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This NASCAR Hard Card Means The World To Me | Rick Mast Show · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Hi everybody, I want to talk today about what I just received
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  in the mail. I was going to do this the other
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  day and do the big deal, opening it up and everything.
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  My buddy Kenny Wallace beat it to me.
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  But this is from the NASCAR alumni group headed up by the
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  wonderful Amber Wells. As you notice you look in here,
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  if y'all seen this, if you watch Kenny's the other day, we got a
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  bunch of goodies, some magnets and a bunch of stuff.
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  But here's what I want to talk about today.
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  I want to talk about this, the hard card and what that means to
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  me. And I feel like a lot of other
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  folks that receive these things, OK, Give you a little history,
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  man. When I was like 5 or 6 years
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  old, I remember being on the bicycle out here in the road
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  going around a stop sign and I was a race car driver.
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  I was Richard Petty and I was out there out running Fred
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  Lorenzen and all these guys, right?
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  Well, anyhow, so when I come of age, I got me a dirt car.
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  We ran the dirt races around here locally.
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  And you know, NASCAR was this big mammoth thing that we were
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  kind of secluded from, But it was like the, you know, the
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  ultimate NASCAR was the ultimate.
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  So in the mid 70s, I received my first NASCAR license, driver's
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  license, right? And I held a driver's license
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  for going on almost 30 years, right?
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  So I remember when I first got that license and we started
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  running like Southside and South Boston speedways and all that.
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  I mean, it was, it was a big deal.
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  It was a great big deal. To me.
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  It was like, man, we were in this elite club.
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  Now we've got I've got a NASCAR license, NASCAR driver's
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  license, right? And in those days, Radar, when
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  we was running late model right up through Bush Grand National,
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  then into Cup Series. What you would do if you had a
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  NASCAR license, when you got to the racetrack, there was a
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  little boost set up outside of the garage area, outside of the
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  racetrack. Everybody that had a license
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  went to that booth and you signed in, right?
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  And then they gave you the credentials to be in the garage
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  area for the weekend. I mean, everybody had to do it.
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  I don't care if you use Rick Mast or Dale Earnhardt or
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  Richard Petty. Everybody had to do this.
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  And what would happen? You get there, you know, and the
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  line would be 4 miles long because every crew guy,
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  everybody's in that garage area had to do that.
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  So sometime maybe in the early 2000s, they came out with the
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  hard card. The first issue, the hard card,
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  They would issue this hard card at the beginning of the season,
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  you know, if you're with a team as a driver, car owner, crew
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  member, whatever. And for the first couple years
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  when you go into the garage, you just show this hard car go right
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  into the racetrack and did away with all that you all the mess
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  we had to go through when how you go in the garage area and
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  you're supposed to go up to the red truck in the middle of the
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  garage and they had a had a waiver for him.
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  You signed your name that you were at the racetrack and as a
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  driver, you couldn't get on the racetrack until you sign that
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  piece of paper, right? And I bet you, baby, I did it
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  maybe 4-5 or six times. I'd be strapped in the car
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  getting ready to back out of the garage.
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  An official would stop me. But the worst time was I was out
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  on Pitt Rd. getting Ridge on racetrack.
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  The the official stopped me. Rick, you didn't sign the sign
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  in, man. So you have to drive back garage
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  area, get unbuckled, get all your stuff off, throw your
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  helmet off, run to the red trailer sign and come back in.
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  They did that for a couple years, right?
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  And you know, then they finally, they finally did away with that.
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  So all you had to have was a hard card.
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  Now what this hard card is like before the hard card, when you
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  had the credential and they even when it switched over to the
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  hard card, when you're at the racetrack and your competitor,
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  you're inside that garage area, This hard card lets you maneuver
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  and go wherever you need to go within the facility.
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  If you need to go out on Pit Rd. if you need to go to the Media
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  Center, even if you had to go up into the grandstands to the
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  press boxes or the suites or whatever you had to do, you know
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  that's what you did. And for 30 years, that's what I
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  did, right? That was my domain.
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  Everywhere you went before the hard card in the past did the
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  same thing. Now the hard card gets you
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  wherever you got to go and you know it.
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  It was like, that's your life for 30 years.
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  That is your life, right? And you, you, you, you conduct
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  your business. You do what you needed to do,
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  you know, for the weekend or whatever it is.
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  And then what would happen or what happened after when you
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  leave the sport, OK, then you don't have a hard card any
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  longer. OK, You're like, well, what do
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  we do now? Well, for me, whenever I went to
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  the races and I, I've attended since I got out, I attended
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  quite a few races over the years, Mike Hilton would always
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  accommodate me to get into the garage.
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  You know, in fact, the one person who's in front or in
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  charge, one time he told him if a, if a driver comes in, you
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  know, an old driver wants to go in, just just sign them up.
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  Well, they've got NASCAR, as most of you know, they've got a
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  NASCAR registration trailer sets outside of the racetrack.
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  Now the people that have passes to go in for the weekend or
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  whatever, the VIP passes and all that, you go and you sign in
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  with NASCAR and do all that. Well, so that's what they would
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  always do for me and I was always appreciative of that.
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  The problem is it was a pass you put around your neck and hit VIP
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  access or that VIP access, it would get you in.
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  You could go into the garage, but you know, it was it was
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  limited. I mean, a few times I would go
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  to go somewhere or do something. I see somebody over there I
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  don't want to talk to or something I wanted to be or
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  something I wanted to do, you know, I would get stopped
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  because I didn't have a hard card, right?
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  This pass wouldn't allow me to get in.
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  And it has to be that way because you know that that's,
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  that's the work area. That's the work area for all the
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  competitors, right? And you can't have everybody
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  having full access to go into all these areas.
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  But for somebody like me and so many of the guys with me, that
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  was just everyday practice for us, right?
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  That was just that was just normal living for 30 years.
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  That's what we did. And when I go to the race tracks
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  and I would get stopped or turned away from where I wanted
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  to be or go or see somebody or what not, you know, they would
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  stop me. I'm like, man, you know, just
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  kind of, it made you feel, you know, you.
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  I don't know how, I don't know how it made me feel a little bit
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  sad, little bit upset, you know, not mad.
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  I was never mad because I understood the situation.
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  But lo and behold, you know, here 2 ago, Jim France and Mike
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  Elton decided that we need to fix this for the competitors
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  that earn the right to carry one of these things in today's
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  sport. And they did.
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  They, they, they put it out there.
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  Amber Wells and her crew took the same over there, there.
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  You know, they've been growing it, they're getting it going
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  good. I mean, it's it's really a neat
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  deal and you know what it does also, it just kind of puts them
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  in line with other professional sports or other major
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  professional sports. They have excuse me, they have
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  programs like this little different the way it's
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  implemented, but still basically the same thing.
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  And I'm going to tell you something, man, when you cherish
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  and let me back up, I was always one of those guys that was
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  humbled to be in the sport. You know, I mean, my 30 years to
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  sport, I did what I could do to help Rick Mast, right?
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  But I did, you know, one of my things, one of my little deals
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  in my head always was to help NASCAR protect the brand and
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  grow the brand, right. And I and also with that or the
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  sponsors that I had all through the years, I it was protect the
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  sponsor and grow the sponsor, grow the brand.
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  And, you know, did a pretty good job at that.
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  Yeah, I felt like I did. But, you know, with NASCAR, but
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  being humbled by all that. And then some of the guys come
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  in and weren't really humble, OK, you know, and that's just
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  your make up that. But me being from where I was at
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  and NASCAR being such a big deal over here, you know, and then I
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  became a part, but then it became my family and it became a
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  big part of my life for over 30 years, actually.
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  And, you know, then you'd go back when you go out of a sport
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  and you're not really not doing what to do and you come back and
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  you can't really do what you, you know, you feel like it's
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  just natural or comfortable. This baby right here puts you
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  back into that place. It puts it puts me back into the
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  place that I spent 30 years of my life, given what I thought
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  was my best to the sport and to the people I represented.
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  And for NASCAR to recognize us, OK, by giving us these things.
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  It's to me, it's, it's hard to put in words what it really
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  means to me. It's just that it's not like
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  you're getting paid back for doing what you did or being
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  involved because it's a two way street with with with all this.
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  But you know, to be able to walk into the garage with this and
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  you don't abuse it, right? You don't, you don't abuse these
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  things. If you, if there's this, this is
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  their work area. Guys are working, they're doing
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  their thing. The media's doing their thing.
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  The track personnel, the DASCAR people, they're all doing their
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  thing. So you, you, but you know, from
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  30 years of doing this, what you know, what conversations to get
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  into, what to, where to be at, where not to be at.
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  I mean, it, it gets you into the driver's meeting, right?
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  I remember went to the track one time and I had the VIP pass.
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  I went to go in the driver's beat and you know, couldn't get
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  in, right. And I forget why I wanted to go
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  in there something I wanted to go in there for it.
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  I couldn't get in. I'm like, man, it's really,
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  really discouraging, you know, and another thing about it that
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  ties into this alumni deal. I mean, I talked to 1 driver and
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  I know they know about it. The driver told me one time, you
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  know, Rick, I'd like to go back, but I don't even know how to get
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  in. I don't know who to call, what
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  to do, you know, but well, I thought, well, that's a little
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  bit short sighted because you pick up a damn phone to call,
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  right? Called NASCAR and they'll,
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  they'll fix you up. But you know, I think it's just
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  going to open up over time. It's going to take a while.
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  It's going to take a while for some of the guys to come back
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  around because you go to the garage, you don't you kind of
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  feel like an outsider, but not with this.
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  You're no longer. And I guess that's what I'm
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  getting at. Before, before we had this, I
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  would kind of feel like an outsider.
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  I'm like, I'm not an outsider. This sport, man, I was here for
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  30 years. I was right in the middle of
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  everything. I am not an outsider.
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  I am. I am part of this sport.
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  This is a solidifying piece that that makes this whole and for
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  Mike and Jim and everybody in NASCAR ahead that did this part
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  of it and now Amber carrying it on with her crew, I'm so
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  appreciative. It's not, it's not something
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  that we don't think about, but it is something I know that all
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  the guys that were that receive these that are going to receive
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  them, I know how they're feeling and I know how appreciative they
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  are. So for that, NASCAR, thank you.
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  Have a good day everybody.