Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Rick Mast Talks NASCAR Alumni, Shares Crazy Jimmy Spencer Story & More!

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Rick Mast Talks NASCAR Alumni, Shares Crazy Jimmy Spencer Story & More! · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Rick Mast
0:02
show. I am Charlie Marlow.
0:04
That is the great Rick Mast. Rick, how are you doing Sir?
0:07
Charlie, if I was any better, I just don't know what I'd do with
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myself. Doing doing great, Doing great.
0:13
OK, so obviously you and I talk every week, but I saw you all
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over the place last weekend on social media.
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I mean, this NASCAR alumni seemed like it was just a a huge
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hit and we'll we'll get to the race and all that.
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But I want to hear about who was there.
0:30
How much fun did you have? Tell me some stories.
0:32
It it seemed like it was a great success the first time out for
0:36
the NASCAR alumni. It, it truly was Charlie.
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I mean they they opened up the red carpet force band.
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They had a big fancy. I wouldn't call it a tent.
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I guess it was a tent that had these big 20 foot or 20 foot
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large TV screens and catered and waiters running around.
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And just, you know, I mean they really somebody that, well
0:58
that's of course spent a lot of money on this thing just
1:00
welcoming us. And so that was the first thing.
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They had a golf cart. They everybody had golf carts
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provided they would run us around to the appearances and
1:09
all the different things they had us doing.
1:11
And you know, it was almost like you were a back in time, but
1:16
like you were, you were a driver again, OK, because you had the
1:19
hard car, you go where you wanted to go.
1:21
You know, everybody's treating you with respect, right.
1:24
And a lot of things going on. A lot of it's going on around
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this deal and and of course all the guys been there, they made
1:31
it. Gosh, it made it pretty special.
1:34
I don't know is it was just like A to me it was like a hit a home
1:37
run. I know this is the very
1:40
beginnings of it and a lot they've got a lot I think plan
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to to do later on. But to to to kick the thing off.
1:48
It was pretty cool. I mean the drivers, a lot of the
1:50
guys hadn't seen in a while. I'll be there.
1:52
The first day when I I first walked in, there was Everdam,
1:55
right? Ray Everdam.
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And it started from there. Dave Marcus was the second guy I
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saw, right? And then through the weekend,
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some different guys were there Saturday and different guys
2:05
there Sunday. But you know, a lot of the old
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guys, I mean, of course the the funniest group, of course, like
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I always say, his brothers Labonte, the Labonte.
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Bobby and Terry were there and Terry had had his whole family.
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Of course they did a lot with him on Sunday with a throwback
2:19
deal, but you know, just so many, so many of the former
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competitors. It was just AI don't know, it
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was just a, how can I say it, NASCAR really did a good job
2:33
kicking this thing off and and and and and it it just made
2:38
everybody feel welcome and that that's the whole deal.
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I don't know how much of this stuff you have buying y'all saw
2:44
or other drivers talking, but but you know you you go to the
2:47
racetrack a lot. And I talked to a lot of drivers
2:49
over the years and a lot of the guys wouldn't go because they
2:53
weren't really sure how to go about getting a pass to get in.
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And they didn't. You know, if they did, they
2:58
didn't feel like calling somebody up and trying to get a
3:01
pass. And then the guys that would go,
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sometimes, they didn't really have anywhere to go or anybody
3:06
to talk to. So they kind of felt alienated,
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right. And and so over a period of
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time, it just kind of not going to say drove the guys away, but
3:15
it kept them from being there. Yeah.
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And I think I think it's very important that the guys that
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that were in our sport that were there for a long time doing
3:24
things. I think it's very important that
3:26
they feel welcome. When they want to go, they can
3:29
go and when they do go they feel welcomed because listen, those
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guys in the garage area, they'll give those guys respect.
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I mean I noticed it with me. I noticed with all the other
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guys you'd walk through the garage area, you know you were
3:41
treated with respect And we don't, we don't, we don't want
3:43
to ask for that. We just, you know, you see a guy
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and you talk to him and you know, we just, you don't want to
3:49
get in the way, you don't want to get in anybody's way.
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You don't want to do any of that kind of stuff, just stay out of
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way. But just, you know, I don't
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know, it was just and I think the people in the garage area
4:01
that took notice of it, I think they were really appreciative of
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it. Well, I know they were
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appreciative of it and the fans that were there that kind of
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understood what was going on, they were very appreciative of
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it. So, you know, I don't know.
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It's just all the way around. Good deal.
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So tell me the best story you heard, even if it's a story that
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you've told before. And is this one of those deals
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kind of like a, a fishing story where the the fish always get
4:26
bigger over the years, You know, did guys.
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Oh yeah, I finished second. No, I actually finished 12th.
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But you know, sometimes these these stories always improve
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over the years and maybe people start having a couple beers here
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and there and the story, the stories always get better.
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You know, the number one story I can't tell.
4:45
I just can't tell it. I just cannot tell it, but I
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don't know. Give us kind of, just give us
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kind of a a a loose example of what the story is about.
4:55
Well, let me tell you, let me tell you one of the great
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stories this is, this is one of the great stories of our sport
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that went down in the annals of history.
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That is, it's it's professionally, it's not
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recorded. All right.
5:09
But the the Watkins Glen debacle, I call it and I don't
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know what year it was, but anyhow Watkins Glen was all
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those tracks most of the time is we call it unrestricted.
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By that I mean the wives didn't go to Watkins Glen a lot.
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You know if we go to Sonoma or a serious point, all the wives
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were there. You go to Watkins Glen.
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Yeah. First year to the the the girls
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would go visit finger Legs or Ilion and all that place where
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they make the was it quarter Ware or Corning?
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Yeah, corn. Anyhow.
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So anyhow, Watkins Glen is unrestricted.
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So one evening on a Friday evening, I came out of my
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motorhome walking around and I go up to Terry's bus, right,
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Terry with Terry sitting there eating supper with Bobby, his
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brother. And about that time Schrader
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walks up. Well.
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So we're all just carrying on and doing our thing.
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And the first thing you know DJ walks up Dale and we hop on golf
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carts and two or three golf carts or 4.
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But it's the drivers I just mentioned in two or three of our
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bus drivers and couple other folks and this was getting along
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about dark. So it would have probably been
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8:00 or 9:00. Well, the end result is
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basically the SWAT team brings us back to our motor homes at I
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don't really know what time it was maybe 3:00 or 4:00 in the
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morning. Because what we did, we hit it
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out and we stopped. We we we just went through the
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infield, man, and we'd see a group of fans, which they're
6:43
everywhere. We'd stop and they'd come talk
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and we'd talk to them and first thing you know, you're partaking
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in all the food and beverages they had, right?
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So you get down there and you go to the next one and there's
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probably 100 stories inside of this main story.
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But you know the the, I guess the end result was I think I'm
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not really, I still all kind of fuzzy.
7:06
I don't think anybody remembered, but we had talked
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about this over the weekend but I think it ended up like we were
7:12
going to leave and go get the brown truck.
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If everybody remembers when when DJ used to have UPS as
7:17
sponsorship, he was always, they were always talk.
7:20
The big deal was he he's going to drive the brown truck right,
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meaning he get a U PS: truck and drive it under and race it.
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Well he had done appearance the day before or something, so he
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knew where the local UPS deal was.
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So we were going to go get a U PS: truck and bring it back to
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the track and I'm not sure what all we're going to do.
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And this this entailed some other things.
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And I remember Terry, so one of somebody was telling the
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policeman, listen you've got 3 Wisher Cup champions and you
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got, we've all got hard cards and if you take us away from
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here, they can't have the race this weekend, right.
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So it it you can you can pretty much take from that what I've
8:08
given you and make up any kind of thing that may have been
8:11
happened or said during this five or six hour debacle and and
8:16
and pretty much it would probably be true right.
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I will say this the fans, the fans that we got to interact
8:23
with that night and that morning they were over the top excited.
8:28
Happy to to be involved in that. And I'll tell you this though
8:32
that the end of the story is next morning we had an 8:00
8:35
practice man. When I go out and practice and I
8:39
come in and and on top of the toolbox set your computer it's
8:42
got the screen with the times you got on the left side 1st
8:46
through 20th fastest times and on the right side like 21st
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through 40th fastest times. Right.
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And I come in and I get out of my car and look and it seems
8:56
like every driver that was involved in this tobacco is on
8:58
the right side and at the very bottom of the list like slowest
9:02
right. I'll never forget Kenny
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Schrader. Schrader and he was like the
9:07
rest of us real slow. He came in he told his screw
9:09
chief Newt. Newt was the screw chief.
9:11
He said Newt. He said I think the transmission
9:13
we've got the wrong gear in our third gear is wrong right.
9:17
We need to change. We need to change that.
9:19
And Newt says Schrader, I'm not going to argue that we've got
9:22
the wrong gear in 3rd, but you know if we change that, that's
9:26
not going to. You have to change the
9:27
transmission to do that right. And it takes a while.
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He said I'm not going to argue that it's wrong, but I don't
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think that's going to pick us up 4 seconds, right?
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Schrader said no, it won't. But if you do that, I'll, I will
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not have to go back out in this race car again this morning.
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OK. At 8:00 after being drugged back
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by the SWAT team at 3:00 in the morning was not was not a good
9:49
deal. But you know and So what what
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happens you you, you look back at that and we were talking
9:55
about that night and you know you look at the current state of
9:59
affairs and you just and sometimes you feel a little bit
10:03
bad. You feel a little bit bad for
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the drivers that are there now because they don't you know,
10:08
they're not getting to experience that type of thing I
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guess you'd say you know. So I don't know, it was just lot
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of stuff like that. OK, so let's let's go back to
10:19
the to the race and and really the finish.
10:23
So obviously Brad Keselowski wins for the first time in three
10:27
years, but a lot of the talk was Chris Busher and and Tyler
10:32
Reddick and kind of driving style.
10:34
This is coming the week after Chris Busher loses by the
10:38
closest margin in NASCAR Cup history.
10:42
Anna Reddick was obviously very aggressive and he apologized and
10:46
Butcher confront him there on Pit Rd.
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So what do you think of of all of that, of the finish of the
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Pit Rd. altercation of Tyler Reddick basically saying look
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man, I I bleeped up. My bad.
10:58
Yeah, I, you know, watching the race, I mean, I think
11:02
everybody's pretty happy for Brad.
11:03
You know, Butcher has been winning the races and that's his
11:06
teammate and everybody want to get Brad, Victor Lane and Brad
11:09
wanted to and I think a lot of the fans enjoyed that.
11:11
I personally enjoyed it because you know, he's basically the one
11:14
that went over there and tried to set this deal up to where
11:17
they're at now and and it seems to be working, you know, I mean,
11:23
Brad ran underneath of Reddick for what, 4 laps straight at
11:28
Darlington on the bottom side? You just don't do that.
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You do not do that at Darlington.
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You cannot run side by side lap after lap after lap at
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Darlington. I mean, what that show being #1
11:40
is what do they call it now? Racecraft.
11:43
Car control. Yeah, it used to be he's a hell
11:45
of a good race car driver. Now it's racecraft, right?
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That was the first thing I noticed that struck me by.
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I'm like Derrick Kaslowski is good and Reddick was doing a
11:53
good job on the outside by not hitting the wall and give it a
11:56
broom and all that. And so then when it all gets
12:00
reversed and we do watch the death, it was going to set, it
12:02
was going to set the thing up for Buscher to get a run in,
12:04
which he did. And there's guys that side to
12:06
side so much that the momentum he had, he got the leads.
12:10
We kind of knew that was going to happen.
12:12
Then when Tyler got under Buscher, then I'm like, you
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know, you got to be very careful, little dude.
12:17
You got to be very careful, careful here.
12:19
You know, experience here really comes into play.
12:23
You know you can be very talented like Reddick is, but
12:26
the experience of Darlington, at Darlington and running on the
12:29
underside of somebody, you really, really, really, really
12:32
really got to be good plus experienced.
12:34
And you know he just ran out of it.
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To me, he just ran out of experience and he got into
12:39
Butcher and, you know, basically not both of them had to cut
12:43
tires down and then Keselowski one And then after the race, you
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know, Butcher, you know, he did his deal and Tyler did the deal
12:52
that he does every time. You know, he, he immediately
12:56
leaves his helmet on and starts apologizing and, you know, kind
12:59
of diffuse the situation, which is I guess what you're supposed
13:03
to do. And so, you know, Keselowski won
13:08
the race, man. I was happy for him.
13:10
I told somebody, there's a, there's a caption.
13:12
Somebody had a picture of me telling some kind of story to
13:15
somebody and it Brad came by and he was sitting there listening
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to it and I did that picture that said, look here, man,
13:23
you're you had listed, what about bullshit stories, right?
13:26
Did you go out and win the race coincident?
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Maybe, Maybe not. I don't know.
13:30
So that was pretty cool. How about how about in your
13:33
career, did you have any type of pit Rd. altercation like that?
13:38
And it didn't have to be necessarily on camera, but one
13:41
that you initiated or one that was initiated against you for
13:44
something that you did? You know, early by career, we
13:50
had a couple of those deals. By the time I got the Cup,
13:56
Charlie in those days were a little bit different because by
14:00
the time you got the Cup, you know, you had raced against a
14:03
lot of these guys in the Bush series or the Xfinity and there
14:07
was a there was a take on that driver, OK, everybody.
14:11
When by the time you got the Cup, most of those Cup drivers
14:14
knew who this rookie was coming in and they knew his tendencies.
14:17
They knew the problems he's had and they do pretty much out of
14:21
racing. What kind of duty is now?
14:23
When somebody comes in you, it's all new and they have to they
14:26
have to do all this in front of a Winston Cup or shoot what is
14:31
it? They got to do it in front of
14:33
the Cup audience and the the TV and all.
14:36
And you know we would my deals all happened earlier than than
14:42
when I got in cup. In cup.
14:44
I didn't, you know, in Cup I see 1/2, just two or three times it
14:49
happened to me and each time I had initiated and it was just a
14:53
stirred conversation, right? And you know, you did it without
14:58
the TV around, you did it without the cameras and you did
15:01
it without reporters around, but you had your one-on-one with
15:04
that driver and you know, it's pretty much settled then one way
15:09
or the other. But one story is, golly, we were
15:14
at Lanier, Georgia. Yeah.
15:16
And I've told this story many times, but we do it here.
15:19
We're near Georgia, late 80s. Jimmy Spencer had just moved
15:23
down to the South and running with us.
15:25
And Lanier, Georgia is a little quarter ball race track.
15:28
You run up against the wall, you don't run at the bottom, you run
15:31
up top. Tommy Houston was leading and I
15:33
was running second and it was threatening rain, 200 lap race,
15:38
threatening rain. And if we get the halfway, of
15:40
course, then it rains out. But you're the winner.
15:43
So in those days we weren't allowed to change tires.
15:46
So we were masters, but we were masters at preserving our tires.
15:50
Making our tires last for 200 laps which is one thing I think
15:53
helped me when I get got the cup also.
15:55
But anyhow how cost 90 laps you're so in the race 100 laps
15:59
in the races start sprinkling rain and Tommy picked it up.
16:02
I I picked it up trying to get by Tommy.
16:04
Tommy picked it up with Spencer. Been in the pits.
16:08
He comes out, he's on the bottom.
16:10
I'm a lot fresher tires and he comes out of the turn out of
16:12
turn 4 each time and he runs up into me into my door each time
16:17
and I'm trying to get under Houston for the lead, the baby
16:20
win the race. And you know, we we do this for
16:23
four or five laps. This happened, this happens and
16:26
finally coming off four, one time he gets into me, it turns
16:30
me, spits me out right and I'm like, Dang man.
16:33
So the race is over and I go down the gym and I said Spitzer,
16:37
why'd you spin me out? I didn't spin you out, I said.
16:40
Spencer, you spun me out of there.
16:43
I wanted to know why you spun me out.
16:44
Well, you were you were cutting down on me.
16:46
I said Spencer, I was trying to take the lead from from Houston.
16:50
Why did you wreck me? I guess.
16:53
Why did you wreck me? Well, I was trying to get my lap
16:55
back. I said, Spencer, you were 64
16:58
laps down. You put in the pits for 64 laps.
17:01
Why did you wreck me? And finally the the, the, the,
17:06
the thing started to deteriorate at that time.
17:08
And finally Spitzer looked at me, said well you want to grab
17:10
whipped my ass. I said no, Jimmy, I I looked
17:14
around and there's these brothers and all these family
17:16
around and they're all big and strong and all that.
17:18
I'm like, no, because I can't take all y'all and I'm not going
17:21
to get my ass whipped. I'm going to go back to my truck
17:23
and I'm going to get my gun and I'm going to blow your head off.
17:25
That's what I'm going to do. So I turned around and started
17:29
walking away, and I got maybe 20 feet from him and he said, bast
17:35
and I turned around and he went and he shoved your shoulders.
17:37
You like, what the hell, man? And I looked at him.
17:40
I'm like, for a few few seconds, I'm like, OK, Spencer, all
17:45
right, all right. So from that moment forward in
17:50
our career, Jimmy and I have become very good friends.
17:52
We've never, ever rubbed on the racetrack again.
17:55
In fact, a few years after that, he had, we talked about that
17:58
deal. He said, Rick, you remember by
17:59
the time in Georgia when he was going to shoot me, I said, Oh
18:01
yeah, he said what were you thinking?
18:04
You were you were serious, weren't you?
18:05
I said Jimmy, when I left, when I turned around around from you
18:09
had all intentions to go and get my gun, I I honestly did.
18:13
And I said because he asked for what, what?
18:16
What what what I thought may have happened and I said, but
18:20
hope I said when you hollered at me, you diffuse the situation
18:23
with me. And I said I've often thought
18:25
the time I got to my truck and got my gun and got back at some
18:29
point I would have got myself pulled together, right.
18:32
And I that wouldn't have happened.
18:33
But at that moment in that, in that in that instant that's what
18:37
was on my mind and that's what I was going to do, right.
18:40
And lot lot of instances like that early on coming up and you
18:44
just kind of you set the tone for who you are.
18:47
You know you set the tone for the type of driver you are.
18:50
You set the tone for. Are you going to protect your
18:52
territory? If somebody gets in your
18:54
territory, how are you, how are you going to handle that, right.
18:57
And our world was, our world was pretty especially early on as as
19:03
we kept getting later later things would get more
19:05
professional and better. But the basic premise of protect
19:09
your world and your environment was always the same with me and
19:12
the guys that taught me when I was young.
19:14
That's the way I learned to protect your environment, you
19:18
know. And by that I mean from all the
19:21
different angles that everybody tried to get at you for whatever
19:24
reason. Maybe they wrecked on the
19:25
racetrack, the guy wants to fight you.
19:27
Maybe a group of people or somebody wanting to drive your
19:30
race car, right? Or a media person that that did
19:34
an unjust story on you, OK. Or a sponsorship deal that's not
19:39
going right or something you have to do or just just a lot of
19:42
unjust you have to worry about work on, right.
19:45
And the way way I did it was just the way I was taught in
19:49
that that example of Spencer was kind of the mindset that you had
19:53
doing this crap. Little barbaric, some of it, but
19:56
you know, it's just the way it was.
19:58
All right. So you're obviously very pissed
20:01
off back then. So this can transition into our
20:03
what's, what's pissing Rick Mastoff today.
20:06
And I by the way, I I have some as well because I just I just
20:09
traveled to California and back over 3 days.
20:13
And I I don't know. I know you drive a lot to
20:15
Atlanta. I I don't fly as much.
20:18
But man every time I do fly I realize how much I hate it.
20:23
Just just all the people the cattle call the thing that's
20:28
ticking me off. I'm I'm stealing your Thunder
20:30
here. But what what bothers what
20:32
bothers me is this carry on bag situation where people have
20:37
obviously you know these manufacturers they know the
20:41
exact size obviously that they can make a carry on.
20:44
It's not a bag it's a suitcase it's luggage to fit in there.
20:49
But people just jam those things in there.
20:51
You know three of them now take up the whole compartment so
20:54
other people have to check their bags, right.
20:56
And look this was Southwest by the way which the baggage is
21:00
free. I understand if you're on a
21:01
different airline and you're saving money and look, your bag
21:05
could get lost, but these people that take minutes to shove their
21:09
freaking luggage in there and jostle yours and it's falling
21:13
out and it's the biggest damn carry on you've ever seen in
21:16
your life. I'm like just just check it.
21:19
Yeah, you know what, Charlie? When I first, the first time I
21:23
ever got an airplane was 88 or 89.
21:27
Yeah, When I drove Travis Carter's car, Daytona, we did so
21:30
well. They had me go to a it was on
21:34
some kind of pro am, Pro Am golf tournament.
21:36
Myrtle Beach, the first time I hop on a plane is there in
21:39
Roanoke to go to Myrtle Beach, which was cool.
21:42
And I get there. By the way, I don't have golf
21:44
clubs, I've never played golf and I'm going to go play some
21:46
freaking golf tournament. So get there.
21:48
I'm late getting there because the plane's late and the
21:51
tournament started and I go up like, what am I supposed to do?
21:54
And somebody says, well you got to be with this group number.
21:56
What's so and so and I said, well, y'all have any golf clubs
22:00
and they said, well we got a set or two.
22:03
I said, well I'm left-handed. I've never hit a golf ball, but
22:06
I had left-handed. We don't have any left handers.
22:08
So he gets, they give me a bag of clubs and they're
22:11
right-handed clubs and they Take Me Out to whatever group I'm
22:13
supposed to be with. And I get with this group.
22:15
I've never hit a golf ball before in my life and right here
22:18
I'm stuck at this thing. I'm like Rick Bass, you goofy
22:21
dumb ass, what are you doing? So we we get out there and I end
22:26
up taking these golf clubs. I ended up hitting them
22:29
left-handed from the backside. OK, that's what ended up doing
22:34
on this deal. But anyhow, I regress.
22:37
So we fly commercial at the beginnings of back cup career.
22:41
We kind of get little proficient at that.
22:44
Then I finally get my first play and a little a little Piper
22:47
Chieftain. We trade up to a Piper Cheyenne,
22:51
which is a turboprop. And then the last plane I had
22:53
was a Citation. OK, 20 inch of jet single pilot
22:57
and that was, that was cool, man.
22:59
Well that that flew that for a few years.
23:02
So when the racing career ended of course I sold the play the,
23:05
the jet and all that. A year after, I think about a
23:09
year after I got get out of the car we do a ski trip to Keystone
23:14
Slope in Colorado near Vail. And we get on, we fly
23:19
commercial. And mind you, I hadn't flew
23:21
commercial in years and this is after 911 or 911 and we get to
23:25
the airport and I'm like, when we finally, finally get on the
23:30
airplane, I'm like my God, how good did I have it having my own
23:34
play. Because you got your own play.
23:35
You just ride into the FBO, the airport, the FBO is fixed space
23:39
operations. That means another place where
23:41
the private planes stay folks. And you ride in, you go through
23:44
the gate, hop on, you play, just step in the play and you take
23:48
off, right. And man, when I went that
23:51
commercial flight to to Colorado, I'm like, oh God, this
23:54
is miserable. I don't ever want to fly
23:56
commercial again because you go in and you wait, you get
23:59
checked. You like, you know, it's like
24:00
you're being herd like cattle going into a feeding chute.
24:03
You're just herd it around and herd it around and herd it
24:06
around. You approach it your check
24:08
you're looking at the times you everybody's squeezed.
24:11
It's smelly and everybody's running and you, you worried
24:15
about your bag you've got and then the overhead bags just on
24:19
and on and on and on and on. I'm like, God, this is
24:21
miserable. But if you didn't know any
24:23
different, Charlie, you know it's not that bad.
24:25
But then what you bring up makes it, man, just pisses you off.
24:30
I know dude. It does.
24:33
So, so you brought up the fact that you had never, you had
24:36
never golfed before at that time and you're left-handed.
24:39
So growing up, did you play other, as we call them, stick
24:42
and ball sports or what? Yeah, I played baseball and I
24:45
played basketball, right? In fact, Rockbridge County High
24:49
School, which is now a Bacon Globbert.
24:52
But the old Rockridge County High School became a middle
24:55
school and then it finally closed down when they built the
24:58
big schools. That school retired by
25:01
Basketball Jersey #22. They sure did.
25:05
Well. I don't think it was before it
25:07
was for my basketball prowess. I think it had more about me
25:12
becoming a Winston Cup driver. OK, And the recognizing me.
25:16
There's a friend of mine here at home I'll shout out to.
25:19
His name is Mike Snyder and Mike was pretty good basketball
25:22
player and I've played. I was a couple years younger
25:24
then and I played under him one one time.
25:28
We always did New Year's Eve part at our house and in my
25:30
basement, man, it's it's a racing, it's a racing basement,
25:33
right. Trophies and pictures.
25:35
The whole, the whole basement set up like that.
25:37
And I've got that jersey hanging up and a bunch of my buddies
25:41
were down there and they got Snyder because Snyder's a pretty
25:44
he's a real prideful fella. And anyhow, showed him that that
25:48
jersey and all, bet it just like to kill him.
25:51
He couldn't understand. And finally he says, I don't
25:53
understand. You get the jersey.
25:55
I never even see you on the durian basketball court.
25:58
And he was telling everybody Bass was never even on the
25:59
court. How the hell did he get a
26:01
jersey? That's a Snyder.
26:02
That's the problem with you. You never saw any teammates on
26:06
the court. All you ever knew was you, one
26:09
player, one man team on that core.
26:11
That's why you never see me, because I was there with you,
26:13
but you never didn't see me so. OK so, so nowadays I think, I
26:18
think Corey Lajoie does a kickball tournament annually.
26:22
So back in the day, did you guys ever have those celebrity
26:25
softball games or or anything like that?
26:27
I'm I'm trying to figure out who who do you think were the best
26:30
athletes that were the drivers back in the day.
26:33
I know, I know. We've, we've talked with Elliot
26:35
Sadler and Elliott Sadler was a really good, I think, baseball
26:39
and basketball player in high school and all that.
26:41
So in your day, were any of those guys good athletes off?
26:45
The track, we got two stories on that.
26:47
Number one, yeah, probably DJ Dale Jarrett.
26:51
He was probably our best athlete.
26:53
He was a hell of a golfer. I think he still is.
26:55
But we did a couple times. We did celebrity softball games,
27:02
and I forget the one game, but the one game we played was
27:06
NASCAR versus NHRA. So it was the drag races, right?
27:10
And I remember Forrest was there, Snake was there.
27:12
In fact, Snake was pitching for those guys that I hit the ball
27:15
and hit him, went just right by his ear, glazed his ear, right.
27:19
I'm like, oh, crap, I always killed the snake.
27:21
Yeah, and there's a lot of cool pictures.
27:23
There's a picture of Richard Petty smoking a cigar with smoke
27:27
coming out of his mouth, taking a swing at the ball.
27:29
It's. I've seen it on the Internet.
27:31
It's like man, this is the coolest picture I've ever seen
27:34
in my life. And I remember somebody decided
27:39
that John Force was a butt hole, right?
27:42
And I hell, I didn't know John Force from Adam.
27:44
And John was catching for that team and one of our drivers
27:52
decided they were going to take force out.
27:55
So running from 3rd to home on a hit ball, when force is there,
28:00
this driver of ours knocks the holy crap out of John Force
28:04
right? And I'm like we all doing guys
28:08
right? Just settle down here a little
28:09
bit. But the funniest.
28:10
I'm going to tell you something, Charles.
28:11
The funniest story ever with somebody decided somebody got
28:16
the great idea together, they'll put this together.
28:19
It'll be a good idea to let NASCAR Wistar Cup drivers do a
28:24
pick up charity basketball game versus the ACC players.
28:31
All right. And this is in Martinsville, VA
28:35
and we went to I think it may have been Patrick in your high
28:37
school. It's a high school there
28:39
somewhere in Martinsville. So we show up and I get
28:42
Hornswiggler to doing this right.
28:44
We show up and there's only like 5.
28:47
It's it's like 10 or 12 guys supposed to be there time we get
28:50
there is either five or six right.
28:53
And they're the Our tallest player, I think, was Michael,
28:56
Michael Walter. We get there, man.
29:00
And there's people remember these names, Cherokee Parks and
29:04
Randolph Childress, right? It it, it was really Barry
29:08
Dawson was in with Wake Forest and a lot of these people.
29:10
And it was. Early to mid 90s.
29:13
Yes, yes, early to mid 90s, Yes, yes.
29:15
And Barry was tied in with Wake Forest somehow.
29:18
He was buddies with those guys. So there's a lot of Wake
29:20
players, but I remember those two Cherokee, Cherokee Parks and
29:24
Randolph, Childress. And dude, this game started,
29:28
right? And I'm running around And
29:32
finally, finally, I'm thinking, this must be what it was like.
29:37
And you see the footage of the Vietnam War when all of our
29:41
soldiers were in the jungle, right?
29:43
And you look up and you see these helicopters flying around
29:46
your head. That that thought come to my
29:49
mind when I'm out on the court because that's what we're about
29:52
to be up. We're down here and these guys
29:54
are up here, certainly around us, like helicopters.
29:57
And it was the absolute dumbest damn thing.
30:03
I remember thinking one time, all right, the only way I'm
30:07
going to do this is I've got to take these guys out, right?
30:10
Because you're playing when you end up down the court and
30:12
they're playing well, they're going up here with the ball,
30:14
doing whatever they're doing. And I'm sitting here looking at
30:16
their thighs and their knees and I'm like, all right, what I'm
30:18
going to start doing is taking these guys out if they're DS,
30:21
right? That's the way I can make a play
30:23
not work. But then I thought, well, if I
30:25
do that, I'm going to hurt the guy.
30:27
It can't hurt the guy, right? But it was absolutely,
30:31
ridiculously miserable. I mean, we had fun at at at some
30:35
point, but just it got so it got so funny at one time.
30:39
It was just or it got so bad one time, it just became funny.
30:42
It didn't take us long to realize we shouldn't be doing
30:45
this. And those guys were very humble
30:47
too, right? It was ridiculous.
30:52
Dude, I wish somebody had a video of that game and you could
30:56
you probably make 1,000,000 bucks off that thing right now
30:58
If you if that, if that, it would go, it would go viral.
31:01
It would go viral. So we're talking about about 30
31:04
years ago. I'm thinking as as you're saying
31:06
that. I'm thinking these basketball
31:07
players that may be pushing 7 feet were were NASCAR drivers as
31:12
short back in the day because it seems like the drivers are are
31:16
getting shorter. Am am I right on that?
31:18
Is that just about the car or or what?
31:21
Why does that happen, do you think?
31:23
I have no idea, but we we watched it in the 90s.
31:26
Half. The exact same thing happened to
31:27
any car in the 90s. I remember Johnny Hayes and as
31:30
you go to the Rick Mash show enough, you'll hear Johnny
31:32
Hayes's name as we go forward with this.
31:34
He was, he was, he was in charge of all the school sponsorships
31:39
and he did a lot of TV and did some things.
31:41
But anyhow, I remember in the 90s this thing was going on and
31:43
I remember Johnny said, man, we've got a problem in Indy
31:46
because they because Johnny sponsored AJ Foyt at the time,
31:49
right. And with Copenhagen brand, which
31:51
was UST. But you know, I remember
31:54
Johnny's, I remember him talking to us one day.
31:56
He said, man, we've got a problem with Indy cars.
31:57
So what's that, Johnny? He said we're all our drivers.
32:00
They're all becoming 5 foot three, 135 lbs And I'm like, OK,
32:04
what's wrong with that? He says it's hard to be a hero
32:06
like that in in America, right? And I'm like, OK, but I remember
32:11
him back in that comment to me and not really fully knowing if
32:14
he was right or wrong, but he was right about what was
32:16
happening. And now I look and the same
32:19
things happened, you know, or it's happening in our sport.
32:23
And I don't know why it is, you know, in in the Bush series,
32:28
when Mark came along, I think it was Mark.
32:31
When Mark Martin came along, Mark was the light guy, right?
32:35
And we called the Jack Ingram rule basically our cars whatever
32:39
the number was Sarah Bush car had to weigh 3200 lbs, right.
32:43
Well when Mark comes along and I'm I'm 200 lbs, you know when
32:47
I'm fit, Mark comes along with 150.
32:50
You know Jack a lot of the guys were by weight or whatever.
32:53
Well Jack raises enough hell over enough period of time that
32:57
he makes NASCAR changes that rule to where you you the the
33:01
car weighs 3200 with driver. All right.
33:06
So if you weigh 200, your car is going to weigh, you're going to
33:09
make the car weigh 2900 and then you you make it 32 and then like
33:14
with Mark, that means Mark's car has got to be, it's got to weigh
33:17
50 lbs more than that car to get to the weight with driver,
33:23
right. And a lot of some series still
33:25
do that. But you know I always called it
33:27
the Jack Ingram rule because that was Jack did that and we
33:32
did that for a few years in cup too, man.
33:35
Dude, I forgot. And they would weigh us at
33:39
Daytona in during our medical before the race and then we'd go
33:44
back in July 4th race to Daytona.
33:46
That's when they weigh us again. They'd write the weight down and
33:49
then they they would give that to NASCAR and the team had it
33:52
and that's what the car had to weigh each week.
33:54
Well, I had all of us had our little deals we did when we went
33:59
to the we went to the physical. They wanted to do it at the
34:01
physical and weigh you because you need to have your clothes
34:04
off. Well, we had ingenious ways
34:07
because you keep your underwear on and sometimes your shoes and
34:09
socks. But man, I went down there one
34:11
time and I forgot all about weigh in.
34:14
Dude, I forgot all about weigh in.
34:16
Well, I stuffed my uniform, my underwear full of stuff.
34:20
I had a little piece of lid, some lid packets we had and all
34:23
this stuff and I stuffed in there.
34:25
We get down there and they're doing the physical and I could.
34:28
I figured out real quick I'm not going to have to take my uniform
34:31
off to be weighed, right? So I grabbed every There's
34:36
tongue lodges, as you know, that look like Popsicle sticks
34:39
things. There's two boxes, those things
34:41
on the on the on the on the shelf.
34:44
I grabbed those things and stuffed in me right there was
34:47
boxes of rubber glass. Everything in this little room I
34:51
stuffed in my soup. I went out there, got on the
34:54
scales and it hit dead nuts on the weight that I needed.
34:58
I wanted to be right. I mean dead nuts on the pound
35:03
and I got out of there when they come find out.
35:05
A lot of the guys had real ingenious ways of of of of
35:10
hiding weight, you know what I mean?
35:12
So I mean if you weighed 150 lbs and that meant you had to put
35:17
£50 in the car, but if you weighed 200 lbs that meant you
35:21
didn't have to put weight in the car, right?
35:23
But if you're 150 LB guy and you would have crossed those scales
35:27
in the in the in the physical weigh at 200 lbs or whatever you
35:32
do then you you know it was a big advantage.
35:34
So everybody was beating that rule for a while you know and I
35:37
don't remember maybe two or three years in cup we did that
35:42
and I guess they finally did away with that figured out.
35:45
So like right now the cars and I assume I assume that's that's
35:50
like that now that they don't weigh with the driver, I guess
35:53
somebody could tell me if it's wrong somebody in the garage
35:55
area. So you know if you're a 220 LB
35:58
guy race it against 150 LB guy that's £70 that you're giving up
36:04
as a disadvantage or an advantage and you you know
36:07
that's that's the you can't do that.
36:09
And the other part of it too, even with the weight adding the
36:11
weight to it, the guys that are heavier even though the car
36:15
doesn't have to weigh as much the weights not down in the fray
36:18
rail the weights up so your CG or center of gravity's higher,
36:22
right. So that's that's kind of a
36:23
disadvantage. So I don't know if that's what
36:26
it's about to answer your question Charlotte, I don't
36:28
know, but but you're you're exactly right in your your
36:32
assessment. So as you're describing that you
36:34
know guys maybe stuff in their their fire suits with with
36:38
gloves and stuff to to add weight.
36:40
I'm just thinking because I'm thinking of this is 3035 years
36:43
ago so So what was fitness like with drivers Was it even
36:48
something you guys thought about.
36:50
I mean I'm I'm I'm thinking of pictures you just mentioned the
36:53
Richard Petty playing softball smoking cigarette.
36:55
I'm I'm I'm picturing guys in the 80s smoking cigarettes
36:59
obviously drinking some beers after the race maybe you got to
37:02
dip in whatever it is. I mean who I I know Mark Martin
37:05
was really big into fitness. I've seen some pictures of back
37:08
in the day of him in the gym and all that.
37:09
So when when did that come along of guys whether I mean Jimmie
37:13
Johnson's doing bike races and marathons and all that.
37:16
When did that all start? It was prevalent and it nobody
37:20
knew it. OK it was prevalent but nobody
37:24
talked about it and it it was it it's it's weird ways transformed
37:28
over the years. Truck, it's like you don't you
37:31
don't show any weakness as a cup driver.
37:33
You can't show weakness in those days, man.
37:35
You did whatever. You did not show any weakness.
37:38
When Mark came along, he was probably the first one.
37:41
Mark had trouble with stamina early on in his career.
37:44
By the time he got the Cup, he had it figured out.
37:45
Man, he he's probably the hardest working guy in our
37:48
garage area as far as doing his workouts and doing his his
37:52
stuff. But you know, like my deal, you
37:56
know, I went, I was running the Bush series of my body and my
37:59
mind said I was always tuned into 200 laps or 200 miles or
38:03
whatever in the first, well, the first times I get in the Cup car
38:07
at A at a tough track is like Dover.
38:09
I said DK or Osha's old car, right.
38:11
And I'd run the Bush race on Saturday and we're running the
38:14
cup race on Sunday and it's hot that they hotter than heck.
38:17
And we're running. We're the race started.
38:18
We're running, we're running and we're running and we keep
38:20
running some more and I'm hot and I'm like, good Lord, right.
38:24
And I look up and I was like, bam, we ought to be 100 laps to
38:26
go, baby. I look up, we've run 240 laps of
38:30
a 500 lap race. I'm like, good God almighty,
38:34
right? Luckily for me, something
38:36
happened to the car after that. You don't have to fill out the
38:39
race, but from that I went to the guy's name is Joe Geek.
38:44
He's a, he's a head athletic trainer at University of
38:48
Virginia. Well, no respected guy in his
38:51
industry. He set me up on my program and I
38:53
started my program and my program basically, without
38:56
getting into all the details, it was at the hour depending on
38:59
where I was at and what I was able to do.
39:00
It was between an hour and 20 and an hour and an hour and 40
39:03
minutes every day, right? And it it, for me, it wasn't
39:07
about strength. It was about cardiovascular and
39:10
heat, right? Making the oxygen volcules work
39:13
properly in my bloodstream and all that.
39:15
So I I, you know, and I did that through my whole career, man.
39:17
I was an athlete, dude. You know, when they were trying
39:20
to figure out what was wrong with me when I got carbon
39:22
dioxide poison, one of the things they did was a stress
39:25
test, a heart deal, you know, and everybody said if you've
39:27
done this, you know what I'm talking about.
39:29
They they you get on a treadmill, right?
39:33
And you you pump that thing up and start running.
39:35
Well, my doctor was doing it or our the doctor.
39:38
I was doing it with the nurse. They kept cranking it up,
39:40
putting the incline up, cranking it up, putting the incline up.
39:43
I just running like because I'm used to.
39:44
That's what I did. I ran right One of the one of
39:46
the parts of my deal was running and anyhow they cut the thing
39:49
off. They measured the heart rate.
39:51
They did they die and all that. And I remember the doctor said,
39:53
looked at me, he said, Rick, he said, I don't know what's wrong
39:57
with you, but it ain't your heart.
39:58
You've got the heart of an 18 year old.
40:00
I said, well Doc, I do this every day.
40:02
This is part of my fitness route to eat.
40:04
He said, well, it's pretty remarkable, right?
40:07
So yeah. Gotcha.
40:11
OK, so you have the All Star race coming up, North
40:13
Wilkesboro, I'm sure you have some North Wilkesboro stories
40:17
and and just as we're telling stories and we're talking about
40:20
the the quote UN quote the the old days.
40:23
I think North Wilkesboro is another track where you just
40:25
look at it, you you look at the old pictures, it looks cool.
40:28
Obviously everybody was excited for it to come back and Dale
40:31
Earnhardt Junior kind of rejuvenated that, you know, kind
40:36
of on social media. The fans seem to be super
40:38
excited about it. So just give us your take on
40:40
Wilkesboro. Yeah, I mean, I it's great for a
40:42
sport. It's great.
40:43
It's great for the community of Wilkesboro of course you know
40:47
our, our, our deal is all about the the, the, the, the larger
40:50
view of DASCAR. But I I really think this this
40:53
helps the larger view of DASCAR. It gives, it gives people you
40:57
know, you got to think what got our sport so popular, what made
41:00
it so popular, right, what made it so popular and just think
41:03
about some of those things right.
41:05
Wilkesboro's right in the middle of all that, you know.
41:08
So to bring that back with fanfare right in in the All Star
41:12
race, I think it just it adds to the this feeling of nostalgia
41:18
but also bring nostalgia to the forefront of today at modern
41:23
times. And it I think it it kind of
41:26
ties things together a little bit.
41:28
But you know Wilkesboro's just well, there's old rough and
41:32
rumble race tracks, man, rough and tumble race tracks.
41:34
You go down there and if you were lucky enough to be in some
41:37
of those circles, you could go to Junior or Flossie's
41:39
breakfast, right? A lot of the guys used to go to
41:42
Flossie's, which is down from not far from the racetrack,
41:45
Junior Johnson headquarters and Junior's wife at that time,
41:49
Flossie, she fixed a big deal and a lot of the guys would go
41:51
out. I got to go twice.
41:53
It was such a cool experience, right?
41:55
That was that was one of the cool deals.
41:58
I'm going to tell you something Charlie.
42:00
The year was 1990 at Dover. I had just signed my first big
42:07
time whistle cup contract with Skull.
42:10
OK? And finally everything I dreamt
42:12
about, everything I've worked for for years.
42:15
It came through at Dover. We go to Wilkesboro and Travis
42:21
Carter had somebody driving for him.
42:23
I don't, I don't remember the circumstances.
42:25
Anyhow, Travis called me that week and asked if I would finish
42:28
the year out in his cup car, which I agreed to do.
42:31
So we go to Dover and we're running the lawn and somehow
42:37
another I get tied up with Harry Gantt, right?
42:44
The 33 school car. When it's all said and done,
42:48
we're sitting on the front stretch back in the wall tore up
42:50
and right beside me is the 33 school car tore up.
42:53
And I looked across the track and there sets the number one
42:57
school car tore up right? These are the cars.
43:00
This is a carbo drive next year and I'm sitting here thinking,
43:03
now I just signed with these dudes and I have just wrecked
43:07
both skull cars, right. They're going to fire my ass.
43:12
The the, the the Mr. Battle, the the main man watching this on
43:16
TV, they're going to fire me. I didn't took out both skull
43:19
cars. So we come in.
43:21
You remember the wrecks? The wreck happened really up in
43:24
the middle of three and four. I come in and get out of the car
43:26
and walk around. Johnny Hayes comes up to me
43:29
again. Johnny Hayes, our boss, he got
43:31
hired me to drive for him. He said Rick.
43:33
He said what happened up there? I said, well Johnny, so well,
43:37
all I could see was y'all spinning down the front
43:39
straight. I said you didn't see it how he
43:41
said no, I said that damn Rick Wilson.
43:43
I was up in that turn and Rick Wilson come in there and just
43:46
knock the crap out of me and that maybe wreck Harry And then
43:50
everything happened. Well, poor Rick Wilson.
43:52
Never was never. He never touched me right.
43:54
But I knew Johnny didn't see what happened to cause the
43:56
wreck. So I wouldn't go let know that I
43:58
would go let them know that I wreck Terry.
44:01
That was my fault. I said no, that dad and Rick
44:03
Wilson caused all that mess. Right.
44:05
So that was we were there one time running.
44:10
AI think it was a Bush race. Yeah.
44:11
And my son Ricky was little boy at the time And somehow another
44:15
my mom and dad, we we're all there.
44:17
Well, sometime during the day we couldn't they couldn't locate
44:21
Ricky, my son. So dad, he runs over to the gate
44:25
guard. There's only one gate woman one
44:27
way in and out of that race track.
44:28
He has the gate guard shut the gate, He gets his NASCAR.
44:32
Nobody's allowed in and out of this racetrack.
44:34
NASCAR jumps on it, right? It shuts down because you're
44:37
trying to find little Ricky mass, right?
44:39
Dad was afraid somebody picked him up and stolen.
44:41
But anyhow, he he found him. But just think of that for a
44:44
second. Charlie, an individual goes to a
44:48
gate at NASCAR and says shut the gate.
44:52
We're looking for a lost child, right?
44:54
And everybody, they shut all the gates.
44:56
Nobody can come in or out of this racetrack.
44:58
You know what I mean? It it it it think about trying
45:01
to do something like that today, you know, it's just, I don't
45:04
know, man. Just a different mindset on
45:05
things. Yeah I was trying to find the
45:08
the tweet from you here as you were as you were talking there.
45:11
I I thought I saw you we we had the news with with Michael
45:15
McDowell switching teams and in the last couple years this is
45:20
interesting and I'll I'll make the correlation to college
45:23
football bowl season which I also I I I don't like how the
45:27
transfer portal opens after the regular season starts and then
45:32
you have bowl games that in theory matter but but players
45:37
are already transferring right. They're leaving the team.
45:40
Now Kenny and I had a joke about this because it was Ohio State
45:42
versus Mizzou last year and Mizzou was excited about the
45:46
bowl game. Ohio State wanted to make the
45:48
College Football Playoff. Obviously they had a bunch of
45:51
dudes that already entered the transfer portal.
45:53
Now this is not a a great analogy to NASCAR, but the
45:56
reason I brought it up is it's odd to me that the NASCAR free
45:59
agency is starting or or is going on in the previous season,
46:04
right. And this happened especially two
46:06
years ago if you remember. I mean the the great storyline
46:11
for that whole season which would have been 20/22 was what
46:14
is Kyle Busch going to do. I mean, if you remember that
46:17
year, every week there was a press conference where there was
46:20
some news, was he going to leave JGR?
46:23
Where's he going to go? So, So what do you think about
46:25
this? And this happened with Tyler
46:27
Reddick obviously also where a couple years ago, you know he's
46:30
going to leave, they let him out of his contract early.
46:33
He goes from what, from Childress to 2311 and it's
46:36
happening during the NASCAR season.
46:39
What do you think about that? I don't know.
46:41
You know, the tweet was in our day.
46:43
You, you, you went to, it was just a just an unsaid thing.
46:47
You didn't talk to anybody. You didn't do anything.
46:50
You didn't worry about it or think about it until the first
46:53
Charlotte race was over. You you get to Charlotte before
46:58
any of that stuff would happen, even internal talks or you know,
47:02
because you we had three or four guys in the garage that were
47:04
connected with with like owners and you know they would start
47:08
putting feelers out and you kind of had to know who they were and
47:10
what they were up to. So but none of this stuff ever
47:13
happened till after Charlotte. It was.
47:15
It's like I don't know why who decided that the Charlotte May
47:18
or the Charlotte Spring race was was the deal.
47:21
But that's where nothing changed.
47:23
Nothing was talked about. Nothing happened.
47:25
Nothing went on till Charlotte when Charlotte was over.
47:29
Then it's open game. Then these little got these guys
47:32
that were representing thieves or whatever they would come by
47:35
throw a little hit in your ear what you doing next year, right.
47:38
And you know what that meant, you know and then it would take
47:41
a while. They, you know, they do that for
47:43
a couple bucks and and a lot of it was done that way with some
47:47
of these three or four guys and then that then everybody's
47:50
starting to get a feel for maybe who wasn't going to be there or
47:53
who was looking for a driver and all that.
47:56
And then that would, like I say, that would take a couple months
47:58
to play out. Then it would take a couple
48:00
months of actually maybe having a conversation with somebody,
48:03
right. And then that would lead into
48:06
get into the fall of the fall of the year and then things would
48:09
start getting serious the way because so many things would
48:12
have to happen for something to happen.
48:15
Yeah yeah like 1 driver would have to do this to make this
48:18
happen. The chain of events and you know
48:22
the deal with the deal with Reddick was really that was to
48:25
me was kind of it was really odd at that time he that I don't
48:29
know if it's odd but it was just different from the norm what we
48:32
used to do he he he said he's going to go to Gibbs the year
48:35
after right. Well the children said well hell
48:37
get the hell it out here now right.
48:39
Which I didn't blame. I didn't blame children for
48:41
that. And it worked out for children
48:43
and it worked out for Reddick. But you know, to to make that
48:46
announcement so early, like what they did, I think probably that
48:51
kind of set the tone for what McDowell just did, You know,
48:55
because we just never did that in the past.
48:57
And I don't know, it just, to me, it just, it's almost like
49:01
it's almost like trading deadline in baseball.
49:04
You know, we don't have that in our sport.
49:07
You know you start the year out with your team and your driver.
49:10
You're going to finish the year out with your team and your
49:12
driver unless something catastrophic goes on and gets
49:15
fired or hurt or injured right. But in baseball you know you
49:19
trade trade at the deadline and we don't do that.
49:22
But I I equate I equate what's going on with these guys making
49:26
announcements now is like the baseball trade deadline right?
49:30
You know you we don't have, we're not going to wait.
49:33
We're going to go ahead and say what our intentions are.
49:36
Yeah, I think what makes the Reddick situation so interesting
49:40
is and and you can make the the baseball analogy.
49:42
Like you said, maybe there's a guy who's going to hit free
49:45
agency and he plays for whoever the Oakland A's and you're
49:48
pretty Dang sure he's going to sign with the New York Yankees
49:51
after the season, but he doesn't sign with them during the
49:55
season. You know, it's not like, hey, in
49:57
2024, Joe Blow from Kokomo is going to play for the Orioles,
50:01
but he's already decided that in 2025 he's going to play for the
50:06
New York Yankees. And I think, I think what
50:09
Reddick in 2311 did, I think, I think they knew that situation
50:13
was going to be untenable and that they would let him out of
50:16
his contract because that's pretty crazy in in theory.
50:20
Tyler Reddick, when he made that announcement in theory, was
50:23
still going to have to drive for a year and a half basically for
50:26
Childress, but he had already made the announcement that he's
50:29
leaving. I mean that that's a different
50:31
situation. That's that's kind of crazy.
50:33
And you can understand why they're not going to let any
50:36
driver be a lame duck for a whole year when you've already
50:39
agreed to leave. Not that long.
50:41
It's too it's it's way too hard on the team.
50:44
Charlie, you you. I mean, gosh, how can I say?
50:47
I mean if if you're a team in Cup racing, it it's hard to
50:52
overstate the the what the cabottery, cabottery of the team
50:58
means as as being a team, right. We talk about teams all the time
51:01
and team sports. But to be bought in as a team
51:04
member, as a driver, as a owner. It's it's it's it's it's to be
51:10
sometimes it's mind boggling what where you got to put your
51:12
mindset to be bought into that situation to really be there and
51:17
be a part of it and to be able to excel and succeed right and
51:22
you've got to be bought into that and if you got a driver
51:25
says I'm going to I'm going to be here all next year.
51:27
But I believe the year after it it it undermines all those
51:31
thought processes. You're not.
51:33
You are not. I don't give a damn what they
51:35
say. You are not going to give 100%
51:38
to that deal. Whether it be the the guy
51:41
changed the tire, the guy tightening the wrenches, the guy
51:45
paying the bills, the car owner, right.
51:47
It it it's just not. You might give 99.999% and say
51:52
you're given 100, but you're really not doing it right and
51:55
it's just it's impossible to make that work.
51:58
So you know when when Redick did that deal, I'm like man, I don't
52:01
know about this. This ain't going to work.
52:03
And children, children took care of it.
52:05
He understood that too. Yeah, it seems like we do see
52:08
that though. Like I remember in the what in
52:10
the Xfinity or or Truck Series in the last, I think it was more
52:14
so Xfinity you'd see at the end of the year, right.
52:16
There'd been some announcements where some guys are going to are
52:19
going to leave and then maybe your your teammate that year,
52:23
who's not going to be your teammate next year, you don't
52:25
really treat him like a teammate at the end of the season, the
52:28
guys already leaving, which again it's an awkward situation.
52:31
I do think it kind of opens up some some interesting storylines
52:35
at the end of the year though. It does.
52:37
And Atlanta was the deal, man. I mean in the year that the year
52:42
that we're trying to do the third team with Richard
52:45
Childress. When Richard talked to me about
52:46
it and I had made so many bone ass moves in my career, I
52:50
thought that's what I want to try to do right.
52:53
And but we go to Atlanta and I had two teams want me to drive
52:57
for them next year. But I did.
52:59
I I wanted to drive for Richard. So I I put those two teams off
53:03
Well, they gave me you know they said well come Atlanta you got
53:06
to give us an answer at Atlanta that weekend.
53:08
The last race, right. So the last race at Atlanta, I
53:11
said I can't, you know, I'm going to stick with with Richard
53:14
still. I'm not going to do this.
53:15
Right. And then the deal with Richards
53:16
fell through a little bit later because of sponsorship issues.
53:19
But you know, there's two teams looking a driver for next year
53:25
and they were holding out till the last race of the year to
53:27
make that decision, right? I mean that's that's the way it
53:30
was done in those states, Charlie.
53:32
Yeah. And a lot of it was because you
53:34
don't want to upset what you've got going on right now.
53:37
For sure. Understandable.
53:38
All right, we're going to, we're going to cut it a little, a
53:40
little shorter. We got some obligations, you
53:43
know, we got family stuff, we got work stuff.
53:45
It's all good. But we're almost staying close
53:47
to an hour. So Rick, this was fun, man.
53:49
We'll do it again next week. Great to see you and it was
53:52
great to see you having all the fun at the the alumni deal and
53:55
some of your clips were going viral on Twitter and all that.
53:58
So it's awesome to see and we'll talk to you next week, man.
54:01
All right, Charlie. Peace out, everybody.