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Max Papis Has An Unbelievable Racing Career! · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Hello everyone and welcome to Kenny Conversation, brought to
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  you by Jags, the leader in high performance aftermarket car
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  parts. Remember to go to jags.com for
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  everything, anything for your vehicle.
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  I always pause right here because it's like how do I
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  introduce somebody that's really done it all.
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  Max Pappas, Max, how you? Doing buddy.
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  I'm doing great, Kenny. So, Max, you're from Italy and
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  I'd like to be worldly, so please excuse me because I'll
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  excuse you. Thank you.
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  Max, how do we say your real name in Italy?
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  My full name? Yeah.
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  Let me see if I can translate first.
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  OK, Massimiliano is Maximilian. That is beautiful.
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  But I've been asking my dad, why did you call me Massimiliano?
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  You never called me once. I love it.
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  Actually, he called me that name when he got really pissed.
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  Massimiliano. It's like.
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  Massimiliano So from now on when I see Max at the race talking, I
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  go Massimiliano. Deal.
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  So I was in town here and by the way I am, I'm the back seat
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  driver and next is the driver. I was in Charlotte, NC and
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  that's where we're at right now. We are in Mooresville, Talbert
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  Point and this is where Max's company is.
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  MPI, you make incredible steering wheels and we're going
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  to get there. You are worldly now you sell
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  steering wheels, racing steering wheels, cars, steering wheels
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  all over the world. But Max, let's let's start out
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  in Italy just for a little bit. And what do you want to know?
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  Tell me. I want to know just a little bit
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  about you, you know, how did you become a race car driver
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  without, you know, years ago somebody said, I'm asking you
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  what time it is, but don't build me a clock, just some highlights
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  about from Italy and how you got to America.
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  I'm going to try to explain it in my, you know, short and
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  simple way. OK.
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  Usually people that they're born in places where I'm born, they
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  don't become risk a driver. I'm born right on the top of
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  Italy, almost on the Swiss border that is in a place that
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  is similar to North Carolina. But I'm born in 1200 People
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  Village. 1200. People, yeah.
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  So I call it village because that's the best way that I can
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  describe. It's a town near a bigger town
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  but I'm in Born in the City and how everything happened.
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  My dad had a passion for racing but he had a business.
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  He never raced himself but we were very fortunate because the
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  next door village you know 1 1/2 miles from where we from where
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  we from where I was born. There was possible the best
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  engine tuner in go Kart in the world.
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  Go Karts. It seems like a lot of F1
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  drivers. All of you over there is it?
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  Is it true that you all start in Go Karts?
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  I mean, think about it. You know, we don't have Oval
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  tracks, we don't have dirt tracks.
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  And the only thing that I knew how to do it was riding my dirt
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  bike when I was a kid and dreaming about driving a go
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  Kart. Because that is, that's the
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  closest things to what you have here in America.
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  Like 1/4 major you know, and and what I did, you know, I still
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  remember when I was around 12 years of age taking a trip with
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  my bicycle every day down to San Diego, Montbelli, my teacher.
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  Yeah. And.
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  Hold on, you had a teacher. This guy, this guy, I call him
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  teacher cuz that's how we call maestro.
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  That's how I call Mario Andretti as well.
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  Maestro means teacher. In Italian maestro.
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  And Maestro, he was my teacher of racing and life.
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  So Diego was the engine tuner that was about 1 1/2 miles from
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  my house and two three times a week take my bicycle, go down
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  there clean all his race shop. There was a mess cuz it was a
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  genius, but he had shit everywhere.
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  Geniuses are always messy. Yeah.
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  And. Until this guy took me to the
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  racetrack. I convinced him to take me to
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  our local track with a cart. We rented a cart second time,
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  same things. He made me drive one of his cart
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  and then I still remember he went back to my dad and he said,
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  Sir, I think we need to tell you something.
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  So what I mean with Max we went to the cart and track and he has
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  a God gift. I didn't teach him anything and
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  things were coming to him so and that's how my adventure started.
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  So you you're in Italy and we're going to Fast forward.
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  Obviously I I tease Max at Max we can make a really good movie
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  out of your life. So.
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  So when was the moment you come to America?
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  Yeah. Let me, you know, go backwards a
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  little bit so you understand. Yes, you grew up in Europe and
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  the only things back in the day, no Internet, no nothing.
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  So you had no idea. So the only things you are
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  exposed to is Formula One. You only know about Formula One
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  absolutely. Like, I'm sure when you grow up
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  here, NASCAR, right? NASCAR.
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  In the car, maybe about like same things for me.
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  I really didn't even know what else was around the world to
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  race right? So my aim since I was a young
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  kid, F1F1F1, I went there in 95. I raced for two years.
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  I raced for one year full time and one year I was a reserve
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  driver for Lotus. Super famous thing, yes.
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  And the Long story short, it was every single penny that I made.
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  I spent it to get there. When I arrived there, I saw
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  there was no future for a kid like me with no family
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  background. You know, back then, you know
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  then we're going to go back to it.
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  Santa, it was my tea, was my advisor.
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  My teacher passed away. OK, hold on.
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  I I list on Kenny conversation. What I try to do is listen.
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  Even though I'm hyperactive. You, you said Santa, I'm
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  hyperactive. Too.
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  You're hyperactive. Yes, Sir.
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  But you said Santa. I didn't hear that lightly.
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  Ayrton Santa. Yes, Sir.
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  Ayrton Santa was somebody you knew.
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  More than you. Best friend, friend.
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  He I I think of Ayrton like my cousin or my older brother and
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  why this happened? You remember I mentioned you
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  before about Diego, this gentleman.
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  The engine tuner was 1 1/2 mile from the house when Ayrton Santa
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  came to Europe as a kid, 1618 years old.
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  He lived in the next door village with me because Diego
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  was his engine tuner and they went everywhere around the world
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  for sure in Europe, you know racing go Kart and that was the
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  connection. You know, I I don't remember
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  exactly I don't recall exactly when I met Santa because I was
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  still a young kid, you know. But I know that what happened it
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  was I took the an interest in this young kid that was racing
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  Formula Three because he was mentor by this gentleman.
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  And the way that Diego talked about Ayrton, he was like
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  talking about God, you know, I mean he was like and Santa
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  really was my advisor. He paved the road, he guided me
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  and my dad, he making all the decision and unfortunately
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  that's what going back to that, to what I told you when I left F
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  1-2 years before I made my debut in F1 he passed away and my
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  family has no background in racing.
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  I I I was alone. So you know from there on was a
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  lot of decision that we have to take on our own with better
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  little experience and that's why as well possible my career took
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  a lot longer to you know it was not an easy.
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  Path right. And and let's just leave it at
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  that. I'm almost exhausted because
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  that was a very intense moment just now Eric.
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  And Santa is is. I mean it's kind of equal to
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  Dale Earnhardt senior. Oh he's a legend.
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  But I mean Eric and Santa is like.
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  Worldwide. No.
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  Worldwide. Yes.
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  And there's so much more to say about that, but let's come back
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  to Eric. But I wanna tell you, I wanna
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  tell you a little story cuz I think it's really, I think you
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  are a person that appreciates stuff like this.
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  I'm racing in Formula Two. I'm in Serverson the week after
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  same weekend of Imola. Formula One Race Hierton dies
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  that weekend. The weekend after would have
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  been the first time that Formula Two and Formula One would have
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  been on the track at the same time.
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  Since I raced. I have to never saw me racing
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  there, darn it. So I was looking for that moment
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  and I was looking for the moment where he was going to introduce
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  me to Mr., Frank Williams and the people.
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  Williams, Yeah. Big Formula One team, Yeah.
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  So I'm sharing this with you so that you get it.
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  I go to the next race that was Barcelona Grand Prix and it was
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  my first formula to win that would have been in front of
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  Santa. But I tell this all the time to
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  the people. It was something like, I knew I
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  was not alone. I want it with like 5 seconds.
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  That's something that never happened.
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  You know, usually you win a race like that by with a guy right on
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  your tail. Yeah.
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  And I want to share this with you because I wanted you to
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  understand a little bit my background why, what and then.
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  You can things that things that things that made you.
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  Yeah, you know you you can edit in whatever you wanted to edit.
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  No, we're. Not going to edit anything
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  because this is an incredible story because people in America,
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  you know, a lot of people don't travel.
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  Max and anybody that knows racing knows that Formula One,
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  Europe, you say these names like Racetrack, Silverstone,
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  Barcelona, these are legendary, like things that I could never
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  get. Better, but it's the same things
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  that when you talk about Daytona, yeah, we were talking
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  yesterday about Monaco, right? Yeah, Monaco is one hour and 40
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  minutes by car from my house. OK, so.
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  We jump in the car, we go to Monaco.
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  It's like you jumping in the car and go to the next dirt track
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  that is nearby, you know is the same.
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  So for me, a dream is like to go to Monaco, but you're just
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  saying no, it's just Monaco because you live there, you grew
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  up there. It's not a big thing for you.
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  It's like the yeah, I'm sure it's like Bristol for you, you
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  know what I mean? Like, I love it.
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  People love it. They dream about it.
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  Yeah. But how many hundredth time
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  you've been to Bristol? Right.
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  Lots. It's Bristol.
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  It's up in the middle of the mountains.
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  OK, so. So, like, you know, the what I
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  really loved is the fact that it's almost like I had two
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  lives. Right people do.
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  One life over in Europe where I only had this dream, I could see
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  that, you know, I was basically I only and then there was this
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  people, you know, the the people at Ferrari that they took me
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  here to US to race in sports car.
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  That's big. But back then, you know, let me
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  try to explain people a little bit, you know.
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  Back then in 9695, sports car was considered pension plan like
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  the young. My youngest teammate was 50, oh
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  48. So was Mikael Alboreto, the one
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  in F1. So he was what was considered is
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  not what is now. You know, you raced in F1, you
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  raced in Indica, you've done your part and you go and race
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  sports car. I was 24 when I came over, so he
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  was very not normal for a kid to go and look at that, especially
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  doing it in America. But I it was what happened, you
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  say, when you said God has a plan, right?
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  Right. I showed up in Daytona.
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  First of all, when I landed, the McDonald's sign was bigger than
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  my entire village. It was like McDonald's.
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  Yeah, I talked to my dad. I remember calling this.
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  That America, everything is gigantic, really.
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  The track Daytona, I still remember, you know, when I look
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  back I was sitting in the grandstand and I I'm 100% sure
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  that there was Dale, Dale Harner, senior in the three.
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  It was a black car with the three numbers, so it must have
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  been him testing and I had no idea what I was looking.
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  At You were getting ready for the day 224.
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  Yeah, Yes. Yeah.
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  And that is, I left Europe, came over here and a new life was
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  born. Thanks to Daytona.
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  Thanks to that place. Yeah.
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  I would like you to go back and look at a video that Bob Varsha
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  did with me in Daytona 24 hour. People didn't even know how to
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  pronounce my name. Yeah, Maximilianos.
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  Yeah, and Bob Varsha is there saying there are people known to
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  be blinders and they've done amazing things in Daytona.
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  But this kid, Massimiliano Pappies Pappies, is driving like
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  Mad Max. Mad Max.
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  I finished the race. I'm second.
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  Your closest ever finish in the 24 hour history back then, what,
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  22nd? Whatever.
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  I made-up two laps from you know, in the last three hours I
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  unlapped myself twice. I finished right behind the
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  leader and the first things I still remember interview Hey,
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  Max Pappis, I went. No Pappis, I went.
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  My name is Max Pappis. PAPIS.
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  How dare you mess my name up. It's like people that have the
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  name Michelle, it's 1L2L. People get pissed when you say
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  their name's wrong. OK, so we're in America now and
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  I'm going to kind of no notes, we're on the fly here, so.
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  What he did, he didn't prepare himself no is like and we this.
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  But we had to do this. Completely improvised.
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  But we had to do this because this was once.
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  I mean, maybe I could come back later, but OK, so you become a
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  three time IndyCar winner. You run 114 races, you're super
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  competitive, you start becoming world renowned even though
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  you're over in America. It's not Formula One, but the
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  name Max Pappas becomes very legendary, very popular.
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  Now you win three races and what are some of the other?
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  Help me, what are some of your other great stats?
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  The biggest stats and the biggest accomplishment for me,
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  yes, was being called by Bobby Raho when he retired to drive
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  the seven car, the Miller Lite car.
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  That's that's when I got to know your brother.
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  Yeah. Rusty was a Miller brewing.
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  Yeah, Miller Brewing Company. Rusty was driving the Miller
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  Lite Cup car. Really.
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  Yeah. And I still have a poster.
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  Yeah, that was on USA TODAY saying there is nothing like
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  your first win. Yeah, except your I think was
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  50th, cuz I think we won. I won Homestead and Rusty won
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  Bristol at the same time. That's big and I still have the
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  USA TODAY. And so the biggest
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  accomplishment for me was being picked up by a legendary person
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  like Mr. Ray. Yes, I mean it is to talk about
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  worldwide known he is and continue the legacy and at the
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  same time having this relationship with Miller Brewing
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  Company that allowed me to get to know people that were outside
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  my work. Yeah, like your brother.
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  You know, I went to some NASCAR races and and that really opened
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  up my eyes. I want to, I want to say this
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  sometimes when people ask me what's your biggest
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  accomplishment? Some, you know, sometimes I
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  don't. We don't.
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  We don't say our wins or this or that.
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  It's like I'm, I'm still in the sport.
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  The longevity. So you've been in racing your
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  whole life. You've been in racing your whole
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  life. So you're in America, you know,
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  you run a Hunter, and so IndyCar races, you win the three
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  championships, you drive for Bobby Ray Hall.
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  What happened then, you know? Now that you bring it up, yes, I
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  mean, I I see how much success in my eyes people look up to
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  you. I give you, you know, the chair
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  was pulled under my, my, my butt.
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  Do you remember in the racing league?
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  Cart the the split. OK, let me say something.
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  Yes, every driver I interviewed, Dale Earnhardt, junior, Ellie,
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  all the greats, they never talk about the good stuff.
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  And you're doing the same thing right now.
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  You're going right to the negative, and I want to hear it.
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  You're going right to the negative.
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  I finished four, four, fifth in the championship, won three
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  race, won three races that year and basically Bobby Ray, I had
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  to shut down my car cuz there was the split between CART and
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  IRL right? That basically for over a decade
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  destroyed the open wheel right? I remember and that would
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  propelled me to look at anything, everything else.
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  I never had an agent. That's where I again, some bad
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  choices on my part that made me grow.
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  I mean, I thought that I would have always had a spot in open
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  will. After three wins?
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  Yeah, Laguna Seca. Yeah, in Homestead, on the Oval,
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  the first time lap leader in super Speedway.
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  That was the things. That's the things that prize me
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  the most because people in NASCAR see me like a road race
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  specialist. Italy Rd.
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  Racing. I won my first Indica race in
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  Homestead Miami Speedway fast. I was on pole at Chicago
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  Speedway. So these are the things.
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  Anyway, so that moment basically there was no there was chemcart,
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  cart, whatever was called back then went down IRL started.
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  I was seeing like a child poster of CART.
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  IRL didn't want me cuz I was. I was the child post of court.
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  I found myself with nothing. You know, I went from being here
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  in 90 in 2001 to 0. I mean literally nothing.
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  Zero, no job, no nothing. No, no income 0.
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  And that's what I have to reinvent myself.
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  So you you were a victim of the split, I remember like
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  yesterday. And you?
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  And I was a victim of my own choice, too.
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  You know, I made bad choices that put me in that position.
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  So I don't like to be a victim. Yeah, you know, I know that I
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  played part in the outcome of that.
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  I don't like excuses. And that's what makes a
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  champion, you know, because you straighten that out.
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  Racers tend to be, I'll kick your ass.
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  I'm never a victim. I win everything.
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  And I like that about you, Max, because you you got such badass
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  nicknames because you are a fighter.
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  So, OK, so we're in America, You do the IndyCar, you go through
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  the split. How in the world did you make it
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  to NASCAR? I was under contract with
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  Corvette Racing. Corvette.
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  So after my IndyCar stuff, I landed and I went back to what
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  was my route. You know, I run Daytona 24 hour.
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  I told you the first time I came here and after that, every year
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  I went to Daytona and I run the 24.
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  I was fortunate enough to win it twice.
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  That's big. Yeah, I was, you know.
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  Two Time to two row Daytona 24 hour winner.
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  Yes, Sir, Max Pappas. That's badass.
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  And. Yeah, it's all right.
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  You can pause for a little bit. That's you got 2 watches.
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  Yes, you got 3 watches cuz I won the INSA championship where they
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  give you a watch. You should have those on display
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  here. I have a plastic.
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  Watch. You got a plastic watch.
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  That's awesome. OK, so NASCAR.
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  I was under counter with Corvette Racing.
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  I've been always maybe my arrogance.
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  I don't know. Call it whatever you wanna call
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  it. I wanted to.
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  I say love for life. Yeah.
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  I wanted to race a car on my own, not sharing it.
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  Yeah, and I wanted to race at the highest level in America.
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  Yeah. And when I was racing for
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  Corvette Racing, I kept looking and having an opportunity.
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  I wanted to see what NASCAR was. So GM, Corvette, GM, Hendry
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  Motorsport, the cut off tomorrow cot comes in, they start testing
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  the cot and I go to Hendry Motorsport and I pester them.
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  Actually, Doug Dukard, that was the guy who.
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  Hired I know, Doug. Who hired me in Corvette Racing
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  became was involved in that thing.
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  So I ended up developing the cutoff tomorrow for Rd. courses
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  for Mr. Hendrick. That's when I start to get to
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  know the NASCAR folks. That's some really good people
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  to know. First Mr. Rick Hendrick, You did
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  good right there, yeah. And I mean, it was I always have
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  this admiration for them Talladega Nights and days of
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  Thunder. Yeah, so I knew I was every
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  movie. I mean, for me, NASCAR was
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  always NASCAR equal America. For me, I get NASCAR equal
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  America. So I wanted to see what was the
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  American Dream. I just want to say something for
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  all of you kids out there. Are anybody that doubts NASCAR?
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  We all know that NASCAR is still awesome, but but when you came
• 24:08
  to America, you're just now you're just telling us right
• 24:10
  out. NASCAR was like, that was
• 24:13
  America. I mean, it was bigger than life.
• 24:16
  But NASCAR is America, you know? See from Italy.
• 24:21
  Yeah, NASCAR represents what America is.
• 24:24
  That is so awesome. I always say.
• 24:28
  I got goosebumps. Hot dog and beers.
• 24:32
  Hot dog, I'm only laughing because I know you had to learn
• 24:36
  that, being from Europe and. I always say like my previous
• 24:40
  life was cheese and crackers. Yeah, cheese and wine.
• 24:44
  Cheese and cheese and crackers and wine and I learn how to like
• 24:48
  hot dog and beers, yeah. So you get to Hendrick and
• 24:52
  you're helping develop this car. Tomorrow, let's rephrase it.
• 24:55
  They're they're giving me a shot at testing.
• 24:58
  I'm not helping, I'm just driving the car.
• 25:00
  You're so humble all the time. I'm just driving the.
• 25:03
  Car. But they trusted you driving a
• 25:04
  car. Yes, Sir.
• 25:05
  And and from there I I walk the garages, I talk to people.
• 25:16
  What I remember it was the hundreds of calls, literally
• 25:23
  hundreds of calls I made to Ray Abraham when he owned the Dodge.
• 25:27
  Yeah, for him to take me testing on an Oval in Kentucky.
• 25:32
  And I think I pestered them so much that one day I got this
• 25:37
  call from Annie, his assistant. Mr. Abraham is inviting you to
• 25:41
  go and test the the Dodge You know car in Kentucky together
• 25:46
  with Bill Elliott. And you both at the same height.
• 25:49
  And I was like, say, Bill Elliott.
• 25:53
  I mean, like Mr. Bill Elliott. Yeah.
• 25:56
  And. That's close to Ayrton Senna,
• 26:00
  but not as great. But that's.
• 26:02
  I mean, Bill, it's the man, but. I mean, I can tell you this,
• 26:08
  people at Everingham Motorsport, I think was called then.
• 26:13
  They were concerned that the crew chief would have had a hard
• 26:16
  time to understand me. Well, the thing of it is and
• 26:21
  then. You're over here.
• 26:22
  I had a hard time understand. Awesome Bill from Dawson Bill.
• 26:27
  Well, the thing of it is, is Ernie and Dan are back at the
• 26:30
  shop. And then I learned to love the
• 26:32
  guy. And anyway, yeah, so I'm sharing
• 26:36
  this because I had to build my career and I don't know if it's
• 26:45
  because of lack of talent, lack of whatever.
• 26:50
  I had to really walk the street and walk the garages to get
• 26:55
  opportunities. The one I had, I felt I did the
• 27:00
  best I could with the God gift that I had.
• 27:04
  One of them was joining the Henry Motorsport to do all this
• 27:09
  testing for them and finally get a chance to race a road course
• 27:17
  for Has. I don't remember when exactly,
• 27:21
  but I raced in Sonoma with Rex as a teammate and there I
• 27:30
  continue to put seeds on the ground and for some people
• 27:34
  things happen easier for me, You.
• 27:39
  You ran about, you ran about 11 Xfinity races with four top 10s.
• 27:44
  That's that's pretty damn good for somebody coming from Europe,
• 27:49
  a village, making it across the pond.
• 27:51
  You, you, you realize the American dream.
• 27:54
  Even though everything's hard for you, you're you're saying
• 27:57
  everything's hard for you. I admire you because, you know,
• 28:01
  you do something that is very hard to do.
• 28:03
  You're against all odds. I'm just trying to.
• 28:07
  I'm gonna try to picture this. OK Yeah.
• 28:10
  And so that you guys understand when they say why Open World guy
• 28:14
  sucks in NASCAR. It's hard.
• 28:17
  It's different discipline. It's like why a football player
• 28:21
  is not a good soccer player, right?
• 28:25
  I'm gonna try to share this with you so that even the guys at
• 28:28
  home understand that it's not one is more difficult than
• 28:32
  another. They are different discipline.
• 28:35
  The only things that they are make them common is the fact
• 28:39
  that it's a car with four wheel. I show in the car super
• 28:46
  Speedway, Fontana and in Michigan our two super Speedway.
• 28:51
  I was lap leader in super Speedway.
• 28:53
  I loved it, you know, LED a lot of lap. 230 mile an hour.
• 29:00
  Qualified the 241 average. 241. And I wrecked the 2:45 in term
• 29:07
  one at Fontana as well. But anyway, that's a different
• 29:09
  story. That takes my breath away.
• 29:13
  That is incredible speeds. But again, I want to go to that
• 29:19
  later because it's I show up in Michigan, the track that I felt
• 29:26
  I knew it inside out, right? I show up with a stock.
• 29:29
  Car. I couldn't hit my ass.
• 29:35
  You're driving a taxi cab now, No?
• 29:38
  Stock cars. But let me explain you why, how
• 29:42
  I look at it. Sorry, I don't want to sound
• 29:45
  arrogant, explain you, but my brain told me that the turn one
• 29:54
  and two in Michigan is wide open.
• 29:58
  Almost wide open. I had to feel a certain things
• 30:02
  and when I showed up there that I had to let off at the 150
• 30:07
  marker, my brain did not think that that was the way that a car
• 30:20
  should have been driven. I think that and I know maybe
• 30:29
  we're going a tangent. No, no.
• 30:33
  If I would be a Cup team owner and I would want to try
• 30:37
  something different, I would call the World Rally Champion
• 30:47
  and I would put him in a Cup car before calling the Formula One
• 30:51
  World Champion. Understood.
• 30:52
  Big body car, similar speeds. No, it's not because your brain
• 30:57
  is. Yeah, speed.
• 30:59
  My brain. Was ready for 2:45.
• 31:02
  Been conditioned that when I see Turn 1 breaking zone at Watkins
• 31:12
  Glen, my breaking point is 50 is not 600.
• 31:18
  Yes, yes. That's funny.
• 31:21
  I'm sorry. No, no, I get it. 600, And even
• 31:24
  if I push myself, it will never be.
• 31:28
  My brain has been conditioned for so many years.
• 31:32
  That will not make me think that 600 is the first things that I
• 31:36
  should do. Yeah, maybe 400.
• 31:40
  Yeah. That will still be 200 feet too
• 31:42
  deep. Yeah.
• 31:44
  You're going away. Yeah, yeah.
• 31:46
  I'm sharing this with you and I think with the people at home as
• 31:49
  well, listening to make them understand how different and
• 31:53
  difficult it is. And that's why people that even
• 31:57
  had a lot more talent than me, like Montoya, they struggled
• 32:00
  tremendously. Because it's not natural, right?
• 32:04
  It's not natural for what we consider natural.
• 32:08
  Maybe for someone that grew up dirt racing or something that
• 32:17
  super slick, whatever, You go to a stock car and it's almost a
• 32:23
  step up, you know what I mean? Step up in turmoil.
• 32:26
  It sticks more. I can break deeper.
• 32:28
  I can do that. After doing all the things I
• 32:32
  did, it was very difficult for my brain to understand how to
• 32:39
  do. It.
• 32:40
  Yeah, I get it. And the racing was amazing, the
• 32:44
  best racing I ever had. But even the way you race is
• 32:49
  completely different. That's why, you know, maybe we
• 32:52
  went on a tangent, but I think it's important for people to
• 32:54
  understand how different and difficult it is, and I don't
• 32:58
  know if I was able to explain. Yeah, you are speaking because
• 33:01
  like when we've had the greatest world outlaw Sprint Car drivers,
• 33:04
  whether it's slamming Sammy Swindell or you know, Steve
• 33:08
  Kinzer, when they came to NASCAR, it was hard for them,
• 33:11
  you know, And I feel like if you're going to be really good
• 33:15
  at something, you got to start very young and you got to stay
• 33:17
  there. Everything is so fast, so
• 33:19
  specialized now that yes, you explained it perfectly.
• 33:23
  OK, so we're in NASCAR and because this cannot be a 2 hour
• 33:29
  show, This cannot be a 2 hour show.
• 33:31
  It can be. Let's edit it.
• 33:34
  Let's just say that, OK, you've had your NASCAR career and
• 33:42
  there's a couple things I want to cover.
• 33:44
  I want to cover you becoming one of the greatest driver coaches
• 33:50
  of our era, but I also want to cover MPII think one of your
• 33:57
  greatest achievements in your life.
• 34:00
  It's business, you know? But let's let's go to William
• 34:04
  Byron and you be, because here lately they couldn't say William
• 34:09
  Byron's name without saying your name.
• 34:11
  You become this driver, coach, life coach, somebody, the driver
• 34:19
  can communicate. When was the very first time
• 34:22
  that this kind of just crept up on you?
• 34:24
  Who was the driver? And all of a sudden you're like,
• 34:27
  oh, I'm helping a driver. I would say that you mentioned
• 34:35
  before I I was in RCR racing Rd. courses and Austin and Ty Dillon
• 34:45
  were developing the track series.
• 34:47
  I think of the Word Racing and I remember Richard Childress
• 34:52
  asking me Can you oversee Austin and Ty on the road course?
• 34:58
  Because he knew you were a good Rd. racer.
• 35:01
  Although I won my first identical race on a novel.
• 35:04
  That's OK. That's OK.
• 35:06
  They thought highly of you being a Rd. racer.
• 35:08
  I was very. Are you hard on yourself?
• 35:12
  Very. That's why I'm interjecting a
• 35:15
  little bit. You're too.
• 35:16
  I think you're too hard on yourself.
• 35:18
  But that's OK because we all are So OK.
• 35:20
  So Childress chooses you because you're a badass on road courses?
• 35:26
  I I'm racing for him in Xfinity trying to win my I had a dream
• 35:33
  and a goal of being the first Italian after Mario Andretti to
• 35:36
  win a NASCAR race Badass. And so I'm trying to achieve my
• 35:40
  goal and the same time, and they are, you know, if you want to
• 35:42
  call it teaching or helping Austin and Ty to get better on
• 35:45
  road courses, then I go to some Oval races and I find that I
• 35:50
  have a God gift. I can look at the car and I can
• 35:55
  see from the outside what's happening.
• 35:58
  And maybe because of all the struggle and all the things I
• 36:02
  had to go through, I improved my way of communicating.
• 36:08
  Or I saw what could have been done better in communicating,
• 36:14
  and I found myself starting with a Austin besides the breaking
• 36:19
  zone, in turn one. This is what I hear you say to
• 36:23
  your crew chief, ABC. Is this what's coming out?
• 36:28
  You got no Max. I want to say DEF.
• 36:33
  Wow. So let's try to make sure this
• 36:36
  is how I would have done it, because I hear ABC, but you want
• 36:40
  to say DEF, All right. And that, in short, was what I
• 36:46
  learned. That was my gift.
• 36:48
  Being able to pass on what I learned.
• 36:55
  And would you just say that people now look at me, I call
• 37:02
  myself performance advisor. Because coach, you cannot
• 37:06
  obviously speed come from God. You can coach and advise people
• 37:10
  on other stuff but not speed. And this is maybe what led later
• 37:17
  on. You know JGR, Joe, you know Joe
• 37:21
  Logano was there again. I go there testing the road
• 37:24
  course car. Joe is Joe Logano.
• 37:28
  Zip Adeli. They want to improve their
• 37:30
  relationship. We start the same the same way.
• 37:32
  Hey, test my Rd. course car make it better, whatever.
• 37:35
  And then we find our self. Hey Joe.
• 37:39
  Hey Joe. How is it with Zip Adeli, how
• 37:42
  you want to and and Zippy talk to me about we create this
• 37:45
  relationship and all of a sudden out of all of this one day this
• 37:50
  blonde kid shows up at the office.
• 37:54
  This blonde kid is William Byron.
• 37:55
  William Byron shows up to you. He's 16 years old.
• 37:59
  He heard from me, from the PR person of Joey Logano.
• 38:05
  He comes over and they say, Maxim, I'm doing this, this and
• 38:08
  this and this and that. What you see, the relationship,
• 38:17
  this what I call project, started about eight years ago
• 38:23
  and we developed into a team of one.
• 38:29
  I love to say that I learned tremendous from William and the
• 38:34
  same time I passed on everything I could see that could have
• 38:43
  been, that was excellent and everything that could be
• 38:46
  improved and and the best way that I can say it would be, I
• 38:54
  think if you would have had you when you were 25.
• 38:59
  Oh my God. You now I wish to 25.
• 39:01
  Yes. Well, I've always say we live
• 39:04
  life backwards. You know, if I could put my 50
• 39:07
  year old brain in my 20 year old self.
• 39:10
  Yeah. So I get it because I would be
• 39:12
  smarter quicker, right. So you're taking your old age
• 39:15
  wisdom and you're giving it to William right away.
• 39:18
  Oh, I did this wrong. So don't hear, let me tell.
• 39:20
  You what? As?
• 39:21
  Well I This is what I learned. You see, I'm hard on myself.
• 39:24
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're saying he's teaching you,
• 39:26
  but in your. Own.
• 39:27
  No. But I'm I learn that, you know,
• 39:31
  praise the nine things that you do right and then criticize the
• 39:36
  one you don't do right. Don't always hammer on what you
• 39:39
  don't do. Right, I agree.
• 39:40
  And what I felt this adventure with William started a let me
• 39:46
  go. I start going with him to the
• 39:49
  Late Model races, you know, understanding, you know,
• 39:52
  listening to him. And the only things that I can
• 39:57
  say that I contributed is for him to be the best William Byron
• 40:03
  it could be. At a young age.
• 40:05
  And he's 24 years old. He has 1/2.
• 40:10
  He just passed the 200 NASCAR race mark, if you look at it.
• 40:15
  At such a young age. Hardwick retired with 800 yeah
• 40:19
  Kyle Busch or has 600 I believe Chase Elliott that is there
• 40:25
  almost 405 hundred. So William is relatively young
• 40:30
  in four years experience and so if there is something that I
• 40:35
  feel that we created, I I pride myself that I've always been
• 40:42
  there for him. He could lean on me as a friend,
• 40:49
  as an advisor and as someone that always shoot him really
• 40:53
  straight both on what was on track or not.
• 40:57
  And the pride that I have is that I seen him developing and
• 41:03
  needing me less and less and less and less and that's
• 41:07
  amazing. I my goal is making sure that
• 41:15
  Uncle Max can go to the track from time to time and just see
• 41:19
  this amazing young talent winning races and I think that
• 41:23
  we are at that stage where he's a man now.
• 41:27
  He almost won the Cup championship and if I can
• 41:32
  interject, if I've done something, whatever the little
• 41:37
  things that I've done for him, it's it prides me a lot because
• 41:42
  I know that I might have maybe helped him to reach that goal a
• 41:47
  little quicker than if he would have just been on his own.
• 41:51
  But again you ask me, people see you like this coach.
• 41:57
  It happened. I didn't is not a business and I
• 42:01
  just. It kind of fell in your lap.
• 42:04
  You didn't mean for it to happen.
• 42:06
  No, but I people called you, it's almost like you did you
• 42:09
  know that you were that good at doing this TV stuff or this
• 42:12
  movie stuff? It fell in my lap.
• 42:14
  It fits who you are, right? And the things that I think is
• 42:19
  very important that I want to really be clear is that I want
• 42:28
  to make sure that people understand William.
• 42:33
  He would have done everything he's done, even without me 100%.
• 42:37
  He would have, might maybe take a little longer or maybe make a
• 42:40
  little bit more mistake or maybe be like Max now at 54 years of
• 42:46
  age that understand things that he should have understood when
• 42:51
  he was 30. Yeah so like the goal here is
• 42:55
  understanding. He's God gift cuz I think it's
• 42:58
  really important that people cuz sometimes I read on the when I
• 43:02
  post something I read comments like yeah for sure he did it
• 43:07
  because you told him no no I didn't.
• 43:10
  He did it all on his own. I was just there three-step
• 43:14
  behind if I was needed. And the moment sometimes when
• 43:19
  you are needed, is the most important moment because you've
• 43:23
  been many times alone and that's not a good feeling.
• 43:26
  Let me let me just say this. I wished I would have had you
• 43:31
  back in 1999. Two thousand.
• 43:33
  Because when I went to drive for Andy Petrie, he crushed me.
• 43:37
  He said you really explained the car in a different, unique way.
• 43:41
  You're in. In other words, what?
• 43:43
  What I heard was, Kenny, you're explaining the car in such a bad
• 43:48
  way that we don't know how to fix it.
• 43:51
  I wished I'd have had somebody like you because I felt like I
• 43:55
  was on an island all by myself. Kenny's so messed up because he
• 43:59
  can't. Like, if I was loose, I'd say,
• 44:01
  well, when I get in the corner, I'm turning the wheel right
• 44:04
  because I'm loose on entry and and then I'm pushing in the
• 44:07
  middle. Now that I'm older, I'm like,
• 44:10
  you know, if I if I tighten it, if I'm not turning right, I wish
• 44:13
  I'd be turning left and then there would be no push.
• 44:17
  I wished I'd have had you because you could have helped
• 44:19
  clean that up. You could have went to Andy and
• 44:22
  and helped me and you're you could have said here's what
• 44:24
  Kenny means because I'm you're a race car driver and you knew
• 44:28
  what I meant. Where were you for me?
• 44:32
  I I. Was too young.
• 44:35
  Yeah, you were. And I'm 60.
• 44:37
  And I was learning on my own. So, Max, we I'm still learning.
• 44:40
  So listen, we we like. I say I just so much ground, I
• 44:44
  hope. That this is not too boring.
• 44:46
  No, no, no listening. No, we can edit it up, make it
• 44:49
  exciting. So let's move now to MPI.
• 44:54
  OK, I know the story because you told me how did how did these
• 45:01
  incredible steering wheels that your are worldwide, the famous
• 45:05
  Dayglo Orange. I love this orange.
• 45:07
  It's so exciting and I know you sell quality wheels.
• 45:11
  They're the best steering wheels in the world.
• 45:13
  What made you do? Sometime we sell.
• 45:16
  All that gold. Well, you know what?
• 45:17
  Let's just let's just start right there.
• 45:19
  Tell me about this. Let me feel it.
• 45:22
  First thing I notice is it's thinner on the bottom.
• 45:24
  Yes. Yeah.
• 45:26
  So this is the first of all, if you guys know yeah.
• 45:30
  Go ahead. Kevin Harvick, Yeah, this is the
• 45:34
  wheel that was in, Kevin. We made two.
• 45:38
  This was this other wheel exactly like the one that was in
• 45:41
  Kevin Harvick last race at Phoenix.
• 45:44
  You made every steering wheel. In this year, in this last
• 45:48
  season, because Kevin is one of the closest friend that I have,
• 45:53
  I told him I'm going to give you, I'm going to make you a
• 45:55
  gift. That's something that you can
• 45:57
  carry with you all your life. I'm going to make an MPI
• 46:00
  steering wheel for each of your last race of the.
• 46:03
  So we had a new steering wheel Every.
• 46:05
  Single. Race 38 races and in the last
• 46:10
  one I surprised him and Elena and I didn't tell him nothing.
• 46:14
  And I say, you know what, in Italy what we say old, but gold.
• 46:20
  I love it. And this was the old but gold
• 46:22
  wheel. So, but basically this is an
• 46:26
  evolution. This is what Kevin helped me to
• 46:28
  design. It's a flat on the bottom so he
• 46:30
  stays away from the belt buckle. Because he likes his wheel low?
• 46:33
  Yes, Sir. And scalloped at the top so you
• 46:36
  can see the dashboard. I'll be darned.
• 46:38
  Yeah. So these are all little details.
• 46:41
  Idiosyncrasies is what I call them little things, yes.
• 46:45
  I'm black. Did you learn that on the
• 46:46
  vocabulary? My brother Rusty would say,
• 46:48
  Herman, I see you doing that TV. You're using some fancy words.
• 46:52
  That's really interesting though, because it says to all
• 46:55
  these young kids out there. A steering wheel is not a
• 46:58
  steering wheel. No, I I'm going to I don't want
• 47:03
  this to sound like an infomercial, but.
• 47:06
  It's OK How did MPI start? Our MPI started.
• 47:09
  I was driving a stock car. I was testing a stock car.
• 47:12
  I had an accident. We were using what was
• 47:18
  considered the everyday steering, but I don't remember
• 47:20
  the brand or whatever. I broke my wrist because the
• 47:24
  wheel was so rigid that all the load came.
• 47:27
  I never left the steering wheel go because I drove it all the
• 47:30
  way to the wall and I broke my wrist talking with my NASCAR
• 47:35
  friends. I told them, guys, if this
• 47:38
  happened with you guys, you're in trouble.
• 47:41
  You're gonna be out of the car for like 3-4 weeks.
• 47:43
  Think about how you're done. Yeah, and let me think about it.
• 47:48
  So what I did, I went back to Italy, I consulted with a friend
• 47:52
  of mine and we analyzed what was in why I hurt myself and we
• 47:58
  understood that basically the wheel that I used was almost
• 48:01
  took 1000 lbs to bend. Wow, so the will never bend.
• 48:06
  Boom, Lord came in together with Terry.
• 48:09
  Trammell Terry Trammell, Legendary Doctor.
• 48:13
  Yeah, in the car, Doctor and doctor.
• 48:17
  Let's put this motor racing doctor, the guy that helped all
• 48:21
  of us to be in one piece. Now together with Terry Trammell
• 48:24
  and my crazy ideas and some people in Europe who came up,
• 48:28
  you know, we started and NASCAR, obviously that's very important
• 48:33
  because I work with John Padillaq and the people in the
• 48:36
  NASCAR R&D to help me to develop this.
• 48:39
  We learn that how much load the wheel had to have in order to
• 48:44
  protect the driver. So we created this steering
• 48:47
  wheel and I still remember before coming up with all the
• 48:52
  idea when we were starting everyone used to have a yellow
• 48:57
  stripe on top. Yeah, well, they're very
• 49:00
  important. Sorry to grab the wheel from
• 49:02
  you, but yeah, this is important because I want to be centered
• 49:06
  up. Yeah.
• 49:07
  OK, So everyone used to have a yellow stripe.
• 49:11
  Yeah. Ask me why?
• 49:13
  I don't know. So I always like to go to the to
• 49:17
  the best. And I went to Mr. Richard Petty.
• 49:20
  The King. And I asked.
• 49:22
  Hey Richard, what do you remember of your steering wheel
• 49:26
  when you run? And and he came up.
• 49:29
  He told me the story that I believe.
• 49:31
  I don't want to say something wrong, I don't know. 6769 told
• 49:35
  me. I spun in Daytona in the
• 49:37
  infield. I couldn't get going again
• 49:39
  because I couldn't see what my wheel was, if it was up or down,
• 49:42
  whatever. I went back to the shop and I
• 49:46
  took a piece of orange duct tape and I put it right in the middle
• 49:51
  and I went Richard may I use that for my product and that the
• 49:58
  reason why the orange marker is. That's an incredible story.
• 50:03
  And when he won this 200 races, I created a special steering
• 50:08
  wheel with the orange stripe. And he's a funny person, he told
• 50:12
  me. I should have asked for a
• 50:14
  Commission for that anyway, so MPI started to protect and make
• 50:21
  the driver better. Yeah, and.
• 50:23
  Well. Done.
• 50:24
  And we went from there, building, maybe selling things
• 50:29
  from my garage, 10 steering wheel, 20 steering wheel,
• 50:31
  whatever, until drivers start to really realize what was
• 50:36
  happening. And I believe that what changed
• 50:39
  was two moment that were pretty radical.
• 50:45
  Brad Kozlowski in a crash at Watkins Glen, where he's will
• 50:50
  pretzeled up and Cal Bush at. Daytona.
• 50:55
  Daytona When he crashed super hard, he broke his leg.
• 51:00
  In the Xfinity car. Yeah, and basically I don't.
• 51:06
  He didn't hurt himself on the top and the wheel was all
• 51:10
  basically deformed, as he should have been.
• 51:13
  And I think that slowly, I hope that people slowly start to see
• 51:20
  that this was not just a pretty product, it was actually
• 51:23
  something that was helping the sport, right.
• 51:25
  And that was the beginning of an adventure that I mean now we
• 51:32
  are, but I like to say that we are the USA market leader for
• 51:38
  racing. And the pride is that we use
• 51:41
  this technology that I told you my technology, what I learn and
• 51:46
  we apply to dirt racing, drag racing, quarter Midget.
• 51:51
  And my pride is that there is a second life besides racing.
• 51:56
  Yes. And I found that that's 100%
• 52:02
  it's like. Look at you.
• 52:04
  Smile. And together with that, we are
• 52:07
  helping a lot of kids. And what it does, it keeps me
• 52:12
  young, yes, because what I do, I can go to the quarter Midget
• 52:16
  race. I can see the young new talent.
• 52:18
  I see you at the Chili Bowl. Yeah, it amazes me.
• 52:21
  Because. Look at this Italian at the
• 52:24
  Chili Bowl. Yeah, but I think that I'm more
• 52:27
  country than you are. Oh yeah, hey, I told Max.
• 52:30
  I said Max, you're so he's in really good shape.
• 52:32
  And I said I got a little bit of a belly.
• 52:34
  Max says. Well, that's because you're from
• 52:35
  Missouri and I'm like, yeah, probably, probably.
• 52:39
  But the chill? Yeah, you're everywhere.
• 52:41
  But that it gives me a new joy of life.
• 52:44
  I'm there getting to know the people.
• 52:46
  I got to know this young kid, Brent Cruz, one of the best, one
• 52:51
  of is going to be a superstar in the future.
• 52:53
  That's how I got to know William and many other kids, many other
• 52:59
  people that now they are up there and it prized me because
• 53:04
  we are helping the sport. We're creating a business and
• 53:09
  it's something that grows on his own because basically we are
• 53:14
  servicing the sport now. We need to figure we are
• 53:18
  figuring out how to take what we learn outside racing to make it,
• 53:24
  you know, a more valuable business if you want.
• 53:26
  To call it well, I think you've done an incredible job.
• 53:28
  You brought in your experiences where steering wheels were too
• 53:31
  strong. You figured out where they
• 53:33
  needed to be. Max, listen.
• 53:37
  Let's end like this. I know how much you love Airton
• 53:40
  Santa and I walked into your office and I about I about lost
• 53:46
  my breath. You can we show it's out of
• 53:50
  camera. This is incredible.
• 53:55
  So here it is. Tell me about this Airton Santa
• 53:59
  Helmet. I think we touched it, you know,
• 54:03
  before this still. Maximilianos.
• 54:07
  Yeah, with Ford Massimiliano. With Friendship.
• 54:11
  Ayerton Sena, Monza, 90 Monza. Yeah, that's my own track.
• 54:16
  That's again. And there's his signature.
• 54:20
  Yeah, and do you remember I told you about our maestro, our
• 54:26
  teacher? Yeah, that was the mechanic, The
• 54:28
  cutting engine tuner nearby. Right from that moment when I
• 54:35
  was 1214 years old, Ayrton took an interest in me.
• 54:41
  Obviously it was my idol because when I was in GO, karting was
• 54:45
  already in format 3. Then it was always like up.
• 54:49
  And what he did for me, he was my performance advisor.
• 54:57
  Yes, my gosh, isn't that right? They say life comes in a full
• 55:02
  circle. Well, listen, everybody, as I
• 55:05
  always say, please like and subscribe.
• 55:07
  Remember, we are in podcast form, iTunes, Spotify,
• 55:12
  obviously, we're right here on YouTube.
• 55:14
  But Max, I love you. Your story is incredible.
• 55:19
  Not everybody comes from Italy and makes it into NASCAR.
• 55:24
  Thank you so much for being on Kenny conversation.
• 55:27
  Kenny, it's been my pleasure and more than my pleasure is getting
• 55:31
  to know a special person like you are.
• 55:33
  Stop it. All right, everybody.
• 55:35
  Until the next Kenny conversation would just keep on
• 55:38
  rolling.