Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / The Power of Dale Earnhardt Jr. as North Wilkesboro is Back as a Points Race | Coffee With Kenny

Transcript

The Power of Dale Earnhardt Jr. as North Wilkesboro is Back as a Points Race | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:02
  Happy Wednesday morning, everybody.
• 0:06
  I got my hairs cut. They looking pretty good.
• 0:10
  They looking pretty good. Louie, the king is on his throne
• 0:15
  this morning. All is good.
• 0:18
  And another bonus, my hair is cut.
• 0:21
  Louie's on his throne. And I went outside and finally,
• 0:26
  finally, the death heat is gone. And it's even going to get
• 0:31
  better as the the week goes on. OK, Breaking news in the garage
• 0:38
  area. Now, listen, there's been a
• 0:41
  little bit of talk about it, but I'm like, well, I mean, OK.
• 0:46
  But, you know, did everybody kind of leak this news?
• 0:50
  And I guess they did this morning, 15 minutes ago.
• 0:55
  It's around 8:00. What is it?
• 0:57
  It's 8/22, so around 8:10 or whatever.
• 1:01
  I don't know when this happened, respond right here.
• 1:05
  But North Wilkesboro, they just put on their social media
• 1:10
  timeline a nice little video of Dale Earnhardt Junior saying
• 1:17
  it's not a secret anymore. Can you believe it that North
• 1:22
  Wilkesboro, NC will be on the NASCAR Cup schedule as a points
• 1:28
  race next year? Man, I got to tell you, I got
• 1:32
  goosebumps. I really do.
• 1:35
  I really do. I just got goosebumps all over
• 1:37
  me. Are you kidding me now?
• 1:41
  OK, North Wilkesboro, NC, we are going to be back there for
• 1:48
  NASCAR and points. Now I know I don't know the
• 1:51
  details. And here's the kicker, the same
• 1:55
  owner, my friend Marcus Smith, this these are the tracks we do
• 1:59
  all the trackside live. OK, so people say, Herman,
• 2:03
  when's your next trackside live? And I tell them it's going to be
• 2:06
  Bristol, you know, and we do them everywhere, but I do them
• 2:10
  all at Marcus Smith's track, which is Speedway Motorsports
• 2:15
  Incorporated, called SMI. So Marcus owns all these tracks.
• 2:19
  Well, he owns Dover. Follow the bouncing ball.
• 2:23
  SMI Marcus Smith. He owns North Wilkesboro, he
• 2:28
  owns Dover. They're going to they're going
• 2:30
  to flip flop. So the All Star race is going to
• 2:34
  go to Dover. Give it a chance, everybody give
• 2:38
  it a chance. I mean, that's got to be
• 2:40
  exciting for Dover. That's a good area up there.
• 2:45
  That's the track. Dover is the track that I hate
• 2:50
  it. And I told myself you will like
• 2:52
  this track, Kenny, you can will yourself in to like and race
• 2:56
  tracks. And at the end I enjoyed Dover.
• 3:00
  So congratulations to everybody up there around Philly.
• 3:05
  I guess what is that? Sambo's respond right here.
• 3:07
  You guys up there in Dover, you got the wonderful little
• 3:10
  restaurant on the water. I went there once.
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  I think it's called Sambo's. So, you know, we got the big
• 3:18
  Dover Air Force Base there. So the All Star race is moving
• 3:23
  to Dover. Now let's let's talk about the
• 3:29
  phenomenon. I want to paint this picture and
• 3:32
  it's it's an accurate picture. When I saw this, I thought, man,
• 3:36
  that this is unreal. Let me remind you all how
• 3:40
  powerful Dale Earnhardt Junior is.
• 3:42
  Now we know he's strong and we know Junior can get things done.
• 3:46
  But this is the first time I've watched Dale Junior get things
• 3:51
  done like right in front of our eyes, OK, years ago, I don't
• 3:56
  know how many years ago, 5-6 years ago, Dale Junior, you
• 4:00
  know, is really involved in this SIM race.
• 4:04
  And he's like, man, we got to get up to North Wilkesboro and
• 4:08
  we got to cut the grass and pull the weeds.
• 4:11
  So I racing can scan this facility, right?
• 4:15
  Right, so they go up there and a bunch of their buddies, it's a
• 4:19
  wet rainy day and they just start cutting the grass and
• 4:23
  pulling the weeds out of the cracks in the racetrack.
• 4:27
  I mean this, this racetrack is left for dead.
• 4:30
  N Willsboro is falling down and all of a sudden they get it on.
• 4:37
  I racing. They scan it.
• 4:39
  Once they started pulling the grass out of the the pavement,
• 4:43
  they're like, damn this self. Really.
• 4:47
  This racetrack really preserved itself kind of like a mummy, you
• 4:51
  know? But but this track in Wilkesboro
• 4:54
  was not wrapped up. All of a sudden it's like, hey,
• 4:59
  we're going to have a late model stock race here.
• 5:02
  And then the big news was they're going to put dirt on it
• 5:05
  and we're going to run a dirt race.
• 5:08
  Well, when the ball got rolling, it's like, uh oh, we're not
• 5:13
  going to put dirt on it because things are popping.
• 5:17
  So all of a sudden they start rebuilding this racetrack a
• 5:22
  little bit little. And this one's hard for me to
• 5:25
  say, but I'm going to say it. My prayers go out to everybody
• 5:35
  about COVID. Whoever lost a loved one, This
• 5:39
  is the only good thing I see that came out of COVID.
• 5:42
  Because of COVID, this racetrack got millions of dollars, maybe
• 5:49
  1720 million. Tell me how wrong I am.
• 5:52
  Respond right here. Google the article.
• 5:56
  But my dear friend Marcus Smith, SMI, they got millions of
• 5:59
  dollars and they're like hell, let's take this money and let's,
• 6:04
  let's rebuild the racetrack because now we got this money.
• 6:09
  That's the only thing good that came out of COVID.
• 6:12
  That was the weirdest time, one of the weirdest times in my
• 6:15
  life. It was like a Twilight zone.
• 6:17
  I remember going to the grocery store and telling my daughter,
• 6:20
  if you see a person turn the other way.
• 6:23
  I remember during COVID, we went to Schnucks grocery store, me
• 6:26
  and Brandy. We just was in the aisles and if
• 6:28
  you saw a person, so they take the money and they rebuild the
• 6:35
  racetrack. They take the COVID money and
• 6:38
  they rebuild the racetrack. That's nuts.
• 6:43
  Now they repave the racetrack, they rebuild everything, and
• 6:50
  this place is OK. I'll tell you what North
• 6:54
  Wilkesboro, NC is like now. Have you ever seen these new
• 6:58
  souvenir companies reprint throwback hats?
• 7:02
  Throwback shirts? That's what they did.
• 7:08
  They took an old racetrack and made it new again and they did
• 7:12
  it right. They got plenty grandstands
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  because they got those massive amount of grandstands down and
• 7:19
  turns 1:00 and 2:00, but they still got the old grandstands.
• 7:25
  And now when the schedule comes out, Dale Junior says, not just
• 7:30
  did it come full circle, but I'm going to be announcing the race.
• 7:36
  So Dale Earnhardt Junior, I guess, and whatever network that
• 7:40
  is, you know, he does a couple networks, prime, I guess.
• 7:45
  And one of the other ones, Dale Junior is going to be on the TV
• 7:50
  network for the points race at Wilkesboro.
• 7:57
  Let's put it simple, everybody. I think this is the start of
• 8:01
  NASCAR getting back to its roots.
• 8:05
  I just can't believe it. Full circle.
• 8:09
  Wilkesboro's back. We ran Rockingham last year.
• 8:14
  Is Rockingham next? Congratulations, Taylor on our
• 8:19
  junior. Marcus Smith.
• 8:21
  Brian Hammond. Hey, maybe trackside live.
• 8:25
  Be there. Have a great Wednesday,
• 8:28
  everybody.