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NASCAR Campground Culture Is Amazing | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

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  I am at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and you talk about an
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  emotional day for me. I've met so many friends that
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  still love NASCAR. My dear friend Charlie Springs,
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  Springer, he's right there. Now.
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  Let me tell you some about Springer.
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  I talked to Tony Ewry junior, Tony Ewry senior, all Dale
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  seniors people, and I said yes, Springer's my neighbor and they
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  said Springer, we know Springer. So today we're going to go way
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  back and we've been having a good time.
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  I said, let me turn my phone on. And they said, OK, so Charlie
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  lived across the street for me for years.
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  These people here, I just met and we're going to go talk to
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  them. There's still a lot of NASCAR
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  fans that still love NASCAR, and they're very emotional.
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  Look at this. Huh?
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  They haven't left. There it is the legendary water
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  tower. It's turned 3 and four and Harry
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  go. Home.
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  With you, Jeremy. There it is.
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  We're going to talk about Trish in a minute.
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  So there's Tricia Spring. She she ran this area.
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  All right, now you all don't start crying on me.
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  All smiles, OK? This man right here has been my
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  friend for how long we've been friends, Springer. 1990.
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  So when you moved. In a double wide.
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  Hold on, say that loud. When you moved in a double wide
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  1990. CONCORD, NC Yeah, Charlie
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  Springs. In the racing world we know him
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  as Springer and you helped I I guess when Dale senior ran
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  Metrolina, was you part of the crew?
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  I was working on his brother in law's car.
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  I love. That you raced against.
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  It was that Oliver, David, Oliver, David Oliver.
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  And I love that shirt. And one thing I noticed is
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  you've got some friends here. Let's let's go around the horn a
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  little bit. All right, tell me about
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  yourself. Well, I've been here just raced
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  track since that's going on 51 years this this week.
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  That's all I've ever did is do racing like this.
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  I've dirt raced all my earlier life, built race cars.
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  One, we want a hillbilly hunter if anybody knows.
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  You're a real racer. I've built race cars and raised
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  in a Midget, you know, when I was a child, a baby and this is
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  my life. I've I've like no other sports,
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  nothing. This is my life and I, I would
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  never change it for nothing. I met my wife, I got married
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  here on this park right here and this is just great.
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  It's a great life. Yeah.
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  So, OK, you've been at these campgrounds.
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  What what year did you come to the campgrounds here at the
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  Charlotte Motor Speedway, Springer?
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  Well, we just started camping here when Trish was working.
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  She worked at golf carts. She run the Fantasistas golf
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  carts and we started coming here.
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  I met her at the 600 in 1990. Little.
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  Trailer park across the road and we got married exactly a year
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  later. And I, I knew it because you,
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  you're my neighbor. We've been coming here ever
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  since. So in in my world, I'm going to
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  have fun with this. Tricia became what I call the
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  mayor of the golf carts. They started for years if they
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  gave you a ride on the golf carts, some of the money went to
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  like churches and big. Ways to older charities, yeah.
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  Yeah. And you know, it warmed my heart
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  that, you know, 30 years later, I came over here to find you
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  today and I pulled in and that man said, can I, Herman?
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  He started saying, he started saying, can I help you?
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  And he said, can I, Herman? And and he said, what are you
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  doing? And he kept me down there for 20
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  minutes. And I said, I I need to know
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  where Charlie Springs is. He goes, well, let me go look.
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  And he goes down and he looks, he comes back and he goes.
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  Tricia's husband. So you've been here all these
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  years. And you also helped me on my my
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  Bush Grand National car. You were a big part of that, you
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  and Tricia. But it means a lot to me that I
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  got to see. It's been a little emotional
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  day, hasn't it? Yeah.
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  We love each other, don't we, old friends?
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  That's right, baby. OK, let's go over here.
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  Let's go over here and let's talk a little dirt racing.
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  Look here, they starting to roll in crowd.
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  Look here, crowds starting rolling.
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  Go ahead, call her. You're on the air.
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  Hey, Kenny. How you doing, buddy?
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  Everybody's. Oh, that's me.
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  That's my truck. You need to move it.
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  Is that your spot? Yeah.
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  They when I. Came in, they gave me, they
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  directed. Me to 50.
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  Four, am I supposed to be $50.00?
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  So you're right there next to Springer.
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  Springer, you want to go move it?
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  Hey, it's one of those cars where you it's you push the
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  brake and hit the starter and look, you, you you pull the
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  lever and go down. You'll figure it out.
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  These damn, these damn passenger cars.
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  Now that you guys know what I'm talking about, you can't just
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  turn the damn key anymore. All right, let me get in here.
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  That was awesome. Stay right here.
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  You all don't move. OK?
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  Stay right here. That was too funny.
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  Well, Springer, he's the Jack of all trades.
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  OK, that was too quick. Tell me your full name.
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  My. Name's Harry Wiley.
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  Harry Wiley City, Tennessee. No.
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  Where are you at, honey? You got a beginning.
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  We got the real dirt Dirt racer right here.
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  OK, What's your name? Judy Wiley.
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  OK, both of you are dirt racers and you talk about Jonathan
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  Davenport and you're as good at dirt racing Lingle as me.
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  But yeah, you love NASCAR. Nowadays, that really doesn't go
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  together very much. Let me get over here.
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  OK, so we're we're going to include you.
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  No, no, no. We'll close you a little bit.
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  Look here. OK, so nowadays dirt racing
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  people, they claim they don't like NASCAR.
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  What? Let's start with you first.
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  What does that mean when people dirt racing people?
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  If you if you don't learn anything about dirt racing,
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  that's still racing in today's world.
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  Yes, we have NASCAR racing. These younger boys is racing,
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  but they really don't know what real racing is.
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  They didn't build a race car themselves or their brothers and
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  sisters helped build a car. These are factory built cars.
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  It's there's a lot of difference between a dirt racing car and
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  that. If you don't blame me, go to
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  Flow or one of the racing things and watch a live dirt race.
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  So you, so you, you think some dirt racing fans are mad because
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  they feel like NASCAR drivers have it easy or they just
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  haven't put the time in? They don't.
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  They haven't put their time in for drunk racing.
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  Yes, the dirt guys. Both of them were raised at a
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  dirt track locally in their hometown or real local and a lot
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  of them as mine started out with a little 4 cylinder carve and
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  now they got these super late models that are unbelievable
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  race cars. Let's hold on.
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  Let's do an update. Springer, yes, See, you can do
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  everything you start. You started it up and you moved
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  it. Hey, hey, hey.
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  I'm going to, I'm going to tell you what some of these, some of
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  these new cars out. It's like an act of Congress
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  just to figure out how to get it going.
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  I got more. Sense than I got.
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  OK, now you have surprised me a lot because you really.
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  How did you? I mean, you know so much about
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  dirt racing. Is that just because you that
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  that dirt racing has been your life?
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  Yes. Yes, he's, I mean he, we have
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  been to dirt races ever since I met the man.
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  I met him at Bristol. I love it.
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  At the race. That's badass.
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  And then we came here that same year in May, which was 83, and
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  we've been dirt racing and we've been a lot of dirt tracks.
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  Why? OK, you 2 have been in this RV
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  spot since what year 1995? Maybe of 1990.
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  Five, you've been here not since 1995.
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  This is the latest campground or not now is this is this is the
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  they build a new one here just a while back.
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  This is the primary campground of Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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  And, and you're legendary here. And you've been, you've been,
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  you've been neighbors. Springer's.
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  Springer's spot is right over there.
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  My dear friend Charlie lost his his beautiful wife not long ago.
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  And that's very nice of you to make that really nice.
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  I you're going to have a little memorial tonight.
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  Yes, Sir. And Charlie knows how much we
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  love him. And so nice little memorial
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  tonight over there, Trish. Let let's just put this fight
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  you meet a lot of people in your lifetime, but there's only
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  certain ones that that touch you.
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  She's one of them that has touched us in her life and he's
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  got I call it's a godsend the people that we meet through
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  racing. You got a lot of people you
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  thinks you're friends, but these are true friends.
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  OK, we're going to use this for coffee with Kenny on Thursday
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  morning and let's end like this. You guys, you love dirt racing,
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  but you've been at the campgrounds of the NASCAR
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  tracks. Yes Sir, I've been to every race
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  at Bristol Motor Speedway since 1960.
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  One OK, is it emotional? Why do you love NASCAR so much
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  when so many people have fell out of love with it?
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  Why do I like it? Well, if we go back to Bristol,
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  I as a first NASCAR race that my dad took me to 1961.
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  I've been to everyone of them since.
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  It's a tradition and the love of that place that I like.
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  And I learned about Charlotte Motor Speedway later in life,
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  and I came over here and I parked against a.
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  Turn 1. Track and I fell in love with
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  this place. I I have had three motor homes
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  since and this is our life from me and my life and it's just
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  it's a friendship. Let me tell you folks, if all
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  communities were like these campgrounds that we have the
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  speedways, we don't need a Police Department, we don't need
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  anything. These all people you further
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  driving $1,000,000 motor home or a pop up when they turn the key
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  off they're all the same. And they don't talk bad about
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  NASCAR. No, nobody talks about that.
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  They just hear, they love it. It's just the the clue, the
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  families that growed their kids up here, we watch them grow up
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  from babies and mommy to babies that they're on sales.
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  I got one. She'll be here today, tomorrow,
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  22 years ago I gave her a little bear and she's got to come back
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  to see me tomorrow. I've always thought it's been
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  about the people and let's, let's and like.
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  Go ahead, babe. Pregnant with triplets.
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  And we watched those kids grow up until they were four or five
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  years old, and then they gave up.
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  In the in the campground. In the campground.
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  She walked them with her strollers every year.
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  Up by and you'd watch them go one year old 2 year old about
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  the people it's. The people.
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  It's the people. Yeah, it.
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  Was amazing. You guys are wonderful.
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  I love you and and thanks for telling the story because I get
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  emotional. I love NASCAR so much and I get
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  so damn tired of people beating it up for this or that.
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  And and I tell people, let me go over Springer here for a minute.
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  You stay right there. Go ahead.
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  Hi, Ann Schrader. We miss you.
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  I love that. I love that they love the
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  Schraders. OK, tell me about yourself.
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  Well, Kenny, I I've been coming here for over 20 years and this
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  man saved my awning and this is how we became friends.
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  So your awning was blown away. It, no, it started to blow away.
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  He strapped it down for me, dummy me.
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  I left it out, went to town and this gentleman saved, strapped
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  it down for me, saved it and it would have cost me thousands of
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  dollars if he wouldn't have. And I came back, he said, Sir,
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  he says I'm sorry I touched your awning.
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  He said I strapped it down. I hope you don't mind.
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  I said we our friendship became the best he got for life.
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  We're friends for life over that just because he strapped our.
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  Running down what a story. Pardon.
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  And and my dad. Did you lose?
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  Your dad? No.
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  Yeah, my dad's been gone since 2023.
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  My dad too. Guys, we've lost a lot of
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  people. Oh, but we're still here.
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  Yep. My dad parked down here for.
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  I love you. I love you.
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  See, that's NASCAR, everybody. My dad parked down here for
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  years and he loved the mirror, he loved, he loved Harry.
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  Judy loved everybody and my dad never met a stranger.
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  And he parked down there with me.
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  And then after he left, I moved up here closer to Harry and
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  Judy. And it's just we keep it going
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  and I'm thankful, thankful, thankful to Harry and Judy.
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  These are my friends right here. Let's go over Springer.
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  I love you. Love you.
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  OK, everybody, let's go over here to mine, my buddy.
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  OK? So Charlie Springs.
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  All right, I come over here to see you.
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  I can't leave because we just keep talking and talking.
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  Hell, you gave me. I'm on 2 bottles of water.
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  I got cottonmouth. I got 2 bottles of water.
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  I'm dead. Cottonmouth.
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  All right, Spring. You're anything else to say,
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  buddy? No, just enjoy the races and
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  keep coming back. And Earnhardt.
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  Earnhardt baby, right? Tired.