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Obsessed NASCAR Drivers Who Neglect Their Kids | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Happy Tuesday morning, everybody.
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  I thought I'd come out here to the back of the house.
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  The back of the house is becoming my favorite part.
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  Yes, it is. Nothing really to show.
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  Just giving you a nice little 360.
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  We're going to talk about that today.
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  We're going to talk about children accepting their father
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  being addicted to racing. That's what we're going to talk
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  about. So I woke up this morning.
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  There's that ADHD right away, I said.
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  We woke up this morning. And right away my my brain went.
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  I woke up in New York City in a funky, cheap hotel.
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  She stole my heart. She took my money.
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  She must have slipped me a sleeping pill.
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  I can't help it, man. I can't help it.
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  All right, So really didn't know what I was going to talk about
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  today. By the way, I want to thank my
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  Mama, Judy Wallace. I love you, Mom.
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  My mother bought us that table and that table, and it wasn't
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  cheap because it's really good outdoor furniture.
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  It's got stainless steel screws and really nice.
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  So thank you, Mama. Judy.
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  I love you, Mama. You know I'm your baby and I
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  look just like her. OK, so Brandy.
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  Brandy, my middle 1. Brandy louder.
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  She used to be Brandy Wallace. Brandy sent me a note last
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  night. My middle daughter, she sent me
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  a note last night at 11:51 at night and I was sleeping.
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  So this morning I read it. Brandy got addicted to the, the,
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  the NASCAR on prime, the, you know, the NASCAR special with
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  Earnhardt, Earnhardt, the documentary, Brandy got addicted
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  to it. Let me take a it's going to be a
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  tough one, everybody, so hang in there.
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  I got to make sure I weave this story right so nobody gets mad
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  at me and you all understand it. My daughter Brandy said, oh, my
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  dad. The kids on the Earnhardt
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  special seem to accept that they were neglected because their
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  father was busy racing. I responded to Brandy.
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  I said, oh, yeah. I said Kelly Earnhardt has
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  talked about that a lot. Dale Earnhardt senior really
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  wanted to race so bad. He wanted to make it work, you
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  know, Earnhardt senior, he was poor and you know, I lived down
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  there for 27 years. Now think about it this way,
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  Dale Earnhardt junior and Kelly. I've had them on Kenny
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  conversation and I love them dearly and we're good friends.
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  Actually, just to put a disclaimer out here to
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  everybody, Dale junior and myself, we texted last night.
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  Now, I'm not name dropping, I'm just letting you know I'm
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  bopping and weaving on this to let you know that it's OK
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  because I'm reminding you that Kelly has talked about this a
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  lot. Kelly Earnhardt has talked about
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  this a lot. And the documentary Earnhardt on
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  Prime talks about Big E Dale senior #3 the man in Black.
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  You know, really not giving the kids the love that they need
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  growing up and that, you know, the kids accepted it and just,
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  it was just matter of fact, it was part of it.
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  So now I want to talk about this in racing and in general in
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  life, in sports. I want to tell you my story.
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  OK, Years ago, I can tell you that all I wanted was to be a
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  race car driver and I was obsessed with it.
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  And I still am obsessed with it. And I'm trying to wean myself
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  off of racing. My wife Kim was my biggest
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  educator. Kim is smart and she loves me
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  and I love her with everything I got as I was obsessed with
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  racing to the maximum peak. My wife said to me one day she
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  says, Kenny, you better pay attention to these kids.
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  They're going to be grown up and gone before you know it.
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  I heard her. I heard her really loud, but I
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  didn't tell her that I heard her really loud.
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  I said something like, OK, but I heard her.
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  She said to me, honey, you better pay attention.
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  These kids, they're going to grow up and be gone.
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  And it hurt my heart a little bit, 'cause it, you know,
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  there's some things that people can say that really stick in
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  your crawl. Like, I come to find out there's
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  some things I tell my wife and I don't think she hears me.
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  And months later she'll say something to somebody that Kenny
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  said this and like, oh, you did hear me.
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  That was the biggest thing that changed my life as far as making
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  sure I do a good job with my children.
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  See, when you're obsessed with something, you'll do anything to
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  make sure that you're successful.
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  And when you, when I was poor, when I didn't have any money and
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  you can ask anybody, you can. I always say if you want to go
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  to anybody and ask him how poor I was, go to my friend here,
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  Donnie Jumper, who owns impressive race cars.
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  You know that when I give speeches, I start out, I was so
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  poor and people will go, how poor were you, Kenny?
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  And I say, I was so poor. I used to take my 1976 GMC
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  pickup truck and I'd pull up to the gas station and I'd say
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  check the gas and fill it up with oil.
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  My motor was so bad I didn't have anything.
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  I even sacrificed myself to become a race car driver.
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  I, I, I roughed myself up because I was doing things to
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  put everything in the race car and I had no money.
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  I mean, I remember one time pulling up to a 711 and I all I
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  wanted was a bag of ice. Now Tony Frazee from Montrose,
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  IA is where he's from. Tony, this we'll get back to
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  you. This is when I was paying Tony
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  200 a week and I didn't have 200 a week and I was racing in ASA.
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  Now, we're not going to go into the story.
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  Well, Herman, if you were running ASA, where did you get
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  the money to rate run ASA? We're not going to get into that
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  because that's mopping and weaving.
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  Don Kern gave me the motor. John Childs, you know, bought
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  the frame and K on and on and and Kim bought the trailer from
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  Dylan. We was robbing Peter to pay
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  Paul. But I drove up to that 711 and
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  this was a turning point in my life.
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  I drove up that 711 just to get a bag.
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  Ice, it's 110° outside. We're trying to go to Anderson
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  IN to race or something like that, 1986 ASA, American Speed
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  Association. I reached in my wallet.
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  I had no money and definitely there's going to be some change
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  in my little side pocket here in my truck.
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  There was no money at that time. That was another highlight in my
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  life. When I look back, I realized at
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  that moment I was broke. Like in real.
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  Like I don't even know if I had a checking account.
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  I don't know if I did back then. That's when Kim took care of
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  whatever money we had. There was no money.
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  There was no money in my checking account.
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  There was no money in my wallet and there was no money.
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  I think we called Kim's grandma and borrowed some money.
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  Pretty good amount of money too. And years ago when I made it,
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  years later when I made it, we went to give her the money back
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  and she wouldn't accept it. And I said, why will you not
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  accept us paying you back? She goes because you offered to
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  pay back. She goes, most people I give
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  money to, they won't pay it back so I'll never help them again.
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  She goes, I'm very proud of you. You offered to pay this back.
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  So what I did is I just gave you a peek inside a racist world.
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  We grew up broke as a joke because all the money, if you
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  made any money, it all went into the race car.
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  I did neglect my children a little bit.
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  To this day, my heart has been broke by my children.
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  But now we're good. When my daughter Brooke, my
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  oldest 1, Brooke Randolph Brooke was married to Jacob years ago,
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  we were living on Harris Rd. in Concord, NC and Brooke was with
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  me that day. For some reason Brooke went with
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  me and we pulled out of the driveway and I think I was
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  taking her to the race shop. I think it was maybe Philmar
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  Racing at that time and we were going across town to the race
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  shop and you know, I knew I had to do a good job with my kids or
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  try better. I I wasn't that great, but
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  Brookie said to me, Daddy, where you going?
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  I said, well, Daddy's got to go to work because I got to make
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  money to buy you toys. The next thing my daughter
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  Brooke said broke my heart. She said, Daddy, I don't want no
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  more toys. All I want is you.
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  Oh, God. Oh, Brooke said daddy, where are
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  you going now? I said daddy's going to go race
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  to make money to buy you toys and Brooke said Daddy I don't
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  want no more toys. I want you.
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  Talk about a slap in the face. Talk about straightening your up
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  right now. So between Kim saying Kenny, you
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  better pay attention to these kids.
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  They're going to be married, grown up and gone before you
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  know it. And I think Brooke was 8 years
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  old maybe. I've got friends.
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  I got a good dirt racing friend that's obsessed with racing to
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  the maximum peak. He missed his kids graduation on
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  purpose because he had to run farm or City or Fairburn or some
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  stupid. And when he did it, I went.
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  I get it, but it might haunt you later on.
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  My advice to all of you dirt racers that are obsessed over
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  winning $700.00 and going to the dirt car UMP banquet at the end
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  of the year to pick up your 7th place points money.
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  That's stupid. Don't do that no more.
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  Because of this, because of what I'm telling you.
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  And I want to thank my daughter Brandy for bringing the
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  Earnhardt documentary to to light and telling me about it so
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  I can share my story with you all.
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  I get it, I get it. I worked 24 hours to make my
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  business go. I sacrificed my family.
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  Oh believe me, I get it. I did it.
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  I was lucky because I had a great wife that tutored me along
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  the way. You know you, I didn't get a
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  second chance. I mean, some people get divorced
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  and and go, well, I'm gonna do better this time.
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  I didn't do that. I had one shot at it.
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  That's my excuse, my excuses. You're only a dad one time.
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  Now they're like I said, I get it.
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  There's other people that get divorces and they go, I'm gonna
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  do better this time. Well, I didn't have no second
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  chance. I was getting married one damn
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  time and that was it. And boy, did I get lucky.
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  Kim Wallace is the love of my life.
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  She's a badass. And without her, I tell people I
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  say, listen, there's a lot of jokes going around.
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  But good thing I'm married to Kim, else I'd probably be dead
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  by now doing some stupid. So for everybody that's watching
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  the Earnhardt documentary, that happens a lot in anything.
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  It could be business. Men get crazy, men get crazy and
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  they take their eye off the ball.
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  And I can tell you this for sure.
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  You can do it both. You can do it.
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  You do not have to sacrifice your family.
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  You can here would be my thought.
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  And this is what I do now and my my kids will respond.
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  I yell out family meeting. That was my new one.
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  And that's the way there's gnats out here.
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  There's there's gnats out here flying around.
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  That's. And there's no food or nothing
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  around here. Out of fruit flies where?
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  I don't know what the hell it is.
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  That's why I'm bopping all around here.
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  I would yell out family meeting and it was always Brandy, the
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  middle one. What do we do wrong, Dad?
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  I said nothing. Sit down and I'd look them all
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  in the face. Daddy loves you so much.
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  Do you all understand? Yeah.
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  Dad. You love us, I said.
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  Now Daddy's got to leave seven days.
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  I'm going to Florida for the Daytona 500.
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  OK, Dad, are you going to watch me on TV?
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  Yeah, Dad, we're going to watch. I'm.
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  I'm running the Bush race. It's 300 mile.
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  And I I started getting involved and tell him I love you.
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  Mom's going to take you to the mall.
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  But boy, it was a close call with me.
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  I almost messed up and about messed up when I came back here.
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  I wanted to really run that dirt car about five years ago and it
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  was my daughter Brooke. Brooke straightened me out
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  again. Now I want to say this, I got
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  Brooke, Brandy and Brittany. Brittany was always quiet.
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  Brittany always observed everything.
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  She really didn't never chew my ass out.
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  If I was going to ever take an ass chewing for many of my kids,
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  it was going to be Brooke, the oldest one, the alpha, the alpha
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  female. I love all three of my kids
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  equally. They're awesome.
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  But but Brookey is rusty. So I said, well, I think Dad's
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  going to quit. And Brooke goes, Dad, Dad, we
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  don't want you to quit. I saw Brooke.
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  I thought you guys are tired of me running that dirt car, going
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  up to Fairbury and Farmer sitting running around like a
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  fool at 60 years old. You know what my daughter Brooke
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  not. This is a couple years ago.
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  Brooke had to straighten me out. You know what she said to me?
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  Dad, we don't want you to ever quit racing.
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  We love you racing. We just want you to come to our
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  your grandbaby's birthday parties.
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  Oh, talk about a dumb ass I'd rolled.
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  I'd roll down that hill right down there for 700 to win at at
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  some stupid dirt race. Spoon River in the middle of
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  nowhere. Don't even know how to get
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  there, Dan and got signs you could win the damn race and they
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  don't even know you want it. That's how stupid some of us
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  dirt racers are. It's like a little cult deal.
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  But I was, I was addicted to it. Thought if I won, I could solve
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  World Peace. Oh, he won the feature at
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  Tri-City. He's world famous now.
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  The people that have the gas station at the corner don't even
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  know the race tracks there. But I was addicted to it.
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  So you know what I did? I quit doing that.
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  But I asked Brooke for a little help.
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  I said, Brooke, Dad's gonna be at every grandbabies birthday
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  party from now on. Could you have their birthday
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  parties at noon, noon to 2 so I could go race?
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  And she goes, yes. And by the way, when you leave,
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  don't honk the horn like you do because then that draws the kids
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  attention to you leaving. Alright everybody, I want to
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  thank my daughter Brandy Lee. She's an incredible stylist and
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  makeup. Check out Brandy.
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  She works at the Tribe Hair Salon here in Imperial, MO
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  Brandy Wallace Brandy. Brandy Louder is her name now.
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  Brandy Louder Brandy is the best, by the way, Brooke's the
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  best. She's a dental hygienist up in
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  Kirkwood, MO. Brandy's the best hair and
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  makeup. She's the best in the world.
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  She did all the all the NASCAR people stuff in Birkdale back
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  there in North Carolina. And my daughter Brittany, she's
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  a bad ass too. She works for Lowe's corporate.
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  She works on the search engine team.
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  I'm proud of all of my girls. But it was a close call with me.
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  And I want to thank my wife, Kim, for put, you know, for
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  putting me in my place and making me realize how up I was.
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  So I hope that helps you understand the Earnhardt side.
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  Dale Earnhardt senior wanted to be a great racer so bad that he
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  almost forgot he had kids. It's a cautionary tale.
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  Let me remind you what the word cautionary tale is.
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  It means this is a story that's not too good, but it turns out
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  OK. Have a great Tuesday, everybody.