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Nick Hoffman: One Of The Best Dirt Racers In America | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Happy Friday morning, Nick. We don't have to scream because
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  we have microphones on. Yeah, it's a hell of a product
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  you got. Here.
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  Yeah, coffee with Kenny's getting big time, everybody.
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  Well, as you can tell right now, I'm with Nick Hoffman.
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  And Nick, you're from Belleville, IL.
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  Yeah, right across the river from you.
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  So grew up in the same area. I think a lot of people have
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  seen. We've kind of went the same
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  path, but I ended up here and made a living here.
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  So before we get to everything Nick's up to, and that's what
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  coffee with Kenny has been about lately, we was checking in with
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  Big Brother Rusty Wallace, middle brother Mike, and now
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  Nick, and we're all from the Midwest.
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  But Nick, can we go look? What?
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  Do you have a car here that's got the arch?
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  I do. Pretty much any car that's
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  sitting around here is going to have an arch on.
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  It Let's go to the car. Is this the car you're getting
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  ready to race? Yeah.
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  So there's actually, we'll call this a wrap on veil because we
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  haven't even posted this wrap on the Internet yet.
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  So can. We do.
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  This here on Coffee with Kenny. I got goosebumps.
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  So all right here, here's our. 2026 design Night Owl did it
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  Millbridge print shop is the one that actually printed it for us.
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  But yeah, we changed a couple things.
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  We're we're. Instructing you go that way.
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  All right, Nick, go ahead. Yeah.
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  So I've always had the arch in my number, just being from Saint
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  Louis. I'm proud of Saint Louis and
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  huge sports fan just like you are.
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  But did the Chrome arch, I like it.
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  And we switched. We were normally a blue number.
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  We switched to a white number just because we got so much more
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  blue in the car this year. So I'm going to slide over here
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  a little bit. OK?
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  So let me just point out a couple things that I'm a big fan
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  of. OK, 2 is your number.
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  Explain that to. Yeah, so my dad was number 2, so
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  I just kind of took that from him as most kids would and
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  always put this in my 9:00 just because the 9 is very special to
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  my car owner Ty Torg. So that was always their number
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  when Devin Moran drove and when he when he hired me, he's like,
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  hey, I got 1 stipulation. You got to be #9 I was like,
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  that's fine. Like I'll make it whatever
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  number you. Want you know, but I'll put a
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  little 2 right? I got to have the.
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  Two in there and then the arch. Yeah, so that's always been my
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  deal. Kind of been a symbol to me, you
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  know, any of my merch stuff and all that, that stuff.
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  So did a Chrome arch just because.
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  I'm going to get out of the way going going to do a do a 360
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  here. Anything else new Nick or just
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  just a lot of blue and I like the.
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  Blue a lot of blue and then trying to tie fluorescent orange
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  into, you know, making it all flow.
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  Obviously no synergy drinks been with me for.
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  A couple years, don't be showing that chancy stuff now.
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  Stay high. But.
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  Pretty much all the same sponsors come back for this
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  year. Very fortunate for everybody
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  that helps us. Everybody knows this late mile
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  deal is very expensive and and tough to do and, and Ty Torrigo
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  owns all this stuff, but it's obviously out of my race shop.
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  So really cool. But he's allowed me to do here
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  and basically control the entire program.
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  OK, let's go to the middle of the shop and then we'll check
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  in. I I do want to point out that I
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  feel like this is the late Mile area, man, he's been winning.
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  He's been winning a lot of money in my world.
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  These checks, these, these aren't no modified checks.
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  There's no $700.00 man. I see one over here 30,000.
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  Yeah. And the funny part about that
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  check, that race was supposed to pay 75 and we got, we got rained
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  out on the prelim night. So they cut it down to 30, which
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  30 is still a great day. But you just look back at that,
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  that could have been 75 grand. These are from this year down in
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  Florida, was able to win the Gator Championship and then won
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  the next week down in Henry County.
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  So yeah, started to kind of fill this area up and mostly modified
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  stuff over there. Some of my first late model
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  checks on the wall. But yeah, my first Outlaw win,
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  that was pretty cool at state line.
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  And then, yeah, I could have really loaded this wall up.
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  I still got probably 50 or so more checks upstairs.
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  He's got OK, so upstairs, like if, if one check is this thin,
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  he's got 3 feet of them. I won 69 Hell Tour races.
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  I was going to load this thing up with 6915 hundred to win 69.
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  So yeah, the big paying ones are obviously most prominent, so you
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  want to put them up on the wall. Yeah, that's a big deal.
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  You've come a long way. I think I always come from a
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  racer standpoint. So, you know, you started in
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  Saint Louis, you started with Mike Mittler.
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  I went, I went to Mittler Brothers and I'm looking up
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  there and I'm like, Oh my God, Nick Hoffman ran a NASCAR truck
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  on asphalt. Yeah, a lot of people don't even
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  know that I ran that whole path of asphalt.
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  Racing. Yeah, you did.
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  And that's part of the reason why I drive on dirt the way I
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  do. It's just.
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  You drive straight. Yes, and that's because of my
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  asphalt background. Yeah.
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  You move down here to North Carolina, it's all asphalt
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  racing, you know. So I, you know, I grew up around
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  it and so I started racing on asphalt and that's every kids
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  dream is go to NASCAR. So not everybody's fortunate
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  enough to do that. I was having a conversation with
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  one of your friends, Kyle Larson and and Kyle made the subtle
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  statement. If you watch Kenny conversation
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  with Kyle Larson, he says all those dirt guys are making a
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  living now. You know, if you go to Brad
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  suite, which is Kyle Larson's brother-in-law, he said like the
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  top three in the World of Outlaw Sprint cars, they can make some
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  good bank because they got good sponsorship.
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  Where do you see the World of Outlaw late models right now?
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  You know, from zero to say 10 or even 20, I don't know what I'm
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  talking about. Are you guys make?
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  I mean, I know you're making a living.
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  Obviously you got the chassis shot.
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  Yeah, I get this question a lot because, you know, you get your
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  guys that are mid range guys towards the back that probably
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  aren't doing as well, but they got enough sponsorship or
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  whatever. So I am fortunate with my
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  chassis business and everything else I got going on here.
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  I can, you know, do pretty decent and let you know we're
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  winning races and, you know, more races you win and more
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  money you make. So yeah, I mean, across, you
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  know, the Lucas series and the Outlaws, there's, you know,
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  probably 15 guys that are doing OK, doing pretty good as far as
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  making a living just racing dirt late models.
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  But it all comes down to whatever their contracts are.
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  Everybody on the late model side's a little bit different.
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  I feel like the drivers aren't paid as much as the Sprint car
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  guys, or at least you know what I.
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  Hear I hear the Sprint car guys is up to as much as 50%.
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  Yeah, a lot of them are right around that number where?
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  And you guys? Side is not that.
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  Way what is? It I would say anywhere from
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  I've seen as low as 20 to 25% and I think on the high end is
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  40%. So you know, it just if you're
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  running really well. I think the, the bigger teams,
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  the more top teams, the drivers end up getting less percentage,
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  but they get other endorsements, you know what I mean?
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  But it just kind of depends. Everybody sets their deal up a
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  little bit different. It's that old cliche.
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  Everybody skins the cat a different way.
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  Yeah, yeah, some guys got big money when they start the year
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  and other guys need to win and. Everybody can.
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  So either way it goes, it's all performance based.
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  You know, if you're on out there and you're winning races, you're
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  going to get paid more money. So yeah.
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  And if you got a couple bad weeks or months, it can go that
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  way pretty quick. Everybody knows that.
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  So luckily I got my chassis business so I can make a little
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  bit of money throughout the week.
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  I will have to throw this in there.
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  I think it's super exciting from my standpoint because the way I
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  grew up that you have something to fall back on.
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  I think that's awesome and, and I look around in the dirt racing
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  world and a lot of people don't have things to fall back on.
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  Elite chassis. I mean you're you're building
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  them as fast as you can. What was the stat down at
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  Volusia? I think you won just about every
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  race. Yeah, damn near 80% of them.
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  So, yeah, had a hovel speed week.
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  So it was really good. And yeah, we're very busy.
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  I mean, we had, I told you this yesterday, we had eight cars in
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  here at the beginning of the week and now we've rounded down
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  to to four, so. Without zooming in, can we look
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  at that chassis right here? Yeah, yeah.
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  So. We'll keep talking.
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  I want to get to the start of the year.
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  Enough people have jigged these cars.
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  They're all over the Internet. Hold on hold.
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  On Come here, say that again. Yeah, enough people have jigged
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  my SO, But as Scott Blooms was saying, anybody can trace, but
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  only a few can draw. Right.
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  Oh, good stuff. Yeah, I think that needs to be
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  in here. But that that is a compliment to
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  you. And I've watched you build elite
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  chassis and your cars are they grip hard, they wheelie a little
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  bit. They're very I can tell one of
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  your cars when it's on the track.
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  I'm like, oh, that's one of Nick's cars.
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  And it's crazy, like down in Florida, there was multiple cars
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  I'd watch on the racetrack and it's like, it's one of my cars,
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  you know? I just didn't even know it.
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  There's so many of them out there now.
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  I got them racing probably over 300 cars across the country now.
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  So like you get down to Florida and it's like, oh hell, that's
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  an elite car. I didn't even know.
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  And that thing was built probably 10 years ago now.
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  So they hold their value. Let me know when we get to 12
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  minutes. Give me a one minute warning and
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  make sure you speak out because all these coffee with Kenny's
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  have been 12 minutes lately. OK, where are we at right now?
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  We're. About to be.
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  At 990, we got more to go. OK, let's start at the start of
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  the year. Just quickly.
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  You were incredible at Volusia but but I was very impressed
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  because you went to Hendry, which is.
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  I was impressed too. Like I, I did not expect to
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  really. It just didn't fit my Forte and
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  I had to go back to some of my notes of like Highland and the
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  Dome and like that. I mean, just the way it was
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  shaped, it was very wheel spinning.
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  Like look at my notes of like some of those holes we go to
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  like Highland and I love it. Yeah.
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  And had to pull some of that and was able to get around there
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  decent. So it very sandy.
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  The, you know, wheel spinning wasn't a great racetrack for me,
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  but I ended up making it work and and win the race.
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  I think it's just my take. I think Henry County is the
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  surprise of the start of the year for me.
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  Just the track itself, because we'd watch the mods run there.
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  Like, I can't believe they're going to go there with late
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  models, but by the time you you, you get your nemesis, you get
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  Bobby Pierce to the high side, he's cleaning it off.
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  You might get, you know, other drivers up there, but it it
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  seemed like it put it on a hell of a show.
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  It did it. It exceeded all of our
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  expectations. They did a really good job.
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  And a lot of that just comes from, you know, really good race
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  car drivers out on the race show.
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  You get Bobby and St. Ethan Dawson and Drake Trotman
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  up there trying to run the top. You know, they're going to
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  hustle it harder than pretty much anybody in the country, you
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  know, so they're going to make something work.
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  And then I just kind of moseied right around that infield.
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  You you kept your roll speed good.
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  Yeah, and that's what I I had to, I mean, most of the time
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  like I can never stop and go. So like places like Highland,
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  those type of stuff I suck at. And so that place I was able to
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  circle just a little bit to keep speed, but.
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  I want to say this years ago, Jack Hewitt, you know, Hewitt
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  always ran high. And he said I'd rather lose
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  running high then the wind running low.
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  And some of those guys, they're just going to go up there and
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  they leave you all that fresh dirt down near the bottom.
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  Yeah, and all they're doing is selling T-shirts up there.
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  I thought he wants a guy that's just going to Mosey around the
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  infield like me, but, you know, selling T-shirts on the curb.
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  I mean, I'll run up there. It's just I knew, you know,
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  Bobby wasn't making speed on me up there and he can do it better
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  than I can. He's going to make work up
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  there, too. Yeah, so like I was like, it
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  ain't even worth my time to even try it, so.
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  Afterwards, quarter panel and the whole spoiler.
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  Just yes or no? Just a quick look.
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  Yeah. OK, so I, I just don't want to
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  brag on you. I think you're set up really
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  good. So there's a framing cage and
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  we'll just do in and out. Hopefully this is Hopefully this
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  is one of the cleanest chassis shops that you'll ever see.
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  OK, that's enough. That's enough.
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  But yeah, I try and keep this place as clean as possible, and
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  even back there some guys do a really good job at making sure
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  everything's cleaned up. And right now we're in the
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  process of CNC bending the laser notch and everything, and we're
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  getting pretty close. On I'm impressed up here too.
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  You, you got it to where they're almost kicked cars, I mean.
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  Yeah, I had to. I mean, I don't have a a ton of
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  employees and I'm pretty much bending up all the bodies
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  myself, so I made it where everything's water jetted and
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  done. You work really hard with low
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  overhead. Yeah, you have to, right?
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  Yeah. OK.
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  So we're going to end like this. Everybody's nodding his head.
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  This is Friday morning. You're trying to go to Bulls
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  Gap. The weather is.
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  Are we going to be all right? Yeah, I think so.
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  Looks like it's going to clear out.
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  We we should be fine. So hopefully have another decent
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  weekend. OK, do good, Nick.
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  All right, everybody, I'm here because I got a new body on my
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  race car. Nick did some updates.
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  Till the next coffee with Kenny.