Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Rick Mast Talks Alex Bowman's Win, Bubba Wallace's Fine, Hailie Deegan Losing Her Ride & More!

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Rick Mast Talks Alex Bowman's Win, Bubba Wallace's Fine, Hailie Deegan Losing Her Ride & More! · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
What's up everybody, and welcome back to the Rick Mass show.
0:03
I am Charlie Marlowe. That is the great Rick Mass.
0:06
I promise you we're going to get to Rick's amazing 4th of July
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fireworks show a little bit later, but some fireworks on
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track Rick in Chicago with this street course race.
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And you know, I, I feel bad for Chicago also because look, the
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Xfinity race was really cool, but two straight years they have
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this great event and they just get the worst weather luck for
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the second year in a row. I know, you know, it's a shame.
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I was telling somebody the other day it it's like, you know, the
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The Saturdays Xfinity race man it it kind of showed what the
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track could do because you know, going into a road course last
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year, you're like all a stupid Rd. course because we watched
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that in F1. We watch it in any card or
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they're terrible races, but they built, you know, they built
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passing zones into this track when they did it right.
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So I'm like, well, we'll see. Well, we've had two years of
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frigging rain. And it, it, it's, it, it, I felt
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the same way. I felt bad for everybody,
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everybody associated with that race because I, I think just
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watching the Xfinity race, it would been a hell of a cup race,
1:06
right? But you know, because of the
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rain, we just, I mean, still, there's enough drama and enough
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excitement and all the stuff was going on, you know, it was still
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cool. And it was one of the most most
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watched races too. Charlie, I don't if you saw the
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numbers, but I feel what the numbers were.
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But I'm like, man, if this thing had to be raining, you know, you
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know, what could it have been? And oh it it is what it is
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though. So what do you think about Alex
1:30
Bowman winning? And just big picture, here's a
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guy who's with arguably the best team in NASCAR, Hendrick
1:37
Motorsports. And and lately he's been kind of
1:39
the one. I don't know if if black sheep
1:42
is a is a fair term, but you have Chase Elliott who's won a
1:45
championship and Kyle Larson's won a championship and William
1:49
Byron is always winning races. And here's Alex Bowman finally
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breaking this whatever it is, 80 race winless streak and he's
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gone through a lot. He had the the head injury, he
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had the wreck in his Sprint car and messed up his back.
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So good to see Alex Bowman finally finding a Victory Lane
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again. Yeah, it is, Charlie.
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And I'll tell you something. We years ago when we was running
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the Busch Series with my crew, guys, we'd be traveling up down
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the road in the middle of the night or stopping at the stores
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and getting gas and heating. And there's always one guy Flop.
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And everybody knows Flop here from back in the day.
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But every time we get out of the truck, he'd be the last one
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getting out of the truck. When we go in the store, we'd
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come back to the truck, try to leave.
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He'd always be the last one. We were waiting on him.
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He's always the last one to get back in the truck, right?
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And if we went to the motel, leaving the motel, leaving the
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truck, going to the truck, he was like, finally one time I
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looked and I said, Flop, why? Why are you always so slow?
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Why are you the last one everywhere we go to do
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something? He said, Rick, somebody's got to
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be last. Somebody's going to be last at
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everything you do, right? And that's kind of where
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Bowman's been in this deal with the with the four Hendrick
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teams. He's been the last guy or the
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you know, and, and that's only because of where he's been
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running on the racetrack and, and the performance and how he
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he's finishing. And for those guys to get a
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victory, I thought was pretty cool.
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I mean, you know, you you have to love somebody like Alex
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Bowman. I mean, what what amazed me when
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they they told his story after that race on social media.
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So people are talking about his story, you know, which we all
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know, which was a typical broke racer trying to make it right
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and the struggles ahead. And it it Mays be the number of
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people that didn't know that story about Alex.
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They didn't know, you know, what he went through and the whole
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deal to get there. In fact, some of like quite a
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few people didn't even remember him being injured.
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Right, which tells me bad is there.
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Is there fans that tits his fan this small or do we have a bunch
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of new fans right now that doesn't know the Alex Bowman
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story? I don't know what what it what
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it is, but you know, I I just thought it was so cool because
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because of who the guy is and what he's been through and and
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and getting to where he got to. And, you know, we we all want
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him to do a bit. We all want Alex Bowman to be a
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prolific winner. I think the sport's better off
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if he becomes that. So we'll see.
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And what do you think of some, some drama there on the cooldown
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lap? You always got to have some,
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some drama with these races. And little, little bit of
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breaking news earlier today. We're recording here on
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Thursday. So Bubba Wallace was fined
4:21
$50,000 by NASCAR and he hits Alex Bowman on the cooldown lap.
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Alex Bowman goes into the wall and Alex Bowman discussed this
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and said, look, he he basically cleaned out Bubba Wallace
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earlier in the race. And maybe it's because Bowman
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won and he was euphoric. He didn't seem to be really
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bothered by what happened with Bubba and even said, look,
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during the rain delay, I shot him a text.
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I said, hey, man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that.
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But then Alex Bowman wins the race.
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And look, those two were right there battling basically for
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that last playoff spot. Bubba is still battling.
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Now obviously Alex Bowman is in, but always good to have a little
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drama even if it's post race. What do you think?
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Big deal or or not a big deal? I honestly, honestly Charlie, I
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didn't think it was that big a deal.
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A little bit surprised about the amount of the fine and I and I
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guess, I guess I haven't heard what and they'll put the
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statement out. I haven't heard the reasoning,
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but I guess it was the severity of the of the hit, right?
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Because I'm hell, I've had it done to me and I've done it to
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other guys. The race is over and I go up and
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I'll rub them, you know, run into them a little bit, body
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slam them a little bit just to let them know that I wasn't
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appreciative of whatever they did to me.
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And I've done it to other guys to some degree.
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But the severity of Bubba's hit, right, How hard he turned into
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the car. I'm assuming that's the reason
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they did that, right, Because then we go later, we got Chase
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and Suarez doing whatever they did after the race.
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It took a little he I think Chase took a little swipe at him
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right, But and there was no fine for that.
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So I get, I guess it's the severity of it, you know, and I
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just there, there, there a couple things here.
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I think they're, they're making an example.
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They're going to make an example.
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Don't be doing this anymore. We had a host of our last week
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or a couple weeks ago turned the dude, you know, that was under
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cost and all that, that was during the race.
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This was over with probably trying to make a statement.
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Don't be doing this. And, and it may be, it may be
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in, in races. We have what we call the
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goodwill bank. You know, you have you have this
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bank and, and in your mind, each driver has a bank in your mind
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and you have a goodwill part of that.
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So this driver out here, he's got a lot in the goodwill bank
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with me. If he hits me, yeah, OK, no big
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deal. Or that guy, there's got nothing
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left in my bank and he touches me, he's going to get his ass
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wrecked back. Right.
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Well, I think NASCAR plays that game a little bit too with the
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goodwill bank. You know what, what, what kind
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of trouble have you been in? What, what skirmishes have you
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caused? What's your track record?
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What's the record with doing things you shouldn't be doing
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and I'm not that may have come into play a little bit here with
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Bubba more than being just one one isolated incidents.
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I don't know that I don't know what it is.
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But you know, I need to get to Bubba, man.
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Bubba need Bubba needs some. You know, I was big Bubba
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Wallace family first came in and it seems like Bubba gets
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yourself in trouble, man. And, and, and, and for, for, I
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don't know how to say it. It's like, it's like, and I'm
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sure with that team and their resources and everything that
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goes on and Bubba's, you know, he, he, he publicly talks about
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his depression issues he goes through and, you know, working
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with the head shrinks and working on all that stuff.
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I'm just not 100% positive. Excuse me, I'm not 100%
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positive. Bubba's got to the right
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headband yet, right? It's like Bubba, come to
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Rockbridge Bass, spend five or six days up here in the
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mountains with me for like a week, you know what I mean?
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And when you leave, you might have a little bit different
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perspective on how you view the sport and how you view the world
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around the sport and how people view you and what's really
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important and not important. And, you know, but I don't I
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don't think mentally he's there yet.
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He, he, he's and and he's short fused and that that causes the
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the immediate things you see is a short fuse this September.
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And hey, hey, Ben, that's fine. Everybody has those deals,
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right? But it keeps on getting Bubba in
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trouble, you know, And anyhow, I think he should come to
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Rockbridge Bass. What do you think, Charlie?
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Maybe a week. That would be fun.
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That would be fun. Maybe we could also turn that
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into a podcast or maybe like a mini documentary.
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How about that? That would be cool.
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Now, some of it could not be recorded.
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OK, There's some of it, because there'd be some very hard talk,
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very hard talks at times, yes. For sure.
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All right. What's your just kind of big
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picture thoughts on street course racing?
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Do you like it? I I really like kind of these
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one off events. I don't know if they're going to
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do it forever. You know, maybe you do Chicago
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for, for three years. I'm sure they want to get into
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these big markets. You know, probably maybe a
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street course race somewhere around Los Angeles.
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I, I know there's been discussion about somewhere
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around New York City. Obviously NASCAR wants to get
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into these big non traditional NASCAR markets, the huge media
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markets. So, So what do you think about
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that? But also just St. course racing
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should, should there be at least one St. course every year?
9:34
Should they do it every every 3-4 or five years?
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What do you think? Charlie, my problem personally,
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I didn't like the lucky dog deal.
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All right, getting your lap back.
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I didn't like segment racing. I didn't like the the points
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playoff championship deal. I didn't like any of this crap.
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But guess what? I love that stuff now, all
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right, it's just the the traditionalist in me that that
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resisted whenever there's a change that I'm just immediately
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said, no, I ain't gonna like that, right?
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And they do it and you end up loving it, which I did.
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Street racing falls in that same category for Rick Mask.
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Dude, I, I, you know, I'm, I'm like, and I think the reason is
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you watch Indycars, you watch F1 street race and it helps them
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move. I mean, you, you might as well
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watch grass grow. It's, it's the most boring stuff
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to try to watch a lot of these St. races.
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And that's the, that's the take you have coming in when, when
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NASCAR decides they're going to go street race.
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And I'm like, of course, when they first announced Chicago,
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I'm like, oh, crap, here we go through all these stupid boring
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races. Well, it turns out they
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purposely, as we stated earlier, they purposely built in passing
10:37
zones in this track, right? We haven't got the witness it
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much last couple years really the true deal because of rain,
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although we watched passes. But the the Xfinity again, the
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the Xfinity deal shows they can pass.
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And the thing about a road course is, and I, I think what
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makes the most Rd. courses boring are not good to watch, is
10:57
no passing because there's no passing zones.
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And if you build St. courses with passing zones, I think it
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works. I really think it works.
11:05
And, you know, the excitement of being in the middle of downtown
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Chicago and, and introducing the sport to people that have never
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seen the sport, have nothing to do with it, don't know anything
11:15
about it, you know, and numbers don't lie, Charlie.
11:18
I mean, numbers don't lie. How in the hell do we get such a
11:21
large TV audits? Yeah, it was on.
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It was on the main broadcast deal.
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I get that there's no doubt, but still people had to turn to that
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Channel and stay on there and watch that race.
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So there there's definitely an appeal there that maybe I don't
11:35
fully comprehend yet, right, But definitely there's one there.
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And again, it it it brings new people to the sport.
11:41
So you know, as long as they can pass each other and not follow
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the leader like those other stupid things.
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Do you know I'm I'm all. I'm all for it, honestly, I
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really AM. Yeah, I think the last two years
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for the Cup race, we've kind of been robbed of some of the
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really picturesque visuals of downtown Chicago because it's so
12:01
rainy Now, if if you watch the Xfinity race or the qualifying,
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so we're talking Saturday morning, all throughout
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Saturday, some of those aerial shots and some of those drone
12:12
shots where you saw the skyscrapers, you saw the lake.
12:17
It was really, really cool. And I think some of that it just
12:21
doesn't translate as well when it's always rainy.
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You got raindrops sometimes on the on the cameras, right.
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You got the in car cameras and they got the windshield wipers
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and it just doesn't look as nice.
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But Saturday looked awesome and and look, most people that are
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casual sports fans, they're not going to watch the Xfinity race,
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but they're going to give that Cup race a shot.
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And I think a lot of people did the last two years.
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But it would have been even better if you can just imagine
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if it was sunny and then and then Sunday's race as the sun is
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setting. You'd have seen some really,
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really cool visuals. Yeah.
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And and you think you take that and compare it to like, of
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course you can never do it downtown Manhattan.
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I don't guess right. But any of those places like it
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like a Houston deal, right? Chicago's doing it all those
13:10
places. I don't think you do it in San
13:12
Francisco. You might, although we did the
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we did the show car deal across San Francisco Bridge and Golden
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Gate Bridge. I told you about that the
13:20
earlier episode. But yeah, I, you know, if you
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gosh, I don't know, again, it's just trying to go into other
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markets. It's trying to, to make things
13:32
exciting and more exciting. And, and again, the numbers
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don't lie, but I, I, I don't know if, if we could, you always
13:40
thought, Charlie, if a man could patent something that would
13:42
drive the racetrack, if you could just drive the race track,
13:45
right? You had a, you had a widget that
13:48
you patent and you're like, all right, the race track's dry, all
13:50
right. And you can do that in the rain.
13:52
You can become a Zee there. But if you did that, then you
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did, the whole world would change.
13:56
But I'm getting off on something here.
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I had a thought, but I don't remember what it was now.
14:01
But I don't know. It sets up other things too,
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Charlie. When we go to these places, we
14:07
have our drivers or you know, you have your favorites, you
14:10
know, then you go to a track like that and you have somebody
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like SVG won the race last year and had a shot at winning this
14:21
thing this year and, and got taken out.
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And he's really, I was thinking about this during the race.
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He's really the first one that's come along that we call a ringer
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that actually makes a difference.
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Back when I first came in, in the 9, early 90s, late 80s,
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early 90s, we go to Sears Points and Watkins Sears Point and
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Watkins Glen or Sonoma now. And all the teams, they, they
14:44
put an extra cause a lot of the teams, they do an extra car and
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they bring a ringer in what we call a road course ringer.
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Back in those days, the Irv Harris, right?
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And before us, the, the Dan Gurney's and all all that stuff
14:56
for Nellie Jones. And then you go into Boris Said
14:59
and all that group and these guys would go out and practice.
15:04
I, I remember watching this, we'd go out and practice and
15:06
qualify and man, you'd be running and these guys be a
15:09
second faster than you, right? And you'd qualify and out
15:13
qualify your butt and you'd be out there and you're like and,
15:17
and and honestly, a lot of these guys would do that.
15:20
And and and it was a big deal, but for but by the time the race
15:25
was over, was over. Most of them for the most part,
15:29
or the they for the most part, I don't think any of them ever
15:30
won, right. And they would relegate
15:33
themselves backwards. In other words, we, the regulars
15:36
would would overcome what would happen is during the course of
15:41
the race, we, the drivers would overcome our Rd. racing
15:45
deficiencies, right? And because of the talent of the
15:48
guys we had, they would end up out running those guys towards
15:51
the end of the by the end of all these races.
15:53
And but it went on for years. It went on to both race tracks,
15:57
Watkins Glen and Sonoma. And over time it seemed like
16:01
kind of went away the the the road race ringers, you know,
16:05
just and they talk about it on TVA lot, they stopped having
16:08
that advantage. You'd, we, they just the vantage
16:11
wasn't there like it used to be. Well here all of a sudden 20 or
16:16
30 years later, after all this stuff went away here as SVG
16:19
comes along and he's he's there's that advantage again.
16:24
And what, what you see now with him is what we saw 3030 years
16:28
ago with these guys. The difference being he would
16:31
still be there at the end of the race and win the race, right.
16:34
So I know it got off on tangents.
16:37
You were talking about drones and how pretty, how pretty the
16:39
background was, but I was more like into the road racing part.
16:43
Yeah, it's all good. So, OK, getting back to the
16:46
actual racing part, how, how do you feel about the whole the
16:49
tires, the the wets versus slicks and, and we've seen this
16:53
now what twice? I I like the fact, first of all,
16:56
you can get on the track quicker and don't have to sit out the
16:59
rain delay as long it, it obviously brings up some very
17:02
interesting strategy you saw at the end of that race.
17:05
There you have Alex Bowman taking a risk.
17:08
You have Tyler Reddick with a, with a chance.
17:10
He was obviously faster at the end, ran out of laps to try to
17:13
catch Alex Bowman. They, they obviously called the
17:16
race, they had it kind of timed there.
17:19
But what do you think about these, these tires?
17:21
I I think it adds a a new wrinkle that's pretty
17:24
interesting if you enjoy the strategy of racing.
17:26
It's a big, it's a big wrinkle, Charlie.
17:28
And, and what, what makes it a wrinkle is, is if NASCAR let's
17:32
the teams decide what to do, that's, that's, that's the key
17:36
to that tire, right? That's the whole key.
17:38
You NASCAR says, all right, guys, you got 2 tires, you got
17:42
the dry tire and you got the wet tire.
17:43
You decide what you're going to put on and you decide when
17:47
you're going to put it on, all right, If you if you turn it
17:50
loose like that, man, you got a million different scenarios
17:54
that's going to go on each time we run these tires.
17:56
If if that start and if that start dictates or on this stop,
17:59
you've got to put range or this stop, you've got slicks on
18:02
right? Well, when they dictate like
18:04
that, you almost have to dictate that you go in the pitch and put
18:10
these tires on. You going to hold your position.
18:13
In other words, if you run in 10th, you come in and do this,
18:15
everybody comes in at the same time, changes the type of tire,
18:18
you're going to go back out 10th, right?
18:21
So they have to kind of do it that way if they're going to
18:24
dictate the tire. So that throws all that could be
18:29
extra strategy out the window. But if you just turn it loose,
18:32
let NASCAR let the teams decide what they're going to do, then
18:35
that gives you all these different scenarios.
18:37
And let's face it, that's what one, that's what one Bowman race
18:40
up there the other day, right? Gambling on the wet tire in this
18:43
strategy and, but so many of our races are, are, are one on
18:47
strategy. You know, it, it it and really
18:49
the strategies when they have the green white checkers, the
18:51
strategy is how do you duck the Rex and and end up up front?
18:55
But but you know, there's still the whole race is strategy based
18:59
in in, in, in in the guys that that I get We talked about this
19:04
before trial. When the race starts, most guys
19:07
look at the checkered flag and you work, you work that race
19:10
with checker flag back, right. So then that what that does, it
19:13
takes out the equation of the, the green white checkers,
19:16
everything's thrown out the window and the, the, the wet
19:19
slick tire. You just can't really
19:21
strategize, man. You have or, or ahead of ahead
19:24
of time. You have to do that on the go
19:27
and, and anytime, and we've proved this, these, these teams
19:31
have proved it. It proved this.
19:32
Anytime you've got to strategize on, on the on the run, right?
19:37
It's a, it's a, a, a quick second decision that makes
19:41
things better. Case in point, Bristol, Bristol
19:44
this year when they had the tires that were so bad and these
19:46
guys had no idea what was thrown at them when they when they woke
19:50
up that morning, when they threw the green flag, green flag,
19:52
these crew chiefs had no idea what they were facing.
19:55
And 30 laps in the race, they're like all their ends are
19:57
exploding, right? And we watched this the whole
20:00
race, and it made for all kinds of drama, all kinds of
20:03
excitement. It was one of the neatest deals
20:05
I've ever saw or ever seen with with a cup racing.
20:09
And that all has to go back to curveballs being thrown at these
20:14
guys that have the whole race figured out a week in advance
20:18
how we're going to do this race, right.
20:20
So you know, anytime you throw a curveball at it and and it makes
20:24
it very good and the rain tire does that in my opinion.
20:29
And in the Xfinity Series, now some big news.
20:32
So Haley Deegan parting ways with AM Racing.
20:35
You kind of saw this coming with Joey Logano running her car this
20:39
past weekend at Chicago. Obviously wasn't doing well,
20:43
28th in the standings. And I think there was this
20:45
thought because she was in trucks.
20:48
And look, it seems like everybody just cleans everybody
20:50
out in the Truck Series. And she was getting cleaned out
20:53
a lot. And I think there was this
20:54
thought that when she moved up to Xfinity, there's a little
20:58
more racing, maybe she would do better.
21:01
That has not been the case. I believe she's 22 years old.
21:04
So what do you think about her situation and potentially what's
21:07
next for Haley? BA couple things about that,
21:10
Charlie #1II. I'm just not one that, that,
21:15
that, that blindly goes along with the same.
21:18
Well, they were moved up too quick or they were put in this
21:20
position too quick. I, I, I, you know, in some
21:23
cases, yeah. Some cases, yeah, I think it
21:28
really goes back to the amount of talent you got.
21:32
Like in her case, maybe maybe she's thrown in there too quick.
21:35
Maybe she should have spent more time down.
21:38
But you know, a lot of times you don't develop the the driver
21:43
technique. You you've got technique that
21:45
you've got to develop because you're with a lesser quality of
21:50
driver. OK.
21:51
And when you move up, you each time you move up in in our
21:54
sport, no matter where it is, you, you get into a better
21:57
quality of driver that you have to compete against.
21:59
And by compete against, you also learn those guys.
22:02
So I, I, you know, in her case, may it could be maybe I'm wrong,
22:06
maybe totally she moved up too quick.
22:08
Maybe that is it. I don't know.
22:11
But I, I just, I just have trouble every time I hear that
22:15
driver was moved up too quickly. Yeah, You know, I, I because in
22:19
my mind, I think if you if you're really talented and
22:22
you've got it and you're smart. OK.
22:24
And you study that, you study your trade, you're going to show
22:28
even though overall you're going to have problems, you're going
22:32
to show glimpses of you know, look at here man, look what that
22:35
car is doing, how where they come from, right?
22:38
It might be lap, might be map lap 112, you know what I mean?
22:42
Or on a certain run or a certain segment, but all of a sudden
22:45
there's Haley digging or whatever.
22:47
They're leading, right? Or they're trying to, they're
22:49
battling for the lead, right? And at the end of the day, they
22:52
might finish 20th. But you'll see glimpses.
22:55
You'll see glimpses of these things.
22:58
Now, that's part one. Part 2 is not really to Haley,
23:02
but you know, basically women, female drivers in our sport.
23:08
There is no doubt about mine. And I have said this for years
23:11
and I know everybody else knows this and that one of the reasons
23:14
they they grab gravitate towards these guys.
23:17
The first time the first lady comes along female that becomes
23:23
a prolific winner in our sport possible champion.
23:27
You are setting on an absolute gold mine, folks.
23:32
I mean, a gold mine that that that particular driver person,
23:36
the team owner, the team that invested in that person, the
23:39
people that got behind them, they're all it'd be like mining
23:43
for Goldman. And all of a sudden you hit the
23:45
big, you hit the big mother lode worth beads, right?
23:48
It's the same way. It's the same way with a with a
23:51
female driver. And to this point that hasn't
23:55
happened, right? Will it ever happened?
23:57
Hell, I don't know. I mean, I look back golly in in
24:01
my career in the Bush days, Elton Sawyer's wife, Patty
24:04
Louise, she came along, you know, she she did an Admiral job
24:07
in the Bush series gospel. If we go back to Janet Guther
24:10
and even Louise Smith, was that her name in the 50s, the first
24:13
female driver, I think, and all through the years.
24:17
But, and then I, I, I look at all these drives, Wally, Wally
24:21
Dallenbach's wife, Robin, just so many of these guys.
24:24
And probably probably one of the best that I ever drove, drove
24:29
against or, or competed against was Shauna Robinson.
24:32
I don't know if you remember that name, Shauna Robinson.
24:34
She's still around. She's fighting some health
24:36
issues now. But you know, she was a very,
24:39
extremely talented race car driver.
24:40
And you know, for whatever reasons, it didn't happen.
24:44
Then probably the most well known prolific of course, been
24:47
Danica, Danica Patrick. And she came along and she was
24:51
very marketable. You know, everybody in the world
24:54
knew that name. And she brought GoDaddy and, you
24:57
know, she brought money into our sport.
24:58
She had a team, I mean, brought money that gave that fed crew
25:01
guys for a number of years with a team she's with.
25:04
And you know, that worked. But the problem is she didn't,
25:08
you know, she, it wasn't competitive.
25:11
You know, it wasn't for the lack of trying.
25:14
I knew I didn't know Danica that spoke to her a couple times, but
25:17
I knew the guys that worked with her, they all said she had the
25:20
desire and the want to and the work ethic to make it happen,
25:23
but, you know, for whatever reasons it didn't happen.
25:26
So, you know, the deal with Haley, Yeah, she's the next, you
25:32
know, next young female star that we're going to promote and
25:35
try to make work make happen. And guess what, Charlie?
25:37
It didn't happen. Or at this to this point, it
25:40
hasn't happened. Not saying it's over for, I
25:42
mean, hopefully she'll be the next big deal, right?
25:44
But so far it hasn't happened. Yeah, I think what's interesting
25:48
with her as well is, look, she is so marketable.
25:51
You have her dad, Brian Danger Deegan going back to the X
25:55
Games. Look, she's a a very attractive
25:57
young woman. She has a huge following here on
26:00
YouTube. She brings sponsors.
26:02
You have Monster Energy and all that.
26:03
And we all know, look, there's some, there's some male drivers
26:07
who who maybe have their rides because they can be attached to
26:12
money and sponsors and all that. And, and, and maybe they're not
26:15
one of the top 36 or 40 drivers that should be in Cup or Xfinity
26:19
or whatever it is. So I guess my question is kind
26:21
of, even if you're acknowledging that, that she's not ready yet,
26:26
right, That she's not there yet, I, I do think there's an
26:29
interesting balance in what she brings to the sport in terms of
26:34
eyeballs and, and maybe young girls and her YouTube following.
26:38
I I would think even if she's not running up front, it's
26:41
definitely good for the sport. If she's in it, I would think
26:44
NASCAR would want to keep her in it.
26:46
I agree the mark ability of what she brings, I mean, you, you hit
26:49
on, you hit on the you hit and you hit on the points that that
26:52
makes her viable. It makes some of these people
26:54
like her viable, right? I mean the, the, all the points
26:58
you just made are very valid points.
26:59
And we, we need that we use that.
27:01
We, we can use that to our advantage And and there's no
27:05
doubt but but, but the, the, the downside is there are people
27:09
then that within the sport or like, well, she's taking money
27:13
away from somebody that could really shine with it, right.
27:18
And I know I remember back, I go back a little bit to the Bush
27:23
days and and I mentioned Patty Mawis a while ago.
27:26
Patty Mawis was very heavily promoted by different factors
27:29
that are sport one being Buick, all right, Buick automotive
27:32
division and Buick, she was on a Buick deal and they supplied,
27:37
you know, a lot of stuff for her for her career and she had done
27:40
rail and road racing. Well, what ended up happening
27:42
with Patty, a lot of folks there was animosity in the garage area
27:46
because they're they're looking at Patty and saying, well, man,
27:49
she's got that Buick deal going, right?
27:51
Gets free motors and all the stuff she gets that could be
27:54
going to somebody that could be going to me, right?
27:58
Not me personally, Rick, but I'm just saying that was kind of the
28:02
mindset that some of the folks I remember had.
28:04
And they're like animosity, dude, jealousy, right?
28:08
She's taking money that could be used for actually winning races,
28:11
right? Well, yeah, but our sport is, is
28:13
our sport. It's a little bit more than just
28:16
winning races. It's it's a marketability, It's
28:19
the fans involvement. And you're exactly right, Haley
28:23
in her background and her looks and the whole deal, you know,
28:26
hopefully she'll get a shot and, and stay at this second little
28:29
while 'cause there's no doubt Danica Patrick value, there's
28:33
there's absolutely no doubt she did that.
28:36
But the, the, the, the core of the core of our sport is racing.
28:42
The, the core of racing is winning, all right.
28:45
And, and I think when you lose sight of that and you start
28:49
thinking about other things that bring value, then I think it
28:54
starts taking away a little bit from our sport and what our core
28:57
values are, right? Not, not to be taken away from
29:00
what they bring and what they do.
29:02
Danica Haley and all those guys. And I get it.
29:04
I understand that, but still, you've got to be a race car
29:08
driver first, right? It's kind of like, you know, I
29:13
don't care if if you're a black race car driver, right?
29:16
You're not able to succeed and be well to do well.
29:21
You're not a black race car driver.
29:24
You're a race car driver that happens to be black, right?
29:28
And, and if you stick to that core part, man, if you, if you
29:32
become successful, you just explode as a personality, right?
29:36
And because you're, you're back to the core of what our sport
29:39
is, and that's racing and winning.
29:41
Although, you know, I get it. I get the marketability side and
29:44
what it brings. Totally with you on that,
29:45
Charlie. But we cannot ever lose sight of
29:48
the fact of what we do and what it's about.
29:51
Does that make sense? Very, very well said.
29:56
Good stuff. OK, so next week I think we
29:58
should focus a lot on obviously Brickyard and you can tell all
30:02
your stories from being on the pole for the first one.
30:05
And I think people are really looking forward to that.
30:08
We also have this this weird two week break for the Olympics
30:12
coming up after that. But let's not skip Pocono.
30:15
Just give us your thoughts on Pocono.
30:17
Any good? Any good stories from over the
30:19
years? Yeah, Pocono man in 988 or 89
30:24
and we ran the Busch series, ran Nazareth PA the first time and I
30:28
went up there man and won the race did ran real well, right.
30:31
The next year we go back and I'm leading the race and have a a
30:34
master cylinder freezes up and and I lose race because of that.
30:38
The first time I go to Pocono and I go back a couple laps, I'm
30:41
like, huh, this is exactly like Nazareth except it's 10 miles
30:46
longer, right? I mean, to me it just felt like
30:49
an old Nazareth PA track. It was a triangle or whatever
30:53
they call that thing, right. But but Poconos is one of those
30:56
tracks that Rick Mash just loved.
30:58
I don't know what it was. I don't know why it was, but I I
31:01
just always loved that racetrack man.
31:04
And it might have been the guy that used to stand, that used to
31:06
stand out on the side of the road with the horns.
31:09
You probably don't remember that or know about it.
31:11
But there was a guy for years, he when you go in there, he was
31:14
standing out and he had a he had AI don't know, some kind of hat
31:17
on deal. Big old wolf Hatter.
31:20
I don't know what it was, man. It had horns coming out of it,
31:22
right. And he was standing there at the
31:24
gates and wave all of us in and he wave all of us out, right.
31:28
And it was a it was a neat deal, but you know, it would always
31:34
rain at poker dough, right? It would, it would always do.
31:36
I remember one time there we were practicing, man, and it, it
31:39
got to rain and it stopped raining and it was foggy and I
31:43
forget the team. I think it was Derek Coke
31:46
driving for one of Bob Johnson's cars.
31:48
And I looked up and they were pulling out of the garage area,
31:51
had a big stop spotlight, a flashlight spotlight taped to
31:56
the roof, right? Just taped the roof shining
31:59
forward. I mean, it was a joke, but it
32:00
was a light, like fog light taped to the roof of the scar to
32:03
go out to see how to race. But I don't know the the Pocono.
32:10
And I would tell people all the time, they'd ask me how you get
32:12
around there. And Harry Gant taught me how to
32:14
get around. They're the turn 3 or the last
32:16
turn. See, Pocono has Charlie the
32:19
longest by hat. Straight man, What the hell
32:22
happens by hat? Golly by Lana Braves World
32:25
Series hat. But Pocono has the longest
32:30
straightaway on the circuit. Did you know that?
32:32
I did. Not.
32:34
Yeah, front stretch is longest straightaway on the RA circuit,
32:38
believe that or not. So, but anyhow, Bobby Allison
32:41
landed his plane there one time up there tested he'd land on the
32:44
front straightaway when they were up there testing once years
32:47
ago. So anyhow, you got turn 3 and
32:51
you come off turn 3 and that puts you into the to the
32:53
straightaway, right? So the faster you go through
32:57
turn 3, the faster you go down that long straightaway, which is
33:02
this the longest straightaway in NASCAR.
33:05
So the track, if you talk about the track, turns 3 is completely
33:09
different from turns one and two or turn one there with my phone.
33:14
Sorry. Anyhow, so do you set your car?
33:18
If your car is neutral in three, it's it's going to push in two
33:21
in in turn 1. So where do you set your car up
33:23
the best at? We were always the mindset, set
33:26
it up to be fast and turn 3 because if you come off the turn
33:30
3 of about an hour faster, then you carry that mile an hour, one
33:34
more faster mile an hour, mile an hour, you carry that mile an
33:38
hour down the longest straightaway on our circuit.
33:41
Does that make sense? Right.
33:43
And and you would do that stuff. And Harry Gantt was Harry Gantt
33:47
was the master that Tim Richmond was good at that right back in
33:50
the day. And then Earnhardt was was very
33:54
good at that, at that deal. But Harry, Harry was the master
33:57
of that, Yeah. All right, so while we're on the
34:01
the story time conversation with Pocono, Rick's Weekly Story
34:05
time, any, anything coming to your mind?
34:09
Let's see, you know, I thought about this with the announcement
34:13
of Joss Berry going to The Wood Brothers.
34:18
So we haven't really covered that, but you know, I think it's
34:21
a great deal. I think it's a great deal for
34:23
Berry. I think it's a great deal for
34:25
The Wood Brothers, right? The Wood Brothers going through
34:28
their transformation now with Eddie and Lynn kind of stepping
34:31
back and John and Kevin and shoot, I forgot her name Nora.
34:38
Well, but anyhow, take it over the over the the range, so to
34:41
speak with him going there. So many people that that wanted
34:47
to see Rodney Childress go with with with Josh there.
34:52
And when, when when they announced Barry going there and
34:55
they didn't announce Rodney going right immediately.
34:57
I was like, well, I don't believe he's going there because
35:00
well, I don't know this. I'm just speculating.
35:02
Is it somebody from 10,000 feet above?
35:05
You know, that's a Penske organization deal.
35:08
And I don't know, Rodney felt like maybe he wanted to be in
35:12
that type of situation. Nothing wrong with Penske, but
35:15
they're great, right? But personalities have to match
35:18
or have to. So anyhow, he ends up with with
35:20
Spire. And where does Spire get all the
35:22
money? I got to find out this.
35:23
I got to find out where where this thing is coming from.
35:25
I I don't know the all the insurance and outs, but I will
35:28
get the information all, all that.
35:29
But anyhow, for Rodney, I'm real happy for him getting that deal
35:35
and, and, and it seems like it's going to be good and he's happy
35:37
with it. Did a little private message
35:40
with him. Seems to be happy.
35:44
But with The Wood Brothers. What were we talking about?
35:46
All the story. Yeah.
35:47
The story. The Wood Brothers.
35:48
You're right. Right.
35:49
Yeah. I'll get back to the story in a
35:51
minute. But you know, Lynn and Eddie and
35:53
go back to Leonard and the guy, the guys before that, you know,
35:56
just most well respected people in the garage area.
35:59
We're, my story is we're at Sears Point or Sonoma.
36:05
Oh gosh, I guess it's been 97 or 98, which is really, this is
36:10
kind of prelude really to the end of my career once you look
36:14
back on it. But we ran that race that was in
36:19
75, the Remington car. The race is over.
36:23
We're out tired, you know, OK, we'll go back, catch a shower
36:29
somewhere, go straight to the airport, hop on the airplane.
36:33
Basically a red eye coming home and all of a sudden the heebie
36:37
jeebies hit me, man. Next thing I know, I'm laying in
36:39
the floor of the back of this airplane, right?
36:43
I'll never forget there's a doctor leaning over me.
36:45
He was drunk, right? I can smell the alcohol.
36:48
And he kept telling him this man's in trouble.
36:50
Got to land the airplane. Got to land the airplane, right?
36:53
Well, they land in Denver in the middle of the night.
36:57
And you got to remember this whole plane is full of erasers,
36:59
right? It's a it's a, it's a not a
37:01
charter. It's a regular plane.
37:03
And as it turns out, I had an incredible amount of carbon
37:09
monoxide in my system. OK, I forget that particular, I
37:14
forget that particular hospital visit, but it's all in my
37:17
medical records. And when they pulled, when I was
37:20
going through my deal years later and the doctors were
37:23
trying to figure out what was wrong with me and went through
37:24
all the medical records that particular night, that
37:27
particular ER state came up on the records and it showed
37:30
percent of carbon dioxide in my system.
37:32
And it was an ungodly number, right?
37:34
The, the, I remember those guys at the clinic looking at that
37:37
said, they know what? There's no way, Rick, you should
37:39
have been dead. You should have been dead.
37:41
Well, I had four or five other VR visits with numbers similar
37:45
to that, Right. So anyhow, and, and I'm laying
37:49
there and I'm like, man, I know what's wrong with me.
37:51
Just leave me the hell alone. You don't don't land the plane.
37:53
Just get us home. I'll be OK.
37:55
Leave me alone. Well, this doctor again was
37:57
drunk and he was just doing what he he thought he should be
38:00
doing, I reckon. And anyhow, they landed the
38:04
plane in Denver. They come in there and
38:06
everybody's trying to sleep. It's a red eyed.
38:08
All the racers are all pissed off anyhow because he didn't do
38:10
well, right. And and and I'm at the very back
38:14
of the plane. They come in there and they
38:15
wheel me. They put me in a wheelchair or
38:17
something. They wheel me through all down
38:19
through the plane in front of all my peers, right And I'm
38:22
laying there with the mask on and looking like this, like I'm
38:24
dead, you know, and everybody I can hear, I can remember going
38:27
by and the people gasping. Damn, that's Rick, that's Rick.
38:29
What's wrong, Rick? Oh my God, this type of deal
38:32
right. Well, anyhow, so we get, we like
38:36
get off the plane and I, they, they ambulance me to the
38:39
hospital. They do the deal there to me and
38:41
they do the deal. They always do.
38:43
They give you fluids, give you a bunch of oxygen.
38:45
You know, you're there a few hours or however long it takes
38:48
to get all your numbers right. And then they release you.
38:50
Well, the guy that the lady, her name was Pam Miller, she was my
38:55
PR lady that worked for the 75 team at Remington.
38:59
She had it all worked out man. Soon as we got, soon as I got
39:02
released from the ER, we were able to catch a flight at the
39:06
airport, right? And I remember flying back, we
39:09
had the hub in Pittsburgh. We flew back to Pittsburgh and
39:12
from Pittsburgh I would fly to Roanoke and she would go to
39:14
Charlotte. I'd go to Roanoke to go home.
39:16
I'll never forget. And she had it first class,
39:18
dude, that was a cool deal. And right beside me was Bill
39:21
Coward, the football coach from the Steelers, right.
39:23
So I got to beat Bill. I got to beat Bill Coward doing
39:25
this deal. Nice, nice guy, man.
39:28
You know what I mean? Just very nice guy.
39:30
But anyhow, I get back, I get back home, my plane gets back
39:40
home before the original plane that I was on gets to Charlotte.
39:47
Really. Yes, yes.
39:50
Or before Eddie and Lynnwood get back.
39:54
I'm back in Virginia. Before they're back in Carolina
39:59
every time. Go to the racetrack.
40:03
If I see those two, they'll holler.
40:07
I'll holler it out. I want to say hi and I'll try to
40:09
say hi, but as long as there's somebody standing there, it
40:14
doesn't matter who. They immediately go fussing into
40:17
that story. Let me tell you what this so and
40:20
so some son of A did US1 We've come back, blah, blah, blah, and
40:23
that son of A beat beat us home. The the the Eddie and Lynn are
40:29
the it's the funny story listed. If you folks, if you're ever at
40:32
the racetrack and you see me, Lynn and Eddie Wood together,
40:35
come over there real quick because you're going to hear the
40:37
story again. I've heard of the 1000 freaking
40:39
times, right? And it it it's it's just as
40:42
funny now as it was then. You know, well, at the time it
40:45
wasn't funny, but but anyhow, that's my story time for the
40:49
week with those guys. But anyhow, that was a prelude
40:52
Charlie to to what finally took now the sport years later.
40:56
Yeah, and I want to get into that obviously.
40:58
Maybe that's that's, that's a good, I think topic.
41:01
Again, we have this this two week break.
41:03
So next week we'll be all over Indy and then we'll have two
41:06
weeks with no racing. That's probably a good one of
41:08
those weeks. We can really dive into that.
41:10
How about what's pissing off Rick Mass these days?
41:14
Anything. Are you feeling pretty good?
41:15
You know, I'm feeling pretty good about things, Charlie.
41:19
I had something I had something come up earlier and I've done
41:23
forgot what that is. But I you know what, you know
41:27
what really gripes my ass right now?
41:29
It's just frigging heat. Golly.
41:33
And it shouldn't piss me off because you know, it's been hot
41:37
every summer since we've had summers right since since the
41:40
beginning. But golly, bum man.
41:43
And it's like the sun. It's like right now, the sun
41:46
just beats on us harder. And if you go down some of this
41:50
tinfoil stuff out there in the social media world, golly bun, I
41:53
mean, they've been doing the what's what's it called?
41:55
The Jets, the the, the way they put out stuff in the the jet
41:58
stream, they putting all that stuff out the.
42:00
Chemtrails. Yeah, chemtrails, you go down,
42:02
if you go down that road, you go outside and the sun beats on you
42:05
like, oh, yeah, I think I believe in this chemtrail deal,
42:08
right? But, but golly, bun, man, you
42:11
can't go outside. You can't do anything.
42:13
And I tell you when, when I noticed, was it last week, the
42:17
guys were having trouble with the heat?
42:19
That was in Nashville, right, And a lot of the guys, they seem
42:22
like I had more trouble Saturday than it did Sunday.
42:24
But I'm not sure how many people use cool shoes on Saturday.
42:27
And but I tell you that was in my deal, Charlie.
42:31
Honestly, that was one of my deals that I worked on hard.
42:34
I mean, I, I, I, I went to when I got my first cup career deal.
42:39
I mean, I first time I got in a cup car.
42:41
We're not the first time, but we were at Dover.
42:42
I was in DK overts this car and like, and I was used to running
42:46
200 lap or 200 mile Bush races. We'd run a Bush race at Dover
42:50
and I drove his car on Sunday. You know, the Bush race is 200
42:53
laps. The Dover, the Cup race is 500
42:55
laps. And I got in his car running and
42:57
we were, it was hot that they got us miserable hot.
42:59
And we were running. We were running and man, I
43:03
started getting hot. And I'm like, good Lord of
43:04
mercy. Well, what we got, we probably,
43:06
you know, this, we shouldn't be 100 laps left, right?
43:09
Well, we can, we can make this art.
43:11
I look up. We, we run like 230 laps, which
43:14
we weren't even halfway yet right in the back.
43:16
Oh crap. Mercifully enough, something
43:19
happened to the car and I fell out of the race.
43:22
The race of gods were were looking after me that day.
43:25
But anyhow, when I got the cup full time, I used a guy by the
43:29
name of Joe Geek, well removed an athletic trainer across the
43:31
country and he was athletic trainer for University of
43:34
Virginia. He set me up on my program, OK,
43:37
in 1990 really that I used that program my whole career, you
43:42
know what I mean, the workout program and it actually turned
43:46
me into an athlete. You wouldn't know it now, right?
43:48
But you know, one time, man, I was a finally to the athlete.
43:52
I mean, the body fat was down. I could my cardiovascular was
43:55
good. I could run.
43:56
I can do a bunch of stuff, right.
43:58
And but the one thing that I did, I started doing it on my
44:02
own when I when it was so hot, a lot of times I would put I had
44:09
AI had an open face helmet and I had these two blocks of lead and
44:13
I taped these blocks of lid to the side of my helmet.
44:16
I would ride around during the week, you know, in the passenger
44:19
car riding up down 39th Alexa, which is a real curvy deal.
44:22
I'd ride around with that helmet on with the lid on there getting
44:25
my trying to get my neck muscles.
44:27
I would do it in the winter time getting ready for what you lay
44:29
off right. Once the season started, I
44:31
didn't do that, but I would do that a lot.
44:33
Fact. I still got the helmet back in
44:35
the one of my showroom deal or trophy room deals.
44:39
We'll we'll show you that sometime in the future.
44:41
But I in the summertimes a lot during those time periods.
44:46
I would ride around during the week with the windows up and the
44:50
heater on. If it was 90° outside, I'd
44:52
around ride around in my car with the windows up and and a
44:56
lot of times the heater's on. I would do it till I just
44:59
absolutely couldn't breathe right and then I would throw the
45:02
window down or whatever. I did that a lot, just getting
45:05
my body acclimated to the heat, right.
45:07
I mean, everybody did the different things.
45:10
I mean, Mark Martin, he had no muscle mass, so he had to do the
45:14
the weight thing so very hard. He was diligent at it.
45:16
You know, Earnhardt put up hay every day, you know what I mean?
45:20
Or worked his cattle, which I did that too.
45:22
But he he did his farming. Some guys didn't have to do a
45:25
thing, right? And then some of us had to, some
45:28
of the guys had to work real hard at it, but the heat was the
45:32
big deal. It was always the big deal for
45:34
all the drivers. And it still holds true today.
45:37
That's like, is somebody in the Xfinity race?
45:39
I guess that was in Nashville that the, the cool suit thing
45:42
quit working and they had to stop and do all this stuff.
45:45
I had that happen one time, Charlie.
45:46
The cool suit is just a vest with capillary, little tiny
45:49
capillaries in it. And it's an ER, emergency room
45:51
thing. They tell me what it was all
45:53
about. So you got a cooler in the, in
45:55
the floorboard. You put dry ice in it and water
45:58
a pump. It pumps into this vest and it
46:00
runs cold water all through these little nebularies that
46:03
you've got vested around you. And what happens?
46:06
It happened to me one time. It actually Dover the thing quit
46:09
working, right? Well, you're sitting there now.
46:13
It's not. It's like no, no cool water
46:17
flowing through this thing. Now you're sitting there with
46:19
water that's insulated your body, and your body can't cool.
46:24
The water turns steam and hot. It's getting hot from the
46:28
outside, your body temperature is making it hot, and all of a
46:31
sudden you're getting ready to get in trouble.
46:33
OK. And like in my case, I finally
46:35
had to stop on a belt, get the suit down and get that thing off
46:41
of me, right? Because your body you're going
46:42
to die is is you're just going to die.
46:45
You can't, you can't this don't work right?
46:48
And somebody had to, I don't know what type of systems are
46:50
using now, how it works, but whatever the deal is, it quit
46:53
working on somebody's deal at Nashville because he had he had
46:56
trouble with that. All right, let's let's end on
46:59
this. I saw some of the some of the
47:02
video from the Great Rick Mast Farm 4th of July extravaganza.
47:08
Looked like you had some. I don't even know if we should
47:11
talk about this, but you know, somebody, somebody had some
47:14
really nice fireworks. Yeah, it was pretty cool, dude.
47:17
We, we, there are different markets for everything out there
47:22
in the world. There are different markets for
47:24
fireworks, dude. You just got to know where to go
47:26
and you know who to talk to to get the right ones.
47:29
And and also I think something else.
47:31
Damn, things aren't cheap, godly, they're expensive.
47:34
But anyhow, man, we had a whole group each year.
47:36
We try to, you know, we have friends come over with the other
47:38
pool party. If things starts like at one or
47:41
two o'clock, the stragglers come in all day, right?
47:44
But, but most of the time by night time, everybody shows up
47:47
because you know, they're going to get a pretty good fireworks
47:49
show for a home fireworks show. The funniest part, I got 3/3 of
47:54
my buddies, but they're setting them off this time, right?
47:58
And we're watching them. You can see you can look back
48:01
and you see the lighters when they light right And you know,
48:04
you see the little glow and you know the ones getting ready to
48:07
go up they're going at one time and it I seen something spark
48:12
and all of a sudden it lit up and all I could see was asses
48:16
and elbows. Man, they were those three guys
48:17
were scattered. One of the things that turned
48:19
over and that crap was shooting every which way right And they
48:22
were running and hollered. Luckily, nobody got hurt.
48:26
But more importantly, luckily, it didn't set off the remaining
48:30
fireworks right, because that that we would have fired those
48:33
three guys had they had they had that deal screw up, messed up
48:37
the rest of our fireworks show, they'd have been kicked off the
48:40
mass fire and not allowed to come back.
48:42
I'm telling you, it wouldn't happen.
48:45
But yeah, a lot of fun, dude. A lot of fun celebrating
48:48
celebration, celebrating our nation's independence, the
48:52
right. I love it.
48:53
Yeah. You know what?
48:54
It's funny. So I guess it was the day
48:56
before, so the day before 4th of July.
49:00
So here in Saint Louis, you got to drive out West a little bit
49:03
to buy the fireworks. You got to, you got to drive out
49:06
I-44 out to Eureka or Pacific. So I, I stopped at the 1st
49:11
fireworks stop fireworks store and I had my son with me at the
49:15
time. So my son's three and it's
49:17
pretty funny. So I wasn't even getting big
49:18
stuff. I was getting nothing, nothing
49:20
like you had, but just kind of firecrackers, some stuff maybe
49:23
the kids would like some of the, some of the sparklers and the
49:26
things they can pop on the ground that kids can, can enjoy
49:29
and, and be safe with and all that.
49:31
And what I found really funny is so my son's walking around the,
49:35
the shop and he's in heaven because like they're really, you
49:38
can tell they're marketing a lot of these fireworks towards kids.
49:41
Like everything is like a truck or a dinosaur or a panda bear,
49:46
right? Like it's a truck that moves,
49:48
but it shoots out or it's a dinosaur that breathes fire or a
49:52
dragon. And so my son's like, I want
49:53
this, I want this, I want this. He wanted everything.
49:57
Yeah, I yeah, they they, you know, I think my fascination
50:00
comes back. My dad, we talk my dad, he built
50:03
natural bit Speedway, which is still up and going today in
50:06
1967, right. He and my uncle actually, and
50:10
they would do fireworks show July 4th when I was a little kid
50:13
that that is one of the things that fascinated me about being
50:17
in racing and all. Anyhow, so he did fireworks
50:19
still one year. Well, they did it for probably
50:22
four or five years, but I remember saw you fireworks
50:25
experts. What he did, he took like this
50:28
is a piece of four. I think it's 4 inch channel
50:31
lard, right? And maybe 10 feet long, a stick
50:35
of it. Then he would put this pipe,
50:37
maybe, you know, 2 inch pieces of pipe, maybe, I don't know, a
50:43
foot tall. He welded it to that Channel
50:46
lard, right? Every about every two feet there
50:49
would be this piece of pipe and on this 10 foot piece of channel
50:54
lard. So you'd have like 5 or 6 pieces
50:57
of little pipe on each piece of Channel Loren.
50:59
Then he had a whole bunch of those Channel Lorens and he set
51:02
those things down on the ground and lined them up, down through
51:04
the pit area, right? I mean, he probably had, I don't
51:07
know, To me, looking back as a kid, seemed like 1000 feet of
51:11
it, but it wasn't that much. But it was, it was pretty large,
51:13
pretty tremendous. And the fireworks would sit down
51:16
in these little pieces of pipe and they were all kind of get
51:20
together somehow. There were you'd like one in and
51:23
the things would go off. And I'm talking big time
51:25
fireworks, dude, the stuff you see now, right?
51:28
And they would go off. And anyhow, he, he worked real
51:31
hard at that, making that thing a pretty cool deal.
51:34
And and it was a cool deal. And it was expensive then too
51:38
for him, as frugal as he was. I was always surprised that he
51:42
did that because, you know, my dad, my dad was so frugal.
51:46
I mean, he would go down to McDonald's here at home.
51:48
He would buy, he would buy a senior citizen's bill and make
51:53
him give him the the I mean, he'd buy kids bill and make him
51:57
give him the senior citizens discount, right?
51:59
That's how frugal he was. And it worked.
52:02
So looking back about the fireworks, but anyhow, that's
52:05
that's a story about fireworks that that that you probably
52:08
didn't need to know, but I told you anyhow.
52:10
So now you know. Yes, and knowing is half the
52:13
battle. GI Joe, I remember that at the
52:15
end of all the shows. Grown up as a kid.
52:17
This was fun. Rick.
52:18
We hit on a lot of topics, and we'll do it again next week.
52:21
We'll really talk about your great Brickyard inaugural
52:26
stories and we'll break down the Pocono race and all that.
52:29
And then, yeah, we'll have a couple of, we'll have a couple
52:32
of weeks with this NASCAR Olympic break to really get deep
52:35
into the Rick Mass story time, which should be fun.
52:38
Yeah, we got a lot of stuff to talk about next couple weeks,
52:42
Charlie, It's going to be fun. Lot of lot of cool stuff people
52:44
haven't heard before. Yeah, about Indy and all.
52:47
Yeah, we'll do it. All right, well, thank you
52:49
everybody for watching. Please comment like subscribe,
52:52
share the show, share the channel, put it in your group
52:55
text, share it on social media. Let's keep this thing rolling.
52:58
We just, we just surpassed what last week or two weeks ago,
53:01
100,000 subscribers. I think that plaque is actually
53:05
being delivered to Kenny's house this morning, so pretty good.
53:10
That is so neat man. Take a goofball like Kenny
53:14
Wallace to do that. And then I had a goofball like
53:16
me to it help a little bit, you know, the little bit I can do.
53:20
It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous, but it's cool
53:23
and it's fun, man. That's that's what this thing is
53:25
about. Kenny Wallace is fun.
53:26
People love Kenny Wallace. That's the reason you guys have
53:29
been successful, right? And it it's just a fun deal.
53:32
It's not a complicated scenario. It's not a complicated
53:36
situation, right? It's just having fun, having fun
53:40
and being honest, man. It's all it's about, which is
53:42
life. So.
53:43
But anyhow, I digress. See you next week, guys.
53:46
All right, see ya.