Latest / Top Row Racing Media Monday Night Rewind / Monday Night Rewind | Episode 9 | Evan Verduin | Frank Gasko | Tyler Hufford

Transcript

Monday Night Rewind | Episode 9 | Evan Verduin | Frank Gasko | Tyler Hufford · Top Row Racing Media Monday Night Rewind

• 0:58
  All right, hold on, guys, because it says that we're not
• 1:01
  on Facebook. You're not on Facebook.
• 1:06
  Yeah, it says we're having trouble streaming the Facebook.
• 1:09
  This may be an issue and Facebook said is it possible the
• 1:11
  stream was ended or deleted on Facebook all right oh, we might
• 1:17
  have to we might have to say this again.
• 1:21
  Let's. See.
• 1:24
  Let me check something real quick.
• 1:27
  I'll tell you if it's on. I'll tell you if it's on your
• 1:29
  end or it's definitely on your end.
• 1:32
  I want to try to reboot it. Yeah, we'll save changes here
• 1:36
  and see what we can do. So we're.
• 1:38
  Trying. We got 2 viewers now we're live
• 1:40
  somewhere. Oh, we're just now on Facebook.
• 1:43
  It says check mark. So let's try this again on
• 1:45
  yours. So we're gonna remove yours.
• 1:48
  Remove. And we'll try this again.
• 1:50
  Well, that's quite the welcome here.
• 1:52
  So people are probably thinking, what the heck are we watching?
• 1:57
  Yeah, we're live now, so. We're live, all right?
• 1:59
  Yep. No.
• 2:01
  This, this, this is AW technology.
• 2:03
  We're not going. To yeah, it's Dan Hausen, he he
• 2:07
  cursed us. But anyways, guys, so it is
• 2:10
  still not money to go to national compacts.
• 2:12
  But you said we're on Facebook though.
• 2:14
  Yeah, we're on your. We're on your page.
• 2:16
  OK. Well, Drew, we're going to
• 2:17
  remove national compacts because it wants to, it wants to be
• 2:21
  frustrating, but well, that's quite the welcome.
• 2:24
  So again, guys, welcome to the Monday Night Rewind.
• 2:27
  It is maybe I don't know weird stuff, but be sure to check in
• 2:33
  and let us know that you can hear us and see us.
• 2:37
  Sheldon, we are on YouTube. I do know that for sure, but it
• 2:40
  sounds like we're on Facebook. We're not on national compacts
• 2:43
  tonight for some reason, it is not wanting to connect, but at
• 2:45
  least we're on the the top row racing meet at Facebook.
• 2:48
  As far as I can tell if we've confirmed that.
• 2:51
  So I haven't seen anyone pop in the comments yet but but again,
• 2:55
  you can confirm other than that, good.
• 3:02
  I'm I'm watching this on top row racing.
• 3:03
  Media all right, I mean you know I I was editing for 24 hours
• 3:10
  everything right so of course it's when I'm tired that it
• 3:12
  wants to give some frustration where it's like, you know it's
• 3:15
  going to test my patience here and and like I said I'm just
• 3:18
  tired from 24 hours straight. So I finally went to bed at 99
• 3:23
  AM this morning after everything was uploaded to YouTube.
• 3:25
  So I'm like I don't have time for this to be frustrating but
• 3:31
  anyways, let's talk about who we have tonight.
• 3:34
  So the first guest that we have coming up in just a few minutes
• 3:38
  is Evan Verdine from Verdine Racing, racing Eazy E.
• 3:42
  And then things are going to get a little wild and crazy over
• 3:44
  here where we have Frank Gasco coming on at 735 from Classic
• 3:48
  Rock, 97.7 Russell's and 40 Speedway.
• 3:51
  And for new Paris fans, the Mexibility.
• 3:54
  If you're a knighted destruction fan, you know all about him.
• 3:56
  But Frank has done other racing and does a lot of other things.
• 3:59
  So excited to talk with him. And then we were supposed to
• 4:02
  have Rich Bowl tonight to make a huge announcement and he some
• 4:05
  wants to make that announcement, but he's getting ready to go to
• 4:07
  Florida and he has a lot of things to do, including cars to
• 4:10
  get ready because they don't get back until next week and racing
• 4:13
  starts next week and and he's out to chase the championship.
• 4:17
  So he said, hey man, hate to do this to you, but can we
• 4:20
  reschedule? I don't even know that I'll be
• 4:21
  home. So I said sure, absolutely.
• 4:23
  So then I reached out to Tyler Hoffer who just won convincingly
• 4:27
  on Saturday over at the Russell's M40 Speedway and he's
• 4:30
  a former champion at Corgan Oil Speedway.
• 4:32
  So he'll be on at about eight O 5.
• 4:35
  So again, we have quite the line up.
• 4:37
  And just to give people an idea of what to expect coming up on
• 4:41
  April 13th, we have Eric Hefner fresh off of the night of
• 4:45
  destruction at the new pair Speedway.
• 4:46
  The new pair shark. Everybody knows when the shark
• 4:49
  lines up and ready to come out because the crowd will let us
• 4:52
  know that the shark has arrived. And so we have Aaron Hafner.
• 4:56
  He'll be there. He's also raised front wheel
• 4:57
  drive Hornets over at New Paris at from time to time.
• 5:01
  And then another front wheel drive racer.
• 5:03
  We have DJ Mccotter, who kind of took the opposite pathway with
• 5:06
  Six Never Quits. It started in the night of
• 5:08
  Destructions at South Bend, fell in love with it and decided to
• 5:12
  go weekly racing. And so he will be on AT735635.
• 5:16
  His time, we'll have a central post.
• 5:19
  We'll go to the central time zone from DJ Mcconnor on.
• 5:22
  And then we have the Midwest Truck Series from Wisconsin.
• 5:25
  He'll be joining us at seven O 5, their time, eight O 5, our
• 5:29
  time over here in Michigan and most of Indiana.
• 5:32
  And then by popular demand, on April 27th, we have Ron Brash
• 5:37
  Part 3 or Part 2. There will probably be a Part 3
• 5:41
  because he has a lot to talk about.
• 5:42
  And then we'll also have on May 4th.
• 5:46
  Oh wait, did I say April? No, that's the 20th.
• 5:48
  Never mind I thought I messed up.
• 5:49
  OK, April 27th, so 420 anyone want to lol that one right?
• 5:56
  4/20 was that. And then April 27th we'll have
• 5:59
  Rod Brash Part 2 like I said from stock Heart Stream.
• 6:02
  And then on May 4th, the 4th will be with us at Hartford
• 6:05
  where Tim Dibble will be joining.
• 6:07
  So again, we have quite the lineup that is coming up on the
• 6:11
  Monday Night Rewind. Again, usually live at 7:00 PM
• 6:15
  on Facebook and YouTube. But tonight Facebook wanted to
• 6:17
  give us a little bit of a headache, but we're live,
• 6:20
  numbers are climbing. So we have Buju, owner of
• 6:23
  Bullring Chronicles, we have Good Jack, owner of national
• 6:26
  compact touring series, Midwest Compact touring series, Great
• 6:28
  Lakes memorabilia, Great Lakes Promotions and Race Reach Media,
• 6:32
  and then of course myself, Lewis, owner of Top Row Racing
• 6:35
  Media. So now that we got all the bugs
• 6:37
  and kinks worked out, how are you guys doing tonight?
• 6:40
  Fantastic. Doing all right, still
• 6:42
  recovering from this weekend and it never stops because now we're
• 6:48
  working on Kalamazoo's Intimidator 100 and trying to
• 6:52
  prepare for the race season this year, so.
• 6:55
  Yeah, I'm still buzzing from a good show on Saturday.
• 6:58
  I'm excited for The Intimidator on Friday.
• 7:00
  I'll be up there watching. So yeah, we're we're finally in
• 7:03
  race season now. Oh well, and I'm excited cause
• 7:06
  the sound worked. I got, I got the sound to
• 7:08
  connect to the PA at, at and 40. I spent a few extra dollars that
• 7:12
  I could figure out and find out and we got that to work.
• 7:16
  So again, hopefully all season we'll have then the PA system
• 7:19
  directly going into the my videos.
• 7:21
  And so it seemed to work out well.
• 7:23
  People are complimenting it. And then like, man, we wish you
• 7:25
  were doing this a while, but it's like, it takes time and
• 7:27
  money, you know, to get there and especially money to get
• 7:31
  these. But that was like a $13 part.
• 7:33
  And so I'm like, I could do that, you know?
• 7:36
  And so that's how it came out. Just nice.
• 7:38
  But like I said, 24 hours of editing, you know, pushing
• 7:42
  through -15 minutes for dinner. I'm like, I'm exhausted.
• 7:46
  So I just keep waiting for like, Thunder and lightning to start
• 7:49
  hitting us while we're on the show.
• 7:51
  But with that said, since we are a few minutes behind here, are
• 7:55
  we ready to jump right in and get Evan on?
• 7:57
  Yes, Sir. All right, And then my graphics
• 8:00
  were out of order on the other side, so we're showing Evan for
• 8:02
  a little bit. But anyways, let's bring on Evan
• 8:05
  for dying. So again, Evan, welcome to the
• 8:08
  Monday Night Rewind. Thank you for having me.
• 8:11
  So for those who don't know who you are, that's my favorite
• 8:15
  question that I always like to start off with before we start
• 8:17
  shooting from the hips and Amen. Second, who are you for those
• 8:21
  who don't know who you are other than you have a really popular
• 8:24
  viral St. stock all the time? Yeah, so Treestock Racer up in
• 8:31
  northern Indiana for the most part, sometimes venture up in
• 8:34
  the Michigan tracks. We'll get to that, hopefully a
• 8:37
  little bit more this year. Fuji's wrapping the shirt.
• 8:42
  Tonight and well, you've raced that new Paris, Kalamazoo too.
• 8:48
  So when you came up to Kalamazoo, what was that like
• 8:50
  when you came up north? Kalamazoo is a real fun track.
• 8:54
  I just can't figure it out. That track stumps me all the
• 8:57
  time. None of my families race there,
• 9:00
  so we go in there borrowing a lot.
• 9:01
  Just. Hoping for the best.
• 9:05
  And that's the thing that's so nice about Kalamazoo and
• 9:07
  interesting. I hear that from a lot of
• 9:09
  drivers even, I mean, I've heard it from like Austin Maynard, who
• 9:12
  obviously, I mean he won a freaking Bristol Motor Speedway
• 9:15
  and, and did pretty well with the CRA St.
• 9:18
  Stock group. But you know, he's even
• 9:20
  struggled a little bit up there and, and he's won too.
• 9:22
  I mean, he's certainly had success, but there's a lot of
• 9:25
  people they say if you can win at Kalamazoo or do well at
• 9:28
  Kalamazoo, you can, you can be pretty successful in other
• 9:31
  places too. So I know it's always fun when
• 9:33
  you come up there to Kalamazoo just 'cause I don't get to watch
• 9:36
  you race as often as I would like to.
• 9:38
  But when you, even when you come to New Paris like that last year
• 9:43
  you did Flagger Boy for the first time.
• 9:44
  What was that like? Because you made that high side
• 9:46
  work that nobody else was. That new Paris was like one of
• 9:51
  the funnest races I've ran all that season, you know, never
• 9:55
  been there and then somehow making the top work, which isn't
• 9:59
  really new. Paris ain't notorious for that.
• 10:04
  I had no idea what I was doing going in there but I knew I was
• 10:07
  in a transfer spot but the door open to possibly get the win so
• 10:11
  I had to take it. Yeah, Jason Seltzer, I don't
• 10:14
  know if you remember, but he, I think he got on Facebook right
• 10:17
  away or commented somewhere. He said you just went, you know,
• 10:21
  you just, I forget it. It's exact hope.
• 10:24
  But he was like, you just did something that a lot of people
• 10:27
  don't do at New Paris and you just stuck it up top.
• 10:29
  And when that caution came out, you know, I tell people like
• 10:32
  Scott Gates is in here and he was racing for the lead on
• 10:35
  Saturday. And obviously I support him.
• 10:37
  I'm friends with him. But when I'm at the track, I'm
• 10:39
  neutral. And because, you know, I'm the
• 10:41
  video guy, I don't want someone thinking that I have bias.
• 10:44
  But but obviously there are people who internally I'm
• 10:47
  supporting and internally I'm rooting for.
• 10:49
  And when that caution came out, I went, this is not what I
• 10:52
  wanted, but you know, and obviously you got the win there.
• 10:56
  But I'm like, this is not how that was supposed to go.
• 11:00
  But I had to be neutral, you know, because I'm cheering you
• 11:02
  on up top. So that was pretty fun.
• 11:04
  Yeah, when that caution came out, I remember I like, I don't
• 11:07
  like that. And I was like, we just got the
• 11:10
  camera in my car, still I can't. Can't be that yeah, sometimes
• 11:15
  people forget that. Make it fun for me to watch,
• 11:20
  though, or sometimes when I have to make the sound go away,
• 11:22
  people are like, what was sad? I know, but I'm not telling, you
• 11:26
  know, like there's a lot that there's quite a bit that I catch
• 11:29
  on camera that sometimes people like, well, you'll have to edit
• 11:32
  this part out. And I said, if I got a well, I
• 11:35
  guess you can't be pennies anymore, but if I got a nickel,
• 11:38
  you know, for every time I was told that I might actually be
• 11:40
  able to fund everything 100%. So you know, like it happens all
• 11:44
  the time. So but that you could still see
• 11:48
  a little bit of your reaction though, on that, you know, from
• 11:51
  the onboard camera, because that was something that up top and
• 11:54
  like this is not what we needed right now.
• 11:56
  But but you got it and you're already in that transfer spot.
• 11:59
  I mean, you were hooked in. So what was what, you know,
• 12:02
  other than feeling frustrated with caution?
• 12:04
  What was it like going through your head where you're like
• 12:07
  that, right? I kind of think like the Hornet
• 12:09
  race a few years ago where I think you had missed Paul thing
• 12:12
  or whatever, had to come in late, got put at the tail and
• 12:16
  you know, you're racing the hell out of that Hornet.
• 12:18
  And the next thing you know, you know, you come around and
• 12:20
  they're like, here's a speeding ticket.
• 12:23
  You know, it's like you're when you're that close.
• 12:26
  Yeah, that one is that one. That one would have been my
• 12:29
  first feature win in a big car at South Bend.
• 12:32
  Yeah. Just never got that feature win
• 12:34
  yet but. Yeah.
• 12:38
  Well, do you want to talk a little bit about your family
• 12:40
  history at South Bend? Because again, you did mini
• 12:42
  wedges there like you raised mini wedges and you then you
• 12:45
  moved on to Hornets and then St. Stocks, but your family history
• 12:48
  goes way deep at South Bend. Yeah, so my grandpa started
• 12:54
  racing there. My great grandpa started racing
• 12:56
  there a long time ago. And you know, he's kind of made
• 13:02
  a name for himself like just throughout our family, talking
• 13:05
  about him, sharing about him, him driving the tow truck for
• 13:08
  years there. And then my dad raced there, my
• 13:11
  uncle raced there, cousins, all of them.
• 13:15
  And and obviously I picked it up too.
• 13:18
  I started there in many wedges and 2020 I think it was.
• 13:26
  And. Hornets St. stocks, Hopefully
• 13:29
  I'm able to keep going there. Hopefully the track keeps going.
• 13:35
  Hopefully we get to live on a little bit longer there for
• 13:38
  future generations to see it. I was, I know Evan a little
• 13:42
  better than everyone else here and I was trying to do a quick
• 13:44
  head count on how many family members he has that race in
• 13:46
  South Bend that have race at South Bend.
• 13:49
  I lost count at about 12 I think.
• 13:51
  So the family history runs pretty deep for Evan and I know
• 13:54
  the history is important to you Evan, because me and you were
• 13:56
  part of cleaning up South Bend last year to get it back in
• 13:59
  shape to have shows. So I know that place has a lot
• 14:03
  of meaning to you, but you are looking to branch out a little
• 14:05
  more. So with that race at South Bend
• 14:08
  next month that you're looking forward to, what else are you
• 14:10
  looking forward to on your schedule beyond maybe just your
• 14:12
  home tracks this year? All right, you said that point.
• 14:15
  South Bend. Obviously I got to run the big
• 14:19
  shows that I can, you know, like flagger boy at New Paris.
• 14:22
  That's I have to go back to it after last year.
• 14:25
  That was so fun. Hopefully I can go up to Kamazoo
• 14:28
  for something. Raven Rumble probably isn't in
• 14:31
  the books for me because it's on Wednesday and that's I know it's
• 14:35
  going to be a struggle for a lot of people with work and.
• 14:38
  Yeah, you're a working man now. Yeah, girl.
• 14:41
  I don't know how people do it now.
• 14:45
  He's about, he's about a month employed.
• 14:46
  He's beating him down. Come on though.
• 14:54
  Well, do you want to talk a little bit for those who don't
• 14:56
  know, right, Because you've helped paint the wall again at
• 14:59
  South Bend when that refresh is coming.
• 15:01
  I know the for those who may not know, because I know there are
• 15:04
  people who follow South Bend and follow Plymouth and all that.
• 15:07
  And I know quite a few people who are disenfranchised from all
• 15:09
  of that with some different reasons.
• 15:11
  And so people may not know what's going on, but I know the
• 15:14
  track was just announced for sale.
• 15:16
  Both tracks are announced for sale again that until it sells
• 15:19
  that it it you know, they'll racing will continue.
• 15:21
  There's no alterations. But but again, you have even
• 15:25
  more of a personal connection with that, not only with your
• 15:28
  family, but even all the way back to the tow truck days,
• 15:31
  right. But and then racing there, but
• 15:33
  you helped paint the wall. You know you've done a lot where
• 15:36
  you are like you're personally invested.
• 15:40
  Yeah, it when we went and helped paint the wall that that's
• 15:44
  originally what it was just supposed to be.
• 15:45
  We were just going to go paint the wall.
• 15:47
  That turned out to be a whole lot more work than we thought it
• 15:49
  was. Like we just were like, oh,
• 15:51
  we're just going to touch it up now.
• 15:52
  We painted the whole thing because, you know, we got picky
• 15:55
  and wanted to look perfect. I'm glad we did.
• 15:58
  It still looks pretty decent after the nods and stuff.
• 16:01
  Then we ended up replacing Bleacher boards and touching up
• 16:04
  paint on the outside, stuff of the track and really anything we
• 16:09
  could clean up, pick up. We shoveled dirt out of the
• 16:12
  backstretch grandstands. We were getting so picky.
• 16:15
  Like I think we helped to come back a lot.
• 16:20
  So now I'm going to interrupt here so it doesn't look like I'm
• 16:22
  a bump on a log here. So ask a lot of questions to a
• 16:26
  lot of different drivers this, but got some great home tracks
• 16:28
  around your area, Plymouth, South Bend, New Paris, those are
• 16:31
  home. If you had an opportunity to
• 16:33
  race somewhere, where is the track that you'd want to go to
• 16:37
  that you would not get to race in this region?
• 16:43
  I don't know, like maybe Owosso or Berlin, those seem like some
• 16:53
  really different tracks. You know, Owosso has a really
• 16:57
  professional setting too. Like they have a big name.
• 17:01
  Berlin, I heard is really hard, you know, but they have a lot of
• 17:04
  big events there. That'd be just something cool to
• 17:06
  race on the same track that, you know, a lot of these big guys
• 17:09
  have kind of see what they've been through.
• 17:15
  Now, now with the lighter side of things, what's the most
• 17:17
  embarrassing thing that's happened to you on the racetrack
• 17:19
  or at a racetrack? And.
• 17:26
  Now you got me thinking too. I know what this one is here.
• 17:32
  My first shooter, St. Socks, I believe it was Scotty
• 17:36
  Gardner driving Ritual St. Stock and somebody else wrecked.
• 17:40
  They got into a big wreck. And I'm new to St.
• 17:42
  Socks. It's probably like my fourth
• 17:43
  night in it maybe. And I just got out of Hornets.
• 17:46
  So you know, they they stop real quick.
• 17:48
  They're real white. They're you can blame on the
• 17:51
  brakes and still turn. St.
• 17:53
  Socks don't do that. So I got on the brakes and tried
• 17:56
  to turn and I just plowed right into them.
• 17:58
  I was in the back all by myself. I looked like an idiot
• 18:01
  afterwards. Beat myself up for a little bit
• 18:05
  that that was a really rough night, but I learned not to do
• 18:08
  that ever again. One, one other quick question,
• 18:12
  then I'll turn it back over to the boys.
• 18:13
  So you have a lot of history in your racing family, a lot of
• 18:17
  mentors. So let's think outside of the
• 18:19
  box of your family racing. Who is something that you
• 18:23
  idolize other than your family growing up and watching races
• 18:27
  that can be short track nationally?
• 18:31
  So a big one like local track wise was Brian Ross.
• 18:36
  I used to like he was my go to guy all the time when I was
• 18:39
  younger. When the Outlaws ran, I was
• 18:42
  always pulling for him. Nationally, I was a big Jimmy
• 18:49
  Johnson fan, so NASCAR wise he was definitely my guy there and
• 18:55
  or dirt track wise, even Scott Bloomquist was my guy.
• 19:00
  That's. Pretty cool that you mentioned
• 19:02
  Scott Bloomquist because that's as an asphalt racer.
• 19:05
  Not many would mention that. And he certainly got a chance to
• 19:08
  meet him at Kalamazoo. He's a very tall fellow, I will
• 19:10
  give you that. Yeah, I've met him at Bristol
• 19:13
  Dirt. That was pretty cool.
• 19:14
  At least I got to meet him before that, you know?
• 19:18
  So now, now that I got you thinking, Boogie, ask some
• 19:21
  questions. Think I was.
• 19:23
  When Andy asked the what track would you like to run, I was
• 19:26
  waiting for an outdoor or something like that because I
• 19:28
  know how big of a dirt fan you are, but I mean.
• 19:31
  I was thinking realistically what I got right now.
• 19:34
  Fair enough. But fair enough.
• 19:37
  Your dirt car's definitely in in the books.
• 19:41
  Sounds fun to me. What was the inspiration for
• 19:43
  your number You run #72 what was the inspiration behind that?
• 19:47
  You know, there, there really was no inspiration how I came up
• 19:50
  with it. I Remember Me and my dad were on
• 19:52
  our way home from getting a go Kart body from I think it was
• 19:57
  like Eminem chassis. I remember their logo was M&M
• 20:00
  something. But we were thinking of numbers
• 20:04
  and I was like, oh, I want to run #3 because you know, my
• 20:06
  uncle ran #3 and Dale Senior and all that, such a such a well
• 20:10
  known number and short track racing.
• 20:12
  And he was like, no, you need to pick something that.
• 20:15
  Not many people have, you know, make it your own.
• 20:18
  I said 72, put it on my go Kart and just stuck with it ever
• 20:22
  since. Well.
• 20:25
  Do you want to give a little bit of the history too, of like even
• 20:27
  the street stock that you're racing and how that all came to
• 20:30
  be? Because for a lot of people,
• 20:31
  right, that's a pretty famous St.
• 20:33
  Stock that you're racing and it may not look like the pictures
• 20:36
  that it that it looked like in the past.
• 20:39
  Yeah, that. So my dad originally built that
• 20:41
  car. That was his first rated car and
• 20:44
  then later down the line it got sold to the Streamys and my last
• 20:52
  year Hornets. We were looking to get out of
• 20:54
  it. We're going to upgrade and
• 20:57
  somebody talked to my dad at South Bend and was like, hey, I
• 20:59
  got that car and we got it thinking we'd be able to kind of
• 21:04
  update a little bit of stuff and then throw a motor in it and
• 21:07
  run. But we we cut it all the way
• 21:09
  down to the fair chassis and redid everything.
• 21:13
  So really we bought just the just the frame.
• 21:18
  See, one thing about Mike and Evan Verdine is they're
• 21:20
  perfectionists and that car is not going to show up to the
• 21:24
  track if it isn't perfect. So how how much of it was needed
• 21:28
  versus how much of it had to do is the question.
• 21:33
  But so, yeah, we asked about your number.
• 21:36
  Lewis mentioned earlier mini wedges.
• 21:38
  You had a lot of success in mini wedges, mostly at South Bend.
• 21:41
  You never ran Plymouth in mini wedges, right?
• 21:43
  Yeah, I did. It was it was third, but oh.
• 21:46
  I got you. I did run Kaylee's before though
• 21:49
  when it was asphalt. I was aged out already though,
• 21:52
  so they just let me play around pretty much with the other kids
• 21:55
  around. I got you see a lot of
• 21:57
  successes. South Bend won a cup
• 21:58
  championship in mini wedges there, but you race even before
• 22:00
  that in go karts that on dirt. So if you want to talk about
• 22:04
  that a little bit. Yeah, I don't remember a ton of
• 22:07
  it from that, but I used to run flat karts at Akron Speedway and
• 22:15
  I don't remember how old I was, maybe like 5 or 6, but I
• 22:19
  remember I was terrified of it and then got in and then loved
• 22:23
  it. And we ended up upgrading to a
• 22:24
  cage cart that I don't remember too much about that.
• 22:29
  I remember we were really low on car counts a lot, so I'd run
• 22:33
  with like the higher up class and they would blow my doors off
• 22:36
  all the time, but I was still still trying to run with them,
• 22:38
  but wasn't really in that caliber.
• 22:44
  Oh, I I did run with Jaden Kritasi there too when he was in
• 22:48
  cage carts. I remember running with him a
• 22:50
  couple times. So with the streets.
• 22:54
  Sorry, Bruce, go ahead. No, you can go.
• 22:58
  All right, so with Street Stocks being one of the toughest
• 23:00
  classes in this region, the best racing around, there's a lot of
• 23:05
  rivalries that develop. Have you developed a rivalry
• 23:07
  with any certain racer locally? I don't know this, I'm just
• 23:12
  asking. So no, that's my question.
• 23:16
  I don't think I have like any like ongoing rivalries like, you
• 23:19
  know, you'll have a bad night with the driver and you get
• 23:22
  worked up and then end of the day, we, we don't have a team
• 23:27
  owner or car owner. We all work on our own stuff,
• 23:29
  buy our own stuff. We can't go out there and wreck
• 23:32
  each other every week and you know, cost ourselves money and
• 23:35
  time and not everybody has the money to fix their cars.
• 23:38
  And we were supposed to go and have fun.
• 23:42
  I'll tell a quick story. I remember a night at Plymouth
• 23:45
  last year. It was a hot night, One of those
• 23:47
  nights where everybody's, you know, PO tempers are flaring
• 23:49
  already, Everybody's running and everybody on the track.
• 23:54
  Evan and Rich Bowl got into it a little bit, and Evan pulls into
• 23:59
  the pits and he gets out of the car and he runs straight down to
• 24:02
  Rich Bowl's trailer. Now, I'm not talking trash Evan,
• 24:05
  but my friend Evan's a little guy.
• 24:08
  He just. He just.
• 24:09
  Goes running right into Rich Balls trailer by himself and I'm
• 24:12
  thinking, Oh no, so I know running down there.
• 24:15
  Luckily they're just shaking hands.
• 24:17
  They're squashing the beef, as he said, but yeah.
• 24:20
  That. Mentioned rivalries.
• 24:21
  That story came to mind. Drew.
• 24:24
  I wasn't being a complete idiot. I was.
• 24:26
  I was. Just at the moment.
• 24:28
  I was my car was running so good that night and I couldn't get
• 24:32
  around rich for the life of me and my right front the hub
• 24:35
  broke. So, you know, like I had to get
• 24:38
  towed off the track, you know, the right front's dangling.
• 24:41
  I was running 4th when that happened and I was mad at Rich
• 24:44
  Bull. He didn't do nothing wrong my.
• 24:47
  Car. Broke.
• 24:48
  And you know, it's just one of those moments where you had such
• 24:52
  good potential and then something that happens like that
• 24:55
  out of your control. So I had to go apologize to Rich
• 24:59
  after that. I lost.
• 25:02
  The. Cool heads prevailed.
• 25:06
  No, no WrestleMania moments in the in the hallway.
• 25:10
  I was, yeah, I was. I was glad I didn't have to make
• 25:12
  the save. What's the So here's an
• 25:17
  interesting question for as a racer.
• 25:20
  Let's just say a certain promoter may put a race down in
• 25:24
  February, right around speed weeks, maybe the weekend before,
• 25:30
  and we invited St. Stocks to race with that.
• 25:32
  Do you think the region down here would come down there and
• 25:35
  support that in February? Yeah, I feel like some guys
• 25:39
  would, I will say you, you have to put it out in advance because
• 25:43
  a lot of us local guys, we, we slack and slack and a lot of
• 25:47
  cars ain't done before February. All right, good, good notes.
• 25:53
  We're working on something. Drew's I was gonna say Drew's up
• 25:55
  to something. But Speaking of up to something,
• 25:57
  I know on your wall you have a quite a few things behind you.
• 26:00
  Do you want to talk about some of your passions that you know
• 26:02
  you've been able to do some replica things that you've made
• 26:05
  for people just to kind of give them the idea of things that
• 26:07
  you've done not only on the track and why you like painting
• 26:10
  the wall at South Bend. And you had the talent for that,
• 26:12
  but the the Hot Wheels, everything that you used to
• 26:15
  paint. Yeah, so I when I was younger I
• 26:18
  used to paint little hot wheel cars like weight models.
• 26:22
  St. Stocks used to paint the drivers
• 26:24
  their cars, just give them to them for free.
• 26:26
  Because I was young and I I just liked the attention of of
• 26:30
  drivers and just have what having them talk to me like, you
• 26:35
  know, bigger names. Like when I was younger, I used
• 26:39
  to like, love watching Austin Maynard in the sportsmen's.
• 26:42
  So I I made him a car before I made Ji think I made like every
• 26:47
  Maynard their car. I was a big fanboy back then.
• 26:54
  I know I made a couple Outlaws, the street side guys, front
• 26:59
  wheel drive guys and then it ended up turning into like a
• 27:01
  little business I made and I was like I was like 12 bucks and I'm
• 27:05
  like oh, $10 a car and then it's taken me like 3 hours to do it.
• 27:10
  I got older. I'm like this ain't worth my
• 27:12
  time. I don't have to pay, you know.
• 27:16
  It was really cool though when I like it was cool seeing the
• 27:19
  final product once I was done with them.
• 27:23
  But even both you and your sister are creative, right?
• 27:26
  Like I know she's working on some different things.
• 27:28
  And that's something that I mean, just you both, I know your
• 27:31
  mom is very proud of you guys. And we tried to get Stephanie on
• 27:33
  here. She was not a fan of, you know,
• 27:36
  maybe being public speaking wise.
• 27:38
  So we weren't able to get her. But obviously she does
• 27:41
  incredible photography. But I, you know, I know with
• 27:45
  what you guys all do, right? I mean, you, you all are
• 27:48
  creative and you even design your own St. stocks and, and you
• 27:53
  try to challenge yourself every time.
• 27:55
  And like I said, it's a viral St. stock.
• 27:58
  I, I have numbers to prove it. So, you know, so do you even
• 28:01
  want to talk a little bit about, because I know we're getting
• 28:03
  close here and I know Frank's going to pop on in just a few
• 28:06
  minutes, but do you want to even talk a little bit about like
• 28:08
  what it takes for you to create your street stock design?
• 28:12
  I mean, when it comes to my street stock design, I've had
• 28:15
  other people offer to, oh, can I, can I design your car for you
• 28:19
  and stuff? And I, I just really don't like
• 28:24
  letting somebody else take the credit of a good looking car.
• 28:27
  You know, that might be selfish of me or something, but I really
• 28:31
  like to make everything my own. I don't want it to be duplicated
• 28:34
  in any way, you know, and I make a lot of them on my games or
• 28:39
  I'll draw them up on a piece of paper And this, I don't know,
• 28:43
  colors and designs, just kind of I'll just have to write them
• 28:47
  down or draw them something well for.
• 28:54
  Someone who does stick figures like I do, right, that under
• 28:58
  that is not my that's not my talent to do those kind of
• 29:01
  things. I'm obviously creative in other
• 29:02
  ways that, you know, with the videography and everything,
• 29:05
  which I say I kind of make it up as I go, you know, I'm still
• 29:08
  learning all the tricks from the trade.
• 29:09
  But but when I see when people do drawings and some different
• 29:13
  things, like I know your sister's going to be doing card
• 29:16
  drawings, I'm like, no, that's not a that's not a me thing,
• 29:21
  right? So I always it goes to do that.
• 29:25
  I got to like like force myself like motivate myself to make my
• 29:31
  paint schemes better and better every year.
• 29:32
  Like you like you were saying I try and up it one up it every
• 29:36
  year because, you know, tick like my TikTok.
• 29:39
  I always get comments like, oh man, this car looks better and
• 29:41
  better every year. Oh, I'm so glad to see it on my
• 29:44
  for you page again. And it's just like I have to
• 29:47
  make it better, you know, perfectionist.
• 29:52
  Yeah, back to yours. Do you think you'd ever do a
• 29:56
  throwback scheme? Like I know your dad had similar
• 29:59
  colors from when his his was a 56 right?
• 30:03
  Like 56 St. stock, you know, throwback.
• 30:07
  Or do you think you'd ever surprise people and come on out
• 30:10
  with the Cindy Streamy colors? I don't know if I could steer
• 30:14
  away from blue because, you know, like drivers just have
• 30:17
  their colors a lot like Jimmy Owen, you know, green and white
• 30:21
  and Jonathan Davenport, black and orange.
• 30:24
  He went to red. But like, you know, higher up
• 30:27
  guys, you know, they got their their colors that they always
• 30:30
  stick with and you know who they are, right?
• 30:33
  A throwback scheme is definitely, definitely in the
• 30:36
  cards somewhere on the line. Well, I know we're getting close
• 30:40
  here. The Mexibility just showed up.
• 30:42
  He was out saving Long John Silver's from bankruptcy.
• 30:45
  So I he better put that hat on. He cannot deny us the hat, so he
• 30:50
  better put that on before he comes on here because I see it's
• 30:52
  not on right now. But anyways, we can now have
• 30:54
  confirmed why Long John Silver's is because it's because of the
• 30:57
  Mexibility. Anyways, Evan, who helps you get
• 31:01
  to the track? Who are your sponsors and who
• 31:03
  are people that you want to shout out?
• 31:05
  Well, obviously Top Row Racing Media, Great Lakes Heating and
• 31:10
  Air Conditioning, Burger's Bull Ring, Top Speed Travels, Vehicle
• 31:15
  Performance, Williams Expert, Pivot and Pump, Pink, Zebra and
• 31:20
  Wads Racing, Capturing the Moment by Wiz and Auto Parts,
• 31:25
  City and left turn graphics. I forgot about popsby travels.
• 31:31
  That is my mistake because is that page still active?
• 31:33
  Are you still doing that? Yeah, it's pretty talking after.
• 31:39
  Popsuit travels. I'm like.
• 31:40
  Yes, it's it's still active, yes.
• 31:42
  I should be hitting him up for some money, Evan is what I'm
• 31:44
  hearing. As I said, you're you're a
• 31:47
  business owner too, which, you know, just shout out really
• 31:50
  quick Eli detailing Eddie or ad One of the ads they just popped
• 31:54
  in said love the podcast. So Eli Eli's detailing us are
• 31:57
  presenting sponsored proper racing year this year.
• 31:59
  Their partnership obviously huge and they'll they'll keep the
• 32:02
  pace car looking nice and sharp this year.
• 32:05
  And so those businesses, right, those supporters were hugely
• 32:08
  helpful because racing's not keep whatsoever.
• 32:12
  And I think, you know, like what does it cost on average?
• 32:14
  You know, I'm not going to price quote you, but on average, even
• 32:17
  just for a street stock tire. Yeah, I think a full set of
• 32:21
  tires this season is like 650. So it's it's really pricey.
• 32:27
  It's not it's not easy to run every weekend.
• 32:30
  You know, that's how it is for everybody.
• 32:33
  They're we're all, we're all penny pitching, I think to get
• 32:36
  to the track every week and have fun.
• 32:38
  And what about race fuel? You know, a lot of people may
• 32:40
  not think of these kind of things either, but you know, on
• 32:43
  average, again, obviously price changes per track or where you
• 32:46
  can get it because not all tracks sell it and you have to
• 32:48
  go elsewhere to get it. But you know, what about even
• 32:51
  like race fuel on average? Well we run E85 because brake
• 32:56
  fuel got so. Expensive because I believe it's
• 32:58
  like. 10 bucks a gallon now. So I think E85 is, I don't know,
• 33:04
  we haven't bought it since last year, but it's a whole lot
• 33:07
  cheaper. Except you got to buy E85
• 33:10
  carburetors, you know, That's also not cheap, but I think it
• 33:13
  pays for it though. Oh yeah, I mean that's when I to
• 33:17
  someone I think at when I say Kalamazoo, it's like 9
• 33:20
  something. I went for fuel because I don't
• 33:24
  have to buy it, right? Like I go to Meijer and that's
• 33:26
  what I get, right. And so I, I know obviously every
• 33:29
  car has different things, but you know, I don't always think
• 33:32
  about those at the cost. To be fair, Lewis, back in 2001,
• 33:38
  this is how old I am. When I was racing it was $5 a
• 33:40
  gallon, so truly hasn't gone up that much over time.
• 33:45
  I. Didn't know horse and carriages
• 33:46
  needed to raise fuel, Andy. I'll be nice to you.
• 33:52
  I will be nice to. You.
• 33:55
  I can't promise I'll be as nice when Frank is on because.
• 33:59
  He did put the hat on though, so he does get a little credit
• 34:02
  here. But but again, Evan, I know, you
• 34:05
  know, bringing you on. I was really excited for that
• 34:07
  because I've been a huge supporter right since your start
• 34:11
  and you getting out there going. So I'm, I was introduced to you
• 34:15
  through the mini wedges, but I knew when you came on and, and
• 34:18
  jumped into the street stocks, it's like, you know, this is,
• 34:21
  this is someone who we need to support and help get there.
• 34:23
  Because you can just see that Hornet race, which I know you
• 34:26
  may not always want to remember that Hornet race as your family
• 34:29
  celebrating in turn 1 and everyone's excited and you know,
• 34:32
  literally jumping up, down. And then, you know, by the time
• 34:35
  you come to the checkered flag, you get the bad news.
• 34:37
  But you could tell then, right, like, you know, you're, you were
• 34:41
  coming around, you knew what to do, you were getting your tires
• 34:45
  wet, so to speak, maybe not feet wet, but you're getting your
• 34:47
  tires wet and, and just that improvement.
• 34:50
  And that's what I love about weekly racing and being
• 34:53
  dedicated to tracks and not traveling around and not doing
• 34:56
  those different things because I get to see that growth from week
• 35:00
  to week, which is very exciting for me.
• 35:04
  Yeah, we we were just talking about your continued support
• 35:07
  since the Hornets and just how cool it is to have a sponsor
• 35:10
  stick with you for that long. Yeah, because it becomes, it's
• 35:14
  not just partnerships, right? You know, it's that friendship
• 35:16
  piece. And like I said, I always tell
• 35:18
  people, you know, when I'm on the roof and it's race day from
• 35:21
  the time that we're going to the time that we're ending, I have
• 35:23
  to be neutral because that's, you know, my job as a
• 35:26
  videographer is to support everyone and I do I, you know, I
• 35:30
  truly am rooting everybody on for their success.
• 35:32
  But obviously there are people who I've built connections with
• 35:35
  who, you know, I'm, you know, I think of like, you know, Andrea
• 35:39
  Miller and the 55, you know, outlaw limited late model at
• 35:42
  Kalamazoo for her to make the Super shoot day.
• 35:45
  I went down right after and congratulated her because I'm
• 35:47
  like you, I think you just made the A for the first time and I
• 35:50
  was, I was excited for her and and Taylor Sexton, who sometimes
• 35:54
  has had really rough luck where you remind her like you're damn
• 35:57
  good. So, you know, like everybody has
• 36:00
  bad things, bad seasons, bad, you know, and sometimes it's
• 36:03
  multiple seasons, but you know, like, you need to remember who
• 36:06
  you are and why you're doing this when even when it's
• 36:08
  frustrating. And so, you know, before we let
• 36:11
  you go, are there idols you know, who you really look up to,
• 36:14
  who maybe you look for their mentorship or you look for words
• 36:18
  that they've said in the past where you kind of hold on to
• 36:21
  those moments even in frustration?
• 36:26
  I don't, I don't really know. I can't really think of too many
• 36:29
  like people I go to, you know, for like now, you know, there's
• 36:36
  everybody's in such different scenarios all the time with race
• 36:38
  and it's just and it, you know, my dad's always preaching to me.
• 36:43
  Just be smart, don't do anything dumb, you know, keep the car in
• 36:47
  one piece kind of deal. Like it's kind of what I have to
• 36:50
  tell myself a lot because like I said earlier, we're we're the
• 36:53
  ones that have to fix it. So we don't have a car owner to
• 36:57
  do it for us. Right.
• 36:59
  And that's sometimes challenging for people to know too, that,
• 37:02
  you know, a lot of racers, they're on their own.
• 37:04
  They don't have massive teams or, you know, like this week as
• 37:08
  Intimidator, you're going to see, you know, smaller teams who
• 37:11
  are going to show up and there's two people working on the
• 37:13
  Outlaws or whatever. Then you're going to have big
• 37:15
  rigs pulling and they have 12 people come out of the trailer
• 37:19
  and and the driver sometimes isn't even near the car.
• 37:21
  You know, he they are relaxing somewhere letting their people
• 37:25
  do it. And they've earned that right.
• 37:26
  I mean, they've gotten to that point with that support.
• 37:28
  Can't fault them. But it's like sometimes you just
• 37:30
  see such vast differences in short track racing from one team
• 37:34
  to the next. And I sometimes think, I think
• 37:36
  fans sometimes forget that that a majority of people don't have,
• 37:42
  you know, 100 people working on their car for them are doing
• 37:45
  that. That a lot of times it's small
• 37:47
  teams, small people, you know, they work 9:00 to 5:00 or third
• 37:51
  shift or second shift and come home.
• 37:53
  And now we're spending hours in the shop and trying to get the
• 37:56
  car ready. It's a little bit two man
• 38:01
  operation between him and his dad, so they're definitely
• 38:03
  working hard to get the. Car out there?
• 38:05
  One last question before we let him go.
• 38:07
  They want to. He wants to know what's his
• 38:09
  favorite paint scheme he's ever done.
• 38:14
  You know, I think it might be my first year of three stock.
• 38:19
  A lot of people like the yellow one.
• 38:22
  Yeah, I know. I know.
• 38:23
  That's Boogie's go too, but I don't know.
• 38:27
  No. So I'm about the first one, just
• 38:28
  looked requested to me. Well, I think that was that was
• 38:34
  that was at the South Bend Auto show.
• 38:35
  That was your first one at the South Bend Auto Show, right?
• 38:38
  Yeah. Yeah, because I'm trying.
• 38:40
  I'm trying to remember now what the order was because I like
• 38:43
  this year's a lot. I just, I like that smooth
• 38:45
  slickness. The yellow or the neonish yellow
• 38:48
  definitely stood out, you know? But this one this year with the
• 38:52
  silver, silver wheels and everything, I'm like, man, that
• 38:54
  was start. Yeah.
• 38:57
  I'm trying to keep it with the blue, grey and black.
• 39:01
  It's just. Real sleek.
• 39:02
  Look to it. It's not right in your face, but
• 39:04
  it looks classy. For people who may who may
• 39:08
  forget who jumped in, I'm going to show really quick on screen.
• 39:10
  This is the last year car so I'm at this was at New Paris when he
• 39:16
  raised that flagger boy. But yeah, I just, I really liked
• 39:19
  like last year's design, but that everyone you've had has
• 39:23
  certainly. So again, you have a lot of
• 39:25
  talent with your designing. Well, you're in about 11 days
• 39:30
  roughly. Maybe everybody will see the new
• 39:32
  paint scheme. So I think this one might be the
• 39:34
  best looking one in my opinion. If it comes out, thanks.
• 39:40
  I know we're excited for it, but again, Evan, I thank you so much
• 39:44
  for joining us tonight. Boozoo.
• 39:46
  Any last thoughts or questions? No, Sir, I'm sure I'll see you
• 39:49
  this weekend, Drew. Say what?
• 39:54
  All right. I was going to drew any last
• 39:57
  questions. Just if you want to let our
• 40:01
  viewers know where they can find you on social media if they have
• 40:03
  a race team social media page or a website or you know, website.
• 40:09
  So 2001, right? Would you?
• 40:15
  I'll leave it alone this time. Yeah, So I don't have a Facebook
• 40:19
  racing page, but Evan for 9 on Facebook, I think it's Evan
• 40:24
  under score for 972 on TikTok. And that's really the only two
• 40:28
  platforms I'm active on. Awesome.
• 40:34
  Well, we certainly appreciate your time tonight and good luck.
• 40:36
  I will certainly try to get down to Plymouth at one point this
• 40:40
  year. The problem is they they're on
• 40:42
  Friday night, so maybe a a week and special if you have a
• 40:46
  Saturday race. I can make it down there and
• 40:49
  love to see St. Stocks down South because it's
• 40:53
  certainly a great class up here. Yeah, the Street Stock double
• 40:56
  play race is on a Saturday. That's that's one you don't want
• 40:59
  to miss. I will say that one.
• 41:00
  That one's going to be really. Good.
• 41:06
  On hopefully Ravers rumble. I know you said with it being a
• 41:08
  Wednesday though, but I know you've come up to what the last
• 41:11
  two Ravers rumbles and and did that and then flagger boy I know
• 41:15
  is on August. I want to say 8th on that
• 41:18
  Saturday at New Paris and we did that last year.
• 41:20
  So I certainly hope that you're in New Paris a couple times just
• 41:23
  because selfishly that's where I am on Saturday.
• 41:25
  So and obviously Friday, I'm on the roof at Kalamazoo, so I
• 41:28
  can't watch you race on a Friday, but definitely looking
• 41:31
  forward to seeing you sometime this year.
• 41:33
  I'll definitely try to avenge you up to the tracks you're at
• 41:35
  more this year. All right, I mean, you get a lot
• 41:38
  of video time so but again, Evan, thank you again so much
• 41:43
  for joining us tonight and good luck when you hit the track all.
• 41:48
  Right. Thank you.
• 41:49
  Thank you guys for having me. Oh, no, thank you.
• 41:52
  All right, so are you guys ready for chaos?
• 41:56
  I'm. Going to call tonight.
• 41:58
  You guys have a good night. So I know we're a few minutes
• 42:01
  behind, but we're going to bring Frank on because Frank, I don't
• 42:05
  know if you saw it, you had on. See, I told you so when Long
• 42:09
  John Silver's is not bankrupt, you know exactly why the Mexican
• 42:13
  has kept them in business. But Frank, we had some technical
• 42:16
  difficulties earlier, so we were a little bit behind.
• 42:18
  And I got all flustered because it wasn't going on Facebook,
• 42:21
  which is obviously where most of our audience watches.
• 42:23
  So I'm like, this is not the time.
• 42:25
  I'm too tired for this. But anyways, someone who I know
• 42:27
  has also been tired because you've had a long day doing your
• 42:31
  things. I think you're on mute right
• 42:32
  now, though, So we want to make sure that we can hear you.
• 42:36
  Yeah, you're on mute. Yeah.
• 42:42
  Let me help him here, yeah. Oh, no.
• 42:45
  Yeah, you just needed him, Drew. There you go.
• 42:47
  There. You go.
• 42:48
  There we go. Yeah.
• 42:50
  Hey, there we go. Throwback.
• 42:51
  You're on mute. But anyways we have.
• 42:56
  I had to listen to this for seven hours on Saturday and now
• 42:59
  I got to do it for another 45 minutes.
• 43:01
  Tonight. Hey you.
• 43:03
  You hired me, dude. Hey, so you know what raw
• 43:10
  material right here? So he keeps watching.
• 43:13
  You get on here and it's. Going to be raw all the way
• 43:16
  through. Oh boy, you know I I, I will
• 43:19
  kick this off with Frank. Frank and I met each other
• 43:22
  probably a long time ago and I didn't realize it, but he came
• 43:25
  up and helped me announce one of the Crappers full endurals at
• 43:29
  the Kalamazoo Speedway. And Frank got a lot of reviews
• 43:33
  from the Kalamazoo people of how good of an announcer he was.
• 43:37
  And then just, you know, a year later or something right around
• 43:41
  that time, he was the announcer of Russell's M40 Speedway.
• 43:44
  So whenever we do events at Russell's or I ever need an
• 43:47
  announcer, he's going to be my first call because he he
• 43:50
  certainly has developed a skill of gab on the radio and it's
• 43:54
  transitioned over to the racetrack and he entertains the
• 43:57
  race fans and he works for the great family at N 40.
• 44:02
  Hey, man, that that means a lot to me.
• 44:05
  Seriously. It does, man, because, you know,
• 44:07
  I'm just obviously we're just kind of hanging out in the old
• 44:11
  trailer hood. You know, literally it is the
• 44:16
  epiphany of, you know, trailer trash got the firework over
• 44:19
  there station wagon in the trailer hood and.
• 44:25
  Front doors wide open. The animals are now crawling
• 44:32
  through. The family part.
• 44:33
  You've got to go. I got a rat dog over here,
• 44:35
  Subway. I don't know what he helps you.
• 44:37
  Yeah, hopefully neighbor's yard somewhere.
• 44:40
  But man, you know what, that means a lot to me, Andy.
• 44:44
  I appreciate that brother. And and you know, every time we
• 44:47
  come out it, it's just not so much as like just go make some
• 44:53
  money or things like that. It, it means a lot to just be
• 44:57
  there with y'all. So it means a lot to me that you
• 45:01
  guys continue to ask me to be there to be a part of your
• 45:05
  events and until there's a discrepancy or there's this or
• 45:09
  that and I I get it. Thank you so much.
• 45:13
  So. Oh, absolutely.
• 45:16
  So sorry, Louis, Go ahead. No, I was going to say, well, we
• 45:18
  know you're incredible. I mean, just what you do, how
• 45:21
  you deliver. And that's why I reached out to
• 45:24
  you to say, hey, you know, I want to get you on here because
• 45:26
  not only have I gotten to see you grow as an announcer at M40
• 45:29
  and do that, you know, I learned through that about Classic Rock
• 45:33
  97.7, but then I knew you prior to that as Mexibility.
• 45:37
  So if you you know, for all the people you know watching, like I
• 45:41
  said, my favorite question to start out with, you know, just
• 45:44
  for everyone is like an introduction is, you know, one
• 45:47
  who's Frank Gasco. But how did the Mexibility come
• 45:50
  about? Because that's a pretty fun
• 45:51
  story too, from New Paris. Oh man OK so the wife and I are
• 45:57
  not together anymore. Been split up for a while now
• 46:00
  but getting ready to go on a year.
• 46:03
  Different story for the little time, but my sister-in-law at
• 46:08
  the time and Jeremy Teleton got a big shot off Jeremy Kennel and
• 46:13
  all those guys. If it would not have been for
• 46:16
  them, like we couldn't have a career that we've had.
• 46:21
  So we came about one night, somebody was like you're a red
• 46:27
  Mexican. And my sister-in-law, Lindsey,
• 46:30
  by the way, big shout out to her.
• 46:32
  It's her 4th or 3rd birthday. Shout out Lindsey.
• 46:37
  He said, no, he's a Mexibility and half Michigan, half
• 46:42
  hillbilly. If I was not in the trailer park
• 46:44
  when I was a kid, I was in on the West side of South Bend.
• 46:48
  It's I mean, they're half good, half Mexico, half trailer park.
• 46:51
  I don't know, but it all works out.
• 46:54
  And it stuck when she said that and we were able to man, sell
• 47:00
  T-shirts, stickers, all kinds of stuff, man.
• 47:03
  And how cool is that to, to, to be a part of it?
• 47:10
  Well, like when you pull in folks thinking you as Mexican,
• 47:14
  the fans cheer for you. The, the kids are, you know, can
• 47:17
  you sign my T-shirt? Can you sign my, my trigger flag
• 47:21
  or this or that? And, you know, I never take it
• 47:23
  for granted because I know people here old man.
• 47:25
  I mean, I, I, I, I, I work every day just like everybody else
• 47:29
  does. And to have folks that think of
• 47:34
  me in that manner is just incredible.
• 47:38
  You know, and and we've took home fan favorite.
• 47:42
  I think I I think twice from new Paris now.
• 47:47
  I got the got the trophy in the house and it's just it's just a
• 47:51
  blessing, you know, because we just started this as just having
• 47:55
  a lot of fun And and you know, we don't talk anymore and have
• 47:59
  it for years. But Big S Wayne Clements, his
• 48:02
  family were a big, big deal at New Paris for a long time.
• 48:09
  He helped me get my first car together, things like that.
• 48:14
  And man, we just went out and had a lot of fun.
• 48:17
  Just made a name for ourselves and, and we this, my daughter's
• 48:23
  getting ready to turn 10 or getting ready to turn 11.
• 48:25
  I thought that Elaine's getting ready to turn 11.
• 48:29
  And I've been doing this now for 14 years.
• 48:36
  Just I have so much problem with it, man.
• 48:38
  I really do. And and every time we jump in
• 48:40
  the car, it's kind of like, I can't believe we're still doing
• 48:43
  this, you know? And and my daughter also, by the
• 48:47
  way, Big Topper race needed fan. I mean, like literally she was
• 48:52
  over here Saturday night. We got home from crack.
• 48:54
  It's like, yeah, can we turn on top row?
• 48:58
  Sure. I mean, I mean, I guess you do
• 49:02
  whatever you want. I, I would like to watch
• 49:04
  something else like a movie or something.
• 49:09
  But so, you know, I really try to stay humble, man, because
• 49:15
  there's a lot of folks that help me do this and have helped me
• 49:20
  through all these years, man. I could not do it without my
• 49:24
  friends. And it just means a lot.
• 49:26
  So that, that that's how the Mexibility came about.
• 49:29
  If if it was not for my friends and the people I know, there
• 49:32
  would be no mechanism. I mean, it's just not me, so.
• 49:36
  So a lot of people know you from the racetrack, a lot more
• 49:40
  probably know you from the radio.
• 49:41
  How did you get your start in radio and what draw brought you
• 49:44
  to that? Oh, man, OK, so we're so now
• 49:48
  we're going back a little ways. So we're going to go back to
• 49:54
  when I was about 16 years old, just a small town Mishawak kid
• 50:04
  and I got to be friends with. Hey, you're over here.
• 50:08
  Ramor Dog. Come here, I'm a fool.
• 50:22
  So I literally started calling in to the cross line on the bear
• 50:30
  and got to be friends with Reverend Ryan, God rest his
• 50:34
  soul. And one day I finally and and
• 50:41
  Ron Stryker, well, Ron Stryker's gone now too.
• 50:45
  Also, man, mental health awareness.
• 50:48
  We just had that our mental health awareness night at M40.
• 50:52
  You ever need to talk to anybody, man, please reach out
• 50:55
  to someone. We lost Ron Stryker, do the
• 51:00
  things like that and the striker gave me my shot along with rhino
• 51:06
  saying do it. And I was I I wanted to drop out
• 51:13
  of high school because I was trying to take care of my
• 51:16
  grandma. My great grandma adopted me.
• 51:20
  So man, we're, we're, we're getting into a whole bunch of
• 51:24
  sitting here, but my great grandma, you know, obviously a
• 51:27
  lot older than my real mom, so on and so forth.
• 51:29
  My Nano was a drunk. My great grandma took care of
• 51:33
  me. And then I got into rock'n'roll
• 51:36
  and country music, like hardcore.
• 51:38
  I was really involved in rock'n'roll time.
• 51:41
  I started falling to the bear and made friends with everybody
• 51:45
  I called in with. And finally one day I asked
• 51:49
  Ryan, I said, hey man, is there any room for a job or maybe like
• 51:54
  a internship, something like that.
• 51:57
  And he's like, I'm going to hook you up with somebody.
• 52:00
  Made a phone call, showed up and I, it became credit for high
• 52:05
  school. I dropped out of Mitchell Walker
• 52:09
  High School, went to an alternative school that was
• 52:12
  actually in the UP mall. Another crazy story, but that
• 52:17
  counted as my credit. And my first actual paid job was
• 52:21
  95.3 WAOR on paper and I rode the bus to the school and to
• 52:29
  work and then back home got maybe, you know, 6-7 hours of
• 52:34
  sleep a night. Worked for B100 and worked for
• 52:40
  War the Bear and at the time 95.7, which was the power hip
• 52:46
  hop station. And you know, my, it was getting
• 52:52
  ready to run out and I wanted to stay.
• 52:55
  And so I said, hey, you know, Mike Rags, big shout out to Mike
• 52:59
  Rags out of Fort Wayne. He's there now.
• 53:02
  Man, how do I, how do I go about this?
• 53:04
  Like can I stay or is there? He said, if you sign this paper
• 53:07
  right here, I'll stay. It was, you know, like $13 an
• 53:14
  hour and so on and so forth. And it's all right, I'll sign.
• 53:19
  It was my first tax job. And then some things happen that
• 53:23
  we won't get into on Facebook. I would just say that I was just
• 53:28
  being a young, dumb kid and it's costing my job.
• 53:34
  But man, it's still a big shout out to all those guys because a
• 53:39
  lot of the folks that are still there we're still friends with.
• 53:43
  And had it not been for who I know at this point in time,
• 53:47
  including Brad King, Big shout out to Brad King.
• 53:51
  Knew him since I was a kid and he brought me on to the staff
• 53:58
  over there at United 3. Bayless used to be at at at the
• 54:02
  Bear. He was the PD at There's Brett
• 54:06
  Dog here. He was.
• 54:10
  APD at U 93 when I showed up and I simply was at the car show,
• 54:15
  you know. And big shout out to you, man
• 54:16
  Lewis, for doing what you do for the car show a few years ago.
• 54:21
  I said, man, I'd really like to get back into the radio thing.
• 54:25
  I said, don't forget, I can still slide the pots.
• 54:29
  And he's like, well, I had a beer in my hand.
• 54:31
  He's like, well, don't bring that and come see me on Monday
• 54:33
  morning and I have a spot for you.
• 54:36
  And what's the date today? It is the 13th.
• 54:41
  I've got 9 days and I'm at, I've been at the radio station 4
• 54:46
  years. Thank God Big South of Brad King
• 54:49
  and and Bayless for bringing back on to that.
• 54:52
  And you know, that's kind of how it happened.
• 54:55
  It, it literally just kind of happened.
• 54:57
  So it was awesome. Well, I know you have a lot of
• 55:03
  loyal listeners too, you know, who look forward to you and some
• 55:06
  of you've been able to bring over to the racing site.
• 55:08
  So what does that feel like when you bring when you know, because
• 55:11
  of your role at Classic Rock 97.7 and just the radio stations
• 55:16
  in general and then see from those people over?
• 55:23
  You know, I never try to let that be a thing to me.
• 55:27
  You know, a lot of the radio guys kind of like use that as
• 55:32
  like an eagle thing and a lot of folks would and and it should be
• 55:38
  a eagle beats to folks. But to me it's just man, thank
• 55:43
  you so much. I, I really appreciate you
• 55:45
  listening and, and it means lots of me because as just who I am
• 55:51
  and then y'all just bullshit And you know, that's just how I
• 55:57
  feel. It's like, I just feel is it's
• 56:02
  a, a bonus, a bonus like this. I, I don't know how to explain
• 56:07
  it. It's just to me still, four
• 56:09
  years later, it's still surreal that I'm on the radio.
• 56:12
  Like when I turn it on in the car and I hear my voice, I'm
• 56:15
  just still like, hold the shit. That's that's you.
• 56:21
  Well now you can hear yourself on top row racing media.
• 56:23
  Now that all worked out on Saturday, so that was pretty
• 56:26
  incredible. Yeah, man.
• 56:28
  And and my daughter is always like, hey, that's you.
• 56:31
  I know, honey, I know. Well, again, I know also we I
• 56:37
  wanted to bring you on because obviously with new Paris
• 56:39
  Speedway this Saturday, they pending weather, you know, this
• 56:43
  week, thunderstorms like every single day except for Friday.
• 56:46
  They have a great Friday looking up.
• 56:47
  But I know obviously that R word, everyone's favorite thing
• 56:51
  is a potential right. I know it'll do rain if it's an
• 56:55
  awful but with new Paris opening, there's season opener
• 56:58
  tonight, destruction. That's where you won a lot of
• 57:01
  trophies and have had a lot of success and a lot of fans.
• 57:04
  So what got you into really into competing and and what does it
• 57:09
  feel like when you take the track every single time,
• 57:12
  especially at a dedicated crowd like New Paris?
• 57:17
  Man, see what it feels like to this day, Still can't explain
• 57:23
  it. You know when they call
• 57:26
  Mexibility and the fans still just come alive, just humbled,
• 57:36
  very grateful, emotional sometimes because I'm just there
• 57:43
  put on a show for you as long as it just as well as all my
• 57:47
  friends are too. You know, big settle, Chef
• 57:50
  Gilbert, Tim Hutchings, that's the wordinger.
• 57:54
  All them guys, dude, I I learned who I know from Tim Hutchings.
• 57:58
  That's the wordinger all the OG's can but to pull out and
• 58:06
  hear Jeremy say Max Billy or Frank Gaskell and the crowd just
• 58:11
  goes crazy. Dude, it it really means the
• 58:17
  world. You know, I I can't explain it.
• 58:25
  We love putting the show on and I'm a showboat man.
• 58:27
  Like folks asked me like, you know, who, like who would become
• 58:33
  very selfless. I'll be the first one to say I
• 58:36
  love sailboating. I love being the one in the room
• 58:40
  that the folks, you know, I feel like that's why I walk in the
• 58:44
  room and folks talk about me. But at the same time, you know,
• 58:47
  I'm very humbled by it because it's just a, it's a feeling that
• 58:52
  I think everybody should feel. And I was just very grateful to
• 58:58
  get the opportunity to be able to do things like this.
• 59:03
  And we Paris has been my home for racing for, you know, 14
• 59:08
  years now. When I first started racing, I
• 59:12
  was literally living in my exercise and instead of going to
• 59:23
  find some place to live, I was like, well, at work we take our
• 59:26
  daily drivers. And I thought a whole bunch of
• 59:30
  shit about that and we wound up not even under the driver, but
• 59:35
  Dalton Winter Road and a buddy of his was like, hey, we've got
• 59:41
  a Ford Conti over here if you'd like to have that.
• 59:47
  Just come get it and just bring it back when it's done, man.
• 59:50
  We we had to ratchet strap the hole.
• 59:52
  We're into this fucking car together.
• 59:55
  Like, I mean, we had like 6 rash straps trying to literally like
• 59:59
  the red stripes or just holding this car together in the rear
• 1:00:03
  end. And we went out and we looked at
• 1:00:08
  man, we were like second or third place or this or that for
• 1:00:12
  two or three races. And it was the first time I've
• 1:00:14
  ever been in a, in a car that kind of aspect.
• 1:00:18
  And I was just absolutely affected to it.
• 1:00:21
  And you know, I was in it long ago when I was working at the at
• 1:00:27
  Federated Media. I had a Grand Prix that we took
• 1:00:31
  out for such a racing open, my daily driving.
• 1:00:36
  And then the Harmons were there and all the folks I raced side
• 1:00:41
  by side with Don Harmon, God bless the soul, the big Daddy
• 1:00:46
  Dom, you know, it just, I'm just grateful to have been a part of
• 1:00:53
  the things that I've been able to, especially new pair
• 1:00:55
  Speedway, man, That's, that's you know, this, this trailer
• 1:00:59
  right here. I bought this a little over 10
• 1:01:03
  years ago simply because I was about 6 minutes from the race
• 1:01:07
  test. Honest to God, that was like one
• 1:01:11
  of the biggest reasons why I bought this house.
• 1:01:14
  And you know, it's literally just down the back Rd. down the
• 1:01:18
  other back Rd. and to the track. And we've built several 90
• 1:01:23
  destruction cars right here in the front yard with the kids and
• 1:01:26
  this and that. And you know, when things when
• 1:01:32
  things went sideways last year, we kind of went through my
• 1:01:34
  trophies and all that. We've got over 350 in and it's
• 1:01:43
  14 years so and there's a lot of 2nd and 3rd sprinkling there,
• 1:01:48
  but I shouldn't say when I will say we've got 350 trophies in
• 1:01:54
  this bed right here in the bedroom, in the kitchen.
• 1:01:59
  There's second, third, you know, fan craving all kinds of stuff
• 1:02:02
  like that. And I'm just humbled by that
• 1:02:07
  every time I looked at it, You know, when I grew up, my, my
• 1:02:10
  family was dark or shooting pool and my family went out to to
• 1:02:16
  Vegas for the APA and they brought home trophies for that.
• 1:02:20
  And I'm grateful that I was able to get into racing and and big S
• 1:02:26
  to Rich and Nyree and and Denny and all them as the first race
• 1:02:31
  car ever sent in with Jenny and that they said he fired up and
• 1:02:36
  all that and that that sucked him so well.
• 1:02:41
  Because you have raised what is other than that destruction you
• 1:02:46
  had mentioned before some other things that you've raced.
• 1:02:48
  So what else have you kind of jumped into other than night of
• 1:02:52
  destruction? Oh my goodness man, there's a
• 1:02:55
  couple things I can't say on here since.
• 1:03:00
  I don't care. You're on Lewis's page, so
• 1:03:02
  you're not going to hurt mine. Man, there's been many years
• 1:03:06
  that we've been into Mexico racing, if you get my drift.
• 1:03:13
  That, and it's just, to me, it's just about the horsepower.
• 1:03:18
  It's about the smell. It's about when it's in like
• 1:03:23
  literally in front of you, feet away from you.
• 1:03:27
  It's the high that you get from racing, period.
• 1:03:31
  There's nothing that can ever stop that.
• 1:03:37
  You know, I bought a camper. There's a boat sitting back here
• 1:03:40
  somewhere because I said I was going to get out of racing for a
• 1:03:44
  while. Then I bought a camper, said
• 1:03:47
  we're going camping. Racing didn't happen.
• 1:03:52
  And you know, it's, I think it's, it's an addiction.
• 1:03:56
  And I think Buju can, can agree with me with that.
• 1:04:02
  Yes, Sir. I think all three of you can.
• 1:04:07
  There is an addiction to racing. I don't care if you're going 30
• 1:04:11
  miles an hour, I don't do this shit.
• 1:04:13
  It's going 300 miles an hour in racing.
• 1:04:17
  If you're, I think it's the, the factor of the adrenaline and
• 1:04:23
  being in front of the crowd. I think the crowd amplifies what
• 1:04:28
  the, you know, So, you know, we went to Kalamazoo and I was in
• 1:04:32
  front of a a Fire Marshall fan base.
• 1:04:39
  You know, they turned away the Fire Mountain and Jason Selton
• 1:04:43
  was the announcer. And I was able to give the
• 1:04:47
  Devilis jerky up there. And when I got out and I did
• 1:04:51
  this just for the hell of it, just to see what it felt like
• 1:04:55
  6000 people and just scream. Not something that a normal
• 1:05:03
  person has ever seen. And it's just humbled, you know,
• 1:05:09
  and I've never, ever take that kind of feeling because man, you
• 1:05:17
  can't play. It was something I was always so
• 1:05:19
  excited to be a part of. And, and every time I get a
• 1:05:23
  trophy or things like that, you know, I know a lot of these guys
• 1:05:26
  hand the trophies out and all this and God bless.
• 1:05:30
  But my trophies mean so much to me and just to be able to be a
• 1:05:37
  part of that. And when, when you hear the
• 1:05:39
  crowd roar, it's just, it's just unlike anything else.
• 1:05:48
  I. Know I was going to say I know
• 1:05:51
  we're getting close on time. I know Tyler just popped on and
• 1:05:54
  I let him know that we're just a few minutes behind, you know,
• 1:05:57
  original start. So I want to make sure that if
• 1:06:00
  anyone else had, you know, go ahead.
• 1:06:04
  So I've told, I've told Frank before, I'm a big fan of his
• 1:06:06
  announcing. But so you've been the racer,
• 1:06:09
  you've been the radio host, now you're the host at the
• 1:06:12
  racetrack. So what are the challenges you
• 1:06:14
  face as a race announcer as opposed to a racer or radio
• 1:06:17
  hosts? Final thing to talk about.
• 1:06:20
  Yeah. Final thing to talk about to get
• 1:06:23
  any team in. There's a lot of times I'm just
• 1:06:28
  kind of like somebody getting up, you know?
• 1:06:30
  I want to keep things in the pain.
• 1:06:32
  I want to keep doing what I'm doing.
• 1:06:33
  But as a race fan myself, it's so hard to just kind of like
• 1:06:39
  stay on the mic and keep talking and then not like, and I'm not
• 1:06:43
  being too much when I'm just taping them in my head.
• 1:06:47
  I should be talking, you know what I mean?
• 1:06:49
  I should, I should be sending my thoughts with crowns.
• 1:06:53
  But a lot of times kind of like, holy shit, that guy's got to get
• 1:06:57
  it. He's got to get it, you know,
• 1:06:59
  and I think that that would be it, you know, finding treatment
• 1:07:06
  activities after doing it so long.
• 1:07:08
  That's why that's that's the advantage of that.
• 1:07:11
  Well, you're great at it. I think you're great.
• 1:07:12
  And I, I think I've told you this before, you're a great host
• 1:07:15
  of a race program. You can be a good announce, you
• 1:07:17
  can be a good race announcer, you can talk well.
• 1:07:20
  But hosting a show is tough and you do a good job at it, so.
• 1:07:24
  And then I hey again, I sure appreciate that brother, And but
• 1:07:28
  what you do with with with, you know, your your checks out and
• 1:07:33
  all the folks you indicate you've done for the race act and
• 1:07:36
  that's that's a whole deal in itself.
• 1:07:39
  I appreciate that treble amount of time and treble amount of
• 1:07:43
  free and and you know, big child to you so.
• 1:07:48
  Thank you man, I appreciate it. I appreciate that man.
• 1:07:52
  Watch me flip this around on him.
• 1:07:54
  So Frank, you and I both know that nowadays that there is a
• 1:07:57
  shortage of announcers, good announcers, anybody can pick up
• 1:08:00
  a microphone. So I'm going to flip this over
• 1:08:03
  to Buju. So why haven't you considered
• 1:08:06
  becoming an announcer? Because you have.
• 1:08:09
  It's hard. It's not hard.
• 1:08:12
  I did. I'm many, Wedge announced.
• 1:08:14
  Per year you have the voice. Why, Why?
• 1:08:17
  Why wouldn't you consider something like that?
• 1:08:21
  The commitment, being at one place every week would be tough.
• 1:08:24
  I like to move around. I don't know.
• 1:08:27
  I like being a fan too much. I can.
• 1:08:28
  Fix that for you. I got a traveling.
• 1:08:32
  Series. Yeah, touché.
• 1:08:32
  Well, hey, I don't know. Hey, I thought we were
• 1:08:37
  contracting for me to do shit for you every now and again.
• 1:08:40
  Now we. Yeah, you just get, you just get
• 1:08:42
  Frank's shot boy, dude. No, see, see Frank, Frank, you
• 1:08:46
  get, you get you get all the stuff in Florida that with the
• 1:08:49
  travel with perks, he gets the crap like Canada, we're going to
• 1:08:52
  Canada. Shit dude, we're or or Maine
• 1:08:59
  when we when we go out to the northeast next year, he's going
• 1:09:01
  with me. Oh wow, I'm.
• 1:09:03
  Going to Maine. Just tell me, yeah, on the
• 1:09:05
  weekend I'll just give it to you.
• 1:09:07
  So that way you all. Right.
• 1:09:10
  With with that you, you certainly have a passion, Frank,
• 1:09:13
  for what you do and you're able to balance it back.
• 1:09:17
  I'm going to fire this back at Buju.
• 1:09:19
  So Frank has a deal at M40 where he can still go do the the
• 1:09:23
  cruise on Woodward or Eight Mile in Detroit.
• 1:09:28
  So maybe, just maybe one of those nights and Jason Salsa
• 1:09:32
  isn't available. Maybe you should throw this kid
• 1:09:34
  over here on the mic at M40. Hey, you know what, dude?
• 1:09:39
  I would, I, if, if you're interested in something like
• 1:09:42
  that, man, Johnny Russell is, is very interested in just, you
• 1:09:48
  know, exploring that, you know, because Billy and Johnny are,
• 1:09:52
  we'd like to have two announcers a night just to be able to go
• 1:09:55
  back and forth. We've talked about this for
• 1:09:57
  years, but you know, and I'll say this up front, dude, Johnny
• 1:10:04
  and Billy and Penny and all of them at Russell and 40 Speedway,
• 1:10:06
  God bless them, dude. They, that racetrack has just
• 1:10:11
  been incredible to me. We've had incredible shows.
• 1:10:16
  We, we literally went from, Oh my God, you guys are going to
• 1:10:19
  mean nothing to man. We're packing the stands for
• 1:10:23
  some night, some race nights, you know what I mean?
• 1:10:25
  And my God, like I'm able to be a part of that in.
• 1:10:29
  And when I look down and I see all these folks out here and I
• 1:10:33
  get to talk to you. We get to have fun together.
• 1:10:37
  And I think about the hard earned money that you spent to
• 1:10:40
  be here, man. Thank you.
• 1:10:43
  You know, yeah, I've been at Russell's now for where is it
• 1:10:49
  going on four years, I think. And so I started there soon
• 1:10:56
  after I got my radio gig and it's just been a great, great
• 1:11:02
  time, man. You know, can't speak good
• 1:11:06
  enough about Russell's employee Speedway and, and, you know, all
• 1:11:10
  the tracks I've been to, whether it's South Bend, Plymouth, New
• 1:11:13
  Paris, Russell's, man, they, they've all treated me so well,
• 1:11:18
  you know, so it's just a, it's just a thing, I guess.
• 1:11:23
  So just, I just want you to get out to your local racetrack and
• 1:11:28
  get out there and, and enjoy it, you know, and, and Buju, dude,
• 1:11:33
  you keep posting this shit about, you know, the, the race
• 1:11:36
  tracks going and all this and that.
• 1:11:38
  I follow you. I, I, I watch your videos and
• 1:11:41
  obviously Kenny Wallace has talked about your videos and,
• 1:11:46
  and, and, and commented, I think it was, or something like that.
• 1:11:49
  And dude, huge for you, top row Lewis.
• 1:11:53
  Thank you, brother, so much. Because like, we've got to be
• 1:11:57
  there together. That's what, 1.3?
• 1:12:00
  Yeah, crazy. Over 1,000,000 views.
• 1:12:02
  Just one. Wow, part of that.
• 1:12:05
  Yeah, and I was just driving a truck with a trailer on it and
• 1:12:10
  just. Being modest again, I was just
• 1:12:12
  driving a truck and trailer and the guy drove on the back of it,
• 1:12:15
  you know, no good. Hey, you know what man?
• 1:12:18
  They I I was just like, I know that the drivers could do it
• 1:12:22
  because it's just a thing. But you come to the front
• 1:12:27
  stretch and the front stretch is literally almost full of folks.
• 1:12:31
  I wanted to like swerve a little bit, but at the same time I was
• 1:12:34
  like, you know what, we're going to load that fucking car right
• 1:12:37
  now re body and I just let off the gas and he drove that right
• 1:12:45
  on the trailer right at the start finish line, dude.
• 1:12:48
  And if you watch that video, you see that guy, that to me was
• 1:12:55
  hell yeah, hell yeah, probably, you know what I mean?
• 1:12:59
  And it's like you don't get that kind of entertainment.
• 1:13:02
  Nowhere else. Like, you know, everybody's got
• 1:13:04
  their heads stuck in their phones and watching everybody
• 1:13:07
  else do shit now and all this and that.
• 1:13:09
  But man, when it's in your face, I want to present something or
• 1:13:15
  be a part of something that's literally in your face.
• 1:13:19
  And you know, going back to the last weekend, Andy Jack, dude,
• 1:13:24
  what a great show. You know, the crown Vics, the
• 1:13:28
  Midwest contact curing series, the juice box races, even just
• 1:13:34
  never seen them before. I had I had no idea even what
• 1:13:37
  they were. And the modified Wheel Horse
• 1:13:41
  Racing Association, a lot of folks in the stand never seen a
• 1:13:45
  racing tracker before. To me, it's just cool to be a
• 1:13:50
  part of so much in a way, ridiculousness, you know, to the
• 1:13:56
  to the common person, that's foolishness.
• 1:14:00
  But to the race fan, they're, they're looking forward to
• 1:14:03
  seeing shows like that so. Our philosophy has always been
• 1:14:08
  doing something different. It doesn't have to be a sold out
• 1:14:10
  house, it has to be entertaining with people in the crowd and we
• 1:14:15
  accomplished that with a great team of the M40 people, the
• 1:14:19
  Midwest compacts, the Wheel man people though, the modified
• 1:14:22
  Wheel Horse Racing Association. It was a group effort.
• 1:14:26
  It wasn't just one person a team.
• 1:14:29
  But we do owe a lot of gratitude to Lewis and Ron Barrage for
• 1:14:35
  what they did for the Crown Vics because that wasn't an Andy
• 1:14:37
  Jack. That wasn't an Andy Jack thing.
• 1:14:39
  That was a top row racing media and and Ron Burrage that got
• 1:14:43
  that part of the show. Big shout out top row, putting a
• 1:14:47
  $1000 blanket up the whole field and then Ron wrap with the with
• 1:14:51
  the laugh board. You know that that's what helped
• 1:14:56
  the sport so much. And with, with both, like all of
• 1:15:01
  you guys, you know, putting it, it doesn't matter if it's 5
• 1:15:05
  bucks throwing it in the pot, you know, of some drivers going
• 1:15:09
  to be like, Oh my goodness, I got that's cool.
• 1:15:14
  So that's what folks want. And, and a lot of, and a lot of
• 1:15:19
  drivers may not deserve that, but they're going to get it
• 1:15:22
  because that's just paid out. How many Crown Vics did I tell
• 1:15:26
  you that we'd probably have on Friday night, Lewis?
• 1:15:29
  I think it was like 5 or 6. We were thinking up to 7 or 8
• 1:15:33
  and then 17 showed up. There was 17 to one place and
• 1:15:40
  one more in the other. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:15:44
  But anyways, I know we got Tyler on, so I'm not going to touch
• 1:15:50
  that one, but I have a lot to think on that one.
• 1:15:53
  But anyway, so I know Tyler's on here and I.
• 1:15:56
  But because I'm trying to talk to you but.
• 1:15:59
  You know I'm about to put up my Switzerland flag.
• 1:16:03
  I I can do this? I can do this.
• 1:16:06
  I just, I don't want to create any animosity, but I think it
• 1:16:14
  was a great deal that we had one track had one more, we had the
• 1:16:19
  same. No, you had two full fields.
• 1:16:21
  That 2 tracks is unbelievable. I was talking to Buju on
• 1:16:25
  Saturday night and that's what we wanted.
• 1:16:28
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. But anyways, Frank, I know that
• 1:16:32
  we've kept you a little bit longer.
• 1:16:34
  I know we got Tyler Huffer who won right, the one that shoot
• 1:16:36
  stock race local boy brought it home.
• 1:16:39
  And so I know that was pretty exciting to see And and he was a
• 1:16:42
  favorite. You know, when I stuck with the
• 1:16:44
  Ohio women before they said, you know, because he'd been there
• 1:16:47
  before he's raced before he knew what he was doing that he
• 1:16:49
  probably stood out and and once he passed that three wide on the
• 1:16:53
  front stretch just sent it in my head.
• 1:16:56
  I'm going don't do that, don't do that, don't do.
• 1:16:57
  That I thought that we're going to junk everybody's shit.
• 1:17:01
  And I was just like go, go, go, go.
• 1:17:05
  But but yeah, so that was exciting.
• 1:17:07
  So we're about to bring him on because I know he's working on
• 1:17:09
  the car and everything too, and got a lot of things going on.
• 1:17:11
  But again, Frank, we'll have to bring you back on too, because
• 1:17:14
  just with your storytelling between you and and Ron Brash,
• 1:17:16
  we could probably just have a little bit of a pow wow.
• 1:17:19
  And you should put him on the same episode and you'll have a
• 1:17:21
  12 hour show. So, but where before we kick you
• 1:17:25
  off really quick, where can people listen to you on Classic
• 1:17:28
  Rock 97.7? What's your time frame?
• 1:17:31
  Classic Rock 97.7 ZOW out of South Bend, You can find Me 2 to
• 1:17:38
  7:00 PM every weekday and then 6:00 AM to 10:00 on Saturdays.
• 1:17:43
  Again, our range is a It's probably about to Saint Joe,
• 1:17:48
  Michigan and about to M40. Just rock that little dial right
• 1:17:55
  there over to 977 ZOW and we're going to get your classic rock
• 1:18:00
  for right in your ears. All right, well, again, Frank,
• 1:18:03
  so. Doing ACDC Tickets 715 right,
• 1:18:09
  115 four, 15715 all throughout the day every weekday up until
• 1:18:17
  we say it's not. So, Yeah, All right.
• 1:18:22
  Yeah. Well, again, Frank, thank you so
• 1:18:24
  much for joining us tonight. And I hope the Mexibility, if
• 1:18:27
  you're not busy on Saturday, maybe we'll see you at New
• 1:18:29
  Paris. Man, I actually have to work the
• 1:18:33
  audio at the Luke Combe show so I will not be there but plan on
• 1:18:38
  me being there at some point this year.
• 1:18:40
  All right. Well, I look forward to it.
• 1:18:41
  So again, thank you so much, Frank, for tonight and we'll
• 1:18:44
  talk soon. Hey Andy Lewis Muju, thank you
• 1:18:48
  so much for having me be a part of this night.
• 1:18:51
  I appreciate y'all. It's all love.
• 1:18:53
  You're the man. Mexa Billy in the house, peace
• 1:18:56
  out, enjoy. But we'll do one more station
• 1:19:00
  identification while we switch a a guest here.
• 1:19:03
  So again, Monday night rewind on top of racing media.
• 1:19:07
  Please share it out and help because I know we're a little
• 1:19:09
  bit behind, but we do have Tyler Hufford who is about to join us.
• 1:19:12
  So again, I'm really excited for that, watching him race and
• 1:19:16
  getting ready to hop him out. And there you go again.
• 1:19:23
  Congratulations on Saturday. Thank you.
• 1:19:27
  That I mean, when you sent that into turn one, I'm like he's
• 1:19:31
  going for it. And even watching it on the on
• 1:19:33
  board, it didn't. I guess from the stands it
• 1:19:35
  looked a little closer than what it was, although it still felt
• 1:19:39
  like close. But I'm like, oh, he had room.
• 1:19:42
  Yeah, you never know what these St. stocks, but yeah, you got to
• 1:19:45
  wait sometimes and then sometimes you got to take that
• 1:19:48
  chance because sometimes it's the first one to the front who's
• 1:19:50
  going to, you know, stay up there.
• 1:19:52
  So that opened up. There's plenty of room there.
• 1:19:55
  So we we took advantage of it while we could.
• 1:19:58
  Oh yeah, that I mean that was just again, I watched it a
• 1:20:02
  couple times to go how did he do that because I other cars do
• 1:20:07
  that and it not go well right. And so yeah, that was that was
• 1:20:11
  impressive. But I know again, thank you for
• 1:20:13
  being patient, for saying that we had technical difficulties
• 1:20:16
  getting on and then. You know, fighting with Facebook
• 1:20:18
  to go live. So again, for people who don't
• 1:20:22
  know who you are, like I know Buju, he was looking up earlier
• 1:20:25
  because he definitely, you know, with him being in the South Bend
• 1:20:28
  market, Plymouth market, he doesn't get up to, you know,
• 1:20:31
  Corgan all that kind of or Spartan Speedway for those old
• 1:20:34
  school people listening, you know.
• 1:20:36
  So if you want to give a little bit about your career history
• 1:20:38
  and who you are and, and that, you know, for those who watch
• 1:20:41
  you often, it wasn't a surprise that you won on Saturday because
• 1:20:45
  again, you're really, really good behind the wheel.
• 1:20:47
  But there are a lot of people who are watching who may not
• 1:20:50
  know who you are. So who's Tyler Hufford?
• 1:20:52
  Yeah, so I started racing cold karts 5 years old.
• 1:20:55
  We started at the Montville Speedway and after a few years
• 1:20:59
  we graduated up to bigger Kart, which we raced was at cold
• 1:21:03
  water, I think it was called Interstate Speedway one or
• 1:21:05
  something like that. At the time.
• 1:21:07
  I won a few championships there. Moved to Jackson Speedway
• 1:21:10
  because they shut down a little bigger track concrete.
• 1:21:13
  I raced there till I was about 12 and we started building a
• 1:21:16
  street stock. My dad actually had a truck we
• 1:21:18
  were getting ready to build and we were going to set at 40 for
• 1:21:22
  my first first car. They didn't like that idea
• 1:21:25
  because of the rules back then. So we had some carts or
• 1:21:29
  something. We traded for another St. stock
• 1:21:30
  from a guy I was at. It was at Kalamazoo.
• 1:21:33
  We built that and that's where I made my debut at Kalamazoo at 13
• 1:21:37
  or M40 at 13. Raced there for half the season.
• 1:21:41
  I think Steve Brown was the owner, and they closed down and
• 1:21:44
  then we switched to Kalem Zoo for the rest of that year.
• 1:21:47
  Raced there for a few more years, went.
• 1:21:52
  To I. Went to Springport, I think it
• 1:21:55
  was 2015 or 2014 Brand AB CS over there, won that
• 1:22:01
  championship race the late model following year.
• 1:22:03
  And then yeah, we went to Oregon full time in 2023, won the
• 1:22:10
  sportsman championship over there.
• 1:22:12
  And then yeah, we've just been kind of racing around, ran some
• 1:22:15
  CRA here and there, been all over the place, you know, just
• 1:22:19
  trying to have fun. Grew up around the racetrack.
• 1:22:22
  I mean, I, we used to go to baseball games and race go carts
• 1:22:26
  and then go to the camp and zoo, watch my uncle's race.
• 1:22:28
  It's that was my weekend since I was five years old.
• 1:22:32
  So it's that's all we know. So me and my cousins used to
• 1:22:35
  grab the popcorn boxes and put them on her arm, arms and race
• 1:22:38
  around the bleachers underneath, you know, crashing into each
• 1:22:40
  other. So, you know, just some of those
• 1:22:41
  memories will, you know, never go away.
• 1:22:43
  So yeah. Other than that, hobbies,
• 1:22:48
  hunting, like hunting, play slow pitch softball on the weeks.
• 1:22:54
  Just try to keep, you know, keep myself busy because I'm not busy
• 1:22:57
  enough already. You know, work wise, I'm an
• 1:23:00
  arborist, which is, you know, tree worker.
• 1:23:04
  And yeah, why do you quite the family legacy, too.
• 1:23:10
  Just. I didn't realize.
• 1:23:11
  Well, I guess I realized, but I sometimes forget that you're
• 1:23:13
  connected with the Bozells, you know, and that's something that
• 1:23:16
  watching some people share the video over the weekend, Andy
• 1:23:19
  Bozell junior was one to share my.
• 1:23:21
  Oh, I forgot that. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:23:24
  It's, it's it's easy when you know the last names don't line
• 1:23:26
  up. But yeah, Andy and Jeff, my
• 1:23:28
  uncles Phil, Bryce Mason, cousins Trish and Craig was
• 1:23:34
  using a cousin down, you know, you're way down there in
• 1:23:37
  Indiana. So yeah, we the family, family
• 1:23:40
  affairs for sure. So it's nice to have them if,
• 1:23:43
  you know, you have questions and whatnot.
• 1:23:44
  And as I said, it's it's a family thing.
• 1:23:51
  So what do you enjoy? Racing Because again, you've
• 1:23:53
  been successful in a lot of different classes and again,
• 1:23:57
  you've raced with, you know, top names from all over.
• 1:24:00
  I mean, I know the field was small on Saturday, but there
• 1:24:02
  weren't pushovers in that race. You know, they were.
• 1:24:05
  You had a defending champion there.
• 1:24:06
  You've had cars that won in Ohio a couple different times.
• 1:24:09
  So what What have you enjoyed jumping in?
• 1:24:13
  That's a tough one there. Each one has its own special
• 1:24:19
  little, you know piece. I would say.
• 1:24:22
  I mean, we start with like the Street stocks.
• 1:24:25
  There's nothing else you can get in.
• 1:24:26
  You can beat doors with each other, you know, and still after
• 1:24:29
  the race, you know, be friends, talk about it, you know, not
• 1:24:31
  have to worry about, you know, killing the car setup wise or,
• 1:24:34
  you know, wrecking it and you know, the $1000 a corner to fix
• 1:24:37
  it throughout the week. Take the hammer and put the body
• 1:24:40
  panel in the grass and beat it out and go back at it type of
• 1:24:43
  cars. That was fun.
• 1:24:44
  We did the traveling with the CRA that was that was awakening
• 1:24:49
  a lot of money in that we did what we could and you know, we
• 1:24:52
  had fun. That was the most important
• 1:24:53
  thing. We did a lot of cool things.
• 1:24:54
  We raced Bristol, went to Jacasa up in Canada.
• 1:24:58
  That was pretty fun. Lucas Oil.
• 1:25:01
  That was probably one of my favorite tracks.
• 1:25:02
  Pretty big track down there in Indianapolis.
• 1:25:05
  And then our newer adventures, the mod, we haven't had that out
• 1:25:08
  very much. We need to get some more
• 1:25:10
  practice in it. But you know that's that's it's
• 1:25:12
  basically a street stock with the late model motor in it.
• 1:25:14
  So it's, it's, it's, it's pretty wild.
• 1:25:16
  But as I said, they all have their special little piece that
• 1:25:19
  I like jumping into. But it's nice being able just to
• 1:25:22
  jump in a street stock, you know, weekly and just, you know,
• 1:25:25
  go out and beat doors with people and, you know, have a
• 1:25:27
  good time. So you had a great run on
• 1:25:32
  Saturday at Russell's M40 Speedway.
• 1:25:35
  The car count certainly wasn't what we had hoped to, but the
• 1:25:38
  wheel man they, they do honestly do a great job.
• 1:25:40
  They try hard for what they do. What was it like to pick up the
• 1:25:44
  win the first one out-of-the-box this year?
• 1:25:47
  Yeah, we were joking on the way to track.
• 1:25:49
  It's usually when we hit opening night for a track.
• 1:25:52
  When we do hit opening night, we do really well.
• 1:25:54
  I mean we've won a Galesburg opener.
• 1:25:57
  I think it was either Spartan or some somewhere else over there.
• 1:26:00
  We hit that. We won that opener.
• 1:26:03
  Going into the race, we whole new front end package on this
• 1:26:07
  car. It's my last year's car and no
• 1:26:10
  laps. We didn't know, you know,
• 1:26:11
  unloaded fairly good. So we're, you know, I was pretty
• 1:26:14
  happy with that. And then, you know, started
• 1:26:15
  seeing sometimes I was off a little bit.
• 1:26:18
  Then we got into the heat race. I kind of got stuck in traffic,
• 1:26:21
  but I wasn't too worried about it because with the we had the
• 1:26:23
  little motor in and it just like more of a momentum thing and you
• 1:26:26
  have to keep hitting the brakes. It just you can't get that run.
• 1:26:29
  So luckily in the future it came, you know, they got, they
• 1:26:33
  got their stuff straightened out for us and the car came alive.
• 1:26:36
  And you know, it just when the car hooks bottom like that, I
• 1:26:38
  knew I'd be fine there. Just, you know, those nooks and
• 1:26:41
  crannies in the track, They don't know really.
• 1:26:43
  It's, it's, you know, you can hit them just right and after a
• 1:26:46
  while you can just coast around there.
• 1:26:48
  I mean, I don't even know if I hit the brake pedal after I, you
• 1:26:50
  know, I lost track of them in the mirror.
• 1:26:51
  So it's, you know, we're just, you're just riding.
• 1:26:54
  I knew there was a good shot at it.
• 1:26:56
  We always run pretty good there. So but yeah, they're the car
• 1:26:59
  count sucks. I wish the rules were a little
• 1:27:01
  bit, you know, similar. So we have more cars, but Will
• 1:27:05
  does a great job of promoting it and you know, he's trying.
• 1:27:08
  I give him that, you know, he you know, he risks a lot through
• 1:27:11
  on this thing. So it's there's a lot of money
• 1:27:13
  there. So, you know, hats off to that.
• 1:27:16
  And then hopefully here in the next, you know, few years we can
• 1:27:18
  kind of get the rules a little bit closer and you know, more of
• 1:27:21
  a Michiana series type deal and we can get more cars weekly.
• 1:27:27
  Top in for JD, Jonathan Dixon, you may know him.
• 1:27:31
  He raced at Super Shoe last year had you know, I think he went
• 1:27:34
  through 2 fire suits if I remember right, JD, but
• 1:27:37
  incredible flagger, incredible flag man does not stay still in
• 1:27:40
  one spot. He just energy like if he was a
• 1:27:43
  battery, he'd be able to power a lot of things for a long time.
• 1:27:46
  But anyways, you know, I can't think of the world him enough,
• 1:27:50
  but he has a question for you, he says.
• 1:27:52
  I see the five. What's the story of the number
• 1:27:54
  56 on the wall? Did you change your number?
• 1:27:57
  If so, what's the history behind the numbers?
• 1:28:00
  Yeah. So obviously a number on a car
• 1:28:03
  is, you know, is basically a driver.
• 1:28:05
  You know them for the number. So the 56 on the wall is
• 1:28:08
  actually Jerry and his dad. He ran that.
• 1:28:11
  This is his shot. We just kind of all work out of
• 1:28:13
  it, you know, group effort here. But no, I've been five my whole
• 1:28:17
  life. Well, I have ran 56 for him a
• 1:28:19
  few times. I think even a 40 maybe.
• 1:28:22
  I don't know where that came from, but yeah, five.
• 1:28:25
  My dad had that when he started. I don't know.
• 1:28:28
  I think he got it because he was a Terry Labonte fan and, you
• 1:28:30
  know, it just came came about that way.
• 1:28:32
  And I often joke around because I know my Uncle Jeff got 11 from
• 1:28:38
  8 + 3 from my aunt, from my grandpa.
• 1:28:40
  And then I also joke, you know, 8 -, 3 is 5, so.
• 1:28:44
  That's. Kind of a joke there, but yeah,
• 1:28:46
  it's just always been five. Other than that, there's no
• 1:28:50
  rhyme or reason. So do.
• 1:28:53
  Your cars have names. Oh yeah, they, they got to earn
• 1:28:57
  their names. They all have names.
• 1:29:00
  The one we raced last week or Saturday, that one's Amber or
• 1:29:05
  Carmen. So that's actually a Buick
• 1:29:07
  Electra. And so the old, I think he was
• 1:29:13
  still host or something Carmen Electra or something like that.
• 1:29:15
  That's how that got that name. So and this new one, it's going
• 1:29:19
  to make its debut Friday. A little nervous about that.
• 1:29:21
  That one's that one's called Knuckles.
• 1:29:22
  So we'll we'll see, we'll see what she can bring or he can
• 1:29:26
  bring out. So it's the first boy car.
• 1:29:28
  And then our modified that one's called, she's called Haley.
• 1:29:34
  So we'll we'll see hopefully get that out here in the next month
• 1:29:36
  or so. And hopefully she's not as
• 1:29:39
  ornery as she has been so. I guess where have you raced the
• 1:29:43
  modified? I, I, I'm trying to remember, I
• 1:29:46
  think Springport if I remember correctly one time.
• 1:29:50
  I could be wrong. I know I had a camera on it
• 1:29:52
  once, but you know. So where have you brought the
• 1:29:54
  streets or not street stock? We know where you brought the
• 1:29:56
  street modified. Yeah, so modified.
• 1:29:59
  We've raced. I think we've been to Kilim Zoo
• 1:30:01
  one or two times with that. There was a really low car count
• 1:30:06
  that night. It was one of the first races
• 1:30:08
  with it, but the first race was it was at Berlin.
• 1:30:11
  I think we finished 5th or 6th with the Midwest my Tour and
• 1:30:15
  then We've Been. To Owosso with it for the high
• 1:30:19
  school. We've been to Whittemore and
• 1:30:21
  Spartan and I know I'm missing another one and then but there
• 1:30:25
  there's only been a handful of races, you know, still trying to
• 1:30:28
  learn it. You know, driving it's another
• 1:30:30
  thing too. So each car, you know, class I
• 1:30:34
  should say, has their difference in how you drive them.
• 1:30:37
  So trying to figure out the, you know, the weight ratio to the
• 1:30:41
  motor size and you know, at the end of the day, they have stock
• 1:30:44
  brakes on them. So you, you basically have 3
• 1:30:46
  stock brakes on a modified that's going twice as fast.
• 1:30:48
  So you know, getting that trust to go in the corner, it's going
• 1:30:51
  to stick. You know, you got to, you got to
• 1:30:52
  work up for that. I was going to ask that because
• 1:30:55
  a lot of fans may not, they may not realize that.
• 1:30:58
  And that's why I get a lot of people who talk about like my
• 1:31:02
  onboard cameras because, you know, once I found the spot
• 1:31:05
  where to put them, that's where I just kind of put them all
• 1:31:07
  unless the driver says something specific.
• 1:31:10
  And so that's something that I get a lot of fans say.
• 1:31:12
  I didn't realize like how it was to drive a car.
• 1:31:15
  Like they watch, you know, Bryce Bozell Wheeling and how he is
• 1:31:18
  Wheeling it. Then you got Bobby Stramy
• 1:31:19
  driving with one hand at New Paris.
• 1:31:21
  And you know, you have all these different things.
• 1:31:23
  And so I was going to ask like for people who may not realize
• 1:31:26
  like the true difference of they go, well, that's like a late
• 1:31:30
  model or the modified is like a street stock.
• 1:31:32
  Well, they're still very different.
• 1:31:34
  Yeah, you jump in a late model, the wheel input and one of them
• 1:31:37
  is way less obviously at bumps and everything else that plays
• 1:31:40
  effect and you're getting a street stock.
• 1:31:41
  I mean you're sawing on that thing most of the time unless
• 1:31:44
  you know you you're dialed in, but you get watch you're in
• 1:31:47
  cars. I mean, they're, they're almost
• 1:31:49
  turning right more than left sometimes, you know, and it just
• 1:31:51
  the weight ratio and everything else, you just, you know, you
• 1:31:54
  slide through the corners instead of drive.
• 1:31:56
  So yeah, there's, there's a lot of difference.
• 1:31:58
  I mean, if you start watching some of the in cars versus each
• 1:32:00
  other, you you could start picking up on some of that.
• 1:32:02
  And I mean even probably some foot control with braking stuff
• 1:32:05
  if you had cameras on that you know, would be totally
• 1:32:07
  different. I haven't.
• 1:32:13
  So with the Wheel Man victory this weekend, you moved to
• 1:32:16
  Kalamazoo. What's your plan for 2026?
• 1:32:19
  Are you just going to pick some races to race at?
• 1:32:21
  Are you going to follow a series?
• 1:32:22
  Are you going to pick a track? Are you going to pick?
• 1:32:25
  The races. Yeah, we don't, we don't, we
• 1:32:27
  don't know. We're going to week by week.
• 1:32:29
  You know, that's how we we, we roll.
• 1:32:31
  So obviously it started out pretty good.
• 1:32:32
  So we'll probably hit Jennerstown next with them.
• 1:32:35
  Just, you know, with the new track, we usually do pretty good
• 1:32:38
  on those long, you know, I think that's a 5/8 mile track.
• 1:32:41
  So we do pretty, pretty well on those longer tracks.
• 1:32:43
  But yeah, we're going to do that.
• 1:32:46
  We're going to go race the new car most at Kalamazoo, probably
• 1:32:49
  I'm 40 some in there. We're going to hit the few races
• 1:32:52
  at Kalamazoo with the modified and I think there's one or two
• 1:32:55
  at Berlin we're going to try to hit.
• 1:32:56
  And then at the end of the year, hopefully they have Michigan
• 1:32:58
  Cup. That's always, you know, a
• 1:33:00
  favorite. And then possibly going to go
• 1:33:03
  back up to Ken Ross up in the UT where fair we can hit that show.
• 1:33:06
  So we got family up there and I like to go up there.
• 1:33:09
  It's just it's that's a cool track up there.
• 1:33:11
  So I think the reveal reveal, the hammer's going to go there a
• 1:33:13
  few weeks if there's no more snow up there.
• 1:33:16
  So hopefully that's all gone for him.
• 1:33:19
  Well, Speaking of tracks, since you said that right about Ken
• 1:33:22
  Ross, JD again, he's hot. He's hot tonight with the
• 1:33:24
  question, what's your favorite track of all the tracks you
• 1:33:28
  have? Ran, I mean, my favorite Lucas
• 1:33:33
  Oil is probably pretty fun. You can just, you know, ride the
• 1:33:35
  wall. There's yeah.
• 1:33:39
  There's nothing like that. You know, you can get a rock
• 1:33:41
  click off the wall. It's it's it's, you know, it's
• 1:33:43
  just a weird feeling. It's yeah, Jucasa, that was
• 1:33:47
  pretty fun. That was all brand new payment,
• 1:33:50
  smooth wide. You just go kind of like a
• 1:33:53
  Wasco. But yeah, I think I'd have to
• 1:33:55
  towards lean towards track wise be Lucas Oil.
• 1:34:01
  But the it's also hard to bet against Berlin.
• 1:34:03
  Berlin is such a driver's track and you know you learn a lot
• 1:34:08
  every time you're out there. Not as easy it looks to get
• 1:34:10
  around that place. There's definitely one of those
• 1:34:12
  tracks where you have to stay off the gas to go fast.
• 1:34:15
  It's, it's, it's hard to explain, but you get in the gas
• 1:34:18
  too soon, you're going to be tight and it's going to be
• 1:34:19
  slower. So I got to follow a few people
• 1:34:22
  around there and pick up the pointers and, you know, we
• 1:34:25
  gained a lot. So it's it's that's, that's one
• 1:34:27
  I look forward to going to. So you talk about this year,
• 1:34:35
  let's go back way in the back you we asked a question to Evan.
• 1:34:39
  You have a lot of family that has raced and Motorsports.
• 1:34:42
  So we're going to take them out of the equation.
• 1:34:45
  Growing up, other than your family, who, who is the racer
• 1:34:48
  that you idolize, man? It's hard to say because that's,
• 1:34:53
  you know, it's what, who you grew up rooting for.
• 1:34:56
  So I know a lot of times when I go, you know, I'm starting to
• 1:35:03
  get a little bit older and kind of understood more of the
• 1:35:05
  driving stuff. I knew shoe socks would be one
• 1:35:08
  of the first classes I would get into.
• 1:35:11
  So I like I like watching, you know, Toby and Lloyd always, you
• 1:35:15
  know, had great battles, you know, made it look fun.
• 1:35:18
  So yeah, I'd have to go with that.
• 1:35:19
  But if you want to talk NASCAR wise, Martin Martin was my guy.
• 1:35:23
  So he he's a legend in my book, him and Ricky Rudd.
• 1:35:28
  So you don't hear him very much. No, you don't.
• 1:35:31
  And then here we're going to put you on the spot where just like
• 1:35:33
  we did with Evan. What's your most embarrassing
• 1:35:36
  thing that's ever happened to you at a racetrack?
• 1:35:39
  Well, this was for a good cause. Well, yeah, it was, I think race
• 1:35:42
  for kids sake, it might have been might have been a Relay for
• 1:35:47
  Life cancer, but I dressed up as a cheerleader to get in a dunk
• 1:35:51
  tank and that circulated around the tracks for a little bit.
• 1:35:54
  So it was, it was for a good cause, but well, we're gonna go
• 1:35:57
  with that. So.
• 1:36:04
  I try. I try to say all the
• 1:36:05
  embarrassing stuff, so don't make yourself look like fool.
• 1:36:10
  Then of course, to have such a great race operation car owner,
• 1:36:14
  what are some of the crew members and sponsors that help
• 1:36:16
  you out? Yeah.
• 1:36:17
  So obviously, I think Jerry, we do a lot in his shop.
• 1:36:20
  He does a lot for me behind the scenes.
• 1:36:22
  A lot of people probably don't know my wife.
• 1:36:25
  She, she does a lot too. She's been working a lot of
• 1:36:29
  third shift now. So she's been out here a lot, a
• 1:36:31
  little bit less. Hopefully get her in one of
• 1:36:33
  these cars this year sooner or later.
• 1:36:37
  It's hard being the newbie at work and getting those weekends
• 1:36:39
  off. So little Jerry over here, he's
• 1:36:43
  over here in the corner a little shy to get on camera.
• 1:36:45
  He you know, he does tires and whatever else we need him to do
• 1:36:49
  wash the car clean trailer load all the above.
• 1:36:52
  So clutch bleeder, brake bleeder, you know little guy
• 1:36:56
  stuff sponsor wise. I got to think the cute up
• 1:37:00
  catering that's Brian the open pit West Coast style BBQ.
• 1:37:06
  You it's you should not have it. I don't even know how to explain
• 1:37:09
  it. Jane Penny's with Jake white
• 1:37:12
  realtor. She's now she originally sold us
• 1:37:15
  our house 1st and now we're in the market for another one.
• 1:37:17
  So she's she's been with us, she's probably done 3 or 4 of my
• 1:37:21
  friends houses. So she does really good job.
• 1:37:26
  The DNS auto, it's Jerry's dad up here in Kamazoo.
• 1:37:29
  He runs the auto shop. Those small parts stuff too for
• 1:37:33
  like the racers. We try to stock rivets, body
• 1:37:35
  braces, stuff like that, radiators and stuff that might
• 1:37:37
  happen on a Friday you need for a Saturday.
• 1:37:39
  We're going to have it because obviously lanes is open no more
• 1:37:42
  and you never know what's going to happen.
• 1:37:44
  So he does a lot behind the scenes that, you know, he
• 1:37:48
  doesn't get recognized for and I hope he can we can get him out
• 1:37:51
  again this year. So it's always fun to be able to
• 1:37:53
  race against those guys, especially, you know, the ones
• 1:37:56
  that are, you know, getting to that age where they're not out
• 1:37:58
  there much. You know, you you don't, you
• 1:38:02
  don't get that respect for him until you race against them.
• 1:38:04
  Like, wow, this is, you know, I get to race against this guy.
• 1:38:06
  You know, it's like Andy or, you know, it's always fun to race
• 1:38:09
  against them or anybody that's, you know, you looked up to
• 1:38:13
  racing as a, you know, growing up and they're still racing.
• 1:38:16
  It's, I don't know that's, that's, that makes my night
• 1:38:19
  anyways. So, and then who else we got?
• 1:38:23
  You know, I'm missing something. AFCO, AFCO and Longacre, that's
• 1:38:27
  there. There's a newer partnership with
• 1:38:29
  us, Bill there. Bill Workman, he was our port
• 1:38:33
  city Rep for when we raced the, the port city cars through CRA
• 1:38:37
  and some of the local stuff. He jumped, jumped off that and
• 1:38:40
  with the AFCO and Longacre and then he hit us up because he
• 1:38:44
  want he's, he's more of a small team guy.
• 1:38:46
  He likes to see the smaller guys do better than the bigger guys.
• 1:38:49
  So he's helping us out a lot. And you know, we're trying to
• 1:38:52
  get more information because they want to get their St.
• 1:38:54
  stocks back on the AFCO stuff and get their product out there.
• 1:38:57
  So we've been doing what we can to get that out there.
• 1:39:00
  And I think we've switched a lot of guys over the AFCO shocks and
• 1:39:06
  you know, they're, they're getting pretty happy with that.
• 1:39:08
  And that's, that's been a really good partnership with them and
• 1:39:11
  hope, you know, keep keep growing that.
• 1:39:13
  So, but yeah, it's, I mean, you've got to think them all.
• 1:39:17
  Obviously you can't do it without the sponsors.
• 1:39:19
  So, and all the crew help. So I know my brother, he helps
• 1:39:22
  out when he can. He has the front wheel drive.
• 1:39:24
  He races with your series Drew. Hopefully he has that done
• 1:39:27
  sooner than later. But priorities, you know, so,
• 1:39:32
  but yeah, it's, it's a family affair.
• 1:39:35
  Like I said earlier, with the sponsors, you know it's can't
• 1:39:39
  think them enough. So real quick to talk about
• 1:39:42
  sponsors, there's a lot of race car drivers that don't take
• 1:39:45
  pride in their sponsors. They take a check or they just
• 1:39:47
  think they should automatically sponsor them.
• 1:39:50
  What do you do as a race team to maintain those partnerships, as
• 1:39:55
  we call them with our travelling series for not just one year but
• 1:39:58
  the year's upcoming? Yeah, sponsor, that's a hard
• 1:40:03
  deal. I mean, it's a sponsor now is
• 1:40:06
  basically a who you know and who you are.
• 1:40:08
  I feel to get a new sponsor is, you know, you got to have your
• 1:40:13
  stuff in line. You got to know what you're
• 1:40:14
  saying, you know, say the right words.
• 1:40:17
  But once you get in there, you know, you get them to the track.
• 1:40:19
  It's it's a whole new ball game. So like queued up Brian, he's
• 1:40:24
  never been to the races and you know, he just he liked helping
• 1:40:26
  and we got him out there and he loves it.
• 1:40:27
  So same with Jane and with the Jake way.
• 1:40:31
  But yeah, so every year we kind of do just like a little
• 1:40:36
  sponsorship thing. We try to make up for them to
• 1:40:38
  hang on their wall or something. Then we try to take them out to
• 1:40:41
  dinner or something, you know, wine and dine type deal.
• 1:40:43
  So it's just you try to get back to what you can.
• 1:40:47
  And I know I've been very bad with social media here in the
• 1:40:49
  last few years. I've been trying to make it a
• 1:40:51
  better effort this year to put that out there.
• 1:40:53
  So you'll probably be seeing a lot more post with the racing on
• 1:40:57
  my pages just to try to help that out.
• 1:41:00
  And me, you know, you never know.
• 1:41:02
  I've had people at the racetrack.
• 1:41:04
  I mean, this is probably my third or fourth year at
• 1:41:06
  Kalamazoo, might have been my last year in a street stock.
• 1:41:09
  We had a guy walk up and wanted me to take the hood off.
• 1:41:11
  Didn't know him. I didn't know my dad knew him.
• 1:41:13
  But he walked up seeing how everything was ran on the car
• 1:41:16
  and he gave me $1500 just because he liked how the car
• 1:41:20
  looked and he didn't want to be on there.
• 1:41:21
  So it's just, you know, you just got to take pride in your stuff
• 1:41:25
  and you know, you never know who's going to be watching.
• 1:41:27
  So you just got to be ready for that moment and, you know, take
• 1:41:32
  care of your stuff. You know, it goes a long way.
• 1:41:34
  You know, even with like taking care of your car, you know, to
• 1:41:38
  win a race, you must finish first.
• 1:41:39
  So and a lot of those guys, I think forget that that race, you
• 1:41:43
  know, the first few laps as hard as they do.
• 1:41:45
  So going back to this weekend, you know, there's a multiple
• 1:41:48
  times I could have went three wide earlier, but I knew, you
• 1:41:51
  know what the cars were. I knew you know how this race is
• 1:41:54
  going to play out. You just take your time.
• 1:41:56
  You're not. That lab doesn't pay anything.
• 1:41:58
  So yeah, just keep them clean. That kind of stuff goes goes a
• 1:42:03
  long ways. No.
• 1:42:05
  And you you had, and that's what I was looking for, is keeping
• 1:42:08
  your sponsors involved with your race team.
• 1:42:10
  A lot of teams don't do that. They just take a track and I'm
• 1:42:13
  not being mean. It's just the back to life.
• 1:42:15
  But then the next year they wonder why they don't partner
• 1:42:18
  with them, getting them involved at the racetrack.
• 1:42:20
  And I'm glad that you brought that up, making them feel a part
• 1:42:23
  of the team, getting them out to the racetrack to show them that
• 1:42:25
  there actually are people out there.
• 1:42:27
  There's, you know, some good nights, 2000 people there and a
• 1:42:31
  bad night, maybe 908 hundred people.
• 1:42:34
  So we're we're going to get more of a round table discussion on
• 1:42:38
  that in the future. But thank you for bringing that
• 1:42:41
  up. Yeah, and you know, it's it's
• 1:42:44
  sponsor's not all about money either.
• 1:42:46
  I mean, there's a lot that with product on a car, you know, AFCO
• 1:42:50
  gives us a hell of a deal on stuff, you know, and we take
• 1:42:53
  that and then we also make sure we're under book price for a lot
• 1:42:57
  of these guys. So they get a deal still too,
• 1:42:59
  because, you know, we're trying to get back for the racer.
• 1:43:01
  We like to make try to make somewhat affordable again.
• 1:43:05
  So I know we've had a few sponsors that, you know, we
• 1:43:07
  haven't got anything from, but we still keep them on the car
• 1:43:09
  because we're you know, we like that relationship.
• 1:43:11
  You need, you know, maybe they get a financial better spot, you
• 1:43:14
  know, you never know. So it's kind of, you know, our
• 1:43:18
  thing to give back a little bit. So yeah, just keeping them
• 1:43:22
  involved is is pretty big. Well, I know you've done that
• 1:43:26
  for me, right? You put on a top row sticker
• 1:43:28
  almost every year on all the cars and I we know I'm not
• 1:43:32
  you're not getting my lunch money.
• 1:43:33
  You haven't shake, you know, shake down yet, but.
• 1:43:36
  Those in car cameras, Lewis, I can't tell you how much you
• 1:43:40
  don't realize, like what you can see in the car that you don't
• 1:43:43
  see in the car. So it's helped me a lot with my
• 1:43:46
  wife trying to teach her some things with like, you know,
• 1:43:50
  racecraft running up on cars, you know, wheel and put.
• 1:43:54
  She can see the difference and tell me when it's tighter, you
• 1:43:56
  know, that that to me is worth more than, you know, a a check.
• 1:44:00
  So yeah, I'm glad. That's why I jumped on tonight.
• 1:44:03
  You know, I'm a supporter, you know, I and I know it's like,
• 1:44:05
  but I made sure to try to make time to get on here with you
• 1:44:07
  and, you know, try to get back a little bit so.
• 1:44:11
  And, and you've certainly done it.
• 1:44:13
  And your brother Ryan, I mean, you know, he was always hugely
• 1:44:15
  supportive over at Hartford Advice.
• 1:44:17
  Nice to run into him when I can. And you know, even last year, I
• 1:44:21
  think it was last year's super shoe where or maybe it was there
• 1:44:23
  before where you and Kaylee swept, you know, the feature and
• 1:44:27
  did that. And so I know it's just one of
• 1:44:30
  those things that like when you're saying that, it's like, I
• 1:44:32
  mean, you know, that's where I always appreciate drivers like
• 1:44:34
  you who, you know, you've even come to races because that's
• 1:44:37
  where I was going to be. And that was pretty cool too,
• 1:44:40
  where it's like, you know, you just don't always think about
• 1:44:43
  those kind of things. But you know, that's where a lot
• 1:44:45
  of people when they talk about money and they said I always say
• 1:44:48
  like, but there's more value a lot of times than that money.
• 1:44:51
  Money's helpful, you know, because there's we are OK E But
• 1:44:54
  at the same time, you know, when I'm in the Cassopolis drive
• 1:44:59
  through on Saturday night, just trying to get fat and sassy
• 1:45:02
  with, you know, fries and a hamburger And I have crew
• 1:45:05
  members who are coming over going we're fans, we're fans,
• 1:45:07
  We're fans that are taking photos.
• 1:45:09
  My husband won't believe that you were here.
• 1:45:11
  I need to get a photo to prove like I'm like, I just like, that
• 1:45:14
  was so cool, you know, and I and it's one of those things like
• 1:45:18
  that is worth more than money. For sure Yep.
• 1:45:22
  And I've had probably, I think 3 notifications for a friend of a
• 1:45:24
  pets come on since I've been on here.
• 1:45:26
  So publicity is never bad. So if you know, get your face
• 1:45:30
  out there, get the cars out there, it's always good.
• 1:45:32
  So we we try to do what we can for you guys and you know what I
• 1:45:36
  mean? There's a lot behind the scenes
• 1:45:37
  that people don't realize that you guys do.
• 1:45:39
  So Yep, we we always appreciate that. 36 hours dedicated just to
• 1:45:44
  the M40 event and that doesn't all the promoting and everything
• 1:45:47
  else before that but I'm like that's a full time job.
• 1:45:50
  Yeah. Oh, for sure.
• 1:45:51
  And I mean, Drew does it with his, I mean, he's had multiple
• 1:45:54
  series. So I mean, I've ran a few of
• 1:45:55
  your races. They're always fun.
• 1:45:57
  I think my favorites when we had that enduro with Gingerman that
• 1:46:00
  I wish we'd have done that again.
• 1:46:01
  That was a blast. Yeah, my ego got the best of me
• 1:46:05
  with the. Track Manager.
• 1:46:06
  But we're trying to resolve that.
• 1:46:08
  Yeah, maybe you'll see it another day, but.
• 1:46:10
  Yeah, I'll, I'll be there. That's the case.
• 1:46:11
  So. With that being said, we
• 1:46:15
  certainly appreciate your time today.
• 1:46:17
  Hopefully we'll see you at Corgan Oil with the Wheel Man
• 1:46:20
  series coming up in June. Yeah, you, you'll definitely
• 1:46:23
  even see me there unless something happens in between.
• 1:46:25
  But that that, that'd be a hard one to miss for us so.
• 1:46:30
  With that I mean Buju Lewis you got.
• 1:46:34
  I had questions for Rich Bowl. Again, I appreciate I messaged
• 1:46:39
  Tyler pretty like late because it messaged me and I said OK,
• 1:46:44
  you know, who do I want to get on?
• 1:46:46
  And I thought it'd be really cool to get a future winner on.
• 1:46:48
  And so that's why I reached out to Tyler first, because you
• 1:46:51
  know, just the, just the racing family that you have and, and
• 1:46:54
  everything that you've done to be a huge supporter of me.
• 1:46:57
  It's like, you know, how can, who can I go to?
• 1:46:59
  So I went to you, right? And then I had backup plans if
• 1:47:02
  you said no, can't make it happen, which I would have
• 1:47:04
  totally understood, right? Because literally 5:00.
• 1:47:08
  Right. When I post in the graphic for
• 1:47:10
  the show of Hey, here's what to look forward to tonight.
• 1:47:12
  So I was waiting for Tyler's confirmation on yay or nay and
• 1:47:16
  had backup plans, but, but that's where I appreciate you
• 1:47:19
  taking the time tonight to come on, even though it's last
• 1:47:21
  minute. And I know sometimes that
• 1:47:22
  doesn't work and, and we're not usually last minute, but it's
• 1:47:26
  one of those, hey, we have a slot, you know, let's see if we
• 1:47:28
  can get someone. And, and within about 24 hour
• 1:47:31
  period, we've been averaging almost 2000 viewers within a 24
• 1:47:34
  hour period. So I, so it's, it is, you know,
• 1:47:38
  it's a lot of exposure with thousands of views.
• 1:47:40
  So that means all your, your sponsors are going to get a
• 1:47:43
  little bit of a shout out here and all that too.
• 1:47:45
  So. For sure.
• 1:47:47
  Yeah, and and you know, you're a good racer and that's where it's
• 1:47:50
  nice to bring maybe a little bit.
• 1:47:52
  Well, watching that again, that three wide move when you went to
• 1:47:55
  do it. And I'm like, don't and and I
• 1:47:58
  think you had a lot. Don't do that, Don't do that
• 1:48:00
  because I've seen that go bad so many times.
• 1:48:02
  Right. Sure enough, you made it
• 1:48:04
  through. And I went, I looked at Frank
• 1:48:06
  and I just kind of kept recording because I I'm like,
• 1:48:09
  not Frank. Oh, shoot.
• 1:48:11
  Who was their announcer? I can't think he'd race at
• 1:48:13
  Lorraine by a Castro. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:48:16
  Yep, Yep. I looked at him and and, you
• 1:48:18
  know, he's just smiling, having time of his life.
• 1:48:20
  So we're good, you know, pretty incredible.
• 1:48:24
  So again, congratulations on your win this past Saturday.
• 1:48:27
  Appreciate it and hopefully we have a little bit of luck made
• 1:48:29
  with this car this week and then we can do a follow up or
• 1:48:32
  something next week. So you'll have some questions
• 1:48:34
  ready by then. There we go, There we go.
• 1:48:36
  Sounds like a plan. Perfect.
• 1:48:38
  All right. Well, again, thank you, Tyler so
• 1:48:40
  much for joining us tonight, and I'm sure we'll see you soon.
• 1:48:44
  Yeah, we'll see you guys. Thanks man.
• 1:48:46
  Yep, see you. So again, as a reminder for next
• 1:48:50
  week, just because I know we're getting close to the 9:00 hour,
• 1:48:53
  I just want to remind that we will have Aaron Hapner, the new
• 1:48:56
  Paris Shark, fresh off of the night of destruction that is
• 1:48:59
  this Saturday at the new Paris Speedway, 5:00 PM kick off.
• 1:49:02
  That's kind of I caught the appetizers.
• 1:49:04
  That'll be burnout, spectator racing, all that kind of deal.
• 1:49:09
  And then right around 6:00 is when the new Paris Fire
• 1:49:12
  Department fire truck will make its first appearance of the
• 1:49:14
  night and come and water down the Arena of chaos, as I call
• 1:49:17
  it. And so our arena of destruction,
• 1:49:20
  but it will be chaos. And so that's Aaron Hafner.
• 1:49:23
  And then again, DJ Mccotter will come on at 735-630-5635, his
• 1:49:28
  time. And then the Midwest Truck
• 1:49:30
  Series, they'll be coming on from the Wisconsin racing scene
• 1:49:34
  at seven O 5, their time, eight O 5 here.
• 1:49:36
  So. Is that my buddy Drew?
• 1:49:39
  Yes, they were asking for publicity and I reached out and
• 1:49:42
  I said well, I'm not a national media, but 9.1 million people
• 1:49:47
  saw my page last year, so maybe we can do something.
• 1:49:49
  But other than that. One more reminder too, for
• 1:49:53
  booze. You and I this Thursday, we're
• 1:49:54
  back live on the Thursday night throttle.
• 1:49:58
  There's no Thunder tonight. I was waiting for happen as
• 1:50:01
  we're doing that, but again, that's this Thursday where it's
• 1:50:04
  a shorter show. I know last week we went a
• 1:50:06
  little bit longer, but we were answering the question.
• 1:50:08
  So we have a question of the night and we're going to preview
• 1:50:10
  the upcoming events for the weekend.
• 1:50:12
  So definitely we we start at 7:00 and we hope to be off about
• 1:50:16
  7:45. Obviously we'll talk about the
• 1:50:18
  Intimidator 100 quite a bit. So we may not have as many
• 1:50:20
  tracks that we're showing the schedule for this week.
• 1:50:23
  We'll have more of a quick rundown so that we can have
• 1:50:25
  conversation around things that we're looking forward to over
• 1:50:29
  the race weekend. So so again, you know, if you
• 1:50:32
  can help share not only this out, but it is on Spotify for
• 1:50:36
  for those who don't get to see it live or aren't on social
• 1:50:39
  media or don't want to watch it on YouTube.
• 1:50:41
  It is on Spotify and also Amazon Music, Apple podcast and shoot
• 1:50:48
  what Oh, iHeartRadio. So that's why there's no save
• 1:50:52
  the date on this because we have a show on Thursday.
• 1:50:54
  So that's when we're going to give it away.
• 1:50:55
  But other than that, anything that you guys want to cover over
• 1:51:00
  the last few minutes before we wrap it up?
• 1:51:04
  Well, I didn't see that Gerald Somericks was watching.
• 1:51:07
  That's James's dad, so I want to send out a congratulations to
• 1:51:11
  James for his first ever win on asphalt.
• 1:51:14
  He's won on dirt many times, but he's going to be a contender in
• 1:51:18
  the Midwest Skirt series. We had 10 dirt guys, 7 asphalt
• 1:51:23
  guys, which is good. We did give our Midwest skirt
• 1:51:27
  guys a throw out night for the guys that were not ready.
• 1:51:30
  So James got a little step up on some heavy competition.
• 1:51:34
  Our defending champion, he'll be back this year, Michael Workman.
• 1:51:38
  I was kind of surprised he didn't show up, but he didn't
• 1:51:40
  put an entry in the Crown Victoria race.
• 1:51:42
  Thank you, Lewis, for everything you and Ron did.
• 1:51:44
  It was great. The crowd, I mean, if you count
• 1:51:49
  the popcorn vendors, the guys on the hill, the back gate, all the
• 1:51:52
  employees, we probably had close to 1000 people on the property.
• 1:51:56
  So yes, I am counting the popcorn vendors and the car
• 1:52:00
  parkers but. Hey, they were there.
• 1:52:02
  They were there. 32 officials for the Wheel Man series.
• 1:52:08
  They were there. It was a great show.
• 1:52:11
  We thank the Russell family for it.
• 1:52:13
  It's always enjoyable working with them, their entire team.
• 1:52:18
  I ran a little bit smaller staff for when I said a big thank you
• 1:52:21
  to Taylor Sexton. She came in a little quicker
• 1:52:24
  than I thought she did. I think she took over during my
• 1:52:26
  heat races. That helped out tremendously.
• 1:52:29
  She helped fix the payout issue. Other than that, just some wrong
• 1:52:35
  names on some envelopes. But she caught it and saved me a
• 1:52:37
  lot of money. So big thank you to Taylor.
• 1:52:41
  You know, the entire staff, the scores, the the gatekeepers.
• 1:52:46
  It was a team effort. We kept the show moving.
• 1:52:50
  I know some people don't like the the family events that we do
• 1:52:53
  in intermission, but that's just nanny deck show.
• 1:52:56
  You're going to have to get used to it.
• 1:52:57
  The juice man, the wheelman juice boxes, the lawn mowers.
• 1:53:01
  That's just what make our shows what they are.
• 1:53:04
  There was very little downtime. And finally, thank you to
• 1:53:06
  everybody that donated. It was about $730 that was
• 1:53:11
  donated to Woody. We kicked in some extra money
• 1:53:14
  from Rick, Nick an accent roofing.
• 1:53:17
  So we took over $1000 to his dad on Sunday to donate to them.
• 1:53:22
  And anybody that is watching this don't want to be the bearer
• 1:53:26
  of bad news, but Woody does need is rest.
• 1:53:28
  So if you were planning on visiting him at the hospital,
• 1:53:31
  please don't. The family has requested it.
• 1:53:34
  It's just family only. It's not a bad thing.
• 1:53:37
  So don't get worked up or or upset.
• 1:53:40
  It's just he needs his rest and it takes a lot out of them.
• 1:53:43
  So there will be a time when he will be able to get to see some
• 1:53:46
  people. But that family will let you
• 1:53:49
  know when that is. But thanks to everybody for
• 1:53:51
  making that show a success this weekend.
• 1:53:54
  Yeah, well, and again, you know, the the Crown Vics had a
• 1:53:57
  weekend, you know, they finally got that big show that I think a
• 1:54:00
  lot of people have dreamed about at two different places.
• 1:54:02
  A lot of a lot of drivers went home with some extra money.
• 1:54:06
  And at the end of the day, that's what matters, right?
• 1:54:08
  That's why I did it the way that I did.
• 1:54:09
  And from the moment I called you drew and announced the payout,
• 1:54:12
  I, I had a messaging from day one that are there a lot of
• 1:54:16
  places that, you know, just focus on the 1st place?
• 1:54:18
  How many times have you even seen a Buju where someone will
• 1:54:21
  donate money and it just to the winner?
• 1:54:23
  To the winner and the what all of a sudden compiled doctors in
• 1:54:27
  second place, just like 5 or, you know, like 100 right?
• 1:54:31
  Or and and that's why when I called Youju, I said I want to
• 1:54:35
  spread this out because I just I got that a lot at Springport,
• 1:54:38
  where it's like it's let's not do that.
• 1:54:40
  Let's you know, let's spread it out throughout the field.
• 1:54:43
  So a lot of drivers made a lot of money this weekend, which is
• 1:54:46
  hopefully going to help them because I know it's a big pre,
• 1:54:48
  you know, pre season race. You know, a lot of cars weren't
• 1:54:51
  ready, you know, so hopefully that'll give them a good head
• 1:54:55
  start. So this weekend is busy.
• 1:54:58
  We got Friday at Kalamazoo Intimidator.
• 1:55:00
  I think the one of the only Friday tracks running around in
• 1:55:03
  the area, I don't think. Oh, no, Kankakee Speedway starts
• 1:55:06
  this Friday too, for the dirt people.
• 1:55:08
  I don't. I think Grundy still has the
• 1:55:09
  other week over. Yeah.
• 1:55:12
  And then obviously on Saturday we have the new pair of Speedway
• 1:55:15
  Night of Destruction. And then on Sunday we have the
• 1:55:18
  Kalamazoo Mini wedges they'll be kicking off.
• 1:55:21
  So you know, for people looking for some mini wedge racing
• 1:55:24
  action or to go see the future stars.
• 1:55:26
  I mean, just look at tonight we had Evan Burdine mini wedge
• 1:55:29
  racer now doing big things in the street stocks.
• 1:55:32
  We had, you know, you have Anthony Foote junior who's
• 1:55:35
  running a late model mini wedge graduate, right, And you know,
• 1:55:39
  Taylor Sax, then she's a quarter Midget.
• 1:55:41
  So if you ever get out to the Kalamazoo quarter Midget club,
• 1:55:45
  you know, there's a lot of, you know, young talent in this area
• 1:55:48
  that that we can go and support because it's, it's not too far
• 1:55:51
  that they're going to be on the big car or big tracks one of
• 1:55:54
  these days, wherever that may be.
• 1:55:55
  But again, it is a great week. You know, weather wise, you
• 1:55:59
  could not ask for better. So I'm, I'm excited for this
• 1:56:03
  weekend. I have a lot to do.
• 1:56:05
  No more late nights. I after editing for 24 hours I
• 1:56:09
  have retired from that method and probably won't duplicate
• 1:56:12
  that exact thing again, but everything got pumped out pretty
• 1:56:15
  quick so I figured that's not too bad.
• 1:56:18
  Buju, you know, within less than 48 hours, everything was on
• 1:56:21
  YouTube. Yeah, I'm.
• 1:56:22
  I'm probably going to crack some stuff open when I get in the
• 1:56:25
  house tonight. That's probably what I'll fall
• 1:56:26
  asleep to. No offense.
• 1:56:27
  That's not saying your stuff's boring.
• 1:56:29
  This. Background I like I enjoy race
• 1:56:31
  cars when I go to sleep. Yeah, you're the Napa hat
• 1:56:33
  because I need a Napa. But but quite a few people, they
• 1:56:38
  said all I hear is my kids playing your song all night.
• 1:56:41
  Like, well, actually song, I can't help it, but like, you
• 1:56:47
  know, that's kind of like the I I should post that again where
• 1:56:50
  it's like sounds of summer. I think I did where it's just
• 1:56:52
  audit of a of a race car and that a lot of people like that.
• 1:56:57
  So it was a front wheel drive. So that's up your alley.
• 1:57:00
  But you know, maybe I should be like the per of an outlaw lay
• 1:57:03
  model. Or something.
• 1:57:04
  St. stock, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you and St.
• 1:57:06
  Stock say quite a bit of audio. I just need to pull it but but
• 1:57:12
  anyways I I don't know what that is but.
• 1:57:14
  Wasn't me, so let. Me do a soapbox, it's not a big
• 1:57:17
  soapbox but and we don't have a lot of people watching at this
• 1:57:20
  very moment, but for people who watch back, there's stuff going
• 1:57:24
  on about photography and not pictures of cars and everything.
• 1:57:28
  It's day one people, you know, like I was having messages
• 1:57:33
  Saturday night when, when's the program going to be out?
• 1:57:36
  I'm not even home yet, you know, and that's on everybody, you
• 1:57:39
  know, I know there. Was I, I thought I was going to
• 1:57:41
  get a couple days off at 12:45 on the night of the race after
• 1:57:46
  we're done, I'm doing sponsorship stuff, wanting to go
• 1:57:50
  to sleep, then wake up and then I got to do my points, my
• 1:57:53
  paperwork, my social media on Sunday.
• 1:57:55
  And next thing I know after delivering money to Woody, it's
• 1:57:59
  like 745 and I was out and I woke up today and I have 38
• 1:58:04
  different projects that I will be working on telepile at 4:00
• 1:58:07
  in the morning tonight. But so race season is here.
• 1:58:10
  I was hoping to have a couple weeks off because we got a month
• 1:58:13
  in between our events, but I was wrong.
• 1:58:15
  I guess I'll be very much what I'm done working I guess.
• 1:58:18
  Yeah, there's a lot behind the scenes.
• 1:58:20
  I mean, even Buju, you know, you're getting into video and
• 1:58:23
  editing and everything. And even though I know you use
• 1:58:25
  cap cut, you still got to put it all together.
• 1:58:27
  So cap cut, cap cut things like, you know, everybody has a
• 1:58:30
  personal life. We gotta, you know, give people
• 1:58:33
  time to get things done. I know it.
• 1:58:34
  We're. What is what?
• 1:58:36
  What is a personal? Life.
• 1:58:37
  I'm not pretty. Sure what that is right?
• 1:58:39
  Now I know we're in an urgency era, but I mean, just think for
• 1:58:42
  top row, how much content not only did I produce within 24
• 1:58:45
  hours, but then we're what, 2 hours tonight, one hour ish on
• 1:58:49
  Thursday. That's three hours of live
• 1:58:50
  content on top of everything else that's being produced.
• 1:58:53
  How many people are doing it? You know, Sabrina helps with the
• 1:58:57
  cameras and everything, but like all the graphics, all the prep,
• 1:59:00
  all that that, you know, that's that I don't have, I don't have
• 1:59:03
  editing help. Although Matthios Junior did
• 1:59:06
  offer one time. So I might call him again and be
• 1:59:08
  like, you're now the chief editing.
• 1:59:10
  So content producer, here's the keys, run with it.
• 1:59:14
  But for on boards, he was looking to do that.
• 1:59:17
  And I might just say here, here's 17 of them.
• 1:59:20
  Have fun. I'll give you all the graphics.
• 1:59:22
  You can have all the graphics, you can have everything go at go
• 1:59:26
  to town. But I know he's busy doing a
• 1:59:28
  lot, so he might not have time for that.
• 1:59:30
  But just remember, everybody on the screen has personal life too
• 1:59:33
  that we sometimes get to live during.
• 1:59:35
  Drew Drew tried to give me another job tonight.
• 1:59:37
  Let's not forget that. Well, you're getting a new job.
• 1:59:39
  You can get one. You have the voice though,
• 1:59:43
  Boozer, you have the voice. I mean, you have that radio
• 1:59:46
  voice that you know you need to get AI know you did many wedges,
• 1:59:49
  but you know, if there's a track that's looking for an announcer,
• 1:59:53
  I don't know. I got a point this way.
• 1:59:54
  I think it is it's opposite on. Yeah, I did that earlier.
• 1:59:59
  But you know, Buju, you have a you have a gift for it.
• 2:00:02
  So definitely need to and you have a passion and that goes a
• 2:00:05
  long ways too, because you. Can If announcing is not your
• 2:00:08
  passion, then don't burn yourself out.
• 2:00:11
  But at the end of the day, I was being serious.
• 2:00:13
  This supporter has a dying breed of having entertaining
• 2:00:16
  announcers. Anybody can pick up a
• 2:00:17
  microphone. There's not many Jason Selz's.
• 2:00:20
  There's not many Franks left in this world.
• 2:00:24
  They're just, to be frank, they're just a guy that's like
• 2:00:28
  an auctioneer #75 five dollars, $5.
• 2:00:33
  He picks up the win. And that's just you have the
• 2:00:37
  energy, you have the you're, you're probably older than I
• 2:00:40
  think you are. But at the end of the day.
• 2:00:44
  There's there's not many. I used to be that young guy.
• 2:00:47
  I used to want to be the announcer.
• 2:00:49
  Now, I, I became a promoter and I, I'm kind of the question came
• 2:00:55
  up is when you're going to retire?
• 2:00:56
  I say that every year, but I can't quit.
• 2:00:58
  It's a, it's a sickness and it's coming sooner or later 'cause
• 2:01:04
  it's, it's, this is a very, I was talking to another promoter
• 2:01:09
  today and just tired of the drama and it had nothing to do
• 2:01:13
  with our event this weekend, but it's the, I'm off throw the
• 2:01:17
  photographers under the bus, but not today.
• 2:01:20
  I don't know what's going on, but stuff like that.
• 2:01:22
  We're over it, man. If you would have sat in my
• 2:01:26
  drivers meeting, I, I took 10 minutes to go out of my way to
• 2:01:31
  give them advice on how they should treat a track in Muskegon
• 2:01:34
  that behind closed doors, it's not their, their, their
• 2:01:38
  business. At the end of the day, if that
• 2:01:40
  racetrack is not a racetrack, they have nobody to blame but
• 2:01:43
  themselves, not the drivers that were in that meeting, but that
• 2:01:46
  could get that message through to them.
• 2:01:49
  And it being mental health awareness.
• 2:01:52
  I said you don't even know what that other person is dealing
• 2:01:54
  with that is taking all that heat.
• 2:01:57
  I mean, I've seen it personally. Like a very good friend of mine
• 2:02:03
  unfortunately took his own life. The guy that we did the race
• 2:02:06
  for, we never saw it coming. He was a tough old gruff
• 2:02:10
  bastard. That would be always the one
• 2:02:12
  breaking up the fight. And that's racing is going to be
• 2:02:16
  its own enemy. And they can say what they want
• 2:02:19
  about social media. It is a great influence of the
• 2:02:22
  people that say, oh, it's the track promoter's fault.
• 2:02:25
  No, it's everybody. In general.
• 2:02:26
  It takes a bad track promoter and a bunch of evil people.
• 2:02:31
  But at the end of the day, just let the bad track promoter go
• 2:02:35
  away. He will.
• 2:02:35
  He will weed himself out and he will lose his money.
• 2:02:40
  He will be out and he'll sell the racetrack or it'll just
• 2:02:43
  close. But at the end of the day, we
• 2:02:46
  ought to remember none of the Lewis got me on my soapbox.
• 2:02:49
  But. You just treat people with
• 2:02:54
  respect. Stop arguing about whose photos
• 2:02:57
  are what, and if you have an issue, send the person a
• 2:03:00
  professional message. That's killing with kindness and
• 2:03:04
  even if they're an asshole to you, just go the other way.
• 2:03:07
  It's not worth the fight there. I'm done.
• 2:03:11
  No, but that's where, you know, I know, I know the photographer
• 2:03:14
  being publicly attacked and it's just not, you know, it's not.
• 2:03:18
  Again, it's not fair. Nobody does it on purpose.
• 2:03:21
  I, you know, Galesburg last year, I was almost dehydrated
• 2:03:24
  and I had to walk away for a moment just to go get water.
• 2:03:27
  So I didn't see a class on there, but so I didn't get
• 2:03:30
  photos. I'm one person, especially at
• 2:03:32
  Galesburg, you know, Sabrina helps with on boards and all
• 2:03:35
  that, but she's doing Sabrina things.
• 2:03:37
  She can't always help me. And so it's like, again, we
• 2:03:40
  don't do it on purpose. It's not a purpose.
• 2:03:43
  You know, we're all just trying to do our best with what we
• 2:03:45
  have, the equipment we have, the personnel we have, right?
• 2:03:48
  You know, Buju, you're one person.
• 2:03:50
  Eventually you're going to start getting that.
• 2:03:52
  How come you didn't do this? I am one person.
• 2:03:55
  I've not figured out how to be an octopus yet and have, you
• 2:03:58
  know, all these arms doing all these different things.
• 2:04:00
  So again, that's, you know, I, I'm most days, you know, I'm on
• 2:04:05
  boarding, you know all that. I'll leave you with this.
• 2:04:09
  I I don't put the money up that a racetrack owner does each and
• 2:04:12
  every week and they're $1,000,000 properties or half
• 2:04:15
  million dollar properties. But I'll tell you this, I put a
• 2:04:18
  lot more money than even some traveling series promoters do by
• 2:04:22
  renting and leasing these facilities.
• 2:04:24
  You don't have a leg to say anything in regards to it until
• 2:04:27
  you put your own money up. And know what they go through.
• 2:04:30
  I do it. I don't do it on a scale of a
• 2:04:32
  Randy Ritchie or Tim and Leah with the World of Outlaws or
• 2:04:38
  I've done it one time. I learned my lesson.
• 2:04:40
  I'll never do it again. That's why I'm very, very
• 2:04:43
  protective of the promoters that are out there, good, bad or
• 2:04:45
  indifferent. There's 90% good, 10%.
• 2:04:49
  You know what? If you complain on a dirt social
• 2:04:53
  media page, that $100,000 check didn't get paid, it doesn't
• 2:04:57
  matter. I mean, it does.
• 2:04:59
  It sucks for that race team, but all you're doing is you're
• 2:05:02
  you're throwing other racing people under the bus and it's
• 2:05:05
  harder for us to get sponsors. I will shut up because I'm going
• 2:05:08
  to probably get some hate mail now.
• 2:05:10
  So. Well, we're not live on your
• 2:05:12
  page, so you don't. You could have moved it tonight,
• 2:05:14
  right? It'll come back.
• 2:05:15
  No, I'm kidding. But no, it's just, I get tired
• 2:05:18
  of it, Louis saying. It's exhausting.
• 2:05:22
  And I don't care if you don't like me or not, I, I have the
• 2:05:24
  passion for the sport and I'm going to make mistakes and I'm
• 2:05:27
  going to do things wrong. But at the end of the day, at
• 2:05:29
  least I can owe my mistakes and say, hey, that wasn't the right
• 2:05:32
  thing to do. A lot of people can't do that.
• 2:05:35
  Yeah. But what we can do is this
• 2:05:37
  Thursday, the Thursday night throttle at 7:00 PM again, if
• 2:05:42
  you want to know what's coming up on the weekend, Boozoo and I
• 2:05:44
  will talk all the storylines heading into the to the Friday
• 2:05:47
  night. So I just and Saturday.
• 2:05:49
  So I just wanted to do that big shout out one more time for a
• 2:05:52
  Thursday night throttle. Other than that, anything else
• 2:05:56
  good for the group? I think we covered it.
• 2:06:00
  We're good, thank you. Have a good night.
• 2:06:02
  Oh, yeah, and well, and I know we're all tired too, right?
• 2:06:05
  So again, thank you. I want to do a shout out.
• 2:06:07
  Sheldon. Thank you.
• 2:06:07
  You've been here every episode. So he had on board and I think
• 2:06:11
  for the first time this week, and I can't remember if I had
• 2:06:14
  Sheldon before, but he was one of the first to sign up.
• 2:06:16
  So again, I know David was on here.
• 2:06:18
  JD, thank you. Again.
• 2:06:19
  Like I said, I can't. Enough of the world of you.
• 2:06:23
  JD was my Co flagman this weekend.
• 2:06:25
  I had a good time hanging out with you.
• 2:06:27
  So you know the energy, I mean, he's like an energy.
• 2:06:29
  He just doesn't slow down and that's what makes it so fun is
• 2:06:31
  just watching him, you know, do his thing.
• 2:06:34
  I know Andrea was on here. We had a Brendan, of course, is
• 2:06:38
  on here. I want to thank Crashers
• 2:06:40
  adventure, Bill Russell again, congratulations Bill on hometown
• 2:06:43
  hero. We had Billy Edwards on here.
• 2:06:45
  So and I know I'm missing names and that's on purpose.
• 2:06:49
  But you know, again, I think there's another action-packed
• 2:06:51
  episode with a lot to do. So again, I will be mindful and
• 2:06:56
  purposeful. I'm not posting on top of this
• 2:06:58
  until about noon tomorrow. So it keeps it out there for
• 2:07:01
  people to see. And then of course, it'll be on
• 2:07:03
  Spotify within by midnight. Maybe it's Spotify slow
• 2:07:07
  sometimes and then Spotify does its thing and sends it out to
• 2:07:10
  all the other places. So again, if you know someone
• 2:07:13
  who's not on Facebook and didn't see it tonight or and they don't
• 2:07:16
  want to go to YouTube and they use other things, definitely use
• 2:07:19
  that. Other than that, Fuju and I are
• 2:07:21
  back on Thursday, The three of us are back next Monday, and I
• 2:07:25
  hope everybody finds a racetrack somewhere this weekend.
• 2:07:28
  Until then, turn left. Go fast, because Buju, we will.
• 2:07:32
  See you at the races. See you at the races.
• 2:07:34
  Have a great night everybody.