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Rick Mast Breaks Down Indy & The Brickyard 400 · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Rick Mast
0:03
Show. I'm Charlie Marlow.
0:04
That is the great Rick Mast coming back from a heck of a
0:07
weekend. Rick, I was following you on
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social media back at Indy. It looked like you had a hell of
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a time. Did dude, man, I I'm so
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appreciative of of Indy for doing that and NASCAR see it all
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it it kind of worked in with the alumni group with NASCAR, right.
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They kind of work together on this thing and again, the alumni
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group so so young, yet we still got things we got to do and
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figure out and work out. But but just so appreciative of
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those guys, man they I mean they really they rolled out the
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carpet for the inaugural Brickyard starting drivers.
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OK, I think it was man, I forget 12 or 13 of us that showed up.
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I know that I rock deal that everything was putting on a lime
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rock that that Hanford, Mark and Odon.
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I think Jeff I have for them. Bobby did make it back for that.
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But man, such a cool time and cool to see all my old buddies
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too. Couple of them hadn't seen since
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really since I left the sport, but it was cool.
1:04
And, and you had told me before we started here, you had not
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been back to Indy since you last raced there.
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No 90, I mean O2 or whenever it was.
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That's you know, I haven't been back and I tell you what a
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difference, right? But I guess when Rodger took it
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over Penske, all the stuff that he did, you know, I remember
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everything from before and it was always a nice place, right.
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But you can see his stamp. You can see you can see Rodger
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Penske's stamp on Indianapolis Motor Speedway guys, it's
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definitely there. And but the same feelings,
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Charlie, you know, you come in through the you, you come in
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through the tunnel the way you know that tracks through the
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short shoot between 1:00 and 2:00.
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You come in that tunnel, multi lane tunnel, you come in, the
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first thing you see is Indy Museum, right?
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Then the racetrack. Then you get in the garage area,
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you see Gasoline Alley, all that stuff.
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A lot of the original motions from 30 years ago came right
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back to me. I'm like, hell, I was just here
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like three months ago, right? And it was, it was, it was a
2:01
cool experience here, truly was. OK, I want to hear all the
2:05
stories about that, but let's put that on hold for just a
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second and talk about the race first.
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Just big picture. What'd you think of the race?
2:12
Well, you know, it was we were on pit Rd. a lot of that race.
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We were at the nine team for a while, then we then we were in
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the suite that the race tracker provided.
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And you know, the, the, the number one thing that I, that I,
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that I liked when I first got there, I was talking to the
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captain. I was talking to Rodger Pinsky
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and then we was talking about the race of the attendance.
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And at that point, that was Saturday morning maybe.
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And he was telling me that the ticket sales were up 20% at that
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point over 17 and 17 was the largest I guess they'd had in a
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long time, right. And then or whatever, and you
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could tell it, I mean, if you look, yeah, you look at the
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camera, Yeah, it looks sparsely populated at point, at sometime,
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at points. But you got to understand that
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play is like Kate and my daughter.
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You just, she couldn't get over how mammoth, how mammothly big
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this place is. I mean, it's just, it's just
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friggin huge, man. And friggin grandstands
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everywhere, right? So that's why 94 when the place
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was packed with 3 or 400,000 people, it looked the way it
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did. But, but anyhow, back to your
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question. To me, the attendance probably
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stood out more than anything to start with because it was the
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best, best attendance for a long time.
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And then the TV numbers for the race, I mean, they were through
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the roof, right? So it that part was good.
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The race itself, like so many of our races this year, Charlie, it
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came down to the end and a bunch of controversy.
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I mean, well, if you back up, I mean the nine car was really
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haul in the mail. They had a good race car and
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then he got busted for the for the the penalty.
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I mean he got penalized for going over the line and I you
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know, I didn't really understand it at the time.
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I knew that I knew they were mad.
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I know we've all heard Chase, right?
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Is is, is profanity and just and by the way, that's what it's for
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the fans that heard that and might try to think bad of chase
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because that don't do that. Fans listen when a driver puts
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his helmet on, you know, it just it forces blood out of the
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brain. I mean, or you put the seatbelts
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on. Something happens when you get
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behind a steering wheel. I've seen the most docile
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drivers like the Harry Ganz of the world, right?
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Never raise your voice. You never hear a cuss word out
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of him. You put him in that race car and
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put the helmet on him and you think, my Lord, you know, the,
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I've never seen anybody like this, right?
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I heard, heard stuff like this. But that's, that's just what
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happens because you're in the moment, you know, it's you're
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very passionate about it. And like in Chase's case, he
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felt like he got wronged. You know, if you look at what
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the road the rule ended up being, and if you look at what
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he did, he didn't get wrong, right?
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He was outside of both lanes. His deal was it wasn't clear.
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And I agree with that. It it probably wasn't clear.
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I think Larson said, you know, even NASCAR wasn't sure.
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Then they started putting out some texts to them.
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Here's what we're going to do. Here's here's how we're going to
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do it. Maybe Saturday or whatever it
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was. But and I think Dale Junior made
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the comment they they busted the 9 and Keselowski the six car for
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that same infraction. But I but Junior said there was
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other some other cars that did this exact same thing, right.
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I know Larson said, well, they're the only two got busted.
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So, you know, everybody must have known it.
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Well, accord the Junior, not everybody must have known it
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because some of them went out sideline those lines, but they
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didn't get busted. And I'm going to tell you, man,
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that, you know, I, I, I have to agree with with him on this
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also. I'm just not sure that we the
5:40
I'm not sure that penalty was right.
5:43
I don't I don't think that those two cars deserve the penalty
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they got for that fraction in that moment.
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You know, if it's a little they're not if NASCAR's not sure
5:53
on Saturday, then they come up with what we should do and then
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somebody gets busted. You know, if it was me, you
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know, of course I'm not NASCAR and I'm not in their place and I
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don't know how it all works, but I think what I would have done
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is is issued a warning. All right, just you do the
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generalized warning on all the radios, all the spotters can
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hear it from NASCAR say, all right, you know, we've got a
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warning out for a couple guys going over the line.
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Nobody else goes outside of the second line, right.
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We're going to we're going to start penalizing.
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I just feel like it the, the, the the penalty was, was way too
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harsh for the, the crime committed.
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And it really what it did, or at least it did to the 9 car.
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I mean, basically it took him out of contention to win the
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race, right? And so, I mean, I don't know.
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Yeah, the rule was there. He broke the rule, he got
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penalized. So that's black and white.
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You can't argue that point. That's the way it is.
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Yeah, Speaking of profanity, on the radio, you mentioned Chase
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and then Ryan Blaney as well. He's calling Kyle Larson the
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Golden Boy, and he was not happy with the fact.
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So at the end there restart basically Brad Keselowski runs
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out of fuel so he goes off the track and that gives Kyle Larson
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the advantage, although you would think in theory that Ryan
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Blaney should have the advantage.
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So Ryan Blaney not happy about that.
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I watched the the post race press conferences with Jeff
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Gordon and Rick Hendrick and Kyle and Cliff Daniels and both
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Kyle and Cliff Daniels had good sound bites basically saying,
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look, this is the rule at every track in America.
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And it's not just a rule that affects people running first and
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second. It affects people running 10th
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and 11th. And it's kind of, it's kind of
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always been this way. But it does, it does seem
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unfair, especially at the end there with all the eyeballs on
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the end of the race. And it's certainly impacted who
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won. So what do you think about that
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rule? Is that just the way it should
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be? Should they look at changing
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that? What do you think?
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Well. Here's the deal.
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That rule was in effect when I was racing, all right?
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That rule has always been in effect.
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It's like, it's like qualifying when you qualify, if you qualify
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3rd, right, and for whatever reason you get sent to the back,
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the guy that qualified 5th moves up the that that line moves up.
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And it's the same way on restarts.
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If somebody drops off, that line moves up.
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In order to change, to do it a different way, you'd have to
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stop. You couldn't do one to go.
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You'd have to stop everybody have to swap lines and do all
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that stuff. That rule has been in effect
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since again, since before by time I get, well, probably not
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before my time because we didn't have double file restarts before
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by time, but it's always been if the car falls out of line, that
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line just behind them just moves up.
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Now, I don't know. Here's the deal, Charlie, let me
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ask you this. Would it have made any
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difference? OK, if the six car had to run
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out of fuel or had to pull off for fuel and they take off, was
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the six car going to beat the 12 car?
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I don't see, I don't see any difference between that and the
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five car. The difference, the only
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difference is when the 6th car dropped off that put the 12 car
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as it, I mean that yeah, that put that made Blaney the control
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car. So he's the one that gets to go
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first. Now we've seen all these, have
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you seen those graphs they put out man, about the in car, the
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in the data stuff where they all got on the gas.
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I looked at it, I looked at for maybe 2 minutes and finally
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threw it down. I'm like, I don't, I don't have
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no idea what the hell I'm reading there.
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I can't, I can't cipher this right.
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But in essence, it looked like both those guys took off at the
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exact same time. Larson and Blaney within, you
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know, 100th of a second or something.
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So that's not going to show up, you know, and that's not going
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to show up from the tower as as Bellini or as as as Larson
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jumping the restart it. You're just not going to see it
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like that because they're both taking off even and that's what
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last car likes to see anyhow. Even if the control car goes
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first, they still like to see both those front lead pack car
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or lead cars coming across start finish line side to side, even
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though the guy that's a control car should be in front.
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So number number. So anyhow, back to this deal #2
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is Blaney was a controlled car, right?
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He in order for him to have outrun the five car, he would
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have had to have a heck of a jump to get him clear by the end
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of the first turn. Because you know, whoever's on
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the inside going into one, that's who's going to come out
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of one in the lead, right? So that takes me back to the
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point of Keselowski. If he hadn't fell out, he'd have
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got a proper restart. He could have kept his right
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front into Blade, his left side into the door of the quarter
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panel. More than likely he's still
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going to come out of Turnwood with the lead.
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So I don't, I don't, yeah, I've never heard that talked about.
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I'm like, guys, nobody's picking up on this.
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It was really, in my view, it was Keselowski's race to lose at
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that point. And then when he fell out, the
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net started all this stuff. And I totally, totally, 100%
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understand Blady's frustration, right?
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I mean, I, I get it. But again, it goes back to put
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the helmet on and going nuts. But you know, when you sit back
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and analyze it like we just did, it's like, we're really, Brian,
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you don't, you know, you just lost, dude.
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I mean, it was racing, you know what I mean?
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Not really, not really anything unfair throwing that you do.
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You had you had a shot, you had a shot to you know, take off and
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beat the five car on the restart.
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It didn't happen right. So you know it is what it is.
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So Rick, we are at this two week Olympic break, which is kind of
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odd. It kind of feels like halftime
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of the season even though we're well beyond halftime.
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But I think it's a good it's a good time that it kind of just
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take stock of what's happened. So we're 22 races in.
12:02
You have four more races until the playoffs.
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It's interesting too. I, I feel like this has happened
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the last couple years. You know, William Byron always
12:11
seems to kind of dominate early. Then he goes away for a while
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and it, it feels like, it feels like Kyle Larson's season, not
12:19
just because he just won, but all the hoopla with attempting
12:22
the double and he's got four wins.
12:25
Obviously Denny Hamlin's really strong.
12:28
Just give us, give us your take on we'll call it the it's like
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baseball, you know, the All Star break doesn't happen at at the
12:34
half. It's always a little past, you
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know, it's 90 games. So give us your take on the
12:38
season here at the Olympic break.
12:40
Well, you know what the, the, the thing about our current
12:45
playoff system is we, we, we kind of get caught up in or
12:50
during the year, we get caught up in who's running.
12:53
And it's like you said Byron earlier, right?
12:56
And everybody's like, man, he's gonna win the championship.
12:58
You know, he's got this in the bag.
13:00
And we were here. I I read that a while from one
13:03
of the journalists. He's got that in the bag.
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There's another dude, I forget what it was, was doing real well
13:09
and. Christopher Bell.
13:10
Yeah, he was one of them, but there's somebody else.
13:12
But anyhow, they he's got it in the bag, right?
13:15
And I'm like, guys, it comes down to one race in Phoenix and
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who happens to have the right spring and shot combination that
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day. But to get there, you know, you
13:25
got you got to get to the final four at at Phoenix, right?
13:28
That that, that to me, the significance of all the stuff we
13:33
can talk about is who are those two of those final four going to
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be? Right?
13:38
Because to me, that's just direct mask.
13:42
All right. It's more intriguing to me,
13:44
intriguing to be the four that get to Phoenix to have a shot
13:47
than the one that actually wins it that day.
13:50
Because one race, it's like, it's like playing, you know,
13:53
it's like the NBA playoffs. We play seven games, World
13:56
Series, seven games, right? It's not a one race or one game
14:00
deal because anything can go on. Anybody can beat anybody on one
14:04
day in any professional sport. We all know that it's it's true
14:08
with NASCAR, but but to be one of those four that are contended
14:13
for the championship at Phoenix, that's to me is intriguing part.
14:17
That's the part that I think should be talked about and
14:20
focused on for this team to get to the final four, to get the
14:23
final four, to get to the final four.
14:25
Is this team capable of doing that?
14:27
And instead of that, we're like, who's going to win the
14:30
championship? Hell, I don't know who's going
14:32
to the championship, but I could give you a better idea who the
14:35
top four are going to be. And you just mentioned them,
14:37
hey, Larson and Hamlin, and gosh, I don't know who the other
14:40
two might be. You know, if somebody gets on A
14:42
roll, I always go back to the year Tony Stewart won the
14:44
championship. Tony running like crap, not
14:47
doing well. His chances of making it were
14:50
bad. And they interviewed him.
14:52
Tony says we want to talk about the championship because still
14:55
better than we're running. We don't deserve to be in it.
14:57
We couldn't win it if we did, right?
14:59
Three months later, he's our friggin champion.
15:01
Yeah, they found a little combination on their car with a
15:05
shock or spring or whatever setup they were doing.
15:08
And all of a sudden it took him from mid pack or running like
15:11
crap for Tony to win in the friggin championship.
15:14
Because they come up with something that made the car fast
15:17
for the last two or three months of the season, right?
15:19
And he just, he dominated, He kicked butt.
15:21
So, you know, as our season evolves with this car, this car
15:27
with everything being so finite with with the setups and the
15:30
chassis and not being able to do anything with the car much other
15:33
than being real, real super close on everything these
15:38
engineers and crew seques do. I live just a little tiny change
15:42
on something Evidently what I see in here makes one hell of a
15:46
difference like a little tiny change, a 30,000 thick Shim on a
15:50
bump stop takes you from a frigging lap down car to a
15:54
winning race car right Helen? Today we would read tape
15:58
measures right? You look at a 16th of an inch
16:01
was was pretty small. An eighth is like OK, and we're
16:04
talking 20 or 30 thousandths right?
16:07
And but what this does, it sets up for just anybody to come out
16:13
of left field and and and dominate for two or three races
16:16
or somebody that's been doing real well just to go to the back
16:19
or not to the back. But like a good case in point.
16:22
We keep bringing up Byron. That's a good case in point.
16:24
You know, the nine car, they, they, they're, they're steady
16:27
every week. You know, he he won a race, but
16:31
you know, you're not I don't think anybody's thinking right
16:33
now. He's a he's a championship
16:35
candidate. But you know, again, who are
16:38
those top four? Who the top four are going to
16:40
get there And you know, today's today's time in our sport.
16:45
It's so frigging hard to look at somebody right now in July and
16:50
say, you know what, come November, they're going to win
16:54
this thing. They're going to be in the top
16:55
four. There's no doubt is, you know,
16:56
just waited. There was a point in time in our
16:59
in our series when it was like that somebody get on something
17:02
that chassis was working right aerodynamically, whatever.
17:05
They had a deal and it would usually last 6-8 months,
17:08
sometimes a year before other people picked up to own it or,
17:12
you know, something else was better.
17:13
Somebody beat you, something else.
17:14
But today's today, the way these cars are, man, it can change
17:18
from week to week and it's just it's that's what I picked.
17:22
You asked the question. That's what I've noticed about
17:24
the year so far. We just can't you know, I don't
17:28
know how they put bet. I don't have the betting odds
17:30
work in Vegas on this. I don't know how you could
17:34
possibly sit there in Vegas and put these odds on all they do.
17:37
They do that. You know, you could do it after
17:39
practice and qualifying pretty good if you're at the event, but
17:42
the but to do it, you know, a week or two out, Nah, Nah,
17:46
couldn't do that, man. It's just I don't know.
17:50
It's a it's, it's a different, it's a different deal right now.
17:52
It's a different sport or a different look the way the way
17:55
you got to look at that to me. Yeah, just as you said that I'm
17:59
trying to, I'm trying to Google the NASCAR championship odds and
18:04
it. Just came up here.
18:05
Let's. See if let's see if we can get
18:06
it up to date. OK, OK.
18:10
And and while I'm trying to find it here, I bet you the I would
18:13
say yes, let's see Vegas Insider.
18:18
We have to make sure this is recent though, So this is last
18:21
updated July 23rd. So that's yesterday.
18:25
So that should be good. So let's see here.
18:27
OK, here we go 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship betting
18:31
odds. And I'll just I'll hold it.
18:33
I'll read it off for for. Folks.
18:35
Here, but there it is. So basically Denny Hamlin, Kyle
18:41
Larson, and Christopher Bell are all essentially the favorite.
18:45
They're all tied at plus 450. So if you bet 100 bucks, you win
18:49
450 bucks, then you have William Byron plus 600, Ryan Blaney plus
18:56
800, Chase Elliott +1000. So right now there's three
19:00
favorites, Hamlin, Larson and and Christopher Bell.
19:04
Trying to think of a good of a good long shot here.
19:09
Brad Kozlowski Brad Kozlowski plus +2000.
19:13
My money I would put money on that one.
19:15
I would have oh man, 2000 dude, that's mean.
19:20
You go together on this Charlie. I can make some money on that
19:22
one. That would be out of all of
19:23
them, that would probably that's the probably the most that's a
19:26
bet that makes you the most money right there, because I'm
19:28
telling you something now those guys are on to something that
19:31
six car and 17 those guys are running.
19:33
I mean they're running good. They they're doing it at
19:35
different race tracks too. And and and that progression, if
19:39
you look at the RFK, that progression has been housed
19:42
before I met just like this man, slowly going up and up and up
19:46
and they're not they're not really hitting any dips.
19:48
I mean they they each week, man, they they just a little bit
19:52
better and a little bit better, right.
19:55
You know, that would be the one for me.
19:58
I mean, obviously Denny and and Bell, you know, I'll tell you
20:02
another where is Kurt Busch? I mean, Kyle Busch, is he even
20:05
in there at all? So his odds would be Kyle Busch
20:08
plus 8000, Yeah. I mean that, you know, you could
20:12
take 100 bucks and put on that one, right?
20:15
Because you just, we know Kyle Busch's abilities.
20:19
We all know Richard Childress's desire and his want to do right.
20:24
Well, and you know, if they was to hit on something, hell you,
20:27
you never know. But you know, some, some pretty
20:30
crazy things got to happen for that to happen at this point.
20:33
But they didn't take somebody like Mark Truax and Martin Truax
20:37
has run Josh. How many wins should he have
20:39
this year, right? And he should have wins.
20:41
And they take themselves out or circumstances take themselves
20:45
out and stop because the cars have been running right or
20:47
handling right on on a lot of these races.
20:50
But this things go wrong. You know, if the race of God
20:53
smile on it for a couple weeks, Mark Truex is going to be in the
20:56
top five in that deal on the on the on the on the on the bench,
20:59
right? It's it's the way it's the way
21:01
our sport works right now. It's just, it's just crazy right
21:04
now, man. You just can't, you cannot feel
21:06
comfortable picking anybody. At least I can't.
21:10
Yeah, I would. I would say Kozlowski +2000.
21:14
The ones that jump out in terms of maybe a good value.
21:17
I'd also say Tyler Reddick plus 1400.
21:19
You mentioned Truex also plus 1400, Chase Elliott plus 1000
21:24
and Ryan Blaney +800 if you can tell me that.
21:28
Basically, Ryan Blaney's odds are essentially double that of
21:32
Hamlin, Larson and Bell. I think.
21:34
Give me Blaney for +8. Give me +800.
21:37
Give me Blaney for 800. Exactly.
21:39
Yeah, that. I mean, he's defending champion,
21:41
right? Obviously, obviously they've got
21:45
a good deal worked out for Phoenix and that that's the
21:47
deal, All right? You get to Phoenix, it's that
21:48
one race. But to get to Phoenix is one of
21:51
those four guys, right? I feel like if you go to Phoenix
21:54
right now with Blaney in and if any other three guys you want to
21:58
pick Blaney, Blaney wins it just because they have such a good
22:04
setup setup going at Phoenix right now.
22:06
And the 22 car did too, right. And so but again, we back up to
22:11
the four. The four guys are going to get
22:13
there and yeah, I don't know how you get.
22:16
I don't know how you put Keselowska far down.
22:18
Oh, I do you hasn't shown it is what you know what have you done
22:22
lately, right. Show me what you've done lately.
22:25
And I don't know, man. It's, it's just, it's too hard
22:29
to figure out right now. You just can't, you just can't
22:31
do it, Charlie. Like my dad said one time, you
22:34
can't bet on a race. This was in the 70s.
22:37
The biggest thing in the world would bet on a race.
22:39
Too many things can go wrong, right?
22:41
Causing flags, flat tires. And that's all that stuff still
22:44
holds true today, except I think now it's even harder because of
22:49
the way these cars are what you got to do to make them run fast.
22:53
All right, Rick, Mass story time.
22:54
You got to have a million. You got to tell us the best
22:57
stories, best conversations you had with all the the guys from
23:01
your day at Indy this past this past weekend had to be an
23:06
awesome time. And a lot of I'm sure some guys
23:08
were drinking some beers and spinning some yarns.
23:11
You know, one of the neatest things, one of the neatest
23:13
things I watched they, they, they took us drivers, we, they
23:18
had to set a suite or Saturday, we didn't do anything.
23:21
Sunday, they had to set a suite. They had to do some autographs.
23:24
We do it on. Well, I'll take you through
23:26
this. First thing they did, they took
23:29
us to Victory Lane, right? The Victory Lane podium.
23:32
This thing, it raises up and down where the guys drink all
23:35
the milk, right? I thought I saw milk stains.
23:37
But anyhow, they had all of us drivers standing there and they
23:40
took pictures and did some stuff.
23:42
And but as we were leaving, exiting that going back towards,
23:48
I believe we've been headed to the track then anyhow, as we
23:50
were exited, Morgan our, our, our, our buddy Morgan Shepherd,
23:54
you know, he's got some health issues right now and he's in a
23:56
wheelchair and he, he could, he could get up out of the
24:01
wheelchair, but you could tell, you know, it's really stressing
24:04
him to do that, right. And as we were exited Victory
24:07
Lane, there were four, and I'm not sure what they were.
24:10
They weren't, they weren't ROTC, but they were actual soldiers,
24:13
right? Standing there, Morgan made his
24:17
daughter, who was pushing the wheelchair, stop.
24:20
He got up out of the wheelchair. And you could tell he was,
24:23
that's the first time in two days I saw Morgan actually out
24:26
of the wheelchair. And he was really, really
24:29
struggling, you know, to, to get up and stand up, keep his
24:32
balance. And he, he made it when he
24:34
stopped, he's in front of all of us.
24:36
Well, I had to stop. He got up out of the chair and
24:38
made a point to go to these service guys and shake each one
24:42
of his hand, right. And thank him for their, their
24:45
contribution to our, our freedom, you know, and I
24:48
thought, and that's pretty friggin cool, right?
24:51
And then, then we go down and we go on the front straightaway.
24:58
They introduced us to the crowd and we go on the bricks, right?
25:04
We line up just like we lined up 30 years ago the, the, the
25:10
inaugural Brickyard starters of that race, right?
25:14
We line up and we all had a picture taken around the around
25:18
the Brickyard Trophy, you know, which is cool.
25:21
And then we did, there's quite a bit of media, a lot of lot of
25:24
media happened to be out there for that.
25:25
I mean, it really surprised me or surprised me the amount of
25:28
media that was there. And we did, you know, we did
25:30
some Q&A's, did some media stuff, did all that work.
25:34
And let's see, what do we do? Then we, they took us somewhere
25:39
to fan experience deal. We lined up and we, we all did a
25:42
bunch of autographs, right, for the folks.
25:46
But it was just neat. It was neat the reception that
25:53
this group got. I mean it was, you know, it was
25:56
Hut, like Hut and lake and me and Bobby, you know, Dale, you
26:01
know, Jeff, Rusty, all this guys in Morgan and it was it was it
26:09
was truly, how can I say this, the the the people that the
26:13
racetrack did it. That's course part of it.
26:17
The media was there and everybody, it seemed like we're
26:22
generally happy that this took place.
26:26
That's probably my biggest take from it.
26:29
These people are very, very respectful of this group of
26:33
drivers, right? Very happy that the ones that
26:37
could make it made it right. And it was.
26:40
And of course, all of us guys, we're backstage, we're back in
26:43
the backroom a couple times and you know, everybody's catching
26:46
up with with each other because some of us hadn't talked.
26:48
Some of us, some of the guys like Lake and I forget who else
26:51
I hadn't talked to since I get left to sport, right.
26:54
Most of the guys I keep up with are we talking.
26:56
Some of the guys hadn't talked to each other.
26:58
And but it was funny as time went on and I was listening to
27:04
some of these comments. Oh, Ernie was there.
27:05
I'm sorry, Ernie Irving, as as these conversations went on, you
27:09
know, it started reverting back to the day in the those days in
27:14
the garage area, right? It was like at first, like how
27:17
you doing, man? How what's going on?
27:18
How's the family, how's the kids and on and on and on.
27:21
And then we we start talking about then you start talk about
27:24
races, right. I remember Ernie talking about
27:28
he should have won the first race and he had the first race
27:31
one and he cut a right front tire down.
27:33
And about the time Jeff, Gord walks up, Jeff says, ah, we got
27:37
the pole winner, the real winner and the guy that should have won
27:41
the race, right? Talk about, talk about Ernie, me
27:44
and and Jeff, Jeff Gordon and and Ernie relayed that, yeah,
27:48
Fender brace had came loose and cut the right cut the tire.
27:52
And that's what happened to his tire.
27:53
And I said, well, well, Ernie, it's still your fault.
27:56
How the hell is that my fault? I said we probably knock
27:59
something down. You always hitting crap.
28:01
You wrecked your car. You did something, you bent your
28:03
Fender. That's what broke the damn
28:04
break. Oh, go to hell, man.
28:06
You ain't no damn, you ain't no different than you ever was.
28:09
And it was funny listening to the guys right?
28:12
Get back. It was like, you know, it was
28:15
still 30 years ago, the same frigging conversations.
28:18
You know, it it it's like you're back.
28:20
It's like you're back in the moment with these guys and but I
28:24
do know the guys that were there were so appreciative, right?
28:28
And, and again, it was like their mindset was like it was in
28:33
1994, just very humble to be there, right?
28:38
Because that's the way the mindset was in 94, man.
28:41
And you've read this, you've heard me talk about it.
28:43
You know, everybody was on their their best behavior up there.
28:46
We're all just so friggin humble of Ricky Rudd.
28:48
He was there. Ricky was talking about when we
28:51
went up there in 94 that some of the IndyCar guys didn't really
28:54
want us there. And the reason being that was
28:56
their place and he understood it.
28:59
But Ricky's take was it all worked out positive, not really
29:02
any negatives, but you know, Ricky's deal was it gave him a
29:07
taste of what it would be like to be in the Indy 500 with all
29:12
the color, right? The pageantry and all the
29:16
people, right? That's what Ricky came back
29:18
with. And all the guys kind of had
29:20
that, that same kind of mindset, man, just humbled to be back
29:24
here 30 years later and, and remembering that we were all
29:28
very humbled to be there in 1994.
29:31
It was just, I don't know, again, he was just kind of
29:35
magical, like the like the first race, just magical Charlie.
29:38
So Rick talking about it being magical, it's such an iconic
29:43
race. Obviously the the start, the
29:45
inaugural one, you guys are all celebrating that.
29:47
But also just the Brickyard 400. I think everybody would agree
29:52
it's different than the road course.
29:54
Don't they have to be on the Oval?
29:55
I understand it's hard to pass. But after that race, I'm looking
29:59
at NASCAR is they're advertising that Kyle Larson has all the
30:05
crown jewels except for the Daytona 500.
30:08
It says, you know, Coke 600, Southern 500 and it says
30:12
Brickyard 400. And I'm thinking if this is one
30:14
of your crown jewels, well then you always have to race it on
30:17
the Oval, don't you? You know what to learn, Charlie
30:20
being up there, not one, not one single person that I talked to
30:26
liked the idea of running the road course.
30:29
Every single person that I encountered were tickled to
30:34
death that we were back on the Oval, All right?
30:36
And I'm not talking about fans, just fans.
30:39
I'm talking about competitors. I'm talking about officials, all
30:43
right? I'm talking about personnel that
30:46
kind of, you know, make some of these decisions of what we do.
30:50
Everybody was tickled, thrilled to death that we're.
30:53
And I get why they did it. You know, the tenants going
30:56
down. Let's try Rd. course, see what
30:57
happens. But you know what I feel bad
30:59
for? I feel bad a little bit, just a
31:01
little bit, not much, just a little bit for the guys that won
31:04
those Rd. course races. It's like, yeah, I won the
31:07
Brickyard. Yeah, you did, dude.
31:09
Yeah, you did. But right.
31:11
But it was a road course. And that doesn't take away
31:15
anything from the guys. It takes away from what they
31:18
bite. Excuse me, What they might feel.
31:22
Yeah, I won the Brickyard, but it wasn't Oval, right?
31:26
And maybe they don't. If they don't, more power to
31:27
them. But to be on the Oval, dude, I
31:31
mean that that, you know, it probably should have never left,
31:34
although, you know, we're in the period of trying things right
31:36
now. We have been for a while.
31:37
And that's why they did it, you know, but to break the hell, we
31:40
didn't get any, but we didn't get any more.
31:41
People watch the road course, right?
31:43
And it wasn't, you know, just it didn't work.
31:45
It just didn't work. It just didn't work.
31:47
So to go back to the Oval, you know, and I'm going to tell you
31:51
something. If there's some of the guys I
31:53
thought too were pretty upset that it got changed to start
31:56
with, right? I didn't realize that there was
31:59
that many that much emotion about that race or, or, or or
32:04
taking the road course away. So I get up there and I'm
32:06
walking around the garage and talking to everybody because
32:08
that's, let's face it, Charlie, that's how you learn what's
32:11
going on. You got to get in that garage or
32:14
you're on the phone with the guys at the garage, right?
32:16
You got it. You got to do these guys and get
32:18
them, you know, talk to them and figure out what's happening and
32:21
you find out what's really going on.
32:23
And because it happens to be every time I go to the garage
32:26
area, I find out the temperature of everything that's at well,
32:29
most things is happening, right. And that's why I really enjoy
32:33
going to the tracks to, to hear all this stuff and figure it out
32:36
myself and maybe sometimes come back, relate it to you guys.
32:40
But I can tell you that everybody out there in the
32:42
world, the competitors didn't like it going to the road
32:45
course. The competitors love that.
32:47
It's back on the Oval Dow as it should be, right?
32:50
It should be. It's a crown jewel, dude.
32:52
It's a crown jewel. And I saw you took your your
32:56
daughter Katie with you. How much fun is that for you and
32:59
also for your kids? Did they get to watch you a lot
33:02
when they were younger? And I'm just wondering what are
33:05
they saying to you where it's got to be a little different
33:07
and, you know, equally as cool to kind of go back after the
33:11
fact and kind of relive it again?
33:13
Yeah, Ricky, of course, he grew up with it because Ricky is born
33:17
at 83, so he grew up with it and that and I tell people all the
33:20
time, he works for the Braves as, as you know, Charlie, and he
33:23
started out with the Braves doing social media, right?
33:25
In other words, if you went on social media, Twitter or
33:28
Facebook or Instagram, it's all the the line of Braves stuff.
33:32
That was Ricky Comp. That was him doing that, right?
33:35
In order to do that, somebody, an organization like the Braves,
33:39
they're not going to entrust that to anybody.
33:42
You know that. But what Ricky learned and what
33:45
he observed, he just learned from observing Dad all those
33:48
years was protected and building the brand, right?
33:52
Because the NASCAR is a driver. You have to protect the brand.
33:56
You have to build the brand. The brands are your name, the
34:00
sponsors on your car and NASCAR. You have to protect those three
34:05
items and you also have to try to build them right.
34:08
And Ricky learned that from being at the racetrack.
34:10
So you know he knows all the deal.
34:12
Katie and Sarah by twins. They were born in 96, so they
34:16
they got to go to the races when they're young.
34:18
Their memories of being at the racetrack was honestly in the
34:21
motorhome lots with the other little kids and the little
34:25
playgrounds at the, at the tracks because of the time I got
34:28
out, they were only six years old, so they didn't have any
34:31
memories of, of the racing. But Katie, my one daughter, she
34:35
just loves to go. She, you know, she's the one
34:38
that drags me to the track. She started dragging me to the
34:40
track years ago. We'd go to Richmond,
34:41
Martinsville and places. She would just make me go to the
34:45
racetrack, right. And cuz when I got out of the
34:48
car, I stayed away from it for a good little while.
34:50
And although I did keep up with it and I did follow it every
34:53
week, but her coming along kind of maybe start going some more.
34:58
And then Sarah, my other daughter, she's not into it as
35:01
much as Katie, but she loves, they both love the fact that
35:05
their dad was a Winston Cup NASCAR driver, OK.
35:09
They love, they love going to the racetrack.
35:11
They love seeing me interacting with everybody.
35:16
They love that they see these guys on TV and that, you know,
35:21
that's all they know about them. And we go to the racetrack and
35:24
I'm sitting there having a fragging conversation about what
35:27
we ate for supper last night with this same person.
35:29
You know what I'm saying? To me, it's just, you know, my
35:31
buddy, another guy. And so the girls, it's like,
35:34
man, this is somebody you see on TV, it's famous or whatever.
35:37
And so it's it's very exciting for them.
35:40
It is excited and and you know, it would have Katie would have
35:46
probably been my race car driver.
35:48
Sarah would have been my business manager.
35:50
That's that's the way these two daughters were, right?
35:53
And but you know, she formed that, I mean, and through the
35:57
going to the race tracks, I mean, Katie's formed
36:00
relationship with people, right? It's a darndest thing, you know,
36:04
awesome. Bill called her the other day
36:06
just out of the blue. I had talked to Bill that
36:08
morning, actually talking about some stuff.
36:11
And just out of the blue, after we hung up, he said he's going
36:14
to call Katie, right? She called Katie.
36:17
And basically what he told her was, you know, I just got done
36:21
talking that goofball daddy of yours this morning.
36:23
And I think I'm going to need some psychological therapy just
36:26
after talking to your dad this morning.
36:28
So, you know those types of things, you know, it's just,
36:32
it's cool for my kids, right? Very cool.
36:35
So, so tell us, obviously this is a privilege information, but
36:39
your conversation with Bill Elliott, what what'd you guys
36:41
talk about that you can you can share?
36:44
Man, we talked about actually he was just, he had just landed.
36:50
I forget where he was. I think he was Colorado.
36:52
He can't be going skiing. We just talked about, we talked
36:56
about like general life stuff. We don't really talk, you know,
36:59
about racing much. You know, we'll talk about Chase
37:01
a little bit and his struggles and his good things, his bad
37:04
things, right? And you know, we talked about
37:07
Ernie, you know, his brother a lot and talked about at home
37:10
with Dawsonville. And I talked about the kids and
37:12
he's talked about the kids and, you know, just just life in
37:15
general, not not really anything in depth.
37:19
You know that, or at least anything in depth.
37:22
I can share about race it, let's put it that way.
37:24
And but I told it was funny. I had told him that Indy is
37:33
trying to get him to come up and Harry Gant also.
37:36
And I told that Zach how the guy to Indy that was putting all
37:39
this thing together for for the racetrack.
37:41
I told him, I said, listen, guys, if you can get Bill Elliot
37:45
and or Harry Gant to come to Indy for this deal we're doing
37:49
for all of us, you will have pulled off the most miraculous
37:53
thing that ever happened in NASCAR.
37:55
Because I'm telling you, you're not going to get those two guys.
37:58
Those guys don't leave their homes to go do that stuff,
38:01
right? I mean, I mean, Billa run around
38:03
doing his motorcycles and doing a bunch of stuff and go skiing.
38:06
Harry stays there, you know, besting with his cows and those
38:10
guys and it it's it's funny how those guys have gotten because
38:14
it's so much Charlie. We talk about getting burned
38:16
out. You know, you you spend all your
38:18
life in this sport. You know, you come into it like
38:21
those guys on myself. You come into it just dirt ass
38:24
poor broke right and doing everything you can to try to
38:27
make it and you start having some luck.
38:29
It's having having some achievements and then first
38:32
thing you know, you're a mainstay, right?
38:35
And so as a mainstay, you're there doing all the stuff that
38:38
you've got to do. Like I told you a while ago,
38:40
building the brand and everything that encompasses all
38:42
the politics, everything that goes on with, with being a part
38:45
of this sport, the UPS and the downs.
38:47
And then a lot of the guys when they retire, when they're done,
38:51
man, they are just flat burnt out, right?
38:55
They just want to do anything. They want to stay home because
38:58
20 or 30 years, you know, 7724 their life was on call.
39:03
They were, they felt like and you really were you were on call
39:07
24/7. You you're a phone call away
39:10
back in another sponsor or NASCAR or a team.
39:13
Some need that you something you had to go do.
39:15
And when you leave, when you get out, that thing is cut off and
39:20
you're like, you know, and as time goes on, you know, you're
39:26
just you just you don't want to do it.
39:28
You don't want to go anywhere. You know, you just, you know,
39:30
everybody wants to travel around the world.
39:32
You feel like this driver, man, I've been all over the world.
39:34
I don't want to do that anymore. I want to learn how to stay home
39:37
and just do what I want to do. And Harry, Harry and Bill
39:42
definitely fall into that. Those two guys, great, great,
39:45
great, great human beings, just superhuman beings.
39:48
If everybody knew them the way I knew them.
39:49
We just loved the death you. Everything you know about the
39:52
fans perception of those guys are it is real.
39:56
They are who they are and just just great people.
39:59
But what was your question? No, that was perfect.
40:02
You're you're telling us, you know, that's heartwarming family
40:05
and friends stuff. So let's unfortunately now let's
40:07
go on the opposite end to what's pissing off Rick Mast lately.
40:12
Anything. Yeah, I got a couple things,
40:14
Charlie, and I don't know which one to get on.
40:17
I, I, I, I, you know, in both of them we've harped on many times.
40:21
The I got a couple things #1 you know, why, why?
40:27
What is the place for negative, negative journalism in our
40:31
sport? What is that place?
40:33
Can you tell me what is the place in our sport for negative
40:36
journalism? We've documented this before.
40:38
We've talked about it before. Charlie, you know, you got guys
40:41
that have to make stories, right?
40:43
Because you got everybody doing same story and you can make up a
40:47
story, negative or positive. Man, you go to Indy, you see
40:51
everything that goes on. The best attendance since 17,
40:56
the best TV ratings we've had in a long time.
40:59
And what are some of these little goofballs?
41:01
What, what is their story? What is their story?
41:04
Race was born controversial NASCAR bad decisions.
41:10
No, people are just saying look how into the grandstands were
41:13
right instead of talking about yeah, they were low, but look,
41:16
man with highest, highest ratings everything we've had for
41:19
years, right? And look at look at all the look
41:21
at everything that went on at the end, right?
41:23
Look at everything that happened.
41:24
But these guys continually and here's the day and here's the
41:27
thing. I just don't think they're real
41:29
bright because they this is they make their living writing about
41:34
our sport, right. So why are they determined to
41:38
write themselves out of a job if they're if they're so determined
41:43
that our sport is not any good, why, what are you doing?
41:46
You know, promote the sport, you dumbass, promote it.
41:50
Don't do this crap every friggin week.
41:53
And then the other thing that gets me, I drove back.
41:55
We dropped, we actually dropped Katie off the airport about 7:00
41:59
Sunday night. Indianapolis, IN.
42:02
We drove back home or I drove back home.
42:05
We got home 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning when before COVID hit.
42:11
Charlie and I live on Interstate 1, which is a very, very heavily
42:14
trafficked Interstate band with trucks.
42:16
And it's hilly and turns. And, you know, if a bird, if a
42:20
bird pees on the Interstate 81, the traffic backups 2 miles.
42:24
It's the way it works in so many places in our country like that.
42:27
I know that. But before the COVID hit, you
42:31
know, you do your thing. When COVID hit, and I traveled
42:34
81 a lot in those days, man, it was like back in the 70s.
42:37
There's no traffic, no traffic. And when COVID was over, then
42:41
we're back now to where we were, except everybody wants to drive
42:46
the frigging left lane. Why?
42:49
When everybody came back from COVID, they decided we're going
42:52
to drive in the left lane. So you know, if you're in the
42:56
right lane and you and, and you, if somebody's in the right lane
43:00
and you're faster, you go and pull out and you go by them, you
43:02
pass them, you go back in front of them, right, No big deal.
43:06
But now to pass that car, he's in the left lane, you're running
43:09
faster, you got to go by him on the right side, right?
43:13
Well, the people will look over at you like you're committing to
43:16
see it by passing them on the right side.
43:19
Well, get your ass over on the right side where you should be,
43:22
and you won't be mad at me for passing you on the left side.
43:26
I don't understand it, but it it pisses me off.
43:29
And we're probably going to hear more about this as this show
43:32
goes on. And because if it catches me in
43:35
your right mood, I'll be pissed off and we'll be talking about
43:37
it again, Charlie. But had you ever heard anybody
43:40
say that this happened after COVID?
43:42
Have you heard that? That's interesting if if it was
43:47
COVID that kind of changed that. I just feel like and I just
43:50
what, two weekends ago I drove back from so I'm from Toledo,
43:54
OH, I live in Saint Louis. It's about right about 7 hours.
43:58
You can make it in 6:45 with real good time.
44:00
I got a couple kids. So sometimes it's more like 7
44:02
1/2 even pushes 8. And I just think, I think some
44:06
people were never taught that. I, I think I really do.
44:09
I think when you pass people and you, because you're always like
44:12
thinking like, what does this person look at look like, you
44:15
know, as you pass them and they, they kind of look like they
44:18
don't know what they're doing. So I think, I don't think
44:20
they're doing it on purpose. I think nobody really ever told
44:24
them that, hey, you're supposed to drive in the right lane and
44:27
pass in the left lane and don't stay in the left lane,
44:30
especially if you're going the speed limit or five to 10 miles.
44:34
I just think they were never taught properly.
44:36
You're probably right. That's probably right.
44:38
But another thing, people in the left lane, they seem just
44:42
cuffed, very comfortable. You know, they're right in that
44:44
left lane, not a carrier. And some of you look at the
44:47
frigging phones up just yeah, doing that.
44:49
And they're like the real comfortable over there.
44:52
But if you pass on the right, on the right side, it's like you're
44:55
committed to sin. I'm like, no, I'm not committing
44:57
to sin. You're in there.
44:59
But you know what, Virginia? In Virginia, I've seen it three
45:01
times so far. You don't have to Got the
45:03
besties boards on all the interstates.
45:06
Well, I've seen it three times they they put the message out
45:08
three different times I've saw on all the message boards on all
45:12
the interstates in Virginia. Left lane is for passing only,
45:16
left lane is for passing only. Hell don't make any difference.
45:19
But what I want to I want to hear what people, if people are
45:22
watching this, please comment on this comment on this.
45:26
I'm going to read every single one of y'all's comments.
45:29
Maybe make me understand why I've got to pass you on the
45:33
right and you're going to get mad at me for passing you on the
45:36
right when you should be on the right to start with.
45:39
Please let me know what's going on.
45:40
I can't, I can't be the only one that's feeling this because it
45:44
impedes traffic, dude, for sure. It impedes because, you know,
45:48
you get out there comfortable on a 65 mile an hour speed limit or
45:51
70 mile an hour speed limit on 81 and you get out there running
45:55
65 miles an hour to left lane with add a truck or two to that.
46:00
You got a two mile backup, dude. And Rick Mast is pissed off.
46:04
Let's end on this. Before we started, I told you
46:07
so. Right before we recorded this
46:09
podcast, I had my first ever Professional Golf lesson.
46:13
Now I'm 42, I've golfed and I didn't come from a golfing
46:17
family like my dad didn't golf, but I started golfing in about
46:20
7th or 8th grade. I'm not very good.
46:23
My wife is actually from a golfing family.
46:26
She's very good. She she played college golf
46:28
actually in North Carolina at, at Elon.
46:31
So she's way better than I am. I just want to be OK, you know,
46:34
I just want to be not bad. Basically what really surprised
46:38
me. So this was one of those lessons
46:39
where they have that track, man, where they have like the data,
46:42
the cameras and stuff. And I'm pretty tall.
46:44
I'm 64. I could not believe how hunched
46:48
over I was golfing. And I'm, I'm telling my wife,
46:52
I'm thinking like, why didn't you tell me this?
46:54
Right? Like when I looked at it, he
46:56
shows me the, the day that he shows me the pictures, he's
46:58
like, I mean, I look like the hunchback of Notre Dame, right?
47:01
And so the main thing is like just stand up taller.
47:04
So I don't know, are you, are you much of A golfer?
47:07
Do you golf now? Did you used to?
47:08
Yeah, let me tell you, Charles, I never golfed in my life, right
47:12
when the infamous or for me, Rick Mass infamous 1989 Daytona
47:16
500 where we led the race, did all that, right?
47:19
So all of a sudden they decided they got to start propping.
47:23
Rick massed up. So the first thing that happens,
47:25
they send me to a golf tournament in Myrtle Beach,
47:29
right? And this is in had to be early
47:32
March right out. It's not long after the 500.
47:34
So I don't, I don't know what kind of term.
47:36
Some kind of charity tournament. Well, I've never played golf,
47:40
but life, Rick, you got to go to play golf tournament.
47:42
You play golf? No, we got to play in it.
47:45
OK, we're going to do it. All right.
47:48
So hop on a plane, fly to Myrtle Beach.
47:51
I get there when I finally get to the golf course to turn, I'm
47:54
late. The tournaments that started, I
47:56
go up and I'm I'm just walking around aimlessly.
47:59
I don't know what the hell to do or what to do or I've never been
48:01
at one, never saw one, never never participated in one.
48:05
I don't know what I'm doing. Finally I say, I see somebody
48:07
say, hey man, I'm supposed to play golf.
48:09
I'm supposed to play golf. What team you with?
48:11
I said, I don't have any idea, they said, or you signed up with
48:15
a team. I said I don't know, man, I
48:18
don't know. Anyhow, I told him a deal,
48:19
right? Race car driver.
48:21
I'm supposed to be playing somewhere.
48:22
So somebody comes out, they grab me.
48:25
All right, Ricker, here's cart. Where's your club?
48:26
We'll take you to the team. Team you're supposed to be
48:28
playing with. Where's your clubs?
48:30
I said, dude, I don't have any clubs.
48:33
You don't have any clubs? No, they get lost to play.
48:36
No, I don't own any. You don't own any clubs?
48:38
No. Well, what we're going to do?
48:42
I said, do y'all have clubs? Y'all rent clubs?
48:44
Yeah, we got clubs we can rent you All right, Give me a set,
48:47
right. They bring them to me and I
48:49
pulled out the bag and I'm sitting there.
48:51
I'm like, guys, I've never had a Golf Club in my hand before.
48:55
And this guy, I don't know if he was the pro or but who he was.
48:59
But anyhow, he said, well, here's what you got to do.
49:02
If I see swinging, I started to swing and I'm like, he said, no,
49:07
you you're doing it left-handed. You do it right-handed.
49:09
I said, what? These are right-handed clubs.
49:11
I said, oh, OK, so I I go to swing right hand.
49:14
I'm like, I can't do this. They said, are you left-handed?
49:18
I said yeah, I'm left-handed. Well you need left-handed clubs.
49:22
I said okay, get me some clubs. We don't have any left-handed.
49:25
Clubs. Yeah, yeah, I'm like, okay, so
49:29
anyhow, they drive me and we, we the feathers hole away from the
49:34
the the little club we were at. I guess we drive forever to get
49:38
back and I get with the foursome or whoever it is I'm supposed to
49:41
be playing with, right? And we we play the day.
49:44
But dude, here's the deal. I'm I'm taking it's so bad.
49:48
I'm I'm using these right-handed clubs, turn them around the
49:51
other direction and hitting them left-handed.
49:54
That's what I do that first day, the first time I ever played
49:58
golf in my life because I, you know, I just couldn't even swing
50:01
it right-handed this, it just wouldn't work.
50:03
So from that point forward, I saw I wouldn't got me a set of
50:08
clubs and I started practicing. And then what really got me into
50:12
it is when I signed with school, if you drove for school, dude,
50:16
you had to play golf. And I tell you why.
50:19
Lou Battle was our CEO and Lou Battle was as fanatical about
50:23
golf as you are more than you are with with Saint Louis, with
50:27
the Cardinals, right. And and if you win anywhere,
50:31
which school would take us on a deal twice a year for a week of
50:34
decadence? We've talked about this on the
50:36
show. And that's what you did every
50:38
day you woke up six O clock, six O clock in the morning, me,
50:41
Harry Gant, AJ Foytz, Dake Fordow and Mr. Battle, Johnny
50:45
Hayes and two or three of the other executives, we'd be on a
50:47
golf course by 7, right? Playing around the golf.
50:50
That's what we, that's what you did.
50:52
And it's the funniest thing Harry's about.
50:55
I mean, AJ is about like me, not really good.
50:58
AJ had a dial A club. You ever heard of a dial A club,
51:01
Charlie? Yeah, You, it's a deal.
51:05
And he, he had it. And you dial the thing and it
51:07
would change the blade. It would change the angle of the
51:10
blade on the shaft, right. And and that's what he had and
51:14
but now Harry, Harry can knock the crap out of the ball.
51:17
Harry was an excellent golfer. You know, Snake was probably the
51:20
worst, right? He could, he couldn't do well at
51:22
all. But anyhow, that's where I
51:25
learned the craft of the craft of trying to swing that ball.
51:30
And here's the other thing I'll tell anybody, anybody that plays
51:33
golfer wants to learn how to play golfer, do golf.
51:35
And I'll put you in this category.
51:37
Do it. If you're going to play with
51:38
other people, do it with people that have fun.
51:42
Do not play with a golfer that his main concern is what his
51:46
score is, because it'll be the most miserable, miserable
51:50
experience for you. It's just miserable.
51:52
You do it with guys that have fun.
51:54
And when you get with that group, because I played with
51:57
enough, I played enough of those charity things to figure all
51:59
this out. I want to be with a group of
52:02
people that are going to have fun.
52:04
If they're drinking beer or whatever, whatever they got to
52:06
do, have fun. That's what got to do.
52:08
And then that led into Charlie, which we'll talk about this one
52:11
time the Rick Mass Golf Classic. All right, that we did for 10
52:15
years that and I'm going to tell you how this deal actually bet.
52:20
I talked to the girl yesterday where all the money went.
52:22
There's over $5,000,000 worth of services that we raised for
52:27
that, for that deal in a 10 year period.
52:29
We'll go into that, we'll go into that one segment, talk
52:31
about that deal. But it was pretty, that was
52:34
pretty incredible what that deal did for 10 years.
52:36
But anyhow, that's my golf story deal.
52:38
That's my air dude. And but I haven't had a Golf
52:41
Club, man. I haven't had one up in two
52:44
years. I'm too busy with the Kenny
52:46
Wallace Show, with the NASCAR alumni, with running my
52:49
business, keeping my family happy.
52:51
Just haven't had time. Another thing about golfing with
52:54
me, whatever I'd go practice or whatever, I felt guilty.
52:59
I felt guilty that I man, I'm out here wasting two or three
53:02
hours with this friggin Golf Club that I should be.
53:05
I could be doing something, you know, productive, but that's
53:08
just Rick mass mindset, right? So anyhow, that's my deal.
53:12
That's my golf story, Charlie. No, I hear you.
53:14
I actually, weirdly, I'd rather go hit balls for 45 minutes and
53:19
my wife and I will go we'll go play and have dinner.
53:21
We'll play nine holes quick, two hours, hour 45.
53:25
Then we'll have dinner kind of like a date.
53:26
That's fun. But I'm also I got two kids.
53:29
If you're playing the four hour round, then you have a couple
53:32
drinks. I mean, next, you know, it's six
53:33
hours. I mean, that's that's your whole
53:35
day right there, so. I'm let me tell you real let me
53:38
tell you real quick golf story, dude, we're Myrtle Beats one
53:40
year B and Ricky, my son and buddies of ours or friends of
53:44
ours and we're playing on, I think it's called Wicked sticks
53:48
is John Daly course. We're on the 8th fairway getting
53:52
ready to hit. I think it's a par four and
53:54
we're getting ready to hit into the green.
53:56
So it had been our second shot or third shot or 4th or 5th or
53:59
6th. Put it on the right and it's a,
54:02
it's a long, long fairway straight.
54:04
You look to the right and there's a green.
54:06
You look to the left and they're way back.
54:07
There is the the box, tea box. Well, you know how they get
54:12
these airplanes at the beaches and they carry these banners
54:15
right behind you. Slow moving.
54:18
Somebody says something and I look to the left and up there
54:20
near the tea box, it seems like there's a real, real low flying
54:24
airplane. And it's one of those dudes that
54:27
pulls these flags. He's coming towards down the
54:30
fairway and I look to the right and I'm thinking, where the hell
54:35
is he going to land? Because over to the right of us
54:37
is like a development. I'm like, well, I guess there's
54:39
a little landing strip there somewhere.
54:41
That's where he's going to land, right?
54:43
One of my buddies, Mcclung, he looks at it and says, well, I
54:46
don't know what the hell he thinks they're going to do
54:49
flying that thing around us. We pry to play golf.
54:51
We ain't go play no attention. What crab legs they got for
54:53
sale? What restaurant?
54:54
By looking at the sign, right, Ricky.
54:57
Ricky and another guy with us, Steve, he had said something.
55:01
Same remarks. Ricky.
55:02
My son's the only one that realized this guy's crashing.
55:07
This guy's going to crash his frigging plane.
55:09
He's the only one that figured out watching this plane come
55:12
towards us. Then he's going to crack.
55:14
Well, he went right back. By the time he goes by, he's
55:16
baby 30 feet off the ground. He drops the flag.
55:20
I mean, the big banner. I guess they got a hook or
55:23
something. It falls off, the guy hits the
55:25
ground, clips the tree, spins it around and lands right dead on
55:30
top of #9 tee box, the men's tee box.
55:35
So we all run over there and when he, when he comes by us,
55:38
you can tell the motors not running right.
55:41
And he looked pretty good till he clipped that tree.
55:42
When he clipped the tree, it flipped him around and he laid
55:45
the right. We run over there, we go up to
55:48
the plane and we're the first ones there at him and he's
55:51
shaking and getting out of the plane by our main yard.
55:53
Yeah, I'm alright, I'm alright. Well, what happened?
55:55
Lost oil pressure, Lost oil pressure and shut it down.
55:58
I'm like, damn, this is wild. And let me tell you the crazy
56:02
part of the story. We go then.
56:04
And so this is at the end of eight.
56:05
So we go in or end of nine, right?
56:09
We go in and have a hot dog like you do to turn right, come back
56:13
out probably 40 minutes later. Of course the rescue is there
56:17
and all that deal. And we go to tee off.
56:21
We take tee off because he's sitting on the tee box.
56:25
Well, there are two old colleges, 2 old men were in
56:27
front of us, right? And they walk up and they start
56:31
raising holy hell because they take tee off and, and, and the
56:36
pro and everybody already decided they were sending people
56:39
to the women's tee to tee off because you could, you couldn't
56:43
tee off, right? There's a fragging airplane
56:45
sitting there where you put the golf ball.
56:46
You can't hit the golf ball because the airplane is there.
56:49
So if you go to play, go down to the women's tee and tee off.
56:53
And these two old men, I'm telling you, Charlie, I never
56:55
forget. They were cussing, spitting,
56:57
mad. They were raised in hell.
56:59
They wanted their money back. You've never seen 2 old men, 2
57:03
old codgers so screwed up because they couldn't hit off
57:08
the damn. I don't know what they were
57:10
expecting. I don't know what they were
57:12
thinking we were going to do move the plane or something.
57:14
But anyhow, that was that was great.
57:19
And the main thing was Ricky was the only one smart enough out of
57:23
our whole group say no, he's not going to land and he's not
57:27
trying to sell advertisements. He, you know, he's crashing.
57:31
Everybody's crashing. So, but anyhow, everybody was
57:34
OK. So that was a good part.
57:36
Love it. Great story.
57:38
And Rick, get your stories ready because we got no races for the
57:44
next two weeks. So it's going to be Rick mass
57:46
story time to the Max. The next you have.
57:50
You have an hour next week and an hour of the week after that.
57:54
Give me all your good ones. Save them all for the next
57:56
couple weeks because we got a lot of time and we don't have
57:58
any races to break down. OK, sounds great, man, sounds
58:02
great Charlie and everybody, everybody answer me, please get
58:05
on here and talk about this left driving in the left lane.
58:08
I want to I want to see what? What is this?
58:11
Love it. Alright, thank you, Sir.
58:12
Please comment like subscribe. Thanks everybody for watching
58:15
and we will see you next week.