Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From Pit Road to Podcasting: Steve Post’s Sprint Through NASCAR and Beyond

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From Pit Road to Podcasting: Steve Post’s Sprint Through NASCAR and Beyond · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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BreakFixPodcast is all about capturing the living history of
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people from all over the autosphere.
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From wrench turners and racers, to artists, authors, designers,
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and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder How did they
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get that job or become that person?
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The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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Tonight's guest needs almost no introduction.
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He's been part of the NASCAR community for over 20 years.
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And Steve, the postman post has been one of the mainstay voices.
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of MRN for the past 13 years while carving out a niche in television projects,
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reporting, and being a talk show host for programs like The Winged Nation.
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He joins us tonight and we pick up where part one of the IMRRC's
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Life in the Fast Lane leaves off.
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Folks, picture it, Watkins Glen, December of 2017.
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And with that, let's welcome Steve to BreakFix.
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Hey, hey.
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Like I said, Steve, in the introduction, in part one, we
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were settling in at the MRN.
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You were talking about how Wing Nation was picking up speed, and you had just
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met your longtime hero, Pete Cordes.
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And it's been nearly seven years since then.
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So let's talk about Where is Steve now?
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Take us on the journey from 2017 to 2024.
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Well, it's interesting because you held that cover.
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And where I'm at is the hair is obviously longer.
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I think I've shed about 60 pounds since then, too.
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I've actually, I've seen some of those pictures that kind of
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pop up every once in a while.
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And it's been an amazing journey.
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It's been a remarkable journey and really, really good.
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Wow.
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Where have I been in six years?
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A little bit of everywhere.
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And it's been all over the map, if you will.
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I guess big picture as far as the motorsports goes, just continuing
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on as the lead pit reporter now for Motor Racing Network.
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Absolutely love my work with MRN.
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I was sharing with some folks that as we wrapped up the 2023 season, I think
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This year I maybe enjoyed my NASCAR coverage and being part of the NASCAR
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coverage as much as any other year.
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And this is the 21st year that I've been on the road with MRN.
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So really, really enjoyed the season with NASCAR.
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Love being on pit road.
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I still just absolutely love the men and women who work on these cars,
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whether it's the technical engineers or the mechanical guys that are up
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under the car and inside of the car.
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Are those athletic pit crew members?
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I just absolutely marvel at how they work on these cars.
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Always cool to hang out with the drivers.
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Always cool.
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Just to get into the people involved with the sport.
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So have you learned the difference between a screwdriver and a ratchet since 2017?
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No, it's still served me well not to know the difference between that.
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I know what a hammer is.
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So I do know what a hammer is exactly.
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But now, as I shared in my visit back in 2017, and it was Eli Gold, the
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great broadcaster, the voice of Alabama football, many, many years with MRN, he
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says, you don't need to know the answers.
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You just need to know the people and ask the questions to get the answers.
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And so I still don't know a ratchet or a socket wrench thus far.
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It's still served me all right in the past six years and the previous years.
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In addition to all your duties at MRN, you're also still part of Winged Nation.
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And like we were talking about, it was just picking up
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a head of steam back in 2017.
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So how have things progressed since then?
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Yeah, Winged Nation has just exploded.
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It's taken over my life.
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And that's a good thing.
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I really enjoy, I love winged sprint car racing.
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We had probably just started the MAV TV portion of the show.
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And so we have just wrapped up.
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As a matter of fact, the MAV TV portion.
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We're in such a beautiful time in communicating in the world, let
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alone sports, let alone motor sports.
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And what we found is the constraints of a 30 minute television program
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broken down in seven minute segments.
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We just get someone started talking and then it's like, hold that thought.
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We got to pick a commercial break.
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There was some other behind the scenes issues with the program, some
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challenges with personnel, the timing of it, we'd had to record it on Monday.
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I'm telling you, you get home midnight, one o'clock in the
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morning or fly home Monday morning.
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You've got to go straight to the studio and do the show.
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So the Mav TV portion of wing nation, we just closed that out.
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But what we're doing is we have a Tuesday show that will remain about what it is.
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And that's the nuts and bolts, the weekend and week out who won this, who won that.
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We'll interview at least one of the race winners, big newsmakers.
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If something's coming up, we'll preview it.
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And then what we're going to do is we're going to do a little bit more podcast
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D storytelling where we sit down and we don't have those seven minutes.
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So when we get someone wound up on a topic.
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They can get going on the topic.
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So we're going to go along form wing nation conversations, also looking
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at some social media elements.
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When I'm out at the racetrack, I'm going to be doing a fair number
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of sprint car races this year.
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And you know, rather it's just good to three or four minute segment with
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a driver that we've not heard from.
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There's so many interesting characters.
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We're in a fascinating time with sprint car racing, where there's even a split
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in big time sprint car racing with the world of outlaws and high limit.
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And everyone's worried about where everyone's going.
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Well, let's say High Limits gets eight drivers.
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And let's say the World of Outlaws get 12.
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That's 20 drivers.
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And we all know those 20 drivers.
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There are hundreds and hundreds of drivers at Lernerville Speedway and
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Silver Dollar Speedway and Usage Speedway and various racetracks.
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And we're going to kind of get in the trenches.
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And even if we go three, four minutes with some of these guys and
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gals and talk about who they are.
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We're going to tell a little bit of a story.
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Our president of the Motor Racing Network and MRN owns Wing Nation.
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Our president is like, who is telling the story of sprint car racing?
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And we're raising our hands.
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We're going to be the ones to do that in a little different
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format as we look at 2024.
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Originally you had talked about.
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Coming up through oval track racing, especially asphalt, you got into
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dirt later, especially winged outlaw cars and things like that.
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Now you're heavily involved in that.
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Earlier this season, we had Lynn Paxton on and he gave us a tour of the
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EMMR, which is basically, you know, his museum, if you think about it.
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Who are some of the hall of famers, some of the people you've met
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now that you've had to kind of go back and relearn that world?
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Well, I'll tell you, first and foremost, Lynn Paxton is my go to guy.
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When it comes to things, we did a variety of live shows for
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years at Port Royal Speedway.
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And one of the shows we would do on our Saturday night program is all the hall
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of famers, all the classic drivers.
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And I said, I'll do this under one condition.
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That Lynn Paxton will co host it because Lynn knows everything about everybody
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and he knows every story about everybody.
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The true ones, the untrue ones, and all of those that fall in between.
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Lynn has always been a great resource to me as far as that goes.
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I was fascinated you mentioned Lynn Paxton.
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I always get a little bit of a chuckle.
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My local track was Five Mile Point down in the Binghamton area.
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Which sadly, I think we've lost five mile point.
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We were supposed to lose it last year.
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It got a stay of execution, but sadly, I think we've lost it this time.
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And it looks like it's going away.
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And in 1972, there was a world of outlaw race there.
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And I went to that race as a kid, never remembered anything about it.
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Now here I am doing wing nation.
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So I am in Lin's museum getting the grand tour as only Lin can do.
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And he said, what's your background in sprint car racing?
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Well, I said, not a lot in sprint car racing, just as I shared with
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everybody at the talk six years ago, not a lot in sprint car race.
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I said, there was a race at five mile point.
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I went to a 1972 world of outlaw race.
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Only 14 cars showed up and yada, yada, yada.
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He stands back and he gets this big grin on his face and Lynn says, Oh,
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you were at that race where he says, you remember who won that race?
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I have no idea who won that race.
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He says, you're looking at Lynn Paxton actually won that race.
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And it was ironically.
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The first world of outlaw race in the state of New York, which I
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found out in talking with Lynn, I think the next night they ran up at
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rolling wheels, but it was the first outlaw race in the state of New York.
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So Lynn Paxton is certainly one of those historic people that I
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really, truly love to talk to.
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Another one from Pennsylvania is Fred Ramer.
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Fred Ramer is one of my favorite people on the planet.
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If you want to know an opinion, just ask Fred.
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Because he will share with you his opinion.
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There is very little gray in Fred's world.
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It is black or it is white and he will gladly share with you.
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And I always look forward.
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I always make it to the pits and make sure I catch up before the races.
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And then after the race, we always have a cold, frosty beverage.
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Fred and I do.
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And we solve all the problems of the sprint car world.
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And shake hands and go on our way.
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So Fred RA's one of those legendary, iconic people that I really enjoy.
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When you look at some of the younger legends of the sport, Darren Pitman
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is a guy that I just have huge respect for, really have enjoyed our visits.
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Darren is such an advocate, and this is whether it's a visit on Wing
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Nation or a visit in the pit area, Darren is like the foremost authority
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on safety in sprint car racing.
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And of course.
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All of auto racing, we always deal with safety.
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We always have those questions in whatever form.
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Darren is just a wealth of information on safety in sprint car racing.
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Always enjoy chatting with Joey Saldana.
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Joey is just such an interesting guy.
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So he looks like an accountant.
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But he drives like the Tasmanian devil.
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I mean, it's unreal how Joey Saldana is just such a great, great person
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in the sport, great, great guy.
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And honestly, one of the guys, and he is future hall of famer.
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He's not there yet.
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But one of the guys that I have just truly enjoyed is Donnie shots,
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10 time world of outlaw champion.
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We just have hit it off really well over the course of time, Donnie and I have.
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So, you know, you get into the sprint car world and when you're hanging
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out with guys like Donnie Shots and you're interviewing guys like
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Sammy Swindell and Joey Saldana, Terry McCarl is another guy I love.
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Just spent some time with Terry at the World Finals at Charlotte.
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We solved all the world's problems in the trailer one
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night before we even got started.
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Really enjoy.
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Talking to the legends of sport will love the talent in the sport, the present
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talent in the sport, but love talking to the legends of the sport as well.
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I got two more names to throw at you.
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Damien Gardner.
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We recently sat down for a movie night with our friends at the international
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motor racing research center and watched his documentary about going from the
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West coast version of outlaws to doing land speed in a late model there.
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And so I'm wondering, have you had a chance to sit down with Damien the demon?
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I had one chance with Damien probably seven years ago.
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Auto club speedway in Southern California.
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They did a tribute to the California short track racers.
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They had Brent dating down, but they had Damien there.
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And I actually interviewed Damien on a stage show that we did there.
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And it is fascinating to listen to his stories about
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sprint car racing, the demon.
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He certainly earned that nickname, but then the land speed and the things they
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did with that car and the way that that car went, I think that you have got to
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be a special, not one too tight person to run a sprint car on a dirt track.
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Damien Gardner says here, hold my beer.
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I'll show you what really whacked out is, and he is absolutely amazing.
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Great, great conversation we had there on the stage,
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actually, at Auto Club Speedway.
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Let's rewind the clock a little bit and talk about Pete Cordes and his wife, Judy.
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You were just reigniting that relationship in 2017.
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So how has that played out?
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Eric, I've dropped the ball on that one totally.
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Pete and I would talk to each other a couple times a year on the phone,
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and we would go, and about nine months ago, I crushed my phone.
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I'm not one of those people smart enough to back up
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anything, and I've lost numbers.
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I was up in the Binghamton area last week.
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I reached out and sent a Facebook message to the person that had
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got me Pete's number, and I haven't heard back from him yet.
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I've lost touch with Pete, but the goal is to get back with him here.
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And as soon as I get the number, that's going to be the next call
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I make, uh, within the next day or two, I'll be reaching out and
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touching base with Pete again.
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But it's just one of those things where once the season hits, I just lose mind.
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And the next thing, you know, it's a month, it's two months, it's three months.
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And that's been multiple months since I've had a chance to catch up with Pete.
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And I haven't caught up with him this year yet.
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And I literally was thinking about him.
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I crushed the phone and haven't had a chance to double back.
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So I need to get on that one again.
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Well, you know, what's good about this is that he's still with us.
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So that's kind of awesome that that relationship, that friendship perpetuates
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and you guys will get back together soon enough during part one, you also talked
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about, you know, moving to the Carolina.
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So guessing you're still headquartered down there and how are your girls?
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Girls are great.
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They are 25 and 22.
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They are living their respective dream lives.
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I have stressed to them that if their dad could move from Northeastern Pennsylvania
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to North Carolina to try to get a job broadcasting races on the radio and do
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it, they need to pursue their dreams.
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And so my oldest daughter is doing well.
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She's 25 years old.
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She spends about half of her life here in America.
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She spends the other half of her life in India.
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She is a yoga instructor and you vetics is a holistic medicine that she does.
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She is a counselor in that.
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And then some spirituality as well.
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She knows who she is.
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She's trying to figure out how to monetize it, but she's doing really, really well.
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And I love the path she's on because she's just as I did with my passion.
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She's chasing her passion.
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You chase your passion.
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You'll figure out a way to how to make it work.
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She's doing really, really well.
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My youngest one is far more traditional in the, went to college and did that.
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She is in what they call a gap year.
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She just wrapped up.
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She graduated from Charlotte with a theater degree and she
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is literally not in school.
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She is working at a cat cafe.
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She's living with four roommates and she's working at a dance studio.
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And it's been fascinating because she graduated in May.
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She said she wants to take a year before she starts doing anything.
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And over the Thanksgiving break, she's like, you know, Seattle
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has a really interesting theater scene, of course there's Chicago,
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of course there's New York.
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She said, there's some other cities that have a really nice theater scene.
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So I think she's finding her way as well.
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And she'll do well also.
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So my girls are doing really, really well.
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I'm fortunate.
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As a matter of fact, we spent some time over Thanksgiving weekend.
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Up in Pennsylvania, all of us together.
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So they still like to hang out with dear old dad every once in a while.
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I share that in common with you.
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I have two girls as well.
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They're a lot younger, but one of the things we pride ourselves on here at Grand
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Touring is that we want to perpetuate motorsport in the younger generations.
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And one of my biggest things that I subscribe to is make
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the kids part of your life.
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Not really the other way around.
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And so I wondered from your original talk, if you were dragging the girls
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with you to the track, what their track life was like, did it rub off on them?
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Do they enjoy it in any way?
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Mine are still coming up.
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They're coming up through the sports car and endurance world.
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So they're seeing cars that they can relate to, you know, Lamborghinis
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and Porsches and things like that, that they can relate to
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everybody air quotes around that.
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So what was it like for you as a dad with two girls in the world of motor sports?
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Sierra, my oldest one, really never caught on to it, and she's my free spirit.
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Just never caught on with her.
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Now, Summer, my youngest one, she started going with me to the summer shootout.
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I do the Tuesday night summer shootout at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and she
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would go because of the cute boys.
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Out there at the racetrack.
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Well, she's no longer going because of the cute boys, but she goes every
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week and she hangs out and watches and she knows all the storylines.
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So it's, it's not nearly as involved as I am, but she still follows the sport.
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They all follow that.
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I mean, she, they know who wins the NASCAR races.
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They follow along.
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It's funny with summer though.
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I always joke around with her.
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Ben Rhodes is our truck series champion.
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And now he's a two time champion.
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I am not mistaken.
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I know one of these facts is maybe the other one is truthful.
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She may have been the first person to join the little Ben Rhodes fan club when he was
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running a legends car out at Charlotte.
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That may or may not be true.
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If not, she was second or third.
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The one thing I know is that he was her first celebrity crush and
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I busted her and Ben about that.
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Ben is happily married and winning truck series championships.
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And she's doing her thing.
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So she follows along with it a little bit, not nearly as much as dear old dad, but
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I think they have a really good respect.
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Some of her friend group now they've started, they've got into
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watching the formula one races.
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And so they'll get up on Sunday morning and do brunch and
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watch the formula one races.
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And I think that's awesome.
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Racing is a social thing.
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And if she finds it for her friend group, if it's formula one.
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If it's sprint cars, wherever it is, I think that's really, really cool.
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You being in the profession of motorsports, you have to stay in tune
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with what's going on during your season in your discipline of motorsport.
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Is there a guilty pleasure?
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Is there another discipline of motorsport that you enjoy watching?
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Or maybe when you take some time off, you're like, you know what?
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I want to go check out a race.
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Over at X.
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What is X?
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I've been very, very fortunate with MRNs NASCAR coverage.
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We cover cup Xfinity truck, Arca, and some modified races with wing nation.
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We cover wing sprint car racing.
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I do Tuesday night legends racing at Charlotte motor Speedway.
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I do micros and box stocks out at Millbridge Speedway.
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Then I do some pay per view with late model stock racing
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on asphalt in the Carolinas.
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Those are all the things that I work in and I love every one of them.
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My guilty pleasure is Dirt Late Model Racing.
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Dirt Late Model Racing is the one series where I refuse.
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To work anything in it.
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I actually turned down a pay per view gig because I'm like, I've got to
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keep something where I'm just a fan.
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I've got to keep one aspect of where I'm just a fan.
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So for instance, a couple of weeks ago, there was a Saturday night race
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at Lancaster Speedway, which is a half mile dirt track, southeast of Charlotte.
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And then one of the historic great late model races is that Cherokee
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Speedway in Gaffney, South Carolina.
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The blue gray 100 pays 20 grand to win.
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And they have these two paired up.
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And I literally like lived for that weekend.
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Got up Saturday morning, did my thing, went to the track, paid my
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money, had my cooler, went in and sat down and watched the late models.
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They were great.
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They started the show early.
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So it was a cold November evening.
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But we were out of there at 7 30 home, restocked the cooler, got up,
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went and tailgated over at Cherokee, paid my money, went in and sat there
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and watched the dirt late model.
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So I really enjoy the dirt late model racing and I've traveled to
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the Western part of North Carolina for some dirt late model races.
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There's a couple of other bucket list races that I'm going to
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get to, but I'm really working diligently not to get involved in it.
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I want to keep that as my fandom.
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I'm starting to actually know some of the drivers and which ones I
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follow and which ones I like, and there's some incredible racing there.
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So that's my guilty pleasure.
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Dirt late mounts.
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Have you gotten behind the wheel of any of the race cars?
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Have you been on track?
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Years and years ago when I was at Five Mile Point Speedway,
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I was writing for Gator Racing News up there out of Syracuse.
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I did a meteor race.
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And I learned really, really early that I was not cut out to be a race
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car driver because I am the most calm, mild mannered person on the planet.
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In that 10 lap media race, every little infraction or that I
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thought was an infraction toward me became an offense that I wanted
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to wreck the guy in the spot.
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I grew horns in that race.
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And I got out of the car and my buddy, Roger Salai, Rockin
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Roger was, his car was driving.
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And I got out and he thought I was ready to go whoop somebody and
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he thought I was pro wrestling it and I got out and he said, you're
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really pissed off, aren't you?
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I said, yes, I am.
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He said, stop, stop, stop.
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And we decided right then over a couple of beers that that might be my
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one and done as far as driving goes.
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No, I don't need to get fighting and scrapping going on here
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because I'm not a fighter.
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Man, that got the juices flowing in a way that I've never had anything
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in my life took over like that.
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That was an interesting 10 laps of my life.
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So in part one of your story, you took us on this journey from the late 60s,
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early 70s, all the way through 2017.
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And you see so much evolution, not only in your person, but in motorsport
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and the way you tell the story and this encyclopedic knowledge of all
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these people's places and things.
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I mean, absolutely incredible.
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If we just hone in for a second, we target fixate.
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On NASCAR, which you've spent a lot of time in NASCAR has gone through
19:40
multiple evolutions over the years.
19:41
And it parallels formula one.
19:43
There's even a point at which, you know, they had to say no more tobacco
19:46
advertising and everything changed.
19:48
But we find ourselves now with the six or so.
19:51
generation of NASCAR cars, and we can expand upon that a little bit.
19:55
I want to talk about what you've seen in your time at NASCAR and how
19:59
you think the sport has changed some of the new rules, the new formats.
20:02
What do you like?
20:03
What don't you like?
20:04
I really do like the playoffs that we have.
20:06
I respect the year long championship run, and everyone can point out
20:12
the one that went down to Atlanta.
20:14
With Bill Elliott, Davey Ellison and Alan Kowicki, but there were also
20:18
multiple ones that ended three weeks before the season was open with Dale
20:21
Earnhardt firing the engine at Rockingham and being crowned the champion.
20:25
So I just think we live in a time where you've got to have those moments.
20:28
Sports entertainment is not about anticlimactic.
20:31
It's all about getting that two minute drive, that ninth inning home run.
20:36
Four drivers going head to head at Phoenix for the championship.
20:39
So while it's a huge change and I've enjoyed watching how the teams
20:43
navigate this, the first round of the playoffs, the round of 16 to the round
20:47
of 12, that's your base hit round.
20:48
Don't have any problems.
20:49
Just knock it out.
20:51
Give three top 10 finishes.
20:52
If you have a chance to go win a race, go win a race.
20:54
Don't put yourself in a bind when you get down to the round of
20:57
eight, it's like all hands on deck.
21:00
We're going to do anything we can in our power to win a race.
21:03
And so I think that's fascinating the way that that's been navigated
21:06
and the way teams have successfully or not successfully navigated it.
21:09
So that's one thing that's changed drastically.
21:12
I think our race weekends have changed drastically as well.
21:15
We used to go in on Friday morning, we'd practice for two hours, we'd
21:17
qualify on Friday afternoon, we'd practice another hour or two on Saturday
21:21
morning, and then we'd race on Sunday.
21:23
And, and this all started during COVID, during 2020, since we had that visit,
21:27
but now we go in on Saturday morning, we have 20 minutes of practice, we
21:31
qualify right after it, and we tee them up on Sunday, and we race the cars.
21:35
I think the one constant in NASCAR racing is when something changes.
21:41
You listen to everybody wringing their hands.
21:43
This is never going to work.
21:45
This is never going to work.
21:46
Four weeks later, it's like, oh yeah, that's what we do.
21:49
We practice for 20 minutes.
21:51
For years and years and years, we practice for hours and hours and hours.
21:55
Now we practice for 20 minutes.
21:57
For the Phoenix race, we had a one hour practice session and the crew chiefs were
22:01
like, well, we don't have enough tires.
22:02
I don't even know what we're going to do.
22:04
We've got three things we want to try and we got an hour to try them in.
22:07
I mean, yes, they enjoyed having the hour of practice, but they
22:10
just had to reset everything.
22:12
So the way we do the race weekends now being so compacted is amazing because
22:17
I mean, it used to be, you were at the racetrack three long days to run one race.
22:22
Now you're there two days, we learned during COVID, we
22:25
could be there for one day.
22:27
The problem with that is that you're selling all these camping programs, you
22:31
have all the television networks, and they need some kind of content to go.
22:34
The qualifying shows are a great place to tell stories as well, that
22:37
we can't tell on Sunday afternoon.
22:39
So, I think the race weekends has changed drastically as well.
22:42
So, you know, when you look at the playoff format, that's been a drastic change.
22:45
The weekend format, that's been a change.
22:47
And then where we're going with NASCAR racing, we have raced at the
22:52
LA Coliseum who in the wide world of sports would have ever seen that coming.
22:56
We have raced on a street course in Chicago.
22:58
I love the new nature of it.
23:00
I was talking with a buddy today and I said, you have a mutual
23:03
friend that's getting married.
23:04
When are you getting married?
23:05
I'm getting married the third week of August.
23:06
Oh, well, I'll be in Michigan.
23:07
I'm getting married the third week of September.
23:09
I'll be in Dover.
23:10
We lived our life year after year after year with the same schedule.
23:14
Now, when someone says.
23:16
We're having some going on on April 15th.
23:18
I have no idea where we're going to be at.
23:20
And what I think made 2023 so fascinating is we have the new, we have the
23:24
Chicago street race, we continue with the Coliseum, and yet in 2023 we also
23:30
brought North Wilkesboro back into play.
23:32
And we went with the old as well with the all star race up there.
23:36
I think it's fascinating where we're at with the schedule.
23:38
We're bringing Iowa onto the tour this year and it's going to be interesting
23:41
to see where we go with the schedule.
23:44
You know, are there other coliseums or venues we can race in?
23:47
There are obviously other street courses we can do.
23:50
So stay tuned and see where we go with it.
23:52
And I think the other thing is we'll probably know more after this year.
23:55
Is the coliseum a three year deal?
23:57
Is it a four year deal?
23:58
And then we go somewhere else for three or four years.
24:00
Then we come back to the coliseum.
24:01
In Chicago, it's a three year agreement.
24:04
Do we do three years in Chicago and then go do the Meadowlands for three years
24:07
and then go do Seattle for a year or two, and then back to Grant Park in Chicago.
24:11
This is not your dad's NASCAR where we went to Pocono twice a
24:14
year, whether we needed it or not.
24:16
Now we're all over the map.
24:18
You know, we're going to Watkins Glen next year in the playoffs in September.
24:22
I think that's awesome to have that race in September.
24:25
I just, I love where we're at with the variety in the, in the
24:27
series and not knowing one year to the next, where we're going.
24:30
So you mentioned the All Star Race, which brings back memories of IROC,
24:34
the International Race of Champions.
24:36
Do you miss those days?
24:37
I lament about how we need to bring IROC back.
24:40
Yeah, I really did.
24:41
I loved when you would have Eddie Cheever and Dale Earnhardt arguing at Daytona.
24:45
You know, Al Unser Jr.
24:47
swinging it around with A.
24:48
J.
24:48
Foyt and Steve Kinzer at Darlington.
24:50
SRX has attempted to do it, and it's a good attempt, and what
24:53
they're doing there is fine.
24:55
But it's not been the Iraq series.
24:57
It's not been the old Jason Norie Iraq series.
25:01
And I would love to see more of that.
25:03
I think when we look at, and we have a cycle there, a period of time where the
25:07
Rolex 24 was looking a lot like that.
25:09
I loved that when we had the Rolex 24 with all the NASCAR drivers
25:13
and all the IndyCar drivers.
25:15
We've gotten away from that a little bit.
25:16
I know A.
25:16
J.
25:16
Allmendinger's ran it some, and we've gotten away from that a little bit.
25:19
I don't know that the feasibility of IROC, but to me, it's like the Rolex
25:23
24 seems almost like a no brainer.
25:25
It's why can't we do something there where we get more of the NASCAR drivers.
25:30
The international crowd is already there.
25:32
The IndyCar crowd is there to some degree, but to me, it would be really,
25:35
really cool to see something like that.
25:37
To me, it seems like the Rolex 24 is a simpler.
25:40
Ask and get that maybe a separate IROC series.
25:44
I think that's a little bit heavy lifting that we're going to do.
25:46
I'm glad you brought that up because that takes us back to 2001, which is a great
25:51
year and a bad year at the same time.
25:54
And we had Andy Pilgrim on the show two seasons ago, and we talked about
25:58
his time at Lamar and at Rolex, and obviously he was Dale and Dale
26:02
Jr's teammates in the C5R back in 2001, to your point for me, seeing.
26:08
The Earnhardst and seeing some of the other folks coming over
26:11
from the other disciplines to run in sports car endurance.
26:14
It was like, wow, this is a meeting of the greats.
26:17
And I think 2001 was probably one of the best years for that.
26:21
I think you're right on that because you did have all of them.
26:23
Tony Stewart running the Rolex 24.
26:26
I remember late in the day, he cuts a tire down and he wheels that car
26:29
on three wheels around the racetrack and saves the day for his team.
26:32
And so to me, it was like, you'd see these non NASCAR people, the folks that
26:36
I'm not familiar with that I read about.
26:38
Back in the day and speed sport news, if you will, or the, you
26:41
would only see on ABC's wide world of sports or the Indy 500 coverage.
26:45
And I think that that was a fascinating time.
26:47
And I would love to see us get back to that.
26:49
I don't understand.
26:50
And especially what really strikes me as the lack of NASCAR involvement
26:55
in the Rolex 24, especially with the proliferation of road
27:00
courses in the NASCAR schedule.
27:02
Now, back in 2001, there was two road courses.
27:04
You know, there was Watkins Glen and Sonoma.
27:06
And yet everybody from NASCAR was running the Rolex 24.
27:09
Well, why are we running it?
27:10
We're running it because it was a race.
27:11
It was a trophy and we wanted to win.
27:13
It's fascinating to me that now we have seven road course races and nobody
27:17
goes and runs the Rolex 24, which would seem to meet backward, but it
27:20
seemed to me like everybody would want to get a ride at the Rolex 24 to get
27:24
some left and right experience, but.
27:25
The other thing is, is that our young drivers have so much left and right
27:29
experience between coming up through the ranks and running Trans Am and
27:33
TA2 is, TA2 is the hotspot right now.
27:35
Ford's development program and Chevy's development program have such
27:38
a road course emphasis that these young drivers, the Austin Cindericks
27:41
and Chase Briscoes of the world are very, very good road racers.
27:44
So maybe that prevents them from thinking they need to go run the Rolex 24.
27:48
It's kind of a different time, but it's interesting.
27:51
I would love to see.
27:52
More and more of that integration of the various forms of motorsports
27:56
take place on the racetrack.
27:57
You're a hundred percent right.
27:58
And one of our previous guests, Colin Garrett came up through
28:00
the world of asphalt oval and the truck series and whatnot.
28:04
And now he finds himself as the touring car champion in
28:07
world challenge through SRO.
28:08
So he's working his way up into IMSA as well, but he wants to
28:11
be this Swiss army knife, right?
28:13
He wants to have all these different backgrounds in these disciplines.
28:15
That being said, we could turn this whole conversation on its
28:19
nose here in 2023 by uttering.
28:22
Two words, garage 56, you take a NASCAR to Europe.
28:27
Yeah.
28:27
I'm the public address announcer at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
28:30
Among other things, I do the PA address for the rollable race in October.
28:35
The guy I work for walks in and says, Rick Hendrick wants to talk to you.
28:39
And I'm like, Rick Hendrick wants to talk to me.
28:42
I'm like, what did I say?
28:43
Did I say something in qualifying?
28:45
Did I do what, you know, cause I'm just the dumb announcer, you know,
28:49
Rick Hendrick wants to talk to me.
28:50
And he said, yeah, the garage 56 car is doing a couple of parade laps and he wants
28:56
to make sure you have the bullet points.
28:57
And I said, his PR people gave me six.
29:00
Pages of bullet points sequential shift.
29:04
I know the gear ratios.
29:05
I know the weight I know that the mirrors on the side of the car this
29:08
I know everything about they're going to run two laps I could talk about
29:12
this car for 20 laps with everything.
29:14
They gave me I understand That's Mr.
29:16
Hendrick's PR people.
29:17
Mr.
29:17
Hendrick wants to talk to you to make sure you have it right.
29:20
And I walk down and I'm supposed to coordinate with a PR person,
29:24
supposed to meet Rick Hendrick in the 24 Hall or at 1030 on race
29:27
morning or whatever time it was.
29:29
So I walk out and I have those notes and everything there.
29:32
Uh, I said, Hey, and we chit chatted.
29:33
I've interviewed him multiple times.
29:35
He's a wonderful guy.
29:36
Rick Hendrick, he's a racer.
29:38
That's a successful businessman.
29:39
He's a great guy.
29:40
We chit chatted for a few minutes.
29:41
He said, I know you have all the bullet points, but I just
29:43
wanted to make sure that you have the right messaging for this.
29:46
And I said, well, yeah, I said, you know, I've kind of highlighted this
29:48
and I've kind of highlighted this and I've kind of highlighted that and he
29:51
looks at the sheet and on the bottom of the sheet, it said garage 56 brought a
29:56
lot of American and NASCAR pride from the international motor sports world.
30:00
And he's looking down the sheet and he looks and he says my people
30:04
have this buried at the bottom.
30:06
This is the lead.
30:07
This is the only thing you need to talk about.
30:09
He said they called it the beast over at Lamont.
30:12
When it showed up, everyone was snickering.
30:14
Everyone was thinking this beast is not going to get around the racetrack.
30:17
We fired it up and then they were snickering even more, except for
30:21
it sounded really, really badass.
30:23
So they were kind of snickering, but kind of like, well, it does sound kind of cool.
30:26
He said, we put it on the racetrack and it was fast.
30:28
It was real fast for what we were doing, where our expectations were.
30:32
Then our pit crew members go over and do the pit crew contest.
30:36
And this is NASCAR style pit crew contests.
30:39
He says, from snickering the crew members from other teams wanting to come
30:44
and swap crew uniforms with our crew guys, this thing turned upside down.
30:49
And he said, and I don't care who you are, he said, when you're an American
30:54
standing on the start finish line in France, and they're chanting USA, USA,
31:00
USA, he says, it's a special moment.
31:03
It's a special moment.
31:05
For America, it's a special moment for NASCAR was a special moment.
31:08
I'll never forget it for the rest of my life.
31:10
And he said, that's your story.
31:13
These other details use them wherever you want to do it.
31:16
But that is your story.
31:17
Typical MRM guy.
31:19
I was covering a race somewhere else.
31:21
So, I mean, I knew Lamont was happening.
31:22
I knew what was going on with garage 56, but wasn't glued to the TV.
31:26
Like a lot of people were, which I thought was fantastic.
31:28
I thought it was great.
31:30
I wasn't glued to it.
31:31
But after having that conversation with Rick Hendrick, what, uh, the other thing
31:35
is, is just the international interest in NASCAR that we have and, and yeah, Shane
31:39
Ginsberg and coming over certainly didn't hurt anything from the land down under
31:44
with that, but there's so much interest in NASCAR internationally that was not there.
31:51
These are kid cars.
31:52
These are not sports cars.
31:53
Well, when they put that kit car out on the racetrack and the thing hauled
31:56
around Lamar at a very, very good grade speed, it's like, well, you know what?
32:00
These are pretty bad ass cars.
32:01
My garage 56 moment was probably not until October talking to Rick Hendrick about it.
32:06
And then the exposure, like some of these videos were in the millions.
32:11
Of views.
32:13
He said that's the exposure for Lamont.
32:15
He says that they weren't getting prior to that, he said,
32:18
so it was a win for everybody.
32:20
Don't know where the program is going beyond the ville a couple
32:22
weeks ago, but what an amazing event.
32:24
And again, I think where we can integrate, whether it's a Garage 56 at Lamont or
32:29
Kyle Larsson in a midget race or anything in between where we can integrate the
32:33
sport, I think is really, really cool.
32:35
And that Garage 56 program, everything was so well done and not a shocker.
32:39
Rick Henrik, when he signs onto a project, when Chevy signs onto a project, when
32:43
Goodyear signs on a project, when NASCAR signs onto a project, we actually talked
32:46
to Greg Ives over at Henrik Motorsports.
32:49
He's next in command behind Chad Canals overseeing this project.
32:52
And he shared the same thing being there and how it was a life changing moment.
32:56
Greg had been Dale Earnhardt Jr's crew chief and crew chief for
32:59
Alex Bowman and everything else.
33:01
And he said to be over there and to be part of that was absolutely amazing.
33:04
Just everything from the driver lineup to the car, to the
33:06
performance, to the reaction.
33:08
What an amazing, amazing sequence of events.
33:11
It was back there in June.
33:13
And you mentioned van Ginsberg and the Aussies and gaining their respect.
33:17
And I think what's interesting about the garage 56 cars, it showed the
33:20
potential that those cars actually have.
33:23
They're not the old two frame kind of Conestoga wagon leaf spring
33:27
set up that they were forever.
33:28
You know, the days of thunder cars where it's like they were
33:30
the same for the longest time.
33:32
Now they are more like GT three cars in a lot of ways.
33:35
And the garage 56 car took it there.
33:37
But I think what got the.
33:39
Is it took a NASCAR to the level of what they consider a V8 supercar?
33:44
Because if you look at the Falcons and the HSV Holdens, those were a step
33:49
above for a long time than our NASCAR.
33:51
So they were still production based, things like that.
33:53
There were awesome cars running around Bathurst.
33:55
But you never saw them leave the islands.
33:57
When this generation of race car came about last year, people said it's probably
34:00
closest to the V8 supercar from Australia.
34:03
You know, people always say, well, except for this and except for that,
34:05
we, it's easy to do the except fours.
34:07
And so it's its own car and NASCAR wanted it to be its own car, its own
34:11
identity, and we get all of that.
34:14
When he came over, it was the perfect sequence for an
34:18
international event like that.
34:20
It was a racetrack that nobody had any seat time.
34:23
It was a street course where he has far more seat time than
34:26
any of the NASCAR drivers.
34:28
It was a wet track condition.
34:29
And it was a car that he was more similar to than he would have
34:32
been the old 1956 Ford rear end truck arms that we run forever.
34:37
And so it was a perfect storm.
34:39
But what an amazing sequence of events.
34:41
June 15th, approximately, we're in Le Mans with Garage 56 and we get to July
34:46
4th weekend and an Australian supercar champ is winning a NASCAR Cup Series race.
34:50
What a year for NASCAR, what a three week period it was.
34:54
And when Shane gets out and talks about how that car drove and how that car
34:58
raced and how it went and everything like that, I don't necessarily
35:01
care for all of the stock parts.
35:03
I'll just be honest with you.
35:04
I like the engineers and the crew chiefs to have a little creativity.
35:08
I also get why we don't have that because enforcing it and policing
35:11
it becomes a whole lot of gray area.
35:13
I get why we do it.
35:14
I'm not necessarily sure that I'm in favor of it.
35:17
I like a little creativity and ingenuity.
35:19
But I talked to Mike Rockenfeller as well and he said this car
35:22
is just incredible to drive.
35:24
You guys take for granted this car that is just a stock car.
35:28
He says this car is absolutely amazing.
35:30
And So when you have guys like Rockenfeller and Shane and Jenson
35:33
Button has talked about the car as well, because he had some
35:35
starts and you talk about that.
35:37
And it's like, you know, it's probably pretty good.
35:39
It's probably a pretty cool beast that we have here for this generation of race car.
35:43
Then we had a want, want moment this year in NASCAR.
35:46
We brought over famed Formula One driver, Kimi Raikkonen.
35:49
Yeah, it's just.
35:53
They're not all going to win in Chicago, but this is what I love
35:56
where we're at with NASCAR is we have team owners like Justin Marx that's
36:00
willing to do this Project 91 call.
36:02
That's what Kimi drove.
36:03
It actually was weird, was it his first effort at our Watkins Glutton last year.
36:08
Uh, two years ago or 2022 was better than what it was when he ran it this
36:13
year, but I think that's racing.
36:14
I think that there's so much involved with racing when you have guys like Kimi
36:18
or Shane or any of them They get out and they're just freaking kota going nine wide
36:22
into turn number one shoot nascar drivers.
36:24
I've never seen that There's just such a uniqueness to nascar style of racing
36:28
And I think in some areas it jumps out as a good thing and other areas, it's
36:31
like, Oh, that's a little more difficult.
36:33
But the project 91, I really can't wait to see where this goes.
36:36
And there's other teams that have the international
36:38
development programs as well.
36:40
And it's going to be fun to see who else might climb aboard some
36:42
of these cars as we go forward.
36:44
The problem is seeing him in Ginsburg and he kind of set the bar pretty
36:47
high for this thing and I'm not sure.
36:48
I think he's a very talented race car driver.
36:50
I think that's a really, really good team.
36:52
If there's practice, I think that gets a little bit weird.
36:55
If it's dry, I think it gets a little bit different not to
36:58
take anything away from him.
36:59
He is a cup series winner and he earned that cup series race and
37:02
all respect in the world to him for winning that cup series race.
37:05
But the reality of it is, is the stars did align for him.
37:08
Well, as the stars of the line for NASCAR cup series drivers, winning cup
37:11
series races in the 75 year history of the sport, it's fascinating times where
37:15
we're at with NASCAR when you think about it from an international perspective.
37:19
You mentioned during COVID things changed again, right?
37:22
And it's always in a constant flux and growth, but we also introduced, sort of
37:26
took a shot in the arm to the virtual world and that brought in iRacing as
37:31
a replacement for racing at the real tracks because they were all closed.
37:35
We couldn't be there.
37:36
Did you find yourself calling races in the virtual world too?
37:39
I did not do any of that.
37:40
I've not done any virtual races at all.
37:42
The TV crew, Fox, they just went with their normal Fox crew when they did
37:45
those races, which they should have, and we didn't call any radio races.
37:49
What we did with MRN, we went in a total different direction with MRN
37:53
and created a whole new product.
37:55
On Sunday afternoons, we'd put together two hour classic And we started with like
38:02
nine stations grudgingly taking them.
38:05
Well, then the next thing, you know, 15 stations.
38:07
Well, I think now we have a classic race that airs every week and it's
38:10
distributed to radio stations.
38:12
I think there's 70 or 80 radio stations that are taking them.
38:15
Now they might run them at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night.
38:18
So we went that way, but when it comes to the virtual stuff, I think
38:21
the virtual thing was so fascinating.
38:23
And we got into this also with the world of outlaws.
38:25
They were even maybe a step ahead of where NASCAR was.
38:28
I don't remember.
38:29
It all runs together now.
38:30
Comparable time wise, because we were in that short window of time in 2020.
38:33
What it did was.
38:35
First off, it was entertaining.
38:36
Those early days of COVID, we didn't know if we were all going
38:39
to live or we're going to die.
38:40
Couldn't go anywhere.
38:41
If you had to go somewhere, everyone was masked up.
38:43
Nobody wanted to talk to anybody.
38:44
Nobody wanted to do anything.
38:45
And here it is on our TVs.
38:47
Here is NASCAR on our TVs, running virtually.
38:51
Here is...
38:53
Alex Bowman's dog tripping over the outlet and unplugging his
38:58
system while he's leading the race.
39:00
The drivers and the commentators all being able to play on social media
39:06
as well, I think it was fascinating.
39:09
Obviously what it did for iRacing was, you want to talk about buying a Super Bowl
39:13
ad for iRacing, this was a Super Bowl ad.
39:17
Times thousands for iRacing because then everybody was on it.
39:22
Everybody was playing the games and we gathered together on, I think it
39:26
was Wednesday nights for these iRacing events that we had until we could
39:31
get up and running at Darlington of all places to get back to running.
39:34
But the iRacing thing was absolutely amazing.
39:37
And again, where we were at as a society, we just wanted to not.
39:41
Be hunkered down and scared to death for two hours.
39:45
And that's where NASCAR really filled a gap with the NASCAR fans is you
39:49
literally would have CNN or MSNBC or Fox news or whoever your news source is.
39:55
You would have those on for 22 hours.
39:58
We had that two hours of Fox with NASCAR coverage, where instead of
40:03
seeing the latest numbers from the CDC and seeing this and seeing that.
40:07
You were literally laughing because Bowman's dog did this and Boyer
40:11
was drinking beer and got hammered on the broadcast and forget
40:15
what happened to Denny Hamlin.
40:15
Something happened with him where one of his kids came down and flipped
40:18
the switch on the TV or something.
40:20
And what they did though is also showcase the personality of the drivers.
40:23
I'm sure it didn't hurt some of their personality when fans started to see
40:27
that, you know, I kind of thought that guy was a little bit of a jerk,
40:29
but then when you see this and you see that he's kind of a cool guy.
40:32
And I think they did a really nice job with it.
40:34
The virtual racing during that time period was amazing.
40:36
It humanized them.
40:37
That's for sure.
40:38
Right.
40:38
Because a lot of times they're the figure on the poster and you idolize them for
40:42
their feats and their triumphs and even their defeats, but to see them vulnerable
40:46
in their own home, it's a whole different story where they've become very real.
40:49
Yeah, it really was.
40:49
You see them in their own home.
40:51
We met Alex Bowman's dogs.
40:52
Alex Bowman's dog cost him a race win.
40:55
We got to put the personalities and you'd get out of that and you'd be like.
40:58
And that was funny.
40:59
And this guy, and that was hysterical that this guy did that.
41:01
And that guy did that.
41:02
And it was really, really good at a time where we needed really, really good.
41:06
There was two hours of entertainment on Wednesday nights.
41:09
That was much needed for where we're at as a culture, as a society.
41:11
At that point, when you look at your bigger story.
41:15
And how COVID plays into it.
41:16
You know, as I got through part one, you basically started to tell
41:20
everybody, you know, my life has finally settled down the turbulence
41:23
that was there up until that point.
41:25
It's all good.
41:25
And then COVID hits and here we go.
41:27
We're shaking it up all over again.
41:28
Now, as we're on the other side of it, do you find yourself finally sort of
41:33
stabilize, but also what else is going on?
41:36
First and foremost, big picture NASCAR.
41:38
I find it absolutely amazing and ironic that of all places Darlington.
41:43
brought us back from COVID.
41:45
Darlington, 20 years ago, lost the Southern 500.
41:48
They're going to shut the place down.
41:50
It's going to be over.
41:52
It's going to be done.
41:54
And this is bigger than NASCAR.
41:55
The Darlington race was the first sporting event in COVID.
41:59
That grand old racetrack brought us back from COVID.
42:01
And so we came back from COVID and yeah, you're right.
42:05
It upset everything.
42:06
My instructions when I went to Darlington is you go in the infield.
42:10
You get your gear off in the truck.
42:12
You go to your turn position.
42:13
You don't talk to anybody.
42:15
You don't say anything to anybody.
42:16
You go to your turn position and you leave your gear there and you get
42:19
in the car and you go the hell home.
42:21
That's what I was told to do.
42:22
What we had was we had a North Carolina based crew.
42:25
Alex Hayden and Dave Moody in the booth.
42:27
I was in the turn.
42:29
Dylan Welch was in the turn and Kim Kuhn was on pit road.
42:31
We were all Charlotte based.
42:33
Well, all the races for the first month were all Martinsvilles and
42:35
Darlingtons and drive by places.
42:37
We would go, we would never drive together, and do those races on our own,
42:42
drive four and a half hours to Atlanta to do an hour and 15 minute truck race
42:46
to drive four and a half hours back home.
42:48
Don't stop anywhere.
42:49
Don't say it.
42:50
So what was funny about it is, is we want a phase where Alex, Dave
42:53
and I, we were the three that did every one of those races.
42:56
Alex, Dave and I did six weeks worth of races and never saw each other.
43:01
Never saw each other because we were instructed.
43:03
You go home.
43:04
It was fascinating from that perspective, what COVID did as far as the MRM
43:09
broadcast goes and the scheduling goes.
43:11
Andy Petrie, the longtime competition director at Richard Childress Racing.
43:15
They told him they were going to go to Darlington and race with no practice.
43:18
He said, that's going to fail.
43:19
That's going to be the biggest mistake we ever made.
43:21
We're going to be the first sporting event back.
43:22
And we're going to look like a bunch of buffoons, the ringing of the hands,
43:25
that's what it was, 20 laps into the race, when everyone is wheeling it
43:28
around Darlington, everything is good.
43:30
So COVID was fascinating from that perspective.
43:32
It really, truly was.
43:33
The other perspective I have on COVID was we were running Tuesday night truck races
43:38
at Martinsville and Saturday afternoon truck races at Atlanta and we were at
43:43
Charlotte Motor Speedway doing this.
43:45
I don't know where I'm at.
43:46
You get up the next day and it's like, okay, I got a truck race tomorrow.
43:49
I got to do notes.
43:49
I got this.
43:50
I got to do that.
43:51
I have a friend that is a basketball commentator for the University of
43:54
Kentucky or he was at the time.
43:56
He's still up there.
43:57
And so he sent me a note, how are you doing?
43:59
So I called him, I said, dude, I don't know whether I'm coming or going.
44:01
I'm wore out.
44:02
I've got so many races.
44:03
I'm just going crazy.
44:05
This is unreal.
44:06
Not complaining, running us into the ground.
44:08
And so finally, after I talked about being busy for like five minutes to him, I come
44:13
up for air and I said, so how are you?
44:15
And he said, a whole lot different than you.
44:17
And I said, why is that?
44:18
And he said, if the sec decides not to play football this year, I'm unemployed.
44:22
I'm like, well, you don't do football.
44:24
He said, no, but football in the sec pays for everything else.
44:27
And if the sec decides not to play football this year, I'm unemployed.
44:31
I'm like, Oh, so I guess me whining about all my work is probably not
44:35
necessarily what you needed to hear today.
44:37
We had a good chuckle over and everything like that.
44:39
So I'll never forget that COVID time period.
44:42
And what that was and how that changed the sport, how it changed
44:45
zoom calls prior to COVID.
44:47
Nobody did zoom calls during COVID.
44:49
That's how we did all of our media sessions was via zoom call.
44:51
We still use the zoom call regularly, frequently.
44:53
So as far as we went through COVID and you're right, things
44:56
have settled down a little bit.
44:58
Now we're back into the routine of NASCAR.
45:00
And this year I've enjoyed my NASCAR time this year, maybe more than any other year.
45:05
First and foremost, I love traveling.
45:07
So I'm, I'm grateful that I still have the love for traveling.
45:10
Next year, I'm even going to enhance that a little bit by
45:12
going into town a few days early.
45:14
So I've targeted a few races and one of them is Watkins Glen.
45:17
I'm going to come up on Wednesday morning because in September,
45:21
the Finger Lakes region, Watkins Glen, there is some wineries.
45:25
There are some breweries.
45:25
There's some hiking.
45:27
There's some places that I'm going to check out.
45:29
When I look at this year, the NASCAR stuff was a blast.
45:32
It just was really fun.
45:33
We have the new, the old Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
45:36
Michael McDowell winning races.
45:38
Just when you thought you understood what was going on, the wheels
45:41
would fall off from somebody.
45:43
And, you know, you'd be like, well, I guess they're not what they are.
45:46
Beyond that, probably since 2017, I've added kids racing.
45:49
I do stuff at Millbridge Speedway, which is a great little dirt
45:52
track that runs a kid's program.
45:54
And this was where the Brexton Bushes and the Owen Larson's and all of the kids.
45:58
They run these little box stock carts and on a Tuesday night, we'll have a
46:01
hundred kids out there racing cars.
46:03
So I do that program is what I've added to it.
46:06
And the other thing I probably added from a racing perspective,
46:08
I've added some health and fitness projects that I'm doing.
46:10
I'm dabbling with my own blog site called Postman 68.
46:14
The 68 is for Pete Cordes, as a matter of fact, I'm working on that.
46:17
I've got two or three different ideas.
46:20
This is never going to be NASCAR.
46:23
com.
46:23
It's never going to be huge.
46:25
It's little things that I enjoy.
46:28
Started writing, started blogging and writing some columns.
46:31
And I really enjoy that.
46:33
I've got a couple other things I'm going to do and just kind
46:35
of develop that a little bit.
46:37
So, uh, it's out there at postman68.
46:39
com.
46:40
It's funny.
46:40
I get working on one thing and I get behind on another.
46:43
I have my race coming on there.
46:44
I was, I'm at 129 races this year.
46:46
I haven't got caught up with that.
46:47
So I need to spend some time to get caught up with all of that and really to
46:50
share my passion for short track racing.
46:52
I absolutely love.
46:54
The short track world.
46:55
I'm so blessed to get to work within NASCAR, but I also
46:58
get to go to short tracks.
46:59
The blue gray, 100, I went to a Cherokee was race number 129 of this
47:03
year that I've been to last year.
47:05
I actually went to 160 races.
47:07
I vowed I would never do that again because that just
47:09
became a stupid obsession.
47:10
So doing all of that, the short track stuff in some pay per view
47:13
work, postman, 68 wing nation.
47:16
And MRN, between all of that, I mentioned right off the top, I mentioned
47:19
about losing 60 pounds, I'm actually running, I'm doing a half marathon in
47:23
February, doing a lot of that as well.
47:25
Between all that, it takes the 28 hours in every day and fills
47:28
most of them up, that's for sure.
47:30
Every story, Postman.
47:31
I am always left going.
47:33
Wow.
47:34
I don't know how you do it.
47:35
And you know, I thought I talk fast and I thought I jammed a lot of stuff in
47:38
a five pound bag, but you got me beat.
47:40
That's incredible.
47:41
I have to ask, here we are.
47:43
Where is he now?
47:44
We know where you're at, but what's next for Steve post?
47:47
Enjoy the ride.
47:49
You know, I'm that little kid that announced my matchbox cars.
47:53
That I shared back in 2017, I think part of it is just that I'm
47:57
that guy that caught my dream.
47:58
First and foremost, I'm a radio guy.
48:00
I don't even own a television.
48:01
And there are about six or eight people on the planet that make a
48:05
living calling NASCAR races on radio.
48:07
And I'm one of them.
48:08
That's something to be grateful for.
48:09
And so I really have worked hard to enjoy the ride.
48:12
Enjoy my passions with sprint cars.
48:14
Enjoy my passions with short tracks.
48:15
Enjoy my passions with running and health and fitness.
48:18
If I'm going to do this and enjoy it, I might as well try to live
48:20
a little bit longer and enjoy it a little bit longer as well.
48:23
I'm at a really good spot.
48:24
Our leadership at MRN, it's never been bad, but there is a
48:28
significant level of respect that we have from our leadership at MRN.
48:33
If you have the respect of the people you work for, Boy, I'm telling you
48:36
what, life gets a whole lot easier.
48:38
I could use a few more bucks in the quarterly pay.
48:40
Yeah, it'd be nice if they'd give me first class tickets on a plane instead
48:43
of steerage where I ended up going.
48:45
But the bottom line is, is that we're at a really good spot with our team.
48:48
So here's a fascinating little MRN factoid.
48:51
If it's Jason Toy and I on Pitt road, I'm the new guy at MRN at 21 years.
48:58
21 years.
48:59
We have people that have been there for more than 30 years.
49:02
We have Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegel, Dave Moody, Mike Bagley, part timers Kurt
49:06
Becker, Dan Hubbard, Jason Toye have all been there longer than I have been.
49:11
I'm the new kid at 21 years.
49:12
Now we've added Kim Coons and Dylan Welch's and Chris Wilmer.
49:15
We've added some really good young people.
49:17
I think that's part of it too.
49:18
I love the guys I work with.
49:20
It's so fascinating this time of year.
49:22
Because we get done with Phoenix and we don't want to talk to each other.
49:24
We don't want to see each other.
49:26
We're sick of each other.
49:27
We're never going to talk to that person again.
49:29
And then usually about Thanksgiving morning, someone will send a note.
49:33
Hey, you big, dumb Turkey.
49:34
Happy Thanksgiving.
49:35
Well, the next thing you know, the barge is flying and everyone is doing it.
49:38
I think that's what's next is just, I'm very, very fortunate with who I
49:42
work with, who I work for, what I get a chance to do, where I get a chance to go.
49:47
Kids are great.
49:48
Life is good.
49:49
I'm just, uh, sitting back and enjoying the ride.
49:51
That's for sure.
49:52
So Steve, you mentioned something really, really important, and it's fundamental
49:56
to the show as we try to inspire young petrolheads trying to find their
50:01
way in what we call the autosphere.
50:03
And you mentioned more than once that you've caught your dream.
50:06
So if a young person came up to you and said, Steve, how do I get your job?
50:10
What piece of advice would you give them?
50:12
Get a microphone in your hand and start talking.
50:14
It sounds really, really elementary, whether it's high school volleyball
50:18
or your local short track or college softball, get a microphone in your hand.
50:23
Because inevitably when you talk for 11, there's that catch phrase, that's going
50:27
to be the greatest catch phrase in all of the world, you're going to get your key
50:32
Jackson, all Nelly, and then you say it the first time and it's not nearly that
50:35
good where you get that out of the way.
50:37
And then you're going to learn some other phrases, but.
50:39
Get microphone in your hand.
50:42
If you want to be a broadcaster of any kind, get a microphone here.
50:44
We live in a fascinating time.
50:46
Back when I was a kid, you had to get a job at the radio station.
50:49
Now with podcasting and blogging and vlogging and social media,
50:54
there's so many neat opportunities.
50:56
Get out there and start telling the story.
50:58
Start doing it.
50:59
And boy, the other thing is, and this goes back to Barney Hall, our legendary
51:03
iconic broadcaster, our lead voice of MRN for years and years and years.
51:09
Get in the garage area and do your homework.
51:12
I do all my notes during the week so that I don't have to sit there
51:15
on race morning doing my notes.
51:17
So that I can be in the garage area talking to crew chiefs or
51:19
talking to drivers or doing things.
51:20
So, roll up your sleeves and have fun.
51:22
Motorsports is supposed to be fun.
51:24
I know sometimes we work diligently at making it not fun.
51:29
We work hard at making it not fun, but you know what?
51:31
If you're having a good time, you're likely going to have success with it.
51:35
I tell everybody have fun with it.
51:37
Just yuck it up, have fun with it and enjoy it.
51:39
And I love new people coming into the sport.
51:42
There's going to be one of them.
51:42
It's going to take my job someday, and I may not necessarily like that person at
51:46
that time, but you know, up until then.
51:49
I love all the young people coming in the sport and everyone
51:51
trying to follow your dreams.
51:52
That's the whole thing.
51:53
You follow your dreams and you catch it.
51:55
It's well worth it.
51:55
It really truly is.
51:56
I can speak from experience.
51:58
Well, Steve, we've reached that part of the episode where I like to ask
52:01
my guests any shout outs, promotions, or anything else you'd like to share
52:04
that we haven't covered thus far.
52:06
I'm just so, so fortunate and I have so many good people around
52:10
me professionally and personally.
52:11
And the shout out is to the young person that's trying to pursue their
52:15
career gig, whether it's an announcing gig or whether it's a driving gig or
52:19
whether it's a mechanic gig or whether it's an official gig, get out there
52:23
and do it, get out there and do it.
52:24
Life is meant to be lived.
52:25
That's for sure.
52:26
Steve Post is currently one of the pit road reporters on MRN's race coverage.
52:31
He's the co host of Wing Nation, an audio and television program
52:35
covering sprint car racing.
52:36
He's the weekly contributor to Raceline, a nationally syndicated
52:40
motorsports television program.
52:41
And for the past 20 years, he has been the lead announcer for the
52:44
popular summer shootout series at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
52:47
He also hosts many corporate hospitality events over the course of the year at
52:51
tracks and events away from the track.
52:54
So if you'd like to learn more about Steve, be sure to
52:56
visit stevepostcommunications.
52:58
com or follow him on social media at ThePostman68 on Facebook and Twitter.
53:03
And don't forget about his new website, postman68.
53:06
com.
53:07
And with that, Steve, I can't thank you enough for coming on break fix and
53:10
wrapping up your story here with part two.
53:13
You know, you talked a lot about Pete Cordes and how he changed
53:16
your life and he was your hero.
53:18
I want to take a moment to remind you that don't forget that you're a hero
53:21
to many petrol heads out there as well in various disciplines of motorsports.
53:26
And on behalf of all those folks, I have to say, it's been
53:29
an honor to share your story.
53:31
Really great to catch up with you.
53:32
I thank you for the kind words and I'm fortunate and I think I understand a
53:36
little bit of that and I appreciate it.
53:38
I'm just a kid from Halsted, Pennsylvania.
53:40
That's living my dream.
53:41
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