Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / NASCAR Losing This Lawsuit Could Be A Death Sentence | Rick Mast Show
Transcript
- 0:00Hi, everybody, here we are. What I want to do today is talk
- 0:03a little bit about this lawsuit. That's what that's what's
- 0:06taking, that's what's making all the headlines right now the the
- 0:08NASCAR race team lawsuit. This is a big deal, folks.
- 0:13This is a big deal. And what I want to, what I want
- 0:16to tell you is, or what I want to talk to you about is, is the
- 0:19end results. What are the end results?
- 0:20I mean, all the guys, all the reporters, everybody's doing an
- 0:23excellent job telling us, keeping us abreast of, of
- 0:26everything that's going on during the trial.
- 0:28You know, they, they break it at, at lunchtime, we hear about
- 0:30it and, and at the end of the day, we hear about it.
- 0:33Those guys are all doing a great job.
- 0:35What I haven't heard too much about is, you know, where we at
- 0:39with the checkered flag drops. Now, what's, what's that mean,
- 0:42Rick? Well, in my life, I, I quite a
- 0:45lot of things to race it in. And when I'm doing things with
- 0:47my businesses or whatever, I look at the checkered flag.
- 0:50In other words, we make decisions, we do things.
- 0:52All right, what's this going to look like with the checkered
- 0:55flag drops? Where's everybody lined up with
- 0:56the checkered flag drops or where we want to be?
- 0:58Did we did we get there with integrity and all that?
- 1:01Well, if we dive into this, say I see four, as far as the trial
- 1:07goes, I see four things. Oh, really only four things can
- 1:11happen here. Number one, you know, we get a
- 1:13hung jury, which I, I don't see that happening #2 we get, we get
- 1:20a, a settlement. In other words, both sides agree
- 1:24to a settlement before it ever goes to jury.
- 1:26The way this is going, I don't see that happening, OK.
- 1:30The other two, of course, is NASCAR wins or the race teams
- 1:34win. Let's let's explore that just
- 1:37just for a little bit, just for a moment.
- 1:39Let's take for example, NASCAR wins, they win the lawsuit, OK,
- 1:44bar an appeal, bar an appeal from the race teams.
- 1:47If they don't appeal, what what does this mean?
- 1:51Well, what I think, I think NASCAR, if that, if that
- 1:55happens, I think NASCAR has a a great opportunity to to right
- 2:00the ship and maybe come out of this thing better off than they
- 2:04were. But it's going to take some
- 2:06very, very, very, very tough decisions on NASCAR's part to
- 2:10make that happen. And they can do it.
- 2:12You know they can they can do this.
- 2:14I mean, you know, some of the things has been said and all the
- 2:19stuff we've heard about. If we go back to judge told
- 2:23these guys said, listen, y'all need to settle this because
- 2:25there's a lot of stuff going to come out here, come out during
- 2:28trial or before that you're not going to like.
- 2:30And the first what's the first thing that happened?
- 2:32We saw Curtis Polk, you know, the the executive with, with 23X
- 2:36race and MF and Denny Hamlin, which is a co-owner of the
- 2:40theme, right? And we saw Denny Hamlin, Hamlin,
- 2:43MF and Jim France. Then we had Steve Phelps with
- 2:46NASCAR MF and Richard Childress, right.
- 2:50So this, this big circle of stuff we saw going on and it to
- 2:54some degree, it's got some humor, but mostly it's just sad.
- 2:58You know, we don't we don't like that.
- 2:59We don't like to see that. So anyhow, NASCAR, if they win
- 3:04all this, does it go back to status quo?
- 3:07You know, they they've, they've taken some big hits, big, big
- 3:11hits. And I think NASCAR could, if
- 3:15they wanted to, which I would advise them to, but well, I
- 3:18should advise them what I know, right?
- 3:20But you know, it's going to, it's going to involve a couple
- 3:24very tough decisions on their part and a big, big chunk of
- 3:30humble pie with a good marketing campaign.
- 3:33I think if they go down that road, they can probably come out
- 3:37of this thing pretty good. OK, that's the only option if it
- 3:44or they keep it the way just not do anything.
- 3:45But I don't think it's I don't, I don't think that'll work.
- 3:48I mean, they they've got to address some of the things
- 3:50that's happened. Then if it's appealed, if the
- 3:54race teams appeal, the decision will OK, if we peel it, then how
- 3:59long does that drag out? I mean, we're we're we're
- 4:01hearing all these numbers of a year, 2 years, three years, our
- 4:05sport, I just don't think our sport can withstand such a such
- 4:11a period of a long period of appeals.
- 4:13I just don't think you know, we we're just we're going to get
- 4:16beat up too much. I, I just don't know about that.
- 4:19All right, so that covers the NASCAR side if they win, if the
- 4:23race teams win bar an appeal, which I'm telling you right now,
- 4:28as soon as that thing happens, NASCAR will try to appeal this,
- 4:32right? And I'll tell you why, because
- 4:34to NASCAR this is a death sentence.
- 4:37This is the way that NASCAR I think in my view is, is looking
- 4:41at the same. So you know, if if NASCAR wins
- 4:46and the race teams appeal it within their kind of you might
- 4:51be they're hurt in the sport. There's no doubt about that.
- 4:54And so we would hope they wouldn't do that.
- 4:57But if, if the race teams win, we know that NASCAR will appeal
- 5:01the same. And, and, and, and I don't know
- 5:04that everybody understands it and what NASCAR's thinking is.
- 5:07And, and I think, I know, I think what it is they, they feel
- 5:11like if they lose this thing, it's a death sentence.
- 5:15Because what happens then the judge then decides how our sport
- 5:20is going to be run. And who knows who we, none of us
- 5:23have any idea what the judge, well, we know what he can do,
- 5:26but what he will do we don't know.
- 5:28I mean, will he make NASCAR when ISC sell off race tracks?
- 5:32Will he make them have a governance board that, that,
- 5:35that where NASCAR is not in control any longer, right?
- 5:39You have mainly you have the inmates running the asylum, you
- 5:42might say. I mean, there's so many facets
- 5:46of what could go on with, with this judge and what decisions he
- 5:50comes down with. And I truly believe in NASCAR's
- 5:54heart of hearts, they feel like if they lose, they've lost the
- 5:58sport. I feel like they feel like it's
- 5:59a death sentence. So if that is the case, they
- 6:03will appeal the same knowing that it's going to hurt the
- 6:05sport. But it's the only way of staying
- 6:08alive in their minds, I think. And, and the reason I say that,
- 6:12guys, we've got, you know, all these teams have partners.
- 6:15They all have corporate sponsorship.
- 6:17You know, so much of our sport, you know, survives with that
- 6:22NASCAR. NASCAR has corporate sponsors,
- 6:25corporate partners. We have the media rights, all
- 6:27right. We have all these things.
- 6:30None of these people want to be involved with something that's
- 6:33going to last two years. Well, I shouldn't say want to be
- 6:36involved. They're not going to be as
- 6:37enthusiastic to be involved with their sport that's constantly
- 6:42going through state of appeals. Every month we hear more stuff
- 6:45about the appeal and we got two more years to wait on this
- 6:48appeal, right? Nobody wants that.
- 6:50We don't want that. The sport don't want don't
- 6:52doesn't need it. NASCAR doesn't want that.
- 6:55But I'm telling you what they would do it because they feel
- 6:57like if they lose again, they lose our sport.
- 7:01And I truly believe that's where, you know, that's where a
- 7:04lot of this thinking of NASCAR is coming from.
- 7:06I mean, you know, we cannot, we cannot operate our sport under,
- 7:15under this burden, burden of, of this, of this, of this trial
- 7:20and, and the appeals process. And we've been a year, we've
- 7:22been over a year now. You know, we've all heard
- 7:25everybody's taking their sides on this.
- 7:27The fans have taken their sides either for NASCAR or for the
- 7:30race teams. And I understand both sides of
- 7:33this whole thing. But you know, I, I, I do know
- 7:37this when it's all said and done, I see only one, only one
- 7:42path for this saying to, for NASCAR.
- 7:45My good buddy Mark Martin had put a statement out the other
- 7:48day. It is, I just don't see any way
- 7:51we could come out of this on a positive side.
- 7:53Well, I, I feel like the, what I told you a while ago, NASCAR
- 7:57wins. They eat some humble pie and do
- 7:59some tough decisions that they might not want to make.
- 8:02I think they could come out OK if the race teams win, who
- 8:07knows, who knows where, where our sport's going to be.
- 8:10I mean, what, what, you know what, what you know what, what's
- 8:12the judge going to decide? We don't know that, OK?
- 8:16But those I just wanted to lay out to you guys, if, if, if
- 8:19you're following this trial to, to be thinking about, you know,
- 8:23how this is going to all end up, you know, where, where, where
- 8:26are we all going to be when the checkered flag falls, right?
- 8:30And I'm going to be commenting more on this as days go on
- 8:34'cause this is, I've been paying close attention.
- 8:36It's very intriguing. I've waited this long to say
- 8:38anything or to give you guys anything or give you guys
- 8:42anything because I wanted to get my thoughts right and, and, and
- 8:45try to figure out, you know, where it's going to be, you
- 8:49know, when the checkered flag drops.
- 8:51And that's very, very important. I'll be back later.
- 8:55Bye.