Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Rick Mast Shares Vintage Stories About Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin & More!

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Rick Mast Shares Vintage Stories About Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin & More! · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
What's up, everybody? I am Charlie Marlow.
0:03
That is the great Rick Mast. This is the Rick Mast show.
0:08
How's everybody doing? And more importantly, Rick, how
0:10
are you doing? Again, Charlie, if I was any
0:13
better, I don't know what I would do with myself.
0:15
I really don't. I know that's the answer I give
0:17
you every week. That's the way I feel, dude.
0:19
That's beautiful. That's the answer I want you to
0:21
give me. I, I don't want one of these
0:24
days for you to say, oh, I'm terrible, I'm in a terrible
0:27
mood. Everything sucks.
0:28
I like the positivity, Rick. No, man, you, you learn in
0:32
racing, I mean racing in NASCAR is a cup driver.
0:35
It will beat your, it will beat you to the ground and stomp on
0:38
you and chew you out and spit you out, man.
0:40
And you learn or I did least through all those years of, of
0:44
how to reconcile the bad things with the good things.
0:48
And you really, finally you, you, you learn that you do
0:52
everything you can do and everything else is out of your
0:54
control. And you're still here.
0:56
You're still here on earth. God still has a plan for you.
0:59
So you're here. Make the best of it.
1:01
You know, be happy. That's kind of what I do.
1:03
That's my motto. I love it.
1:05
That's a good motto. That's the right motto.
1:07
All right, let's talk about Sonoma.
1:10
What I found really interesting, not just about the race, but
1:13
then also in the in the post race press conferences is, and
1:17
this is mostly coming from Cliff Daniels, obviously the winning
1:21
crew chief of Kyle Larson. He said basically the strategy
1:24
going in with the repave, everybody was worried about the
1:27
tires and he kind of said nobody expected so many cautions that
1:32
it totally threw everybody's strategy into the garbage.
1:36
And they basically were all kind of doing it on the fly, which he
1:40
thought was pretty fun. So so give us your take there.
1:43
I guess it's kind of cool when basically all these all these
1:46
teams have to just ad Lib. Yeah, it's it.
1:50
It was a little bit like Bristol.
1:51
Remember Bristol early, earlier, early in the year when the tires
1:54
were falling off after 20 laps are blown out.
1:56
Well, this still they were blown out.
1:59
But everything that went on at that track again, what what
2:02
Cliff said was exactly right. But what it did, it let and
2:05
everything whenever these guys have to ad Lib right and do it
2:09
on the fly, it's always it always ends up being the best
2:12
type of racing because, you know, the things are not set.
2:15
The the they keep getting curveballs thrown at them and
2:18
they don't know exactly what to do.
2:20
And that got all these guys on. You know, their pit sequences
2:24
were were different. You know, all day.
2:25
He's trying to figure out, all right, if you're following Chase
2:27
Elliott, you look up one time he's leading and two laps later
2:30
he's 18th, right? And then you're you're watching
2:32
all that go. As the race goes on, it
2:35
progresses and you're like, man, how's this going to end up?
2:37
How's it going to work out? And to me, it made for a very
2:40
exciting event. You know, I mean, they had good
2:43
racing also the cars, you know, I was pretty proud of the way
2:46
the cars had to race each other. Those guys are pretty tight.
2:49
There's a lot of side by side racing, a lot of passes going
2:52
on. To me, it was just one of the
2:55
more exciting Rd. courses we've had in a long time.
2:57
Probably the most exciting to me that we've had in a long time.
3:00
And some of it had to do with the repays, some of it, some of
3:03
it had to do with the unknown. Some of it had to do with the
3:06
the tire that they were using and some of it had to do with
3:08
the new car, you know, So that's, that's the way I took
3:11
it. Yeah, not a ton of drama after
3:14
this one, although a little bit with Kyle Busch and Ross
3:17
Chastain. And I know it's I'm a big fan of
3:22
Kyle Busch. It's hard to feel sorry for Kyle
3:24
Busch because he's so successful.
3:26
He's won so many races and he's got 2 championships, but man,
3:29
he's got some crap luck. Lately.
3:32
Yeah. And, you know, you know what's
3:34
the bad part about that, Charlie?
3:36
I didn't even know about. I didn't even know that it
3:39
happened till later. You know, on social media they
3:42
had clips of Chastain getting into Bush and reckoning, right.
3:45
And I'm like, where was the television during the where was
3:48
our TV broadcast when this went on?
3:49
Right? What, what, why, how did how the
3:52
heck did we miss that? And why didn't we talk about it?
3:54
And, you know, it's kind of like it was kind of like the, the,
3:59
the, the Xfinity race Saturday is when who was it?
4:02
It took out. Oh, the winner took out Austin
4:05
Hill, basically made the pass for the win.
4:07
You know, Austin Hill, he catches so much grief from
4:11
everybody because he's he comes and he's come across as a whiner
4:14
as as all these social media people say about him.
4:17
You know, whether he is or who really isn't, I don't know.
4:20
But he's kind of got that stigma.
4:21
So, you know, when they interviewed him, I thought it
4:23
was cool. He said, you know, I'm not going
4:25
to say anything because whatever I say is going to be wrong,
4:28
right? And that comes from all the
4:30
grief he catches on social media when he fusses about that stuff.
4:33
And of course, he brings some of that on himself.
4:35
And the deal with Bush, you know, Bush just got through with
4:37
the deal, you know, last week and, you know, having trouble
4:41
and, you know, the fight he had a couple weeks ago.
4:44
So I guess he just, you know, he, he took his, he took his
4:48
beating. He took his lumps, I guess got
4:50
in his truck and went home, right.
4:51
And didn't, you know, didn't get into it.
4:53
But that was a that was a pretty bad dump.
4:55
I mean, I'm a Ross Chastain fan, man.
4:57
I love him. I've I've met him, talked to him
5:00
personally, he's a good dude. I love talking to that guy.
5:02
He's like a throwback and people in the garage tell me he's kind
5:05
of like a throwback, right? A little bit of old school in
5:07
him. But but you know, he he just
5:10
flat. He just flat dumped Bush.
5:11
You know, he dumped him whether he knew to do it.
5:14
Then he said he didn't know what he was doing and didn't know
5:16
what had happened and all that. And he's probably being true,
5:18
right. But but to miss that, you know,
5:22
I didn't like that. We missed that on TV, but it was
5:25
still for it was a still a good deal.
5:26
And man, I was sitting there thinking about Truex when he
5:30
limped across the line. You know, as everybody knows, it
5:33
was a straight a straight gear transmission car.
5:35
You put it in gear and hit the starter button and it moves the
5:38
car. You know, I was thinking, well,
5:40
I wonder if the battery's going to run dead before he gets to
5:42
start finish line. But he got there anyhow.
5:44
And good Lord of mercy, you talk about Truex and I'm like, man,
5:47
how can anybody, you know, they run so good with no results?
5:52
You know, it's a it's a darndest thing with that team, but last
5:56
year, you know, they were on fire.
5:58
Then they got to the playoffs and he went to junk.
6:00
So maybe this year it's kind of like my Braves.
6:03
You know, we're junk right now, but we're we're we're waiting
6:06
for the playoffs, maybe right to the end or, you know, get down
6:08
to the end. So maybe that maybe, maybe Truex
6:11
luck will change on this deal swap this year.
6:13
Maybe I'll win the maybe I'll win the championship.
6:15
I don't know. But anyhow, the bottom line is
6:18
Sonoma excited me. It was a good deal.
6:21
OK, I feel like every time Denny Hamlin wins a race, we always
6:24
bring up the narrative of, oh, is he going to win the
6:27
championship there this year? Is this his year?
6:30
And I feel like every time Kyle Larson wins a race, which is a
6:32
lot, we have that conversation or narrative about it.
6:36
Is he the best, not just NASCAR driver?
6:39
Could he be the best race car driver on earth?
6:42
And especially coming off a couple weeks ago, Indy 500 had a
6:46
chance to win. What'd he do if he finished
6:48
18th? But I'll, I'll start it like
6:50
this. Do you think, OK, so we have
6:54
Kyle Busch 2 championships. We have Joey Logano 2
6:57
championships. We have other champions.
6:59
Do you think Kyle Larson is the best NASCAR driver out there
7:03
right now? Could be he could, he could very
7:06
well be. And if you just if you just
7:09
pigeonhole it to NASCAR, you know, there's there's a case to
7:13
be made if you if all he was doing is running NASCAR, nothing
7:17
else, and having the results he's having, you know, yeah,
7:20
he's pretty damn good driver. He's a good driver, right?
7:23
But I think all the extra stuff he does, all this other racing
7:26
he does adds makes it makes him seem as a better NASCAR driver,
7:33
if that makes sense to you. And and then we go into the
7:36
conversation, is he one of the best drivers ever in the world
7:40
for race, just a race car driver?
7:42
Well, you've got to start. You've got to start putting him
7:45
in those conversations with AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti.
7:49
I mean, you know, I don't know of two drivers that did more
7:52
than those two. That what I mean by that.
7:56
You get in something has four wheels, not just a stock car or
7:59
an IndyCar or Sprint car or a dirt car or a Formula One car,
8:02
right? You put those guys in those cars
8:04
and they win. Of course, AJ didn't do F1 right
8:08
and he had his reasons for not doing F1 and that's pretty
8:11
funny. But, but if he hadn't been in
8:12
F1, I'm sure he'd have won just like Mario did, because those
8:15
guys were pretty equal and everything they did smoke comes
8:19
along, Tony Stewart comes along. He does this deal.
8:21
Of course, he, he came up a little bit.
8:23
He, he was in Indycars before he got into Cup cars.
8:25
So he was very good at that. You know, did well and IndyCar
8:28
did well in stock cars, did well in sprints, did did well in late
8:32
models in dirt. But then here comes here, Larson
8:36
comes along and the time we're in the the, the what we're in
8:40
right now with racing and what he's doing and what he does and
8:45
the way he just hops and anything, if he doesn't win, he
8:48
puts on a show, he's going to be up front.
8:51
You know, Kyle Larson to me, and this is a this is a very big
8:55
statement because I don't make statements like this and people
8:57
shouldn't make these kind of statements, But he's in the
9:00
conversation of AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti as the best, one of the
9:05
best race car drivers period in any kind of race car.
9:08
You know, again, we go back to just strictly NASCAR.
9:14
You know, if Kyle wasn't racing anything but NASCAR, we wouldn't
9:17
know how good he is at all this other stuff.
9:20
OK, but he would be a prolific winner.
9:22
He is a prolific winner and he he'd definitely be the top ten
9:25
NASCAR drivers that ever was, right?
9:27
There's there's no doubt about that.
9:28
Got a ways to go to get all that solidified.
9:31
But he's on the path to be spoken of in those in those
9:34
terms in my in my mind. OK, I don't know the story, so
9:37
why didn't AJ Foy run Formula One?
9:41
Bunch of pansies. That's a bunch of pansies over
9:44
there running that stuff. A bunch of egotis ego maniac
9:47
pansies. OK, I'm trying to think of the
9:50
verbi's Mario or AJ used with me.
9:53
But you know, in that day and that time period, it the the the
9:58
the lifestyle or the type of the type.
10:01
It wasn't it didn't fit AJ style, let's put it that way.
10:04
It didn't fit his bold. OK, so we're going to do
10:08
probably a couple story times, but I thought this was
10:10
interesting. You brought up the other day,
10:13
Austin Hill with the SVG, Shane van Gisbergen.
10:18
And so I saw this tweet, so I had to ask Rick Mast.
10:20
I'm going to read it for you here.
10:22
It says with two straight wins, Shane van Gisbergen is the 8th
10:26
driver in Xfinity Series history to win their first two races.
10:30
Back-to-back SVG joins Rick Mast, Steve Grissom, Chad
10:36
Little, Jamie McMurray, Chase Elliott, William Byron and
10:39
Austin Sindrich on that list. Rick, that's a pretty Dang good
10:42
list to be on. So, so tell us the story of that
10:44
your your first two Xfinity wins or what was it Busch Series back
10:49
then come back-to-back? Yeah, we were, we were
10:52
mainstaying the Busch Series and we had, we weren't really funded
10:56
properly and all that and everything we did was on our
10:58
own. We self-taught, did our own
11:00
stuff, all that. And we, we had, we had a lot of
11:03
good. We were racing really well.
11:04
We had fast race cars doing really well and, and couldn't
11:07
secure a victory, Man, it just, it just, you know, for whatever
11:10
reasons, we just couldn't secure that.
11:13
And we go to Dover, this is a 1987 and we, we go to Dover Bush
11:17
race and we win that race car was pretty good.
11:21
The car was pretty dominant towards the end of the race.
11:24
And then, you know, we load up, we go to Martinsville the next
11:27
week and one of my favorite tracks and we go up there, man,
11:30
and we dust their butts there, right?
11:32
We, we, we, we win the race. The funny part, all that,
11:35
Charlie, I had tried my best. I mean, I was a politician too,
11:39
man. I, I had talked to everybody
11:41
trying to get help, right? I talked to manufacturers, I
11:44
talked to Goodyear, I talked to everybody.
11:47
Well, and everybody knew me. I'd written letters, you know, I
11:50
did little pamphlets, did all kinds of stuff, tried to get
11:53
some help from somebody, you know, just to help our team.
11:56
We won Dover, we go to Martinsville, we win that race
11:59
and within a couple weeks I've got a a manufacturer deal with
12:04
Buick, OK. I've got a tire deal with
12:07
Goodyear that's provided you so many free tires.
12:11
I get a shock deal for pro shocks, right?
12:14
We get, we get free shocks and I don't know, two or three other
12:17
things, but they were, they were the major hitters at that point.
12:20
And I'm like, oh, this is what you got to do to get free crap.
12:24
You got to win, right? And it's like, yeah, all you got
12:27
to do is win and you get this stuff.
12:28
So that was, that was pretty cool.
12:31
I mean, and it was very rewarding because so many people
12:35
congratulated this. And in those days, you know, we
12:38
all were like a traveling circus.
12:40
And you, you were happy when your fellow competitor, you
12:42
know, had success. And I, I, I remember that
12:45
there's a couple weeks and all the guys that are raced against
12:47
and some guys have been mad at right.
12:49
Some guys we'd have troubles with, but you know, they'd all
12:52
come up and, you know, genuinely wish you or tell you good
12:58
wishes, right? And they, they truly meant it.
13:00
But those were the two things that came out of those two
13:03
back-to-back or that back-to-back, the back-to-back
13:06
victors in those days. It was pretty cool.
13:09
OK, so we also asked for some questions for you on Twitter and
13:13
we got a few. So I'm going to read you two of
13:16
them because they're kind of the same question.
13:18
And I think it it pertains to what you said earlier about,
13:22
well, you were talking about the Busch Series at the time not
13:24
being well funded. But here I'll just I'll just
13:26
read them for you. So here's the first one.
13:28
Rick, despite being this is from Matt Miles, Rick despite being
13:32
teammates with Harry Gant, the one in 33 were truly separate
13:35
teams. What was that dynamic like?
13:38
And could the Jackson boys have gotten a jump with Hendrick if
13:41
y'all shared a little more information?
13:44
And then this next question I think is kind of similar, which
13:48
is from from from the dumb trucker.
13:52
Is his name, he says. Rick Yeah.
13:56
Rick, you stayed loyal to Richard Jackson in that one car
13:59
for so many years. Did you have any offers from
14:01
other teams that you turned down and looking back, wished you
14:05
hadn't? So there you go.
14:07
Yeah, You know, to back up and explain this to the audience in
14:13
those days, two brothers, Richard Jackson, Leo Jackson,
14:18
both very well, very well respected in the in the racing
14:21
industry. They had a they had late model
14:23
cars and Bush Grand National cars.
14:25
You know that different folks drove Bob Presley, Tom Ellis, a
14:30
lot of that. Well, Skoll basically came in
14:34
and in 89 they came in and and started sponsoring Harry Gantt.
14:41
OK, well I'm sorry, they've been sponsored Harry Gantt with
14:43
Travis Carter and how Needham when that team broke up, that
14:47
sponsorship went to Leo Jackson and Harry Gantt drove for him.
14:53
About the same time Skoll also decided they they would sponsor
14:57
Richard Jackson and his driver. So I think I think it was
15:01
terrible. I know the year before I got to
15:03
Skull was Terry, Terry Labonte drove the one car and then
15:07
started in 91. I drove the one car.
15:09
So all through those years I drove for Richard Jackson.
15:12
And you got to understand Skull was, you know, they weren't the
15:15
top money, they weren't the top money sponsor, but they were
15:19
adequate. You know, you could do very well
15:21
with Skulls a sponsorship. But the neat part about it Skull
15:25
was just a your US tobacco. They were just such a a good
15:28
group. They're a good sponsor.
15:30
They're a fun group to be around.
15:31
They're very loyal people. I'll never forget Luke Bannell.
15:37
Luke Bannell was CEO of the company.
15:38
He he, he was the man. He you know, he was, he was in
15:41
charge. And all the years I drove from
15:44
the the only thing Luke Bannell ever asked of me and Harry was
15:49
what can I do to help? Y'all right, You know, he's like
15:53
the way he did his marketing and the way they did that thing.
15:57
Lou told me one time he said, Rick, if you and Harry went on
16:00
Sunday, that's just icing on the cake because we've already
16:02
gotten out of out of what we wanted to get.
16:05
And basically what they do would be prime shelf space and trade
16:07
off with seven elevens and you know, the the the magic markets
16:11
of the world circle K's and all that and they would trade off
16:14
associate sponsorship for shelf shelf space, prime shelf space
16:18
for the products and all that. But anyhow, they were cool.
16:21
So you have that dynamic of Skull sponsored both these
16:26
teams. Richard had his his race team
16:29
there in Denver, NC, which is near Morrisville.
16:32
Leo Jackson kept his team in Asheville, OK.
16:36
And they were two completely separate teams that that there
16:40
was no information shared between us.
16:43
You know, Andy Petrie was a crew chief on Harry's car in the
16:47
first year I had Bob Johnson, that I had Kevin Hamlin the rest
16:50
of the career at school. And you know, the it's like the
16:56
year that Harry won all those races.
16:57
I forget which year it was, Mr. September.
17:00
Well, they had figured out early, they had figured out
17:04
early about camber in the rear end, you know, putting camber in
17:07
the end with these radial tires. And I'll tell you where that
17:09
came from. Skull used to take us in the In
17:15
the winter, they take us to places, watch Hill, Rhode
17:17
Island. I mean, in the summer, they take
17:19
us to places, watch Hill, RI. In the winter, we go to West
17:22
Palm Beach, FL. They had these big mansions,
17:24
right? It would be me.
17:25
It'd be all the drivers. It'd be me, AJ Foyt, Harry Gant,
17:28
Don Steck, Perdome. It'd be all of our wives.
17:31
It'd be Johnny Hayes, our boss. It'd be Lou Banal and his wife.
17:35
It'd be the president of the company, CFO of the company.
17:38
You know, it'd be a bunch of us and we'd all just sit there for
17:40
a week and golf and decadence, OK?
17:43
I mean, you get served and waited on and meals and just on
17:47
and on and on and is a very comfortable, relaxed atmosphere.
17:51
So you know that that's how you get to know everybody real well.
17:54
And I remember when we went to Radial Tires, sitting there one
17:58
time and everybody, all of us were talking.
18:00
And AJ says, I'll tell you one thing about radial tires because
18:04
he was used to them on the on the indie side.
18:06
You can't run the tire on the edge.
18:07
That tire doesn't like to be on the edge.
18:09
And the edge, I mean, I mean, like looking back is like out of
18:13
camera. You didn't have your camera,
18:15
right? And you're on the actual corner
18:16
of the tire, right? So what happens, Leo sitting
18:21
there listening to that, He goes back and he gets to Cipher.
18:24
We call it Cipher thinking about that and and anyhow, they come
18:29
up with putting cabin in the rear tires, OK, the rear end and
18:33
they're the 1st to do that and they won a lot of races on that.
18:37
But that's how smart Leo was. He figured that out from that
18:40
conversation that day, but we never knew about it.
18:45
OK, that information wasn't shared to the one team, right?
18:49
It just it just wasn't. But Richard and Leo, their,
18:52
their relationship with each other was a very, very good,
18:55
loving, respectful relationship. They if one asked the other for
19:00
something, they would help, OK, if Richard went to Leo and said,
19:04
Leo, what are you doing that's letting you win these races?
19:08
Leo would tell him, OK, it was that, it was that kind of
19:11
relationship. But those guys, it was just, it
19:14
was kind of weird the way they did the racing thing.
19:16
They kept it separated into to, to, to his point, the the
19:21
questionnaire's point. Yeah, between Leo and Richard,
19:25
because both of them were engineers.
19:27
Richard has an engineering degree and Leo had that shop and
19:29
does all that fancy stuff he'd make for race car motors and
19:33
stuff. Those, those two guys were
19:35
brilliant individually together. It would have been a force.
19:41
It would been a, it would have been a very strong force.
19:44
If those two minds were put together with one team to run,
19:47
you know, two or three race cars, it would have been, I
19:51
don't know if it had been a Hendrick type deal, but it would
19:54
have been a very, very, very strong race team, very, very
19:57
dynamic strong race team for a long time.
19:59
But it, you know, the way it was set up, it just didn't happen,
20:02
you know. So, and then the the part
20:08
Charlie about was I offered rides and turned them down.
20:11
You know, I had to think about that a little bit.
20:13
When I saw that question, I started my mind thinking about
20:16
it. I actually had to write it down,
20:17
OK, to remember all of it. I still don't know if I got it.
20:21
I'll remember, but I did write down what I did remember.
20:24
Yeah, that happened quite a few times.
20:26
The problem is that I go through these, I'll tell you and you're
20:28
you're going to be like, what the hell is wrong with you?
20:30
Well, I can look back at all these decisions I made at the
20:35
time and, and, and and and it felt like the right decision
20:39
when I made them. Looking back now from a 10,000
20:42
area view, a 10,000 foot view, you know, career wise, they were
20:47
just dumb decisions. OK, but I don't regret any of
20:52
it. I don't look back, but that's
20:53
just the way I am. I when I make a decision about
20:56
something, I, I do it, I put it behind me and go on.
20:59
Because if you, if you were to look at it like, you know, you
21:03
really screwed up. You should have did this and
21:05
that. Well, hell, you, you want to
21:06
commit suicide. But you know, I, I've never been
21:08
that, that mindset because each time when I made these
21:11
decisions, I thought it was right when it's time for the
21:13
various reasons. But let me see probably the
21:16
first one. Excuse me.
21:19
Johnny Hayes. We've talked about here many
21:21
times. Johnny Hayes ran Skoll.
21:22
He was the boss of Skoll. He hired, fired the drivers and
21:25
all that. Johnny Hayes, come to me one
21:28
time. He said, Rick, He said.
21:30
I said, yeah. Johnny, you going to drive for
21:31
Robert Yates? I said no, Why you don't drive
21:36
for Robert Yates? I said no.
21:38
Were you going to try to tell me you haven't talked to him?
21:41
I said, how'd you? I thought to myself, how'd you
21:44
know that? I said, yeah, I've talked to
21:45
him, but you're not going to drive for him.
21:47
I said no. He said, what the Hell's wrong
21:49
with you? Why not, right.
21:51
But you know, and I don't remember exactly when this
21:55
happened, but I think it was during, I think it's when we
21:58
lost Davey somewhere. It's somewhere between we lost
22:01
Davey and Ernie got hurt. I, I don't remember the exact
22:03
time frame, but I was with Scold during that time.
22:05
So, you know, that was a an opportunity turned down that,
22:10
you know, may have turned out differently.
22:13
So, so real quick. So which car would you have
22:17
potentially? 2828.
22:18
And then, so then who got into that car instead?
22:22
Well, if it's when we lost Davey, it's when Ernie got in
22:25
it, OK, because he was with the four car then.
22:29
And I think that's when it was right.
22:31
I don't think it was when when Ernie got hurt.
22:34
It may have been when Ernie got hurt.
22:36
I, I honestly, that's the one I keep.
22:38
I was thinking about it again this morning, and I cannot
22:40
remember what that time frame was.
22:43
You know, I just remember the big deal with John.
22:45
And here's the neat part. Robert had called Johnny Hayes
22:50
and asked permission to talk to me, right?
22:54
Johnny didn't tell me that for a long time, right?
22:56
Because I kept saying, how the hell did you know that?
22:58
Because that was very confidential.
23:00
And he finally admitted to me that Robert had called and asked
23:03
permission. So, you know, there, there is
23:05
honor among thieves there. OK.
23:07
I mean, I thought, you know, that was looking back,
23:10
especially in that time period, you know, that was a pretty cool
23:13
deal for Robert Yates to go to Johnny Hayes and ask permission.
23:18
So. So why did you stay then?
23:21
Loyalty to Skoll. I, I felt, I really felt that,
23:26
you know, this team, I don't know they, they, they gave him
23:30
my first shot. I had worked so hard to get to
23:33
Cup and Skoll went out on a limb or whatever that you want to say
23:36
on a limb, but they hired me, OK.
23:38
They gave my first shot at, at, at, at, at this.
23:41
And I just didn't feel like that early in the tenure with them
23:45
that that was the right thing to do at the time to, to, to walk
23:48
away from it because, you know, I had formed good relationships
23:52
with my team members, you know, an awesome relationship with the
23:56
US Tobacco and Skoll and all those folks.
23:57
And it just didn't, it just didn't feel right to me to leave
24:00
those folks. It just didn't, you know, So
24:03
that's the reason I didn't do it.
24:06
Barney Hall, the great Barney Hall that everybody remembers.
24:09
He was, you know, the MRN broadcaster that could make you.
24:13
You said, man, you can sit there and listen to Race with Barney
24:16
on the radio. And I swear you could smell the
24:18
rubber burning on those tires if you listen to Barney Hall.
24:22
He was that great. But anyhow, Barney was Junior's
24:24
guy, all right. Whenever Junior is going to make
24:27
a move, or at least the ones I do about Barney was the front
24:31
man Barney and Barney was one of those guys with that media set
24:35
in those days that you trusted 100%.
24:37
You can tell Barney anything like, you know, Tom Higgins and
24:39
all those guys. But Barney approached me about
24:42
driving for Junior, OK. And I turned that down.
24:45
And it, it, it, it was a little, it was past the Yates deal.
24:49
And I'm not sure when. But again, at that point, I, I
24:53
felt like, you know, we could still maybe make this thing work
24:57
and be a real good deal at Skull, OK.
25:00
And that, that kind of that kind of did that.
25:03
So then we move on. And then when it when it when
25:07
this, when the Skull deal goes away with the government
25:10
dropping out the stop in the tobacco sponsorship and all
25:13
that. I moved to Butch Mock and the
25:15
Remington team. The worst two years of my life.
25:19
The worst two years, probably the most aggravating, the most
25:23
miserable. Yeah.
25:28
In my whole career, from the time I was dirt racing at 15, I
25:31
ended. Those were the two most
25:33
miserable years. And it wasn't because of the
25:34
people. You know, Butch Bach was a great
25:37
guy. He had great the the team, the
25:39
team guys were great guys. We all got along well.
25:42
Remington was a fantastic sponsor, fantastic sponsor.
25:46
They, you know, they were always doing stuff.
25:48
They were very proactive and it was neat for me because with
25:51
Skoll, you know, we had to be very buttoned up on everything.
25:54
You know, like I couldn't even mention Skoll on a radio
25:56
interview, right? And you couldn't sell
25:59
merchandise to kids. You couldn't do anything with
26:01
scope because of the laws and the bike industry and all that.
26:05
So when I went to Remington, it was complete opposite, man, they
26:08
blew, they would blow everything out of the water.
26:09
I mean, me and Dale, me and Earnhardt, we did a couple
26:12
commercials together for Remington.
26:13
I did a bunch of hunting outdoor shows, were with associate
26:17
sponsors, and we had Polaris and hunting Mossy Oak.
26:21
You know, we did a lot of TV stuff, a lot of stuff we did for
26:23
those two years. It was great.
26:25
The problem was we ran like crap.
26:27
We just ran like crap, you know, and the reasons for that and you
26:33
know, he bought a couple people in trying to help the thing, but
26:36
you know, the the you know, it just wasn't it wasn't meant to
26:40
be. And and and and, you know, I
26:42
caught a lot of grief in that in that time period because, you
26:46
know, you weren't running well, you know, so you know, what's
26:49
the problem? Is it the driver?
26:50
Well, you know, when I left that team the next year after that,
26:54
Ted came in and drove the car Musgrave and you know, they he
26:57
ran about like I did, which I figured is what was going to
26:59
happen. But again, very good people,
27:01
very good people. But during that time period, let
27:03
me look here at my my thing. When I agreed to drive for
27:07
Butch, we were at Darlington. Jack Rouse comes up to me and
27:11
says, Rick, what are you doing next year?
27:13
I'm I said I'm driving for Butch Mock.
27:14
He said he said, have you signed a contract?
27:17
I says, no, not yet. He said, well, you're not
27:19
driving yet. I said, well, I've given my
27:20
word. He says, well, I want to talk to
27:22
you about driving for me. And he says the reason I'm doing
27:26
this is partly me, but mainly Mark Martin.
27:28
Mark Martin told me to go out and get Rick Mast to get to
27:30
what? Get in in this race car, right.
27:33
And we talked a little bit and I, I, you know, I, I hadn't
27:40
signed the contract because Jack, Jack pushed me pretty hard
27:42
on this one. OK.
27:44
He, he pressured me pretty hard. I didn't, I hadn't, it's because
27:47
I hadn't signed the contracts. But I had, I had given my word.
27:49
I shook hands with Butch, already talked to the Remington
27:52
people, right. It was all set in stone.
27:54
Looking back, you, you don't know what would have happened.
27:57
I know it had run better going with Jack and a lot of the
28:00
things that I was going through and wanted to do with cars and
28:02
all, and what what we did with with the 75 car for two years.
28:07
You know, it's kind of Hanford and what I'd like to do, you
28:10
know, and things that need to be done.
28:12
And I felt like if I'd have went to Rouse, maybe it would have it
28:15
would have worked out better. But you know, he who knows about
28:18
that. But you know, I gave a word at
28:19
the time. So we didn't do that while I was
28:22
with the 75 team those two years.
28:25
The Petty's, they this was through Chuck Spicer, their PR
28:29
guy. They had a chance to drive for
28:34
the Petty's. OK, didn't do that.
28:40
The the deal. Well, let's put it this way.
28:45
At the end I had a three-year deal with which Mark, I did two
28:47
years and left. But at the end of the first
28:50
year, when I had this offer, I talked to the Remington guy, OK?
28:58
And I said, I'm thinking about doing this.
29:00
I I really have hopes that, you know, I love you guys and I
29:03
really have hopes that we could turn this thing around.
29:05
And I said, but I have an opportunity to do this, to leave
29:08
and do another deal. You know, what's your thoughts?
29:11
And Rick, if you do, he said, you know, we're going to pull
29:14
out sponsorship. And I said, yeah, but you're,
29:18
you're signed for another two years, dude.
29:20
He says, no, we have outs. You know, we have, there's a
29:22
bunch of outs. And he put, you know, we have to
29:24
approve the driver. And if you leave, we're not
29:26
going to approve any driver, right?
29:28
So I'm sitting here thinking, all right, if you pull out, if I
29:31
pull out and do this, they're, they're going to shut the
29:34
sponsorship off. And I've formed this
29:36
relationship with all these guys.
29:37
There's going to be 20 or 30 guys here in one day.
29:40
They, they don't have jobs, right?
29:43
I'm not going to be responsible for all these guys losing their
29:45
job the day I leave. And looking back, you know, who
29:52
knows but that would have happened.
29:53
But at that, in that moment with me, with Rick Nash, hell, I
29:56
can't do this. I can't do this.
29:58
And there was that, there was that hope.
30:00
There was that hope that we could turn this thing around,
30:02
right? And then the next year, we were
30:07
at New Hampshire and Bill was running two teams.
30:09
He had his McDonald's team and he had his other team.
30:12
I forget who the sponsor was, but he came to be.
30:14
We're at New Hampshire and I'm not, I don't remember what the
30:18
problem was. But Bill, Bill basically put it
30:22
on me pretty hard trying to get me to, to, to leave and come
30:25
with him and his second team at that point, you know, and I
30:30
didn't do it at that point. And that's probably a deal I
30:33
think would have worked well for me.
30:35
I looking back, I think that thing would have worked pretty
30:38
well drive for Bill with the stuff that I kind of knew what
30:41
was going on, but I couldn't get done with my car and my team.
30:45
And, you know, that was that was probably that was probably that
30:51
was probably one of the big ones.
30:52
And then, you know, other things that didn't work out.
30:55
Like Richard came to me one time.
30:59
He went to do a third team, Richard Childress and, and, and
31:02
you know, that was looking pretty promising and it fell
31:05
through. It didn't happen with the
31:06
sponsorship and some some stuff with Travis Carter and the Kmart
31:10
car and you know, different, different things, different
31:14
things. But you know, that's kind of
31:18
what I went through in that time period.
31:20
And you know, again, I have no regrets.
31:23
I know had I done had I done different things or did one of
31:28
those other moves, I know probably the stats on Rick Mash
31:31
would be different, right? But at the moment, each reason I
31:35
had for not making the move is is something that I stand by
31:38
today. Looking back, I would do the
31:40
exact same thing. I know my personality and who I
31:42
am and what I do. So that was that was, that was a
31:46
that was a major hitters, OK, had had other things going on.
31:50
You're always in conversations and other things happening.
31:52
But they were the they were probably the major hitters
31:54
throughout that whole time period of being Cup racing.
31:58
OK, you, you gave some great examples of to why you didn't
32:01
move and protect another guy's jobs and and whatnot.
32:05
I'm curious specifically potentially with Roush, how did
32:09
the, the money factor play a factor?
32:12
And I asked because just just recently there's kind of a viral
32:15
clip you probably saw cause Mark Martin was on the Dale Junior
32:18
download recently. And Mark Martin tells this story
32:21
where whatever year it was, he had a really good year.
32:24
He said, you know, blood, sweat and tears, he's working on the
32:27
car, he's doing everything. I think he had a pretty
32:28
successful year. And he said he made like
32:30
$225,000 in that particular year.
32:34
So he was kind of saying like, Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm doing pretty
32:36
well and I'm doing a lot and I'm not making enough money here.
32:40
Yeah. So what's the question?
32:43
Is that true, or did that ever did?
32:45
That it, it really didn't. It really didn't.
32:50
I mean, the deal was, was, I'll be honest with you, the first
32:54
year in 1991, I signed my contract with SKO and it was a
32:57
$50,000 salary and 50% of the purse and all my expenses paid
33:01
well, hell, that's more money than I've ever seen in my life
33:03
for driving a race car, right? And as time went on each year
33:06
that got upped right to where I think when I finally got, when I
33:11
finally got with the Remington car by base salary was like, I
33:13
think it was 750 the first year, OK, Then it went up, I think the
33:18
850 the second year. And but that, that, that the,
33:22
the money part was to me was always like secondary, that
33:26
that's what came from what you did.
33:30
You know, if you, if you're a good race car driver and you can
33:33
form and do well, then you would get paid for that.
33:37
You know what I'm saying? You, you, it would go up by that
33:41
time period, there were guys making a lot more than me,
33:44
right, and there were guys that weren't making anything compared
33:48
to me, right. So, but I, I never did, you
33:51
know, I never did let that and, and and one of those situations,
33:56
I think I was offered money was kind of a deal, you know, thrown
34:00
out there at me. And I, you know, it's still, you
34:03
know, you can give me. Well, you'd often tend me.
34:05
Yeah, I'd probably. All right, guys, I'll pay for
34:07
you. If y'all ain't got jobs, I'll
34:08
pay for you for a while, right. You know what I mean?
34:11
But but yeah, it was never, it was never a factor.
34:14
It just. It just never was.
34:16
All right. And then another thing I, I
34:18
picked up on, you said you did some commercials for Remington
34:21
with, with Dale Earnhardt. So any stories from those and or
34:25
also who is the better actor you or him?
34:28
Oh, me. Oh, yeah, I was better than all
34:30
of it. Man, that's a lot better than
34:31
him. We did a, we did a 2 day shoot
34:35
one time outside of Charlotte on somebody's farm.
34:37
And I tell you, I know why. Actors and actress and all get
34:42
on drugs while they go on drugs because you, you, you.
34:46
We did a, we did a 2 day shoot for a what, 30 second
34:50
commercial, right? It took two days.
34:53
We would set up and we'd shoot. We'd shoot whatever we're doing,
34:57
right, film, whatever we're doing.
34:58
Then you would stop, you sit there for two hours waiting on
35:02
to, to do the next scene, right. And but they had, they had a lot
35:08
of stuff going on. They had skeets throw us, they
35:09
had a skeet throw us set up. They had some shooting range
35:13
stuff set up. And so we were always shooting,
35:16
you know, when they, when the, when the film crew was over
35:19
there setting up the next scene or whatever, me and Dale would
35:21
be over there shooting skeets, shooting, shooting targets.
35:25
And they had two motor homes set up down there.
35:27
And Sharon, my wife was with me and Ricky was with me.
35:31
And Dale actually had Teresa with him, OK.
35:35
And they would go down at the motor homes.
35:36
That's where they'd be sitting in the motor homes doing their
35:38
thing while we were doing this commercial.
35:41
Well, the first day, Dale kept trying to get Teresa to come up
35:44
there and shoot, right? And she would never do it.
35:47
And the second day, yeah, the second day of the shooting, he
35:53
kept hollering down our Teresa come up here and she would never
35:56
do it. Finally, he said, Tracy, get
35:57
your ass up here and shoot. Well, Teresa comes up there and
36:01
we're skeet. We're shooting skeets, right?
36:04
And I forget they they threw ten birds out and she or clays and
36:09
she knocked nine of them down and I'm like, damn, what in the
36:14
world? And and Dale had been telling me
36:17
that she was real good. She's a good shot.
36:18
And I looked Tracy. Good Lord, Teresa so.
36:22
Well, I haven't really shot anything in about 10 years.
36:24
I said, why don't you learn to do this?
36:26
He said what Daddy taught me how?
36:27
How? Houston's your dad, Tommy
36:29
Houston. The great Tommy Houston, right.
36:31
Tommy is a how's brother? And how was Teresa's daddy?
36:35
OK. But anyhow, she knocked these
36:37
things. I remember, I remember looking
36:39
at Dale. So I know where you why you
36:40
don't ever mess up, boy. She'll shoot your ass, she'll
36:42
kill you. So that's why you.
36:44
That's why you're pretty straight.
36:46
But it was a neat commercial because Ricky was in it.
36:49
My son, you pull up this whole thing, it's probably still on
36:52
YouTube. And Taylor, Dale and Teresa's
36:56
daughter Taylor, they were in it.
36:58
They had Rose in it at the end. It was pretty.
37:00
It's a pretty cool commercial. And we they had just come out.
37:03
What this commercial is about was a 522 rifle, the Remington
37:06
rimfire 522. And this, that's what this
37:09
commercial is about. Well, we would during takes we
37:12
were doing target shooting. We had, we're shooting shells,
37:16
shotgun shells off of target from way away.
37:18
And me and Dale were shooting and I kept knocking mine off and
37:21
he was missing and he got to custody and he said something
37:23
wrong with the sights on this gun.
37:24
Give me that gun. So we swapped guns and I, I hit
37:27
right and he was missing again. He got, he got mad about that
37:31
because he was very, very, very competitive dude.
37:33
But that was, that was, it was a fun 2 day.
37:37
And here's the deep part about it.
37:38
Here's the deep part, Charlie. When it's all said and done,
37:42
Remington said, Rick, you know, how are we going to pay you?
37:45
What do you want? I said, did y'all just come out
37:48
with a, a, a six Wheeler with a, with a dump bed on the back?
37:53
Yeah, we did. And this was no, I'm sorry, I'm
37:58
getting this mixed up. I'm getting I'm sorry.
38:00
That's a different story. That's the Polaris commercial.
38:02
I did. We'll talk about that.
38:05
They asked Dale. Dale what?
38:06
You know, you know, how do we invoice?
38:09
What? What do we what he charged, He
38:11
says, you guys figure out what you would think you would pay me
38:15
to do this. Two days of being up here with
38:17
you people, you figure out how much you'd pay me.
38:19
Take that check and write it. And you write it to the race
38:21
team. You give that to Rick Mass race
38:23
team, right? I thought, damn, that's pretty
38:25
cool, right? But Dale loved Remington.
38:28
He loved outdoors and shooting and all.
38:29
So it it it was a it was a good fit for him.
38:32
You know, it was a good deal. And he ended up doing some stuff
38:34
with Remington later on after that, you know, he become a
38:37
partial spokesman for him and did some things and it that that
38:40
little deal worked out good for him.
38:42
But for that one particularly, he took no money and gave it all
38:45
to your team. He.
38:46
Gave all the money to the team yeah yeah, he said you know, and
38:49
he may have come up with a number, but I remember him I was
38:52
sitting there listening to it. He says whatever y'all think
38:54
that y'all should pay me. And he said and and he did say
38:57
and if if that number is too low, I can tell you what I get
39:00
to do this for two days right. He said when you go take that
39:03
check, you go write that to the team and they did.
39:05
They wrote a check to Butch migration for that, for that two
39:08
day deal, right, Which was but that was Dale.
39:11
You know, that was Dale. I mean that, you know, that's
39:13
that that's a Dale Earnhardt. I knew, you know, anything to
39:16
help Rick and anything to help racing and you know, and him to
39:20
have fun, enjoy what he was doing, you know, with with good,
39:23
honest folks involved. He loved doing stuff like that.
39:27
All right, we have another question.
39:29
This one's coming from YouTube. So this is from Donna Browder,
39:33
kind of a long question. She says there's some typos in
39:37
here, so here we go. I'd love to hear some stories
39:40
about the era when Rick was racing at.
39:42
I believe it's white tailors. Franklin.
39:44
County Whitey, Whitey Tailors. Franklin County, Virginia
39:49
Speedway. Nobody could beat Rick, so
39:51
Whitey put a bounty on Rick payable to anyone who could beat
39:55
him. This fiasco and promotion went
39:57
on for most or all of the summer season.
40:00
This is when I became a Rick Mast fan.
40:02
I followed him to the Bush series and loved watching him
40:04
chase the big money in that series with an underfunded team.
40:08
So at that time the Bush cars were running V sixes with
40:10
compression ratio so high that the sound would cause pain in
40:14
your ear. But they want to know, Donna
40:16
wants to know about this and I do.
40:19
So tell me about this bounty. What year was it?
40:21
How much was the bounty? Was it every Saturday?
40:23
I mean, did you win them all or what?
40:25
1983 we were headed to a race in Hickory, a Bush Grand National
40:28
race in Hickory leaving Lexington, VA go down Interstate
40:31
81. Our truck broke down in
40:33
Troutville, Virginia, which is near Roanoke Power stern line
40:36
broke really, and we stopped at a truck stop.
40:38
When we finally got this thing finished fixed, we weren't going
40:42
to make it to Hickory. It's just too far right.
40:45
One of my crew guys had a run up Times newspaper, right, that the
40:49
great Randy Key used to write for, if everybody remembers him.
40:52
But then how they had to add the paper?
40:53
Franklin County Speedway, 100 lap race, $3500 to win.
40:59
Also in that ad, he was going to run for three months.
41:03
He's going to run 100 lap race once a month and if anybody can
41:06
win all 300 lap races, you win $25,000 bonus.
41:11
So anyhow, we said well we can't make it Hickory, let's go to
41:14
Franklin Cutters. We go down to Franklin County
41:16
and we win the race that night, right?
41:18
We got a 3500 and came home. We went back a month later and
41:22
did the same thing, won that race.
41:24
Well, Whitey Taylor, for the people that listen to this know
41:27
Whitey Taylor, right? He's the definition of PT Barn
41:31
Bailey dude. I mean, Humpy Wheeler couldn't
41:34
be he Humpy Wheeler couldn't wear his shoes.
41:37
All right. That's, that's kind of how far
41:40
out there Whitey was. Anyhow.
41:42
Whitey built this thing up, man. It was the craziest thing.
41:45
I mean, they had all the TV stations had newspapers.
41:48
I mean, he, you know, he, he, he took this thing.
41:51
You had to live in that era and understand Whitey and the type
41:54
of personality, the type person he was.
41:56
I mean, the dude is just crazy. He was just absolutely crazy.
41:59
He's still, I think he's still got the track.
42:01
He's he's got a thing in Rocky Mountain now.
42:03
He's got a big Trump store. It's an old church.
42:06
It's an old church, right? And why he owns it now and it's
42:10
all Trump paraphernia. You've never seen so much Trump
42:12
stuff in your life, right? But anyhow, then he became a
42:16
preacher When when, when he had trouble with the racetrack, he
42:18
built the church there at the racetrack and he become a
42:20
preacher, right? It it, it that's just Whitey.
42:25
But anyhow, all the hoopla, all the stuff.
42:27
And when we finally got to the event that night, I mean, you
42:30
couldn't get into place. The place was packed, sold out.
42:32
There's an aerial view that I've got from somebody sent me of
42:37
that race that night before the race and the the the cars and
42:40
the line of cars trying to get into this racetrack and backed
42:44
up for miles. OK, people hanging up in the
42:47
trees watching. The craziest thing is this fool
42:51
tried to do. He called me the the week of the
42:54
final race. He called me on a on a
42:56
Wednesday. He said, Rick, hey, buddy, you
42:58
got your car ready. I said, we just finished it up,
43:01
right? And he knew where my shop was
43:03
here in Lexington and all that. He said, well, here's what I
43:05
want you to do. He said it's ready to go.
43:07
I said, yeah, it's ready to go. We just finished.
43:09
It's on a Wednesday, which is unheard of for a racer to be
43:12
that close to being ready for the weekend, but we were.
43:15
He said, I want you to load the car up on your tow truck.
43:18
I want you to back your truck into your garage, right?
43:22
And he says, I want you to take the key to the shop, lay it
43:24
under the mat. I says, OK, what we going to do
43:27
then fight. And he says, well, I'm going to
43:29
I'm going to come up there or send up there.
43:31
We're going to come in or get the key.
43:32
We're going to open the door. We're going to take your truck
43:34
and race car and we're going to take it out of there.
43:37
And he says, you're going to come in there in the morning and
43:41
your race car is going to be stolen.
43:43
I said OK, And he says then you're going to report it and
43:50
we're going to blow this thing out.
43:51
I said, OK, Whitey, so you're going to steal the race car.
43:55
We're going to let the press though.
43:58
We're going to let the law know where's the race car going to
44:01
be? Well, I've got a place again in
44:04
Troutville where all this crap started, right?
44:06
I've got a garage there and he says here's where it's at, blah,
44:09
blah, blah. And what you're going to do is
44:11
you're going to come down there Friday evening and you're going
44:13
to find your race car in that car.
44:15
And then, you know, we're this thing, it's going to be so blown
44:18
up by then, you know, and I'm like, why?
44:22
You're an absolute idiot. You're an idiot, right?
44:26
Number one, I don't even know if that's legal, which probably
44:30
isn't #2 what if I get down there in my race car and truck
44:36
ain't there, right? You just stole it or put it
44:38
somewhere else. I said, no, we're not doing
44:41
this. We're we're not doing that was
44:43
probably the most absurd thing. And he had all kinds of stuff
44:46
he's trying to get me to do right during that.
44:48
What else? Well, I can't remember all of
44:50
it, but that was the most absurd thing, You know, I mean, he
44:53
brought me in there in a limousine.
44:54
I had to stop and then get the limousine to drive into the
44:57
racetrack and with police, you know, escorts and all this kind
45:01
of crap. I mean, this dude blew this
45:03
thing out of the water. He in the, in the, in the sad
45:06
part. We actually, we broke a drag
45:09
leak. I mean, a, a, a, a, a, a, a
45:12
Pitman arm. We broke a Pitman arm.
45:14
In those days I would best with posterior and geometry and
45:18
stuff, and if a Pitman arm was cut and shortened or lengthened
45:21
or whatever and I broke a Pitman arm in that race, didn't win the
45:25
race. Well, he decided he was, he made
45:28
so much money he would give me another shot at it right in
45:32
another month. So he tried to build that thing
45:34
up and do it all. So we go back the next month and
45:36
win the race. We get Victor Lane.
45:40
He hands me a check for 25,000 and where's that?
45:43
So where's my money? Where's my money?
45:44
This is Victor Lane. So he writes, he does a check
45:46
right there in Victor Lane and gets to me and he hands to me.
45:49
He says Rick, he says no, don't, don't take this thing to Mike.
45:52
Monday I said why? He said because I ain't got
45:54
money enough to cover. I'm like, oh boy.
45:57
So anyhow, I still got that check.
46:00
But Whitey, Whitey spent the next year, year and a half
46:04
driving to my office in Lexington to my shop and he
46:07
bring his money bags in and not these two.
46:09
He always had two money bags and he'd dump out fives and 10s and
46:13
20s, right? Hot dog buddy and gate money I
46:15
guess. But he ended up in a year and
46:17
1/2. He ended up paying me $12,400.00
46:21
of that original 25. OK.
46:25
I think part of the story is I took that money and went to
46:28
Banjo Matthews and bought a chassis from Banjo OK and
46:33
whatever I could piece together. Took that car and took it to
46:38
Robert G and I, I'd introduce myself to Robert G and anyhow,
46:43
Robert G put the body on that car for me.
46:45
OK. And so that so that the 12 four
46:49
that I got from one of those races enabled me to get my first
46:53
super Speedway car. That's that's the car that I was
46:56
able to take the Daytona and Darlington and Dover and all
46:59
those places. So that that's kind of how that
47:02
that's kind of how that thing worked out.
47:03
But it it was absolutely ridiculous, you know, with
47:07
Whitey, and I think he takes pride in thinking I made Rick
47:11
Mast. I made Rick Mast.
47:13
Well know what, if you did give me the 25, I could have got made
47:15
a lot quicker, OK. But anyhow, it was all fun.
47:18
It was all good. OK, we had somebody else ask
47:22
about, of course, the first Brickyard.
47:25
And I know you've you've told that story many times and we
47:27
will, we will have you tell it again, of course, that one just
47:30
came up. But here's another one from
47:32
Nikki, Bobby Marks on X Rick, have you or would you ever try
47:39
drag racing? Smoke is loving it as far as I
47:42
can tell. And a follow up, have you ever
47:44
been to a drag race? Ever been or ever considered
47:47
drag racing? Yeah, I went to English town one
47:51
time and I don't remember, I guess it was, I think it was
47:56
with a skull deal when they were sponsored snake for Dome.
48:00
And I went to English town and I got in somebody's car.
48:05
It wasn't a, it wasn't a full-fledged drag car or some
48:08
kind of, I don't know what it was, but I made four or five
48:11
passes, OK. And I'm like, man, this is
48:14
pretty fun. You get down to the end, you
48:15
get, you make that pass, you get down to the end.
48:18
You're like, well, damn, that's pretty short, right.
48:22
So then I, I, I, I remember I went out on the starting grid or
48:27
starting line or right out there beside the tree with the, the
48:30
big guy. I forget his name now.
48:32
He's famous. He always thinks his name was
48:35
Buster, right? I was standing there with the
48:40
Top Fuel cars, a couple Top Fuel cars where they took off, man,
48:45
they hit that thing wide open. It's, it was the damnedest
48:48
thing. It was, it was like an
48:49
explosion. I mean, every, every part of
48:51
your being vibrated right when they took off.
48:54
It's like this is not, this is a, this is nothing but a
48:57
controlled explosion, a controlled bomb going off.
49:01
That's, that's how awesome that was.
49:03
And that was like, according to those guys, that was like in a
49:06
4000 horsepower era, right? These guys are what, 10 and
49:10
11,000 horsepower now? My God almighty, I mean it, I
49:15
need to go back to one now to see what the difference is.
49:17
But everybody tells you that's the thrill of NHRA racing is
49:20
when the when those guys lighted up and it's just so it's so
49:24
intense and lightening and death deed and and all that.
49:27
But yeah, I, I, yeah, sure. Certainly I love giving a shot.
49:31
You know, it it would, I don't know if it would have satisfied
49:36
my appetite for racing. You know, circle tracks what I
49:40
what wanted to do and I always did.
49:42
It was funny. We talk about these stories of
49:45
going back with Skull to these banches, OK, with with all the
49:49
drivers and and AJ would always rib Snake.
49:53
You know, they would always, well, they those two kind of
49:55
ribbed each other about stuff. Steak would tell AJ about Mario
49:59
might be one of the best driver ever.
50:01
You know, AJ didn't take lightly to that, right, because AJ is
50:05
the best driver ever. And AJ would tell Snake about
50:08
that. What he does is just squirt
50:10
racing. There's nothing to it.
50:11
Just sit there and hold it wide open for three seconds.
50:13
There's nothing to and he wouldn't take that very, very
50:16
good. But it's funny, those two guys
50:18
always getting on each other about stuff like that.
50:20
So. But yeah, I would have tried it
50:22
some. Very cool.
50:24
Now story time with Rick Mask. Did you already?
50:26
I know you want to talk about the Mark Martin, but we
50:28
addressed that with the Roush, correct?
50:30
No. OK, different story.
50:34
This is good. Yeah, yeah.
50:36
And it comes to light. But I was thinking about it
50:38
because we just ran serious point and I was thinking about,
50:42
I was thinking about what drivers go through today and
50:44
what we all, we've all gone through.
50:46
I'm thinking about the guys at Stuart Hall's Racing.
50:49
I'm thinking about those four drivers and I'm thinking about,
50:52
you know, you, I kind of know without knowing them what some
50:56
of their thoughts and feelings are and what they're going
50:58
through and trying to work through with their career.
51:03
And it it got me thinking about one time at Sears Point and
51:08
this, and I don't know the year, but early, very early 90s, you
51:12
know, early 9192 maybe I'm setting out on pit row waiting
51:17
to qualify. Sitting on the wall.
51:19
It were a wall and and Mark sitting there with me and we're
51:22
talking and rumors have been flying around that Mark's job
51:27
was in jeopardy, OK. And because at that point they
51:31
weren't, they weren't running good.
51:33
And and that's the first thing that happens you if you're not
51:36
running good, your job's in jeopardy.
51:37
That's just the way it goes. It's just natural.
51:39
Sometimes it has validity, sometimes it doesn't.
51:42
OK. And I think it's still true
51:43
today. But with Mark, we're sitting
51:47
there talking, he's and, and Mark and me, Mark and I were
51:50
pretty good buddies. We had, we kind of formed a
51:52
relationship in the Busch Series A little bit.
51:54
And we, we, we get technical with our chassis and stuff,
51:57
talking about stuff. Anyhow, he got to talking to me
52:00
and he said, Rick man, he said, I don't know what's going on.
52:03
I said, what's wrong? Mark?
52:03
He says, well, he says, you've been here in his room.
52:06
And I said, yeah, I've been hearing all that.
52:07
He says. I said, well, I just figured I'd
52:09
just pass it off like, you know, well, whatever he said.
52:12
No, he said, I, I think it's true.
52:14
I said what He said, you know, I think my job's really in
52:17
jeopardy. I says, Nah, he says, yeah,
52:20
Rick. And Mark was truly worried, OK,
52:23
that his job was in jeopardy just because he wasn't running
52:25
good. And he sat there and talked a
52:27
little bit and I finally looked at him.
52:28
I said, Mark, let me tell you something.
52:31
You're one of the best race car drivers I've ever driven
52:33
against. And I'll say this right now to
52:35
me, Mark Martin's top five race car drivers that I ever drove
52:39
against in my 40 years of racing.
52:41
Of all forms of racing, Mark is top five, period.
52:45
No, no doubt, no question in my mind.
52:47
That's just, you know, the way. Anyhow, I said, Mark, you were
52:51
the best race car drivers out here, right?
52:53
Yeah. You're not running good right
52:54
now. Hell, I'm not setting the world
52:56
on fire. I said.
52:57
But I tell you what, bud, he said what?
52:59
I said I think the best thing could happen be for Ross to fire
53:03
you. What?
53:04
What do you mean, fire me? I reckon.
53:06
I mean, I got I just got that plane and you know that.
53:08
I said no, no, no, no, no. You're not understanding, Mark,
53:13
if they let you go, if they fire you, you're immediately, you're
53:16
going to immediately get picked up the very good race team.
53:20
And when that happens, the world's going to see Rouse made
53:24
a mistake here. They shouldn't ever let Mark
53:26
Martin go. I said, 'cause you're going to
53:27
win races, you're going to be very, very successful, he says.
53:31
And you know, Mark's very self depreciating.
53:32
Whatever you call that that word and and and he finally he sat
53:37
there and thought about it a little bit.
53:38
We talked about it. I don't know about that, Rick.
53:40
I don't know. I said, I'm telling you, Mark,
53:42
the worst case scenario, they fire you makes the best case
53:45
scenario for you. You become a prolific winner in
53:48
this sport period. Now I don't want to hear any
53:50
more about it, right. So, you know, ended up they
53:53
didn't fire him. You know, they went on being
53:55
very successful. But you know, you you think
53:59
Charlie honestly somebody now of Mark Martin's statue And at that
54:04
time Mark was stopped very highly in the graduate.
54:06
He came when he came in the early 80s to to what was it
54:10
Richmond set on the pole with his own car, you know, and had
54:13
two or three races. He ran very good.
54:15
Then he left, went back, regrouped, got his act together
54:17
and came back with Bill Davis in the Busch Series and then Jack.
54:21
But you think about somebody of, of Mark Martin's statue and you
54:28
know, maybe he's not good enough and we're going to fire him,
54:30
right? That's, that's unfathomable if
54:32
you think about that. So my point being, these guys
54:36
today, right? They're sitting there
54:38
questioning themselves or questioning their abilities.
54:41
They're questioning what's going to happen next year.
54:43
You know, who's going to pick me up?
54:45
You know, you just, you've just got to stick, you've got to
54:48
stick true to yourself and your beliefs that you're good, you
54:51
know, and you're better than these guys.
54:52
It's what you got to do. And it's, but that's, that's,
54:55
that's our sport. That's part of our sport, dude.
54:58
All right, let's, let's end on this.
55:01
What's pissing off Rick Mast today?
55:04
Or this week, if you have one? Charlie, I'm going to be honest
55:08
with you and I don't know why this is.
55:10
Maybe I'm getting older. I I, I just don't have anything
55:14
making me mad today. Nothing's pissing me off.
55:16
But if something does piss me off, I'm going to go out and
55:19
I'll do a clip. I'll put a clip on X or whatever
55:21
on YouTube and you can follow it up the Rick Mash show.
55:24
But I'm just so frigging. Let's see.
55:29
No, that didn't. I was sitting here thinking I
55:32
got held up in traffic this morning, but that didn't piss me
55:35
off, you know It didn't. No, man, I'm good.
55:38
I am good. I know.
55:39
And that's odd. That's odd.
55:41
I got to think about this, Charlie, man.
55:43
It's a little bit scary because I'm usually pissed off about
55:45
something. But it seems like, and, and you
55:48
know, I know you now through this podcast, but it seems like
55:52
you're pretty happy. It sounds to me, unless you are
55:55
really such a good actor, these Remington commercials, maybe, I
55:59
don't know. But you seem like you have the
56:01
right outlook on life. And I I think we need more of
56:04
that. There's, there's too much
56:05
negativity on TV, on the news and politics.
56:08
I like to surround myself with positive people.
56:11
You seem like you are that type of person.
56:14
Man, I hate negative people. I hate it.
56:16
I don't I, you know, it took me a while to figure this out in my
56:18
life. I guess I go away from negative
56:20
people. You know what I mean?
56:21
I have my friends, my my group of friends and you know, if they
56:25
get to talk or they get all down in the mouth and yap and I'll
56:28
jump on their ass. I said I'm not don't be acting
56:30
like that around me. I'm not going to be I'm not
56:32
going to sit here and list all this crap, right?
56:34
I want happy people, dude. You only hear a blink of an eye,
56:37
dude, be happy, work hard and treat people right.
56:40
Richie Evans, what he told me right?
56:42
And, and, and it it it it's, you know, I think the older you get
56:45
you you get well, you know, some people get older and they get
56:47
grumpier, you know, just old cock and grumpier man.
56:50
I notice, I notice the older I get, the happier I get, but the
56:53
more I want to be around happy people, you know, I think that's
56:56
why Kitty and I get along so well.
56:59
Maybe we knew 4030 years ago when we met that that that when
57:02
we got old, we both going to be happy people and be buddies.
57:05
I don't know, but yeah, I, I, you know, if you man.
57:10
And the problem is with the world and the political arena,
57:13
we got Charlie and all the stuff that's going on.
57:16
Golly boom, you it's just you can let yourself get drawn down.
57:19
You're living paycheck to paycheck, right?
57:22
Your kid just got AF in school or they got a drunk driving
57:24
charge or or whatever. And it's so easy to get in that
57:28
mood And and I get it, I get it. But I just, you know, but let me
57:32
tell you something, man, I've been through just much stuff as
57:34
anybody will. Not as much bad stuff as people,
57:36
but but enough to where you realize that you know what,
57:41
dude? You only hear a blink of an eye.
57:43
Try to be happy. Just be happy.
57:45
Just be happy, you know? I love it.
57:48
That's what I like. I love it.
57:50
Yes Sir, me too. Let's let's end on that note and
57:52
for the folks keep getting your questions in before each show.
57:56
I'll put it out on X. But also if you want to post
57:58
your comments on YouTube here, I will grab the good ones for Rick
58:02
next week. Rick, this was awesome man
58:04
Appreciate it. Honestly great, great stories.
58:07
I love hearing these old school stories.
58:08
I know that people do as well, so thank you Sir.
58:11
Oh, we got, we got books of them, dude.
58:12
We got a whole book of stories. So we won't run out.
58:15
Thank you. Love it.
58:16
All right, see you later.