Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Remembering Rowdy | Mast Cast Ep. 14

Transcript

Remembering Rowdy | Mast Cast Ep. 14 · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
Welcome everyone to mass cast. He is former cup series driver
0:03
Rick Mast. I'm his non driving son Ricky
0:06
and we've been gone for a couple weeks hand up.
0:09
That's on me. I've been extremely busy at work
0:12
and have a 2 year old at home and all those things.
0:14
So we've kind of had to go on a quick little hiatus for these
0:17
last couple weeks, but thankfully things are starting
0:19
to slow down in my world a little bit.
0:21
So hopefully we'll be back with you on our regular cadence here
0:24
on on mass cast. Dad, you know, you and I like to
0:29
joke around on here. We like to tell stories that
0:31
make us laugh and and get serious about racing and get
0:34
people mad at you and the comments on social about
0:37
something you said after and all that.
0:39
We love to do all that. That's all fun.
0:42
But I don't know that this show is going to be be that because
0:47
as we sit here on Memorial Day 2026 and everything that's
0:52
transpired over the last few days, it's just been it's been a
0:55
tough, tough go of it for the NASCAR world last few days.
0:59
You know, in terms of losing a current driver, obviously we
1:02
went through this with Biff when we started Mass Cast this year.
1:05
We of course Biff had been gone for a little bit by the time we
1:08
started. But we mourned him just like
1:10
we've mourned a lot of people we've lost over the years.
1:13
But in terms of losing a current driver, yeah, I don't know that
1:16
the NASCAR world has has gone through something like this
1:19
since Dale Senior past. And so I don't even know where
1:25
to start other than to say you and I and all of us in that love
1:29
NASCAR, have watched what's happened over the last few days.
1:33
And so as we sit here on Monday in this Memorial Day, what are
1:37
the what are the first thoughts on your mind with everything
1:40
that's happened? Well, just like everybody, I
1:44
mean, we're a few days removed now from learning or or losing
1:49
Kyle Busch, right? And thought processes and all
1:52
that everybody goes through. You know, I think the biggest
1:55
thing went on to begin with was just shock to everybody.
1:59
You know, you just, you just out of out of left field, man.
2:03
It just came to everybody. And I think the next thing that
2:06
helped hit everybody in in our industry was sadness, shock and
2:09
sadness. You know, everybody had the
2:11
questions. I mean, there's so much stuff
2:13
going on social media, how this happened, how it happened, how
2:16
it happened. And finally the Bush family put
2:18
out, you know, he had pneumonia and turned to turn to Septus.
2:21
And then you had a lot of medical experts or some you
2:26
talking about how that works, right.
2:28
So the one thing is done, I think, is raise a little
2:30
awareness with a lot of people about when they get sick now,
2:34
you know, pay attention. If you get pneumonia, man, pay
2:36
attention to that. Go on to the friggin Dr. I mean,
2:39
you know, when Kyle's race car driver tell for the thing about
2:41
Kyle, you know, he was never you know, he's pretty tough,
2:44
evidently, because he never he was never one that you ever saw
2:47
fall out of the seat. You know, after the race, when
2:49
it was hot days and so many guys were getting attention, medical
2:53
attention, all you never saw. I never saw Kyle do that.
2:56
So physically, you know, it's pretty good specimen, right.
2:59
And if you're a race car driver, you know, you're you learn to
3:03
you learn to work three things you learn to if you're hurt or
3:06
sick or whatever, you learn to you work through that.
3:09
You just keep going. You know, and I don't have any
3:13
idea what his deal was with the doctors or medicals or any of
3:16
that, but it was just a, you know, I think those were all the
3:19
questions being asked at first. You know, how, how in the world
3:23
would this happen? Why did that, you know, how did
3:24
that happen? You know, that's pretty much
3:27
been answered now. So now you're left with, with
3:31
all the other things that's going on and, and, and you know,
3:34
everything that's transpired since then within our industry,
3:37
man, it makes you so proud to be part of this family.
3:40
I mean it, it really does, man. He just, you know, accommodated
3:44
in the in the I call it the world 600, right, and kudos to
3:49
prime Prime Video. They they did a great job
3:53
covering that race for the race. They did a great job.
3:56
Great job covering Kyle Busch, his legacy with all the
4:00
interviews and all the people that talked about it, you know,
4:04
and man, I don't know, it's like everybody else.
4:07
We get on and you ask what to say this.
4:09
I don't know what to say. You know what I mean?
4:12
It's just, it's, I know one thing it it, it, it, it brought
4:15
back fresh memories. I mean, we talked about here on
4:17
mascas with the accidents. We haven't lost a driver since
4:21
O1. And I've talked about that here
4:23
on Mascas and other other folks too, that this, this current
4:27
generation crop of drivers are very they're very fortunate.
4:30
They had they hadn't had to go through this.
4:32
They haven't had to go through, you know, losing somebody that's
4:36
there every stay. I mean, we lost before we we
4:38
understand that we we grieve for that.
4:40
But you know, the difference was Kyle was still there every week.
4:43
You know, Greg hadn't raced in a few years.
4:44
So with this is somebody that everybody, everybody, when you
4:47
show up the racetrack Friday or Saturday or whatever it is,
4:49
there he is. There's Scott Bush.
4:50
You see him every week and you've done it for years.
4:53
You know that all of a sudden he's not there.
4:55
Tragically, he's not there in, in, in, in this current.
4:59
And I, I was heartfelt when I said this.
5:00
I made a post the other night about man, I hate what our
5:04
industry is going through right now.
5:05
And I really, what I meant by that is I know what the industry
5:09
is going through because we used to go through it, you know, and
5:12
finally, shit, I got tired of it, man, towards the end of my
5:14
career. I just got tired of losing
5:17
drivers and my buddies and all that.
5:19
So luckily, knock on wood, we haven't had that happen in this
5:23
this industry as it is right now with the current group of
5:25
people. Most of them, a lot of them have
5:27
went through it, but but the majority of them haven't been
5:30
through this right and haven't had to learn how to deal with
5:33
it. And, you know, and they'll
5:35
process it. They they did a great job at
5:37
Charlotte. Everybody's doing a great job
5:39
with it. And as time goes on, they'll
5:40
figure it out and process it and move forward.
5:42
And you know, that's what the industry will do.
5:46
Then if you look at the family with Samantha and the children
5:50
and Kurt and Tom and you know, his mom and all that, that's a
5:52
whole different, that's a whole different, you know, that's a
5:55
whole different scenario there. But just really sad, sad for
5:58
everybody, sad for industry, sad for the people have to go
6:01
through it and just no words for sadness to express how sad you
6:05
are for the family. Yeah, no, that was that was my
6:09
first thought on Thursday, you know, they put out the post that
6:12
he wasn't going to be in the car that weekend due to a severe
6:15
illness. And that, you know, I'm not, I
6:17
don't claim to be a communications expert, but I do
6:19
work in the sports industry. I understand what goes into
6:23
putting out a statement when things happen and the thought
6:26
behind them and they use that word severe that kind of it.
6:32
It bothers you a little better. OK, kind of set off my alarm
6:35
like, but you know, obviously you don't jump to the you just
6:39
don't jump to the conclusion like, well, he's going to he's
6:42
going to pass away here in a couple hours.
6:44
Like that's not what you're thinking.
6:46
It gives you pause. But also you just hope you just
6:50
hope that that's that your your own mind is, is going to a play
6:54
is is exaggerating, right? Yeah.
6:57
And then, you know, we were down here in Georgia, of course, mom,
7:01
your wife, she was down here visiting us for the week,
7:04
hanging out with us. And I, you know, I'm chronically
7:08
on my phone, partially for work, partially just because I'm like
7:11
a lot of people have I look at my phone way too much.
7:14
But we were actually getting supper ready.
7:16
And so I'd for once, I put my phone down for a few minutes and
7:19
wasn't looking at it, get finishing supper and sat down.
7:24
We kind of had things ready. Got my daughter and her she,
7:28
she, we're switching her out of her strapped in high chair to
7:30
just a chair like a big girl now.
7:31
So we're trying that and getting her all ready and, and mom was
7:35
out getting a drink. My wife was getting her a drink.
7:37
Like we're all just kind of getting settled in.
7:39
So I'm the first sit down with my daughter and I pick up my
7:41
phone and look at it and I saw the news and my, my heart just
7:46
kind of dropped And you get that just that shock.
7:48
I mean, that initial shock is just like you said, it was just
7:51
out of left field, you know, and I, I, I think I said, oh God, or
7:56
something like that out loud. And mom and Laura are both like,
7:59
what what's going on? I said Kyle, Kyle Bush died.
8:02
And it was that, you know, is that same mom kind of made that
8:08
same little gasp or mini gasp that I remember she made when we
8:13
found out Dale died 25 years ago.
8:15
Like it was almost eerily similar, but you just go to
8:20
shock and like you like everybody just like, how the
8:22
hell did this happen? You know it just how could
8:26
somebody that we just saw win a race at Dover less than a week
8:30
ago and we just seen out and about doing appearances and what
8:33
everything else within the last couple days.
8:35
How could this happen? And of course we know now we
8:38
know what happens. And you're exactly right.
8:40
That is, it's if anything good is to come of it, it's a wake up
8:43
call for a lot of us to listen to our bodies and think,
8:47
especially people that are busy and people that have to push
8:49
themselves. You get into situations where if
8:52
you're feeling sick or something, and I'm not, I have
8:54
no idea what happened with Kyle other than what the family
8:56
released. But I'm just, I'm kind of
8:57
generalizing here how a lot of people, myself included, when
9:01
things get busy, you start feeling well, you're feeling
9:03
sick. You're like, you have this
9:04
mentality of I don't have time to be sick.
9:06
I can't be sick. And so you just, you just push
9:09
through it and you know that this is a good reminder of like,
9:13
hey, man, just just if you're feeling sick, you need to like
9:15
take care of yourself, take care of your body.
9:17
It's like you and your thumb earlier this year on mass cast.
9:19
Like you can't let that stuff get out of control, man.
9:22
Get you get your thumb fixed, right?
9:24
Well, yeah, but. Race car driver, I'll tell you
9:27
in that profession, Ricky, race car drivers, It's, it's, it's
9:31
you say, you talk about being busy, just anybody being busy
9:34
and, and not doing that. But I'm telling you, race car
9:36
drivers, you know, for whatever reasons that I lived it, I mean,
9:39
you, you'd be sick and you just press through it.
9:42
You know, as long as you could, as long as you're able to walk
9:46
and get the job done, you know, you did it and you just kind of
9:48
put your everything else aside. You did what you had to do.
9:51
So I can certainly understand how that could creep up on
9:54
somebody. Well, and I think I think it was
9:56
Chase Briscoe said something in his on social media or somewhere
10:00
the other and I believe it was him that says something.
10:03
The effect of you know, there's only there's a there's a lot of
10:07
people in the world that want to do what you guys mean in the 35
10:10
to 40 of you get to well caught about 3536 of you get to do
10:14
every week now and you'll do anything to protect your spot.
10:17
You've talked about that earlier this year on mass cast.
10:20
You'll do just about anything to keep to protect your territory,
10:23
to protect your ride and to stay because you work and you claw
10:26
and you fight. You give literally everything
10:28
you got physically, bank account, mentally, everything
10:32
just to get there and you will do anything to stay there and
10:37
protect it. And so that I, I get it, that
10:39
makes sense. And then also you just got to be
10:41
tough in general to do this physically, mentally on a lot, a
10:45
lot of different levels. Well, I get it.
10:48
You just keep pushing through. So I think, but if nothing else,
10:51
this is a good reminder like to just just take care of ourselves
10:54
a little bit and hopefully for the drivers take care of
10:56
themselves better. I tell you, I, I guess we're
11:01
kind of going chronologically here.
11:04
Saturday morning when garage opened and the videos were
11:10
coming out of the 33 car formally 8 car unloading first
11:14
and then the three car unloading and it was early in the morning.
11:18
It was dreary, obviously. Heck, it was they dealt with
11:20
weather all weekend up there at Charlotte or down there I should
11:23
say. And gosh, we talked about
11:26
earlier this year on Mass Cast. I was just flashing back to
11:29
April 1st, 1993. We're watching Alan Quickies
11:32
holler leave out of Bristol, you know, as early in the morning.
11:35
It's cold, dreary, eerily silent.
11:38
Everybody's sad, sad as they can be.
11:41
Gosh, I hope, you know, people have talked about that day with
11:44
Alan is the saddest day they ever spent at a racetrack.
11:47
And I always just kind of hope we'd never see that again.
11:49
And I kind of felt like that a little bit again Saturday
11:51
morning. But I will say this one thing I
11:56
learned from coming along when you were driving and the your
12:00
buddies and people that we lost along the way, I saw some folks
12:04
going, how in the world are they going to race this weekend?
12:06
How, how can they even race? How can, how can they do that?
12:10
And I would totally understand it, especially people that
12:12
hadn't been through before. I respect it, I really do.
12:14
I totally understand that. But my thought was I thought
12:18
back on all those times and, and it's not just some people say,
12:21
well, they got to race because that's what we do, that's what
12:23
we do. And OK, I get that, but I think
12:26
it's deeper than that. I think it's more than that.
12:29
You have to do it for everybody to grieve and to be able to move
12:33
on together. I think you go out and race and
12:36
you're going to have these moments that help everybody.
12:39
Daniel Suarez went and helped, obviously Kyle Busch's family.
12:44
That's the strength that they all showed.
12:46
I hope it helped them. I don't know if it did.
12:48
I don't know what in the world can, but God bless them 'cause I
12:52
think it helped everybody else who's grieving with them and
12:55
think it helped them process it a little bit and gave us all a
12:57
little bit of little bit of strength.
13:00
But I was thinking back to when Dale passed or we talked about
13:02
earlier on this year on Mascot when Allen passed, it was the
13:05
saddest day that that Friday or whatever day it was when this
13:08
hauler left Saturday, Rusty wins a race.
13:10
And when he spun the car around to do that Polish victory lap
13:13
and the roar of that crowd when he did the the tribute lap to
13:17
Allen, that was the first time everybody kind of felt like, oh,
13:20
man, OK, OK. Like it felt good if it gave us
13:24
a good feeling, right? And I think that's what we want
13:27
to see. It happened after Dale passed
13:29
the next week at Rockingham, Steve Park wins and that makes
13:31
everybody feel a little bit better.
13:33
All the while, everybody's grieving and everybody's
13:36
grieving, crying together, hopefully starting to tell some
13:38
stories to make each other laugh.
13:40
And the moments keep coming. Later that summer, Jail Junior
13:43
went in at Daytona that summer. That's one of the best moments
13:46
ever in NASCAR. And that helped everybody heal.
13:49
So yeah, you keep going because that's what you do.
13:51
You keep racing because that's what you do.
13:54
But I think it's also, it's part of the process of grieving and
13:56
being able to move forward is we all got to keep going and you're
13:59
in this together, if that makes sense.
14:03
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's, yeah, that's
14:04
kind of you, just kind of, you know, not me mentality, it's not
14:09
me, it won't happen to me mentality.
14:12
And you put your head down and you feel terrible for everybody
14:14
that suffered, but you put your head down and keep digging.
14:17
You know, you keep moving forward, you keep going and it
14:21
makes it very tough. I mean, I, you look at all these
14:24
entities down there right now that the, the folks just going
14:28
through it and talk about Richard a little bit.
14:31
We'll talk about Kyle a little bit and talk about him and his
14:34
wife a little bit. OK.
14:36
The things that that come out this week we've learned about
14:41
Kyle is how giving this guy was to so many people.
14:47
How many people were affected by this guy helping right.
14:52
You look at you listen you start listening to all the guys that
14:55
he actually helped their careers.
14:57
He gave them their first shot and then tutor them to through
15:01
the years of being there. You look at some of these guys
15:04
in their comments. You like, you know what, I don't
15:07
know that any of our other superstars really carried that
15:11
like he did. And I, I mean the, all the
15:14
superstars that we've lost over the years and they were great
15:16
for what they did. But it seems like Kyle, Kyle was
15:21
doing stuff that nobody knew about within our everybody
15:25
within the industry knew about it, But like fans in general
15:28
wouldn't know about, you know, him securing Suarez's deal, him
15:35
secure him securing Bubba Wallace's deal, right?
15:38
All the stuff Eric all the all the guys man and, and, and not
15:42
just drivers, but crew guys, crew members.
15:45
He lists the crew members, talk about him giving them a shot
15:48
working in his shop, right, and then going on become becoming
15:52
household names and just on and on and on.
15:55
And then phone calls, evidently private, private conversations
15:58
he'd had with all these people through the years.
16:00
And just the the help that he was given to people in our
16:04
industry and also, you know, suggestions and, and, and, and
16:11
texts and stuff. He was given to our higher ups
16:14
at our industry about what he thought about things, right.
16:17
And because we all knew that Kyle had a way about that, you
16:19
know, he would, he didn't hold back.
16:20
What you saw was really always was, and that that was one of
16:23
the reasons he he was not like the very beginning of the career
16:27
for a long time because he just got to put it out there or
16:30
whatever he's thinking it, it popped out and that made that
16:33
turn a lot of people off. But it's time went on over the
16:36
years, you know, 'cause we noticed by Tommy with the
16:39
children, you know, he started having all these fans again is
16:41
like, what was it? Carl Edwards showed up at a
16:43
racetrack and driver introduction and, and they booed
16:47
somebody and they cheered for, for, for Kyle Bush.
16:50
He says he looked and he said, what the hell happened?
16:52
What they cheered for Kyle Bush? What, what did all this happen?
16:55
Right. Well, you know, it's just, to
17:00
me, it was very telling that he said all these folks are coming
17:06
out with these stories about what he did to help their
17:09
careers, right. And I'm, I was sitting there
17:11
listening to that since since we lost him, I've been listening to
17:14
all these stories. And I'm like, I cannot recall
17:18
anybody, especially a superstar in our sport that that we know
17:23
about that, that that did that, that helped that many people in
17:28
our sport. OK.
17:29
Now he was doing it for he was doing it to have joy.
17:32
He was doing it to joy to see these guys have success.
17:35
I'm sure that's part of it. He's doing it just to help him,
17:38
right? And he's doing it.
17:39
He's doing it to help NASCAR. You know, he was doing all this
17:42
stuff, man, you really you're you're promoting NASCAR when you
17:45
do this stuff. And you know, that's to me, that
17:50
was a big deal. That was just a big deal because
17:52
I couldn't compare that. I just couldn't compare that to
17:55
anybody that I can think of. I mean, yeah, sure, plenty.
17:59
Everybody did a lot of things. There's there's no doubt.
18:01
You know, we talked about Earnhardt.
18:03
We talked about all the great things he did.
18:05
So many of the things he did, the people didn't know about.
18:07
He didn't want people to know about, right.
18:08
And all these guys, so many of them that give so much.
18:13
But, you know, seem like he set a different standard there just
18:17
listening to things. And then the other part I want
18:20
to touch on with these guys was his and his wife Samantha's work
18:25
with IVF and what is it called Bundle of joy.org?
18:29
Is that it? And it, it, it goes to IVF.
18:33
And as you know, Ricky, that strikes a comes, strikes a close
18:37
note to our family. And with IVF and, and, you know,
18:41
when they went through it, when they were going through it and
18:44
they, they saw how expensive it was and what a hardship it was,
18:47
They're like, man, we got to help people, you know, help
18:52
people that are suffering through that.
18:53
So they started that deal. And I remember, I guess it was
18:58
the Hall of Fame ceremony back in February in Charlotte.
19:02
And I was, I went up and I was talking Samantha Bush about
19:05
that, about their work. And just telling you, I was so
19:08
thankful and grateful for the work that she and her husband
19:12
had put forth promoting that thing right?
19:15
And helping. And, you know, they're pretty,
19:17
pretty steadfast in their commitment to that.
19:20
And if you look now, it's like, I mean, literally, literally,
19:24
folks, listen to this. Literally there are human beings
19:29
alive today, born and alive because of Kyle and Samantha
19:34
Bush's work with the IVF deal, right?
19:40
And I was thinking the other day, man, you look how many
19:43
lives we don't know how many lives to Greg Biffle save?
19:47
How many how many lives was he responsible for saving during
19:51
that terrible flood in Western Carolina?
19:53
And how many lives have been created with the help of Kyle
19:59
and Samantha Bush? I mean, you know, literally
20:01
that, you know, if that doesn't, if that doesn't tuck at your
20:04
heartstrings, man, hell with you.
20:06
Get on. Find yourself up something else
20:08
to do. Don't don't pay any attention to
20:09
this crap. Right.
20:10
But. You know what, again, because it
20:13
does it, it does get close to home with us.
20:16
It was, it was a big deal for, for them to do that, right?
20:20
And then she was at what she was at the White House but maybe a
20:24
month or two ago and they were doing, signing some legislation,
20:28
you know, that they had worked on trying to help make this
20:30
thing cheaper and make more insurance would cover people
20:33
because insurance won't cover IVF.
20:34
It never was. And I think, what the hell,
20:36
what's this latest legislation was, she was working.
20:39
On I, I don't have it in front of me, but it was definitely
20:41
something to help people be able to afford that otherwise
20:44
couldn't. And it may have been insurance,
20:46
but it's to help with that, yeah.
20:47
Right, right. So I talk about these things,
20:50
you know, and and it's just our world and our industry in in in
20:56
particular is very, very fortunate to have Kyle.
20:59
Samantha Bush is a is such a big part and and and face of faces
21:04
of our sport, right. The stuff that those guys have
21:07
done for so many people. And that's what makes it so
21:12
friggin tough, man. It's it's taken away from us.
21:15
It's just taken away from us. Nothing like the way Samantha,
21:21
her children, his brother, her parents feel nothing like what
21:25
they feel what was taken away from them.
21:27
But as an industry as a whole, it was it's a tough one.
21:32
It's a tough one. It's a void.
21:33
It's it's a bad, it's a, it's a huge void.
21:36
And, you know, hopefully somebody to feel it someday, but
21:39
I don't know if you feel it like those two have, you know, but
21:42
I'm sure with everybody's help and support and all, Samantha,
21:45
keep it going, you know, and keep going with going down that
21:48
road with that thing. And you know, I know everybody
21:50
in our industry will support that and support her and
21:53
whatever she wants to do. And we've held Brexit has
21:56
already got drop off. Or when he when he becomes they
21:59
used to race for about anybody wants to race for, you know, and
22:02
that that that's so cool. But you know, that that's not
22:05
helping those guys right now at the moment, you know.
22:08
So, but anyhow, that that's my thoughts with with that couple,
22:12
you know, just yeah, such irreplaceable, I mean
22:15
irreplaceable in my opinion. I was sitting, I was sitting
22:19
here at the house. I don't know if it was Friday or
22:21
Saturday, but still just, it was just, if you follow the sport,
22:25
you care about it. It just whether you knew Bushes
22:28
or Kyle personally, you didn't whatever, if you just connected
22:31
to it at all. I think everybody was just
22:34
feeling it and you just feeling, you have a heavy heart.
22:36
And so I was sitting here at the house and I was just sitting
22:39
there and I, I didn't know, even know, like I want to do
22:42
something. I, I don't know what to do.
22:44
So I went on Bundle of Joy fun.org and just, I was just
22:49
checking it out a little bit, which I'd seen it before, but it
22:51
been a while and I went on there and I made a donation and felt
22:55
like well. Yeah.
22:58
It's a little, it's something, right?
22:59
It's something and, but, but that's not the point of this is
23:03
to, but I went on there and I started looking at the website
23:05
and I've got it up here. If you go to their main page,
23:09
they've awarded 178 grants, 2.3, almost $2.4 million in funds
23:15
that have been granted. And this is the, this is the
23:16
stat right here. Dad, 111 babies born me.
23:21
Think about that. That's 111 lives.
23:23
That's 111 families that otherwise they just wanted to
23:28
have a family and they couldn't do it.
23:30
And because of what these two people did, they, they've got
23:33
that. And here's what's best at the
23:35
bottom of those stats, it's 111 babies born.
23:39
And then the next thing under that says more on the way,
23:41
right, which is, which is so cool, right?
23:43
And, and you said it. I mean, you and mom dealt with
23:46
us in the 90s and a lot of years, a lot of money.
23:49
You were in a position at that point racing Cup to where you
23:53
could afford to, to try multiple times.
23:57
And the mental toll that's certainly it's it takes, you
24:01
know, that's that's its own thing that just infertility and
24:04
all that takes on people. It's, it's, it's so gut
24:07
wrenching. It's hard.
24:09
And Samantha and Kyle went through that themselves.
24:11
And what was their response to it?
24:12
Well, we're in a position to help other people who are going
24:15
through this. Let's do it.
24:17
And Samantha in particular has has, you know, I'm sure there's
24:21
other people out there in that world that are infertility world
24:25
that are big spokespersons, influencers, influencer, doesn't
24:28
feel like enough of a word here. But Trail Blazers leaders in
24:32
that space, I can't imagine there's a bigger one than
24:35
Samantha. And I'm with you.
24:36
I think everybody's going to continue to support that.
24:40
So if you can, even if it's, I saw a lot of people that they,
24:43
they, you could, if you go in the donation page or a lot of
24:45
people like it lists all the donations that are coming in as
24:48
they come in, man. I saw a lot of people donating
24:51
$8.18 cents, $18.08. And I thought, man, that's cool.
24:56
Like not every, but like just any little bit you can give $8
25:00
is 8 bucks, man. That helps somebody that helps
25:02
them with this. So you know, I think that's a
25:04
that's a good thing to do If people probably people that
25:07
listen and watch mass cast, I guarantee you they've already
25:09
gone on there and done it. But I.
25:12
Did want to talk about Oh yeah, yeah.
25:15
Not to interrupt you, but I, I, I remember our clip the other
25:17
day come up and she Samantha was talking about they were in the
25:21
clinic or whatever and there was another couple there and they
25:25
had failed. The couple just learned that it
25:26
had failed. It didn't work.
25:28
And she was talking about over here, and I mean, take me not
25:32
verbatim here, but basically she was over listening to their
25:35
conversation. And the couple stated, well,
25:37
that was her last shot. We can't do it anymore.
25:39
We can't if we're not going to have children because we can't
25:41
afford this. And she said that's when she
25:43
looked at Kyle and he said, we got to do something about this,
25:46
right? So kind of tells you where their
25:49
heart is. That's you're exactly right.
25:52
That's exactly right. Tells you.
25:54
I feel like maybe I'm looking too much into this, but I feel
25:57
like I saw the way Braxton Bush handled that yesterday as an 11
26:02
year old and I felt like I felt like I already knew Kyle Busch
26:06
was an excellent father. Just from everything you'd see
26:09
me seem like he was a doting father and and very close with
26:12
Braxton. Boy, I don't know that I've seen
26:15
an 11 year old ever with that much strength in that kind of
26:18
position yesterday. I mean, his mom's there and God,
26:22
she's as strong as anybody too. But you're looking at it, it's
26:25
like, man, he's, he's 11 years old and he's been sitting there
26:28
being strong for her, you know, and that was incredibly
26:31
impressive. I hope that, you know, it's a
26:36
mixture of things. I feel for him because like, I
26:38
felt such, I was so impressed and I thought, gosh, what a,
26:42
what a, what an impressive young man Kyle and Samantha have
26:45
raised here that he's got that kind of strength at 11.
26:49
I also hope that, you know, I hope he doesn't feel as an 11
26:53
year old that he has to fully grow up and be the man of the
26:56
house and everything now either. I hope, you know, it's it's O
26:59
it's OK to still be a kid and and to be sad as hell.
27:02
I think Scott Van Pelt, I think from ESPNI think it was who I
27:05
saw think he used that phrase. It's OK to still be sad as hell
27:09
too. You don't have to be strong for
27:10
everybody, but I just thought that was that was so impressive.
27:14
And then likewise, you know, she, I was talking earlier about
27:18
you. We just, we got to show up to
27:19
the racetrack and we got to do these things to keep moving
27:22
forward and to grieve together and move forward together.
27:26
Man, how powerful was that seeing Owen Larson come up on
27:29
his own just to give his buddy Brett a little hug.
27:32
I mean, how impressive was that Kyle Larson's son?
27:35
I, I, I just love that. I thought that was, I thought
27:37
that was incredible. You know, and that was cool.
27:39
It was, it was very emotional, very cool.
27:41
I thought that was cool, too. But yeah, talk about Braxton.
27:44
I mean, he was very stoic, you know, reminded me, actually
27:47
reminded me a little bit of his granddad standing there.
27:49
Tom Bush, you know, was Tom very stoic Anyhow, you know, he's
27:53
just that that type of personality.
27:56
And but yeah, the, the, the key of the boy, I mean, you know, I
28:01
have no idea what he's going through.
28:03
Don't want to know, don't know how they're going to handle it.
28:05
Don't know how he's going to handle it, but I do know that
28:08
they've got a lot of good loving people to support them.
28:11
So, you know, for this type of situation, he he'll be OK.
28:15
But there is OK. You can be with something like
28:19
this. But yeah, I thought it was cool.
28:21
I mean, that's whatever that's what brought.
28:23
That's what everybody on social media was talking about.
28:25
This celebrity old kid sitting there holding on hold, on hold
28:28
like he's told his Mama up, right.
28:30
Patner on the side, Patner on the shoulder.
28:32
And I kept looking up better and looking up better and see how
28:35
she acting and acting. I thought, yeah, this is, I
28:38
thought the same thing everybody else did.
28:39
Damn, this is cool. But, you know, he's let me old
28:41
kid, he's got to cry sometimes. He's got to grieve.
28:43
He's got to, he's got to do. I mean, I'm not going to get
28:45
into all that crap. So I don't know anything about
28:47
that stuff. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
28:50
yeah. Tough deal.
28:52
Well, whatever Braxton does in life might end.
28:55
Same for Lennox and same for how Samantha.
28:57
However she moves on, I know there's a whole lot of people
28:59
rooting for him and they're willing to do whatever they can
29:01
to help him get there. It seems like Braxton is
29:04
destined to be a race car driver.
29:05
Seems like that that's what he's wanted to do since he could
29:07
crawl and walk and talk and maybe even before all that for
29:10
all I know. But he is 11.
29:13
You never know, Maybe things change.
29:14
If he wants to do something else, man, I'll be rooting for
29:16
him to be the best at whatever else he wants to be.
29:19
But it certainly seems like being a race car driver is all
29:22
he wants to do. And, you know, I'm sure there's
29:25
a whole lot of people that nothing's ever going to fill
29:28
that void of his dad. But I, I'm sure there's a whole
29:30
lot of people they're going to be willing to show up with him
29:33
wherever he shows up with his late model or his legends car
29:36
and sub in as a crew chief that night or just be with him there
29:40
to, to help however they can. I made the comment to, to my
29:45
wife and, and mom the other night.
29:47
You know, I don't know how involved Uncle Kurt is in, in
29:52
Braxton's racing right now, but I, I bet you he's going to be a,
29:55
a much more involved. I mean, I don't know, I'm, I'm
29:57
speculating here. I probably shouldn't do that.
29:59
But you know, there's going to be no shortage of people, very
30:02
qualified people who are going to be more than willing to help
30:07
him get there. If that's what he decides he
30:09
wants to keep doing. He's going to have the best
30:12
people in the world to help him on that path.
30:14
And there's going to be a lot of people rooting for him.
30:17
I thought all the other drivers wearing the Bush stuff, but
30:20
especially a lot of those guys wearing Braxton Bush T-shirts, I
30:23
thought that was I, I just thought that was so cool.
30:25
Again, it's so sad. It tears you heart up.
30:29
But the same time to go back to where you started with this
30:31
whole thing, how proud you were of the industry for how they
30:35
came together. Steve O'Donnell we got, we got
30:39
to give him props, man. That was that is a hard thing to
30:42
get up there and talk in front of everybody and just to do it
30:45
period. But then to know what to say and
30:47
then get it out and deliver it the right way.
30:50
I thought he did. You couldn't have done better
30:53
than he did. My opinion.
30:54
I don't know what you would you think of his his.
30:55
Speech. Oh, no, no, I mean we, we've,
30:58
you know, when they, they, when they announced him becoming the
31:02
what is he president, CEO, what is it?
31:04
No, not sure whatever he is now. Whatever he is now.
31:08
He's the main man he's at. Yeah, They had Honcho.
31:12
Yeah. You know when he said that, I
31:14
told everybody, man, they hit a home run.
31:16
They've hit a home run. This guy, this guy gets it.
31:18
You know, He's got his mind right?
31:20
He knows, he knows, he knows what the faults have been.
31:24
He knows where the downfalls have been.
31:26
He knows that he knows the course of mistakes that NASCAR
31:29
took. And he also knows, think he
31:33
knows what he wants to do to try to get it to ship right it.
31:36
And he's just a, he's just, he's just a guy that gets it, man.
31:41
He he, he, I don't know how else to put it.
31:42
He gets it. And, and and that was on full
31:45
displaced put on full displace this Thursday.
31:47
He gets it right. Everything he's done, his press
31:50
conference, the deal on TV, all of it, you know, you can just
31:53
tell it. It's, it's not a made-up deal
31:56
with him, right? It's genuine.
31:58
It's kind of like when Mike Hilton announced that we lost
32:00
Dale Earnhardt at the end of the Daytona 500.
32:03
That wasn't rehearsed. It wasn't scripted.
32:07
He's like Mike just got up there and said what he thought, you
32:10
know, and and this is the way the O'Donnell guy is.
32:12
He's he, he, he, he just, he gets it.
32:14
He gets her sport and he understands it and he's he's non
32:18
penalty. Will I say non apologetic, but
32:21
he does. He talks about, you know, we
32:23
aired in a ways, right and we got to fix it.
32:26
We're going to fix it. And I just felt like watching
32:29
him and the way he handled the situation all week, I just felt
32:32
like this this is this is proof to everybody what a lot of us
32:37
know that he is the guy for this job right now with NASCAR, you
32:42
know, leading, leading this industry forward.
32:45
I felt this for a long time or a good while.
32:47
I felt that ever since they've announced it, right?
32:49
And this deal this past week just solidifies it.
32:52
I think for a lot of the people that maybe had questions or
32:55
doubts. In fact, I saw a lot of that
32:57
people talking about man like this guy, right?
32:59
You know, and not many times you hear you hear positive comments
33:04
about a leadership in our NASCAR because that's just the way
33:07
social media is, right? They want to bitch about
33:09
everything. But he's he's a man.
33:12
There's no doubt in my mind he's a man.
33:14
Yeah, I think whenever. You have somebody that's leading
33:17
a league or a team, let's let's call it a team.
33:21
I think a new coach takes over, right?
33:25
There's going to be people who from the get go and that coach
33:28
was announced, they didn't, they didn't like the move for
33:30
whatever reason, whatever their opinions are on their
33:32
preconceiving notion, they're not going to like them.
33:34
But what you hope for is that a, you hope, if you're rooting for
33:37
the team, you hope that the coach is successful because you
33:40
want your team to be successful, right?
33:43
But what? You can hope to happen.
33:46
Is that there'll be a moment in time where that leader does
33:52
something, steps up in a way that wins over the ones that are
33:55
still out there that aren't sure are still kind of critical.
33:58
They do something in in a moment that requires action, something
34:03
that's unplanned, because that's just part of being a leader in
34:06
anything. You're going to deal with
34:07
situations you weren't planning on, you're going to have to
34:10
handle. So you have you have to handle
34:11
it as you like to say, you got to handle it.
34:14
And as far as like I'm using the, the comparison of coaches,
34:18
there's moments where, well, you know, I'll, I'll, this is, this
34:22
is a not really a fair comparison because we're talking
34:25
about somebody lost their life. And I'm then I'm just talking
34:27
about a, a fight that happened between two teams on a ball
34:30
field. But you know, obviously my
34:32
connection with the Braves, Walt Weiss is in the his first year
34:34
as the manager of the Braves and he has won so many people over
34:39
with his leadership style. But really, the moment that
34:41
happened with him was the benches cleared about a month
34:43
ago, you know, the them of the Braves and the Angels and
34:46
they're out there fighting and and crawling and Walt 63 and he
34:48
goes out there and tackles a guy on the other team to protect his
34:52
player. And his whole lot of fans are
34:54
like, OK, I didn't I wasn't sure about him before, but OK, I get
34:59
it. I get it.
35:00
Like he's out there for his guys.
35:01
He's here to bleed this team. He's going to have their he's
35:03
going to have their back, right. And that's more of a trivial
35:06
funny comparison here. But the the theme of it is this
35:11
is our leader and he's got our backs.
35:14
What that's what he said and the and the I wouldn't even think of
35:18
that. He said that when he addressed
35:20
Samantha and Braxton and Lennox and the family directly.
35:24
He said the Nat he's like you're always I'm paraphrasing a little
35:27
bit because you know, you're always part of you're always
35:28
going to be NASCAR family. We got you is that simple
35:32
statement of we got you. We got your back.
35:34
However, was he phrased it. I think once people know that
35:37
your leader, whether you can, you can disagree on XS and OS
35:42
things that are just calls here, they are the go one way or the
35:45
other decisions that are made. But I feel like at the end of
35:48
the day, if you feel like that leaders got your back when you
35:51
need them the most, then that means you they've got your
35:55
respect. And that's, if you've got that
35:57
everything else, I feel like you can, you can figure out, you can
36:00
get through the rest of them together, but that's the
36:03
foundation everything has to be built on is like this guy has
36:06
her back, has her all of our best interests at heart and we
36:10
respect him. And I just thought that was a,
36:13
that was a big moment for him. We all wish him included that
36:17
that moment never had to happen, of course, but it did.
36:20
That's life. Things are going to happen.
36:22
And he stepped up exactly how he needed to all weekend and
36:25
especially in that moment. So kudos to him, man, That was,
36:29
that was super impressive and good on him for it.
36:32
I'm, I'm glad he's the guy right now.
36:34
He's he's the right guy to be in that spot right now, for sure.
36:37
Yeah. And the other thing you know?
36:39
Not really talking about much. I mean, it's going to be his
36:41
job. I mean, Kyle Bush, that's what
36:43
he see. He was larger than NASCAR.
36:46
I mean, it, it surprised me a little bit how wide his name had
36:51
reached, right? It's a worldwide reach of his
36:54
name and all the forms of Motorsports over the weekend
36:58
that that carried tributes to him.
37:00
And then the, the, the articles and different things that came
37:03
out, you know, I didn't realize, I didn't realize he, he, he
37:08
reached as many people as he did, right?
37:11
And we talked about this. Here a couple weeks ago, Ricky,
37:14
one of the things that NASCAR desperately needs, they need
37:17
Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch winning races.
37:21
Remember we talked about this just maybe two or three episodes
37:24
ago. We need those two guys winning
37:25
races. We damn sure didn't need losing
37:30
Kyle Busch from our sport. I mean, this is, you know, we
37:34
talked about the void and other things in everybody's life, but
37:36
this is a void for the sport just in our popularity 'cause he
37:40
had so many Fraggin fans, right? He used to be a popular 'cause
37:45
he'd help everybody hated. So they come to see him because
37:47
him, Billy would give him the finger and see him lose, right?
37:50
And then they started changing the, the cheering for the guy
37:52
and, you know, he just had such a large legion of fans, right?
37:57
He's gone. So this is a void, you know,
37:59
this is a void that that NASCAR has got to you're not going to
38:03
fill it with him. I mean, but I mean, you try to
38:06
fill it the best you can. So that's that's a challenge as
38:12
far as the business side going forward for NASCAR, right?
38:14
And Steve O'Donnell in that group.
38:16
And they, they've, you know, I mean, you've lost, you've lost
38:19
a, you, you've lost a popular figure in your sport, right?
38:23
With decades, couple decades of name recognition, voice sound,
38:28
face recognition, sponsors, all that stuff.
38:31
You know, the commercials he made, all his, all the stuff
38:33
he's done over the years, connections he made.
38:36
And you know, the thing that struck me with so many people I
38:38
was listening to, I think it was Moody's show baby people calling
38:41
in on XM. And I, it might have been a
38:45
couple of other shows, people, I kept hearing people calling in
38:48
and they were talking about they're 23 years old or they're
38:51
25 years old, right? Or 22 years old.
38:54
And they grew up eating Skittles and M&M's and pulling for Kyle
38:59
Busch. When they, they, they're all
39:00
these guy people talk about being little county, little tiny
39:03
children, little little things and pulling for Kyle Busch and
39:07
eating Skittles and M&M's and they're now in their 20s or
39:09
older. And it it struck me then, oh,
39:11
man, we got a whole generation here that that's grown up, this
39:15
guy that I didn't know that I just didn't.
39:17
It went past me. It just went past me.
39:19
I didn't think about that, right.
39:21
And I'm like, man, this is a whole group of folks here, you
39:24
know, younger guys that we've got to hold on to, you know, for
39:27
a sport. But we we can talk about that
39:30
stuff later. You know, this is more about
39:32
remembrance and, you know. Yeah.
39:34
No, I mean it's it's it's. It's all the void is, is, I
39:38
mean, that's we we've all just been very sad about it, you
39:44
know, and we're going to continue to be sad about it.
39:46
Yeah. The look, I think the well, none
39:51
of us want to be sitting here talking about the industry and
39:53
the business of it. But that is part that it, it
39:56
does. It's just part of it.
39:57
I mean, to draw a comparison, when when Dale died, it just
40:06
everything changed that day and it was never going to be the
40:09
same. And it's this is the same to me
40:11
as that. It's not going to be the same.
40:15
And we're going to figure it out as we go along.
40:17
You know, it's, it's, I'm not saying they're the same thing,
40:19
but it's, it's the same kind of deal of like, you can't fill
40:22
that. But it's like, OK, how do we,
40:24
how do we keep moving forward here and, and going on?
40:28
And yeah, I, I, I don't know. It's, it's, it's sad.
40:36
They're a part of that part of my brain that wants to think
40:38
about, well, how does the industry move forward?
40:41
This. But I, I, I, I keep coming back.
40:44
My first thought the other night was when one of the news came
40:46
through, I was shocked. And then, then my very next
40:49
thought, just the shock and my first real thought was there's,
40:52
there's poor little kids, there's 2 poor little kids who
40:55
now have to grow up without their daddy.
40:57
And that, that sucks. It sucks so bad.
41:00
That's, that's, that's amazing, you know, But it's, we can be
41:03
sad for the, the industry too. I mean, it's, it's, it's all
41:07
every bit of it's, it's how it was when when Dale died, We were
41:10
so sad for everybody involved, Dale Junior, Kelly, Teresa,
41:15
everybody. Oh, gosh, Taylor, of course,
41:19
because she was so young. You're so sad for everybody.
41:22
And then also we're showing up at Rockingham next week going
41:24
what do we, what we do? Like John Wayne ain't here.
41:29
The cowboy, the like the our, our, our hero is not here.
41:33
What how do we even function? You know, and that's that's we
41:37
hope that the sport was never going to have to go through that
41:39
again, But that's that's kind of what they're going to have to go
41:41
through. I will say.
41:43
So I went up last year to Aspire Motorsports to do some
41:46
interviews with a few of their drivers last year on their fan
41:48
day for for another thing of mine.
41:53
And so I was in that building and that was formerly Kyle Busch
41:56
Motorsports Course, he's sold that to them.
41:59
And he was actually up there that day.
42:00
I didn't interview him, but he was there that day signing
42:02
autographs and I thought, man, that was that was one of those
42:06
poetic things that his last victory in the Truck Series last
42:10
week at Dover was in the seven Spire truck and then the seven
42:13
Spire Car 1 coming out of that shop.
42:16
That is Kyle Bush Motorsports that was built as Kyle Bush
42:19
Motorsports, you know, and then Daniel Suarez was somebody that
42:22
clearly like leaned on Kyle a lot and and Kyle helped him a
42:27
lot. I'll touch on this earlier.
42:28
You touched on this earlier, dad, but to illustrate your
42:31
point of how many guys Kyle helped along the way, I don't
42:34
know if you saw there's that one picture, I guess it was in the
42:37
Media Center of all the current Cup drivers that had driven for
42:42
basically I think had driven for Kyle at one point or another.
42:46
Man, it was it was a 25% of the fields, maybe more, I mean 25%
42:50
of your entire top level of your sport.
42:53
This guy gave them opportunities to drive for him.
42:56
It was one point or another. And that's just that's crazy.
43:00
I mean, crazy in an amazing way. But where where else you going
43:04
to find that that 1/4 to 1/3 of the entire competitors at the
43:09
level all were helped by this one guy.
43:12
And that's the impact there is just it's it's it's crazy.
43:16
You know, it's crazy if people. Knew that if a people to know
43:20
that, I mean, if you do your research and all, you kind of
43:23
would know, I guess. But you know, the most part,
43:25
general fans, they had no idea. They didn't know he was that
43:30
such a big part of helping all these people, right?
43:33
He might have become, he might have become beloved a little
43:36
earlier than he did, right. But maybe it was part of what he
43:39
wanted. He didn't want people to know
43:40
that. Yeah, he's just tough.
43:42
Tough. Well, I'll tell you.
43:43
This I don't think he ever wants in his entire life or career.
43:47
I guarantee you he never once was the least bit bothered by
43:51
somebody booing him or giving him the finger.
43:53
If anything, I think he ate it up and embraced it.
43:56
And honestly, that was, I mean, we talked about stuff the sports
44:00
need, the sport needs. You need a guy like that who
44:03
don't care. One bet, he's here to win.
44:05
You want to Boo me, Boo me, that's fine.
44:08
Only way he's going to care is if nobody does anything when
44:10
they call his name. You know, that's when like
44:12
somebody like that would worry, like they ain't cheering me,
44:14
they ain't booing. They're just that that's when
44:17
there's a problem, right? So no, he didn't let that stuff.
44:22
Bother me. He sure did.
44:24
I'll tell you one thing we need to talk about here, Ricky.
44:26
The elephant in the room here is my man is my buddy Richard
44:30
Richard Childers. We we he like damn.
44:35
Here we go through this again here he's going through this
44:39
crap again, right? I mean, he, you know, when,
44:43
when, when Kyle came in, you know, I remember Austin saying
44:46
that Granddaddy or Papa, what's he called?
44:48
Poppy, Poppy, Poppy or Poppy, Poppy.
44:50
Yeah, yeah. Pop, Pop said if I got a driver
44:53
that finally got me a driver, just like, just like my old
44:56
buddy Dale was right. Drives like my buddy Dale.
44:59
I'll never forget him saying that.
45:02
And of course, they, they come out the gates winning races in
45:04
the course. They've had the problems of
45:06
late. But you know, and now, you know,
45:10
people talking about Bush leaving or him getting rid of
45:13
him and all that stuff. And I always figured that I knew
45:15
that to be a bunch of crap. But since this has happened,
45:19
it's it's been revealed how much, how hard that Kyle was
45:23
working towards helping that team get it together and how
45:28
hard that team's been working helping, trying to get this
45:31
thing put back together, right. I mean, Kyle Busch goes to the
45:35
fragging GM tech center, get sets in the SIM and he's got
45:39
pneumonia, right? And it gives out while he's
45:42
sitting in the simulator and goes to the hospital, right?
45:45
So I mean, he had to be feeling tough.
45:48
You know, there's no two ways about it.
45:50
He had to be and and just sitting there working at it,
45:53
trying to make it better, right? And it kind of goes back to
45:56
Denny saying maybe he doesn't work right as hard as he should,
45:59
which Kyle took offense to that too.
46:02
But it all became, it all became good between those two guys.
46:06
But anyhow, back to Richard. You know, I think it was good
46:10
that we found out that, yeah, Kyle was committed to that deal
46:14
and committed to making it work. And Richard's committed to Kyle
46:16
and making it work. And both of them put each other
46:19
back in Victory Lane again, you know, and you know, no doubt
46:24
that would have happened. I I truly feel like that would
46:26
happen. No knowing now what I know right
46:28
from listen to everybody and what was going on behind the
46:30
scenes there. Yeah, it would ended up
46:32
happening. Too much talent there.
46:34
But now we got RCR Ricky sitting here.
46:38
You know, they got the rest of this year.
46:40
They've got to run right. I mean, they they brought
46:43
Cheddar's, they got different sponsors on that car, but
46:45
Cheddar seem to be a big Tegra part of their their sponsorship
46:48
package this year, you know, and they've done stuff with Kyle and
46:53
and I'm looking at it right now. They've been very supportive of
46:55
this whole thing, you know, but going forward, I mean, what the
46:59
hell? I mean, what do you do?
47:01
I mean, do you do, do you stay within?
47:03
Do you put Austin in that thing, Austin Hill each week?
47:05
I mean, do you, I mean, where do you go there?
47:08
There's really honestly, there's nobody right now free agents
47:12
available that needs to be in that car to, to to, to bring it
47:17
to where it needs to be brought to right.
47:20
And, and, and it's not like you're, it's not like you
47:23
towards the last month of the season and you got all these
47:25
rumors going in. This guy's going to leave or go
47:27
here and you know the hell with it.
47:29
I'll just leave right now and then jump in a car and finish
47:31
the season out. None of those opportunities are
47:34
out there right now for, for Richard, for a, for a driver
47:37
like that. So, you know, I I'm just I'm.
47:42
My heart hurt, My heart aches. For everybody.
47:44
But it really aches for Richard. I mean, you know, he's just, you
47:48
know, just because we know Richard, we know what he is,
47:50
He's a racer, racer core through the core.
47:53
He's just a racer, man. You going to do what he's got to
47:55
do to make it work. And, you know, to have his
47:58
adversity thrown at him, man, it's just it's just a tough deal
48:01
that well for the family. It's tough for everybody, OK,
48:05
But for for to own that race team with your name on it and
48:08
have to go through this again, you know, you know, like when it
48:14
happened with Dale, I mean he had, you know, Harvick was going
48:18
to come up through the system, you know, and and and and being
48:22
in his cup car eventually. It's just when it happened to
48:25
Dale, they had to move him in there in there quicker than what
48:29
they wanted to. But it all worked out for
48:31
everybody, you know, and it it doesn't seem like we have
48:35
anything in place like that now. I mean, we got Jesse Love in
48:38
Austin and I'm not sure you know what the deal there is with
48:42
those guys. But you know, somebody's got to
48:44
get in that car. Somebody's got to finish the
48:45
year, finish the year out. It's not finish the year out.
48:48
We got over half season yet, right.
48:51
And so man, that's a tough deal. That's a tough deal.
48:55
And I know we know a couple folks.
48:56
I know you know a couple folks within that organization and
48:59
it's it's it's a tough situation right now.
49:02
Yeah, I mean, listen. We've we've alluded to it here
49:04
before. We've before all this happened
49:07
the last few days, we both have been rooting so hard for RCR and
49:11
that's every week when I'm watching, I'm always looking,
49:14
I'm always looking up on the pylon or the score, the whatever
49:17
you want to call it up there. Just looking to see where's the
49:19
8? Where's the three, you know, and
49:21
now that where's the three? Where's the 33?
49:24
Best best we can hope for is that you bring up a if, if it's
49:30
Jesse Love or whoever, and that it something clicks to where it
49:34
can work like it did with Harvick, where they, you know,
49:37
Harvick won what, 3 weeks later or whatever.
49:39
But that's that's so hard. It's just the whole it's so hard
49:42
to show up and everything. I know, I know, it's just so
49:45
hard. I know, I know, it's it's, and
49:49
that's no disrespect to. Jesse love, that's just the
49:51
situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:54
Well, the where? Where that three team was in
49:56
2001 as it felt like they were on the, you know, they had, they
50:00
had been a number of years since they have won a championship 94.
50:04
But it kind of felt like towards the end of 2000 and coming into
50:06
2001, they kind of righted the ship a little bit to where it
50:11
seemed like their prime for debt for Dale to go for #8 right, it
50:15
seemed like. And So what Kevin was, and
50:18
obviously Kevin's a Hall of Fame driver.
50:20
So it worked that they had, as it turns out, they had a Hall of
50:22
Fame talent if they could bring up to fill a seat.
50:25
They didn't know it at the time, maybe, but they did.
50:29
But the bigger thing is there is that they had a team and
50:32
equipment and whatever, whatever the deal was, they had the right
50:35
combo in place to where they were showing up and they knew
50:37
they could compete for wins. And so, yeah, that's not a
50:42
disrespect to Jesse Love. It's just we, we've been talking
50:44
about it like this year, RCR is fighting through it right now,
50:48
you know, and we're rooting like crazy for him to to figure it
50:52
out one way or another. And this is this is a selfish
50:57
fan side of us or me. I, I was with you.
51:00
Like felt like Kyle Busch was too good of a driver and RCR
51:05
works too hard for them not to figure it out at some point.
51:08
And man, it was going to be so sweet once they did figure it
51:11
out. You know, once you saw Kyle like
51:13
taking the bow in Victory Lane with the 8 car and Richard and
51:17
Austin and everybody there, it was going to be so awesome when
51:20
they finally got it back together.
51:21
And again, this is no comparison to the light, the loss of the
51:24
man's life here. But us as fans, it's you feel
51:27
that just it's, it's selfish, but you feel robbed of that,
51:30
that we don't get to see that because we know they were
51:32
working so hard. It was going to happen and and,
51:35
and now it's it's not. So I don't know how they get
51:38
through it. All I know is I'm hoping and
51:40
praying that they do that they figure it out.
51:43
They will. That's what racers do.
51:45
Racers, racers get through these things.
51:48
You just put your head down, you go the next week and you just
51:50
keep on digging and eventually, you know, eventually the sadness
51:54
will wear off, you know, you more back to your business.
51:57
But yeah, I mean, I without getting into all the particulars
52:00
about what children's is going to do, maybe we'll do that next
52:02
week. You know, we start getting into
52:03
such stuff more. I just think, you know, right
52:05
now, just the mourning process of everybody that I was going
52:08
through, I just wanted to point out shoulders because of what
52:10
he's been through and what he's going to go through, what he's
52:13
got to go through right now. You know that we talked about
52:15
the family, we talked about NASCAR, you know, and
52:18
everything. You know, we've talked about the
52:20
impacts. We've talked about it all.
52:22
I mean, I don't, I don't know what else you say, but you have
52:24
things like this happening, man. He just, you know, well.
52:29
You talk about it, the cows come home, really.
52:31
But. Oh yeah?
52:32
Well. I would say our our buddy, our
52:34
pal NASCAR chasm on X and on social media, which if you're
52:40
not following him on social media, I can't imagine you're
52:42
not at this point because he's been around, man, talk about
52:45
maybe just me might be the best follow on NASCAR social media
52:48
because he's really funny. And he's also funny without
52:52
getting in the mudslinging that a lot of us get into on social
52:55
media, which is a pretty that's a hard thing to do.
52:58
Be on social media, be funnier than not.
53:00
Get that mog down in the mudslinging back and forth.
53:03
But I thought the day after Kyle passed, NASCAR Chasm put out a
53:07
tweet that I I saved it because I thought, man, that's so spot
53:11
on, right? He said there's no rule book on
53:13
grieving. Do what you got to do today.
53:17
And I thought that was such a good simple statement, but he's
53:19
exactly right. It's like there's no playbook
53:21
for grieving. Everybody's going to go through
53:23
it. You're going to have all the
53:24
different thoughts. You're going to hate the
53:25
personal parts of it, the selfish parts of it, the
53:28
business parts of it. It's all it's all connecting to
53:31
grieving and it's all stuff that you wish you weren't having to
53:34
sit here and think about and process, but you have to.
53:37
And we all have different ways of doing it.
53:39
We got to do it our own way to get through it.
53:41
But I just thought that was such a is a simple and perfect
53:44
statement, man. There's no, there ain't no rule
53:46
book on it. You just do it.
53:47
However you got to do it. So that's it.
53:50
That's it. Well, I hope.
53:52
Next week, I think we're heading to Nashville next week, you
53:55
know, this is going to be something we're going to be
53:57
talking about for. It's going to come up, I think,
54:01
I bet you every week on lap 8, everybody in the stands going to
54:04
be holding up 8, just like in 2001, everybody was holding up
54:07
three. It's been 25 years.
54:09
People still hold up to three. And you know what, that's OK.
54:12
It's perfectly fine. And if, if the 8 sticks like
54:15
that, heck yeah, I'm all, I'm all for it.
54:17
So it's not going away. We'll keep talking about it.
54:19
But when we come back next week, hopefully we're getting a little
54:23
bit more into the the XS and OS. And he said, he said, and this
54:28
guy's mad this guy for wrecking him or whatever, you know, and
54:31
telling old stories and all that.
54:33
But I think, I don't know. I, I, I think we're all still
54:37
processing all this. And, you know, it is good.
54:41
We need to do this honestly. We need to sit here and do this
54:43
for an hour. So, yeah, that's all I got.
54:47
And you know, on a lighter note, we enjoyed having Yay yay, my
54:52
mom, your wife down here with with my daughter all week.
54:55
And I'm not real sure what I'm supposed to do without her here
54:59
helping with my daughter all the time.
55:02
So if you want to send her on back down, we'll be happy.
55:06
I'll pay for a flight. You know, you probably don't
55:09
need her help or anything. She can come on back down.
55:11
It'll be fine. I can tell you right now.
55:13
Ricky that we're just not. We've got a problem now because
55:17
mom being gone away from a household here and dropped this
55:19
bass just didn't work right. It didn't work out for the
55:24
Rickster. So you know y'all going to have
55:27
to hire you some damn help or something.
55:28
I don't want You have to move closer.
55:31
Move closer. I don't know what to tell you.
55:32
But anyway, we're all where everybody's at.
55:35
Everybody's happy. Yeah, yeah.
55:38
That's. Right, All right, well, I'll, I,
55:39
I'll, I'll take note of that and I'll write that vice down.
55:42
I'll think about it and I'll I'll gnaw on it a little bit
55:44
here for the next week. So all right.
55:47
Dad, well, I enjoyed. It as always and thanks to
55:49
everybody out there for for listening to us.
55:51
Thanks for bearing with us while we had to take a little brief
55:54
hiatus the last couple weeks. Again, I think my schedule's
55:57
lightened up enough now to where I don't know you all care about
56:00
hearing from me, but I won't deprive you of hearing from old
56:04
Papa Rick here every week. So he's Rick at Rick Mass 22 on
56:09
all on X Instagram. I'm at Ricky Mast if you care,
56:13
and we're mass cast show on all the social medias.
56:15
Give us a follow and keep listening to us here on Mass
56:19
cast. So he's Rick.
56:20
I'm Ricky. We'll see you next time.