Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Coffee With Kenny | Joe Gibbs Allows Christopher Bell To Run Dirt Races Again!
Transcript
- 0:02Happy Tuesday morning, everybody.
- 0:07Breaking news in the garage area from Joe Gibbs Racing.
- 0:12You know, for years Joe Gibbs would not allow Christopher Bell
- 0:16to go run his dirt car. And everybody's like, oh, man,
- 0:21Joe Gibbs, raw, raw, you know, the mobs coming at Joe Gibbs,
- 0:27you should let Christopher Bell run his dirt car.
- 0:30We want to see him at the Chili Bowl.
- 0:33In the meanwhile, over here, he got Rick Hendrick allowing Kyle
- 0:39Larson to do whatever he wants to do.
- 0:43So on Monday, Joe Gibbs comes out and shocks the world and
- 0:50says we will allow Christopher Bell and their new driver, Chase
- 0:57Briscoe, who's taking over Martin Truex seat and Ty Gibbs.
- 1:02Even Ty loves running dirt racing.
- 1:04So they are my friends. Dave Auburn used to live right
- 1:11behind me in North Carolina. So I called oh, Dave up and I
- 1:15said, you know, Dave Auburn, he he leads, he, he, he's the main
- 1:20man over there now at Joe Gibbs Racing.
- 1:24I said, why the change? He started laughing.
- 1:28He says, they've been on us forever.
- 1:31You know, they've been on coach Joe Gibbs forever.
- 1:34He said finally with the addition of Chase Briscoe, all
- 1:39three of the drivers, they really want to run dirt.
- 1:42So basically the reason Coach Joe Gibbs, Dave offered and a
- 1:46whole bunch of Joe Gibbs Racing are allowing their drivers to
- 1:52races because now they have all dirt racers.
- 1:57You got you got Christopher Bell, who's a dirt racer.
- 2:00We all know Chase Briscoe from Indiana and little Ty Gibbs.
- 2:04Now Ty is is he Ty's like I want to be in.
- 2:08I want to be a dirt racer. So I think it's fantastic.
- 2:14The sport of dirt racing will benefit, you know, will will
- 2:18really benefit whether you you think so or not.
- 2:24Listen, we've we've been down this road and I don't want to
- 2:27get into an argument. I do not want to get into an
- 2:30argument. You know, it's proud.
- 2:32Listen, it's proud of who we are.
- 2:34We're dirt racers. Yes, we are.
- 2:37But like Jonathan Davenport and everybody in dirt racing says,
- 2:41hey, Harmon, can you get me a NASCAR ride?
- 2:44The best in dirt racing. They want to go NASCAR and and
- 2:48that's the way it is. There's no debate.
- 2:51They all tell me that on Kenny conversation.
- 2:54So there's a little bit of background to this before you
- 2:58just go. That's just the way it is.
- 3:00So when you look at the history of car owners allowing or not
- 3:08allowing, you can go back to Hendrick.
- 3:11OK, so Hendrick, he deals with Chase Elliot up there in the
- 3:15mountains skiing, remember, a couple years ago and breaking
- 3:18his leg. So Chase Elliot's out because
- 3:21he's he's out, you know, living life and breaks his leg.
- 3:25That's life, brother. Rusty had a good take on that,
- 3:30you know, And Rusty said, hey, man, what are you going to do?
- 3:33You can't, you can't wrap yourself in a bubble, you know,
- 3:37and be afraid of everything. So then you're thinking, OK,
- 3:42what happens? Alex Bowman goes, runs his wing
- 3:45Sprint car flips and I guess compresses.
- 3:49I don't know what he does, but Alex Bowman gets hurt.
- 3:52Now he he was out. Now all this happened, you know,
- 3:54two or three years ago. But you know, Rick Hendrick at
- 4:01that time could have said, hey, we're done with this because
- 4:04Chase Elliott skiing in the mountains and and he gets his
- 4:07leg broke and then Alex Bowman, he gets hurt and he's out of the
- 4:11car for a while. So then it's like, you know, I
- 4:14can understand why these car owners will not let these Cup
- 4:18drivers race anymore. And you know, the other thing is
- 4:23that when you look at a Cup team, you got, let me see Lee
- 4:29Spencer's calling me Lisa. I don't know, I'll call her
- 4:33back. Lee Spencer from NASCAR media,
- 4:37she's from Saint Louis. So I love Lee.
- 4:40I love the Spencers. Great people.
- 4:44When when when you look at why these NASCAR car owners were so
- 4:48sketchy for all these years, all you got to do is look to Rick
- 4:51Hendrick. You know, two of his four
- 4:53drivers were laid up. Alex Bowman from wrecking in
- 4:56that wing Sprint car, right? And then you had Chase Elliott
- 5:01with the skiing accident, so everybody kind of calmed down
- 5:06the complaining and like, OK, Coach Joe Gibbs doesn't want
- 5:10them, doesn't want Christopher Bella race on dirt because it
- 5:13could be dangerous. Listen, Sprint cars are 100%
- 5:19more than if you put an actual percentage to it.
- 5:22When you run a full bodied car, you got roll cages, you got
- 5:27seat. But when you put your ass in a
- 5:30wing Sprint car, buddy, that that's dangerous, that's
- 5:34dangerous, that's that's the real deal.
- 5:37So I would say that Coach Joe Gibbs realized that maybe if you
- 5:44let the drivers do their thing, maybe they'll be happy.
- 5:49And and I know that when I talked to Kyle Larson, Kyle
- 5:55Larson, I believe Kyle said that Jeff Gordon was behind him on
- 5:59it. And you know, I believe it was
- 6:01Jeff Gordon. You know, Jeff can reach back
- 6:04into his tool shed every once a while.
- 6:06I love Jeff Gordon, but Jeff's not the Jeff I know from years
- 6:10ago. But everyone smile, Jeff will
- 6:12surprise you. And the old Jeff comes out and
- 6:16the old the open wheel Jeff, you know, the real Jeff, I believe
- 6:23he's, I believe he was the one that defended Kyle and says, you
- 6:26know, maybe if we just let Kyle be, Kyle will will reap
- 6:32benefits. In other words, if you try to
- 6:35make a driver miserable, he probably won't drive as good.
- 6:40If you make a driver happy, he's going to be happy and he's going
- 6:43to drive really good. So I think that all the sponsors
- 6:48have signed off. Oh, that's the other thing.
- 6:52Everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, they do have to approve where
- 6:56they race. It's like, hey, where you're
- 6:59racing, show us your schedule, you know, and what does that
- 7:04mean? I mean, when I talked to Dave
- 7:06Auburn, you know, I'm not going to say anything, he was very
- 7:09good. He was very, you know, wide open
- 7:12with me. Like I said, he lived behind me
- 7:14for years. But it was a deal where for
- 7:20Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, if Ty wants to go run
- 7:23a Derek R let us know your schedule, right.
- 7:26Check in with us first. Let don't just don't think he's
- 7:29going to go do everything. We don't want you running the
- 7:32dirt race and getting here loud New Hampshire at 5:00 in the
- 7:35morning when qualifying's at 9:00.
- 7:39And we know Kyle does that. I've heard stories where Kyle
- 7:43Larson, he'll just kind of sneak in go through the tunnel.
- 7:46Sun's coming up. He's looking around.
- 7:49Come back from Eldora. But most times Kyle has won, you
- 7:54know, the Knoxville Nationals. So everybody's like,
- 7:56congratulate me and all the crew members at 5-6 in the morning.
- 8:00So I don't think Coach Jill Gibbs wants the boys running
- 8:04free but wants to wants to keep them, you know, get some good
- 8:08sleep before big races and things like that.
- 8:11All right, I told you the news, Coach Joe Gibbs is allowed
- 8:15Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs to go dart racing.
- 8:19They're going to. They want to know what's up,
- 8:21though. They wanted Coach Joe Gibbs,
- 8:24Dave offer and they want to know your schedule.
- 8:27Makes sense to me after what has happened in the past.
- 8:30And, you know, I'm going to tell you something.
- 8:32I'm a lad. One more in there.
- 8:33What about Tony Stewart at Oskaloosa when he got hurt in
- 8:36that Sprint car, ripped his leg right off.
- 8:39So when you go, when you go down the line, Yeah, I I get it.
- 8:42I get it. Let people do whatever they
- 8:44want. But when you're in the big time
- 8:46and and you've got 300 employees that are dependent on you, it's
- 8:52like I it's not about me. That's that's what them drivers
- 8:56are saying. It's not all about me.
- 8:58It's about all the employees. So remember, I can rattle the
- 9:01cup drivers names off that got hurt.
- 9:04Tony Stewart at Oskaloosa, right?
- 9:07Alex Bowman in the Sprint car, Chase Elliot in up there.
- 9:11So it happens and you all you do is you just try to defend
- 9:15against it a little bit. All right, everybody, that damn
- 9:20thing on my nose. Having a tough time healing up,
- 9:23I ran my nose into the race car.