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Transcript

Ben Rhodes Epic Drunken Press Conference · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  OK, I'll kick us off with this. I was the experiment in 2021
• 0:04
  because they just built the barn.
• 0:06
  I went to the barn first. They're taking me to the barn
• 0:10
  second. It's like they learned
• 0:12
  something. So guess what I did?
• 0:13
  I got lit beforehand. Jeffrey.
• 0:17
  Hello. That was such a a chaotic race
• 0:20
  and you know, I I'm sure to try to stay in it mentally.
• 0:23
  With all the stuff that was happening.
• 0:25
  I don't know if you know if you can stay with me right now.
• 0:28
  I'm with you, brother. OK, Like, you know, you get the
• 0:31
  damage. You know, you're, you're in
• 0:32
  position, all that stuff. Like how did you hang in there
• 0:35
  and and just be able to finish that race out?
• 0:39
  Well, Jeffrey, let me tell you what, man, was it 26 laps of
• 0:45
  overtime? It's something like that.
• 0:47
  I was getting frustrated. I'm not going to lie.
• 0:49
  I thought even if we won the championship, sorry.
• 0:53
  Oh my gosh, I am very sorry. That was embarrassing.
• 0:57
  Should have pulled the mic away. I'm telling you.
• 1:01
  Listen, it was like 26 laps overtime.
• 1:04
  I thought even if we want it, I would be so mad.
• 1:09
  I ain't mad. I just let that row right off
• 1:11
  the shoulders. Here I am.
• 1:14
  The question was, how did I feel?
• 1:15
  What was the question? Oh yeah, Mentally, yeah, I was
• 1:20
  pretty angry. You know what?
• 1:21
  I thought we were in like the real catbird seat position prior
• 1:26
  to the nose getting knocked off. You know we go to the wind
• 1:30
  tunnel, right? Like that's a thing.
• 1:32
  They go down from Ohio and that's the Jake break down the
• 1:37
  mountains and they land in the North Carolina area and then we
• 1:41
  go to the wind tunnel and they do the wind tunnel thing and we
• 1:45
  find a grip and then boom, I blow the nose off of it.
• 1:48
  Cuz the old 38 like doesn't hit the shifter and but I feel for
• 1:53
  him. I missed the shift probably
• 1:55
  three times the night. I couldn't get it in the 4th so
• 1:57
  I was like on the normal deal. I could get it in the 4th.
• 2:01
  When I say normal I mean at like normal speed I could do that but
• 2:06
  on the restarts I go first, second, third and I missed it
• 2:09
  like three times. So that was weird.
• 2:12
  So I felt for I couldn't be mad at him because I did it myself.
• 2:15
  I just didn't you know blow anybody's nose off.
• 2:16
  But I like Zayn. I love Tic Tac.
• 2:19
  They helped us a lot this weekend, so I feel really,
• 2:22
  really bad about the finishing position cuz that was like, you
• 2:26
  know, it was gonna be like a forward 1/2, I thought, and that
• 2:28
  was gonna be like really cool, really cool.
• 2:31
  Jordan, Bianca. The Athletic you are, Jordan.
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  I am. Grand in figure it's got damn
• 2:38
  when she pits. And you're basically the kind of
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  last man. Did he have damage?
• 2:41
  He had damage. I didn't know that he had news
• 2:43
  to me, brother. OK.
• 2:44
  Well, so I guess at that. So where did you Did you know
• 2:47
  where he was at then they did they tell you that they came out
• 2:49
  24th? And he told they told you that?
• 2:51
  Yeah, they did. And I was worried.
• 2:55
  And then you get damaged. I did.
• 2:56
  So kind of walk me through your process then of he's got fresh
• 2:59
  tires, he's coming up, The overtimes keep happening.
• 3:02
  Well, I had like 13 laps on my tires at that point.
• 3:04
  So I thought, OK, you know, like we got a lot of work to do,
• 3:09
  Mama. Jim, you don't have to like
• 3:11
  going on coming on up in here. And here's the thing.
• 3:13
  The track I thought had less grip this year than past.
• 3:17
  We were 3/10 slower in qualifying.
• 3:19
  The whole field was OK, number numbers, real numbers, 3/10
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  slower in qualifying, something like that.
• 3:26
  And then in the race, I'm just sliding all over the place and
• 3:29
  like either we suck or everybody's sliding.
• 3:32
  I think everybody was sliding. I don't think we sucked.
• 3:34
  And I'm like, he's going to have a lot of work to do.
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  I was following Corey Heim. I was following Grant through
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  the field. After that last, oh, it got loud
• 3:42
  after that last, what was that? We had a pit stop.
• 3:46
  We had a pit stop. We put tires on it.
• 3:48
  We cycled to the back. So I'm driving up through the
• 3:50
  field. I'm following them.
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  I'm like, wow, this is really hard.
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  Usually fresh tires. I remember back to 2020, Sheldon
• 3:56
  Creek has fresh tires on. He went to the inside wall and
• 3:58
  one and two and he like won the whole race.
• 4:00
  It's like, wow, we can't do that this year.
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  That's weird. So, so he's got work cut out for
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  him. Sorry Grant.
• 4:08
  And I was like, we're going to do good here.
• 4:10
  Lo and behold, got nose knocked all around and the guys are
• 4:14
  like, hey, your tires not rubbing.
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  I'm like, well that's cool because the wheels like, over
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  here and it was like over here. So something's going on, you
• 4:22
  know, toes knocked out. And then so I I was like, Are
• 4:25
  you sure the tires not rubbing? Are you sure the tires not
• 4:30
  rubbing? Yeah.
• 4:31
  And I said no, you're lying. Did he say he was lying to me?
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  It was rubbing. I knew it.
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  I loosened my belts up and I went.
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  I was like, looking over the dash.
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  I was looking over everything. I thought it was good.
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  I saw it was caved up. I didn't see it was caved in.
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  Dang it. That's rich.
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  I knew hit. I knew him.
• 4:51
  We'd done this three Times Now. I knew he was telling A-fib a
• 4:54
  big fibber. Hey, by the way, everybody.
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  Dinosaurs aren't real. What's the drink count at
• 5:01
  tonight and what are you drinking?
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  Well, I started on my champagne and then I ran out.
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  So then I had to fill up my shoe twice, so I had to borrow a rich
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  champagne. So I filled that up.
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  They they drank it, and then I drank the rest of the bottle.
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  Those were big bottles, actually.
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  That's like a liter and a half, you know, like a real liter and
• 5:23
  a half. It's European.
• 5:27
  Yeah, I had most of that. And then I got this this drink
• 5:30
  right here, Bud do. You have any questions in the
• 5:35
  press box? Yes, hello hello, I'm with this.
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  Sky disembodied voice that you're hearing.
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  It's amazing. I saw you at the steakhouse last
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  night with your team. Did you really come up and and
• 5:49
  give you a fist pump? I want to know is do you do you
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  have any kind of like habits that like that pre race stuff
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  because. It seems like now you're going
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  to have to be going to a steakhouse a lot.
• 6:00
  Yeah, I do love some steak. I got this gentleman, Justin
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  Lofton. As you guys may know, he owns
• 6:06
  this company called All Beef. AH, beef.com.
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  He's been sending me beef before every race, so I have like, a
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  steak before every race, even if we're not going to T-bone
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  Steakhouse. So yeah, what's the thing, beef
• 6:20
  for dinner? Something like that.
• 6:22
  Yeah, it's great. I love some cows.
• 6:26
  Thanks, pal. Hey, thanks man.
• 6:29
  We'll go to the Jonathan over here and then.
• 6:38
  Bob, sorry, sorry, sorry. Let's take a look like there,
• 6:40
  Jonathan. Jonathan, you have to raise an
• 6:42
  expert right over here. Oh, oh, there you are.
• 6:44
  I thought we was talking up to the voice.
• 6:46
  Oh, no. OK, so I'm just kidding.
• 6:51
  Besides just chain, I like flavor Flav.
• 6:55
  I like it. I like it too.
• 6:59
  So. So besides the Shoei bets, what
• 7:04
  do you think makes you and Rich Lucius just tick, I think
• 7:09
  tenacity. He Oh yeah, he's got a beautiful
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  mind. Isn't that a movie?
• 7:16
  Beautiful Mind. Is that a movie?
• 7:19
  Is that with John Travolta? Oh, sorry, I never watched it.
• 7:22
  I'm thinking to the one with John Travolta where he like to
• 7:24
  make move things move with his hands, phenomenon that has
• 7:30
  nothing to do with right now. The question was, why do I like
• 7:33
  Rich Lucius? Oh, I like Rich Lucius because
• 7:35
  he just stays calm, cool, collected.
• 7:37
  He makes some crazy pit strategies.
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  And I hate him for it in the moment because I got to like
• 7:41
  drive my butt off. Then by the end of the day it's
• 7:44
  like a net game. So I'm like, all right, I kind
• 7:45
  of love you. So yeah, he makes his Tracy pick
• 7:48
  calls. It's good.
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  He makes trucks that are comfortable.
• 7:54
  I'm sorry that I can charge the corner with.
• 7:57
  That's a good thing. So we start, I have tried to
• 8:02
  drive looser and looser race trucks and just get more and
• 8:06
  more out of the race truck here as recently.
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  And it seems like the more we get out of them, the faster we
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  go. The whole field is going faster.
• 8:15
  The whole field is going faster. And you know, like a couple
• 8:18
  years ago, nobody would do some of the stuff they're doing now
• 8:21
  setup wise, and they're doing it.
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  So anyways, we've all kind of migrated this loose as fast way
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  of thinking. He's been doing that, I've been
• 8:29
  doing that, and he still tries to make it comfortable.
• 8:32
  And the thing about Richie's not afraid to make a call beginning
• 8:35
  the race. We have the spring rubber in the
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  right rear. I didn't like it.
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  I threw it in there after practice because I thought it'd
• 8:41
  be good. Shame on him for listening to me
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  because I don't know any better. Here we are, Richard, take that
• 8:47
  spring record back out. I was wrong.
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  And then we go from like, I don't know what 3rd to like
• 8:53
  12th. Yeah, I'm not going to live that
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  down. He's going to be mad about that
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  for a while. So don't ask me about set up
• 8:59
  advice because I don't know nothing.
• 9:02
  And just curious. Y'all doing karaoke downtown,
• 9:05
  Something like that. I'm over by the Top Golf in
• 9:07
  Glendale, so y'all welcome. Just come on.
• 9:10
  Did I say that again? I'm sorry, Lane, you just said,
• 9:12
  jeez, was I not supposed to tell everybody where I'm staying?
• 9:15
  OK, I'm sorry. That's where I'm staying, Bob.
• 9:22
  Bob Parkers, Fox Four. Hey, Bob.
• 9:23
  Hey, Robert. I have.
• 9:26
  I have two questions for you. The the 1st is your hair.
• 9:30
  Wait a second, your hair is wild tonight.
• 9:32
  Yeah. Was you worried I wasn't going
• 9:34
  to win? No, it's just been a long day.
• 9:38
  I'm curious when. When you're trying to like map
• 9:42
  out this race, like, I assume there's no way you can map it
• 9:45
  out this way. But like did you could you
• 9:48
  envision like you host of our making a mistake And then Heim
• 9:52
  you know and him getting back together which then kind of put
• 9:55
  you back in position. You know old, old Richard and
• 9:59
  his infinite wisdom at 50 billion years old with his Gray
• 10:03
  hair that's flaming and just straight up the roof with his
• 10:07
  Guy Fieri haircut said hey was he in here OK.
• 10:12
  He would be yelling at me right now.
• 10:14
  He said that he thought those guys were going to race really
• 10:17
  hard to make mistakes. And I said, look I don't see it
• 10:19
  Richard. I see these guys racing the way
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  they done all year long. They just going to go out there
• 10:25
  and do what they done. Corey Himes been super
• 10:27
  consistent and he was right. They raced super hard.
• 10:30
  They wrecked. And you know, it's funny.
• 10:32
  Christian necklace came up to me before the race and say, hey, he
• 10:35
  looking good, man. Those other guys, they they just
• 10:37
  shaking. They're scared.
• 10:39
  You're shaking. I said, well, that's cool.
• 10:41
  I don't know what really think about that, but it feels normal.
• 10:44
  Like we've been doing this like three years in a row now.
• 10:46
  It feels normal. I'm glad we're here, but I
• 10:49
  didn't really think nothing of it.
• 10:50
  I just thought we got to run our own race.
• 10:52
  The thing that was disturbing to me was running second to Corey
• 10:56
  and he's driving away at the start of the race.
• 10:58
  I knew there'd be late race cautions.
• 11:00
  I just didn't know there'd be like a billion of them.
• 11:02
  Is that right? Is that the right number?
• 11:04
  A billion? I ran.
• 11:06
  I ran. I have hands and fingers and
• 11:08
  toes, yeah. And then what does this, what
• 11:11
  does 2 championships mean as far as you feel about like you're
• 11:15
  either your legacy or how you look at your career?
• 11:20
  I ain't got that far yet, Bob. I'm just trying to go win races.
• 11:26
  I don't know, Maybe I was going to say calm the audience that
• 11:30
  can speak more eloquently than me, but I don't have a good
• 11:33
  answer for that yet. I'm just excited to be racing
• 11:36
  the Truck Series. I love the Truck Series.
• 11:37
  It's fast, it's crazy. The races are short.
• 11:40
  We got young guys that are full of exuberance and they do crazy
• 11:46
  things. And then you got like guys like,
• 11:49
  well, I guess me and Grand and Finger and Matt Crafton and
• 11:53
  well, Johnny's not here, but I feel like Johnny Sautter's here
• 11:56
  in spirit. I like Johnny.
• 11:57
  Remember when he called me a bozo?
• 11:59
  I called him last week. I was like, hey, remember going
• 12:01
  to call me a bozo? And he's like, is this my yearly
• 12:06
  Ben Rhodes call? I said yes, it is.
• 12:07
  What you doing on retirement, old man?
• 12:10
  He's having a good life. I like Johnny.
• 12:12
  That's another tangent. I'm back.
• 12:16
  We got. We'll go to Jerry now.
• 12:22
  Jerry Jordan kicking theterrace.net.
• 12:24
  That guy has good hair. You're he does look at it.
• 12:31
  You're going to be the reason they put non alcoholic champagne
• 12:33
  in Victory Lane. It's very true.
• 12:36
  But I'll Hey, Will, what's the saying?
• 12:39
  We'll we'll find a way. Man, yesterday you were talking
• 12:45
  about how you know your career was was salvage by by Duke and
• 12:50
  and giving you the the ride and how grateful you are for a
• 12:53
  personal aspect. Alcohol aside, you know what is
• 12:58
  this? I mean, looking at where you
• 13:00
  were, where you are now. And how will you carry this
• 13:02
  forward as far as you know your memories and in your career?
• 13:06
  Are you trying to make me cry? If it works, oh boy.
• 13:09
  The question was something about the career being here and.
• 13:15
  Saving your career and Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no.
• 13:19
  So here's the story 20/18/2018. I'm like done.
• 13:23
  I'm like, hey Duke, I'm out. We're not.
• 13:26
  We ain't got no sponsorship so you know like what's going on
• 13:32
  hey bye bye. So I told everybody bye bye and
• 13:37
  then they called me a couple weeks later say, hey we'll find
• 13:39
  a way. We got it.
• 13:39
  He said. I think the quote was Penn's got
• 13:41
  it. Race Duke's been like a real
• 13:44
  Duke. So I said this at the hey Mr.
• 13:47
  Ford. I said it the Ford fan
• 13:49
  experience earlier I said Duke's been like a father figure to me
• 13:52
  in a lot of ways. They said when are you going to
• 13:53
  go to cup? I said, well look, I'm having a
• 13:56
  lot of fun in the Truck Series with Thor Sport right now.
• 13:58
  They've done so much for me. They gave me my big break, they
• 14:01
  gave me my opportunity. We've won well now 2
• 14:03
  championships together, 2 owners championships, and what I love
• 14:07
  most about door sport racing is the culture.
• 14:10
  I go up there and Duke teaches me things about other than
• 14:13
  racing. We have dinner every night and
• 14:15
  it's everything not to do with racing.
• 14:18
  And it's usually like business experience.
• 14:20
  It's just life and it's stuff from his age and all of his life
• 14:25
  experience that he teaches us and just having fun too.
• 14:28
  So I that's invaluable to me. I love it and change it for
• 14:32
  nothing. So I'm I'm loving we're Matt and
• 14:35
  Truck Series. I love everything about the team
• 14:37
  and we got Richard Luces so that's cool that answer your
• 14:42
  question you look pon you look pensive.
• 14:45
  I'm. Curious how this?
• 14:48
  I'm curious how you'll reflect on this, you know?
• 14:51
  As far as you know, it's it's quite an accomplishment as as
• 14:54
  Allison pointed out when she was up here, Thor Sport has won five
• 14:57
  of the past, you know, 10 championships in the Truck
• 14:59
  Series and that's cool. And you're two of those and
• 15:03
  Matt's three, so you're you're coming up on being able to to
• 15:06
  tie Matt. So this is at some point this is
• 15:09
  going to sink in that this is really a momentous occasion.
• 15:12
  Well, hasn't sunk in yet. You give me a couple days,
• 15:15
  member Gemma, we're going to figure it out.
• 15:17
  But right now, you know, I got my champagne goggles, I got my
• 15:21
  hat and my chain and we're just having a great old, grand old
• 15:24
  time. We're going to go out to the
• 15:25
  barn here soon. I'm going to see all kinds of
• 15:27
  racing. I gave my towel away.
• 15:29
  You know, usually I have my wings towel and have that some
• 15:33
  people's was out there. I gave out all my hats and I
• 15:36
  said somebody said can I have your towel?
• 15:37
  I said abso freaking lutely have my towel Sir, he has got my
• 15:40
  towel. He's going to watch this be like
• 15:42
  he's got my towel. OK, Ben, you have said a lot, a
• 15:47
  lot with nothing of substance, just.
• 15:52
  Something So congratulations on this championship.
• 15:55
  We'll let you get to the barn, all right.
• 15:58
  Celebration. Make amends.
• 16:00
  Enjoy the Offseason. Top Golf.
• 16:02
  Thanks guys. Love it.
• 16:04
  You're still my close group of friends.
• 16:06
  I just want you all know that years later.