Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / How Do NASCAR Helmets Get Painted So Awesome?

Transcript

How Do NASCAR Helmets Get Painted So Awesome? · Kenny Wallace Media

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Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation, brought
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to you by Jags, the leader in high performance aftermarket car
0:09
parts. Remember to go to jags.com for
0:13
everything you need to fix your vehicles up.
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I'm super excited about this one because this is a little
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different. He's not a race car driver, but
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he rides with the race car drivers in just about every
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single race. The owner of Off Axis Paint, my
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dear friend from Missouri, Greg Stump.
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Greg, how you doing? I'm.
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I'm doing good, buddy. I actually.
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I miss Miss Missouri and I'm. I'm jealous.
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You're there all the time now. But it's it's not bad.
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North Carolina's the same as you left it, so I can't complain out
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here. Well, we're going to talk a lot
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about you, but let's get this show started, right?
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Everybody's like, who is Greg Stump?
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What is off Axis paint? I'm hold on.
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I'm the kids. Go ahead.
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I'm the kid in school. I got props.
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This my friends. That's it right there.
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That's like Greg. Stump.
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Yeah. OK.
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So we're going to talk about your company in a minute, but
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I'm going to turn this helmet a little bit and you just talk a
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little bit and then we're going to get into you, Greg, but go
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ahead and start talking about this helmet, so.
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I don't I off access is obviously custom helmet paint
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right. But, you know, we're here in
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North Carolina and that kind of gives us access, you know, a
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little bit different than most helmet paint shops where, you
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know, it's pretty personable. You know, every one of them,
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like the one you're showing here you love, the Cardinals,
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obviously, and the and the Saint Louis Blues and everything about
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it. So it's what it's cool about.
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My job is that guys can just swing in here and stop by, you
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know, on Tuesday or Wednesday when they're not at the track
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and be able to really go over these helmets and make it
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something unique, you know, something you love about it.
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Yeah, that's something we don't do here in asphalt racing that I
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do miss. OK, so we got that out of the
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way. Now this and there's a lot of
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people on podcast right now and and you didn't see it, but what
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we just did is we took, we took our Saint Louis Cardinal helmet
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that you made for me personally made for me.
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And we're going to talk about it in a minute.
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But OK, that was a little bit of show and tell and I love it.
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Yeah, that's the way we start the show.
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That's fun. All right, great.
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Great. Stump, I know where you're from,
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but rank, order, serial number? I know all about you, but tell
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everybody where you're from. Yeah.
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So a little bit different than Saint Louis.
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I'm at, I'm at the bottom of Missouri and you know down in
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Branson Country Music Capital down there.
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But yeah, I mean I I just started you know with the
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airbrush at like the age of 14, you know, So it's really the
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only thing I've ever really done.
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You know I've, I've had one other job I think other than
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painting and it didn't work out obviously.
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So I was just really lucky, you know, early in my career or high
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school days, I had a really great art teacher, Matt Locke,
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you know, who I still talk to almost daily, you know, just
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getting advice on art and and running and stuff like that.
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So, you know, being able to start out at, you know, a
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freshman in high school and somebody give you an airbrush.
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And my art skills weren't amazing, you know, at at any
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cost like that. But I definitely had the drive
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for the passion. I I liked it and and once I
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really started like honing in on that talent and that, you know,
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figuring out I could do this and make a little money or, you
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know, it wasn't just helmets. It was motorcycles and, you
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know, murals and in elementary schools and children's
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hospitals, you know, And then being from Missouri, we got all
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these theme parks down in Branson.
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So all all summer long you're painting T-shirts like, you
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know, at the beach, you know, getting the, you know, Branson,
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MO, spring break. I don't know why anyone would go
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to go to spring break in Branson, but you know, you got
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really good at your talent just doing that 10,000 hours getting
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really good at it. And then I was fortunate enough,
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you know, to meet people like you early on in my career that
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kind of springboarded it. And you know, I was shipping
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stuff back and forth from from Missouri all the time.
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And then, you know, 1213 years ago, I just loaded it all in a
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U-Haul and and moved out here. I have a I have 5 grand babies
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and my oldest one. Her name is Charlotte, we call
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her Lottie. And of course we use Snapchat a
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lot. And my oldest daughter, Brooke,
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is always showing me Lottie is 7.
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But she's she's got this program where she kind of traces, but
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she loves art. And here she is 7 years old, and
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she's already drawing Mickey Mouse or Minnie Mouse.
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And I quizzed her just yesterday and she says I want to do art.
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And I said really? So as you're talking, I'm
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thinking about her. So yeah, when you first started,
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were you freehand or what did you first start at when you were
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dealing in art as a child? I mean, it wasn't really great.
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I was really into music. My, you know, growing up I was
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in the arts. And it's weird because my, my
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family is like not anywhere like that at all.
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You know, my, my dad's got a little bit of artistic, you
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know, background but not like, yeah, as a career, you know.
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So I don't know really where where it came from.
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I just kind of found I was decent at it.
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And then I just kind of surrounded myself with other
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artists and and like I said, if you have that drive for the
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passion, you know, I was at the high school.
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I mean, I can't tell you how many times my high school
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janitor was like, hey, lock up when you leave.
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And it's, you know, midnight and I'm still sitting in The Art
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Room, you know, still doing projects, you know that I, I
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don't think you can do that anymore.
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And they probably will kick you out, you know, at at 3:00.
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But I was just really, really lucky.
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You grew up in a small town and and have a really great art
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teacher, like I said, you know, And then parents that kind of
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let me let me do that too, you know, and didn't really, you
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know, say much about it or, you know, they loved it too.
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But when I, when I first moved out here, they were a little,
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little hesitant on letting me move out here.
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They didn't think I was going to you know have a full career in
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this. It was still a hobby back then
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and then to you know to prove them wrong a couple couple years
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down the road is is pretty cool and they're they're very
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supportive now obviously. But you know just being around
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the right people you know right time and and really when I first
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started going even with the helmets you know I didn't think
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helmet paint was even a career or even on you know it's not
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something on career day that they really talk about or it's
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not on the test that you take to be a a plumber or electrician or
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anything you know like that. So you know really start out and
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kind of figure my way was was really pretty rough but it was
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something I love to do and I I kind of had this whole shop in
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my mind always and you know just hard work and an all nighters I
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mean you know how hard we work in the shops so if you if you
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want it and you can you kind of dream it up you can pretty much
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do whatever you're whatever you want and I'm I'm pretty much
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proof of that I think. I was thinking about the
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headlines. You know how Charlie Marlowe and
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myself, we're going to present this on YouTube or on social
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media. And my my mind, my mind has just
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changed you. You just changed me.
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I I was going to put who paints all the NASCAR helmets.
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Yeah. But you know I, as you're
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talking, I I think of this phrase that I was taught years
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ago and it's so profound. Men.
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Now listen, I'm a girl, Dad. I have three daughters.
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But specifically, men are 32 years old and don't know what
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they want to do in life. Here you were a teenager.
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The janitor's saying, hey, everybody's left the school,
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you're still in here. So at an early age, you kind of
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knew what you wanted to do. Is that right?
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Yeah, I mean, I knew. I knew what path I wanted to go
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down, right? And then it kind of just changes
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and evolves and you kind of just ride that wave.
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You know, I'm, I'm, yeah, I'm good at art.
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But, you know, in five more years they could say, you know,
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no more helmet paint. It's too heavy.
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We're only going to wrap them like we do the race cars, you
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know, And then I got to figure out pivot, OK, where do I go
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now, you know? So you're always kind of
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figuring out, OK, yeah we're good at one thing but how do we
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keep, you know, being successful at that and keep growing And you
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know, like it's I think about pinstripe artists all the time.
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The old hot rod guys who can, you know throw down a line, you
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know, 30-40 years ago. Yeah, that's it's awesome.
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But now you just printed out of a computer.
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So you know you're you're always kind of not scared, but you're
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you're always trying to figure out how to evolve with the times
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and and you know, put your artwork in the best place
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possible. So I'll, you know, luckily
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enough it's pretty hard to wrap a helmet and a, you know, be in
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a bowling ball and it's, it's pretty cool, you know, still to
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the drivers to have that personal piece since everything
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else is pretty much taken over by sponsors.
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So, you know, it's I equate it to just like a a hockey goalie
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with their mask or a, you know, a first baseman with their
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glove. You know, it's still just that
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cool piece that the driver can be a part of.
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So as long as that's still involved, I think we're pretty
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safe. But you know, things in racing
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change every day, so as long as we can keep doing art and and
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enjoying ourself, I'm I'm all for it.
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Man, this, this is going places. I didn't listen.
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You just, you just gave me so much to talk about right there.
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No, you really did. It was fantastic because this is
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a message to all the kids and I always tell my daughters, go and
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do and you're going to meet people.
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So what you're saying is you were an artist, you didn't know
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where you were going with it, and one of your messages is the
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message I have. If you have passion, just do it
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and you're going to find your place.
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So you know, like you said, you're in Branson, MO, the
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capital of country music. Millions of fans go down there.
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They ride roller coasters, they play golf.
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And here you are, your path. You rode the wave.
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Yeah, you rode the wave. And now look at you go.
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Yeah. So after after high school,
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that's when I really, you know, got into the dirt racing, you
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know, because in the Midwest it's, there's no asphalt racing,
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which is fine. So I.
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Read I read your bio, by the way.
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Dirt cars. Alone.
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There's nothing better. I know you're a modified guy,
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but there's nothing better than an open dirt late model, you
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know, hauling ass down the back straight away, you know?
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Yeah, yeah. Well, you know what?
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You're like me. Let's let's do this.
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OK, So I'm I'm, I'm a Mod guy. That's it right there.
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But no. But I wanted the Super late
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models. Bring the prelude back.
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That's what I that's all I want to say, yeah.
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So we educate people. So I started in the dirt.
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Super Late models, you know 1. The Prelude to the Dream.
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I love it. Bring it back one Cleveland.
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But then went down and outrun Ronnie Johnson in Cleveland, TN.
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And then I said, you know what? I'm 44 years old.
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I want to go to Modified's. Yeah.
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So here I was in the middle of my NASCAR career, right at the
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highest form of Motorsports, winning nine Xfinity races.
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And and I kept kind of finding myself doing what was good for
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me, you know, winning late model races, you know, $130,000 races.
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I'm like, that's ridiculous. Let's, let's go to the mods.
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Let's go to the mods. OK.
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So my point is we kind of got the same path here.
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You know, you could have said, hey, you know, I want to go to
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Hollywood, you know, I want to go to where they're building all
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these motorcycles, you know, Jesse James.
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See what I'm saying? Yeah, there's a lot of different
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paths I could I could have taken for sure, so.
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That's that's my point. I could have stayed super late
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models, but I'm going to go mods.
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Yeah, so I got I got linked up right out of high school with my
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buddy Will Vaught and we're the we're the same age and that's
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kind of when his career was going up.
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So I I wasn't really doing much. I just kind of wanted to travel
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and I knew I wanted. I loved racing.
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So I know I jumped in the toter home and we traveled all over
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the country. I mean we've been to every every
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track you've been to you know like every, every summer
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Nationals race, every Lucas race we've we've done them all.
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So doing that, you know, that's I really started to meet people.
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I would be taking helmets home, you know, meeting people on the
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weekends, taking them home, paint them on the weekdays.
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And then when we travel back, everyone you know meets up.
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You know, I get a couple extra 100 bucks for doing, you know,
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cool helmets. And every once in a while I make
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it on the speed channel and it was, it was just cool, you know.
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And then, you know, as as he was going up and doing some ARCA
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racing and getting them the asphalt stuff, you know, I just
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continued to meet more and more people.
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And then, you know, Facebook was coming out and you know, nobody
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just had their, their social media girl or or guy they, the
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drivers ran their own social media, right.
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So I just started firing off messages to everybody, you know,
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hey, let me paint your helmet. I'm this kid from Missouri.
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You know, luckily guys like you and and Mark Martin and you know
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David Reagan, Justin Allgaier, all those guys were really
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pivotal and just, you know, sending me a helmet and giving
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me a chance, you know, and that's that's how I got going is
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just I I would love racing and that's and I was good at art, OK
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how do we marry these two together?
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And and the helmet was, you know, the puzzle piece that was
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missing, basically. Yeah, I I let let's wrap it up
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like this Craig we know there's so much more you were getting
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ready to go there right now. But let let's let's wrap this
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up. You are where you're at right
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now. But there's that story you want
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to tell the 10 year old artist. Hey listen I just didn't show up
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here. You won't, you won't believe my
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journey. So we had to lay that platform
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out. You're great now but you weren't
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and and neither was I. And and I think your story is
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incredible. I think it will inspire a lot of
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people. Thank you for telling us how you
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started. What I'm going to hear out of
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all this is everybody went home from school and you stayed
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there. And the janitor said turn the
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lights off. Yeah, they actually, they
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actually gave me the key to The Art Room and they rekeyed the
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whole school. They gave me the actual Art Room
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key because they knew, you know, how much it would mean to me
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that. That means the world to me.
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It's pretty listen that that's fantastic.
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So what's great about Kenny conversation is we go
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everywhere. But because of everything you
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said, we have a lot of pictures about you, so we're going to be
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dropping a lot of pictures in as we talk.
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So 2010 Ish, one of your very first helmets.
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Here we are, we're dropping the picture in right now.
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Looks like you're handing one of your very first painted helmets
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to JJ Yeley. Tell me about this picture
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you're giving JJ Yailey a helmet on Pit Rd.
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Yeah. So this is this is like big time
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me here. You know this is when I finally
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made it. I think you know, this is before
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I moved to North Carolina and you know, just being on pit Rd.
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and being able to hand a real cup driver, you know your first
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helmet, how did you like? How did you get your pit pass?
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How did you get get? In I I think Brian Patty
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actually got me a pit pass, 'cause I I had known his sister
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from dirt racing, another networking situation, you know,
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so I I, you know, JJ doesn't give me a pit pass to this day.
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So he definitely didn't get it for me.
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But no, I owe a lot to JJ. He was cool.
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And you know, it was when he was coming back from an injury in
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dirt racing and, you know, just kind of running in the back.
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But I was so pumped to know, you know, on that prompter when
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their names are scrolling across in position, I was like, you
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know, we got a helmet in the in the race, you know it doesn't.
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And if you have a chance of winning, probably not.
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But it was just, it was the coolest thing to me to know and
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I, you know, was painting for a cup driver, you know?
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Yeah. OK.
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So now this is where we're going to keep everybody excited and
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interesting. We're going to show another one
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of my helmets and then we're going to go to you.
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We're going to go back to you about this year's 2024 Daytona
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500, but not right now, All right?
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I've always known. I've always known you, but I
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was, you know, and now I announced my retirement.
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I was going to run one last race.
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Oh yeah, I remember this helmet. That's a good one.
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So, 2015, my daughters, my daughters, Brooke, Brandy and
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Brittany, they get a hold of you and I'm going to drive for Joe
17:21
Gibbs Racing. And your job is to make a helmet
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celebrating my career. So you designed the last helmet
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I ever wore in NASCAR and tell me about this helmet.
17:36
Obviously we had US seller but this this is unbelievable.
17:40
Yeah, so this is, these are my favorite projects.
17:43
You know, when everyone asks, almost every interview is what's
17:46
your favorite helmet? All right, well, I don't have
17:48
one because I try to make them all, you know, the best, you
17:50
know. So if you're not evolving as an
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artist, you know, you get out of the kitchen, right?
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So when stuff like this comes across that I know, you know is
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going to be a little misty eye for everyone and really have
18:02
some meaning and really that that's going to be the the
18:05
helmet you put on the shelf for the rest of your, you know,
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career and life. You know, I, I take that pretty
18:11
seriously and want to make sure that it is, you know, it's still
18:14
a helmet, but it's just a really cool piece of artwork.
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And as I'm, you know, going through all these photos,
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obviously you don't know about the helmet, right?
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And they're they're contacting me.
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So I'm going through all these old pictures of your career and
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it's just cool to spend because I'm every one of these helmets
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takes me 30-40 hours. It's not like a print that goes
18:33
out the door. So the more you're looking at
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this thing all, all week, you know, oh man, this is cool.
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I've never seen this picture. I I wonder what the story is
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behind this. So you know, when you get it
18:43
done, then you're like, man, I can't wait till I get to this
18:45
thing because I got a million questions to ask him about all
18:48
these pictures, you know. So I think those are the most
18:51
meaningful projects. You know that we do.
18:55
It's definitely my favorite. You know when, when, when
18:57
there's some emotion in the artwork, I that's my that's my
19:01
favorite thing. You know, you can do lines and
19:02
make sponsors happy all day, but you know, doing that kind of
19:06
stuff, you know, it means a lot. I want to thank you for that
19:10
that that helmet meant the world to me.
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You said what I thought you would say.
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That helmet is still very personal.
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Yeah. To me this day.
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Thank you so much. When I got that, it definitely
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that's my whole that's my whole career on on one helmet.
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Yeah. And how do you do that?
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But you did it. OK, so you are we.
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We've established an emotional helmet.
19:35
We've established the cardinal helmets.
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A lot of fun, but time for me to brag on you a little bit.
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I've done nothing interesting, I promise.
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You've done so much. Interesting.
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So now this is where Charlie Marlow is going to drop this
19:51
most incredible picture of William Byron on the front
19:56
straightaway. This year's 2024 Daytona 500
20:00
winner, Charlie is dropping this picture.
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William Byron has his head as if he's saying a prayer.
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You won the Daytona 500. Your helmet was on William
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Byron's head. Tell me about winning the
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Daytona 500 this year. He wins the race.
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What's going through your mind when when you win the Daytona
20:25
500 as the helmet Painter? Yeah, I was going to say I
20:28
don't, I don't think I won the Daytona 500, but it is, you
20:31
know, I I get a bunch of texts, you know, congratulations.
20:34
You were definitely. Not like I didn't do anything,
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you know, anything. I slowed him down putting all
20:39
the that paint on the helmet, you know, So I think it's cool.
20:43
Just, you know, like I said, going back to that JJ Haley
20:46
picture of just, you know, having a helmet in the race and
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knowing that, OK, you paint for professional athletes and then,
20:52
you know, we've had a helmet in that race for 15 years and you
20:56
know, we've come close and we've won some super speedways.
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We've never actually had a driver win the 500.
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So, you know, have a kid like William and not a kid anymore,
21:05
but. He's a kid.
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Yeah. Well he came to our shop when we
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were in a storage unit still, you know, and and he was AK and
21:11
N Driver and he had never had his helmet painted.
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He didn't know, you know, what he wanted or anything like that
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and and we made him something really cool back then.
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So to have someone like William, you know, wear your helmets
21:23
through his entire career and then you know he wins the
21:26
biggest race of his entire life, you know, gets out with your
21:30
helmet on. He doesn't just throw it in the
21:32
car. He actually climbs out on the
21:33
roof with your helmet on. It's like, man that's it's
21:36
really cool feeling for me, you know.
21:37
And then that's everyone that's a whole part of that team is you
21:41
know they they win the 500. It's it's awesome.
21:43
No matter what small part of it is, you know that you're
21:46
contributing. And you know, I'm from St.
21:48
Louis, MO. You're from Branson, MO.
21:50
You're 3 1/2 hours from here is where you grew up.
21:54
And I'm thinking to myself as you as I'm looking at these
21:59
pictures, I'm thinking once again I'm thinking about you
22:03
know the the janitor in in in the high school and here you are
22:07
now Daytona 500 winning helmet. Now Charlie's going to drop
22:13
another pitcher in here. What's next?
22:15
What we got this is all the helmets that you had in the
22:19
Daytona 500. What do we see here, 36912 A?
22:24
Lot a lot of personalities is what you see there, honestly.
22:28
Yeah, you, you have a lot of helmets in the Daytona 500, so
22:33
you had a lot of chances. I guess it's kind of like
22:37
gambling, right? You know, you have all these
22:39
helmets and they're just hoping one of them becomes a Daytona
22:44
500. So yeah, from from a janitor in,
22:51
you know, telling you to turn the lights out and here you are
22:54
celebrating the Daytona 500 when all these drivers were in your
22:58
helmets. What it What did it feel like
23:00
where you at the Daytona 500? I I was I was there to watch it
23:04
rain and then unfortunately I had some Atlanta helmets to do
23:08
so I had to go back and I watched both races here at the
23:11
shop on Monday. So it was a bummer not to be
23:13
there but you know I I doubt I would have thought fought the
23:17
crowd to get a picture with William anyway so but he did
23:20
send me a picture of the ring you know from the plane that
23:23
night flying to flying to New York.
23:25
So I thought that was pretty cool.
23:26
You know, that he, you know, at least text me back and that
23:29
we've had such a good, you know, friendship and personalities,
23:32
you know, on his helmets over all these years.
23:34
So you know, it couldn't have happened to a nicer kid and and
23:37
I'm glad he was our first Daytona 500 winner.
23:40
You know, it's it's a really cool thing for the shop.
23:42
That's incredible. So that helmet that won the
23:45
Daytona 500, does he save it or do you build him another helmet
23:50
to run the very next week? Where where is the Daytona 500?
23:54
That's a good question. I've already, you know, we got
23:56
to paint a couple replicas of it for, you know, a couple sponsors
24:00
of Hendrick, but I'm sure that one will go to the Hall of Fame
24:03
and then you know, put on his on his shelf for the rest of the
24:06
time. So the other part of that is
24:08
really cool. You know, it did start with just
24:11
me, you know, moving out here and like I said, I worked out of
24:14
a a little storage unit and everything.
24:15
But now, you know, I have a whole team surrounding me.
24:18
So you know I'm I'm not the one that painted Williams helmet.
24:21
You know Mike and Ryan and Noel all the guys in the shop you
24:24
know they take those wins very serious.
24:27
You know and and we've always you know we've always had like a
24:29
sticker system of like who can get the most wins in the in the
24:32
year when one of our guys wins and and sees their stuff on TV.
24:38
It's it's the same feeling I got when I you know first started
24:42
painting NASCAR helmets. So it's it's just cool that
24:45
yeah, I did start this, but now I have just this team of artists
24:48
who are just amazing, you know, that can outpaint me, you know,
24:51
most days and I tell everybody it's like a tattoo shop when you
24:54
walk in here, you know, that's this artist is really good at
24:57
one thing and this person's, you know, great at another.
25:00
And then being in town, you know, the guy starts stopping in
25:03
and then you know, William might come in and he's got his guy.
25:07
Mike might paint every single one of his helmets and he he
25:09
loves his style and it's just a cool vibe in this shop to to
25:13
really be personable with everybody.
25:15
And I know I keep saying that, but but yeah, it really is, You
25:19
know, it's not like we, you know, live back in Missouri and
25:21
we're just shipping stuff. And I just see people over
25:24
e-mail. I think it's just really just
25:27
people stopping in and wanting to be a part of, you know, what
25:29
we're doing instead of just saying, oh, I'm paint my helmet
25:31
blue, you know? Yeah.
25:33
Let me paint the picture. Exactly.
25:35
For everybody right now. I'm going to, I'm going to give
25:39
you know everybody listening my truth.
25:41
I come in your place. I come into off axis I right
25:45
where you're at right now. I've been in your office right
25:47
there. It's fun.
25:49
You you, you have this artist feel when you go in.
25:53
It's not like a business. It's like there's pictures,
25:56
there's all these things then we go in.
25:58
Now what we're going to do now is we're going to have CC.
26:01
Let's grab this picture where all the helmets are on the
26:04
shelf. We got all these black ones up
26:07
on the top. We got all the white ones in the
26:09
middle, and they're they're all. It looks like maybe they're
26:12
sanded, they're taped off. And then when I'm in your shop,
26:17
you usually have names on these helmets.
26:21
Tell us. It looks to me like there's
26:23
maybe 50 helmets here. Tell me about this picture we're
26:25
looking at now. So that's that's current day
26:28
right. So when I moved here, you know I
26:30
I was painting for about 7 or 8 people and and that's basically
26:35
if you're going to send me a helmet right now that's that's
26:37
the wait list of helmets on the shelf and you can't see.
26:41
What you can't see is about 30 more in boxes that are you know
26:45
behind that. So like I said it's you know you
26:48
never know when it's going to stop and you want to work as
26:50
hard as you can. But for right now, we're we're
26:53
extremely fortunate to have, you know, plenty of work for the the
26:56
four of us that are painting helmets here.
26:58
Good to Charlotte. Let's let's drop Martin Truek,
27:03
junior pitcher in here. This is a this is a helmet on
27:06
top of. I believe it's Martin Truex's.
27:09
Tell me just a little bit about this helmet.
27:11
It's got red, white and blue. It's definitely got the Ozark MO
27:15
feeling bass pro It's a it's a good, patriotic looking helmet.
27:20
Yeah, it's his. I think that's his Coke, 600
27:23
helmet. So everywhere, every year, Coke,
27:24
600 guys, you know they want to do something patriotic or you
27:27
know Johnny Morris, he always, you know, is.
27:30
Super Owner of Bass Pro. At that guy also from
27:33
Springfield, MO good guy. Anyway he's you know big
27:38
military guy and all the support you know I think Martin ended up
27:41
giving that helmet to to the family that was on the
27:44
windshield that weekend. So that stuff's always cool Like
27:47
I said the emotion and and all that that goes into that weekend
27:50
is is super cool already but to to paint a helmet like that's
27:54
cool and everybody I'd say you know walks in here and and does
27:58
their thing and wants to be creative.
28:00
Martin is the one guy that you know I don't talk to or you know
28:04
not that he chooses to he's quiet but he just trusts me.
28:08
He says you know put the fish on there and make it look cool.
28:10
And I that's that's what we do and obviously that picture
28:13
there, you know I think we we do a pretty good job of making him
28:16
look good on the racetrack. Yeah.
28:17
We're going to keep up with show and tell because we have so much
28:20
more to you and we're going to sorry, we're going to get to
28:22
that. OK.
28:23
The next helmet Charlie's going to drop in here is you and
28:26
Jeffrey Earnhardt. Now this this helmet kind of
28:30
gets me a little bit tell me as I look at this helmet and this
28:36
is his grandfather. This is this is Jeffrey
28:39
Earnhardt and it and he's got a picture of the great Dale
28:44
Earnhardt senior and the T-shirt says, damn I'm good.
28:48
Tell me about how Incredible Helmet came about.
28:51
Yeah. So every year Jeffrey will come
28:52
in here and you know that's what he wants in the back of his
28:55
helmet. He wants a portrait of of
28:57
Earnhardt you know senior. And we always try to find really
29:02
cool pictures or really meaningful stuff.
29:04
You know stuff that when you when you Google doesn't come up
29:06
you know like we want obviously that picture does but you know
29:10
we want something special to Jeffrey.
29:11
That way when he grabs his helmet every time he puts it on,
29:13
you know that's what he's reminded of and that's what he
29:15
thinks of and you know it looks awesome.
29:18
And that that picture on there, it's kind of it's kind of hard
29:21
for me to be standing there giving it to him because Noel is
29:24
the one that painted it and he's the one that's amazing you know
29:28
at doing those portraits. He hand paints those which is
29:30
insane. I I've for as many hours as I.
29:34
Have. I don't know how he does it.
29:35
I watch him do it every time he does a portrait and I just
29:39
there's no way I can ever do that.
29:40
So and a quick back story on him, we went, we went to the
29:43
same high school same, same arts teacher.
29:46
Yeah. He still, he still lives in
29:48
Missouri. He didn't make the trip out just
29:50
yet but he'll come out here and help us get caught up.
29:53
And you know what we've been painting together for 20 some
29:56
years. So being in that shadow of how
29:58
good he is for that long is it's been tough.
30:02
But you know, he's one of my best friends and I'm, I'm very
30:05
honored that he comes to our shop and helps out.
30:08
I want to remind everybody what great leaders do, and I can tell
30:15
right now you're a great leader because you sound.
30:17
You surround yourself with great friends that work for you, work
30:22
with you. You keep giving the credit to
30:26
all your artists, and I think that's fantastic.
30:29
But you own the place. You put it together.
30:33
You've done an incredible job So let's take a breather and let
30:36
let let's brag on you for a little bit and and by the word
30:41
breather, I mean you know I know what it's like to smell that
30:45
paint we used to deliver newspapers and my brother Rusty
30:50
Wallace, Mike myself we we had a newspaper delivery route and man
30:56
I just I got so tired of that ink smell.
30:58
Oh man, I'm like, I'm like, Get Me Out of here.
31:01
So this leads me to this. You probably got to get tired of
31:06
painting the hundreds and hundreds of helmet.
31:09
My friend. You are a winning spotter.
31:13
You spot, you you spot for Tyler Reddick on the road courses.
31:20
So, Charlie, let's drop this picture in.
31:23
This picture is Tyler Reddick and you all winning the
31:28
Brickyard. Tell me about you being a
31:31
spotter. How did this come about?
31:33
Yeah. So again, you know, all the way
31:36
back to dirt racing, you know, networking and meet people I
31:40
met. I met Tyler when he was like 13
31:42
years old probably, you know, I remember, yeah, racing, racing
31:45
against him. And then, you know, he went on
31:48
to race for, you know, Scotty Bloomquist and, you know, then
31:52
made it all the way here. So, yeah.
31:53
So when he moved here, he was just by himself, you know, young
31:57
kids. So I did my best to kind of take
31:59
them under my wing, you know, me and Candace both.
32:01
And I said, hey, I'm, I'm going to spot for you all the road
32:04
courses and hopefully be a voice of reason for you and, you know,
32:09
help you out. And he was, you know, all the
32:12
way into like junior Motorsports in that nine car.
32:14
He was terrible at Rd. courses. I mean, we had DNFS and you
32:19
know, I would ride to the airport with them and it would
32:21
just be, I mean, not a good, you know, how good racers are.
32:25
They just get in their own head and it's you know, when they are
32:28
frustrated and can't figure stuff out, it is it's it's
32:32
detrimental, you know. So you know to go from there,
32:36
you know not finishing races and being you know, stuck in sand
32:39
traps and whatever, you know to winning the Brickyard.
32:43
It was pretty cool experience. And another thing, I'm just so
32:46
pumped, I got to do it with, you know, with Tyler and my job is
32:49
very easy when I spot for him because I give very little
32:52
guidance and he's so fast. You're usually not even around
32:56
cars after the restarts. So you know a couple times like
32:59
Coda last year, you know doing turn one with all those restarts
33:02
at the end. One coda.
33:04
Your heart rate goes up a little bit but you know, I'm pretty,
33:07
I'm pretty even keel and I feel like I do a decent job and I've
33:11
been. I've been with great primary
33:13
spotters too, Derek Nealand and and Nick Payne and and I've
33:17
learned a lot from them and just being able to do it and get out
33:21
of the shop. Like I said, it kind of feeds
33:22
the competition side that I used to get from Dirt Lake Mall
33:25
racing and being around, you know racing every weekend.
33:27
So it is nice. You know, I I try to do it as
33:30
many times as I can, but you know, there's only so many Rd.
33:33
courses in the in the year. I I got to ask you this for me,
33:39
turn one at Circuit of the Americas.
33:42
I always say that's a goofy name.
33:44
What we call Coda sounds better than Circuit of the Americas.
33:48
So when when you see the field coming at you, and I watched
33:53
that race last year, that turn, one has got to be the most
33:57
insane corner, a 9090° corner. They're coming.
34:02
At you, Straight up up a hill at you.
34:05
And. And you got to be going, yeah.
34:10
What do you do? What do you like?
34:12
Yeah. I mean, again, you just rely on
34:15
just having a really good driver.
34:16
That's what Tyler does. And it helps when you're on the
34:18
front row, obviously, you know, it's a little easier to see,
34:21
'cause if you're like, you know, 5th row on back, it's a it's a
34:25
massacre. So, you know, my thing is just
34:27
really let them know when people are popping out and you know,
34:31
the big run like that. But you know honestly just Tyler
34:34
and you know sometimes he'll clear himself with that you know
34:37
the in car camera that they have now it's it's a lot easier than
34:40
it used to be probably. But you know that he lets me go
34:43
be a part of those weekends is it's a lot of fun and just you
34:47
know like I like I said I try to be a voice of reason for him and
34:49
and keep him calm in the car. If, if, if anything's I'm not,
34:53
I'm not teaching him how to drive at all.
34:54
He's he's natural talent on that.
34:56
OK, look, I'm going to call bull crap a little bit.
35:01
I I I raced the 905 NASCAR races.
35:04
I think sometimes I got to remind people this, So let me
35:08
tell you how good you are. When I ran 905 races and I'm not
35:13
bragging on myself. So everybody calm down.
35:16
I'm, I'm bragging on you right now because a good spotter for
35:20
me is somebody that is kind of my therapist, you know?
35:25
Hey, we're down a lap. You'll get it back, buddy.
35:28
We're behind you because when we get in that race car and put
35:33
that helmet on, you know there's an old joke.
35:37
We, you know, we're cut off. We're we're on a little island
35:40
by ourselves and and everything we do, we feel like is our
35:44
fault. So don't sell yourself short.
35:48
There's a reason Tyler Reddick has you doing what you're doing.
35:52
It might it might not be hey, there's oil down here and turn
35:55
one. It might not be that.
35:56
It might not be. Hey car inside, it might be
36:00
because you're a good dude. Yeah, and you make him feel
36:03
good. I think, I think that helped,
36:05
you know, switching teams last year just, you know, having a
36:07
familiar voice on the radio, 'cause I think, you know,
36:09
everybody was new, everybody was different, you know, so Coda
36:12
being, you know, a month into the schedule, you know, I think
36:16
I helped a little bit, hopefully.
36:18
So but yeah, it's, it's fun. I just love getting out of the
36:21
shop and and just doing different things and it makes
36:24
you nervous, you know, when they go green.
36:26
And I like that feeling of like doing something different and
36:29
out out-of-the-box and doing, you know, just different stuff.
36:32
You know, I, I think if you're not scaring yourself a little
36:35
bit, you know, you're living life pretty boring.
36:37
So I like to, I like to have that rush and knowing that, you
36:40
know, if I make the wrong calls here, you know it, it could be
36:43
catastrophic. But you know, just doing that
36:45
and learning and and something new and and trying to be good at
36:48
it, you know? OK, we're going to.
36:53
Somebody should get mad at me because this cliche, We're going
36:56
to make a 180 CC. Marlo's going to look at this.
37:00
Wherever you want to take it. So the the great manager of the
37:06
Saint Louis Cardinals, he he's not there anymore.
37:08
But the great Tony Larussa wrote a book.
37:11
And in that book it said I went to the ballpark every night to
37:14
get my stomach tore out. In other words, you you called
37:19
it a rush. Yeah.
37:21
But Tony Larussa and great athletes, that's what we do.
37:25
We we live to be miserable because whenever you want to win
37:28
there's there's a a sense of misery required that way when
37:33
you win it's so much relief and and that is the balance.
37:38
I I'm miserable. I'm going to go to the track.
37:41
I'm going to go to the baseball field.
37:44
Oh, we won. Now it's just this unbelievable
37:47
relief. Now Charlie Marlow is going to
37:50
drop this pitcher in, and now this is this 180.
37:56
Here we are looking at the Great Hall of Fame picture for the
37:59
Saint Louis Cardinals, Adam Wainwright.
38:02
And this was incredible. You painted Adam Wainwright this
38:07
beautiful guitar that he's holding up.
38:11
That was an unbelievable moment for you.
38:14
Tell me everything about this moment.
38:16
How did you get there? How did you go about painting
38:18
this guitar for the great Adam Wainwright?
38:21
Yeah, I mean, again, it all goes back to networking, You know,
38:24
not not quite back to dirt racing, but just knowing the
38:27
right people and people seeing your work and and knowing, you
38:31
know, we can handle any job that's thrown at us.
38:32
So when you get a call from the Saint Louis Cardinals that say,
38:36
hey, we got, you know, the greatest pitcher of all time
38:39
retiring, we want to paint him a guitar because he's a, you know,
38:42
country musician on the side. It's pretty cool, you know, and
38:46
I'm, I'm like, yeah, I'm, I'm in.
38:48
I'm all for it. Let's take a break from painting
38:49
helmets for a week and and paint this guitar for him.
38:52
So definitely a cool gift, very, very unique.
38:55
I put, you know, he's got a ton of kids.
38:58
He adopted a few kids and. He's a good man.
39:01
He's one of the best guys I've ever, you know, ever been able
39:04
to watch play the game, you know, just a good guy all all
39:07
around. So on the back of that guitar, I
39:10
contacted his wife, you know, behind his back a lot like we
39:12
did with your, you know, last helmet And I had.
39:15
I had all of his kids write, you know, handwritten notes,
39:18
personal notes to him. And I put like the Cardinal
39:22
carrying all those notes on the back so that when he flipped it
39:24
over, it's like, oh, this is a cool guitar.
39:25
But you know, again, bringing the emotion back to it and
39:28
making it something really cool. And it was just, you know, notes
39:31
of his kids, just telling him how proud they were of him.
39:33
And you know, something that he'll cherish a long time, I
39:36
guess. Wow, that is pretty cool.
39:38
Congratulations on that. You and I and your beautiful
39:42
wife Candace. We have SAT in the Busch Stadium
39:46
seats together. Oh, we can't.
39:47
Yeah, we saw you there. Yeah, of course you would be out
39:50
of Cardinals game, Yeah. Well, you know, remember we're
39:53
going to have Erica Enders on Kenny Conversation, one of the
39:56
greatest lady drag racers of all time and we were there.
40:01
But you are a great Cardinal fan.
40:05
So you you kind of downplayed a little bit for me.
40:09
I mean, you know, everybody knows that when you grow up in
40:11
Missouri or Arkansas. You grew up with KMOX radio, so
40:16
you you simply. I mean, for me, you just didn't
40:19
paint a guitar. That had to be.
40:21
You had to give it. You were jacked up on Mountain
40:23
Dew. You had to be, I mean.
40:25
It was awesome and like I said we got to go to the game and and
40:29
he you know he sends me a video after the game of you know the
40:32
whole guitar and and thanking me and and it was way cool.
40:36
Just get out of the NASCAR realm and like do something different
40:39
and you know, to beat that big a deal.
40:40
And then they give him the guitar and it's a big deal.
40:44
And then it's followed by this puppy that they got for his kids
40:48
and the and the and the little puppy just took the show.
40:50
You know, I thought I was going to do this big guitar and it's
40:52
going to be awesome, you know, And then they they give him a
40:56
puppy and I just, you know, you can't, you can't win against a a
40:59
new puppy. Yeah, so.
41:01
It was all together. Well, I knew I'd pull more out
41:03
of you. That what I got out of you was
41:05
Adam sent you. So you'll say that video of Adam
41:09
the rest of your life, I'm sure. Way cool.
41:11
Yeah. And like I said this, you know,
41:12
a guy that you kind of strive to be, you know, just a good
41:15
hearted Midwest dude, you know, so.
41:18
Yeah, let's keep dropping some pictures in here, Charlie.
41:22
The next one is Joey Logano, A2 time NASCAR Cup champion.
41:28
So here's this incredible picture.
41:32
The flag is stuck in the car. He's wearing your helmet.
41:35
His body is half out of the car. Tell me about this picture of
41:40
Joey Logano. I'm not sure what win this is,
41:44
but it's just, you know, I think I threw this in just because
41:47
it's again, go back to barely painting for anybody in the
41:50
field and now you have you know, NASCAR champions and and guys
41:54
getting out with their helmets on after the race and just kind
41:57
of being a small part of all that.
41:58
Like I said, we don't make the car go any faster, but I think
42:02
it's just cool, you know, when that stuff happens and then you
42:05
know, to paint for your friends, you know, we're also clients.
42:08
And then watching them, you know, succeed in the highest
42:12
level that they can do. And then kind of being a small
42:15
part of that, I think it's one of the coolest things to watch.
42:18
You know, just just knowing that they're trying as hard as they
42:22
can and they're at the top of their game and then they they
42:25
let you, you know, do the artwork on their helmet.
42:28
OK. So the next one, first of all, I
42:30
got to say Charlie is right now listening to everything manning
42:34
them in Charlotte. I kind of like this.
42:35
This is really, this is fun. This is the first show we've
42:38
done like this and we've done 45 Kenny conversations.
42:43
So this one is. Which I I love them by the way.
42:46
They're the best interviews because you say whatever you
42:49
want to say. And I I love that part.
42:51
Like, it's a raw interview because I tell people all the
42:54
time, you know, these these interviews at the track or they
42:57
want to tell you how good the Toyota ran and they want.
43:01
I mean that's great for TV, but like I want to hear the real
43:05
story and like, you know, how much money does this guy get
43:08
paid? How many, how many weekends a
43:09
year does this pit crew guy go? Like, I'm all for all those
43:13
stories. And then I love little, you
43:15
know, I live 15 minutes from the shop.
43:17
So the little 10 minutes snips of, you know, little things you
43:20
do, it's like it's a perfect way to wake up and go to the shop in
43:24
the morning. Because I love this, I love
43:25
everything about this show, and I hope you and Charlie keep it
43:28
going forever. We we will.
43:30
And. And that's why we always say
43:31
listen to us on the way to work. Yep.
43:33
And then turn it right back on. So let's the the next one is a
43:36
lot of fun. I'm not going to steal your
43:39
Thunder. I have it all here.
43:41
But tell me about this Justin Algar situation that started
43:47
when his daughter was three years old.
43:50
And Charlie, when he starts talking, drop these pitchers in,
43:55
if you will. But go ahead, Greg, tell me
43:57
about this. So Justin is, you know, one of
44:00
my first first Xfinity drivers I painted for.
44:03
And his passion for art is just as much, if not more than than
44:08
my own. You know, I if he wasn't driving
44:10
a race car over weekend, he would probably be working in
44:12
here, Which I mean he was. He's been in here all last week,
44:14
painting, painting a helmet for his daughter for softball.
44:17
So. This is great.
44:19
Yeah, I mean it's just it's the coolest.
44:20
So when I paint a helmet for him, is one of the hardest
44:25
things to paint for, 'cause he's, again, he's just make it
44:27
look cool. But I know he knows every part
44:30
that goes into this, right? So I know he's not, not that
44:32
he's going to nitpick it, but like, if I miss something or I'm
44:35
not putting the time or effort in, like he's going to see it,
44:37
you know? So I'm like, I mean, I throw
44:40
everything at it, but the kitchen sink when I paint one of
44:42
his helmets, just because I know how much he's going to
44:44
appreciate. Exactly.
44:46
Yeah. So when Harper turned 3, we're
44:50
like, OK, let's let's have her paint a helmet.
44:52
And again, one of these emotional deals where I said
44:55
don't tell Justin we're going to do a playoff helmet, have Harper
44:59
come in and she's going to paint this helmet.
45:02
And the first one was like her putting her hand prints on it
45:04
and you know, just. 3. Years old.
45:08
She's 3. Years old?
45:09
Yeah, we're in. My office.
45:11
Yeah, that's why we do it. So here.
45:13
Oh yeah, look at that. This is like her just, you know,
45:16
wrote a little something. This is her tracing over, you
45:19
know. She couldn't write anything
45:21
that, you know, being that small, but I did majority of it.
45:24
That's awesome. Awesome.
45:25
You know he loves it, right? So then the next year, you know
45:30
she's got ideas. All right, let's, let's hear the
45:32
next idea. And then we we go from that and
45:34
we go unicorns and rainbows and then it gets into like well just
45:39
give her the airbrush and let her do her thing, you know?
45:41
And every one of these, Justin doesn't know what it's going to
45:43
look like. And then we film it all so that
45:46
he can go back and watch it after he after she gives him the
45:48
helmet. So he knows it's coming now, but
45:50
he has no idea what the, the theme or or anything's going to
45:54
be. So I think just watching her
45:57
soak it all up and you know, if she walked in here tomorrow, I
46:02
could just say here's the tape and here's the paint and she
46:04
could probably paint it all herself now.
46:05
So it's pretty cool to watch her from three years old, you know,
46:08
to I think she's 11 now, you know just how much she's grown
46:12
and and wanted to take that art. You know, just like just like
46:15
Charlotte is, you know, she used to trace on her iPad just like
46:18
that. So I think just kind of giving
46:20
her, you know, the crayon box here and letting her go is is
46:24
pretty one, one of the coolest projects I do all year honestly.
46:27
And then to have them all lined up, you know, half of them are
46:29
here and half of them are at Justin's house.
46:31
And you know, I think that's going to be really special when
46:34
you know she's in college years and you know he's retired and
46:37
and he has all these helmets that are painted by Harper.
46:40
I think it's going to be really cool later on down the down the
46:42
road. And and this is the reason that
46:45
I wanted to have you on Kenny conversation.
46:48
I knew that we would pull out all the emotions because we
46:53
simply don't, you know, listen, we understand what a helmet is.
46:56
It's to save our lives. But I've always thought that a
47:00
helmet is a reflection of your personality, who you are not,
47:04
not, not all of them, Because there's millions and millions of
47:09
dollars involved on the backside or on the front side of these
47:13
helmets. Your sponsor wants your helmet
47:15
painted the way you want some, but for the most part, we're
47:19
going. We're going to call another
47:20
audible. We got two more helmets of mine.
47:26
Well, I'm born in and and raised in St.
47:28
Louis, MO. This is one of my favorites of
47:30
all time. That's a good one.
47:32
That's one of my favorite ones, actually.
47:34
Yeah, so. But listen, it's not about the
47:37
blue note. It's about, look what you do
47:39
with the city back here. I love the ice look and it's the
47:44
blue out in the sun is like one of the coolest Blues left.
47:47
It's an incredible helmet. And then you and I, we had a
47:54
long talk and I want to bring this up.
47:57
The name Wallace right there. So I like the Saint Louis Blues
48:02
up front here. What a great helmet.
48:06
So I I want, I just want to talk a little psychology a little
48:11
bit. I said to you, I said I want my
48:14
name on the helmet and you and I kind of went back and forth and
48:18
then when I told you why I wanted my name on it because I'm
48:22
a big AJ Foyt fan and AJ greatest driver of all time.
48:30
Go ahead and argue, comment below.
48:32
It's fine. But AJ had an orange helmet and
48:36
on the side it said AJ and I said to myself, well, times
48:41
change, but if a a JS, a badass, and if AJ Boyd can put his name
48:46
on a helmet, OK, if you paint a helmet, I could simply go, whose
48:51
helmet's that? Oh, that's a JS.
48:54
Tell me about our conversation. What was your thoughts about me
48:58
and you going back and forth? Do does any driver demand their
49:02
name on their helmet or is that a thing now where people don't
49:05
want their name on the helmet? I.
49:08
Think it goes back and forth you know and it's it's like a thing
49:10
with you. The more I paint your helmets
49:12
the more I know what you like and and where you want things
49:15
you know and and now we put them across the forehead and you know
49:18
every every one of them. So I think it's just a a
49:21
personal preference you you think that looks cool from AJ
49:24
Fort and then you know Alex Bowman's mate may say no I
49:27
don't. I don't want to put my helmet my
49:29
name on it at all you know. So you know I think it's just
49:33
what you grew up liking. And you know, same with like
49:36
like anything like, you know, this is the music I like or this
49:38
is, this is the colors I like on my helmet.
49:41
You know, it's it's just personal preference.
49:43
And I again, I think that's one of the coolest parts about our
49:45
shop is, you know, you can tell me that stuff and I'll remember
49:49
it. And every time we do a helmet,
49:50
you know, now you know, this is the reason Kenny has it, you
49:53
know, Wallace big on the forehead because he loves, you
49:56
know, AJ Fort and that's what he used to do.
49:57
And in in the next helmet, by the way, I'm doing a good job at
50:02
this. His juggling helmet.
50:06
Yeah, yeah. And we, we put a lot of work
50:08
into this because, you know, you've done such a good job
50:12
painting my helmets all these years.
50:14
This next helmet is the reason I said, will you please put my
50:21
name on the helmets? And to me, this is one of the
50:24
most beautiful helmets you've ever painted for me, Missouri
50:29
Tigers. Look at this.
50:31
I do like that one, yeah. Come on now, man, that baby is
50:34
so awesome. Just look mean.
50:36
It's mean. It's badass.
50:38
Our Missouri Tigers, by the way, had a hell of a year, you know.
50:43
They're getting better. They outrun Ohio because Ohio
50:47
said they didn't really try. Well, that's that's their fault,
50:50
not mine. Yeah.
50:51
But by the way calling an audible here how stupid it was
50:55
that for OSU to go well and Charlie's an OSU dude, that's
50:59
where he's from. But we're we're, we're going to
51:02
take, we're going to put our players in the portal and we're
51:05
not going to try. But let's go and embarrass
51:07
ourselves. Charlie's wrong on that one.
51:10
I love you, Charlie. I like Charlie until he's a
51:13
Boomer Sinner. Now I I just don't.
51:14
So don't. Think about him.
51:16
So this is the reason I I said, hey, whose helmet is this?
51:21
So, you know, but that was that was the helmet that we decided
51:26
to put my name on and I thought that just a good story.
51:30
Yeah, I love it. It's cool.
51:32
And it's just another personality piece of what I love
51:35
about my job, you know? Right, exactly.
51:38
Well, my friend. Listen, I cannot believe we've
51:41
already been on doing this an hour.
51:43
I know, but we're going to show one more picture.
51:47
And Charlie, let's drop the pitcher in, let's leave it up a
51:53
little bit. Of all the helmets that he
51:56
paints for in the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series, Truck
52:01
Series and I especially Greg like this lower one team off
52:07
axis. Look at this Travis Pastrana.
52:10
He's not. He's, he's pretty wild guy,
52:12
yeah. Yeah, Brandon Shepherd, B Shep.
52:15
B Shep Got to keep a couple Dirt drivers on the list, you know?
52:18
Chad Reed, Canon Macintosh. So look at this.
52:25
You know Charlie's leaving it up right now.
52:28
But buddy, when I look at this, this gives me goosebumps for
52:32
you. You have a coming out of that,
52:35
that high school and and the janitor telling you to turn the
52:39
lights out when you're done. When you look at all these names
52:42
and I'm looking at it right now, what?
52:44
What do you think? Honestly, I mean still, you
52:50
know, got to pinch myself every once in a while to say, yeah,
52:52
this is my job, you know. And then when you walk into the
52:55
shop, it's like, Oh yeah, we we own this place and we have made
53:00
a pretty big name for ourselves in this, in this sport.
53:02
You know, when they think helmet paint, I feel like most of the
53:05
time they think off Axis, which is, you know, kind of what I set
53:08
out to do. So, you know, not to conquer the
53:11
world. I didn't set out to do that.
53:12
I just, I just wanted a good name in the sport and you know a
53:16
lot like Sam Bass. I don't think there's anything
53:18
bad anyone has ever said about that guy and you know kind of
53:22
having him as a a mentor. When I moved here that's the
53:26
kind of life I wanted to live When I when I moved to North
53:28
Carolina and and to have good artwork and to you know kind of
53:31
just be that guy. Anyone can stop in and you know
53:34
talk to or or whatever, not just helmet paint.
53:36
You know, just having a good atmosphere of creativity and be
53:40
able to come in here and and do whatever, whatever, whatever
53:43
anyone may need to that day, you know?
53:45
Well, you, you are a wonderful soul.
53:49
You're even better now that you got married.
53:52
You two make a great pair. Look at that big time.
53:55
I got you to think for that, too.
53:56
I meant I told Candace I was going to tell this story so real
53:59
quick. Yes.
54:00
No, I want to. Hear you're the reason you were
54:03
the reason One I You springboarded my career with
54:06
helmet paint. But I also met my wife at your
54:09
house and we didn't like, meet and talk that night.
54:12
But Brittany? My youngest daughter.
54:16
One of the nicest people I've ever met, right.
54:18
Like just that's everything nice about you.
54:22
Brittany got, you know, right. So she would do these friends
54:26
givings so you know where it's just everyone in the industry
54:29
moves here by themselves. You know not a lot of people go
54:32
home for the holidays and and Brittany would be like hey
54:34
everyone bring something, you know we're going to go to my
54:37
parents and just enjoy you know a weekend at home and and
54:41
everybody. So there's a picture of us at
54:43
your house and she is on one side and I am on the very
54:47
opposite side and we have a good laugh at that this.
54:50
Is a real smile. This is that's like the first
54:52
time we we had met, you know. And then when your Fox Sports
54:57
days, you would be gone on Sunday and Brittany would have
54:59
these pool parties in the summer.
55:01
And that's when I really started, you know, noticing
55:03
Candace and and talking to her. And I was like, man, this girl
55:06
works in Motorsports and she's, you know, pretty good looking.
55:08
And you know, I think I, I want to hang out with her more.
55:11
So took me a couple years to, you know, ask her to marry me.
55:16
And I think it was worth the wait, I guess, for her, because
55:20
now she has a helmet painter as a husband.
55:21
So well, first of all you are two of the most wonderful people
55:28
and I want to thank you for being on Kenny conversation and
55:31
we're going to, we're going to wrap it up a little bit like
55:34
this because we are good friends and everybody is hyper nowadays.
55:41
Now this, this is just something fun.
55:43
This is something for everybody if you've made it this far so.
55:48
Oh my, my friend D Como has definitely made it this far
55:51
because she loves that Mizzou helmet and she wants to see it
55:54
so. OK.
55:54
So we have at least two listeners still going.
55:57
OK, so but but this is fun. This is kind of for me too.
56:01
We are at 57 minutes. So now you know.
56:05
Now I've taught you that you cannot do a Kenny conversation
56:10
in 3 minutes. How the hell am I going to?
56:13
Yeah, we're. And we're not even through your
56:15
career. We're only a quarter way through
56:17
your career. So when we do these hour and 40
56:19
minute conversations with somebody twice your age.
56:22
John Force, Dale Junior. Rusty Wallace.
56:27
So I If anything, has your dear friend taught you anything?
56:31
Are you going to put up for me? We're 57 minutes now you see how
56:35
fast it goes. Dude, it it goes by so quick
56:38
walk in here. So, oh, I win, I win.
56:42
I can't imagine, you know, interviewing somebody like
56:44
Rusty, who has a million stories, but as long as I can
56:47
remember them all, you know, have that I'll listen all day.
56:50
Yeah, well, it's a joke because, Kenny, conversation doesn't
56:56
happen without guys like you. But I do have my hyper friends
57:00
that are in their 20s. her and I can hardly make it past two
57:03
minutes. I'm like buddy.
57:05
Hello. Goodbye.
57:06
That's it. So listen, Greg, you're a
57:11
wonderful friend. This has been a different Kenny
57:15
conversation. It's been show and tell.
57:18
Thank you for sending me these pictures.
57:21
I ask you to do it. You did it.
57:24
It really blended the story. So good.
57:28
And listen everybody, this is where we come to an end.
57:32
You listen and be inspired by the great Greg Stump, the owner
57:36
of Off Access Paint. How how do you know what you
57:39
want to do in life? And this story is incredible.
57:41
So listen to this in podcast, we're in iTunes, we're in
57:46
Spotify. Listen on your way to work.
57:49
Listen on your way back home. And then it's so long the next
57:53
day you're going to listen to it again on the way to work it
57:56
always keep. Listening to me, I don't.
57:58
I don't blame you. You're incredible.
58:00
Thank, thank you so much. Absolutely, brother.
58:02
Thank you for having me on. And stop in the shop anytime
58:05
you're in North Carolina. I'll be back and oh, by the way,
58:08
hold on CC, let's not, let's let's not close shop quite yet.
58:15
I have been waiting for my 2024 dirt racing helmet.
58:20
So this is where Charlie. Oh yeah, we got the we got it
58:23
designed. Up Charlotte.
58:24
That's drop the sketch in of my new helmet.
58:27
This is what grade sends people. I like my new helmet design and
58:33
you said what are you going to do on it for me?
58:35
You're going to put my name on it.
58:37
I have. Wallace to cast a thread.
58:39
I got to know what's coming up behind them.
58:41
All right. Well, listen, Next up 1 Kenny
58:45
conversation is whoever it's going to be, we have Erica
58:49
Enders. We have everybody lined up in
58:52
the pipeline. And until then, everybody, we'll
58:56
see you next time.