Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / The Time Harry Gant Put Me In My Place | Coffee With Kenny 1/21/26

Transcript

The Time Harry Gant Put Me In My Place | Coffee With Kenny 1/21/26 · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Happy Wednesday, everybody. Happy Wednesday.
• 0:09
  All right, everybody. I-55 Federated Auto Parts
• 0:14
  Raceway Park has a new date coming up.
• 0:17
  This racetrack is in Peebling, Missouri, just 10 minutes from
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  my house. Mods gone wild.
• 0:24
  Mods gone wild Paying $5000 to win for A mods and B mods.
• 0:32
  March 2930 and 31st So remember March 29, 3030 first Mods gone
• 0:42
  wild that I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park.
• 0:48
  Be there. OK everybody, deep breath.
• 0:54
  I'm looking a little rough today.
• 0:56
  Time for me to clean up. Leaving for Daytona next week on
• 1:02
  Wednesday. I'm headed to Daytona next week
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  on Wednesday. I will be racing nine nights at
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  Volusia Raceway Park. I'll be driving for my dear
• 1:13
  friend Nick Hoffman. Cars going to look good.
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  So I'm excited to get down there and win a Gator.
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  Win a Gator. Oh, yeah.
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  I'll tell you what, if I, if I would have not found dirt
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  racing, I don't know what my life would have looked like.
• 1:31
  Dirt racing really saved me, gave me a lot to do after
• 1:37
  winning nine NASCAR Xfinity races in NASCAR.
• 1:45
  OK, everybody, it's Hall of Fame time.
• 1:49
  It is NASCAR Hall of Fame time and we've got Ray Hendrick going
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  in. We got handsome Harry Gant going
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  in and we got Kurt Busch going in.
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  Let's take a let's take a second to talk about all three of them.
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  Ray Hendrick, I don't know much about him.
• 2:12
  I know he's a bad ass. Congratulations Ray and well
• 2:16
  deserved handsome Harry Gant. Now I got a lot to say about
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  Harry. Harry taught me a lot.
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  I'm in an autograph session with Harry Gant and we're, I think
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  we're at Lebanon, I-44 Speedway of all places, about 2 1/2 hours
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  up the road here. So I signed my autograph.
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  I just signed it on a hat. Harry looks at me and goes, boy,
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  you write your name smaller. You give all of us more space to
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  write. Scared me half to death.
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  Harry taught me to write small on the bill of a hat because
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  when we would do these autograph sessions, Brother Rusty, I, he
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  don't get, you cannot get Rusty Wallace.
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  Rusty is such a badass. Rusty would Rusty get a hat and
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  he'd take it and he'd go and there'll be about 10 other
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  drivers and they're like, where do I write?
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  I always thought, I always thought it was such a badass
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  move by brother Rusty. And we'd all try to find a place
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  to write. Well, I didn't do that to Harry.
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  I just, I just wrote my name normally.
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  But he looked at me and he said, boy, when you sign these hats,
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  you write your name small. You give all of us a place to
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  write our names. That was my first bitch smack
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  from handsome Harry. Yes, Sir.
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  I said yes, Sir. My next thing about Harry is
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  those jeans. He would wear jeans that were
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  starched, and I think he still does today.
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  I got some. I got some pitch.
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  If Charlie edits this up, I'll, I got a picture of me and Harry
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  at Trackside Live at Charlotte in 2025.
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  I'm going to go back at that picture.
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  But Harry was known for starched jeans.
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  Those jeans had a line down the middle.
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  They'd cut you. They'd cut you.
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  But what was so awesome about the Cowboys back in the days,
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  all our country western superstars like, you know,
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  George Strait, they had those, those jeans starched.
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  I'll tell you, another person like that was Mark Martin's dad,
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  Julian, Julian Martin. He'd starch those jeans now
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  around, around the Wallace house.
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  Kim, my wife, she's a proud lady.
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  She always took care of my clothes when I was in NASCAR.
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  And she downed the hell out of those jeans And she she'd do her
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  best to put a, put a, a line right in the middle.
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  So back in those days, we believed in iron jeans.
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  And boy, they looked good. That's a lost art.
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  The other thing about Harry is everything I learned about Harry
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  is not Harry racing. So Harry comes off at Turn 4 at
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  Pocono and his car starts getting sideways on him.
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  So anyway, they said, Harry, we would like you to run the
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  rookies meeting, you know, for the rookies.
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  The rookies always had to get there early and they'd ask a
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  veteran to run the the rookies meeting.
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  Harry's running the rookie meeting for Pocono.
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  And he looked at all of us. He said, boys, he says now when
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  you come off that turn 4 and your car starts to swerping on,
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  you turn it left and lock her down just in that country.
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  That's the way. So, you know, turn the last
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  corner at Pocono, it's real wide sweeping and you're you're
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  trying to give it all the gas you can to get down that long
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  straightaway. Well, the ass in start coming
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  out on you and you you try to save it and you go, you go like
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  this and then you start chasing it like this.
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  Then like this. Well Harry in that country
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  voice, he'd call it swarping. He said when that car starts to
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  swarping, you turn it left and lock her down.
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  Saves your day and you won't hit the wall.
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  I love Harry again. The next thing I know about
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  Harry is when Harry was running the Grand American Division.
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  I've saw a couple pictures out there.
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  Rusty brother. Rusty raced Harry and in the
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  Grand American division, really good division.
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  They don't have it anymore, but it was all about Camaros and
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  Firebirds. So I'm on the AT at this time.
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  I'm cocky. I'm not a race car driver, but
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  Rusty just got done winning over Richie Evans.
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  Oh, yeah. We built our car right here in
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  St. Louis, MO, a little town called
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  Valley Park. We built that car in Valley
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  Park, ran 200 and something mile an hour, and Rusty was lucky and
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  able. I'm showing respect to Richie
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  because we've lost to Richie Evans, but Rusty outrun Richie
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  Evans that day and we got pictures out there.
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  I'll post them. And we won.
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  And in my cocky way, I'm going past Harry.
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  And I say winning isn't everything.
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  It's the only thing. And out of nowhere, Harry Gant
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  goes. That's right, boy, I didn't know
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  Harry was there. I was just acting silly.
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  Now I realize how hard winning is.
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  I should have never said that. I guess that's why they have
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  podiums. First, second and third.
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  It's hard to win. Only one person wins.
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  I know a lot more about Harry. Harry's a good man.
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  He's a working man. All right, We're at 9 minutes,
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  so I got to let you all go. Have a great Wednesday,
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  everybody.