Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Mast Cast Returns! All Things NASCAR With The Mast Family | Mast Cast Ep 1

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Mast Cast Returns! All Things NASCAR With The Mast Family | Mast Cast Ep 1 · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
Welcome back, I guess to Mass cast.
0:05
That's former NASCAR Cup Series driver Rick Mast, nine time
0:09
winner on the Xfinity Series. Among other things, I'm his non
0:13
driving son Ricky Mast. And dad I have.
0:15
I'll just start with a question. Where the hell we've been for
0:18
the last five years? I don't know.
0:19
When did we do this last, Ricky? What?
0:21
What was this? Was it during COVID?
0:24
Was it during COVID? We did 1 during the early on in
0:27
the shutdown in COVID and that may have been the last one.
0:30
So yeah, maybe six years actually, where the hell we've
0:32
been the last six years, I guess is the right question.
0:35
Yeah, OK, Six years. Well, you know, we started Mass
0:38
cast, what, 6 years ago? And then you got busy with the
0:42
Braves, I got busy, busy with my businesses.
0:44
And we just kind of let it go. And then, you know, all the
0:47
stuff that's been going on in the world via NASCAR, you know,
0:52
we decided we got to do this again, man.
0:54
So here we are. We're here again and we're on
0:56
Kenny Wallace media this go around, which we're really
0:59
excited about. So we'll be here pretty much
1:01
every week I think as long as we can both make it Lord willing.
1:05
And that was a Lord willing and the Creek don't rise.
1:07
God willing, the Creek don't rise either.
1:10
Either one. Yeah, that's that's the that's
1:13
the plan. So we're really excited about
1:15
that. We'll be talking all things
1:17
NASCAR and probably share a lot of old stories.
1:20
Eventually we'll get some of your old buddies on here as
1:22
guests when we can and we're just going to have fun with it.
1:26
I think again, a lot of old stories, but also just talking
1:29
about what's going on in the news.
1:30
And it seems like, I mean, there's always news in the
1:33
NASCAR world, but it seems like there's been as much news in the
1:35
NASCAR world this past year, in these past few months as as
1:39
anything. Before we get into the NASCAR
1:41
real quick, I will just share with you what's been going on
1:44
here around my house for the last almost week now.
1:47
So I'm in Georgia, I'm in the Atlanta area, well north of of
1:50
the city, but down here in the Atlanta area.
1:52
So about a week ago, we started hearing rumblings that this ice
1:56
storm of death is on its way. It's inbound.
2:00
You're going to be stuck at your house.
2:01
You're not going to have power for multiple days.
2:04
Just say goodbye to your loved ones, have your affairs in
2:07
order, all that good stuff. Now, I've been through many a
2:11
storm in my day, mostly when I'm still living back home in
2:15
Virginia with you. And I always could count on you
2:18
because you'd have a generator, whatever.
2:19
Even when my house is out of power, I could just come to your
2:22
house and hang there and it was all good.
2:25
And then even since then, when I've been on my own, like in
2:27
apartments or whatever, I'm not too worried about it.
2:30
Usually you're not going to lose power or anything like that in
2:32
your apartment, But you know, I got married a couple years ago
2:36
and now I've got a a little girl, your first grandchild, my
2:39
first child, obviously that. But for one of those, the first
2:42
of those to be true, the latter would have to be true.
2:45
And and we, we've bought a house about a year and a half ago out
2:49
here in the burbs. This is my first experience of
2:52
being the man of the house with possible ice storm of death on
2:56
the way. No power on for multiple days
2:58
stuck in your home for multiple days.
2:59
So I went out and I joined a what turned out to be a fair
3:04
number of other folks here in the Atlanta area freaking out
3:07
looking for generators. I waited a day too late.
3:10
First day I started checking there were generators
3:12
everywhere, Home Depot, Lowe's, wherever.
3:14
I wait till the next day. That was a mistake.
3:16
All of a sudden I wake up the next morning, they're gone.
3:18
So now I'm going all over, all over town with, with Stevie my,
3:22
my 21 month old in the back seat for the store looking for a
3:26
generator. Finally find the store, get a
3:27
generator. The one that they were supposed
3:30
to have in stock was gone when I got there.
3:33
I bought the one they had left, which cost twice as much.
3:36
Now I just bought this generator and I'm not mechanically minded
3:39
like you, as you know, as you well know.
3:44
But I just buy this generator and then I start.
3:46
I get home like OK, got the generator.
3:49
Oh wait, I can't let the generator get wet, but it's got
3:51
to sit outside. I don't have anything to cover
3:53
any covered area outside. So then I go and buy a tent for
3:55
the generator. Then I got to go buy gas cans
3:58
for the generator. And then I start doing research
4:00
on, you know, hooking my fridge and everything up.
4:02
This generator, it's like, well, I don't have the right extension
4:05
cords. And I go all over town looking
4:06
for extension cords this generator.
4:08
And then they're talking about carbon monoxide in the house.
4:10
Got to be careful. I'm going to go buy carbon
4:12
monoxide detector. So the end result is I spent
4:16
about $1500 to watch a tent in my driveway get a little wet
4:19
with no ice. Why do you why do you just put
4:22
it underneath your deck? That's too close to the house.
4:26
Carbon monoxide going to kill us all.
4:28
That's what it said it. Didn't kill me.
4:30
It ended my career, but didn't kill me.
4:32
Right? That's fair enough.
4:35
Fair enough. Well, anyways, that's what's
4:37
been going on around here around my house.
4:38
So all that to say. Well, we did the same thing,
4:42
Ricky. I've got my generators running
4:44
and tractors and snow plows and blowers, all that stuff.
4:47
Fired up and put them all used today.
4:50
We're we're good to go again. There you are.
4:53
Well, let's get right into the NASCAR stuff.
4:54
That's what we're supposed to be doing here.
4:56
So I'll start with the there's so many things to talk about.
4:59
Obviously, we haven't been around a while and it's still
5:02
the offseason, but we're getting geared up for the season as
5:05
we're recording this Bowman Gray.
5:06
The clash is going to be Sunday. We hope that the weather there.
5:09
I saw pictures of Bowman Gray today covering snow, but
5:12
hopefully that all works out. But most recently, the Hall of
5:16
Fame induction last weekend, Harry Gant, Kurt Busch, Ray
5:20
Hendrick, and you got asked to go down there and speak on I
5:25
guess what they called a fireside chat or like a panel.
5:29
So we watched, my wife and daughter and I watched here.
5:31
We watch live on the NASCAR channel.
5:33
You did awesome. So they had three panels, one
5:36
for each inductee and you are on the last one for Harry Gantt.
5:39
So your buddy Kyle Petty was the the moderator of each of them.
5:43
And on your panel is Harry Gantt, obviously Andy Petrie,
5:46
his longtime crew chief. And you, you did out.
5:49
You did awesome, told some funny Harry stories.
5:52
You probably could have sat there for a couple of hours and
5:54
told funny Harry stories. But just how was that whole
5:56
experience? How did it come about and how
5:58
was it? Yeah, it was cool.
5:59
I mean, they, I went down in, I don't know, last fall, October,
6:03
excuse me, maybe November laid some video tracks down and they
6:08
used those. They used those for Harry and
6:10
did some for Deb Williams that, you know, they, they honored Deb
6:14
Williams. We laid some stuff down for her
6:16
and then we go back for this deal and it's I haven't, I
6:20
hadn't been before. I had opportunity half a dozen
6:23
times to go to the vet and never did it.
6:25
But I went this time really based on Harry going in.
6:28
I want to be there with my buddy.
6:29
But real neat, real neat, man. It's they really do a good job
6:34
putting that thing on. I mean, you know, what you, what
6:37
you see on TV really doesn't do justice.
6:40
Maybe I don't know the number, maybe 500, seven, 150 people.
6:44
I don't have any people in this big place.
6:45
A lot of people. And and the neat part, fans
6:48
could buy tickets to go in, right.
6:50
So it wasn't just all the industry.
6:51
It was actually fans in there, you know, dressed to the dressed
6:55
to the hilts and, you know, eating fancy dinners and getting
6:58
to see everybody. But for me, it was, it's like
7:03
every time I go to the race track or anything, I, I get
7:05
reconnected with everybody, right?
7:07
Saw Mr. Hendrick saw talk to Mr. Hendrick, talks to Mr. Pinsky
7:10
and Mr. Kennedy and all the NASCAR hierarchy and just, you
7:15
know, drivers and crew, crew guys and a lot of guys you
7:18
haven't seen some guys you do see and just a real just a it's
7:22
just a a real neat event, man. It's a real neat event.
7:25
And the alumni group see my hat? What's that say right there?
7:29
Alumni. We got that male all of us
7:31
alumni guys here a week or two ago.
7:33
I think a lot of the alumni guys were there, right?
7:38
I don't know. Just a neat, neat, neat deal,
7:40
Ricky. Very neat deal.
7:42
The I'm glad you touched on the alumni thing.
7:44
So the NASCAR alumni programs, what, maybe a couple years old
7:47
now. And I think it's one of the
7:50
speaking for me, I've got, I'm biased because you know, you're
7:53
involved with it. You're heavily involved with it.
7:55
I think it's one of the coolest and best things they've done in
7:57
a while. And it's a great way to get
7:59
former guys really officially back into the fold, Ones that
8:02
maybe aren't officially in the fold.
8:04
It's a great way to welcome them back.
8:05
I see it with the Braves, what Greg McMichael does with the
8:08
alumni program and it's just wonderful.
8:10
So it's it's great that NASCAR has done that.
8:13
Yeah, to to give it to inter interrupt you for just for a
8:16
second. You know, they it kind of goes
8:19
back to all the things that's going on with NASCAR right now.
8:22
A couple years ago. I guess I don't know what caused
8:26
it, but Jim France says, man, we got to take care of these people
8:29
that were in our sport forever, right?
8:31
We need to do something. And that's, that's when it
8:33
started that that was the directive giving down through
8:37
the chain of command. And everybody within the
8:39
organization agreed this was a great idea.
8:43
And they started the process. They got, you know, Amber Wells
8:46
and Wendy and those guys, they do a great job with it.
8:48
And you know, we just, we keep adding to it all the time.
8:51
You know, I had have guys call me drive had a driver called me
8:54
the other day. I'm not sure who it was how we
8:56
do that alumni deal. Rick, right.
8:58
So I put it, put him in touch or put him in touch with those
9:02
guys. And another one joins.
9:04
So it's a it's a neat deal, man. It it connects the past to the
9:07
future or connects the past to the present.
9:10
Yeah, yeah. No, you're exactly right.
9:12
You're exactly right. Yeah.
9:13
Amber, I've gotten a chance to to meet with her like you and I
9:17
are doing over online just to talk shop.
9:20
And it was great to get to know her and and really great.
9:22
I'm hoping. Are you going to go to
9:24
Darlington Alumni weekend this year?
9:25
Yeah, I got through this year. I missed it last year for one of
9:28
your deals. Somebody's It was what was it?
9:31
You was your granddaughter slash my daughter's first birthday.
9:35
Oh yeah, that's what it was. That's what it was.
9:37
Yeah. Yeah, I caught hell for not
9:40
being down there with those guys too.
9:42
So I made, I made a promise I would definitely be there for
9:45
the for that this year. Oh yeah.
9:46
Well, thankfully. They moved, Yeah.
9:47
The race doesn't doesn't conflict with Stevie's birthday
9:50
this year. So I just floated the idea
9:53
actually with my wife the other day of us going to alumni
9:56
weekend. She said, well, you know, we do
9:58
have a baby. I was like, well, we also have
10:00
some grandmothers, so you never know, but we'll.
10:03
Ricky, you went to the racetrack when you were two weeks old,
10:05
sitting in the grandstands huddled up with your mom. 2
10:08
weeks old dude. Where was it, Franklin?
10:10
County, it was Franklin County Speedway.
10:12
That was a $25,000 deal. Yeah, yeah, that was a big.
10:15
Oh, that was the summer of the $25,000 deal.
10:17
That's right. I guess it was.
10:19
Yeah, well, in fact. Your mom, Your mom.
10:21
We had a Bush Grand National race at Greenville Pickens week
10:24
before you were born. Your mom drove herself by
10:28
herself with by score vergy from Virginia to Greenville, SC one
10:33
week before you were born, right?
10:35
And then two weeks after you were born, you're you're up in
10:37
the grandstands 3 weeks later watching the races.
10:40
So. But anyhow, anyhow, times were
10:42
different then. I've just, I've just picture of
10:44
mom being 8 months and three weeks pregnant basically driving
10:50
to from Virginia to Greenville Pickett.
10:52
So from Virginia to South Carolina for race and driving
10:55
back. Yeah, I'd say times were
10:57
definitely, yeah, definitely different.
10:59
Well, just so people understand what that we mentioned, we
11:01
called it the $25,000 deal at Franklin County.
11:04
Tell that story real quick. Just so folks know what?
11:06
That's we were going. We were actually going to a race
11:08
in 1983 to Hickory, a Bush race. The truck broke down in 81 in
11:11
Roanoke by the time we got it fixed and we weren't going to
11:14
get to Hickory in time for the race.
11:16
So one of my crew members had the local paper and had a ad in
11:20
there. Franklin County Speedway 100 lap
11:22
race 3500 to win. So we go with let's go down
11:26
there because only 20 minutes away.
11:27
We go down and we do that deal and the promoter put up a deal
11:30
for if you 3100 lap races in a row or or one each month, 100
11:35
lap race each. If you could win those three
11:37
races. He had a $25,000 bonus, right?
11:40
So we did all that and then puppy Wheeler, the PT Martin
11:45
Bailey of I mean a humpy Wheeler, but humpy Wheelers
11:48
produce. Hey, he might say, Whitey he.
11:52
Taylor. Yeah, good Lord of Mercy, we do
11:54
a whole episode on that dude one day.
11:56
But anyhow, he, you know, he did all that we did, we did it, did
11:59
all that, won the races, did everything.
12:01
I still got the $25,000 check, non sufficient funds.
12:05
But he did in, in all honesty, In all honesty, he did spend the
12:10
next year and a half coming to my shop in Lexington and bring
12:13
him, he'd bring money, bags of fives and 10's and 20s.
12:15
He end up paying like 12,400 of it, right?
12:19
So I actually used that money to buy my first superspeedway car.
12:23
Boy, I bought the chassis from from Banjo Matthews and then
12:26
Robert G put the body on it. So that really enabled me to go
12:30
superspeedway races. So it all worked out.
12:32
So he broke down talk about how times have changed.
12:36
You're going to a Bush Grand National Series race, which more
12:40
current fans or maybe more recent fans than NASCAR would
12:43
know as the Xfinity Series, and now it's going to be the
12:45
O'Reilly Auto Parts series. You and I have talked about
12:48
this. I got to be on.
12:49
I love the O'Reilly Auto Parts as a sponsor.
12:51
I'm going to have a hard time saying that full name a lot.
12:54
So yeah, I would. I might just, I've always just
12:58
wanted to call it the Bush series anyway.
12:59
So for Mass, As for now, I might just keep calling it the Bush
13:01
series or or you had some other like the ORP series or
13:06
something. I think it's already ORP.
13:07
I think, OK, you look at the you look at the NASCAR official
13:11
schedules and stuff though ORP series.
13:14
OK, Well, I can get a more NASCAR, whatever it is.
13:17
Yeah. All right.
13:17
Well, that's more. That's that's, that's more.
13:19
We can do our. ORP we could do, that's fine.
13:22
OK, The ORP series. So yeah, it's funny though.
13:25
You're breaking you. You're headed to an ORP race,
13:27
series race and breakdown. It's like, well, I'll just take
13:31
this exact same car and run it at the local late model race,
13:34
which just think about now, if you got your ORP car, you're on
13:37
the way to race, you'll breakdown.
13:39
Now we can just enter, we'll just enter the Super Late Model
13:41
race at South Boston or wherever we happen to be.
13:44
So yeah, that times have changed.
13:47
So you ended up winning three of those one I a bad $25,000 check
13:54
and one of those races in the midst of that was my was my
13:57
first race, huh? Yeah.
13:59
I don't remember which one it was, but it would you're you're
14:03
2 weeks old. I remember that much.
14:05
OK. Well, it would have been the one
14:07
on would have been in July then, so I was.
14:10
Born in July. There you go, July of 1983.
14:13
There are some there are some some old news clippings and
14:16
stuff of that that whole deal. There's one one in particular
14:20
that I think is really cool. The Roanoke Times did like AI
14:25
think it was a helicopter shot. Maybe there's a it's a mountain
14:29
or a hillside or something nearby.
14:30
It's been a long time. So I've been Franklin County, so
14:32
I don't remember, but somebody took a high up picture of the
14:35
line of cars that were lined up to get into that race track when
14:38
you're going for the third one in a row.
14:40
So, well, much like Humpy White, he knew how to how to get people
14:44
out there so it all. Yeah, that was that was the
14:46
biggest crowd. That's the biggest crowd ever
14:48
had at that at that race track before, since before, since
14:51
sure. In fact, they thought they were
14:53
going to be. He's going to do a Willie Nelson
14:54
concert like a month after after this.
14:57
And the. He didn't have a real good
15:01
rapport with the local officials, OK, the county
15:04
officials. And, but anyhow, they shut they
15:07
they shut the concert down because Willie would bring a
15:11
liquor bottle out on the stage or whatever, a beer or drink,
15:14
you know, sometimes supposedly. And the sheriff of the county
15:17
said if that band brings a liquor bottle out on the stage,
15:19
he's going to get arrested. So the Willie Nelson concert got
15:22
cancelled. So they were hoping that was
15:24
going to break the record for attendance or the Rick Mass show
15:27
or the Rick Mass deal, but never happened.
15:31
Well, Willie's still around, so it's he is still around.
15:34
He is. He could still he could still
15:36
break it. You just you just never know.
15:38
Me and the your daughters, my sisters actually saw Willie here
15:43
in concert about about two years ago.
15:46
He's still still kicking. Still sounds great.
15:49
Well, all right. The Hall of Fame trip.
15:51
I got to ask how was like, I'm sure it's been a little bit
15:54
since you'd seen Harry looking at him on TV.
15:57
Of course, they still call him Handsome Harry and he's on TV.
16:02
And I looked at my wife. I was like, how old do you think
16:04
he is? And she's like, well, I know
16:06
he's been retired for a while. So I'm guessing, I don't know,
16:10
70s, something like that. So she was using some that as
16:14
she knew and plus I was asking the question the way she knew
16:16
she knew. I was going to say, well, it's,
16:18
it's just different than what you would think.
16:20
Man's 86 years old. And I swear to God, he looked at
16:22
least on TV, he looks pretty much not too different from what
16:26
he did when he retired. He looks great.
16:27
So how was he? He's great man.
16:29
He Harry's like Rich. I always I I I kidded Harry a
16:33
couple times a year or two ago about hair color.
16:36
I said, Harry, what kind of hair color do you use?
16:38
I don't use any hair color. I said, well, yeah, you do
16:41
because you don't have any Gray hair.
16:42
That's all. Now for Rick.
16:43
I don't use the swore up and down.
16:44
He didn't use hair color and probably right.
16:46
I had the same conversation with the King Richard Petty right
16:49
about your hair color. I don't use any hair color,
16:51
Rick. Right.
16:52
And in the kings up there too. But Harry, Harry was always such
16:56
a he was such a physical specimen man, you want to be
17:00
just chiseled and just nothing but muscle and, you know, good
17:04
looks And he I don't know if it's whatever the deal is.
17:09
You know what he you know what he what he thinks or what he
17:12
tells or what he says that May 1 of the things that's helped him,
17:17
he thinks live like this and look like this.
17:20
He had, he had back problems in the 90s and he bought him one of
17:24
those boards that you get on and you hook your feet and turn
17:29
yourself upside down. He lays, he flips himself up and
17:33
lays on this board hanging down right.
17:36
And I remember in the 90s him telling me that it really helped
17:39
his back. Well, he made a statement down
17:41
there around the alumni weekend about that board and still doing
17:45
it. And he thinks that's what's made
17:47
him be real physical fit, right? But but for Harry, that's good
17:51
if that's what Harry believes and the more power to him.
17:54
But he gosh, Harry, you go, you walk up to Harry, you look at
17:58
him like, I'm not sure if I want to would want to fight this guy
18:00
right now, right? And you think he's 6869 years
18:04
old baby, you know. And to be 86 years old, look
18:08
what he does. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty
18:10
remarkable, man. It's pretty remarkable.
18:11
Maybe the board is what's keeping the Gray hairs away,
18:13
too. It might be.
18:15
It might be. I will this true, true story.
18:18
When I asked my wife Laura, how old do you think that man is?
18:23
I I swear to God, Dad, this is true.
18:25
First words out of her mouth were.
18:27
Well, he obviously dyes his hair.
18:29
Yeah, like that. Would I swear to you that's the
18:31
first thing she said. And I was like, I didn't say
18:33
anything, but I'm like, I'm willing to bet that if that he
18:36
says he doesn't and maybe does. I know from what you've said,
18:40
Richard Petty says he does and maybe doesn't.
18:42
They're both right. They're both on up there in
18:45
their in their 80s and look great.
18:46
So that's. They're they're, they're freaks.
18:48
Both of those guys are freaks of nature.
18:50
I can tell you that. So I'm guarantee they don't.
18:52
They don't use hair dye. Well, I wanted, I want you to
18:55
tell this story because you told it during the fireside chat and
18:58
it was so funny. And for people who didn't get to
19:00
hear that before we move on from Harry in the Hall of Fame
19:02
weekend, tell the story of the hooligan race and Harry's
19:06
mindset going into Turn 3. For everybody didn't get to hear
19:12
this. It got it got a good response at
19:14
the at the banquet. But inhale, I don't know,
19:17
sometime in the early 90s Charlotte went through this
19:19
spate of this this deal were for a couple years.
19:23
We had to they would qualify all the Bush ground national cars
19:27
and you know, for there's always more cars there that could make
19:30
the field right and they would qualify everybody qualify.
19:34
They take the top 20 or 25, I'm not sure.
19:36
And that would be that would set your starting position.
19:39
Everybody else then had to run a race.
19:41
OK, the race and and, and as I tell people, that race reminded
19:46
me of a green white checkered at Talladega or Daytona.
19:49
I mean, it's like, you know, lot of records, lot of records in
19:53
that race, man, because. Everybody's trying to get a
19:55
last, like a last chance race, right?
19:57
It's a last chance race, but that's how you, that's how it
19:59
sets the rest of the field, right?
20:01
So everybody's trying to get in that thing.
20:02
And if you didn't have more cars than you had start positions, it
20:06
probably wouldn't have been as dangerous or.
20:09
Trash fested, but you know, he had a lot of guys trying to make
20:11
you feel too. So anyhow, over a period of
20:14
time, the thing that we just became the hooligan race, we
20:17
called it, we call it the hooligan race.
20:19
And you didn't want to run that damn hooligan race, man,
20:22
whatever you did you. So anyhow, we'd all we'd all
20:26
qualified and I got in pretty good.
20:28
And when qualifying was over, I went up to Harry.
20:31
I was talking to Harry. I said, how'd you lap Harry?
20:33
He said, let me tell you what it did, Rick.
20:34
I said all right. He said I took the green flag
20:37
and I went down and one or two held it wide open and and you
20:40
could go through one or two wide open those days still even like
20:43
they're doing today with a Bush car.
20:44
If your car was decent, 3 and 4 is different, the configuration,
20:49
the grip levels little different, the bumps.
20:51
It's real hard to get through three and four wide open.
20:53
It was then so Harry said he cut, he goes down and one or two
20:58
you see wide open on the bottom comes off 2 down the back
21:01
straight away and he he's thinking, you know, that was
21:06
good. Now I got to get through three
21:07
and four right right. So he he starts telling me this
21:11
series of stories, his earth are of his thoughts and he's like,
21:14
OK, when I get into three, I got to hold it wide open right down
21:17
to the bottom and hope that thing sticks.
21:20
And he says if it don't stick, I'm going to hit the wall hard
21:23
right. I don't want to do that.
21:24
But if I don't hold it wide open, I got to run the hooligan
21:26
race. I don't want to do that.
21:28
He said, well maybe if I'm just going to turn, I can run it up
21:31
or under the high groove and hold it wide open and if it if
21:35
it does wreck, I won't hit as hard, but the lap won't be as
21:39
fast. So that probably ain't going to
21:40
work any either. So damn, do I lift and and have
21:44
to run the hooligan race or do I hold it?
21:46
Why? Now you got to understand it
21:48
takes four or five seconds to go down the back straight away at
21:50
at Charlotte, right? Harry spends 10 minutes telling
21:55
me every thought that he has in those four seconds, right?
21:59
He explains every thought. It went through his mind in a
22:03
matter of four seconds and it took him 10 minutes to tell him.
22:06
But that's Harry that that I tell people Harry has got this
22:10
uncounted ability to he's always trying to one up.
22:14
He's always trying to figure out how to get an advantage on
22:16
somebody, how to one up somebody.
22:17
And he could always come up with the dead deadest things you ever
22:21
seen that that he would get a one up, not just racing, but
22:24
build homes and Carpenter work at all.
22:26
He's always looking for that, that angle, you know, to get a
22:29
shortcut to make things work better for him.
22:31
And so anyhow, he he's doing all that.
22:35
So he I said, what happened, Harry?
22:37
He said, well, I'm going down that straightaway.
22:39
I think if I lift, I got to run the holy race.
22:41
If I don't lift, I might wreck. He said, you know what I did
22:44
what Rick or what Harry, He said I got to the turn I went in.
22:48
I went in turn 3. I turned it right to the bottom.
22:50
I held that thing wide open. I curl my toes back on my
22:53
accelerator foot. I said, you did what?
22:56
He said I I curl my toes back. I said why did you what did that
23:00
do? Curled your toes back.
23:02
He said that made me think that I was lifted, but I never lifted
23:06
that thing stayed wide open the whole way.
23:08
And he got in, you know, he got in the show.
23:09
He was fast enough to get in, but that that's that's that's
23:13
typical Harry. And there's 10,000 stories like
23:17
that we could talk about as time goes on with her again, but that
23:20
you know, God love her again. One of my friends and I love him
23:23
to death. Well, it's, it's a great story
23:26
and I'm sure that as we go on here on mass cast that plenty
23:30
more of those stories will will come up and be told and I look
23:33
forward to all of them. So but that one's I'm glad you
23:36
told that one. That one was funny.
23:37
Even watching on TV, you could hear the the laugh it got in the
23:41
room. And so so that was that was
23:43
really great and congratulations to Harry.
23:46
It's it's cool to see. It's cool.
23:48
It's, I mean, I'm a sports guy in general, so I just, I always
23:52
like, I'm always interested in who made the Hall of Fame,
23:56
especially, you know, baseball, NASCAR, football, the, the
23:59
sports. I really follow, I follow
24:01
college basketball too with our Virginia Cavaliers, but don't
24:04
follow the basketball Hall of Fame as closely.
24:07
But it's just, it's, it's great to see and I, I especially love
24:11
guys that were in your era, seeing them go into that.
24:14
That's really cool. So that's awesome, man.
24:16
It's great and great to see the 33 car in the Hall of Fame.
24:19
Very cool. Yeah, bringing it to the
24:22
current. Time, can we back up just a
24:25
second, please? Let's talk about a little more
24:26
about that. Couple of things went on there.
24:28
Number one or #1 here again #2 I know half of Richmond, VA was
24:34
vacant Friday night because it seemed like half that banquet
24:40
hall was filled with Richmond, VA people.
24:42
And they're all somehow, somehow or another related to Ray
24:45
Hendrick, right? Finally, Ray Hendrick got in it,
24:48
got in, got in the fate, got in the hall, and he was so
24:52
representative. His family was there.
24:54
They're such neat, nice folks, right?
24:57
And Roy, his son, who I was friends with, I raced against
25:01
Roy a little bit. You know, we lost Roy here a
25:04
while back, a year or so ago. Everybody's kind of sad that he
25:07
didn't get to see that. But very, very, very good that
25:11
the Hall finally recognized Ray and I'm, I'm so glad he's in
25:14
there. I'll tell you a quick funny
25:16
story about Kurt Busch. I went up to Kurt.
25:18
Actually, we were at the Hall, I don't know, back in December,
25:24
maybe for alumni function. Anyhow, Kurt was there and I
25:27
went up to him and I said, Kurt, Rick, I've introduced you.
25:31
I'll tell you, Rick, I know, I know.
25:32
I said, well, I said, Kurt, I got to tell you something.
25:35
I want to tell you how proud of him of he said what?
25:38
I said, I want to tell you something.
25:38
I'm real proud of you. He says, really?
25:41
I said, well, here's the deal. I said you were coming in as I
25:44
was going out. I said the last year I was in
25:45
the sport, the last six months or other, we were parked beside
25:49
each other or we were together in the in the garage area.
25:52
And I said a couple times, you know, I'd say something, you
25:55
kind of blew me off. And I said one time we were
25:56
parked right beside each other in the garage area or in the
25:59
motorhome lot, and I come out of my motorhome and you were going
26:02
in your motorhome and we were right beside each other.
26:04
So hey, man, how's it going? And I said, you never even took
26:08
us. You never slowed down.
26:10
You never looked. You never did anything.
26:12
Didn't look at me, right? Didn't say a word.
26:14
You went by. And I said, right, The Hell's
26:16
that prick, right? Yeah, I've seen that.
26:18
I've seen that attitude before in our sport, right.
26:21
And didn't really think too a whole lot about it because like
26:25
I said, I've seen that before. See how that plays out a lot of
26:27
times. Well, so then I, I, I in my
26:30
career and all through the years, I, I, I kept AI, kept a,
26:34
kept an eye on Kurt because she's so talented, you know,
26:36
and, and in my view, anybody that's real talented, God-given
26:40
talents to drive a race car, I always pull for them, man, I, I
26:44
really do. I just, you know, throw out the
26:45
bad things and, and look for the good and like, you know, he kept
26:49
doing his thing. He was winning races, running up
26:51
front, doing all these things. And, you know, he just, he just
26:56
couldn't ever get it together, you know, out of the race car.
26:59
And then something happened, you know, whatever it was that
27:03
started his turn back to being a normal person.
27:06
You might say it, it got to where, you know, just the last
27:10
few years, Kurt's like, all right, you got it figured out,
27:13
man. You're you're, you're a good
27:14
dude, right? You're a good dude.
27:16
And for that, for your turn around.
27:18
And for what you've accomplished, I'm very, very
27:21
proud of you. Right.
27:22
And he seemed to enjoy that, you know, he seemed to accept that.
27:26
And so it was pretty cool. He does seem I've I don't think
27:29
I've ever met Kurt, just watch from afar like like every other
27:36
fan, But he does seem and just you never know.
27:40
He has never really truly know with people behind closed doors
27:44
and I especially with athletes, celebrities, whoever, when they
27:48
they have a bad moment publicly that they have to then try to
27:52
come back from a lot of times you'll see them try to make
27:54
their apology and come back and you go, I don't know if that's
27:57
real or not. They're doing it because they
27:59
got to do it. You just don't know.
28:01
He is 1 again, I, I don't know, I don't know the man, but he
28:04
does seem like it's genuinely turned for him.
28:07
Like he's really that he at whatever point, like you said,
28:10
at whatever point that he figured it out and has become a
28:13
much better person and man because of how how he was.
28:16
And I thought he was telling in his speech the other night.
28:20
I wonder, I was very intrigued by coming into it by his speech
28:24
to wonder how much was he going to acknowledge or how would he
28:28
acknowledge kind of some of his missteps early on.
28:32
And I really liked I thought it was whether he or whoever wrote
28:34
it. I thought it was a smooth way of
28:37
talking about when I think it got really bad for him when he
28:40
was driving for Rodger Penske in the in the Blue 2 car.
28:44
He said that one line. I wish I would have respected it
28:47
more. Yeah, Yeah.
28:48
And I thought that I thought that was a really cool way of
28:51
expressing how he looks back at that time of like how I just
28:55
thought that was a such a simple line, but such a great way of
28:58
expressing remorse and acknowledging that time in his
29:01
life. Yeah, and, and Cup racing, I'm
29:04
going to tell you right now, Cup racing has this way of, of
29:08
humbling the best, right? That's why I said when he said
29:11
that to me. And I thought, well, heck with
29:12
you, right? You know, I, I thought, yeah,
29:14
I've seen this before. I know how this goes.
29:16
And a lot of times that attitude won't carry you.
29:22
You know, Kurt was so talented, but his talent on the racetrack
29:27
for these results, what what it carried him and it overcame his
29:31
shortcomings with his personal part, right.
29:33
But it finally, you know, it finally bit him in the butt
29:36
where he was kind of out there, you know, and La La land and
29:39
didn't have anything. And he went to Jim Finch, James
29:43
Finch. So that, you know, for people
29:45
that are sporting James Finch, he's good guy, man, party hard,
29:49
fun loving guy does does a lot of good things.
29:52
But that team was not a top flight team.
29:55
But he he turned that team around and about won a race with
29:57
that car, right. And that kind of got him going
30:01
again. And he he was saying the right
30:03
things and doing the right things off the racetrack, you
30:05
know, and I guess that that's kind of what propelled he got
30:07
him going again. So anyhow, I'm just just proud
30:09
of the boy. Yeah, no, that was cool.
30:12
And like you said, for Ray and his family, too, I have
30:16
memories. You know, I was born in 83, so
30:19
my first memories in life, almost all of my first memories
30:22
in life happened at a racetrack. I have a lot of fond memories
30:27
from being young, being at Martinsville and that 11 car,
30:33
that 11 red 11 car with the I don't what is it?
30:36
Is it fire or flames? Flames, whatever it is, yeah,
30:40
flames, man, it just. Looked cool.
30:42
It just looked cool then. It still looks cool now and it
30:45
just something, even if you, even if you didn't sit there and
30:49
know any of his stats or what he did or anything, if you're
30:52
familiar with watching the sport or you just remember you were a
30:54
kid like I do see in that car in the Hall of Fame, just something
30:58
about it. I was looking at that.
30:59
I was like, man, it just looks right.
31:01
It should have been That feels like something that should have
31:02
been there when they opened the doors years ago.
31:04
You know, just that that image so great.
31:07
It's cool to see, cool to see that his family and, you know,
31:10
they kept showing shots of the family sitting there in the
31:12
audience and just how much it meant to them.
31:15
So, you know, wish it could have been sooner, but it happened.
31:21
And there's still a lot of his people that loved him and and
31:24
descended from him. Who?
31:25
Who? Well, he he.
31:29
Ray Hendrick. He's just like so many drivers.
31:31
He's just, he's just, he was just one of the best, right?
31:34
He was one of the best natural ability drivers there ever was.
31:38
I mean, that's, that's, you know, it's just the way it is.
31:41
He's closed. It's a Great Hall of Fame class,
31:45
Those, those three strong ones. Different heirs, different.
31:47
It was, it was, it was really strong.
31:49
I'm glad you got to be a part of it.
31:50
That was very cool. Well, let's talk about the 2026
31:55
season because it's honest. What are you, what are you most
31:57
excited about for this season? We're not.
31:59
We're not going to, we're not going to not going to go hard
32:02
into the negative. There's enough negativity out
32:04
there. I'm sure something will piss us
32:05
off every now and then that we'll talk about on the show.
32:07
But at least to start out, we're going to try to keep things
32:10
positive around here. So what are you excited about as
32:13
we go into the new scene? Real honestly, I want to see.
32:17
I want to see, I mean, we had all the crap that went on last
32:20
fall and last winter with the lawsuit, right?
32:23
And all the media, that's all anybody knew about.
32:27
And November, December was a lawsuit.
32:29
All the media, all of our fans, all the competitors, we went
32:33
through all that. They came to an agreement.
32:36
They reached an agreement. Both both sides conceded a
32:40
little bit. Everybody says, OK, now we're
32:44
going to all work together to grow the sport.
32:47
You know, NASCAR goes behind Kelly's doors.
32:49
They come out with a new points format, right?
32:52
Listen to the fans. And that's that's really what
32:55
what what that that came from and and our buddy Mark Martin
32:58
pressure him so hard. And what I want to see, what I'm
33:02
looking forward to this year more than anything is to see
33:06
we've got momentum right now, Rick.
33:08
We've got the big MO on her side.
33:09
There's no two ways about it. We got, we got a lot of synergy
33:12
right now with everything, the way it transpired.
33:15
I want to see us as a as a industry, as a sport.
33:20
I want to see the momentum carried forward and and growing.
33:25
I want to see NASCAR doing their thing, taking this momentum,
33:32
going with it, growing with it. I want to see the teams,
33:35
everybody get behind the sport and and and and be more
33:38
positive. I'll tell you what I'd love to
33:40
see is, is a journalist be very positive about what we're doing.
33:44
OK, You know, you've heard me criticize.
33:47
He's got and I love journalists to death.
33:49
A lot of them. I know and love these guys, but
33:51
some of them could could get a little negative, right and and
33:54
and do things. I want to see some of that stuff
33:56
gone. I'm going to see if there's a
33:58
story that day. I want to see the positive of
34:00
that story. I don't want to see the negative
34:02
of that story. Hell, anybody can write that.
34:05
You know, I want to see these guys make a concerted effort
34:08
like NASCAR's doing, like the teams are doing to put a good
34:12
step forward and try to grow this thing.
34:15
And and let's get it back to where it was.
34:17
Let's get let's get our thing going.
34:19
This is the first time, Ricky, that I know in an off season
34:23
that we have this opportunity, you might say, to grab onto this
34:31
momentum that that, that, that, that, that, that we've got the
34:34
things that's transpired. I mean, we, you know, we've had
34:38
we've had some terrible, terrible things going on this
34:40
winter. But you know, we've got good
34:43
things. I think that I just want to see
34:46
everybody embrace it. I want to see, I want to see
34:49
everybody do it. It's not that I don't want to
34:51
sit back and watch how it happens.
34:53
I don't want to sit back and see what happens.
34:55
That's not what I'm saying. I want to sit back and watch
34:58
these people actually do things, do positive things, write
35:01
positive stories, do positive things from NASCAR in the
35:04
hierarchy, the team is doing positive things about our sport,
35:08
our our our broadcast partners. I want to see those guys
35:12
stepping up a notch. I want to see those guys do more
35:15
positive things for our sport, right?
35:17
I want to see the sponsors. I want to see this corporate
35:20
sponsors that they're involved with NASCAR and on these race
35:23
teams. I want to see those guys
35:24
stepping up a half a notch, stepping up 1 notch.
35:26
Send your driver out here to the fields, right?
35:30
Send your driver out. Let him do some autographs, you
35:32
know, don't keep him shackle behind closed doors.
35:36
Let him be himself. Let these drivers be themselves
35:39
more. Let them don't.
35:42
I don't like for the sponsors to come down on a drive.
35:44
The drivers, you know, now they're they're nothing off
35:47
these guys, they're all heroes. But, you know, we don't know
35:50
that because they're so not downtrodden, but they're,
35:53
they're, they're shackled at what they can say and do and.
35:56
How they present themselves at all, I would love for sponsors
35:59
to say all right man, just be yourself.
36:01
You're not going to embarrass us, right or to some degree, but
36:04
just don't neuter don't like don't neuter them, don't don't
36:07
render them don't make them don't make them vanilla robots
36:10
that they're just saying the same thing and don't ever say
36:14
anything that could possibly slightly upset anybody.
36:17
It's and I get that, like I get, I understand the brand side of
36:22
it. I really do.
36:24
But you have to have faith and I and they're putting a lot of
36:27
money. If they're invested in the
36:28
sport, then they're we're talking 677 figures, sometimes
36:33
more. I it's a lot of money.
36:34
So I get it. But letting these guys be who
36:37
they are and have some personality is what's going to
36:41
be good for your brand. That's what's going to work.
36:44
But that's how you got heroes back in the day.
36:47
That's how you got the Dale Earnhardt senior is a working
36:50
class hero and then the kind of the younger flashy Jeff Gordon
36:54
on the opposite side of him. And then you got guys like Harry
36:57
Gant and Rick Mast and the Jimmy Spencer and then the bow.
37:01
You just got all these personalities.
37:03
Let people be who they are. I'll I'll tell you that.
37:06
So I working. So as you mentioned earlier, I
37:08
do I work for the Atlanta Braves work lifelong fan and I've
37:11
worked for them for this will be my 12th season.
37:14
So one of my many duties with the Braves is I host A-Team
37:18
podcast behind the Braves. And so this last year, because
37:22
we were promoting the baseball game that happened at Bristol
37:25
Motor Speedway last summer, I had an opportunity, a natural
37:29
opportunity, an organic opportunity to have a lot of
37:32
NASCAR drivers on a baseball podcast.
37:35
I'd love to have as many NASCAR drivers as I could, but it's a
37:37
baseball show. So, you know, it makes sense
37:40
when you got the Dillon brothers who are die hard brace fans, or
37:42
Chase Elliot, who's a die hard brace fan.
37:44
So we have them on, but I got a chance to have some other guys
37:47
on had all the Spires drivers from last year, host of our man
37:51
He's he's great. He's a great personality, young
37:54
dude. I mean, he's still so young and
37:57
figuring it all out, but personality, he's got it like
37:59
he's funny. Mcdowell's a nice guy.
38:02
I'll tell you who I love getting to talk to later in the year,
38:05
who I was, I'll say it. I was convinced it was just as I
38:09
thought he was a vanilla so I didn't dislike him, but I I
38:13
wasn't a fan. Christopher Bell came to the
38:15
ballpark to to do some promo for the race that weekend, came out,
38:19
signed autographs and I asked, you know, what he do behind the
38:22
Braves podcast and he he said yes.
38:25
So I had him on for 20 minutes. Man, he couldn't have been.
38:28
He was so fun, relaxed, funny, engaging, had a personality.
38:33
And I thought, damn, where's like, I've not seen this guy.
38:37
So. And I became a fan then like I
38:40
root for it now and again. I wasn't a heater before, but
38:43
I'm like, man, I enjoyed my experience with him so much.
38:46
And I saw the person there, a fun guy personality, like, OK, I
38:50
can root for this dude now. Like I know who like, I know a
38:53
little bit about this dude now. And so I felt like that's that's
38:57
what needs to happen. Let these guys go out, go out to
39:00
places. Put Christopher Bell at a
39:02
baseball stadium, signing autographs, doing a show, showed
39:05
who he is to people who you know how many people that are
39:08
listening to an Atlanta Braves podcast are also already not
39:11
only Christopher Bell fans, but just NASCAR fans in general?
39:14
I'm sure there's some a lot of crossover, but I guarantee you
39:18
Christopher Bell earns some new fans out of that One little
39:21
baseball podcast. So yeah, but those guys.
39:24
I mean, these guys do this. No, no, no.
39:26
Let these guys be themselves. That's just you got to do it.
39:29
Yeah, and they and they don't, right.
39:31
And I and like I say, it comes back through the corporate
39:34
sponsorship and the image they what, but but man, if they would
39:38
all just say, all right, we're going to take one step forward,
39:41
right? We're going to ease up on some
39:43
of this. We're going, we're going to do
39:44
this. We're going to promote, we're
39:45
going to promote our driver, right?
39:47
I mean, Ricky, when I was there in the nine, it's good Lord of
39:50
Mercy and you remember this, I was gone off doing autographs
39:53
more than I was gone off during racing.
39:54
And that was a lot with USTUS Tobacco, the school brand.
39:58
I mean, they had Harry Gatineau all over this country.
40:01
We we had every little short track up and where everywhere in
40:04
this country. I bet you I've been to well, I
40:07
shouldn't say that I've been to most.
40:08
I've been to more race tracks than most of people in this in
40:10
this country. Just been there for two hours
40:13
somewhere back in the 90s signing autographs and.
40:17
And, and doing these things that, and I was, I was
40:19
privileged to be with Harry. A lot of these things we did, we
40:22
did it together. And you know, it was just, I
40:26
don't know, we were out there and a lot of other drivers, lot
40:29
of the teams that they were doing the exact same things, you
40:32
know, doing all the little county die cast that you give to
40:34
the kids, right? All the promotions you, you go
40:37
to any grocery store and there's Darrell Earnhardt staring you in
40:40
the face or, or Darrell Waltrip, right, and trying to sell you
40:43
some goodies, right? And shelf space and all that
40:47
stuff, just everywhere you went, everywhere you went, you these
40:50
drivers were were no matter where you went, these drivers
40:53
plastered. I'm going to tell you something.
40:56
We go into a whole nother story. But when it hit me how big our
41:01
sport was, one time we were sitting there talking with Dana
41:03
Granger. That was three or four of us and
41:05
Kyle Petty's in there. We're talking about how crazy
41:08
our sport had become, right? And how popular this thing had
41:11
become. Kyle says have y'all been
41:13
watching? Have y'all been watching?
41:15
I forget what he said, news or something.
41:18
He said, do you see what those kids the inner city's awareness
41:20
of? We said we thought about Kyle.
41:22
He says start paying attention when you see video clips or
41:26
something from inner city kids. What do you mean they're out?
41:29
They've all got NASCAR stuff on all these inner city kids in
41:33
Detroit and Chicago and and, and, and New York, all these
41:37
kids. And he was right.
41:38
They all had friggin NASCAR coach and shirts and stuff on,
41:41
right. And I'm like, that's what it
41:43
dawned on me, man, we are reaching.
41:45
We are reaching everybody. How in the world are we doing
41:49
this? Well, however we did that,
41:51
right? That's how we need to do it
41:53
again, you know, reach all these people.
41:56
But it's going to take effort from everybody in the industry
41:59
to do that. And, and, and you know, I
42:01
talked, you've heard me say it a million times.
42:03
I've talked to NASCAR about it. I talked to everybody who wants
42:05
to hear it. You know, our drivers have to
42:09
become heroes to everyday Americans.
42:12
You can't. How can I say, you know, when we
42:16
used to do autograph sessions and believe me, I did autographs
42:20
with everybody in our sport, you know, a dozens of times we'd be
42:25
doing an autograph session. And whoever sat beside you,
42:28
there were three guys, three guys that when you sit down
42:31
beside, it was different. When you sit down beside.
42:35
If I had Richard Petty beside me, Dale Earnhardt senior or
42:38
Harry Gatt beside me, it was a different deal.
42:43
These people would come up and I'm telling you, they autograph
42:46
seekers, a lot of times they'd be nervous.
42:48
Even with me, they'd be nervous. And you can see they were
42:51
shaking a Colonel. But when they when you sit down
42:53
beside those three guys and the people came up, I mean, people
42:59
were in tears, right? People were people would shake
43:02
so bad they dropped their, their, their, their hero card or
43:05
the die cast car, right. They couldn't even hardly speak
43:08
to those three guys. And and and it was, it was, I
43:12
was always amazed watching this, right, because Harry, you know,
43:15
Harry is very quiet, quiet demeanor, right?
43:19
But he he put the persona he put out in the way he's presented by
43:22
skull and the amount of exposure that skull gave him to American
43:28
the American public, because I'm telling you, he was out there
43:30
all the time meeting all the fans, right?
43:33
That's what did it with him. Of course, the King's the king
43:36
and Dale senior is Dale senior. But and then as time went on,
43:38
Gordon got Jeff Gordon got like that a little bit.
43:41
He not quite as the people weren't quite as emotional with
43:44
him right with these three guys. But but it's been good.
43:47
But anyhow, The thing is these, the, all these guys had reached
43:53
the reached these people, the, the, the fans felt like these
43:56
guys were the heroes, right? They were their heroes and it
43:59
and it and it came about in different, different, a variety
44:02
of ways, right? And and so many of the guys, it
44:08
was like that. I mean, people would love or
44:10
hate Jimmy right about my good friend Jimmy spin.
44:12
She love or hate Emory. You'd root for Gordon and
44:15
against Earnhardt and all that stuff.
44:16
But but it wasn't just it wasn't just three or four guys.
44:19
It was it was a whole group that was in this garage area and
44:23
people just related. And it had a lot to do with
44:26
corporate sponsorship, those guys promoting his promoting the
44:28
drivers, getting them out there, getting them in front of
44:30
everybody, right everyday get them out there.
44:33
And you know, over time it's become, you know, really don't
44:37
care. Just don't, don't cause any
44:39
problems. Just win on the racetrack, you
44:42
know, and we'll see you next Sunday and win for us again.
44:45
Just get our name, our our race car on front, out, out front and
44:49
on the TV camera and then all the pictures for Victor Lane.
44:52
That's and then, you know, for during the week and everything,
44:55
you know, just don't cause us any kind of problems.
44:57
Don't you know, that shit's got to change that shit, right?
45:00
There's got to change. And and they can do that.
45:03
You know, they can do that, but it's going to take a collective
45:06
effort from everybody to do that.
45:08
So back to your original question, Rick, you know, what
45:11
am I looking forward to this year?
45:12
That's what I'm looking forward to seeing these people do these
45:16
things that I want to see done. And I'm going to tell you
45:18
something. We'll stay on it right there
45:20
too. We'll stay on it every week,
45:22
right? If I see something that I think
45:24
they should be doing or they're doing wrong, we will talk about
45:27
it here on Mass Cast. You know, I'll tell you what I
45:29
think they're doing wrong or why they or they just did something
45:32
good. They need to keep doing more of
45:34
that, right? Yeah, I would say, I think
45:36
that's what you should like. You should do that that talk
45:38
about what they've done wrong. Well, that's also if they're
45:41
doing something right or you really we really like how
45:43
they're pushing this guy or they're telling a story like
45:45
man, do that. Everybody do more of that or try
45:48
to do more of that. You're right.
45:49
And they cultivated kind of heroes back in the day.
45:54
You had you have your and you know what you could have
45:57
different you need different heroes for different types of
45:59
people. Honestly, you got your working
46:01
class heroes, you got your, you know, a Jeff Gordon hero is a
46:06
different hero than Dale Earnhardt senior.
46:08
It's also part of the reason why they work so well against each
46:11
other in their marketing because they're completely everything
46:14
about him was so perfectly polar opposite from their brand
46:17
perspective. But yeah, you got to have these
46:21
here. I will say I'm watching the when
46:23
they announced that the The Chase was back, I watched that
46:25
press conference and I thought to me, and again, we got to see
46:29
it in action. I mean, you see it before you
46:31
truly believe it. But I will say watching that
46:33
whole thing and how they did it, the what, what was said, what
46:36
Steve O'Donnell said, the having Mark Martin there on on stage to
46:42
talk about it and be kind of really a, a face of this point
46:47
system change, both on social media and then to be at the
46:49
official event announcing it. I I, I like so much of what was
46:54
said there. Like I really like where I'll
46:56
start with just a couple things. So Steve O'Donnell saying we,
46:59
we've got work to do. We got to rebuild those
47:01
relationships in the garage, But more importantly, we got to re
47:04
engage our core fans. I thought that was, I'm like,
47:06
that's the right thing to say. Hopefully you follow that.
47:09
Chase Elliott said something at that press conference.
47:12
I, I liked. He said, you know, we got to
47:13
learn to enjoy what we have, which is something kind of
47:17
touched on what you said earlier, but really that that
47:20
build, rebuilding those relationships both in the garage
47:23
and with the core fans. I think that's that's those are
47:26
both so crucial to the health of the sport, the future of the
47:30
sport, building it up, rebuilding what was broken, but
47:34
also building upon what you have.
47:36
I think those are it's paramount that they that they do those
47:40
things. So we'll see.
47:42
I mean, we'll see. We'll see how they do.
47:44
Yeah, the first step, but I said, I said it from the very
47:47
beginning. I said the the first step.
47:49
If they don't do this first step and it's they can forget it.
47:51
But they they took the first step for whatever, whatever
47:55
however it came down, Phelps is no longer the commissioner of
47:58
NASCAR, right? That, that, you know, good guy,
48:02
bad guy. He meant it, didn't mean it.
48:04
Whatever he what he did, he alienated.
48:10
Yeah. You call Richard Childers for
48:12
redneck and all that stuff, right.
48:14
Well, Yale nated half your fan base because it wasn't the the
48:19
fans took it as you know. Yeah, he's talking about
48:23
Childers, but hell, he's talking about me, right?
48:25
I mean, I read it. We all read it on social media.
48:28
We know. We know what happened.
48:29
So it was it was such a bad deal, such a big deal that they
48:32
had no choice. Well, had no choice.
48:34
They could have kept him right or whatever.
48:37
But you know, to me, that was the first step of from NASCAR's,
48:42
from NASCAR's standpoint of riding this ship, getting that
48:46
rudder back in, you know, in the path it needs to be on.
48:49
We had to do that. And they did that.
48:51
That's the first step. The second sip.
48:53
What's the second step? They changed the points format,
48:55
right? Everybody's been bitching and
48:57
griping for so long. OK, they did that.
49:00
That's the second step they did. Now let's see how this the rest
49:03
of the steps go. And I, I, I truly think it's
49:05
going to go. I think it's going to go great.
49:08
I do too. I think, though, I think you're
49:09
exactly right. I think those are the moves they
49:11
had to make. Like you're saying, good guy,
49:13
bad guy is unfortunately for him, it, it doesn't really
49:17
matter. And look, I, I'll say I don't
49:20
want all my text messages with my buddies, Anything else out
49:23
there 'cause there's some things in there.
49:26
You just don't, you don't let you say amongst private people
49:29
that you don't want out there. I think that's if, if you're
49:32
telling me, if you show me somebody that says, well, no,
49:34
that's not true for me, then you're showing me somebody that
49:36
doesn't have a phone. So, but that being said, doesn't
49:41
matter. Doesn't matter.
49:42
It's out there. Once it's out there, it's out
49:43
there. And I, I'll admit, I I took
49:47
offense to some of that stuff, not a the children's stuff.
49:50
I took offense to the talking that like kind of hating on the
49:55
1996 version of NASCAR. I understand people would say,
49:59
well, he's talking about the TV deals and the media deals.
50:02
It wasn't consolidated. I get that.
50:04
That's a valid point. You're right that that's totally
50:06
understand. However, as somebody that was
50:10
there in 96, not I was just a 13 at that point, I was a 13 year
50:14
old son of a driver. So it's not like I was actually
50:16
contributing anything. I was just there.
50:19
I'm sitting there thinking back to when you go to a race in 96
50:23
and the people trying to sell you a parking spot in their
50:26
yards would start a few miles out and then you'd it's like
50:29
you're going into Woodstock every week.
50:31
And it was, it was, it wasn't an event.
50:34
It was the event within hundreds of miles of that thing.
50:37
I mean, it was like larger than life.
50:39
And and then you go in and there ain't there.
50:43
Not only is there ain't an empty seat everywhere ever, You're
50:45
going every time you show up, you show up twice a year.
50:48
It's like, damn, they built more grandstands like you're going to
50:51
Dover, DE. It's like they got 120,000
50:53
people here now twice a year, like, and I don't know that some
50:56
of that stuff is sustainable now, no matter it's because
50:58
there's so much has changed with our entertainment.
51:00
So I'm not, I'm not a person that's going, we need to have
51:03
120,000 people. Don't, I don't, I'm not that
51:05
guy. I understand I'm realistic about
51:07
this stuff, but I'm talking more about the feeling of going to an
51:10
event back then and what really that was the foundation for.
51:15
I mean, the guys that came before you built it.
51:18
I mean, that's right. Big Bill started this thing in
51:21
the late 40s with this group. There was moonshiners that were
51:23
building stuff before him and then he builds it and then the
51:26
next generation builds it. So all these guys, you're
51:28
standing on the shoulders of what the previous generation
51:31
built for you. And when you come in and crap on
51:34
what a previous generation did, I, you know, I took offense to
51:38
that. And again, I, I your son, I had
51:40
nothing to do with building the sport, but I took offense to it
51:43
because I'm sitting there going well, I was around in 96.
51:45
It was pretty good 96. It was a pretty damn fun time to
51:48
be a part of it and be around and the sport was pretty healthy
51:50
then media deals bad or not pretty good.
51:54
So it just this the the again, it's text that we're never meant
51:59
to see the light of day. But in your mind, your fan mind,
52:03
you're thinking, well, maybe these weren't supposed to come
52:06
out, but I'm getting perhaps a view into how these, this guy or
52:11
whoever really thinks about things.
52:14
And that in turn is how they think about me as a fan.
52:19
So why am I then going to take my Sunday to watch this product?
52:24
Why am I going to spend hundreds of dollars to bring me, my
52:29
family to a race and travel wherever to to watch a race?
52:33
Why am I going to go to that souvenir truck and buy, you
52:36
know, gear? Why am I going to do any of this
52:39
stuff if the purse people running the sport if that's
52:41
their opinion of me yeah, so you all this comes back to you got
52:46
to re engage that fan and you got to show him that and him her
52:51
that Hey, we're we're back. You know, we're back, we're
52:54
bringing we're back. We we want to we want to mend
52:56
this and then the point side of it.
53:00
I I'm I'm so happy they went back to the to a more closer to
53:05
traditional style point system. I mean, don't get me wrong, I
53:11
watched. When you had.
53:12
The win and in and the final four and I think you mostly have
53:16
pretty legitimate champions in there.
53:19
The problem is it just it comes down to everybody.
53:22
Every sport wants their Game 7 and their Game Seven moments.
53:25
You always want that. But what makes?
53:28
Game 7 special is they don't always happen and if you have it
53:32
set up to where the Game 7 always happens, well, then it's
53:34
not special anymore and it just isn't.
53:37
I think for the most part they avoided like a really like a a
53:42
champion where you're going, man.
53:44
That is just that just feels really not legitimate or not
53:49
deserving to me. I mean, don't get me wrong, I I
53:52
grew up in there with the with the full season points.
53:54
So now I will say, I would say the, the old style when you were
53:58
racing, I, I do think the one thing that system was lacking
54:02
was I think winds should have counted for a little bit more
54:05
than they did. That was one thing with that
54:06
system that the winds need to be weighted a little heavier.
54:11
So those, those are what I'm, I'm most excited about.
54:13
I'm most excited with you just to see how hopefully how they,
54:18
you know, reach out to those those core fans and prop up the
54:22
drivers and I'm excited for the I'm excited for this point
54:26
system. I I think it's going to be fun.
54:28
People have to understand again, this comes back to you can't
54:32
always have a Game 7. You could have a situation where
54:36
you get to the last race at Homestead and the guy ain't got
54:39
to do much, but start the race and run a couple laps and he's
54:42
got the point. So you know what, that's the way
54:44
it was back in the 90s and it was fine.
54:47
Earnhardt, you finished second Earnhardt at Rockingham in 94.
54:50
That was next to last race. Who clinched the championship
54:52
that day? I should have won that damn race
54:55
too. You should have won that race.
54:57
But anyhow, you. Should have, yeah, you should
54:59
have. You should have.
55:01
But you could have a 1992 situation where it's the
55:05
greatest point race ever. You could turn around a year or
55:08
two later and have it where some guy has got it wrapped up long
55:11
before it's over. And you know what?
55:13
Either way, it's OK because what do you have?
55:16
1992? You got the greatest point
55:17
system ever, Chase ever. Alan Quickie, the independent,
55:21
like car owner, driver wins it. He's in the Hall of Fame now
55:25
over Bill Elliott, Davy Allison, these guys.
55:28
But then you turn around, you have Dale Earnhardt senior
55:30
winning his 7th championship in 94 by running away with it.
55:35
And you know what? Both are great.
55:36
There's nothing wrong with either one of those.
55:38
The heroes. The heroes are shining through
55:40
in those. It's not a paid for TV Game 7
55:42
moment. The heroes were shining through
55:45
so. Agreed, agreed.
55:46
You're you're exactly right, Rick.
55:47
You've hit, you've hit all the points, man.
55:49
I mean, like I say, I don't really care either way.
55:51
Just just good deal at the end. You're right.
55:54
And but I, I want to back up 11 little segment.
55:58
We're talking about the, the, the NASCAR, the Phelps and all
56:01
that. The one thing it does does
56:03
bother me a little bit, you know, because his name is
56:06
France, Jim France. He catches all the heat, right.
56:09
And through the, through the court proceedings and all, and
56:13
everything that went on, you know, Jim was very steadfast and
56:17
not, you know, issuing permanent charters.
56:21
And the reasons he gave were valid.
56:23
And anyhow, he ended up, you know, he ended up making all
56:25
that work out. Jim, I wish every fan that,
56:29
that, that followed our sport could understand what I'm about
56:32
to say. Jim France, yeah, he's his
56:36
France. He's a France.
56:37
It's a France family. But Jim France is #1 the
56:41
greatest fan of racing that you'd ever want to meet.
56:46
He, he, he's, he's very quiet dude.
56:49
He, he always, he's always in the background with the family,
56:52
right? He let his daddy and let Bill
56:53
junior run the thing and do all that.
56:56
And then when Brian took it over, he had to do it.
56:58
And, and when, when Jim had to take it over, he had to take it
57:01
over, right? He was, he was the, you know, he
57:03
was the man at that point. And Jim, you'll hear stories
57:08
about Jim France. You'll, you'll find him at
57:11
Kingsport, TN little short track setting up in the in, in, in a
57:15
lawn chair in the grass right there drinking beer with other
57:20
fans around him, right. You'll find him.
57:23
But these other race tracks, sitting in the grandstands,
57:26
drinking a beer with a baseball cap on, just having a good time,
57:30
you know, having a ball, watching racing, that's what he
57:33
is. He, he, he's a he's a, he's a
57:37
true, true race fan that that has a family legacy that he has
57:42
to, you know, run right. And the thing of it is, I tell
57:47
people all the time, you know, he's the CEO of basically he
57:52
runs NASCAR, All right, You're the CEO of NASCAR, All right,
57:55
Say you're in your what is the what is the company?
57:59
I forget now the annual revenue. What is it?
58:01
What I forget a billion, 5 billion a year, whatever it is,
58:05
say this, say 5 billion is your gross revenue.
58:08
That little thingy keeps coming. I got to get a new thingy.
58:11
We'll get you a little. We'll get you a new thingy for
58:15
episode. 2 All right, but anyhow, or was I?
58:19
I forgot the trade of thought. You were the billion revenue of
58:23
the thing. All right, you've got a say.
58:26
You've got ACEO of a, a, a, a $6 billion company and they make
58:31
peanut butter. OK, That CE OS job is to run
58:36
that company and make peanut butter.
58:38
That's what he's got to do. Now think about what that
58:42
encompasses, which is a lot, right?
58:45
Think about ACEO, that's got to run NASCAR, a $6 billion
58:49
company, It's got to run NASCAR. All right?
58:51
What, what which one do you think would keep your plate
58:55
busier? Do you think the peanut butter
58:57
guy or the guy running NASCAR? That's a pretty easy answer,
59:00
right? But Jim, he's taking a lot of
59:05
heat, right? And, and rightfully so, because
59:07
it's the buck stops with him all right.
59:10
But truly, truly, truly, truly, truly is not what he wants.
59:14
He wants this sport to be great. He wants his drivers to be
59:18
great. He wants everybody to be great.
59:20
Yeah, I'm a little confused on the peanut butter thing.
59:23
So you're set. Like I'm just trying to
59:24
understand the point like like he's it's being NASCAR CEO is a
59:29
little more complicated than a lot of CEO jobs.
59:31
Is that what the? That's exactly what I'm trying
59:34
to say, OK. All right.
59:35
OK, that's exactly. You're not wrong.
59:36
You're not. Wrong.
59:37
I just want to make sure I understood.
59:38
Hey, I remember Mr. Bannell run US Tobacco and Skull brand
59:42
right. You know that stuff would sell
59:45
itself. Skull would sell itself.
59:46
You didn't have to have salesman.
59:48
You know the stuff with just the people that you would love it.
59:51
You just you just you just make it all work.
59:53
Make all the numbers work. All the people hired and HR
59:56
department happy. You know, you don't get sued and
59:59
all that like any CEO has to do. You look at the numbers once a
1:00:02
month from at the board meeting or at the board meeting.
1:00:04
You see everything is the way it's supposed to be right?
1:00:06
Make make make a decision or two Held NASCAR CE OS every day.
1:00:11
Every day. Today was something coming out
1:00:13
of left field right now I'm not that is what it is.
1:00:18
That's what they are. But my my point being probably
1:00:21
should have went down that road. But my point, my point being Jim
1:00:24
France is betrayed as something he's really not.
1:00:26
You know, Jim France is a good guy.
1:00:29
Jim France loves racing. He loves race fans.
1:00:32
He loves the culture of our sport.
1:00:34
He loves he loves the history of our sport, right.
1:00:36
He, he truly does, and I believe that.
1:00:40
I wish, yeah. But but the position he's in,
1:00:43
he's set up for to, to take criticism and he does it very
1:00:46
well. But just one of the fans though.
1:00:48
He's a good dude, man. Well, I'll I'll tell you talking
1:00:51
about the lawsuit. So for me, here's why I knew,
1:00:55
you know, we get to the lawsuit where it's in the news every day
1:00:59
and where I started sitting there going, man, this is, we
1:01:02
could really be in some serious trouble here.
1:01:05
Meaning I played out this every scenario in my head of either
1:01:11
side winning, winning the case. And I just thought, man, if
1:01:16
this, if they don't settle and one side prevails, I, I swear.
1:01:21
And I could have been wrong, but I, for me, I'm like, I if, if
1:01:25
they don't settle on this and one side wins in the end, I've
1:01:29
my fear was that everybody was going to lose because I just
1:01:32
kept playing it out. So, but here's when I knew it
1:01:35
was real. We were really, we were in a
1:01:37
pretty bad spot. So my one of my best friends in
1:01:41
the world, Will, called me one day.
1:01:42
Will is a big sports fan. He is not a NASCAR fan, doesn't
1:01:45
really know anything other about it other than his buddy Ricky's
1:01:48
dad Rick used to run it, knows a couple names he met, got Dale
1:01:53
Jarrett's autograph at a minor League Baseball game one time
1:01:57
but doesn't know about it. But he calls me and says, all
1:02:00
right, explain to me and baseball terms or other sport
1:02:05
terms what's happening with this lawsuit.
1:02:08
So basically what I'm getting out there was somebody doesn't
1:02:10
follow NASCAR and just he's not going to really he's not, we're
1:02:12
not ever going to get him as a NASCAR fan, I don't think.
1:02:15
But it was enough in his his or in his, it was coming into his
1:02:20
world enough that he he wanted to find out what's going on.
1:02:23
By the way, after I explained it to him, his analogy was that
1:02:25
NASCAR is basically like professional wrestling anyway.
1:02:29
So he calls me and we, I explain it to him.
1:02:32
I'm like somebody that I know is not a NASCAR fan, not going to
1:02:34
get in the NASCAR. But that's all he knows of
1:02:36
NASCAR right now is this big lawsuit between NASCAR and
1:02:39
Michael Jordan and and whatnot. So then my buddy CD calls me a
1:02:43
couple days after that. Now CD is a big NASCAR fan.
1:02:46
He's of my friends. He's probably the biggest NASCAR
1:02:48
fan I know. So we talked about, I sat there,
1:02:52
I was on my way, I was going to Home Depot to get Christmas
1:02:54
lights and I ended up, he called me when I got to the parking lot
1:02:57
and he and I end up sitting there.
1:02:58
I sat in the parking lot for an hour talking to him about this
1:03:01
at the Home Depot parking lot. So we're talking about the
1:03:03
lawsuit and I'm going now I'm telling him every hypothetical
1:03:06
scenario in my head and how I just don't see any of them
1:03:09
outside of settling being good. And so then thankfully when they
1:03:15
settled, like, OK, great, they settled.
1:03:18
I thought the the best thing, I mean, in addition to the
1:03:22
settlement, settlement itself, the best thing in the world was
1:03:25
Michael Jordan and Jim France standing side by side on those
1:03:29
steps, being respectful of each other, saying positive things
1:03:32
about each other. And I can't remember.
1:03:33
I don't have it in front of me. I feel like Michael even during
1:03:36
in during his testimony was I felt like pretty respectful.
1:03:39
He was very respectful. Yeah.
1:03:41
So which I thought was, which was really cool that it that it
1:03:43
that that's how that went. So at the end of the day, for
1:03:47
them to settle and then to put on a public front of like, OK,
1:03:51
it's time for us to work together now to build the sport
1:03:55
for everybody involved and for the for U.S. team, for NASCAR,
1:04:00
but most importantly for the fans, OK, That to me, that to me
1:04:04
was the absolute best outcome of that whole deal.
1:04:06
Regardless of what you can. I won't even get into all the
1:04:09
the charters and all that stuff. Just from a public perspective
1:04:14
and for the health of the future of the sport, that was the best
1:04:17
outcome of that that we could have possibly.
1:04:19
Had no doubt, no doubt. It wasn't going to work.
1:04:21
It wasn't going to work. If they, if they, if, if it had
1:04:23
come to jury and and whoever won one side or the other, the the
1:04:26
most telling statement, the best statement, I thought it'd come
1:04:29
out on those courtroom steps or court.
1:04:31
Yeah, courtroom steps. Jim France.
1:04:34
Thank goodness. Now we can go back to what we're
1:04:36
supposed to be doing. And that's the business of
1:04:38
running racing. Yeah.
1:04:40
That's right. Running racing, running NASCAR,
1:04:43
right? That's that's summed that up for
1:04:45
me. Sum the whole thing up.
1:04:47
I'm like, OK, And that's when I said, OK, Jim, let's see step
1:04:50
one and Step 2. So there you have it.
1:04:53
There you have it. Well, just a couple of quick
1:04:57
things before we wrap up our first, well, our kind of first.
1:05:00
This is the first, first episode of the new newly revived Mass
1:05:05
cast today as we're recording this.
1:05:08
This show will probably come out a couple days after we record
1:05:10
this on Kenny Wallace Media, but came out today.
1:05:14
I think Jordan Bianchi, the Athletic, I think that's who it
1:05:17
was put out there that the Charlotte playoff race is going
1:05:21
back. It's not going to be at the
1:05:22
Rowville. It's going to be back on the
1:05:24
Oval track, which is great news. I will admit.
1:05:27
I think when our first version of Max Mass cast way back in
1:05:29
2018 when the Rowville thing started, I was excited about it.
1:05:34
There was something new, different, kind of cool.
1:05:36
So I was into it in the first couple years I was into it.
1:05:39
But it it definitely for me personally, it wore off after a
1:05:42
couple of years. And now especially like last
1:05:44
year, after how good the 600 was last year, remember watching the
1:05:49
600 and I'm like, man, I sure would like to watch this again
1:05:52
come October or whenever the the playoff race was.
1:05:55
So good on them for going back to that.
1:06:00
So, I mean, I'm, I'm, I feel sure you've, we haven't talked
1:06:03
about it, but I feel sure you feel the same way.
1:06:05
Yeah, I mean, I didn't. I hated it when they did it.
1:06:08
I hated it while they're doing it and I still hate it.
1:06:10
I never liked it. Just, you know, that's me.
1:06:13
That's just me. One one fan of the sport that I
1:06:16
did not like. All right, I'll give it to you,
1:06:19
Ricky. First year.
1:06:20
All right, We'll try Second year at most.
1:06:22
Second time at most. Right after the second time, I'm
1:06:26
like, come on, guys, get rid of that crap, right?
1:06:30
You got to give them credit. You give NASCAR credit.
1:06:32
Last few years, all the stuff they've reached out and been
1:06:34
doing, right? I mean, the and the the Rogue
1:06:36
just goes kind of in line with all this other stuff they've
1:06:39
been doing. You know, going to Detroit, went
1:06:41
to Mexico, you're trying all these venues out, trying
1:06:44
different things. Or Chicago.
1:06:45
Yeah, Chicago trying all the different things out, right.
1:06:49
There's nothing wrong with that, but I just didn't like the robo
1:06:52
didn't like it when they did it didn't like it while they were
1:06:54
doing it. Still don't like it.
1:06:56
Tickled to death. We're not doing it anymore.
1:06:58
I mean, I you know, I don't know what else say about that.
1:07:00
You know I'm. Not I I like that they're
1:07:02
willing to try some new things. I think that's cool.
1:07:05
I actually like I'm actually really looking forward to the
1:07:08
the San Diego street race like out the Naval base America's 250
1:07:12
two 150th birthday. I'm like that's a presumably A1
1:07:16
off and I'm like that's a cool. That's a cool ass one off
1:07:19
America's 250th birthday. We're going to race on a naval
1:07:22
base. Like that's cool.
1:07:24
Like I got no. You know what else about that
1:07:26
Ricky, your sisters, your sisters, Katie and Sarah, one of
1:07:30
their dearest best friends is stationed there, a late a girl,
1:07:34
a girl and she shot. She flies friggin helicopters
1:07:37
down right and but she Jessica, she wanted to be make sure was
1:07:42
going. She wanted to always come out
1:07:43
for the race. She wanted the girls come out
1:07:45
for the race at the base, but she's not sure.
1:07:47
She might be deployed then. She's getting going to
1:07:49
deployment. Her first deployment right now,
1:07:51
actually. And.
1:07:53
But inhale, just a side note. Cool story.
1:07:55
Cool story. Yeah.
1:07:57
So I like what I want them to keep doing.
1:07:59
Kind of cool. One off stuff like that where it
1:08:01
makes sense. I'll, I'll me admit I felt like
1:08:04
I was in the minority back when they did it and it's gone now.
1:08:07
I know a lot of people were all excited about the Bristol dirt
1:08:10
race when it came back. I never liked it.
1:08:12
I was I watched it and it was, you know, it was interesting or
1:08:15
whatever, but I never liked it. I was so glad when they did away
1:08:19
with it. I I love dirt racing.
1:08:22
Natural Bridge Speedway is where my granddaddy, your dad and my
1:08:26
and your Uncle John owned the place.
1:08:28
That's where you grew up. That's where you started your
1:08:30
career. I love dirt racing.
1:08:32
It's awesome. I don't need to see cup cars on
1:08:35
a dirt track. I, I just, I want if they,
1:08:38
especially if they're at Bristol, just.
1:08:41
Race at Bristol I I don't need dirt or gimmicks there.
1:08:43
You know, I'm just throwing again, trying to, you know,
1:08:46
we're in the downslide then, Rick right, we were in the
1:08:49
Dashkar was going down and they were they were trying things.
1:08:53
They were throwing things against the wall.
1:08:55
Just let's try this, let's try that.
1:08:57
And for that you got to commit it for that, right, because
1:09:00
that's that's taking some pretty big chances.
1:09:01
But you know, some of it worked. Some of it did work.
1:09:04
Yeah, and and and Bristol. Yeah, I didn't like that like a
1:09:08
robo. I did not like it.
1:09:10
It was it was it was pretty cool the first race or two to watch
1:09:13
it like, okay, we're on dirt, but we could go to we could go
1:09:15
to Eldora and watch this right. You know, not at Bristol, but
1:09:20
but inhale and you got to give Marcus Smith and those guys
1:09:23
credit for being innovative to wanting to try stuff like that.
1:09:27
You know, you got to give Marcus credit for bringing the bringing
1:09:29
the race back instead of the Rover Charlotte, right?
1:09:32
So, you know, give credit where it's due.
1:09:34
But I think a lot of that stuff was just, you know, we were just
1:09:37
on such a downhill thing. We needed to try stuff.
1:09:40
And that's that's what that's what we did.
1:09:42
And I'm sure they learned a lot. They've learned a lot from all
1:09:44
the things they've done recently.
1:09:46
They have I think that's, I think that's the cool thing
1:09:48
where they've netted out with it now is now you're kind of
1:09:51
figuring out like, oh, we can do a San Diego race to coincide
1:09:55
with with the 250th anniversary of America.
1:09:57
You can do it. I think they're kind of figuring
1:09:59
out where this this these kind of things really work for them
1:10:02
and that they don't have to go as hard as terms of the quantity
1:10:06
like as like as many events in a single year.
1:10:09
Bowman Gray last year. I loved it.
1:10:12
I, I, I, I've loved it. I'm happy to see it coming back.
1:10:15
I'm I'm pumped about that. Yeah, I understand the graph.
1:10:19
You studded tires, you know. Do you know what a?
1:10:22
Studded tire is I do not well as we as we establish at the
1:10:26
beginning of this show, I am not a mechanically minded person.
1:10:29
I'm merely I like I like watching cars go around the
1:10:32
track. Aside from changing a flat tire,
1:10:36
changing my oil, I did change a battery once after after
1:10:41
watching how to do it on YouTube.
1:10:43
So no, I don't know what a sort of tire.
1:10:45
Is well back in the day you had in the days 50s, sixties, 70s,
1:10:51
you had regular tires you had, but really before the buy
1:10:54
supply, you had the tires you run all year.
1:10:57
Then you had mud tires, snow tires, they call them right.
1:11:01
You'd buy a set of snow tires. You come to the service station,
1:11:04
you know, right before winter time and you put, you'd have
1:11:07
these snow tires mounted on the rear of your car.
1:11:09
You'd run them all winter. Come spring time, you take, go
1:11:12
back to service station, take them off.
1:11:14
They put your other tires back on.
1:11:15
Now they've come up with a you. Then they come up with the all
1:11:18
weather tire, all season tires right along with these snow
1:11:21
tires. They used to put these little
1:11:22
metal studs in them, right? And they would protrude out just
1:11:26
a little bit to give you extra drip on, on ice and and it's
1:11:30
snow too. The reason I say that I, I came
1:11:32
across a, a set of those the other day in a old shop.
1:11:35
I walked through and I'm like, damn, I haven't seen any of
1:11:37
those things in 40 years. Studded tires.
1:11:40
So what I'm saying is we got cold, cold weather forecast for
1:11:45
North Wilkesboro, right? And maybe a little weather.
1:11:48
So instead of yeah, Bowman Gray. Yeah, man.
1:11:51
So instead of cancelling it, they just put some studded tires
1:11:53
on those race tires. Let's get after it.
1:11:56
Cool. OK, well, I'm here for it.
1:11:58
All good. I got no problem.
1:11:59
I enjoyed the Coliseum. Was an interesting experience.
1:12:03
Again, I commend them for trying that out in Lai.
1:12:07
Enjoyed. From a pure racing standpoint, I
1:12:09
enjoy Bowman Gray last year a lot more than I did Coliseum.
1:12:13
So I'm glad to see them coming back there.
1:12:16
And you know, I think with a lot of these things that they try,
1:12:19
like it feels just one, the novelty.
1:12:23
If the novelty feels like it's wearing off, OK, then it's
1:12:25
that's when it's time to to move on from it.
1:12:27
So after Bowman Gray last year, I'm like, cool, I'm ready.
1:12:30
Like bring it back here next year.
1:12:32
I'm all for it. No problem.
1:12:33
So all right, a couple other quick things before we before we
1:12:36
sign off on our first episode 1, Smoke is coming back to race a
1:12:42
truck at Daytona. So I think that's that's kind of
1:12:45
cool. There's some interesting things
1:12:46
that I. Think Travis Pastrana is going
1:12:48
to try to run a truck in that truck race at Daytona, but just
1:12:51
Smoke coming back to run a one off in the Truck Series.
1:12:54
That'll be that'll be fun to watch, won't it?
1:12:56
Yeah, it'd be cool. I mean, regardless, regardless
1:12:59
of the the circumstances. You know that I'm assuming
1:13:02
that's because of his relationship and his drag teams
1:13:05
with Chrysler, right? And then he's going to be
1:13:07
running one of the Dodge, one of the Rams right in the truck
1:13:11
race. So I think that was from what I
1:13:14
understood, that was kind of how that came about, you know, doing
1:13:17
it for for for Ram and Chrysler. So, but however it came about,
1:13:21
it's going to be cool, right? We got smoke back in a, a NASCAR
1:13:25
vehicle. That Daytona man, it doesn't get
1:13:26
any better than that. Yeah, even if it's like a even
1:13:29
it's a contractual thing. I would think the racer in him,
1:13:32
if you him like any racer, you put him in the in the car.
1:13:35
In this case the truck. They're they're there to win no
1:13:38
matter why. When he gets there to get
1:13:42
strapped in you, you forget that you forget any contractual
1:13:46
obligations or Chrysler or whatever.
1:13:48
He he don't give a damn at that point.
1:13:50
He's just going to try to win that race.
1:13:51
I guarantee you. Well, I, I did want to touch on
1:13:56
because the, the tragedy with Greg Biffle and his family and
1:14:00
the other passengers are like playing gosh, it was, oh, it
1:14:04
just, it, it tears your heart out.
1:14:05
I mean, we went in the 90s, you know, when we lost Alan and the
1:14:09
other folks in 93 and then Davey and, and another aviation crash
1:14:14
a couple months later. It's, it's, it's always awful.
1:14:17
But I did like, I, I did want to touch on losing Greg Biffle
1:14:22
because you and my sister Katie, your daughter Katie got to meet
1:14:26
him and his wife last, I guess two years ago.
1:14:29
I guess it was at alumni weekend and you know, y'all did not
1:14:33
y'all's careers didn't crossover much.
1:14:36
I actually look after he passed, I went on race and reference and
1:14:39
just looked it up because I was curious.
1:14:41
Like I knew it was like right around the same time he was on
1:14:44
his way in your way. And I was curious.
1:14:46
Did y'all ever actually run a race against each other?
1:14:49
And if I, if I'm, if I look this up properly, his first NASCAR
1:14:52
Cup race was in Fontana in April.
1:14:55
I believe it was of 2002. Think I'm right about that,
1:14:59
which happened to be one of your very last four.
1:15:01
You had to get out of the car because of the carbon monoxide
1:15:04
poisoning. So, you know, I actually did.
1:15:06
You shared, you shared you were in the One Cup race against each
1:15:09
other. But I remember you and Katie
1:15:13
went to the the alumni weekend a couple years ago, got to meet
1:15:15
Greg and his wife and remember Katie just talking about how
1:15:20
cool they were and how great they were.
1:15:21
And then I saw Greg after that, I guess it was on his YouTube
1:15:24
channel or somewhere on his socials.
1:15:26
He put out a video talking about how much fun he had at alumni
1:15:29
weekend. But they said the person he
1:15:31
enjoyed getting to meet and talk to the most was you.
1:15:33
And, and so I really after that, I started following Greg's
1:15:37
social medias a little closer. And he was so entertaining, so
1:15:40
funny. And then of course, he goes from
1:15:43
funny just to being a, a national hero really with the
1:15:46
work that he did and in in North Carolina and the in the
1:15:50
aftermath of of the hurricane of Hurricane Helene's.
1:15:53
Excuse me. And it was just it was just such
1:15:58
a sad thing. But I I thought I was glad at
1:16:00
least that you and Katie at least got to have a little bit
1:16:03
interaction with him and his wife and got to know the
1:16:06
wonderful people that they were. So just just just before we wrap
1:16:10
up, just some thoughts on the biff.
1:16:11
Yeah, he, we spent, we spent probably 30 minutes together in
1:16:18
the backroom. We're getting ready to do the
1:16:19
Darlington parade, right. And so it was me and him in a
1:16:22
room there together. And then Katie was with Greg's
1:16:27
wife in another room, right? Probably 30 minutes.
1:16:31
And I came away with a feeling damn kindred spirit, right?
1:16:38
I'm like, all right, you're one of the guys that if you were
1:16:42
here all through the late 80s, nineties, early 2000, if you're
1:16:46
here the whole time I was here, you're one of the guys that
1:16:49
would be like one of my my dudes, right?
1:16:53
You would be my butt. Yeah, you would be my butt.
1:16:56
You'd be like Kyle or, or Schrader Kenny, all those guys.
1:16:59
You'd be, you'd be one. You'd be one of the guys.
1:17:02
And he was, he's one of the guys just just like, damn, I wish I
1:17:06
could. I wish, I wish he's around when
1:17:08
I was racing with him because he was not only that, he's just
1:17:12
just he was a guy, right? That, that, that just fit for
1:17:17
the personalities that I love. OK, and the type of people, but
1:17:22
not only that getting to do was a hell of a race car driver,
1:17:24
right? Smart individual.
1:17:25
We talked about banking though. We got on the bank board one
1:17:28
time. We talked about that a little
1:17:29
bit because you, you know, my, my deal started the bank being
1:17:32
on the bank board for a decade. And we talked about chassis.
1:17:36
We talked about the, you know, setting the things down on the
1:17:39
on the bump stops and doing all that stuff and how the how the
1:17:42
the transition from where our chassis were to how when he got
1:17:45
going to where his chassis ended up in the things they were doing
1:17:48
to the cars that still do today. We talked about a lot of that
1:17:51
stuff. Talk about a lot of things, man,
1:17:53
racing, banking people, you know, and only 30 minutes, but
1:17:58
30 minutes that I look back and I really do cherish, you know,
1:18:00
because I'm thinking, because all again I thought, man, he's,
1:18:03
he's been dude, he's he's the guy to been he's he'd have been
1:18:06
my buddy, you know, And then when we come out, Katie's
1:18:09
telling me about that his wife had the same effect on Katie,
1:18:13
right? Just such a easy going, sweet,
1:18:18
outgoing personality, just talking and talking and talking
1:18:20
to her and Katie just like they hit it off, man, just talking
1:18:23
about everything. But then come to find out, it
1:18:25
seems like Greg's wife hit it off with everybody like that,
1:18:27
you know what I'm saying? And then then to lose them the
1:18:31
way we lost them, it's, you know, you always you, you that
1:18:35
stuff never gets easy, Ricky, you know, we can go back in my
1:18:37
racing career and, and someday maybe we'll do that.
1:18:40
We'll talk about, we'll talk about in my career, the guys
1:18:45
that we lost are during my tenure in, in NASCAR, right from
1:18:49
the first one all through the last one.
1:18:51
And they all stung. They all stung, man.
1:18:54
They all stung, I mean. From sadly, there were there
1:18:56
were. There were quite a few.
1:18:58
All stung. They all stung very hard.
1:19:01
Some of some of the guys is close.
1:19:02
With some of them, I wasn't right.
1:19:04
And Greg, Greg's deal, you know, I don't know.
1:19:10
You know, everything's been written and said about it and
1:19:13
he's done. You can say nothing you can do
1:19:15
just just a situation. Everybody's been saying be like
1:19:19
Biff, that's the best. Thing to be like, that's exactly
1:19:22
right, I will. Say, I thought it was cool the
1:19:24
the RFK cars are all running the Daytona.
1:19:27
The numbers are all going to be in the style of the of his 16,
1:19:31
like his 16 was for most of his career.
1:19:33
And same with college course they have #16 now they're going
1:19:36
to run that number style. So it's so sad.
1:19:40
But you know that they're going to honor him in some really cool
1:19:43
ways. And he's never, he and his
1:19:44
family and the folks on that plane are never going to be
1:19:46
forgotten. And you know, so, so and I'm
1:19:51
sure, you know, it'll be it'll be bittersweet, obviously it'll
1:19:55
be sad, but same time it's, it's you know, I think about how
1:20:01
daggone sad it was like in 93, losing now and losing Davey.
1:20:06
But like, like I think Rusty won that, that that race at Bristol
1:20:11
after Allen passed away a couple days prior, you know, flying
1:20:14
into Bristol. And if I'm not mistaken, I think
1:20:17
he, if I remember, pretty sure it was him that won the race,
1:20:22
when he won the race and he spun that car around to do the Polish
1:20:25
victory lap and and the honour of Allen.
1:20:28
I'll never forget listen to that crowd at Bristol, the roar of
1:20:31
that crowd. I was like, it was, it was sad
1:20:34
obviously, but daggone it, it was cool and it was like, this
1:20:37
is the right way to pay tribute and you know.
1:20:40
So, and, and here's the deal, Ricky, the people in that crowd
1:20:43
knew exactly, every person in that crowd knew exactly what was
1:20:47
going on at that moment, right? That goes back to what we're
1:20:51
talking about before, you know, making sure that our fans are
1:20:54
connected. We're connected right now
1:20:57
because I'm not sure today if something like that happened,
1:20:59
if, you know, maybe 5050% of the fans would understand what's
1:21:03
happening, right? Yeah, that's the connections I'm
1:21:05
talking about, guys. But that.
1:21:08
But that day, every single person in that grandstand knew
1:21:11
what that was about. It was.
1:21:12
So cool, I guarantee you every person that grandstand came in
1:21:16
that day, regardless of who won the race, they wanted whoever
1:21:20
won the race to to do that. They won your left.
1:21:25
And and The thing is to the drivers, like Rusty knew it and
1:21:29
did it. And I feel like I could be
1:21:31
wrong, but I feel like speaking for all you guys back then, I
1:21:33
regardless of who won, I bet you any y'all would have spun around
1:21:37
and and done that. And so you knew every fam wanted
1:21:41
that. And I'm telling you that roar in
1:21:43
that place when he did that, that's one of those things that
1:21:46
I remember the sad part that weekend, I mean, that Thursday
1:21:49
or Friday when we first got to the track, that's the saddest
1:21:51
day I've ever spent at a racetrack it.
1:21:53
Was. It was.
1:21:54
Man capped it off with that, that crowd coming to life at the
1:21:57
end of it. So hopefully we have some in
1:21:59
honor of Biff, of Biff and everybody else.
1:22:02
It will be. It will.
1:22:03
Be cool moments, but we're excited to be back on mass cast.
1:22:08
We're going to be here pretty much every week, God willing.
1:22:11
And the Creek don't rise. I think I said it.
1:22:13
Was. But we're looking forward to it.
1:22:16
We're on the we're on all the socials.
1:22:18
Rick Mast at Ricky Mast. I've got some some mass cast
1:22:23
handles that I'm secured. I hadn't actually put them out
1:22:26
there yet, but we'll we'll get that going.
1:22:28
We're excited to be with you and.
1:22:30
Yeah, Charlie's giving us the opportunity to do this on the
1:22:36
Kenny Badia, Kenny Wallace media platform along with Mark and
1:22:40
Matt. Mark and Matt's show, right.
1:22:43
And we're going to be we're going to be doing some cross
1:22:45
pollinating. Ricky, I've got a I'm now
1:22:47
officially the fill in for for the Mark show.
1:22:51
Mark Mark show whenever he don't want to be there and the fill in
1:22:55
what's amazingly enough, is next Monday.
1:22:58
Okay, already the official fill in on the Herman Schrader show
1:23:04
on dirty Moe for those guys and I think I've got a fill in for
1:23:08
Herman on the 13th already. So I'm like golly, guys.
1:23:12
So but anyhow this is. You got to make sure you save
1:23:15
some stories for mass cast. Well, yeah, I believe me, dude.
1:23:18
I've got plenty of. It's just like we sit down
1:23:20
there, you know, they called me about doing the what?
1:23:23
Kyle called me about doing the fireside chat.
1:23:26
Well, the that's where people call.
1:23:27
But anyhow, I was talking to the DASCAR lady and I said, well,
1:23:30
how long we're going to be up there?
1:23:31
So, well, we do 33 segments, you know, maybe you know, you have,
1:23:36
you know, 10 to 20 minutes. I said, Wendy, I said, I can
1:23:39
spend 10 to 20 minutes telling you how to bake a tomato
1:23:42
sandwich, dude. I said, good Lord, that's not
1:23:45
enough time, right? So like, you know, we've got,
1:23:49
and I, I told the people when I got rid of when I got done with
1:23:51
that story with Harry, and I said, man, if it's a producer
1:23:54
out here thinking about this, we could do a miniseries just on
1:23:58
Harry Gantt stories, right? Just on his stories.
1:24:01
And then I got to thinking, hell, we can do miniseries on so
1:24:04
many other people and so many stories we know about, right?
1:24:07
So anyhow, we'll be covering a lot of that stuff as time goes
1:24:09
over. Mass cast.
1:24:11
It'll be fun. We.
1:24:11
Will yes, we will. So the plan is that the Mark
1:24:14
Martin show be out on on Mondays, I believe it is.
1:24:17
And then Mass Castle be hitting your feeds and hitting the
1:24:20
YouTube on Kenny Wallace channel every Wednesday.
1:24:23
So I'm sure if if things as things happen, we'll adjust as
1:24:27
needed. No problem.
1:24:28
We'll try not to run Dad into the ground here with him hosting
1:24:32
or filling in on every show in addition to this show, but I'm
1:24:35
excited to be back and excited to have all y'all out there back
1:24:39
with us. So, well Dad, this is it, man.
1:24:42
I guess we're back. So I guess the same time next
1:24:45
week, same time, same channel. What is it?
1:24:47
Same bat time, same bat. Channel.
1:24:49
Same bat channel. That's right, Ricky, we'll see
1:24:53
you next week.