Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Hocevar Superstar? | Mast Cast Ep. 12

Transcript

Hocevar Superstar? | Mast Cast Ep. 12 · Kenny Wallace Media

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Happy Monday every one MASS cast is back with you.
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He's former cup series driver Rick Mast.
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I'm his non driving son Ricky Mast.
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Dad, we'll just get right into it.
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It was a big day yesterday at Talladega.
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Carson Hosevar breaks through for his first win.
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What do you think? Well, if you read all the social
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media, man, that's that's the only thing going on right now is
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Carson Hosovar, right? Good Lord of Mercy, he is just
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killing it. And it's really it started out
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Friday afternoon when our boy Cletus was leading the ARC race
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and it had a real chance to win the race.
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Then it went on into Saturday, the O'Reilly race where we had
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the first time winner Corey Dave that his name?
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Yeah, he won that real. And and I might say, huh?
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I think the ARCA race was also on Saturday.
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Oh it. Was Saturday, That's right, it
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was prelude to the O'Reilly race and in in in that O'Reilly race,
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really one of the better races I've seen in a long time.
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It was one of the better O'Reilly races that I mean, that
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thing almost ranks up in the top 30 races of all time to me that
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I've seen right. And then we go, then we then we
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do the, the big race on Sunday and host of our wins.
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And it's one of those deals that everybody has been waiting for
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this every, all the commentaries, everybody in the
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garage, everybody knows or you, you kept listening.
1:18
This guy's going to win, you know, and probably going to win
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a lot when it gets going. And you know, he did.
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And when that happened that he did, you know, just just him and
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his self and his his personality and the way fans have taken to
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him and he's, I guess, offbeat personality.
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You might as not offbeat. What's the word?
1:39
I'm looking for Inhale a little different.
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You can say offbeat. I interpret offbeat to me.
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I've always liked that as a compliment because it means
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you're you stand out and you're different.
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That's how I interpret. So I think it's a good
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description. Yeah, it is that.
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And you know, so that that brought excitement to everybody.
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And then the fool hung out the car driving down, down the
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straightaway, hanging out with the oh man, the most exciting
2:04
Victory Lane celebration or post race celebration we've had since
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Kawiki started, that this is the first big one since Kawiki did
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it right. When Kawiki did that deal, I
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remember that 'cause I was racing with him then and he did
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the, he called, he called it the police victory lap.
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And that was a big ass deal in those days, right?
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I mean, who, what's, what in the world is this guy doing?
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But it, but it fit Kawiki to AT it fit his personality for him
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to go backwards with a victory lap, right?
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And then the things been expanded on over the years with
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the burnouts and all the stuff they do now we've got a new
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standard. They've got a new standard that
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somebody's got to come up with to outdo.
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And I don't know that they outdo it.
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And you know, a couple of neat parts about that, about that him
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driving, hanging out there. He was, they were throwing cans
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at him, right? And he tried to catch, if you
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noticed he, he was trying to, there's a one can thrown at him
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and he was doing his best to catch it.
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If you look, he, I mean, he was zeroed in.
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He was looking up and had his arm up and he was zeroed in on
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that can to catch it right. If he'd have caught it, man.
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And then you just succeed. It's just been ridiculous.
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But he didn't catch it right. And then he goes up there and
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finally stops and hits the wall and all the stuff happens and
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you know, he's he's taking the boys taking, excuse me, he's
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taking a lot of criticism right from all the other drivers,
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which so a lot of guys through the history of our sport do that
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when they first come in. But the thing that you noticed
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was the amount of congratulations he was getting
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by his fellow competitors on the cool down lap when he slowed
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down and guys were coming by and giving the thumbs up and bumping
3:38
into him and all that. Well, that told me, all right,
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it's kind of like Ty Gibbs last week or a couple weeks ago, you
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know, he got a lot of congratulatory remarks thrown
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him from that garage area. So then when Hosevar did that,
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then I'm like, OK, the whole garage isn't mad at Hosevar,
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right, 'cause he basically said in an interview while back, so
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man, I'm, I'm not changing. You know, I'm not really at this
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point, I'm not really friends with anybody in the garage, you
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know, and a lot of those guys are that way.
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And you know, for that being said, a lot of guys respect him.
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A lot of the guys said, you know, we knew this is going to
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happen. You know, we was just, he'd been
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too fast not to win. So in my only, my only thing
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about Kosovar is, is, is it's kind of like I talked about
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Cletus McFarland a couple weeks ago in mass cast.
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I don't, you know, I don't want Cletus to get the scurries
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because of everything it takes to to be to be good in our
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sport, right? I don't want to get the
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scurries. I want him in our sport for
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obvious reasons. And kind of like host of our,
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you know, he's with Spire, he's not with a Hendrick, he's not
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with Pisky, he's not with Gibbs. So are we really, is he able to
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showcase his true talents with Spire?
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Well, the thing about Spire, that thing has been on this
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long, long, slow trajectory going like this, you know, bring
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that team up to a level of of being a top team and he's got
5:01
1000 year contract to understand he's got 100 year contract or
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whatever The thing is, got a little real long contract.
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Evidently it's what if, if reports are true.
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So, you know, my only the only thing would be would be if he's
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with a team that can't can't really showcase his talents
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that's going forward. I mean, you know, he's what, 23
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years old? He's got, you know, got a long
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ways to go and big career ahead of him, long career ahead of
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him, but we don't want to see the next two or three years him
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being not showing what he can do just because his team's not up
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to stuff. That's the only thing that I
5:34
would I would criticize about if there's a criticism and and you
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know, those guys have run good a lot this year, you know, so
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they're doing the right things. They got they got the middle of
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the Cape art mess. You know, they got that they're
5:45
dealing with and all that stuff. And you know, my hope is that
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they can get that team up for it needs to be so we can really,
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you know, you root for this guy every week.
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He's out front running every week.
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So that would be great for the sport.
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Well, he's been, he's been in the the thick of it and been in
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contention multiple times since he's come up full time with
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them. I mean, he's showing speed a lot
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of places. He's had opportunities here and
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there enough so that it was kind of like when Kyle Larson came up
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with Ganassi at the time or whatever Ganassi's team was
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called at the time as they went through a number of name changes
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there. But when he's in the 42 car, the
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speed was there and you knew it was coming.
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It wasn't a matter of if, it was just when, when's he going to
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breakthrough. And so and I've, I think we felt
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that way about Hosovar for a while.
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And you're right, he does have a long term deal with them.
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And they were smart to lock him up because I think they saw
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we've got somebody here that we can build around.
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As you said, we've been building this thing for years and years
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now. Now here's a young, exciting
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talent we can build around. And I like the, I like their mix
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of guys that got in there. They've got a good veteran who's
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well respected in McDowell. You bring in Suarez, who again
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seems to be well liked. He's won before and then you've
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got Carson. So I I feel like they're, I feel
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like as you said, they're very much on the on the upward
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trajectory and this just not brought them up another rung to
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get that win. They got that win years ago with
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with Justin Haley, right, The rain, the rain shortened race at
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Daytona. So it that's a counts as a win.
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It was not a fluke, but that was just the timing worked out right
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where they got that win. OK, but this is the first one
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where it was really like to me, it's just me saying this where
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it's like, OK, we've really arrived now.
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We've broken through. We've got ourselves a a win.
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And you know, we just got to keep building on it from here.
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There's so many things about Josefa.
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One thing I don't want to see, and I don't think we're going to
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see this. You alluded to it.
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He said he's not changing who he is.
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I don't want to. I don't want him.
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I don't want him to get neutered.
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I don't want anybody to change who he is.
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I want him to keep on being the exact same person he is because
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if you if you lose that, if he becomes another robot, not that
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anybody else is a robot, but if he becomes a robot, then you
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lose what makes those fans yesterday at Talladega, you
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lose. What caused that big roar after
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the race from the stands? And I'll be honest, I don't know
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if you heard this. I heard it on the broadcast.
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I mean that roar from the crowd. And I said, Darren, the
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conspiracy theorist in me almost went, did they just juice the
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mic a little bit on the broadcast to make this see?
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But then I saw some of the reporters, I think Jeff Gluck
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and some others talking about that roar that they heard from
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down a pit Rd. or the pressure wherever they were.
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So I was like, OK, so that wasn't that was real.
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That wasn't, you know, what was the football team years ago that
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was piping in crowd noise. You know, that's happened a
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couple of times. I was like, is this is they they
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piping in crowd noise in the broadcast.
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But obviously they weren't. And I didn't think they were
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just joking around a little bit about that.
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But I thought, oh, that's cool. And then he did that
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celebration, which I'm going to be honest with you, I was a
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mixture of like, man, this is awesome that he's doing this and
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I'll, I'll be honest, hand up. Maybe I'm a wuss.
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I was sitting there going, I was kind of worried and anxious for
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him. I'm like, please don't fall out
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of this car. Please don't fall out of this
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car. And then when he.
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I was like, oh, he's going to try to go up against the wall
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and and burn it down. I was like, oh please slow down
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a little bit before you hit that wall.
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We hang. Out in the car.
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And then he hit it and he jerk forward and I was like, oh,
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please, please, please don't hurt yourself.
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And he did. And he had it all figured out.
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And it was kind of cool because it took him as he said, he
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didn't care if it took him all day to get it, you know, set up
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for him to do it. It was kind of fun to sit there
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and watch him because he was taking him a little while to get
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set up. It was kind of fun to see like
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I, what is he up to? Like he's up to something.
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What is he going to do? So it honestly kind of worked
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out even better that it took him a while because it was kind of
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like, we're all sitting there going home.
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They set it in the booth. We're sitting there at home
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going what has this dude got up his sleeve?
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And so that was awesome. The emotion after right after he
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took the checkered flag talking about his grandpa.
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I thought that was awesome. He's crying and also making sure
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to give a shout out to Chili's. That was that was so good.
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That was great. They I mean Chili's just got to
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be on the moon to have him as their as their guy.
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That was great. I'll tell you this that whether
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whether you like him or not, if you're fan out there, you like
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him, you don't like him. I think we could all agree he,
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what you see is, is exactly who he is.
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And I'll, I'll tell you this, I got, I had the, the chance to
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interview him about just about a year ago.
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I was up at Spire last year for their fan appreciation day,
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which I believe was, was last May Got to interview all the
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Spire drivers. And not that I spent a ton of
10:27
time with him, but it was just me and him in a room and we chit
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chatted before we did the interview and then we chit
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chatted afterward. And the whole time he was in
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there when the mic was on, when it was off, he didn't change.
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He was exactly the same person. And he's exactly who you see on
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TV. He's exactly who you see on
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social media. He's exactly who you see when
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he's live streaming on iRacing or whatever.
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He's exactly that same guy the whole time.
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And I came away from that going, I like this dude.
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Like he's he's, he's real. He's like, there's nothing fake
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about him. I like this dude.
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And you know, I think we one thing we we need to caution
11:03
against. I'm not saying a lot of people
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do this, but I bet some do. They're always looking for the
11:08
next Earnhardt, right? We're trying to crown somebody
11:10
the next Earnhardt. And I just don't think, I think
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that's a, that's a, that's a lose, that's a losing
11:16
proposition because there's never going to be another
11:18
Earnhardt. There's never going to be
11:20
another Kel Yarborough. There's never going to be
11:22
another Richard Petty. There's not going to be another
11:23
David Pearson. Each of these people, they're
11:25
their own own person. Oh, man.
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I think because we lost Dale early and tragically and he was
11:31
such a just a cultural phenomenon and really, I mean,
11:36
went beyond the sport, right? He's part of Americana, the
11:39
American icon. We want that.
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We want to match that because he was there during the the glory
11:45
years of NASCAR in the 90s. It's like we're never going to
11:47
get that again. Even his son, his son was a
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cultural icon, Taylor Earnhardt Junior.
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But he's his own man. He's his own person too.
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So but what we can have is new superstars that connect with
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fans. The reason people connect with
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the Earnhorse is because they saw when they saw themselves in
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them or they knew they were real.
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You know, this is a real person that I connect with and I don't
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feel like I'm getting a fake version of something.
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And I think that's what they see in Carson.
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He's he's for a different generation, a different era.
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He does the day Earnhardt would have never been on Twitch live
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streaming his eye racing and all that kind of stuff, you know,
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But people love, love this kid because he's authentic.
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And I thought that beyond the celebration and everything, I
12:27
thought that roar from the crowd yesterday during the celebration
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was that was a really, really big thing and a key thing and a
12:35
crucial thing because that's when you know, this is I'll go
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back to when your days in NASCAR, the pot from the crowd
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when certain drivers were announced and driver
12:44
introductions, there's certain things happened or certain guys
12:46
won. That was how you knew to me,
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that's how you best knew when you're really on to something or
12:51
you got something is that crowd reaction at the track.
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And I thought the crowd reaction for Carson was was putting
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pretty incredible. So I love him, hate him.
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I thought great day for the sport yesterday.
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I really did. Yeah, well, he, you know, we
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talked many times on Lastcast about what we need the, the
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sport needed heroes and the but heroes, I mean, you know,
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you're, you're an ordinary person doing extraordinary
13:14
things, right? That's the way Ken Squire pinned
13:16
it a few years or years ago. But you, you can't, it has to
13:21
be, it has to be pure and honest and real.
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It can't be manufactured. You know, I've talked to NASCAR
13:27
folks about this issue that I think is real prevalent is, you
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know, our heroes. We got it.
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We got it. These these guys have got to be
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heroes to our fans and to be a hero like it, man, again, you're
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doing extraordinary things as a as an ordinary person, number
13:40
one. But the fan relates to you, you
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know, you know, when that guy's talking that he's not
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bullshitting you, right? He's telling you exactly where
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he's at and exactly what he's feeling.
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That's what you always got from Dale Earnhardt.
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You know, you got it a lot from Jeff Gordon, those guys.
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You always got it from Richard Petty, you know, no matter what
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it is or what was going on, you knew what they were saying.
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They were being truthful, they were being honest.
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They weren't putting on, they weren't being corporated right
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or any of that. And that's what we've seen with
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Kosovar so far up to this point is, you know, if he thinks it or
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whatever's going on, he he says it and he says he talks about
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it. And he's got a quirky way about
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him about things and the way he comes across and people, people
14:24
pick up on that man. If you know, and he's got all
14:28
the ingredients to be somebody that can really be a superstar
14:32
in this sport and, and generate and keep interest.
14:35
People, people love that about their, they want their hero,
14:39
man. They want him.
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They want to be able to relate to their hero.
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They want to know what their hero is and, and relate to him
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and understand what he's doing and saying and, and, and you
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don't have to worry about fake ass stuff here and wrong stuff
14:51
here or saying the wrong thing or right thing.
14:54
These fans pick up on that. And I, you know, as we've talked
14:59
about on Mass Cash, you know, we all, we've been fans of this guy
15:03
for a while, just waiting on this to happen, you know, and
15:07
it's going to be, it's going to be fun watching it go for.
15:10
And then, right, he gets out of the car and in the interview and
15:14
he's think, he's thinking, you know, Dale Junior, right, be
15:17
like Dale Junior. He's got a friggin Earnhardt
15:19
shirt on, right? His, his heroes, Dale Earnhardt
15:22
and everybody knows that, right? And then he's sitting there in
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the, in, in the interview, the Cletus Farley calls him up
15:28
during the middle of the interview, right?
15:31
So you've got all these things going on with this dude right
15:34
now that it's just, you know, just take it through the roof,
15:38
but don't lose your hunger. You know, if I could, if I would
15:41
talk, if I was to talk to him right now.
15:43
You talked about neutering a while ago.
15:45
And guys get acting funny and they have to get settled down.
15:49
And the case in point coming to be is Ross Chastain.
15:53
Everybody talks about him being neutered.
15:55
I don't particularly go along with that.
15:57
Ricky. I think what's going on with him
15:59
right now is your cars are not running worth of crap.
16:02
You, you know what I'm saying, He's got, he's got 15th, 20
16:05
place place handling race car. And when you're doing that,
16:09
you're not going to sit there at 20th or 15th place and and cause
16:13
a bunch of trouble. You're not going to Rep two or
16:14
three guys racing for 17th position.
16:17
You know, if his car was running good properly in handling like
16:20
it was a couple, three years ago, we would see then who's up
16:24
front running for wins each week.
16:26
We would see then if he's been neutered or not.
16:28
But you can't judge that right now for him, you know, so my
16:31
advice to host of RB don't change a fragging thing.
16:34
That's that was the thing was so good about Earnhardt and his
16:37
tenacity. You know, he drove like he drove
16:40
for for putting food on his plate when he was young, right
16:45
and what so many guys do that lot of drivers come through like
16:48
that. I mean, they really had and
16:49
those days you had to survive and you had to your money you
16:52
made put the food on your table and you learn to race hard and
16:55
to naturally for that. And he the thing about that
16:59
separated Earnhardt was so many people.
17:01
He never lost that he never changed.
17:03
He never changed the way his driving style, the way he drove
17:07
it. You know, the last race he ever
17:08
ran that man, I mean, he was running like he was going to put
17:11
food on the table. That's the way he did.
17:13
And you know, if Josephar can do that, if he keeps his same
17:16
personality and could keep that competitive man juice or
17:23
whatever he's got going for and makes him, you know what we
17:26
talked about here couple mask has to go.
17:27
Ricky find ourselves looking. I found myself looking for the
17:30
77 car every week, right? That's it.
17:34
And I'm like, Dang, you know, so he's made an impression on me,
17:36
which me and well, he's he's made an impression on thousands
17:40
of fans. So I don't know, cool story,
17:43
cool story here. The 10th ratio.
17:44
Whatever the season, cool story. Yeah, well, and you mentioned
17:50
Cletus, Did you see the clip of during the ARCA race, Josevar
17:54
was standing on the pit wall and he was sitting there as they
17:57
came as Cletus came by. Of course, he ended up, Cletus
17:59
ended up finishing second, but Josevar was fired up and was
18:02
sitting there just just going with him.
18:05
Joseph, that's another thing that's different about Josevar.
18:07
He he still genuinely seems to be a fan of NASCAR.
18:11
He grew up he's in this sport because he was a die hard Dale
18:14
Earnhardt junior fan and just they loves the sport so much.
18:18
And he still goes and he'll watch other races up in the
18:20
stands. He's there on pit wall.
18:23
I mean, just rooting like you, right, like I would be not you,
18:26
you're a former driver, but me or any other fan would be with
18:29
our with our can of beer in the in the stands and your guys
18:32
coming down to the checkered. Like I mean, you said you saw
18:35
the videos of Ben Carson. I thought it was cool there all
18:37
these videos from the stands of Carson's win yesterday and you
18:40
see fans sitting there doing the the same thing that Carson was
18:44
doing for Cletus the day before. I don't know if you saw there's
18:46
a great videos a little girl in the stands wearing a little 77
18:50
hat and she was so excited. She was in tears after Carson
18:54
took the checkered flag. I thought, Darren, that's cool.
18:56
And I probably get hit with stuff like that too because I'm
18:58
a girl dad now. So I thought that that was just,
19:01
it's like, man, that must be so cool for that dad and that
19:03
little girl. They shared that moment to like
19:04
be there for that. Like how freaking cool is that?
19:07
That's the kind of stuff you can't replicate it.
19:09
There's just nothing better than that.
19:11
I thought I I did want to also agree with you on one big thing.
19:14
I thought Hosivar's fellow competitors giving him, you
19:18
know, giving him a little hit and hitting him in the door on
19:22
the cool down lap and then congratulating him on Pit Rd.
19:24
I even saw Chase, our buddy Chase Elliott stopped or paused
19:28
an interview mid interview to go over and and congratulate
19:32
Carson. So I thought that was cool
19:34
because if you sit there and you start going with certain
19:37
narratives long enough, you start to think, well, not only
19:40
does host war, not have any friends, everybody just
19:42
absolutely hates his guts. And then and look, he's he's
19:45
definitely he's rubbed some folks the wrong way.
19:47
He's got some people mad at him. That happens.
19:49
As you said, that's that's happened forever in the sport.
19:51
It'll continue to happen. But at the very least, he
19:54
definitely has a lot of his competitors respect and, and I
19:57
thought so. I thought that was really,
19:58
really, really cool, to be be honest.
20:02
Let's go back to celebration real quick.
20:04
What what did what were you thinking when he was when he was
20:06
doing that celebration? What were you thinking when he
20:08
was setting up and we didn't know what it was going to be?
20:10
I don't know. What the hell he was doing?
20:12
I'll be honest with you, I was watching.
20:14
He's trying to get out. He acted for the longest time
20:17
like he was trying to get out of the car, but his feet were hung
20:19
up and I'm thinking why is he going to get out of the car up
20:22
here in the fourth turn, right? What?
20:24
Honestly, I did not have a clue what he was doing because he
20:28
kept messing with his feet trying to get out of the car and
20:31
I did not know. I just I'm like, this guy's up
20:33
to something, but I don't know what, what in the world it is
20:36
and finally got the car moving a little bit.
20:38
I saw he's going to try to drive the frigging thing hanging out
20:40
the window like Earnhardt did it rich from that time cleaning his
20:44
windshield, right. And then I'm like you and so
20:46
many other people I've read about today all worried about
20:49
how hell is going to fall off the car.
20:50
He's going to run in the wall, he's going to get killed, he's
20:52
going to get maimed, he's going to get hurt, right?
20:55
And then he was going to pull it off, man, and just ran it into
20:59
the wall. And you know, that's a pretty
21:01
good lick he took when he hit the wall.
21:02
He's hurt, went flying. But I'm anxious to see, you
21:07
know, if I was sitting on the NASCAR board and and the TV
21:10
commentators and everybody said, well, this is cool, but I'll
21:14
guarantee you there'll be a rule put down the next race.
21:17
We'll never see it again. If I was sitting in a NASCAR
21:20
board room, I would do like OD did yesterday and OD.
21:24
I'm sorry, Steve O'Donnell, are you president?
21:28
He said, you know, I'm fine. He said I'm fine with it when he
21:30
asked him, you know, of course, you know, that was right there
21:33
right after the emotional victory and all that when he
21:35
said that. But I, I, if it was me, I'd say
21:39
don't make a rule. I would just tell the drivers,
21:43
all right, guys, when y'all do victory celebrations, be
21:46
mindful, don't hurt yourself and more importantly, don't hurt
21:49
anybody else, right? Try to take care of yourself.
21:53
But I, I swear I wouldn't, I wouldn't put a thing on that.
21:56
And just because so many people are expecting NASCAR to come out
22:00
with that rule, I think would be cool for them to say, Nah, we
22:03
ain't gonna put a rule out on this.
22:05
We're going to leave it alone. If I was NASCAR, that's what I
22:08
would do. I wouldn't, I wouldn't make a
22:10
rule just to just to upset the apple cart with the way
22:13
everybody perceives our sport and our hierarchy right now and
22:16
the way they are right. And so I would, I would, I would
22:19
definitely leave that alone. That's interesting.
22:22
I'm glad you said that. I was going to ask you about it.
22:24
I like everybody else. I wondered, I wondered, will
22:27
this be a one and done? Will we never see this again?
22:29
I even said to my my wife Laura, I was like, right now NASCAR is
22:34
sitting here doing two things. They're both loving every second
22:38
of this and also figuring out how they're going to ban this.
22:43
This is one of those deals. This is one of those deals where
22:45
they are both simultaneously so happy that this is happening and
22:48
they're also scared to death that this is happening right
22:50
now. I could be wrong but that was my
22:53
feel like. I'm like they love this and they
22:54
also hate this. Yeah, I mean, the three biggest,
22:57
the three biggest videos from NASCAR is the 79 fight at
23:01
Daytona or 78 the fight the Ross Chastain last lap come Kamazi
23:08
thing. There's your Word of the Week,
23:14
Kamazi thing. There it is.
23:18
There's there's our clip of the week, the.
23:19
Martinsville deal man the last lap Martinsville deal and the
23:24
host the hail melon. Hail melon yeah the hail melon
23:27
and the the host of our deal. Those are your top three video
23:31
clips right now and, and, and what's the what's the latest?
23:35
What's the greatest latest two? We got Ross Chastain and host of
23:39
our right. We know how we know Chastain has
23:41
got it. We know he's got one of those
23:43
deals where, you know, he could be a superstar in our sport if
23:46
he gets a neutered or they get the cars running better.
23:49
So those are the three right now we've got man, and just so cool
23:54
to see all that. Yeah, I've I always think the
23:56
same thing. This is not just NASCAR.
23:58
Any sport, when there's a big fight or a brawl on the field in
24:03
the garage area, whatever sport it is, the league, whoever,
24:07
whatever sport we're talking about, they always know.
24:09
I we got a handout, suspensions and fines.
24:12
And also they're thinking to themselves, yes, this is awesome
24:16
because this is going to be everywhere.
24:18
This is going to back in the day.
24:19
It's like, all right, this is going to be on Sports Center all
24:21
over the place tonight and tomorrow nowadays, like all this
24:24
is going to be all over every social media and it's going to
24:27
dominate this, the news cycle for the next 1224 hours.
24:31
And and that was to me, that was that whole celebration with
24:34
Carson yesterday. I was like, man, they are loving
24:35
every bit of this and just like they love what they love a good
24:39
fight. They were never going to come
24:40
out and say that they love a good fight, but they love a good
24:42
fight because people still, I mean, even every now and then,
24:46
how often do we see like Boyers in the booth now, which we both
24:49
love Clint Boyer. Like you see that clip of him
24:52
and Gordon and the big dust up they had years ago.
24:54
That still comes up every now and then.
24:56
I mean, there's, there's just so many so.
25:01
And Rex do too. Ricky crashes, crashes do too.
25:04
You know, I mean, they they they talk about the drive.
25:08
I got to say this, man, I got to say this.
25:11
Logano and Blaney I both yesterday really fussing about,
25:16
you know, they got taken out the wreck and they were fussing
25:17
about this kind of racing in the car and all that.
25:20
And I'm sitting there thinking, you know, I heard this 10 to 15
25:24
years ago with Tony and a couple guys.
25:26
I heard it 25 years ago. I heard it 30 years ago.
25:30
You go to Talladega, you get caught up in the big one, you're
25:33
bad as hell. They stick a they stick a mic in
25:35
your face. And you say, we got to do
25:37
something about this. We can't keep doing this.
25:39
We can't keep doing this. Well, guess what?
25:41
We've been doing it for decades, and we're going to continue to
25:44
do it for decades. It ain't changing.
25:46
Nothing you can do about it. Right.
25:47
But fans love to see that stuff. They don't see people get hurt.
25:50
They love to see crashes. Yeah, there's no doubt about
25:52
about that. They love see fights.
25:54
We don't want to do that. But the people love that, you
25:56
know, it's just the way it is, man.
25:59
And so anyhow, I got a chuckle when I was listening to Logano
26:02
and and Blaney say that. I said, guys, you're just
26:05
repeating something I've been listening to, I've been
26:06
listening to for 30 years. You're not really going to get
26:08
anywhere with that. The best thing you can do?
26:10
Just get ready to go to the next race.
26:12
Well, let me ask you because I'll tell you this As a fan now,
26:16
I very much enjoyed Daytona and Talladega when you were racing.
26:20
Those are the places doubt Talladega in particular.
26:22
I know Mom and I have talked about this.
26:24
That was the one place we were always just both so glad once it
26:27
was over because that was the one I never got nervous with you
26:31
out there anywhere else. Daytona a little bit, but not
26:34
for what I don't know why not as much with Daytona.
26:38
Talladega, for whatever reason, that was just the place for mom
26:40
and I just we, we just didn't like it because it was just
26:43
scary. We're being on that side of it.
26:45
For us, that was the one time a year, I guess twice a year,
26:47
because you went there twice a year where we kind of had to.
26:50
We were just nervous and that was just the way it was.
26:53
Never, never worried about anywhere else but there.
26:55
We were nervous. So you as a driver, I don't
26:57
think you ever nervous. But what I was going to ask you
27:00
is you ever get caught up in one of those and yourself have that
27:04
same thought of that that Blaney and Logano did?
27:06
Like man, we got to do something about this.
27:08
This. We got to do something different
27:09
than this. You know, I really did, and I
27:11
don't know why it was crazy because you're right there in
27:14
the middle of it. I mean, that time we flipped at
27:17
Talladega, you know, hit the wall and did all that crap.
27:20
You know, I remember that may have been the same race deal
27:24
Bonnet got in the in the catch fence as a different race.
27:27
Something else went on that day, somebody else who had some other
27:30
kind of crash. The deal I did, I forget what it
27:33
was and I remember coming in and sitting in the garage there
27:35
after and Richard Jackson, my team owner, car owner, he was
27:38
mad in a wet head and he says we got to do slave DAS cars got to
27:42
do something about this. This is effing ridiculous.
27:45
We can't keep doing this. All y'all drivers out here
27:48
getting hurt all the time and upside down and the car owners
27:51
have, we have to pay for these cars and they just can't do
27:55
this. I got to do something different.
27:56
I remember Richard was mad. You never saw Richard get mad
27:58
very often, but he was mad that day.
28:01
And but it, I don't know, to me it was just like, well, this
28:05
part of the day, this part of the gig, you know, this is what
28:08
we're doing and it's making best of it, you know, and get on out
28:12
of there, try to get home without have to go to the
28:15
hospital first before you get home, right?
28:17
That was your big thing, you know, and you just relied on
28:19
things to happen for you and you went on about your went on about
28:23
your business. But it is, you know, you I guess
28:27
what it is, I just knew when you went to Talladega, you know,
28:30
there's a better than 50% chance that you're going to come in on
28:34
the hook or ride in on an ambulance.
28:35
I just, and I just accepted the fact that's probably what was
28:38
going to happen, you know, and luckily, knock on wood, I never
28:41
really got into many of these big time deals like that.
28:43
So we're pretty fortunate through the years for that.
28:46
If I'd have gotten anyone every race, Ricky probably probably
28:50
have a different thought process.
28:51
But we didn't, so it was OK. Yeah, and I don't know, back in
28:56
your day, I feel like we were always waiting on the big one,
28:59
which we still are, but I feel like nowadays there's there's
29:02
multiple big ones often it seems like it's definitely more
29:05
prevalent now. So I I could see that being a
29:08
thing. You you touched on something I
29:10
want to I want to bring back up. You talk about how the fans
29:13
like, you know, enjoy the crashes, don't want to see
29:15
anybody get hurt. They but they enjoy the crashes.
29:17
When I tell you I I if I had a dollar for every time throughout
29:21
my life, especially while you were driving, somebody would
29:25
find out that my dad was a NASCAR driver and they would say
29:29
I like it when they crash right to me.
29:32
Like the number of times I've heard that.
29:34
And I and I've never been upset by it or offended by it because
29:37
you know what? I sat there when I was a kid.
29:39
I had all those and they walked away VHS tapes.
29:42
I had that whole seniors on tape.
29:44
Heck, you were actually on the cover of one of them.
29:46
Of course. Yeah, of course you didn't write
29:48
very often, but what are your ex lands you on the cover of?
29:50
And they walked away. So I'm just as guilty of it as
29:53
anybody. Don't want to see anybody get
29:54
hurt. But that's part of what makes
29:55
it, you know, a spectacle is the is the crashes or whatever.
30:00
But it always just cracked me up that yeah, my dad's a NASCAR
30:04
driver. I like it when they crash.
30:07
Yeah, I guess I do, too. I don't really want to see my
30:12
one of my parents in a crash. I don't like watching that.
30:14
But I get why you like watching it.
30:16
So again, I never took offense to it.
30:19
I just always thought it was funny that, you know, people
30:22
just that's just, but they but but they do.
30:25
That's part of that's part of the allure of it's dangerous.
30:27
And you tried not to do those big ones too, because, you know,
30:31
most of the time, most of the time when we used to have the
30:33
big ones, but in the day, you know, somebody was hurt,
30:37
somebody break a leg or ankle or, you know, head injury,
30:40
something, somebody would get hurt.
30:42
But it seemed like every time we had the big ones.
30:45
So consequently, you didn't want to be involved in the big one.
30:48
You didn't want to call us a big one, right?
30:50
And because you always seen your buddy going out there in an
30:53
ambulance and you just didn't want to be a part of that.
30:56
And that kept most of the drivers in check for the longest
31:00
time in, in my opinion, when I knew it did, I had conversations
31:03
with guys. You're right.
31:05
And just every now and then something would get out of hand
31:07
and that would happen. But nowadays, man, they do all
31:09
the big ones each race, you two or three big ones in every race.
31:12
And the guys never get hurt just because these things are so much
31:14
safer, you know, and the guys just don't get hurt.
31:17
So, you know, the, the, the, what is that area, that fine
31:23
line between, you know, patience and making a move, right?
31:28
That fine line is a lot different right now than it used
31:31
to be, right? You know, in those days,
31:33
patience, you had to, you had to have more patience in those
31:36
days. And today's deal is guys don't
31:39
have a lot of patience. They get that fine line.
31:41
We're going for it, right? Because really most of the time
31:44
the repercussions have been in the big one.
31:46
You're going to be OK, you know, and a lot of these guys have
31:49
never witnessed their fellow competitor being hauled out of
31:53
there in an ambulance or helicopter being hurt and maimed
31:56
and all that. A lot of these guys have not,
31:58
you know, haven't had to go through that.
31:59
And hopefully they won't have to because it it does, it does
32:02
affect you when you see all your buddies getting hurt.
32:05
And, you know, if you're out there racing and wrecking every
32:08
week and nobody ever gets hurt, we don't think about it.
32:10
You know, you don't think, well, I'll make this move if I make it
32:13
fine. If I don't, you know, we'll
32:15
we'll be OK for the next week and kind of changes.
32:18
It's a little different mindset right now, but good for NASCAR
32:23
and the safety, man, Good for NASCAR and the safety.
32:26
No, it's, it's, it's, it's really good.
32:28
Like obviously it's great that the safety is where it's at,
32:31
that we haven't lost anybody since Dale and that guys can
32:34
feel that confident in their safety each week.
32:37
I will say it makes me think, this whole discussion makes me
32:40
think of something that one of your old car owners, AJ Foyt
32:42
said. This is in a home video talking
32:46
about home videos. This is in a home video about
32:48
his career that was put out, I'm going to say 35 years ago, maybe
32:51
even a year or two longer than that.
32:53
I'm going to say around 199091 and all about his life and
32:58
career. And in one of the in one section
33:01
of that that that movie, he's talking about how much safer
33:05
things had gotten then. So let's call it around 1991
33:09
than when he had come along in late 50s and 60s and he he said
33:13
something paraphrasing a little bit, but he basically said, you
33:16
know, listen, it's great that we've gotten things have gotten
33:19
so much safer. He goes, but I will say it's
33:22
made for less polished race car drivers out there now.
33:25
And he goes, what I mean by that is back when I was coming along
33:28
early in my career, and of course he was an open wheel guy
33:31
coming through, you know, if you ran into somebody or got into
33:36
somebody's wheel, he goes, if you were lucky, you had three or
33:39
four days where you were laying there in the hospital thinking
33:42
about it, thinking about what led you there.
33:45
And he goes, nowadays, it's just, it's great that it's
33:48
safer, but guys just aren't as polished because back then, if
33:52
you if you messed up, you were in the hospital.
33:55
And that was if you were lucky, you were in the hospital, not
33:58
the more. And so there's something to be
34:00
said for obviously we want these things to be safe.
34:02
We don't want anybody hurt. We want Dale to be the last
34:05
fatality ever and to never revisit that again.
34:10
But it's just that's a that's a byproduct of it is, you know,
34:14
maybe like guys, well, guys have that confidence that they're not
34:18
as worried about wrecking, you know, and I'm not saying this is
34:20
good, bad, and just that's just the reality of it, you know?
34:23
Yeah. And to go back a little bit,
34:25
expand on Aji had that conversation with AJ.
34:29
You're you're talking about reading it.
34:30
Well, I had, I listened to that conversation, well, not that
34:33
one, but a conversation. We were all together one time he
34:36
was talking about in those days, the early days of his deal,
34:39
especially the 60s. They, they run those open wheel
34:41
cars everywhere. If you touched another guy's
34:43
wheel, both of y'all most time ago catapulted you go flipping
34:49
right, and he was talking about the different times that all the
34:52
drivers that he come up through the guy he watched get killed
34:55
right, and he was he was I mean he's just going on and on and on
34:58
about I'm like, my Lord, how many people?
35:00
He said Rick, it was awful. He said lot of guy.
35:02
You didn't have belts, you had a little bar right there maybe,
35:05
but if you touched wheels with another guy, you know, if you
35:08
misjudge, you touch wheels, one of y'all is going to go flipping
35:12
most time and most of the time you going to die.
35:14
If not, you're not ever going to be walking again.
35:17
And he was just naming off incident after incident these
35:20
things happened. He said that's how we got so
35:23
good. He said we learned how to race
35:25
within inches without touching each other.
35:28
He's talking about him. He threw out names like him and
35:30
Mario and different guys, right? They're able to do that.
35:33
And you know, it was it was. And he also said that talking
35:40
about being nervous getting in the race car before a race.
35:44
I tell you what it was. It's one of those US tobacco
35:46
deals where they had all of us drivers together.
35:49
You know, me and AJ and steak for Dome and Harry get in all of
35:53
us in these conversations would come up and when somebody asked
35:57
me about or nervous AJ, you're the toughest old race car driver
36:00
ever was don't guess you get nervous.
36:02
He says, ha ha. Let me tell you something.
36:04
He said I get nervous for every race.
36:06
He said, in fact, if I know of a driver that's in that race with
36:10
me that's not nervous, I stay clear away from that son of a
36:14
bitch because he's going to do something stupid, you know, and
36:17
hurt himself or hurt me. He said I've seen it many, many
36:20
times. These guys are so-called
36:22
fearless and have no nerves and they don't get nervous about it.
36:26
They never make it, you know, he said most of them laying up
36:29
there in the ground somewhere 8 foot under, that was his.
36:31
That was his his take on that, right.
36:33
So, you know, I thought that was very interesting coming from AJ,
36:37
one of the best race car drivers ever that that had that take on
36:41
on stuff. So that was interesting, yeah.
36:44
Yeah, no, there's the the 60s in particular an open wheel race
36:48
and I'm sure earlier than that too.
36:50
I mean, it was, I mean people were guys would die regularly,
36:54
really regularly. You know, it's interesting that
36:57
the comments I the the tape I saw of him, I said was from
37:00
about 35 years ago. And think about how much safety
37:03
has progressed since then, not just in NASCAR, but in a JS main
37:08
sport of IndyCar and everywhere else.
37:10
It's it's, it's, it's pretty incredible the the advancements
37:13
that that have happened. I mean, I'll, I'll say it, I'm a
37:19
fan. I still wouldn't yesterday when
37:22
the big one happened. I was, I was cooking.
37:25
I was, I was, we grilled, I grilled chicken and corn on the
37:28
cob here for the family yesterday at my house.
37:30
So I'd fired up the grill while the race was still going.
37:33
So obviously I'm popping in and out watching the race.
37:35
I was getting ready to go back. I was actually getting ready to
37:37
go outside to fire up the grill when the big one happened.
37:40
I went up then I stopped what I was doing, shut the doors.
37:42
Like let me, let me, let me see this, let me check out what
37:45
happened. And of course, I was yelling to
37:47
my wife because we're all in the the NASCAR fantasy league with
37:49
you and mom and Katie and Sarah and and Brandon and I was like
37:55
Laura, but the whole field's in the big one.
37:57
Check. Check your fantasy, check your
38:00
fantasy lineup, see how they did.
38:02
But I still sit there and I'm still sitting there going up.
38:04
It's a big crash. Got to see, got to see what
38:06
happened. Got to watch through all the
38:07
replays and see what happened. So that was one of the bigger
38:10
ones I believe I've seen in a while.
38:12
I pulled host bar. I pulled host bar out of the
38:14
garage. Did you Yeah, in the first in
38:17
the first segment hell or you had to because everybody else is
38:20
gone, right. All my other drivers were gone.
38:22
So I pulled him out of the garage and which I've had him in
38:26
there about every week either in the thing or in the garage.
38:28
Deal. I'll tell you another thing we
38:30
did talk about real quick is the the NASCAR big news man with
38:34
Steve O'Donnell becoming, you know, we we got to talk about
38:37
that. That's that's a big deal.
38:39
That's a big deal for that guy. He, he, and I'll tell everybody
38:44
out here listening right now, he's one of those guys that
38:48
truly wants to connect with the fans.
38:53
I mean, he, he, you know, I've, I've spoken with him a good
38:56
little bit. He's not, he's not giving lip
38:59
service, right? He's not just talking what
39:04
people want to hear. He's genuinely interested and,
39:08
and #1 he's a race fan. Start with, that's his whole
39:11
deal. He's a race fan.
39:12
Can't say that Steve Phelps was maybe was hell, I don't know.
39:15
He didn't act like one, right. Well, I shouldn't say about
39:19
Steve Phelps. Well, I didn't know the guy that
39:21
well, but I was never impressed by him, right.
39:23
But, but anyhow, he's gone. It's water over the dam, I guess
39:28
you'd say. But but, but O'Donnell, he, he,
39:30
he, he's a race fan. You know, I, I think, I feel
39:35
like, I don't think I know he, he, he's, he's got, he's got his
39:39
mindset right about what, you know, about what, what our
39:42
sports should be, you know, and the way it should be and the way
39:46
it should interact with the fans.
39:48
I think he's got that. He's got all that stuff right,
39:51
Like a lot of us do. It's just a matter of how do we
39:54
implement all this to make it happen, right?
39:56
To get our core built back up the way it used to be in the
39:59
interest in our sport the way it used to be.
40:01
And you know, it's going to be interesting to see.
40:05
See how his leadership goes over the next, you know, the next few
40:10
years or however long he's there.
40:12
I'm I'm, I'm, I'm really excited about it.
40:15
I'm excited about him having this role.
40:18
You know, I think, yeah, I think it's just perfect timing for him
40:22
with everything that's went on with the lawsuit or with with
40:25
the guys we got going on the host of our thing.
40:27
It's just, it's just a lot of things coming into play here.
40:30
I think it's, it's a perfect timing thing for me for him to
40:33
be taking this thing over and running with it.
40:35
And I think, I think, I think everybody be pleased with, I'm
40:40
just telling you, I know the guy, I think, and I think I
40:43
pretty much know how you or what he's thinking and how he wants
40:46
to relate and make things go. So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm feeling
40:49
real positive about this change. Let's put it that way.
40:51
Not all changes through the years of I felt positive about
40:54
Ricky with the hierarchy of our sport, but this one, this one I
40:59
truly do. Well, I can speak to this
41:03
because I've worked in sports for what, 15 years now?
41:07
One thing I've learned to be true is the sport.
41:11
If you're talking about growing the sport or the team or the
41:14
brand, whatever, which, whichever particular area you're
41:17
talking about, in this case, what we're talking about here is
41:19
NASCAR, the sport as a whole. If you're interested in growing
41:22
the sport and the future health of it, I feel like the best
41:26
recipe for success is to have as many people involved that are
41:30
tasked with growing the sport, have as many people involved in
41:33
that that actually truly do love the sport.
41:36
You can get talented people for different types of jobs and they
41:40
can do a good job for you. That not, I'm not necessarily
41:42
saying you have to be a a huge fan of the sport.
41:45
You can they can come in and they can be passionate about
41:47
their work and their job and they can do a good job.
41:50
But to me, my personal preference and for what I've
41:53
seen is if you put people in in these positions that truly have
41:57
a passion and love for the sport, then I think that sets
42:00
you up the best for success. You, you want people that no
42:04
matter how good or how bad things are going, because I
42:08
don't care what sport, what team, what it is, there's going
42:10
to be ebbs and flows. There's going to be peaks and
42:12
valleys. There's going to be highs and
42:13
there's going to be days. We're like, man, we are just,
42:15
we're fighting it right now. We're we, we, we, how are we
42:18
going to get out of this, right? That's always going to be the
42:20
case, but you want people that are going to show up regardless
42:25
if you're on the peak or you're right down at the bottom, bottom
42:28
part of the valley that still love showing up every day and
42:32
being part of the sport and are passionate about it, regardless
42:36
of what the storylines and what the current situation is that
42:39
they're there because they love it.
42:41
And you know, if you're in that valley, OK, cool.
42:44
How do we get out of it? How do we get back up there, how
42:46
we push ourselves back up there? That's what you want.
42:49
You want as many people like that in your organization as
42:52
possible. So now look, I don't know Steve
42:53
O'Donnell, you, you developed a little bit of relationship with
42:56
him. So obviously I'm just going off
42:58
your word. But if you're saying he truly is
43:00
a race fan and that's great, that that's compliment number
43:03
one, I would say that's, that's point number one for him, right?
43:07
I know you said the same about Jim France, who's stepping down
43:10
to allow this that you know, and he took, whether rightfully or
43:14
not or not, maybe some of it was deserved, maybe some of it
43:17
wasn't, I don't know. But in the whole lawsuit deal
43:19
with 2311, that's I'm not going to decide that, but he took some
43:23
heat. And but I remember you saying
43:27
early on a mass cast this season that Jim really is like loves
43:31
racing. And it's like, OK.
43:34
And we, you know what we say the same thing with he went in the
43:36
lawsuit with he and Michael Jordan, like at least both of
43:39
them have passion for the sport and care about it and want to
43:42
see it do well. So if if that's the case, then
43:45
good deal. But I'm with you.
43:47
I'm I'm excited. That's a good move.
43:48
I'm excited to see what what's young Mr. Kennedy, Ben Kennedy
43:53
does in his new role moving up. So it seems like he's being kind
43:56
of groomed to be the successor to Steve whenever Steve's day is
44:00
done, which he's still pretty young man, especially with that
44:03
position. What's he in his mid 50s?
44:04
I guess it is. So you assume he's going to have
44:07
a nice long tenure there I. Don't know if he's that old.
44:12
He might not be, I might, I might be, I might be overselling
44:14
him a little bit so. Yeah, now it's a mindset.
44:17
You're a racer if you're a true race fan.
44:20
And what I mean to that, one of the best things that came out of
44:25
this lawsuit is uncovering Phelps's e-mail about Childress.
44:33
To me, that was one of the best things that came out of this
44:36
lawsuit because that exposed the mindset about the guy that's
44:42
president of our sport that should not be president of our
44:47
sport. With that mindset, you don't say
44:51
those things. Yeah, the the the big deal was,
44:54
well, it was private e-mail and it should have been out for the
44:56
public. No, that's bullshit because that
45:00
happened. That tells me your mindset,
45:03
Right. And if you think that about
45:06
Richard Childress, you know, number one, you don't have the
45:10
best interests of our sport. And you might say you do and
45:14
think you do and make all the right moves.
45:15
But if you have that mindset that makes you think to say
45:18
those things about Richard Childers, you're not the man to
45:21
be running our sport. You know that shouldn't those
45:25
thoughts shouldn't even be in your mind.
45:28
But they were right. And he's gone because of it.
45:32
And I think our sport's going to be better off.
45:35
Listen, I'm not sitting here trying to bash Phelps, but I am
45:37
right, I'm bashing him. But I'm just being truthful with
45:41
what we know about the dude and what what what he thought,
45:44
'cause when somebody said something like that, then that
45:47
tells me, you know, kind of where your mindset is, you know,
45:50
and you have no business making any decisions in our sport with
45:54
that kind of deep mindset about the people that built the sport
45:59
and participated in big names in the sport.
46:02
So, you know, don't believe Steve O'Donnell has any mindset
46:07
like that at all. You know, I just don't, I don't
46:10
see it, you know, like anything, you don't know everything about
46:13
everybody, right? You never know.
46:15
You never know. But going into it, I think it's
46:17
cool. But again, that's the biggest
46:21
thing that came out of this lawsuit, in my opinion.
46:24
Yeah, well, before we go, I you said something early, early on
46:29
at the outside of the show. I don't want to gloss over it.
46:32
You said that the O'Reilly race at Talladega, you said, I
46:35
believe you said top 30 race you've ever seen maybe.
46:38
So I just, I expand on that a little bit.
46:41
What? What puts that race so high for
46:43
you? You know, not one thing.
46:45
It was just the competition level of the whole race, of the
46:49
race, the whole day, the whole thing.
46:51
It was just guys were battling all the time, man.
46:55
They were just battling and it ended up with a first time
46:59
winner, right? And that made it special.
47:02
Of course, it always does. But I don't know, it's just
47:04
something about that race. You know, it wasn't really a lot
47:08
of fuel mileages and doing this. And that was it was like guys
47:12
all the way through the field the whole race were trying to
47:14
improve themselves. Like the guys were trying like a
47:17
whole fragging race. They're all stacked up two wide,
47:20
three wide, but guys were I kept watching all through the race,
47:23
through the field and everybody's making moves all
47:26
fragging day. You know, it wasn't a lot of
47:29
follow the leader during that race, right.
47:32
And it's like you were trying to get through this stage, get to
47:34
the next stage. Let's just be cool.
47:36
That's not what I was watching. I was watching these guys been
47:39
going after it, you know, every single lap.
47:41
And that that excited me to see that happening like that.
47:45
So, you know, so many of those times, some of the races, we all
47:47
know Talladega, especially sometimes Daytona, you know, you
47:51
get in line and you just start making laps.
47:53
You get in and that's part of your job as a driver.
47:55
Just make laps, man. Let's make sure we still got
47:57
this thing intact for 10 to go or five to go or green white
48:00
checkered, you know, and you try to position yourself to do that.
48:03
But those guys Saturday, man, those guys were like, you know,
48:06
we got 10 laps for this races over Hell, they're halfway
48:09
through the race. And that's what I saw guys
48:11
making news, doing things. I'm like, not sure when what
48:14
went on here. It's kind of kind of like it's
48:17
kind of like what in the hell went on the first pit stop
48:21
during the Cup race. It's like, may you know it have
48:26
it seemed like half the field had problems.
48:28
They had penalties, they had speeding and dangerous things
48:32
and tires and fuel cans locking up and just I never seen so many
48:36
dad gun penalties on on a pit stop like it.
48:39
But it was the very first one, right?
48:41
And I'm sitting there when it's all said and done, I'm like, why
48:43
in the hell did everybody, it wasn't just drivers as drivers,
48:46
as a cruise, as everybody. I mean, they spread, they spread
48:49
the joy around everybody up and down that garage area making
48:52
these mistakes. I couldn't figure out what was
48:54
going on unless it was just, you know, we didn't we, this is the
48:57
first lap on the racetrack. We didn't, I don't know, we
49:00
didn't do any practice in qualifying when they dropped the
49:02
green flag. Goose cars had never been on the
49:04
racetrack, right. And but that really shouldn't
49:07
have any effect on the pit guys. I I don't know if it was, I
49:11
don't know if everybody they ate too many fried green tomatoes at
49:15
that famous catfish restaurant in in Anniston or what went on
49:18
with everybody. But it was a, it was a weird
49:21
deal, man. Paul Hamlin, you know, he spent
49:25
and he fought all day to try to get it back.
49:27
And, you know, hell, all those guys did.
49:29
I don't know, just just some weird sidebar I noticed.
49:33
Yeah, Did we, before we wrap up, we've talked about sometimes
49:36
doing a recurring segment of the race after the race.
49:39
I'm trying to remember race after the race at Talladega.
49:42
I don't know. Was there any, what were the,
49:45
what were the keys? And I'll, I'll let you think
49:47
about it for a second while I tell you this real quick.
49:49
Back in the day, getting out of a lot of race tracks, as we've
49:52
talked about was that was that was a major key to getting home
49:56
in time on on Sunday night or getting home at a decent time.
50:00
My wife and I went to the Talladega Spring Race a year ago
50:04
and sat in the stands. I'd never said I've been in
50:06
Talladega many times with you back in the day.
50:08
That was my first time ever even setting foot in the grandstands.
50:10
We sat pretty much just about the top row, right behind the
50:14
start finish line. Great seats, had a great time.
50:18
And we decided we talked beforehand.
50:20
It's like all right, are we staying until the end because we
50:22
got a little one at home? Like we didn't.
50:23
We don't want to be stuck in traffic forever to get back.
50:26
And I'm like, we both wanted to stay like we came here.
50:29
We want to see the end of the race, obviously.
50:31
So I was like, all right, watch the end.
50:33
We're going to catch the checkered flag and then we're
50:35
going to book it. Get to the car.
50:37
Now we're all the way down to the start finish line.
50:39
We were parked up there. If you're familiar with
50:41
Talladega, basically all the way the opposite end over beyond
50:45
turn 4 over where the the the museum is, the Hall of Fame
50:49
museum over there. So kind of opposite ends.
50:52
But I'm like, we're going to book it and we'll get out of
50:54
here. And, man, they got that deal
50:56
figured out now because we got there and the traffic had
50:58
already started. But we got out of there pretty
51:00
quickly. I'm like, all right, they've
51:01
improved this since the days from 30 years ago, I feel like.
51:04
At least that's what I remember. Do we have any race after the
51:07
race stories or tactics of Talladega back in the day that
51:10
you can? Yeah, we.
51:11
Do I mean the good thing about Talladega, they got that 5050
51:14
lane wide road right in front of the racetrack and it all dumps
51:17
on it is Interstate 20. Is it 20, Ricky?
51:20
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's twenty runs of a lad at the
51:22
Birmingham and everything dumps on that.
51:25
So so PP, which is pre plane back in the day before we had a
51:33
plane, you know, you had to fly commercial.
51:36
You had to get out of there. You get out of the infield and
51:38
get on, get on the road and we would usually fly out of
51:41
Atlanta. That's what we do, drive back to
51:44
Atlanta and fly because that was either that or Birmingham.
51:48
Well, when that was going on, you know, it was just two or
51:51
three years our in cup before I got my plane.
51:54
And once you got to Interstate 20, it was kind of okay.
51:58
It was getting to 20 was was kind of tough.
52:01
But here's the deal, man. There's a tunnel in Turn 2 that
52:06
I didn't even know existed, right?
52:09
And it's, it's almost like a little secret tunnel, right?
52:12
A lot of people, I don't, I guess it's still there and I
52:14
guess everybody knows about it now.
52:16
But it's a tunnel in turn 2 to get in and out of that
52:18
racetrack. They never used this thing,
52:20
right? It was just used for service
52:22
entrances and stuff, I guess because there's never traffic,
52:25
infield traffic, competitors, interests or nothing.
52:28
But anyhow, that little tunnel would go out and you come out of
52:32
the racetrack and it was really just a little, it's almost like
52:35
a little trail, Dirt Rd. trail through the trees back there.
52:39
And we figured that out. I don't remember who told me or
52:43
how it worked out, but we did that and that saved us tons and
52:48
tons of time trying to get out of that infield.
52:50
That's that's how we get out of infield, right?
52:53
You jump out of the race car, hop in the personal car and get
52:57
out on the racetrack and drive down through you turn 1 and 2
53:02
and then just little had a little gate there that you could
53:04
come back through and get out, get out of that thing, right.
53:08
And then once we had AP, which is after plane during plane,
53:12
unless we had a plane, that same little access got you right over
53:16
to the airport that sets right there adjacent to the racetrack.
53:19
So, you know, once we had a plane, that was one of the most
53:23
uneventful deals. Now, now what?
53:26
Because it was so good and great.
53:28
You know, you get to the airport and there's what 6070 aircraft
53:34
set into this little tiny airport.
53:37
So you'd always try to. In fact, I remember what we
53:41
finally got into, Sharon, your mother and my wife and we and
53:46
our pilot, they would be sitting there in the minivan or whatever
53:49
we had right there in the garage area, pulled up, packed, ready
53:53
to go. I'd pull in.
53:55
A lot of times I just hop out of the race car, jump right in
53:58
their car or minivan, immediately pull out on the
54:01
racetrack and go around and get out to try to beat our other
54:05
competitors. Not so much getting out of the
54:08
track, but getting your competitors to the airport
54:10
because this first come, first serve at those places, man, you
54:14
just line up the plane. And if you, you know, if you
54:17
were lucky enough to do real well where you'd stay around and
54:19
do media stuff and all, which we did a few times, then you were
54:23
hung up forever trying to get out of that airport, man.
54:25
You just sit there and sit there and sit there and sit there.
54:28
But, you know, Talladega was always one of the easier ones
54:31
for us just because the proximity of the racetrack of,
54:33
of the, of the, of the. Airport.
54:35
I must have only gone to Talladega API don't believe I
54:40
was there PP because I don't know.
54:41
I, I had no idea that there was a a tunnel over there in turn
54:45
one and two that must have that tunnel must be over there
54:47
somewhere near where we're talking about the big one.
54:49
You were in the big one with with Jimmy Horton and Stanley
54:52
Smith that time in 93. I believe it was a tunnel must
54:55
be somewhere over there about where not too far from wherever
54:59
Jimmy ended up, which I'm laughing because he was OK.
55:02
Still, one of my favorite quotes in the history of NASCAR has to
55:06
be Jimmy Horton after he flips in that track that you were in
55:09
Talladega flips out, goes over the over the wall because this
55:13
is you didn't have catch fences in the in the turns back then
55:16
goes over the wall outside the track, lands outside the track.
55:19
And he said, you know, you're in trouble when the first person to
55:24
get to you after a wreck is carrying a beer and it's just a
55:29
fan carrying a beer. Got to him first.
55:30
I was now I'll tell you the less funny part of that talking about
55:34
I'll, I'll close this whole thing up with this.
55:37
I mentioned earlier, Talladega was the one place where mom and
55:40
I were all were nervous every year.
55:43
And that memory of that wreck is it is embedded in my brain.
55:47
I was sitting in the scoring stand that particular race.
55:51
So I would have been with one of your old pit crew members,
55:55
Ronnie Flack with well, Carol Flack.
56:00
She was scoring for somebody else at the time.
56:02
Then Gloria, our score would also be in in the scoring stand,
56:05
your score And I, you know, love both of them, would spend a lot
56:09
of time with them when I was a kid.
56:10
So I'd be in the scoring stand. I will never forget looking over
56:13
to my left to the scoring stand was inside in the infield kind
56:17
of facing the the start finish line, looking to my left and
56:21
seeing just a just a giant cloud of smoke.
56:24
And all I could see was you could see a red car flying
56:27
through the smoke and going out the track.
56:30
And you were the opposite of a red car.
56:32
You were the black and white skull car.
56:33
So I knew that wasn't you, but I was pretty sure you were in
56:36
somewhere in that big cloud of smoke.
56:38
And then of course, you And yeah, we learned pretty quickly
56:41
that you were OK. But that was one of those
56:43
moments where you're nervous going into it and you look up
56:47
it's like, well, looks like a bomb went off car went out the
56:50
track. Pretty sure dad's in that middle
56:52
of that bomb somewhere. Oh Lord, please be OK.
56:57
Please be OK now of course Jimmy was OK.
56:59
You were OK Sadly, Stanley had a about lost his life in that
57:03
deal. Of course we he's not with us
57:05
anymore now, but he did he was able to recover from that
57:08
particular deal and and and had lived for a number of years
57:11
after that. But but yeah, that so he'll
57:14
Jimmy must have landed and that guy with the beer that met it
57:16
must have been over near that tunnel that that you speak of.
57:19
So. Anyway, funny part of the story
57:20
when we stopped the rescue work was there with me, right, And
57:24
I'm still gathering all my senses and I'm like, well, I
57:26
remember seeing it. We went over my hood shorter in
57:28
front of me. I'm like, I remember looking
57:30
going damn dude that ain't good. I remember thinking that myself
57:34
damn dude, that's that ain't good.
57:36
And then we got to stop the rescue.
57:37
Was there worth? I said yeah I'm fine.
57:39
I said you know, you've got a car outside the track somewhere.
57:42
He said what? I said there's a race car
57:44
outside of the track here somewhere and he looked at me
57:46
funny and I said I'm and he just kept looking.
57:49
I said I'm telling you, y'all know this right?
57:51
And he he run back hollering. There's a car on other side.
57:57
So I guess they had it all figured out.
57:58
But luckily your Stanley survives.
58:01
Everybody's OK. And our buddy Herm was in that
58:04
middle of that thing with me. Herm, was it?
58:06
Yeah, he was. Kenny was in the middle of that
58:08
wreck. In fact, we rode an ambulance.
58:09
But in fact of me and Kenny was in the ambulance and we were
58:12
fine. And the ambulance driver said,
58:14
hey, guys, I got to stop here. They need me right here.
58:16
And we stopped. We looked at we saw we stopped
58:19
right beside Stanley's car. We saw the what was going on
58:23
there and it was, it was, it was not good.
58:26
But anyhow, you luckily everybody survived.
58:30
Yeah, they did. Well, thankfully it's it's, it's
58:34
safer now. And I don't think any of they
58:35
got catch fences up there now. So hopefully, hopefully we don't
58:39
have a situation where the first person to get to a driver just
58:42
wrecked is carrying a beer. That's pretty.
58:44
Cool. That's pretty cool, actually.
58:47
Yeah, All right, well, this was a fun one, Dad.
58:50
I look forward to doing it again next week.
58:52
We'll be talking about the guys down run down Texas, and so
58:56
it'll be fun to recap that. And until then, he's Rick.
58:59
I'm Ricky. We'll see y'all next week.
59:02
Tudaloo.