.
• 28:48
  I said that Don Perdome and I said the Walker Evans, they're
• 28:53
  sitting in lawn chairs and and I said the Walker Evans and I said
• 28:57
  to the snake. I said guys I'm going to be 60.
• 29:00
  I'm thinking about retiring. The snake come out of that lawn
• 29:06
  chair and stood up and if he's watching this right now this is
• 29:10
  the truth. Don Perdon looked at me and he
• 29:12
  said he yelled no, no, he said I miss drag racing so much.
• 29:18
  Kenny, you cannot stop racing. So because you you looked up to
• 29:25
  him and and you wanted to be him and and now you are.
• 29:29
  What do you think about Perdome? Tell Amita, Stay, race and
• 29:33
  don't. Stop, you know Kenny Bernstein
• 29:37
  said that to me, you know, Perdome said to me.
• 29:40
  Force. I know you think you're cool and
• 29:42
  the women love you, but you'll never get out of that fire soon.
• 29:45
  Yeah. Well, yeah, the fire Comex
• 29:48
  disease. But but you know, Don Perdome is
• 29:55
  still loved by the fans. Fans.
• 29:57
  They asked me about him all the time.
• 29:58
  He goes with the races, He draws big crowds because he's part of
• 30:02
  an era. He's still with us.
• 30:04
  And NHR don't need to lose their stars.
• 30:06
  You know, none of them. But it's just that he gave his
• 30:09
  life to it. He loved it.
• 30:11
  I wanted to do burnouts, you know, I can see why he jumped
• 30:14
  out of that chair. They all Why don't you ever go
• 30:17
  to Sturgis? What?
• 30:17
  You know, they back Easter and Charlotte Petty.
• 30:22
  Kyle tried to get me, you know, go go on a road trip with us.
• 30:28
  I did one out here in California with Jay Leno.
• 30:31
  But I can't afford a crash on a motorcycle.
• 30:34
  I can't go through it. So when I come to Sturgis, I'm
• 30:37
  going to have one of my daughter's drive me in a
• 30:39
  sidecar. I'll have a sidecar I can set
• 30:42
  in, but I'd love to go up there and hang out with everybody.
• 30:45
  And for domes, for domes, you know, we've raced against each
• 30:50
  other. He beat me up my whole career.
• 30:52
  And so I don't forget that that's what matters to me.
• 30:56
  We lost Tom, the Mongoose, but there was the cars that were the
• 30:59
  Hot Wheels, you know, you know, the Snake and the Mongoose.
• 31:04
  And and then Snake went on to the Army, you know, Mongoose
• 31:07
  went on to the Navy. I mean, it's just a part of
• 31:09
  life. I've lived this all in another
• 31:12
  year. I think I'll be 50 years driving
• 31:15
  for NHRA full time, but I was racing before that, 10 years.
• 31:19
  So yeah, I'm probably getting too old, but I still sell
• 31:22
  product, I can still drive a hot rod and I still adore the fans.
• 31:27
  Let let me tell you with Pisano when I told you I bought the
• 31:31
  trailer and I went to Orange County, had a big old fire when
• 31:34
  I went to Australia. My wife.
• 31:36
  I'm not Catholic, but I attend the Catholic Church every week.
• 31:38
  Yeah, we did. And in the middle of it, she got
• 31:41
  me a St. My daughter Courtney bought me
• 31:44
  this for Christmas so I can find my way home.
• 31:46
  It's beautiful. I can't get up, but I got.
• 31:51
  Yeah, that's my favorite song. I'm still standing by Elton
• 31:55
  John. But anyway, in the middle of it,
• 31:57
  Saint Christopher's, my wife is very Catholic, bought it for me.
• 32:01
  I got back from Australia, I made my run at Orange County,
• 32:04
  burnt the car to the ground and I got out and I I I didn't know
• 32:09
  it till later. I lost my Christopher.
• 32:11
  You know what I'm saying? So now I wear 2, but in the
• 32:14
  middle of this. Wait, wait, let me finish this.
• 32:16
  Hold on. Got to go to commercial break.
• 32:19
  I'll go sell some peak here. Jags the leader.
• 32:21
  In Hyper and I love you. I love those guys.
• 32:25
  I was with them for years. I I think they fired me.
• 32:27
  I don't know what happened, but I love that whole family, the
• 32:31
  whole group. But in the middle of this, I got
• 32:34
  out and Beaver come down to the other end.
• 32:36
  Him and Steve Condit like, and I'm like, what do I do now?
• 32:41
  It's the car was gone. I'm broke.
• 32:44
  My career is over, you know what I mean?
• 32:47
  And in the middle of it, Bieber said.
• 32:49
  There's only one thing you got to sell.
• 32:52
  Get to that TV camera and start with the talk and sell it.
• 32:56
  Talk about your sponsors. Tell them how you fought that
• 32:59
  fire and it was burning the skin off you.
• 33:01
  And that's where I really started embellishing.
• 33:04
  And I told the story in the next morning.
• 33:06
  I got calls from people that weren't even sponsors.
• 33:08
  Hey, we want to be on your car. My Chevrolet guy.
• 33:12
  Don. Steve.
• 33:12
  Tom. Steve's dad was Don Steve's.
• 33:15
  He loved me, Gave me what I needed.
• 33:18
  Wally Thor School of Trucking came and gave me money because I
• 33:22
  was a truck driver. And what do you want me to do?
• 33:25
  Want you to drive that race car? I want you to stand up on that
• 33:27
  stage and talk to these new people.
• 33:29
  They think you're we tell them you're famous and you're not,
• 33:32
  but they don't know it. And that's that's how it
• 33:35
  started. So it was a gift of gab.
• 33:38
  You know, I was always told my grandpa, my great grandpa, was
• 33:41
  hung in Oklahoma for lying. Well, actually we always say it
• 33:45
  was for horse stealing, but I think it was for lying.
• 33:49
  I didn't get my story straight. No, no, you're awesome.
• 33:52
  Can we stop this and start all? Yeah.
• 33:54
  OK. All right.
• 33:55
  We're starting over right now, so I know AJ England is around
• 33:59
  there. I know Sarah just left, but
• 34:01
  they're all listening. The sweetheart.
• 34:03
  I love Sarah. I know we all do.
• 34:05
  So in in the come on, Sarah, this is the we're going to ask
• 34:09
  this question on the fly and it does not have to be perfect.
• 34:13
  So in the totality of John Force Racing, OK including you, you
• 34:18
  got the 157 wins. How many wins do you think John
• 34:24
  Force Racing, the whole, the whole organization that how many
• 34:28
  wins do you think you all have? Can AJ yell that out?
• 34:32
  Do we know 3? 100 I can call Dinsmore, he'll
• 34:35
  know, but I I don't keep count. They I'm on the phone the other
• 34:40
  day with a group that says, well, we really appreciate you
• 34:44
  coming down here. I'm not going to do the speech.
• 34:47
  I don't get on the stage and do a speech because I'm kind of a
• 34:50
  comedy act, but my wife don't agree with that.
• 34:53
  But they want me just to accept the trophy because Austin Coyle,
• 34:56
  the Great One, can't be there. For a great.
• 34:59
  Name and and and I said, well, I told this guy, do I know you?
• 35:03
  I said, man, it's like I got to know you.
• 35:07
  Where you at in Daytona, The Hall of Fame, he goes force.
• 35:10
  You know me, we already inducted you in the Hall of Fame years
• 35:14
  ago and I'm like, I don't even remember the Hall of Fame.
• 35:17
  So that ain't what's on. My deal is finding money keep
• 35:20
  the ship afloat and winning championships and watching my
• 35:23
  grandchildren grow up. I got, I got autumn, that's 17.
• 35:28
  I got Jacob and Noah that are 11 and and 9:00.
• 35:33
  I've got I got a IndyCar driver, Ray Hall, in our family, married
• 35:40
  Courtney. And she got some.
• 35:42
  And she got out of the car and oh God, I can't lose her.
• 35:45
  And but she got 2 little girls, Harlem and Tinley.
• 35:49
  Best part of my life. My wife don't even want time
• 35:52
  with me. She only wants them.
• 35:54
  Hey, how many as a team, how many races have we won?
• 35:59
  I don't know. Hey, figure it out and we'll get
• 36:01
  back to it. I want to know this you, you,
• 36:03
  you have the the necklace. You know it.
• 36:07
  It's very nice when you get into staging.
• 36:10
  When you get into staging and you're inside your race car, do
• 36:14
  you have any rituals? Do you do anything over and
• 36:17
  over? I think it was, Cruz said.
• 36:21
  He wears the same underwear for days.
• 36:23
  OK. Do you?
• 36:26
  Do you say a prayer? He's not old like me.
• 36:29
  Do you say a prayer or anything? I always pray you know my wife.
• 36:33
  Saying you you do. Everything wrong that you can do
• 36:37
  by the way you read the Bible, I said.
• 36:39
  I don't steal. I don't do drugs.
• 36:41
  I don't. I'm trying to be good to
• 36:43
  everybody, I said. But she goes, She wants me to
• 36:49
  change my ways, but I'm getting better.
• 36:51
  But I was going to. Tell you something with me, I'm
• 36:54
  not perfect, but we try. We're good people when you get
• 36:56
  in that race car, OK. When I saw you at Saint Louis,
• 37:00
  when I saw you at Gateway that morning, you looked at me.
• 37:04
  You were so intense and you kind of scared me.
• 37:07
  Because I want to say hey, John, but it was race day and I wish
• 37:11
  first of all, I wished I had as much hair as you.
• 37:13
  God, you got a good head of hair.
• 37:16
  So do you. Look how Gray it is.
• 37:18
  No, it looks good this. Is Funny Car hair buddy?
• 37:21
  Yeah, that looks good. Full of Nitro.
• 37:23
  OK, wait a minute. I was going to say something to
• 37:25
  you and I forgot again. Do.
• 37:26
  You have any rituals? Do you do any rituals?
• 37:29
  OK, I'm going to show you something right now.
• 37:31
  OK. OK, see this.
• 37:35
  Yep. You know what that is?
• 37:37
  I don't. My daughter Ashley, very
• 37:39
  religious. She teaches in the Catholic
• 37:41
  Church and I I got back in. I grew up in the Bible reading
• 37:47
  the Old Testament, the New Testament, so many years.
• 37:51
  And I went back and started reading it again because we went
• 37:53
  up to Northern California. And I'm looking to where I got
• 37:55
  my first Bible because then and it says given to you in 1957,
• 38:01
  wasn't it? I was like 6 years old or
• 38:05
  something, and we never did found the church that fell down,
• 38:09
  but we found other things that'll amaze you.
• 38:11
  But in the middle of this, I read the Old Testament, I read
• 38:16
  the New. I read it all again.
• 38:18
  Don't quiz me on it. I read it all again.
• 38:20
  I'm almost done it a second time.
• 38:22
  I live with it on the airplane and all that.
• 38:24
  So my daughter Ashley buys me this and it's a Bible.
• 38:32
  Oh my gosh, your whole Bible in there.
• 38:35
  I got a magnifying glass and I looked at it and I see stuff
• 38:38
  looks like I'm looking at my veins with blood going by, but
• 38:42
  it's it's quotes in the Bible and it's it's it's the whole
• 38:46
  Bible, old and new. It's incredible.
• 38:48
  And after about a week I've done everything like OK Is there
• 38:52
  something that hooks to this that puts?
• 38:53
  It on the screen is there. Something and and you know I
• 38:57
  don't read directions, so you know what I do.
• 38:59
  I call up the company lady answers.
• 39:02
  I said, ma'am, I'm calling about the the Bible on my hand, blah,
• 39:08
  blah, blah. I said, and I can't read it.
• 39:11
  And I said I put a magnifying glass.
• 39:13
  I can't see it. So is there something I don't
• 39:15
  know? And you know what she said to
• 39:16
  me, Sir, do you believe in God? I said yeah.
• 39:21
  And she said, have you ever talked to him?
• 39:24
  I said no. And I and she said, does he ever
• 39:28
  talk to you? I said I think he does, but I
• 39:32
  don't really hear his voice. I think I do sometimes when I
• 39:36
  drink too much beer. But.
• 39:38
  And I don't drink beer, so it's really wine.
• 39:40
  I haven't had a beer in 100 years, but in the middle.
• 39:43
  And then she said then why don't you believe that's got the Bible
• 39:46
  in it? I said, well, that's why I'm
• 39:49
  asking you, do you believe in God?
• 39:51
  I said, yeah. You ever seen him?
• 39:53
  No, ma'am. OK You don't see that Bible?
• 39:56
  Why don't you believe it's there?
• 39:59
  And I wanted to yell at her. I said if she was totally right
• 40:04
  and I said OK, if you believe in God and you don't see him, why
• 40:08
  don't you believe the Bible's in there?
• 40:10
  Yeah, it makes you think that that.
• 40:12
  But I think the point of that bracelet, John, the point of
• 40:15
  that bracelet is it makes you think when you look at it, think
• 40:19
  good. I think about my daughter, but I
• 40:21
  think about God anyway, so. But I love it.
• 40:23
  I wear it every day. OK, so let let's change
• 40:26
  directions real quick. We're going to let's change
• 40:28
  directions, OK? Do we got all day?
• 40:31
  Do we got till 6:00 this evening?
• 40:32
  Because I got another. I got a new PR guy coming in.
• 40:35
  I'm going to meet. Yeah, you want to stop now?
• 40:39
  I don't ever want to stop. That's what I thought.
• 40:42
  OK, So what do you have physically and mentally that the
• 40:47
  other drivers don't have? Bullshit.
• 40:56
  I'll tell you how great I am. I'll tell you how great I am.
• 40:59
  And I didn't mean to cuss. Oh, God.
• 41:01
  I'll tell you how great I am. I got to watch it.
• 41:04
  I got in trouble on Dale Hernhardt Junior's show.
• 41:08
  I got in trouble saying too much stuff.
• 41:10
  Don't get me in trouble. I shouldn't have cussed.
• 41:12
  Bleep it. You can bleep it.
• 41:14
  You can bleep it. No, we're good.
• 41:17
  And he will Charlie and bleep it.
• 41:18
  Don't worry, John. We're going to take care of you.
• 41:20
  Because I'm. I'm like you are too.
• 41:23
  OK, look here. I studied really hard.
• 41:25
  You got plenty of hair. What are you saying?
• 41:26
  Got much hair as me. No, I spent $19,000 on this hair
• 41:30
  John. That's that's two hair
• 41:32
  operations at Bosley. I should get them to sponsor me.
• 41:36
  Would you give me the number to that?
• 41:40
  OK, let's get back to our show. OK.
• 41:42
  OK, now, now it's serious time. OK.
• 41:45
  I got to talk a little bit because I just, it's not a
• 41:49
  simple question. All right?
• 41:51
  We have the Pro Series down in Bradenton.
• 41:54
  OK, Now listen, I know that you're an NHRA guy and I think
• 41:58
  it's awesome, but we're seeing something in Motorsports now.
• 42:03
  We got in NASCAR, we got the Racers Alliance.
• 42:07
  OK, next, you know, Rodger Penske, Richard Childress, all
• 42:12
  them, they're they're all got what's called the Racers
• 42:14
  Alliance. OK, then in dirt Sprint car
• 42:18
  racing, Hal Larson and Brad Sweet just started high limit
• 42:22
  racing. Now we see this one off.
• 42:26
  You're going to go for $250,000 to win it at Bradenton with this
• 42:31
  pro series and it stands for Professional Racers Owners
• 42:35
  Organization. I know you're an NHRA guy.
• 42:39
  I get that. And and that's first and
• 42:42
  foremost. Tell me what you think about
• 42:44
  this. This is a big deal.
• 42:46
  What are they trying to do and what do you think of it?
• 42:49
  Yeah, but first of all, I love NHRA.
• 42:51
  I've been in it my whole life. And why wouldn't I support the
• 42:54
  sanctioning body if somebody else bought it?
• 42:58
  And I don't believe they'll ever sell it, but I'd support those
• 43:00
  people. But I am a member of pro
• 43:03
  organization and they wanted to put on a race.
• 43:05
  We're going there anyway to test.
• 43:07
  OK and these guys want to try something the new to put up some
• 43:12
  money and and they got some sponsors for it and they did it.
• 43:16
  We got to go down there and we got to pack put a crowd in there
• 43:19
  like NHRA to make all this work. But Pro are good people.
• 43:24
  NHRA are good people. They're just trying to find a
• 43:27
  way to, to look at what we could do.
• 43:30
  Maybe another direction because sometimes you get and it like on
• 43:33
  a race car. After a while I'd have to go
• 43:35
  into coil and say coil this ain't working.
• 43:37
  What do we do? And we'd have to we'd have to
• 43:40
  throw down everything and start all over.
• 43:42
  And all we're trying to do is Pro is trying to be a good
• 43:45
  partner in NHRA and show them let's you know we're paying all
• 43:49
  this. You're not paying nothing.
• 43:50
  We're going to see what we can do and see if it works in
• 43:52
  another direction. And everybody wants to make
• 43:54
  money, more money. We had a race like this in the
• 43:58
  Winston when the Dragsters race the Funny Cars at Bristol and I
• 44:02
  beat Bob Vandergriff in a Pedal Fest Dragster against a Funny
• 44:06
  Car $250,000. And and so I made big paychecks.
• 44:12
  But they they only do this every now and then and so they're
• 44:16
  they're wanting to do it again and the guys.
• 44:18
  And from a group that came into pro that said we can do this so
• 44:24
  we can make it work, but we're already there.
• 44:26
  Why not? I don't want to do anything ever
• 44:28
  to hurt NHRA. And if anything it'll help build
• 44:30
  our crowds. When we go up to Gainesville,
• 44:32
  which is up, we're at the bottom of the state.
• 44:34
  We'll be at the top of the state.
• 44:36
  But in the end, you know, I don't want to get into politics.
• 44:39
  I'm, I'm watching all, you know, Fox and CNN and all this stuff.
• 44:44
  I don't want to fight with the world.
• 44:47
  Me and Cruz, he called me the other day over some issue and I
• 44:51
  said yeah. And he he gave me a solution and
• 44:53
  I took it. Certain people.
• 44:56
  I just ain't going to fight with people.
• 44:58
  I'm too old and I love them too much.
• 45:00
  And they're the only friends I got.
• 45:02
  And you know, I've learned from from Richard Petty.
• 45:06
  I I learned from your brother. I loved him.
• 45:08
  I worked with him with Fred Wagenall in action all those
• 45:11
  years and the stuff that we did. Life's been good to me and and
• 45:17
  it's too short. I'm going to drive.
• 45:19
  People say how long you going to drive?
• 45:21
  I couldn't tell you. But I know one day I got to get
• 45:24
  out of the seat because I'm getting older and older and and
• 45:28
  and I'm going to want time with my grandchildren.
• 45:31
  I'm going to want more time to watch them race.
• 45:34
  But I already told autumn when you getting that a fueler, I'm
• 45:37
  going to buy one. I'm going to load up a trailer
• 45:38
  and I'm going with you and we'll have to get Robert's permission
• 45:43
  and my daughter Andrew's permission.
• 45:45
  But I just love the racing. I I want to tell you something
• 45:48
  here. I'm sorry, I'm interrupted.
• 45:49
  No, you're fine. Don't be sorry.
• 45:52
  I'm at Las Vegas with Chris Blair there.
• 45:56
  They're running a a show there at night and and and they were
• 46:01
  running junior dragsters all day long and in in my museum I have
• 46:08
  Autumn with trophies. I have Jacob with trophies and
• 46:12
  little Noah. He's only this big and he plays
• 46:14
  hockey. He's bigger now, but this was a
• 46:16
  couple years ago. We're in Vegas, it's 10:00 at
• 46:20
  night. It's dark and I'm out on this
• 46:22
  four lane track. They're racing one.
• 46:25
  They're doing a night race in four lane now.
• 46:30
  My grandson, he says, Grandpa, why are there 4 lanes out there?
• 46:36
  And I said that's what all us guys thought when it started.
• 46:39
  We're all with it. We're on stage room with the
• 46:41
  rear tires. We're so screwed up.
• 46:43
  I won the inaugural 4 lane and Charlotte.
• 46:46
  So in the middle of this he said all I want's a trophy grandpa,
• 46:51
  like you and like Robert and like Autumn and and and and
• 46:54
  Jacob and Jacob's two years older than him.
• 46:57
  All I want's a trophy and I'm going to win.
• 47:00
  I said here's all you got to do. And I don't want to tell him
• 47:02
  nothing because his dad's talking to him.
• 47:04
  Don't go up there and think about other cars and watch how
• 47:07
  they staged like everybody did. I went up there and focused on
• 47:10
  my tree and that's what I went by because then then lights
• 47:13
  start blinking. You get all screwed up in the
• 47:16
  middle of this. He went out there and he left
• 47:21
  and he won the race. Oh.
• 47:23
  Man, that's all back. Up the return Rd. they got him
• 47:26
  on the podium and he's all like unhappy unhappy you you won and
• 47:37
  and I never heard the kid ever cuss and Ashley goes dad you
• 47:42
  better talk to him he's really upset.
• 47:44
  I run over there and Danny's over there with him.
• 47:46
  They won. They're hugging and he goes,
• 47:49
  grandpa, he goes, they didn't give me a trophy.
• 47:54
  He said they gave me a jacket jacket.
• 47:59
  They even had me made one. I love it and and he said I
• 48:04
  wanted a trophy and he was almost in tears.
• 48:07
  I they promised me a trophy and I won the four one and that is I
• 48:12
  walked and I walked out in the dark.
• 48:14
  I was bawling my I'm a cry now. I was bawling my eyes out and I
• 48:18
  said, God I love you so much. When I saw that little kid love
• 48:22
  it so much, he was ready to fight and he didn't even
• 48:26
  understand 4 Wide. And that's why I love this
• 48:29
  sport. What it does for the children
• 48:31
  coming up, for the families that can be with their kids and
• 48:34
  barbecue on a weekend. We have the greatest sport in
• 48:37
  the world. NHRA is the greatest sport in
• 48:39
  the world. I don't believe it'll ever fail.
• 48:41
  If you go to a little track, there will be big marathon
• 48:45
  coaches. There will be airplanes
• 48:47
  sometimes parked down the road. There will be big trailers and
• 48:52
  and and little tiny kids in dragsters and nobody in the
• 48:56
  stands, right. There ain't no stands.
• 48:59
  It's a little tiny track. Got one down here in San Diego
• 49:04
  and yet well, who's got the money to buy all this stuff?
• 49:07
  You don't have any sponsors. People that live.
• 49:10
  This is their wife's room edition.
• 49:13
  This is what they live to be with their children.
• 49:16
  Barbecue and race and I've been at them.
• 49:18
  Races in the stands where people go.
• 49:20
  It's John for setting up there. What are you doing?
• 49:22
  I said. I'm having the greatest time of
• 49:24
  my life watching these families love each other.
• 49:27
  You know what I mean? Yeah, I want to say this.
• 49:30
  I got to interrupt you for a minute.
• 49:32
  Man, you got me wound up, you. Know me and you are the same.
• 49:34
  I'm the same as you in life when we grow up.
• 49:39
  You know my biggest goal was to not live under a bridge in a
• 49:43
  cardboard box. And you know you and I have
• 49:47
  raced and raced and and we we make money.
• 49:50
  But it's kind of weird because you know your organization is
• 49:54
  first class but it's like you just you just live to live life.
• 49:59
  It's not like you're looking for this goal.
• 50:01
  Like you said, it's always what's next.
• 50:03
  I think that's a great way to live and I think you've stayed
• 50:07
  young because of that philosophy.
• 50:09
  My brother Rusty and the snake and Walker, they you know
• 50:13
  they're they're growing old because they quit and and and I
• 50:17
  admire you not wanting to say that about you you you got all
• 50:20
  this but it's like you're not stopping for any reason you know
• 50:25
  you you didn't We're always afraid we're going to live under
• 50:29
  the bridge in the cardboard box. We're going to be poor.
• 50:32
  Yeah. You're you're so wealthy.
• 50:33
  And I've got a little money now, but we still live like we don't
• 50:36
  have any money. What do you think of that?
• 50:39
  Let me talk to you about that guy living under the bridge.
• 50:42
  I just dreamed that up. Hold it.
• 50:44
  What you want? But let me tell you something.
• 50:47
  I drive by a guy that's standing out there giving away stuff.
• 50:51
  Yeah, you know, holding up a sign.
• 50:54
  Military. Got kids at home.
• 50:56
  Need money. I've seen it and I always try to
• 51:00
  do something, even if it's I've I've drove past them and turn
• 51:03
  around and drove back in and and drove in again to hand that guy,
• 51:07
  even if I only had a dollar. I always want to help because
• 51:10
  you never know if you're right, but what if you're wrong and
• 51:13
  they really are needy. Always with the ones with
• 51:15
  children I always stop, even if it's a scam.
• 51:18
  But one day I had a guy, I drove by and I didn't stop.
• 51:23
  And I thought, you know, that looks real.
• 51:25
  I turn around, I'd come out of the movie theater, went back
• 51:28
  into the movie theater, turned around and drove back up to him.
• 51:30
  And I said here, I wanted to give you something and and I've
• 51:33
  done it a number time at the movie theater turned around and
• 51:37
  I reached out, hand him something and he goes, man, I
• 51:39
  can't believe it, it's John Force.
• 51:42
  And and I said, yeah, I just, yeah, I can't believe it.
• 51:45
  Oh yeah, I love you. I follow you.
• 51:47
  And I thought, well, that's the first for me, kind of a homeless
• 51:50
  deal. Telly ran over and gotten his
• 51:53
  Mercedes. Are you kidding me?
• 51:55
  No. And I said, what?
• 51:57
  I parked my truck. I said what is this?
• 52:00
  And he said tax free money. But I got so excited when I saw
• 52:03
  you he goes and he got his Mercedes was parked right by
• 52:07
  McDonald's and I could see him run to it because he running to
• 52:11
  get his phone to call his friend say I'm talking to John Force.
• 52:14
  So that's going on all the time, you know, they get that money,
• 52:18
  it's tax free. Hey, they're smarter than me.
• 52:21
  That's all I can say. So I don't question anybody.
• 52:24
  What they do, I just try to give back.
• 52:26
  OK, so listen, you and I, I've learned we share something in
• 52:30
  common. You and I are so hyper that it's
• 52:33
  hard for us to relax. And every Tuesday night I go to
• 52:37
  the movie theater right here. And I and I hear you're the same
• 52:41
  as me. You're a movie buff.
• 52:43
  You go to a lot of movies, and you brought that up.
• 52:45
  Tell me about that. Well, I'm a movie freak.
• 52:48
  I mean, the reason I in my early age in the Bible, I just didn't
• 52:53
  follow it. But even AJ and I will go to the
• 52:56
  movies. He always sets one seat over.
• 52:59
  But what I'm saying is we don't share popcorn.
• 53:03
  What I'm saying is is he loves the movies.
• 53:06
  He's like me. And that was part of the thing
• 53:08
  when I hired Aji said. I want you to go see this movie
• 53:11
  about Brad Pitt and it was about a guy that took a job that the
• 53:17
  other guy didn't know where he'd be.
• 53:18
  But if you stay here and you really work like you say you
• 53:21
  will, you'll find that job. That was a year ago and he went
• 53:25
  and saw the movie and I quizzed him on it.
• 53:27
  We go watch movies all the time and and I I learned from them
• 53:32
  and sometimes I I just saw a movie about I'm not going to get
• 53:38
  into politics but. I know.
• 53:41
  You know the movie I'm talking about, Then I come up, I said,
• 53:44
  what did you see in that movie? And And anyway, I don't, I don't
• 53:49
  want to get into that. But movies are therapeutic.
• 53:51
  They they relax. Oh, without a doubt.
• 53:54
  But they also motivate me. Like I saw Ford, you know, Ford
• 53:59
  versus Ferrari. Oh, well, I haven't seen.
• 54:02
  Oh yeah, I saw that mostly. Ferrari It's out right now.
• 54:05
  It's really. I'm going to go see it, AJ just
• 54:07
  told me. But what I'm saying is I love
• 54:09
  all that stuff. But I learned, let me tell you
• 54:11
  see how I really learned the Bible, the 10 Commandments, the
• 54:15
  movie. Yep.
• 54:16
  I mean, I watched that and and and yet I've studied it about
• 54:21
  how did, how did Moses really go and open the water, you know
• 54:26
  what I mean? And here come after him.
• 54:29
  Yeah. Going to kill him, all these
• 54:31
  soldiers, the part of the Red Sea.
• 54:34
  How did he do that? And I studied about it.
• 54:36
  And then he even shows pictures where the Red Sea is layered at
• 54:41
  an angle, and that at certain times of the year, when the wind
• 54:44
  blows, you can walk through it. You know what I mean?
• 54:48
  And it's so someone's trying to imply that the Bible ain't
• 54:51
  telling the truth. And I don't even want to hear
• 54:53
  that. But I listen to it.
• 54:55
  I learn, I educate myself. And then I believe what I want
• 54:57
  to believe. Because you ever going to
• 54:59
  question God, where are you if you do?
• 55:02
  And I'm not getting into that with people, but I want to
• 55:04
  believe, you know what I mean? So.
• 55:07
  So there's certain things I I never questioned my dad, even
• 55:11
  when he beat me up, punched me in the nose.
• 55:14
  You're the dumbest kid I got, and you'll you'll never be Don
• 55:18
  Perdone. When I left the house, I said I
• 55:21
  may never be, but I'm going after him.
• 55:23
  And I didn't even know who I was.
• 55:26
  So you know what? I find out 50 years later that
• 55:29
  I'm as old as all them guys. I never realized that.
• 55:33
  I thought I was a kid looking through the fence, you know?
• 55:35
  John, John, we, you know, I I respect your time and we're
• 55:40
  going on an hour and I don't want to treat you like I did
• 55:44
  Dale Junior or Tony Stewart. We went an hour and 40 minutes.
• 55:48
  Let's let's let's start wrapping it up because you're a busy man
• 55:52
  Braden does right around the corner.
• 55:53
  But let me ask you this, do you see any driver out there right
• 55:58
  now that is a mini John force or or you by yourself?
• 56:04
  I wouldn't want to meet anybody that stupid.
• 56:08
  What I'm what I'm saying is, is that they're out there.
• 56:12
  We just got to bring them out of their shell.
• 56:14
  A lot of times they get into race and they don't realize why
• 56:17
  they're there. They're pitch man.
• 56:18
  They're Wally Thor, you know what I'm saying?
• 56:20
  School of trucking, you got to pitch it.
• 56:23
  And Cal Worthington, Dodge, go see Cow, go see Cow go see you.
• 56:27
  Never heard that. But that was huge out here.
• 56:29
  You got to pitch it, but you got to love it.
• 56:32
  I've got people to come and go. Oh, man, we watch on.
• 56:35
  TVI want to be part of it. And and I come to work for.
• 56:38
  They're at they're they're trained at schools and they're
• 56:40
  really good. But after they're on the road
• 56:42
  they realize this ain't what I thought it was painful getting
• 56:46
  up at 6:00 in the morning going to bed at midnight.
• 56:49
  Sometimes we never break the the the law of California or
• 56:53
  Indianapolis. OK, Get myself in trouble.
• 56:57
  You live it and you got to love it.
• 56:59
  You don't do it for the money, you know what I mean?
• 57:03
  And there are families that live off it and they're out there
• 57:05
  with their kids in the summertime.
• 57:07
  And I love it. I love just seeing them there at
• 57:09
  the racetrack. Well, my kids aren't bothering
• 57:11
  you. They can't bother me, you know,
• 57:13
  because because my grandkids, my, my kids were always there.
• 57:16
  So we're really lucky to be in a sport where, I mean, I mean, the
• 57:23
  first time I went to NASCAR, I was crazy because I grew up on
• 57:28
  Thunder. Thunder over Thunder Rd.
• 57:31
  wouldn't be the Lightning and Black Magic is okay.
• 57:34
  That was all about Holland. Alcohol in the back of their
• 57:39
  cars I even met. Junior Johnson.
• 57:42
  Junior Johnson and invited me over to his house.
• 57:45
  I said some of the dumbest stuff and they go, boy, what happened
• 57:49
  to your brain? And that's when I was young.
• 57:51
  But all those stories in the tales, then I met Earnhardt and
• 57:54
  then I met your brother. I dealt with him and I had.
• 57:58
  It was a world, you know, that just even petty looks at me and
• 58:03
  he shakes his head. I was just at his place.
• 58:06
  We did a big doubt deal down there with Robert and Brittany
• 58:08
  and Proc and he's building a custom car to go to Vegas.
• 58:11
  You know, it gives away a big show in the middle of this.
• 58:16
  I just look at these people and I realize, you know, you see him
• 58:21
  standing at a little side gate at the race and I've seen this
• 58:25
  happen. Your brother did it, Earnhardt
• 58:28
  did it, and. But it was so cool that it was
• 58:32
  like, you never forgot, never forget who got you here.
• 58:36
  And you're walking through that. Especially a kid.
• 58:39
  Don't walk away from a kid. I had a guy that brought me a
• 58:43
  sponsorship, can't say who it is.
• 58:46
  And he was looking at everybody in racing and he sponsored my
• 58:50
  daughter. But his wife told me later I
• 58:53
  said he had all these teams to pick from.
• 58:55
  Why did he pick? Well, number one, he wanted a
• 58:58
  girl. He wanted a top fuel dragster.
• 59:01
  I said why did he pick us? And his wife said because when
• 59:05
  he was little he went. They live in Ohio.
• 59:09
  They went to the racetrack at the old NHRA track there in in
• 59:14
  Ohio. Columbus and I had won my second
• 59:19
  race. I won in Montreal, came down and
• 59:21
  I won there. My second race and I'm on the
• 59:24
  stage. But my wife's home having
• 59:26
  Courtney and I was trying to get home to see the baby.
• 59:29
  I missed. I think I missed everyone, but
• 59:31
  in the middle of it, she said. You came off the stage, the
• 59:36
  police were going to give you an escort to get you to the airport
• 59:39
  so you could get home. They were just going to drive me
• 59:41
  there. I didn't have a rental car,
• 59:43
  couldn't afford one there. I had to mooch a ride with the
• 59:45
  team and the team's working and this guy came up and said, could
• 59:51
  you please take a ride? And I take a picture with my
• 59:55
  kid. And I said, oh, I got to get on
• 59:57
  my wife's habit. And I grabbed the kid and I ran
• 59:59
  up on the stage and put the kid on the stage and we took a
• 1:00:03
  picture and I ran back out. Sorry, Big O hi, I want to raise
• 1:00:06
  it. And I got right off of the cops
• 1:00:08
  got home, baby was already born, missed another.
• 1:00:11
  But in the middle of it, that man was the kid, OK?
• 1:00:18
  That man was the kid. And he said you stayed.
• 1:00:22
  And yet, you know, just to get a picture.
• 1:00:26
  Well, I never got any pictures in those days.
• 1:00:28
  Nobody cared. Yeah, well, I want to say this.
• 1:00:33
  You in my eyes and myself, we know how to build race cars.
• 1:00:42
  And then there was a time, you know, that we had to quit
• 1:00:46
  working on the race cars so hard because we had to find the money
• 1:00:50
  to run the race cars. In other words.
• 1:00:53
  By the way, this is a different subject right now.
• 1:00:57
  I I know Don Garlitz does it all.
• 1:00:59
  I get that. And I admire Don Garlitz beyond
• 1:01:02
  belief, OK? But Don is a different,
• 1:01:04
  different deal. You and I are the same.
• 1:01:07
  We built our race cars in the early days and we can do it all.
• 1:01:11
  But we had to transition into keeping our our careers going by
• 1:01:15
  finding money. I want you to just say, I want
• 1:01:20
  you to just comment. This is, we're going to wrap it
• 1:01:22
  up right here. But when you transition from
• 1:01:26
  getting so damn dirty into realizing you had to find the
• 1:01:30
  money to keep it up. It was a long road, right?
• 1:01:36
  My book is going to be called the Crossroads because in my
• 1:01:40
  career there was so many times I was at a crossroad and it was
• 1:01:44
  over. Car burnt to the ground.
• 1:01:46
  It was over. OK, I was coming out of Memphis,
• 1:01:50
  but every time a door closed, God opened another one.
• 1:01:54
  But is I say God how do I know? I believe that.
• 1:01:58
  But I do know a door opened. I just lost a a a major sponsor.
• 1:02:04
  I had to park one of our cars and then like, oh God, what am I
• 1:02:07
  going to do? And all sudden I got proc, I
• 1:02:10
  promise you. OK, proc.
• 1:02:11
  I'm going to give you my car. I'm going to step out of peek.
• 1:02:13
  I'll tell them you're going in because I I got to keep my word
• 1:02:17
  to this young kid that's, that's that's that's got it all.
• 1:02:20
  And then how am I going to retire.
• 1:02:23
  Don't even know how to tell him. And all a matter of a few weeks
• 1:02:27
  something took place with Robert and he said, this is perfect
• 1:02:31
  timing. I got to step out here for a
• 1:02:33
  little bit. Got to put that car that kid in
• 1:02:36
  and that's that's how that took place and it's like and here I
• 1:02:40
  was in Memphis in the 18 Wheeler sleeping in a truck stop and
• 1:02:47
  didn't have cell phones in those days going leaving one race come
• 1:02:51
  out Of Montreal I'm heading to another one but I don't have
• 1:02:55
  enough diesel fuel to get there So I go in and I call my dad and
• 1:02:59
  called collect he living in a little trailer house.
• 1:03:02
  I I carried his credit cards till they quit working and my
• 1:03:06
  dad said I'll I'll wire your money to the union 76 and you
• 1:03:11
  can get gas and that's how I live and my dad said but some
• 1:03:15
  guy called and he said he runs a race track.
• 1:03:19
  I think it was in Houston and he said you better call him.
• 1:03:27
  So I called up this guy and and I've raced with his two boys
• 1:03:31
  that are out there and got I can't think of his name.
• 1:03:35
  It's OK. It's a great story.
• 1:03:36
  But in the middle of it, he said NHRA had a race and they and I
• 1:03:43
  had a match race here. And he said I had perdone McEwen
• 1:03:48
  everybody and I said I know, I know all them guys.
• 1:03:50
  I raced with them all. Yeah, what do you need me for?
• 1:03:53
  He said. Well I I need a race car down
• 1:03:55
  here. I've got somebody else and and
• 1:03:58
  he said, but I need to have you here And I thought he's got to
• 1:04:02
  have me, OK. I said OK, well what do you pay?
• 1:04:07
  He said, well what do you want? And I said I want half of what
• 1:04:10
  you were paying for. Now his name will come to me in
• 1:04:13
  a minute. Duprey was his name.
• 1:04:17
  French. Canadian sounding like.
• 1:04:19
  Duprey was he ran he ran Memphis and then he went up and and and
• 1:04:27
  or no Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge.
• 1:04:29
  You know I I lost my first final round to Kenny Bernstein.
• 1:04:32
  Do you know Raymond Beetle and all them guys they won their
• 1:04:35
  first ratings against John Forrest.
• 1:04:38
  I mean like six or seven of them.
• 1:04:40
  So anyway in the middle of it I said will you give me half what
• 1:04:44
  you pay. I could have got more.
• 1:04:46
  He said Yep you got it. And nobody knew I I was around
• 1:04:49
  but I wasn't the hitter and he goes, I said and I want 2 rooms
• 1:04:55
  Oh my goodness. And I could have got four I
• 1:04:58
  could have got five but but he he took me and I went down and I
• 1:05:02
  raced for him and then he took me other match racing and that
• 1:05:06
  door opened. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:05:09
  Yes, and. That's what I wanted to hear.
• 1:05:11
  Thank you. I've just lived my life like
• 1:05:13
  that and every time stuff goes bad, something fixes it.
• 1:05:19
  So I was going to tell you something.
• 1:05:21
  Here I was up at Wendy's in Montreal and I'm standing out
• 1:05:26
  front. We went to Wendy's because we
• 1:05:28
  got free food and we display our car 1/2 a day and when we come
• 1:05:32
  out the salad bar at Wendy's, everybody was jumping up down
• 1:05:34
  and cheering. The guy come up and said our
• 1:05:37
  Wendy's girl didn't show up. And I said yeah, he said yeah, I
• 1:05:41
  said what does she get paid? He goes, this is back 25 years
• 1:05:45
  ago, 30, oh, 3540 years ago. He said well she gets $25.00 but
• 1:05:50
  she has to stand there for 8 hours.
• 1:05:51
  I said I'll take it 25 bucks. I put on the dress.
• 1:05:56
  Everyone knew it was John Ford. It was in the newspaper and
• 1:06:00
  Liggy dressed up. Yeah, I got paid instead of
• 1:06:03
  doing it for hamburgers. My race car was out there and it
• 1:06:06
  was big old hairy legs on me. It was great.
• 1:06:09
  So but OK, we're up, we're up Northern California.
• 1:06:13
  You got to take a break. Are you OK?
• 1:06:15
  No. No, no, we're fine.
• 1:06:16
  I'm up in California. I want to tell you this.
• 1:06:18
  We're shooting the documentary We go up in my old girlfriend's
• 1:06:23
  house when I was in 3rd grade. Used to ride on the bus with
• 1:06:27
  her. Karma Bennett, beautiful girl.
• 1:06:29
  Her name was Karma Bennett. Yep.
• 1:06:31
  I don't want to get in no trouble.
• 1:06:32
  I ain't saying nothing wrong. She married.
• 1:06:35
  She married a minister or something.
• 1:06:39
  But her dad's house where she lives in now, always had a big
• 1:06:44
  cross on the roof and it's still there and it lights up at night
• 1:06:48
  and and we lived in this red 1 Redwood Creek, it was Klamath
• 1:06:52
  Glen. My dad worked at the logging
• 1:06:53
  mill. That's when Lady Bird Johnson
• 1:06:56
  said you're killing all the owls, so don't cut down the
• 1:06:59
  trees. So they saved the owls and the
• 1:07:01
  logging camps all closed because they couldn't have trees for
• 1:07:05
  people to work. Figure that one out.
• 1:07:07
  So in the middle of this she had said, I'm not going up to her
• 1:07:13
  door, you might get shot if you walk up there.
• 1:07:16
  And so AJ and Brent Travers, our TV guy, they went out and this
• 1:07:21
  big guy comes out, it's got a Jesus shirt on him, big, good
• 1:07:24
  looking kid. And she had been married and had
• 1:07:27
  two boys, and she went down to Sonoma and she raced down there.
• 1:07:31
  I mean, she didn't race, but she worked down there and she never
• 1:07:34
  got close to see me. But we were like little
• 1:07:36
  sweethearts. What does a kid know at that
• 1:07:38
  age? Used to dance with a broom And I
• 1:07:40
  learned how to dance. I watched Dick Trickle dance
• 1:07:43
  with a chair. In the middle of it, they went
• 1:07:48
  up and they got me and she came out, beautiful girl, everyone's
• 1:07:52
  standing there and and they said, you know John Forrest, she
• 1:07:55
  goes, yeah, I know John Forrest and she goes and we got all this
• 1:07:59
  on TV. I mean we got it all on camera.
• 1:08:02
  And she said, Yep, he used to kiss me every day on the bus and
• 1:08:07
  I put a pervert. I'm in second or third grade and
• 1:08:12
  girls. Are.
• 1:08:13
  Awesome. But we talked and it went on OK,
• 1:08:16
  so then we travelled back over. You ever seen the movie
• 1:08:19
  Deliverance? Oh.
• 1:08:21
  Yeah, the other day, and nobody even understood what I was
• 1:08:24
  talking about when I mentioned Deliverance.
• 1:08:26
  The Deliverance was up in the Appalachians in the back, and
• 1:08:29
  there's nobody up there, right, Banjo, OK.
• 1:08:34
  In the middle of this, we're going back to where I grew up in
• 1:08:37
  a logging camp, OK, where my brother, they didn't have school
• 1:08:40
  buses to take you into Arcada, where he wouldn't school and
• 1:08:43
  play football and he went back up to Humboldt State, went to
• 1:08:47
  college there. My brother Walker did, but I
• 1:08:50
  only went till noon. Remember that?
• 1:08:51
  College? So in the middle of it, that's
• 1:08:53
  my story and I'm sticking to it. In the middle of it, we went to
• 1:08:57
  a place going over the mountain from Eureka, from the ocean
• 1:09:02
  where you go to Redding and it's about a three hour drive.
• 1:09:05
  But up there in an hour and a half, you go off and go down in
• 1:09:09
  in Redwood Creek and the Hoopa Indian Reservation where I
• 1:09:13
  lived. And my mom was in Indian too.
• 1:09:15
  I'm not saying it like that woman did it in politics.
• 1:09:17
  You're you're real. I really am part in there.
• 1:09:21
  OK, so in the middle of it, we went over this stuff.
• 1:09:24
  I never tell people but it'll come out in books and stuff in
• 1:09:27
  here because I I don't but nobody wants to hear it.
• 1:09:30
  But in the middle of this we went there tried to find my old
• 1:09:34
  schoolhouse there it was the Logan Mill disappeared.
• 1:09:37
  It went under and and I used to go over there and get Coca Colas
• 1:09:41
  and bottles for $0.05 and and they had a road to the middle of
• 1:09:46
  the camp if there was a run, a runaway truck.
• 1:09:50
  All the sirens went off to tell the kids get off the road
• 1:09:54
  because it's it's going to go by and it wasn't a town with
• 1:09:57
  grocery stores that had a cook house for the loggers and that's
• 1:10:00
  where a lot of us would go eat with our parents when the day
• 1:10:03
  was done. But in the had a big old fire
• 1:10:06
  cones that were full of hot burning wood and stuff.
• 1:10:09
  Loved it. So in the middle of it we're
• 1:10:15
  going we go around the mill. But I said I lived where the
• 1:10:18
  church was that I mentioned earlier.
• 1:10:20
  I was trying to find where I got that Bible, but it was behind
• 1:10:23
  me. I already missed the church, but
• 1:10:25
  it all grew over. So here we are going down the
• 1:10:27
  road and I said, well, the 7th Day Adventist camp was up there
• 1:10:31
  and and and but we lived in a trailer house right there by it.
• 1:10:35
  But I once I get there, I'll know where it is.
• 1:10:37
  And we're on a road and my guys are saying first there's bears
• 1:10:41
  and you know stuff out here that ain't good.
• 1:10:43
  You know we're going down this road.
• 1:10:45
  It's like The Wizard of Oz, but I really like Deliverance.
• 1:10:47
  You got to watch out here. What we're doing here, we could
• 1:10:50
  get in trouble. AJ was with me, him the middle
• 1:10:53
  of nowhere, 170 miles from nowhere.
• 1:10:57
  I called it Deliverance and I'm parked.
• 1:10:59
  I said I don't know where to go, but the house is gone.
• 1:11:02
  But I'm like our trailer sit right there backed up to the
• 1:11:05
  road and and I said I don't know where to go and here come a
• 1:11:10
  pickup truck pulled up. No way.
• 1:11:13
  Yeah. And I yelled.
• 1:11:15
  Hey, stop a minute And the guy. What do you want?
• 1:11:19
  And I said, I'm trying to find the Seven Day Adventist Camp.
• 1:11:21
  He goes, it's down there and he goes, I said I used to live here
• 1:11:26
  when I was a kid and he said, well, that's good.
• 1:11:29
  And the guy went to drive on and the rear window rolled down and
• 1:11:33
  a little kid about 12:14. Yeah, it's John Force.
• 1:11:39
  Awesome. I've been recognized before,
• 1:11:41
  even out in the middle of nowhere, and he jumps out of the
• 1:11:44
  car, his mom, his sisters. And I said, what are you doing?
• 1:11:47
  And he goes, Oh my God, I can't believe it's you.
• 1:11:50
  And I said, well, yeah, I'm John Forrest, the race car driver.
• 1:11:54
  I we know all about you. I said, where's the Seven Day
• 1:11:56
  Adventist? And and then I found out that
• 1:11:59
  his grandma, his great grandma, generations would come up there
• 1:12:04
  and they would live by the river in little, little shacks and
• 1:12:07
  little places for a religious retreat.
• 1:12:12
  And this kid got out, said, can I have a picture with you?
• 1:12:14
  And I said yeah. And now here is the deliverance
• 1:12:17
  part that I don't get the kid in the middle of nowhere, he says.
• 1:12:22
  I just won my first NHRA race in a junior dragster at Sonoma.
• 1:12:28
  I'll. Be going up in the middle of
• 1:12:30
  nowhere, in nowhere, and deliver.
• 1:12:33
  It's a movie, you know, and I wasn't going to go down that
• 1:12:36
  road. What I'm saying is they took
• 1:12:38
  pictures and then later he said I won my first race at Sonoma,
• 1:12:44
  you know, a few months back, and I saw him there.
• 1:12:46
  We went to Sonoma and he was there later in the year and we
• 1:12:50
  become friends. We saw him in Indy, his dad they
• 1:12:54
  raised. But to find this kid on a day in
• 1:12:58
  the middle of nowhere like God has a plan.
• 1:13:01
  Looking for a religious retreat? This kid, yeah.
• 1:13:04
  And the kid may. May end up driving for me
• 1:13:08
  someday. You never know.
• 1:13:10
  Like it was a sign of something that meant something.
• 1:13:13
  And I keep getting signs in life that Coyle said to me once.
• 1:13:17
  Force, you've always listened to me.
• 1:13:19
  I said Yep, he said, I hear you talking about you're 100 years
• 1:13:22
  old. I said yeah, so I don't have to
• 1:13:24
  tell him my real age. I think I'm joking.
• 1:13:26
  But he said, whatever you do, don't ever let the old man in.
• 1:13:31
  Oh my God, Clint Eastwood. Yeah, well, I went around saying
• 1:13:34
  Carl told me that one day he called me.
• 1:13:36
  He said I got to tell you the truth, it was Clint Eastwood,
• 1:13:38
  the movie. But he said don't.
• 1:13:42
  I said yeah, but he's knocking at my door.
• 1:13:44
  I don't know what to say. He said don't let him in.
• 1:13:47
  That's. What I asked.
• 1:13:49
  And John, we're going to end, we're going to end just like
• 1:13:51
  that. You never even got to ask your
• 1:13:53
  questions, did you? No, no, listen, you were
• 1:13:56
  unbelievable and I got to ask everything I wanted to ask you.
• 1:14:00
  You know when I knew it was time to end the show with Earnhardt
• 1:14:03
  Junior? When?
• 1:14:05
  When he was over there asleep. No.
• 1:14:08
  I've talked so long, I think I put him to sleep.
• 1:14:11
  No, John, you're. Awesome.
• 1:14:12
  And I love it. Jed.
• 1:14:13
  Listen, this is a dream come true for me.
• 1:14:15
  I I, you know, I don't want to go on and on but I was the most
• 1:14:19
  nervous I've ever been because you know I just look up to you
• 1:14:24
  and you've kept me going and and we've ended this any
• 1:14:27
  conversation look this is a YouTube show that I started
• 1:14:30
  doing for a hobby and it kicks butt.
• 1:14:33
  I. Mean this is.
• 1:14:34
  But I'm honored to be here with you.
• 1:14:36
  You're one of the biggest names in NASCAR.
• 1:14:38
  You've done stuff. I I've never looked at NASCAR
• 1:14:41
  IndyCar. You know I I've lived in this
• 1:14:44
  world my whole life. But you guys were all my heroes
• 1:14:47
  and they don't believe it when I tell them.
• 1:14:49
  They don't believe it. I I can tell you stories, places
• 1:14:52
  I was and things that were said to me.
• 1:14:55
  You, you and I left King of Prussia in a van about 1520
• 1:15:00
  years ago. You and I were in King of
• 1:15:01
  Prussia, Miller Motorsports. We did autograph sessions, we
• 1:15:05
  talked all the way in the van on the way home and I'll never
• 1:15:08
  forget you telling me You said well, you said every time I get
• 1:15:11
  done with the drag race, I fly back home.
• 1:15:13
  First thing I got to do is go to the office, get all the mail,
• 1:15:16
  open it up. And we had the most wonderful
• 1:15:19
  conversation at that point. I realize you and I were both
• 1:15:22
  weird. We're different than everybody
• 1:15:24
  else and that's why we're so badass and that's why we we're
• 1:15:28
  going to keep racing while they all sit on their couches.
• 1:15:31
  I love you. Thank you so much.
• 1:15:33
  And listen everybody, we are in podcast form.
• 1:15:37
  You can watch this on your way to work.
• 1:15:39
  And it's so long that when you turn around and go back home,
• 1:15:42
  you can listen to John Force on your way home.
• 1:15:45
  We're in Spotify. We're in iTunes.
• 1:15:48
  Until the next time, the next Kenny conversation.
• 1:15:52
  Thank you, John Force. I hired AJ because he's just
• 1:15:55
  like me. He's just like you.
• 1:15:57
  Let me give you my phone number so the fans could call me and I
• 1:16:02
  love it. God bless you.
• 1:16:05
  Thanks for having me on the show.
• 1:16:06
  God bless you. And let's let's let's never give
• 1:16:10
  it up. Trust.
• 1:16:11
  Me for Dom and all of them guys. They're not giving it up.
• 1:16:14
  I still see them out there. Kenny Bernstein, all of them.
• 1:16:16
  They still love it. They're still my heroes.
• 1:16:19
  They're jealous of you. See you later.
• 1:16:21
  Amen.