Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / The Rick Mast Show: How Many NASCAR Overtimes Are Too Many?!

Transcript

The Rick Mast Show: How Many NASCAR Overtimes Are Too Many?! · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Rick Mast
0:02
Show. I am Charlie Marlow.
0:05
That is the great Rick Mast. Rick, it's been a while since
0:07
we've been on together. I mean, you've been going viral,
0:10
your clips talking about John Force.
0:13
Everybody has your back. They said, hey, don't, don't be
0:16
talking bad about John Force. That one resonated, Sir.
0:19
Well, you know what, it's like I said on the video, Charlie,
0:23
they're coming. You get on social media and all
0:25
this crap's written all the time and going but man, this is John
0:28
Force and he said we we hope we got what he he he got what he
0:31
deserved, right. And like, and that would that
0:33
would got me that that was a that was a piss Rick mast off
0:35
because you can't you can't honestly, you can't let that go.
0:39
I mean the guys laying there fighting for his life as we find
0:41
out, you know, he's got a head injury and all that's going on.
0:44
You got these idiots saying that stuff.
0:46
So I mean it just felt like somebody had to stop that stuff
0:49
or or, you know, pointed out how ridiculous it is.
0:53
It's stupid, but you know, it is social media and I mean, you
0:56
know, we all know what that is. And it could be a very, very fun
0:59
thing and it could be detrimental.
1:01
I'll tell you one thing, if I've said this a million times,
1:04
Charlie, and you picked up on it.
1:05
But if we'd had this thing in the 90s, Oh my Lord, with the
1:09
personalities we had and the stuff that went on behind the
1:12
scenes and all, and you would have people that would get on
1:16
social media and talk about it, right?
1:18
It would, it would the face of our sport in the 90s would have
1:21
been different. All right.
1:23
I'm not going to say if it's going to be better or if it had
1:25
been worse, but it would have been different.
1:27
It would have been a lot of stuff unveiled, unveiled that
1:30
people didn't know about guys and all, all good stuff, you
1:33
know, not bad stuff and just funny, funny stuff and stuff
1:36
that went on. But you know, we didn't have it
1:39
so it didn't matter. I'd have probably got my ass
1:41
fired. I'd have probably been fired
1:42
within six months knowing me, getting on social media,
1:45
something running my mouth, you know, 'cause I always try to
1:48
keep up with stuff, Larry Mcgriddle said.
1:50
You know, you want to know what's going on in the garage
1:52
here, go find masks. You'll tell you, right?
1:54
So But anyhow, it it would have been fun, but no, no, no, I'd
1:59
have probably been fired all. Right.
2:02
Let's talk about let's talk about Nashville.
2:04
My question is, I guess to start is how many, how many cautions
2:08
or restarts or overtimes is too many?
2:12
This this race kind of remembered reminded me of was it
2:14
Coda last year where there were a million restarts at the end
2:19
and overtimes. And to me, the the overtimes are
2:22
exciting every time they happen. I think the problem when you're
2:25
watching on TV is that it takes 10 minutes, right?
2:28
Every time they have to clean the track and kind of re rack.
2:30
So it it lingers on and on and on.
2:33
I mean, it's it's fun. Is five too many?
2:37
I guess is my question for you. Yeah, I don't know.
2:39
You know, we used to have a cap on and sometime then we took the
2:43
cap off, but I'm sitting there watching that thing as a fan and
2:46
I'm like each time and a little part of me here, here's the
2:49
deal, Charlie. They'd go back to green and I'm
2:51
like for the 4th or 5th time or whatever and I'm like a little
2:55
part of me like, all right, somebody wrecked, somebody
2:57
wrecked. I want to see this again.
2:59
I want to see it again. So there's a little part of me
3:01
that like that, right? And so I'm like, well, maybe I,
3:05
maybe I want unlimited over times.
3:08
And I'm like you and it's some other many people.
3:10
I mean, it drags on, it drags on and on and on and cars get tore
3:14
up and you don't know who's going to win.
3:16
And, and, and maybe that's maybe that's the appeal for me.
3:19
I don't know. But I'm thinking if I have a
3:21
little part of me as your tradition, as a traditionalist,
3:24
right? If I have a part of me wanting
3:26
to see more and more of these, then that means there's other
3:29
fans that are loving this, right?
3:31
But people are not loving it. But here, here, here's the thing
3:34
that here's the thing that makes it hard for the, for the, the
3:37
teams. See, they strategize, right?
3:39
You strategize the whole race. You're, you, you start with that
3:42
green flag drops. The crew chiefs are looking at
3:45
the checkered flag, right? And they're back in that race up
3:49
from the checkered flag, not from the green flag forward.
3:52
So that checkered flag is what that's what everything they're
3:56
doing is based on that last lap right now when the overtime
4:02
starts, then you, there's no way that a crew chief can strategize
4:07
for an overtime and damn sure not five of them, right?
4:11
And we saw that play out with fuel mileage.
4:13
You just can't do that. That makes it, that takes some
4:17
of the, some of it away from what the crew chiefs and
4:20
engineers have, have have figured and worked on all day
4:24
and calculated to get through that checkered flag.
4:26
You know, they they worked on it, they got it all scoped out
4:28
and worked out right to the the precise moment the flag drops
4:33
and then we throw an overtime in it.
4:35
Well, most of the time an overtime or two, right, The guys
4:38
make it, You're OK. But I think Hamlin said this,
4:41
Crucci said, well, we got enough for one overtime.
4:43
We went forward before he had, you know, had to get fuel,
4:45
right. So, so, you know, it it all that
4:49
gets thrown out the wood and it makes it tough for those guys.
4:51
So it does take that element away from the sport of of these
4:55
guys having it figured out. And, you know, if we talk about
5:01
Logano, right? How did he how do you stretch
5:04
that out? Hell, I don't know, Right?
5:06
There's there. There's only two X.
5:08
There's all. Honestly, there's only two.
5:11
Two, where is this here? Two.
5:13
Yeah. Two, there's only two
5:15
explanations. Number one, he had more fuel.
5:18
Number two, he saved fuel. Well, if he had more fuel, the
5:21
only way possible. I mean, I heard all.
5:23
Everybody thought Maddie cheated and all that.
5:25
Right, Smokey. Unique references with fuel
5:28
lines running everywhere. I'm telling you guys, the way
5:31
these cars are, the way they're built, the way they're expected,
5:34
none of that happens. How do you get more fuel?
5:36
The fuel cells themselves, the gas tanks for the fuel cells,
5:40
yeah, they're the dimensions are the same, They're measured the
5:42
same. They're all they're all built
5:44
and made the same. But there's still there's still
5:47
that possibility that that one cell or one fuel cell could
5:51
hold, you know, a half a 10th of gas bore.
5:55
Yeah, just by, you know, just by the way things work, right.
6:01
So if that's the case, then he, if he had that, you know, that
6:04
helped him a little bit. Personally, what I think, I
6:07
think the dude just conserved fuel the whole time.
6:10
I think he ran the car easy. I think he got out of the gas
6:13
earlier. Most if you remember he was by
6:15
he wasn't up there leading and and doing all he could do that
6:18
whole run. He was back there, you know,
6:19
pandered around in the back of the middle of the track, middle
6:22
of the place, you know, so my feeling is he was back there,
6:25
you know, soft pedaling it, you know, saving gas, maybe not
6:29
really even trying to save gas. Maybe he was, but it's just the
6:33
the, the position he was in and he was racing with and, and the
6:37
car that he had 'cause he didn't have at that point to stay out
6:40
his car. And I'm telling you, when you're
6:41
in the middle of a pack with a bunch of cars racing and trying
6:44
to get up through the field, I mean, you can burn the tires off
6:47
and you can burn gas just as hard as leaders.
6:51
But if you're in the middle of that stuff and you're battling
6:54
or racing or trying to hold your position and not really working
6:57
at it real hard, you're going, you're not going to burn as much
7:00
gas as a guy's leading because you're out of the gas because
7:02
the guys in front of you, right? And you've got to get out of the
7:05
gas quicker going into the turn than the guys that are leading.
7:09
You get to the center of the turn.
7:10
When you get back in the gas, you got a whole group of cars
7:12
around you, in front of you that that keeps you from getting back
7:16
in the gas as quick as you would if you were out front.
7:19
So he he, he made that whole run doing that and he made it.
7:22
He may have even been doing a, he might have had a conscious
7:26
effort of trying to save fuel also.
7:28
I don't know. But anyhow, I think that's what
7:31
went on. I mean, yeah, Yates, Roush
7:34
Engines, Doug Yates and his boaters.
7:36
Maybe I take better fuel mileage.
7:38
But you know, if it was, he was only Ford that had that like
7:42
that, right? So that's my explanation and I'm
7:44
sticking to that. Love it.
7:46
OK, you, you kind of touched on this, but where do you think the
7:50
race no longer becomes fair in a sense?
7:54
And it becomes more gimmicky with the cautions.
7:57
And I bring that up because if you're watching at the end and
8:00
look, when I say Denny Hamlin deserved to win, we all know a
8:04
lot of cars and drivers that deserve to win races don't end
8:07
up winning the race. But Denny Hamlin, you know, it
8:10
was fun to watch at the end as he cleanly passed Ross Chastain.
8:14
You think Denny's going to win? Now Denny doesn't need a win,
8:17
but it seemed like he deserved that win.
8:19
And then as you mentioned, everybody's running out of fuel
8:23
at the end there. You had chances for guys like
8:25
Zane Smith or Ryan Priest to win a race and totally jumble up
8:30
even more the playoff picture. So what do you think?
8:35
Because I I thought of baseball, you're a baseball guy.
8:38
People complain about that ghost runner in the 10th in now I
8:42
don't care about it as much, but people say, oh, it's too
8:44
gimmicky. You put a runner on second base.
8:46
At what point do you think it's no longer a fair race?
8:50
Because as you said, all this strategy, all this strategy, the
8:54
crew chiefs fuel saving, it all goes out the window with five
8:57
overtimes and it kind of becomes more of a of a super Speedway in
9:02
my opinion because of luck. I mean that by luck.
9:05
Not Rex, but luck. Yeah, no doubt.
9:08
Especially Super Speedway. It's just just flat luck, that's
9:11
all that is. But on these tracks like this,
9:15
you know, Charlie, it kind of goes back who are what are we
9:18
trying to do? You got to get back to DASCAR
9:20
and they're thinking down in Daytona.
9:21
What are we trying to do? And the media, the media, the TV
9:25
guys, you, you, you, that's really what you got to think
9:28
about here because, you know, we're catering to TV now.
9:31
All right. And what makes the most
9:34
entertainment? This this overtime thing to me
9:37
just kind of falls in line with the the lucky dog pass for a lap
9:45
car down car. It falls in line with the point
9:49
structure, the way we're doing the points and getting into
9:52
playoffs. This is just A to me, this is
9:56
this is just a part of that type of racing that we're doing now,
9:59
right? It's it's, it's, it's, it's,
10:02
it's gone away from the way we used to race, right.
10:06
You run 500 laps, period. That was it, right at the end of
10:08
the season, you counted the points up and whoever was
10:10
leading one in the race or won the points championship.
10:12
Now we've got all the stuff going on, all these variables
10:15
added to it and the the overtime thing.
10:18
But it but it does glare it what you pointed out.
10:21
It makes it, it makes it very glaring that, you know, the
10:25
whole race really, you know, long as you kept the wheels on
10:28
the car the whole race, yeah, it meant something.
10:30
But now we got four over times and this is going to be whoever
10:35
does it wreck or gets through the wreck or or or whatever goes
10:37
on. And you know, I think, gosh, I
10:42
don't know how to put this Charlie again, the
10:46
traditionalist in me. You know, I don't like it.
10:49
But for entertainment value, I'm sitting here thinking, let's
10:52
have another one. Let's have another.
10:53
One right? And I'm like, man, you're going
10:56
against your core beliefs on all this stuff, Rick, right?
10:58
But I'm sitting here thinking, but this is exciting you
11:01
watching them do this. And it it it it it, I don't
11:05
know, should have been Denny Hamlin's race to win.
11:08
There's no doubt about that, right?
11:09
But we've had other cases like this And and really by having
11:12
five overtimes, I think that's what's really brought this to
11:15
the forefront. It's made it a discussion this
11:17
week. You know, if we'd had one or two
11:19
overtimes, excuse me, we wouldn't even be talking about
11:22
it. But golly, bum, if I'm Denny
11:25
Hamlin and that team, I'm like, crap.
11:28
But he handled it real well. I mean, he he stated, you know,
11:31
on TV. What everybody knows, well,
11:33
that's, that's where we're at now.
11:34
That's what we're doing. This is this is the type of
11:37
racing we've got going on. I know that doesn't really
11:39
answer your question Charlie, but I don't really have an
11:42
answer for it. You know what though?
11:44
I I think you answered it perfectly because it's funny.
11:48
There's there's two of you, right?
11:50
You said the traditionalist. I don't like it, but me watching
11:53
on TV with my popcorn and my beer, give me another one.
11:56
Give me another one, especially if you have nothing to do.
11:58
I mean, heck, it's fun to watch the recharge.
12:01
Like I said, it's just the fact that it takes 10 minutes in
12:03
between each one. But I guess you can go to the
12:05
bathroom and do something there. How about the fact that how
12:09
about the fact that Joey Logano is in the playoffs?
12:12
I think NASCAR is a sport that needs the big names to be to be
12:17
in the mix and mattering more than other sports.
12:20
And look, right now another two time champ Kyle Busch, very good
12:24
chance. I mean, I hope he gets in, but
12:26
Kyle Busch might not get in. So the fact that a big name Joey
12:30
Logano is in, to me is good for the sport.
12:34
No, Oh, there's no doubt. And if you go back, I could I
12:41
can bring this together just a little bit here, Charlie, back
12:45
in the day and we we talk about the popularity of our sport and
12:49
the guys, who the hell is Zane Smith, right?
12:53
And who all these guys that all of a sudden are going to win
12:55
this race? Well, and then you get into the
12:59
playoffs and you're exactly right.
13:01
You need your stars in the playoffs.
13:03
You need, you need Joe Lagana in the playoffs, you need Chase
13:06
Elliott in there. You know, you need these guys in
13:08
the playoffs. And it goes back to me the
13:11
little bit in the 90s when the, when this, when our sport
13:14
exploded. We had guys all through the 90s
13:18
that were winning races and championships and, you know,
13:22
they were our leaders in our sport in the 90s.
13:25
These guys were already known or the for the most part in the
13:30
South to Southeast, which was the center of our sport at that
13:34
in those days. These guys were known by the
13:36
time they got the Cup, right? The Harry Gantz, Eva Dale
13:40
Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrips, all these guys were known for
13:44
running Birmingham in South Boston and and Hialeah, you
13:48
know, and all these short track races for years these guys ran
13:51
these things and all our short track race fans knew these
13:54
names, right? So when they got the cup, these
13:57
these fans followed these guys, right?
14:00
I mean, they were adding followers and fans of all these
14:03
cats because they knew these guys before they got the cup,
14:07
right? So once they got the cup, then
14:09
they were they had fans and then they picked up fans.
14:13
It is exploded across the country that name recognition
14:16
just kind of kept building and building to where, you know, we
14:20
had so many heroes in our sport at that time.
14:23
And, and, and, and those guys, you know, when they were
14:26
battling for the winds and the TV ratings went through the roof
14:29
when they were coming down to the end of the year, it was a
14:32
championship battle, right? Those names were known and those
14:35
were big names to fans and they were involved.
14:39
The fans were vested in these guys and their drivers, right?
14:43
So you get in today's deal and you come into the championship
14:47
rounds, right? We need the guys in there that
14:50
have big time name recognition. It's just, it's just the way it
14:55
is, right? Yeah.
14:57
You'll have a Cinderella story. You can put that in baseball or
15:00
other sports and in the in the playoffs and all.
15:03
You'll have the Cinderella stories that people feel for.
15:06
But you can't have everybody in the playoffs, the Cinderella
15:08
stories. You, you got to have your heroes
15:11
in there, right? And, and, and, and somebody
15:13
like, like Logano needs to be in there just for our sport, for
15:17
the recognition, the name recognition, because it, it
15:20
generates more interest. I mean, it it you have more
15:23
people watching the play offs because their driver or the
15:26
driver they've heard so much about is in the race or driver
15:29
they hate and you go to somebody like Kyle Busch, right?
15:32
Kyle Busch needs to be in our play offs now.
15:36
I don't know what the hell he did.
15:38
I don't know what Childers did. I don't know, you know whose dog
15:42
they ran over, right? I don't.
15:45
I don't know whose bomber they fussed at or what they did
15:48
wrong, but those guys, they are absolutely snake bit right now.
15:54
I mean, I've seen this my whole career with different teams,
15:57
different drivers, but I swear I don't think I've seen one quite
16:01
as bad as what RCR and Kyle Busch are going through.
16:04
I mean, it doesn't matter what they do.
16:06
They're they're going, they're not going to fit.
16:09
They're even running. I mean, you know, a lot of these
16:11
races they haven't ran good, right?
16:13
We get that. But the races where they run
16:15
good, hell, the thing falls apart.
16:17
It just, you know, for like Kyle Busch, no, no reasons for it.
16:22
It's just bad luck. And these are, I always talk in
16:25
my career, I always talk about waves and racing.
16:28
We go, we go through waves up and down and up and down.
16:31
I mean, and we'll come to more of these waves.
16:34
You'll go through a period of, of fuel mileage, right?
16:37
You, you'll do that for two or three months and then you go
16:39
through a period of, of tire strategy or tire problems.
16:43
You'll go through that for a few months.
16:45
The deal with Kyle Busch, they're going through this wave
16:48
right now of absolutely the race of gods have said, you know,
16:52
we're just not going to shine on you right now.
16:54
You know, the race of gods control this stuff.
16:56
I mean, there's no you can't explain it.
16:58
So I just call it the race of gods, which is bullshit really,
17:01
but it's like so many things in our sport.
17:03
It can't be explained. They're running good enough to
17:07
be in the top right and just in points.
17:09
I mean here recently, right, if but man, you can't keep having
17:13
this happen week after week and it it would not surprise me one
17:17
bit Charlie, for him to win to just knock off two or three
17:21
races where he wins. It would not be it would not it
17:25
wouldn't surprise me. It wouldn't it wouldn't make me
17:28
think any different than would have always thought, because
17:31
that's the way our sport is and they'll hit on something.
17:34
I mean, he ran good this past weekend.
17:36
So, you know, they're they're always a little bit of something
17:39
at that type of racetrack, whereas where it I guess
17:42
Richmond earlier, well, wherever it was, they ran that similar
17:46
type track. They ran like crap.
17:48
But this is a similar track and I can't remember where it was
17:51
at. But anyhow, I'm thinking, OK,
17:52
they've got this kind of they've they've helped from where they
17:54
used to be, right. So golly bun, but we need this
17:58
sport Needs Kyle Busch in the playoffs.
18:02
So Speaking of of stars, and as you're talking, I'm thinking of
18:07
a golf leaderboard. And I say this because I'm a
18:09
casual golf fan, so I'm only going to pay attention during
18:12
the majors. And if I'm and if I'm on my
18:16
television and I'm flipping on a Saturday, Sunday.
18:19
Now I'm a little, I'm not going to say older, but I, I don't
18:21
even know the current generation that you have Scotty Scheffler.
18:24
But I'm saying like in the past 5-10 years, if I see Tiger Woods
18:28
on the leaderboard, if I see Phil Mickelson on the
18:30
leaderboard, I'm going to watch. If I see a bunch of dudes I've
18:33
never heard of, I'm probably not because I'm a casual golf fan.
18:36
And I think there's a lot of that with NASCAR, with the
18:39
casuals. If you tune in like you did the
18:42
other day at the end, if you see Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain,
18:46
two big names battling. And the reason I bring this up
18:49
is another Denny Hamlin versus Kyle Busch, which seems like
18:54
it's happening every week, which is, which is great for the
18:57
sport. We we know it's become, this has
18:59
become a Hendrick versus Joe Gibbs season.
19:02
Those guys are always fast. They're always getting into each
19:06
other. And Denny Hamlin finally
19:08
admitted on his podcast Actions Detrimental.
19:11
It is a rivalry, which I think we all knew and they were joking
19:14
about that. But I mean, to me, that's great
19:16
for the sport. And anytime you see Kyle Larson
19:18
and Denny Hamlin and they're getting in the mix and they're
19:21
racing and maybe wrecking each other every once in a while.
19:24
I mean, I, I watch that every single time.
19:27
People are not going to turn away from that.
19:28
No they're not. You made a good analogy.
19:31
I was sitting there trying. I'm a casual golf fan also, and
19:35
I was watching the other day, the dude, you just said 21 and
19:38
all that and I'm sitting here thinking where is Sergio and
19:41
where is Tiger and where, you know, where, where's David
19:45
Duvall and where's Mickelson, where all these guys and of
19:49
course, age and all that plays quite part of it.
19:52
But then they that's the the guys go out and you guys come
19:55
along. But again, no name recognition
19:57
there. And I don't, I don't, I'm the
19:59
exact same way. I'll flip it on and see who's
20:01
leading. You know, if I see those names
20:03
that you're talking about, then I'll stay tuned.
20:05
If I don't, I'll flip it out. And I know there has to be
20:08
casual NASCAR fans that do the same thing, right?
20:11
And as far as a rivalry goes, you know, we've always had
20:14
rivalries. I mean, man, we go back, you go
20:16
back to Tatty Lund and Lee Petty, right?
20:19
At all through the years, Alice's and the Petty's man.
20:22
And Earnhardt and everybody, right.
20:23
Earnhardt against everybody. And, you know, like Ross
20:27
Chastain, you know, he backed his deal up and he doesn't get
20:30
in many squamishes anymore. Or she still gets blamed for
20:33
him. But.
20:33
Or squamishes. Squamishes.
20:35
What's a Squamish? I don't know what a Squamish is,
20:39
You know, in school by by biggest thing in school and and
20:41
and all through elementary school.
20:43
And he talks too much. He does not apply himself in
20:47
days like this. Make me understand.
20:49
Yeah, yeah. I don't.
20:50
I don't apply myself, but anyhow.
20:52
I think you know what I think squamous, I, I remember this.
20:56
I think squamous is a type of skin cell.
20:58
I'm going to look this up. I feel like that's from, I
21:01
remember that from anatomy and Physiology.
21:03
I think my junior, sophomore year of high school, I think
21:06
that's correct. Squamous.
21:08
All right, well, whatever. I lost my train of thought.
21:11
Dude, no, we've got it. We've got to have rivals.
21:13
We've got to have this stuff going on.
21:15
It drives our sport. And, and here's the thing, they
21:18
can't, they've got to be natural rivalries.
21:20
There can't be something that's made-up.
21:23
And believe me, the stuff that goes on, you know, in 500 laps
21:27
or 500 miles of these races, I mean, you're out there, you
21:29
start, you know, at at one o'clock 2:00 in the day and
21:32
you're still racing at 4:00. So what happens?
21:35
You and a guy at 3:00 at day, you and a guy on the racetrack
21:39
have some kind of little incident, right?
21:41
So then that's at 3:00. So then at 4:00, you still
21:44
remember that incident and you're going to race him just a
21:47
little bit different depending on what went on with the
21:49
incident and that that's going to happen.
21:51
And if you happen to be at the front where all the cameras are
21:55
on and you see one of these little things happen at 3:00,
21:59
then at 4:00, the commentators are going to talk about it.
22:03
Well, you remember a while ago when they had this little
22:05
problem. Let's see how this goes.
22:07
And then you add to that. You add to that.
22:11
The guys have got a past history, the last few races of
22:14
having trouble with each other. Well, then that this it expands.
22:18
And I'm telling you, it's a driver's mentality.
22:20
You know, you take no prisoners and you're, you're gosh, as a
22:23
driver, you're like a dog protecting your territory,
22:26
right? I mean, you, you've got your
22:28
territory, which is your race and the way you race and trying
22:31
to win. And you don't let anybody
22:33
interfere with that. And if they do, you have to, you
22:35
have to, you have to guard your territory.
22:37
And what that means is you retaliate or make it hard on the
22:41
other guy, right? And all this, all this stuff, it
22:44
comes natural, right? And, and over a period of time,
22:47
if you're having trouble with a guy and you don't get it worked
22:50
out, which I always try to get it worked out.
22:52
I don't always try. You know, if I had a problem
22:55
with the guy, unless I was going to retaliate and I didn't want
22:58
to deal with him at all, you know what I'm saying?
23:00
You know, I would, I would try to work it out to do, you know,
23:03
either on the track or after the track, I mean, after the race.
23:06
And I would do it then too. I would take care of the matter
23:09
before we got away from the racetrack if if at all possible.
23:12
If not, you know, it was the first thing next week that it
23:14
did. It took care of it.
23:16
But these things, these things are are real.
23:19
What you see on the racetrack when somebody hit somebody like
23:21
that, you know, it's real Like Larson took out Chastain when
23:24
Larson just ran down under his left front and hit the hit the
23:27
curb going into one and he shot up.
23:29
He was trying to see, he was trying to wiggle Denny Hammond
23:32
and get he was trying really to get his left front under even
23:36
though Denny was at the bottom. Larson was trying to get his car
23:40
down even lower to get fresh air to the nose, to keep that car
23:44
turned to get a little run off off the next turn on Hamlin.
23:49
But when he did, when he shot down there in the left front,
23:51
hit the curb, shot the car up the racetrack, he took Chastain
23:54
out. And I'm going to tell you
23:55
something else. If you look at that, I told my
23:57
family sitting there watching the race, Chastain just lost
24:00
that race because the momentum that he had at that point, the
24:04
angle that he had going in the turn and everything was going
24:06
on, he was going to come out of Turn 2 ahead of Denny Hammer
24:10
unless Denny run him up the racetrack and turned him and
24:12
rubbed him. But I really felt like before
24:15
Larson hit him, that was Chastain's racing, that in that
24:18
in that millisecond, he had made the right move.
24:21
It was going to happen for him, I thought, but it got taken out.
24:24
But anyhow, the rivalries, we got to have them and they're
24:27
natural. They're these are not these
24:29
folks. Believe me, this shit, this
24:30
stuff is not made-up. This is this is natural stuff
24:33
that goes on. OK, because you you brought a
24:36
couple up, I got to put you on the spot.
24:39
No hedging. No hedging In the history of
24:41
NASCAR, what is the greatest rivalry ever?
24:44
You have to pick 11 driver versus another driver, which is
24:48
the best one ever. Oh man, it's your opinion.
24:53
So you can you can say whatever you want.
24:55
Yeah, I know, I know. You know, if there was so many
24:59
rivalries that went on behind the scenes that kind of get got
25:03
taken care of, but the real bare bones rivalries that there
25:11
really wasn't any talking out of it or and I I have to go back to
25:16
Bobby Allison and Richard Petty. I mean, to me, because that was
25:20
real. It was it wasn't playtime with
25:23
those guys, right. And it finally got to the point
25:30
where it was costing the King and Bobby Allison money, you
25:33
know, and if you were, if you remember this story, Richard, I
25:37
think the king and Bobby finally sat down and they said, listen,
25:41
you know, we're we're taking ourselves out of the race each
25:45
week. Our teams are fighting, actually
25:48
fist fighting after the races, you know, in the garage area and
25:53
our cars are sitting here tore up every single week.
25:58
We what we have got to figure out how to stop this and put it
26:02
behind us. And those two were, were strong
26:06
enough mentally to put aside their feelings of hate or not
26:12
maybe not hate, but dislike for that guy, right?
26:17
They were strong enough mentally to sit down and talk it out and
26:21
say, listen, we're killing ourselves doing this.
26:24
We've got to get past it and stop and and stop.
26:27
And they did, you know, that's how strong these guys were.
26:31
And it went on for a long, it went on for a long time.
26:35
That to me, that's the 1C. That's the one.
26:37
I mean, we go back and look, a lot of them, you know, Spencer
26:42
and Kurt Busch come to mind. That comes to mind.
26:45
But that, you know, that was, it didn't last a long time, but it
26:49
lasted a while. And it was pretty, you know, it
26:53
was pretty fierce. I mean, what was it?
26:55
Spencer wrecked Bush at Indy and Bush got out of the car, if you
26:59
remember that, on in Turn 3. And when Spencer come around, he
27:02
took his hand, Bush took his hand and smacked his butt, you
27:06
know, and pointed like especially a year and a half,
27:10
right. Then we go to Michigan, you
27:12
know, and they get into whatever they get into.
27:14
And after the race, Bush drives up to Spencer's car.
27:18
What you shouldn't do? Don't don't do that to Spencer,
27:20
man. Anyhow, Spencer gets out.
27:22
They keep cold coxing, right? It's it's sitting in the car.
27:26
So these things go on. But the actual rivalry for the
27:30
longest period, and the one that impressed me was the petty
27:33
Allison. Who's yours?
27:35
Did you have one? I'm trying to think because
27:38
again, I'm, I'm 42 and I was definitely a casual NASCAR fan
27:44
as a kid, but then I worked in sports for about 20 years, you
27:49
know, starting in about 2004. So like, as a kid, to me, it
27:54
would have been just in terms of winning, because I'm thinking
27:58
the 90s when I was paying attention, it would have been
28:00
Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon. You know, I knew Rusty Walls and
28:04
you were talking about rivalries where they're fighting, they're
28:07
hating each other. I also was just talking about on
28:09
the racetrack, you know, winning championships.
28:12
So as I'm 1213, you know, it was just obvious as a kid, you saw
28:17
the black car of the Earnhardt. You saw the Rainbow Warrior car.
28:20
It was easy, right? And you liked one or the other?
28:24
And I'm. Trying to think.
28:25
So the last three years when I've really started to pay
28:28
attention again, I mean, for a while there, it was Chastain
28:32
versus everybody. It was Chastain versus Hendrick,
28:34
right? I mean, every Hendrick car for a
28:36
while. And look, I've said this a
28:38
million times. I I'm a Denny Hamlin fan for
28:42
many reasons. First of all, I want him to win
28:45
a championship because he deserves it.
28:47
But also I think he's the most interesting person in the sport.
28:51
He keeps it interesting. He's always saying how he feels.
28:54
He'll challenge NASCAR, he'll challenge other drivers.
28:58
So I would say right now, I mean Denny Hamlin versus Kyle Larson
29:03
seems to be pretty Dang good. Again, it's not Earnhardt, Jeff
29:07
Gordon, because you're talking about a seven time champ versus
29:09
what, a four time champ. But right now it's and that's
29:12
pretty Dang good. That's two pretty huge names.
29:16
Yeah, it is. And they, and you know, oh, man,
29:21
I'm trying to think how to say it, but they, well, those guys,
29:25
I agree with you 100% of what you just said, Charlie.
29:27
He, he then he's real important. He's real important for our
29:30
sport. He's I'm a fan of Debbie's also.
29:33
But God, the people love to hate him.
29:35
God love to hate him and his stuff.
29:37
And anything he gets into on the racetrack gets manifested during
29:40
the week. The fans pick up on it.
29:42
And the more hate comes and then he gets on his bad podcast is
29:46
here I am. Here's what I do.
29:47
I don't give a shit. Right?
29:49
Which is so friggin refreshing and so cool.
29:51
Yeah, so I'll tell you another one that was good was Earnhardt
29:55
and Earnhardt and Walter early on when Darrell was, you know,
29:59
Darrell was the man and Earnhardt come along and he was
30:01
going to be the man. And Darrell didn't like that.
30:02
And they they had their they had their rivalries for a while.
30:05
So you could go back and look at all these.
30:07
But you're exactly right. The one we got going on now, you
30:10
know, it's, it's going to be interesting to see how that
30:13
works out because basically both of them said, yeah, this is not
30:16
over. You know, I'm like, OK, guys,
30:18
we'll see how this goes. And if you're a race fan, if
30:21
you, if you really study, if you watch, if you could find the
30:24
camera angles when you know two guys are not liking each other,
30:27
if you find, find the shots during the race, they don't have
30:31
necessarily have to be leading. They can be running 10th and
30:33
12th or whatever trying to come through the field.
30:35
And if you can see these two guys in the way, they would race
30:37
each other. If you're a driver on the
30:39
racetrack, you know these things are going on and you know,
30:42
driver A and driver B have got problems with one another and
30:46
here they're on the racetrack either behind you're in front of
30:48
you, you drive different. You know, it's just like the
30:52
thing that drivers don't like about restricted plate racing.
30:55
We as drivers know every driver out there, at least we all did
30:59
in my time. You knew this particular driver,
31:01
if you came up on him to pass him, you knew don't get on his
31:04
right rear going into turns, right?
31:07
Because he's going to, he's going to run you up.
31:09
You can't do it. It's just a natural thing that
31:11
he does or don't get angry or don't.
31:14
Every driver, you knew what situation not to get in with
31:18
that driver and it kept you out of trouble, right?
31:20
And that's what you did. That's just that's just the way
31:22
it was. You go to Talladega, Daytona,
31:25
you didn't have that luxury because you're all packed in
31:27
together. That's what made it so
31:30
frustrated for so many of us because you'd be running long.
31:33
And I can, I can remember it and it says I'm sitting here in the
31:36
middle, three wide in front of ME3 wide behind me.
31:39
I'm in the middle and I'm looking beside me, in front of
31:41
me in the mirror. And I said, well, here are 6
31:43
assholes that I do not want to be around.
31:45
I do not want to be close to these guys here, right?
31:50
And, and any other race track, I would do what I had to do to get
31:53
away from that and I would get out of that situation.
31:55
But there at Talladega Daytona, you're stuck.
31:58
You can't get away from it. You're right.
31:59
And then the big one happens. You're like, yeah, I knew this
32:01
is going to happen. What am I supposed to do?
32:03
Stop, right? And but anyhow, what were we
32:06
talking about, Charlie? I don't know what we're talking
32:08
about. We were talking about rivalries,
32:12
but that was a good no, that was a good segment.
32:13
I I think we I think we we hit that pretty good.
32:17
How about what's pissing off Rick Mass?
32:20
We know last week, last week it was people hating on John Force
32:24
anything, anything new this week.
32:25
And look, it doesn't have to a if you're just saying a I'm
32:27
having a good time, it's all good.
32:29
Yeah, you know what? I'm not really pissed off about
32:31
it. And I'll, I'll never, ever,
32:33
ever, ever get on politics and social media and all because you
32:37
don't win. But you know the thing that
32:39
pisses me off about politics, and I, I will say this about
32:42
politics, people's ideology, no matter if you're on the left or
32:47
on the right, their ideology, it seems like right now completely
32:54
blinds you from reality. And I don't care what side of
32:58
the vid you're on, if you're a Democrat or Republican, whatever
33:00
you believe, whatever your beliefs are, it seems like right
33:03
now we're at, we're at the stage to where because I'm a Democrat
33:07
or because I'm a Republican, this is what I believe.
33:10
And this is fact. When the actual facts are
33:13
staring you in the face telling you that's not a fact, but
33:18
because your ideology has you blinded, you won't accept the
33:21
facts. And it just I'm like, I've never
33:24
seen it like this before. You know, why why it's like
33:27
that? And and I see it on both sides,
33:29
you know, so that that that it's really pissing me off and it's
33:33
starting to concern me a little bit, Charlie, but that that's a
33:35
whole another deal, the political deal in our country
33:37
right now. Lord of Mercy, right.
33:39
I'm glad I went into racing, but not politics, although politics
33:42
are in racing. You do politics while you're in
33:45
racing. But go ahead.
33:47
No, I'll tell you, I agree with you 100% here.
33:50
Here's where I think it's gotten really bad in the political
33:53
realm. I always thought growing up, if
33:56
you're going to be a Democrat or Republican, that's fine.
33:59
It's all good. And look, I have tons of friends
34:02
that are Democrats and Republicans, and I always looked
34:05
at a political party, which now I don't want to be associated
34:09
with either of them. Like, I don't even know why you
34:11
want to attach your name to to other people or parties.
34:13
That's how I feel now. But I always thought about it
34:16
like this. If you're a Democrat or you're a
34:18
Republican, you give your party the benefit of the doubt.
34:22
And that's OK. You give that party the benefit
34:24
of the doubt. But you should never ignore, as
34:28
you said, the obvious facts of what your eyes are seeing.
34:32
And I think what's different now is it's no longer the benefit of
34:36
the doubt. It's it's outright lying or
34:41
basically saying, you know what, it doesn't matter.
34:42
I'm going with my team no matter what.
34:45
I will lie for them. I will, I will pretend and, and
34:49
it's like it doesn't matter. My candidate is bad, but the
34:54
other guy is worse. And so now it's no longer the
34:56
benefit of the doubt. It's like it's outright lying
35:01
and campaigning and just going out there and and telling people
35:05
that you're you're seeing something you're not seeing.
35:08
Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right.
35:09
I mean, we're, I guess we're on the same page politically then.
35:12
OK fans, we've never talked about politics.
35:15
It's the first time, Charlie, never ever talked about
35:17
politics. And I'll be damned if we don't
35:19
feel the same about all this stuff.
35:20
I guess that's right. And as you get older, Charlie,
35:23
you'll, you'll it'll start, you'll start seeing more and
35:25
more of it. Right, 'cause I was never
35:26
political. My dad was a political hell.
35:28
I couldn't tell you who you voted for, right.
35:30
Then I got family members are very political and on and on
35:33
turn on. But I'm like man, you people
35:35
just wake up and just how they bum.
35:38
I mean, if 2 + 2 = 4, why in the hell are you arguing that?
35:43
That guy on TV told me that 2 + 2 = 5 S by God, 2 + 2 is equals
35:49
five. What in the hell kind of thing?
35:52
But but whatever, whatever. Yeah, I'd.
35:54
Regret. It's crazy.
35:56
It's crazy. How about we've already had some
35:58
great stories and any Rick Mass story time?
36:00
Anything coming down? You know, I got a bunch.
36:04
I'm going to tell you a deal one time.
36:07
And this, if we go back in history, Charlie, I'm going to
36:12
talk about the FBI, OK, The SWAT team raiding the race team.
36:16
And I was involved, if you can believe this crap.
36:20
So 1989, we go to Dayton with Travis Carter.
36:23
Travis Carter, This story's well documented.
36:26
Travis Carter, how? Needham, Skull, Bandit, Harry
36:29
Gant, all that stuff. Scholl pulled out at the end of
36:32
88 and went with Leo Jackson's team and Harry Gantt.
36:37
Travis Carter was left with a team, but with no sponsorship.
36:41
I had won the I was, I was in the Bush class for the 89 deal.
36:45
I drove for Travis in Daytona in 89.
36:50
That's the race where everybody got the Derby on national TV by
36:53
leading with a white unsponsored Monte Carlo #66 right.
36:56
Anyhow, we Rand good did all that.
36:59
Well, a guy by the name of Bill Edwards, he was part owner.
37:03
I never did know the ownership role, the percentages, but he
37:07
had when that the whole thing went down, Mr. Bill Edwards
37:10
brought come in and bought part of that team or a percentage of
37:13
it or whatever. He and his wife, Paulette
37:15
Edwards, and they had owned a big pipe company, I think in
37:19
Charlotte. Well, anyhow, when I, when it
37:21
didn't work out with Travis, when I left or whatever, Bill
37:25
and Travis, whatever happened, they they didn't work with them
37:29
and Bill ended up buying the Buddy Baker team.
37:33
When Buddy shut down, he, he, Bill and Paul Edwards bought the
37:36
Buddy Baker shop contents people, the whole deal.
37:40
And Buddy had a nice team. He had good motors.
37:42
I mean, he had a good engine department.
37:44
He had nice race cars. He had good stuff.
37:46
Well, this would have been in 1990.
37:48
So when Bill bought this thing, Bill and Paulette, they called
37:51
me about driving and I'm still in Bush trying to get in the
37:54
cup. So we talked for, I don't know,
37:57
maybe a month, right. Well, Bill and Paulette had had
38:00
had gotten the sponsor lined up and it's just, it was a record.
38:05
I forget how it went. He was a record producer.
38:08
He was a Nashville dude, right? And I forget exactly what he
38:13
was, but anyhow, he represented or he's in charge of the label
38:19
or not in charge of the label. But then he was hopping the
38:21
label that handled different artists.
38:24
And I remember Hank Williams Junior was one of the artists,
38:26
OK. And I go down there to, to, to
38:29
to Edward's shop one day and I meet the dude.
38:31
He's in there. In fact, they set an office up
38:33
in there for him and their Bill and Paulette has showed me the
38:37
contracts. You know, they did a contract
38:39
with me. This is going, we're going to
38:41
start at July 4th race at Daytona and run the whole whole
38:44
season out, man. And I'm like, I'm very excited.
38:46
This is cool as hell, right? Because I knew the team was
38:49
good, the cards were good. Bill and Paulette were wonderful
38:52
people. They love me, right?
38:54
I like those guys. And I met this guy and I read
38:57
all this is Warner Brothers, the Warner Brothers.
38:59
That's what it was. Warner Brothers.
39:01
There's two or three contracts there with Warner Brothers.
39:03
I read, looked at those guys, those things signed my contract
39:06
with Bill and and Paulette, they had signed the contract with
39:09
these people. So we're going to go to July 4th
39:15
race Daytona is going to be the first race.
39:17
I've got a plane ticket to fly from home on Wednesday, I
39:19
believe Wednesday. I forget what the deal is when
39:22
we race or whatever because of practice of qualifying.
39:25
It's different than those days, man.
39:26
We spent a lot of time at the tracks before and we practice
39:29
two or three days and all that. But anyhow, so I'm going to
39:33
leave like at 5 that evening to fly out.
39:37
Well, about 3, probably 3:00, just a few moments before I'm
39:43
leaving the house, the phone ring rings and it's Miss
39:45
Edwards, Paulette. And she said, Rick, I said, yes,
39:48
Paulette. Hey, Paulette, have you left
39:50
yet? I said no, I haven't said all,
39:52
thank God. And she just broke down, cried,
39:55
right? She was hysterical, upset.
39:57
And I'm like, I finally got her calm down.
39:59
I said, Paulette, what's going on?
40:01
She said, Ricky Ingle believe it.
40:02
I said what? She said the FBI and the SWAT
40:05
teams here and here got us all surrounded.
40:07
We can't go anywhere. I said, what do you mean you
40:09
can't go anywhere? They've got us surrounded.
40:11
I said what? Anyhow, turns out this guy
40:15
right? He was on the FBI or she told me
40:19
the FBI top 20 most wanted list, right?
40:24
And and and and he. They came in there to get this
40:28
dude right and she said that he got tipped off because an hour
40:33
before the SWAT team and FBI got there, he left.
40:36
He just left the because he was going to be with him and they
40:39
were going to fly together or whatever the racetrack and he
40:41
left it and say bye to anybody. And they wondered where he went.
40:44
Next thing they knew, the whole damn compound is surrounded by
40:47
FBI agents and the SWAT team and I'm like, what in the war?
40:54
I mean, how do you make this stuff up?
40:56
Now? I never did figure out Charlie
40:59
exactly what his angle was or what his scheme was.
41:03
I mean, he's the one place to be given the team money or through
41:05
his company or what not and which all that was fictitious,
41:08
but I, I never did. They had three or four different
41:12
angles and I forget what it was. Bless Bill Edwards, he's gone
41:15
now and Paulette, their their daughter and son are still here
41:18
in Charlotte and I need to call those guys up and relive that
41:21
sometime. But that was and when that
41:23
happened it, it took. Here's the saddest part when
41:26
that happened, man, it took all the wind out of Bill and
41:30
Paulette sails because they were really, really, really big time
41:33
race fans. They love the sport.
41:36
They'd have been great for the sport.
41:37
They're wonderful people. They've just been, they were
41:39
just, he would have just, they both would have been good for
41:42
our sport. And when that happened to him,
41:44
it's like, you know, it just took all the wind out of the
41:47
sails and they were done right. And and they they never, never
41:50
did do anything with it. And that was such a shame.
41:54
But that was a that was a big time let down for me because
41:56
that was 1990. That's when, you know, I was
41:59
trying to still get in cup and they kept telling me I was too
42:01
young and all that stuff was going on.
42:03
And I was fledging with my Bush team.
42:05
They were trying to take two nickels, rub together and make a
42:07
dollar, right. And so it was a very important
42:10
time in my life. And it really, you know,
42:12
impacted me a lot at the moment. But, you know, I learned like so
42:15
much in race. And you don't you, you can't
42:17
hold on with these things, man. You let them go.
42:18
And let me tell you something else, Charlie, maybe that would
42:22
have been, that was in 1990, maybe 2000 and 10/12/20 some
42:29
years later. Here in Rockbridge County where
42:32
I live, we have the Rockbridge County Fair, dude, every year,
42:35
right? And they hold it to Virginia
42:37
Horse Center, which is where we used to hold the Rick Mass
42:41
Classic concert, which would be a day before the Rick Mass
42:44
Classic Golf Classic, right. But then, but then we'll talk
42:49
about those years sometime. We'll talk about all that and
42:51
the good that came out of those. Still, we did that for a decade.
42:54
But anyhow, I go up and I order, I go to the corn dog stand or
42:58
the hot dog stand. I get me a corn dog with a hot
43:01
dog and I give the guy the money.
43:03
I turn around to walk 8 and I walk away and I walk about maybe
43:07
10 or 15 steps. And I stop and I, I, I turn back
43:12
around and I look and I walk around and I get close and I
43:16
look at this dude. I'm like, I know this guy from
43:19
somewhere, right? And I couldn't place it.
43:21
So when on that night landed bed, I laid down, I said that
43:27
was that son of a bitch. I bet at Buddy Baker's shop that
43:29
day. I know I told my wife.
43:31
I said that's the guy I know. That's the guy I met.
43:34
I know it's here. Now, whether it was or not, I
43:37
don't know. But I only met the dude one time
43:39
at the shop. But that that picture was great
43:42
in my mind and I swear I think he sold me a corn dog C25 years
43:46
later I swear he did. But that's.
43:49
Awesome. All right, so NASCAR moving from
43:52
Nashville to the Chicago St. course.
43:55
So I want your take on on that race.
43:58
You can also if you want to just get into St. course racing in
44:01
general. I remember, I remember last
44:03
year, so 4th of July weekend, I was at my parents and I'm
44:06
watching that. And if you remember, there was
44:08
so much rain, it seemed like for a while that it was going to be
44:12
a disaster, right? They couldn't even do the pre
44:15
race any of the pageantry. They did it inside, right?
44:18
They had the the national anthem inside 'cause it's raining out.
44:21
But then man, once it cleared and what it was shortened, but
44:25
man, it was a really fun, entertaining race.
44:27
It was cool. It was different.
44:28
And SVG comes out of nowhere in a way to win it.
44:32
I thought it was awesome. So what do you think of that?
44:35
And then going back and just the whole deal.
44:38
Yeah. What saved what saved him last
44:40
year, Charlie was SVG winning, I think I mean that that that
44:44
became the storyline, right? When he, you know, he kicked
44:47
everybody's butt now, yeah, the tire deal made made that happen.
44:51
But he still, he still had to have the abilities to to drive
44:54
that car and do what he did because it was, you know, it was
44:57
such a let down up to that point.
44:59
I mean, the whole weekend was a let down up until that point.
45:03
And it seemed like that that overrode all the things that
45:08
went on. And what was a let down was the
45:09
weather. I mean, those guys, they had so
45:11
much stuff scheduled. They had so much extracurricular
45:15
activities around that event that nobody got to partake in or
45:19
enjoy, right. And that was going to be, it was
45:22
going to be the, to me, it was going to be probably more of the
45:26
spectacle than the race. That's that's the way I went
45:29
into it last year thinking about it, because I'd read all the pre
45:32
race stuff, the pre race hype and all the activities they had
45:35
going on. I'm like, OK, we're going to
45:37
have a spectacle here and let's hope that the race is good.
45:41
What happened? They had no pre race spectrum
45:43
because the rain took him out of that and the race ended up being
45:46
good man, right? It was a lot because of SSSVG
45:50
right or whatever it is, and I thought that was cool.
45:53
Now this year, you know, it looks like the weather's going
45:55
to be good. So we're going to get, we're
45:57
going to get the cop and we're going to get the whole
45:58
compliment of everything. And, and, and, and the hope is
46:02
the hope is that the race itself, we're on dry conditions,
46:06
that it's an entertaining race. We don't want, you know, so many
46:10
of these St. courses that we look at IndyCar, we look at F1,
46:13
so many of these St. courses are just friggin terrible, right?
46:17
I mean, there's, I mean, they're just awful.
46:19
I mean, the worst race in the world has got to be F1 Monaco.
46:22
Can there be a worse race in this world that F1 Monaco Hell
46:26
that that little hairpin turn, the cars are so long now, you
46:31
know, another inch or two of lift they're going to put
46:33
they're going to have to stop, put them in reverse and make the
46:35
turn because he can't even get around the turn now.
46:38
But anyhow, I digress again, you know we don't and and and and
46:42
and they built the track with what is it two or three
46:45
designated passing zones, which most street courses don't do
46:49
that right. But they were smart enough in
46:51
their wisdom to to design that in this course.
46:54
So, you know, I just want to see a good race.
46:57
I want to see passing. I don't want to see father
46:59
friggin leader all day like street, like street coursing is.
47:04
Excuse me, get excited here now. And, and, and, and that's what
47:08
happens when you turn on so many of these St. courses and other
47:11
forms of racing. It's just bored as hell to
47:13
watch, you know, And I don't want that for our Cup cars.
47:16
I don't want to see pass it. I want to see stuff like that
47:19
going on, you know, and that that's, that's my hope.
47:22
You asked me what my thoughts were going into this race, and
47:25
that's really 100% of my thought.
47:27
Yeah. The festivity is going to be
47:29
deep. We're going to get to see all
47:30
that. We're going to get to see the
47:31
celebrities. We're going to see all that
47:33
stuff. But you know, I want to see good
47:36
racing on the racetrack and we'll see what happens.
47:38
And if it's not, we're going to bust our butt next week about
47:41
it, right? If it is.
47:42
If it is, we're going to praise them.
47:45
No doubt. All right, let's let's end on
47:46
this 4th of July. What is what does 4th of July
47:49
mean to Rick Mass? Obviously NASCAR, a very
47:52
patriotic sport. Are you going out there?
47:54
Are you grilling the hot dogs? Are you going to the pool?
47:58
What you got going? All that, all that, man, we got
48:00
to, we got a bunch of friends coming over, right?
48:03
We got American flags. My, my, my daughters have put
48:06
together an 80 hour long playlist, right?
48:11
I'm like 80 hours and, and my, my family's pretty, my family's
48:15
all about music, man. My daughters, my son, my wife,
48:18
God almighty, they, they, I've never seen anybody love music
48:21
the way these guys do, right? And it's all genres.
48:23
I mean, like Sarah, my one daughter, she loves country
48:26
music, just loves it. My son Ricky, he his favorite,
48:29
his favorite band is Metallica, right?
48:32
Sarah Arkady kind of heads towards more country.
48:36
And my wife, she likes all kinds, right.
48:38
So anyhow, we got 80 hours to play this.
48:40
We've got, I've got 3 grills, Charlie, I've got the old
48:43
Hollands, I've got a Brawl Master and I've got a Charles
48:47
Master, Charles Broil, whatever. Yeah.
48:51
And I at some point I will have all three of those guys going
48:55
because we're going to have a lot of people there and cooking
48:57
all this. We got the cooler already
49:00
outside. You know, I got one of those big
49:02
roll around coolers where you put just tons and tons and tons
49:05
of beer in. Now we got a lot of kids coming.
49:07
So we have a lot of drinks. And then I've got some, can I
49:11
say this on this podcast, We got some, we got some illegal
49:15
fireworks, illegal fireworks. And come dark time, Rockbridge
49:20
Baths, Virginia, we'll be lit up and everybody around said we
49:25
didn't get invited to the bass farm this year, right.
49:28
And then what will happen? Some of them will show up.
49:30
Some of my fans, I mean fans, some of our our neighbors,
49:33
they'll just ride up the driveway, you know, and bike
49:36
themselves in, which is what we do anyhow, where I live.
49:39
I mean, I would taste that dude. When I was racing, I got a shop
49:41
there at my house and, and all the equipment, tools I used to
49:45
use are all in there. I would be up there in the
49:47
middle of the week at the house just getting in from a race
49:50
somewhere or getting ready to leave.
49:52
And here with my here would an old band.
49:54
Here's an old band would come up the driveway in a tractor,
49:57
right. And then I'd see him and I'd be
50:00
out there and go out there. Hey, Rick.
50:01
Yeah. I need my plow welded.
50:03
Huh? I need my plow welded.
50:05
OK. He drive back to the shop.
50:08
You know, we go back there and I'd break out the welder and I'd
50:10
Weld his plow or fix that used to go on a lot.
50:13
Do these guys all the all a lot of my neighbors, just a lot of
50:17
older people, farmers. Well, Mass boy up there, he's
50:20
got some riches. He got a pipe riches, he's got a
50:22
torch, right. And that that was it didn't make
50:25
a damn to them that I was some big time Whiston Cup driver, you
50:28
know, making all this money doing all this stuff.
50:31
Oh, except Mass boy, that Mass Boy, he'll, he'll fix your stuff
50:34
for you. Shit, I used to fix everybody's
50:36
farm equipment around there during the week.
50:38
And what would throw them off? I'd be gone, right.
50:40
And, and one of them, I'm trying to remember the story.
50:42
One of them got mad one time because I wasn't there.
50:45
I was going racing and he got mad at my wife, I think, because
50:49
I wasn't there to fix this dirt farm piece, right.
50:51
And like, well, it is what it is, but it it you know, but
50:55
that's so cool. That's home.
50:56
It's like me telling you a story about Tony Stewart getting out
50:59
of sorts of being upset. And my advice to Tony was move
51:03
back home where you grew up, right?
51:06
You got to get out of Charlotte, move back home.
51:08
And he did it kind of centered his life back up again.
51:11
So anyhow, anyhow, so anyhow, July 4th, it's all about
51:16
independence bad. It's all about being, it's all
51:18
about political and, and, and supporting your political party
51:21
and don't believe what you want to believe.
51:23
Don't believe facts. That's what it's all about
51:25
though. That's what it's all about.
51:28
So but anyhow. Again, that is funny.
51:31
No longer are we supporting America, we're supporting our
51:33
political party. That's it.
51:34
That's. The number one thing oh, that's
51:37
funny. All right.
51:38
This was this was fun, man. Happy 4th of July to you and
51:41
everybody else out there. And hey, I'm going to say it on
51:44
the podcast 'cause this will force you to do it, even though
51:48
I know you would anyway. But we did get a request because
51:52
you shot a video the other day from your trophy room.
51:55
So people, you know, if you can get somebody to, to man the
51:58
phone and then maybe you walk around the trophy room for
52:01
whatever, 10 minutes or so and then point out all your
52:04
trophies. People want to see it.
52:06
I can do that, man. It's a cool room.
52:08
The whole basement trophy room. It's a cool deal.
52:10
Cool deal, all right. All right.
52:11
We'll see you next week, Rick. Appreciate it.
52:13
See everybody comment like subscribe.
52:16
Thanks. To the loop.