Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / The Kenny Conversation - Episode #18 - Rusty Wallace

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The Kenny Conversation - Episode #18 - Rusty Wallace · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
Well, I've been holding out for a while because I guess I wanted
0:04
to prove that Charlie Marlow and myself could could do this on
0:08
our own. And I've always wanted to
0:12
interview my Big Brother, Rusty Wallace.
0:15
And here he is, brother. Thank you for being on Kenny
0:18
conversation. You're welcome, buddy.
0:21
No problem. Yes, it's a pretty big day for
0:24
me and I appreciate you taking time to do that.
0:28
So Kenny conversation is just that brother we we call
0:31
audibles, we go any which way and so starting out where where
0:37
are you at right now? Well, right now I'm down here in
0:41
Florida. I'm down here in the Daytona
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Beach area. I came here for the race last
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week and broadcasted the race on Saturday night.
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And so Patty and I decided to stay down here for some little
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longer time. And so I'm here right now, just
0:55
enjoying it. Yeah.
0:56
And and I've been there. Now there.
0:58
There's a lot of things I already know but a lot of people
1:02
don't know. And one of the number one
1:04
questions I get asked anywhere I go in America.
1:08
What's your Big Brother? Rusty Wallace do.
1:10
But before we start, you taught me something years ago, Then
1:15
I'll never forget it. And I use it to this day.
1:19
And people always have fun with it.
1:21
You taught me it. It's sad to say, but we have to
1:25
remind people. So I'm going to remind everybody
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before we before we start, Rusty Wallace, 1984 NASCAR Cup Rookie
1:36
of the Year, NASCAR Hall of Famer, International Motorsports
1:42
Hall of Famer Motorsports Hall of Famer, National Motorsports
1:47
Press, Hall of Famer. Brother, you're an every damn
1:49
hall. You a Hall of Famer.
1:51
That's all there is to that and. That's kind of that's I'm
1:55
appreciative to that 7 Hall of Fames And so that that's a good
1:59
feeling. Yeah.
2:00
And I know I haven't named them all off up here in Missouri.
2:03
You're in a lot of Hall of Fames here, but just a little bit more
2:07
1983 ASA champion, 1989 Cup champion.
2:13
That's the big 1/19/89 cup champion.
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You and Earnhardt went at it, 1991 IROC champion, 55 cup wins.
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You you've truly done it all. What what do you think about
2:32
that? I mean, I know life can be a
2:34
blur. Well, what do you think about
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that when I say that I? Just it makes me feel incredibly
2:41
humble, I. You know, as you're a young
2:44
racer coming up like I was, it took a lot of people to help me
2:48
get here, that's for sure. And I can name all everybody and
2:51
you know them all, But I mean it.
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I was so focused when I was driving.
2:57
It was incredible. And so you had to be to compose
2:59
all those goals I was able to accomplish.
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And So what do I think about it? I think about it.
3:05
It brings back all kind of memories about all the different
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tracks I've been on and the different paths I've took in my
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life. And they have different
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opportunities that came up. And which put me where I am
3:15
right now. So if I wouldn't have done those
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things, I wouldn't be able to achieve the goals I got right
3:22
now and the things that I've have right now.
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So I hope I answered that question.
3:27
I don't know if I did in full, but you know, I'll never forget
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when I got put in the Hall of Fame, the NASCAR Hall of Fame
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and I call said and done and I was leaving the place and they
3:39
were having us go out the back door and Ned Jarrett.
3:43
Dale Jarrett's probably got to hold him because he got put in,
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I think the year before he said, man, your life's going to
3:48
change. I said why is that?
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He said. You've been, you've been a
3:50
competitor your whole life and everybody wants to teach you and
3:53
they want to do this and they want to do that.
3:54
And there's there's some fans are like you, some but don't
3:57
like it. But when you get put in the Hall
3:58
of Fame, it's a whole different deal.
4:00
They're going to start calling you Sir.
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Instead of rusty or jerk or punk or whatever, you know they're
4:08
going to respect you more. And so you know, that's what the
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people have done to me. I mean, once I got put in that
4:13
Hall of Fame, my life slowed down a little bit more, got some
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really nice respect out of people.
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And I think when you talk to the rest of the Hall of Famers, I'll
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tell you exactly what I just told you.
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It's a whole life changing experience, a different feeling
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that sometimes hard to explain. Yeah, I'm going to interview
4:31
you, but there's no doubt that I know you as good as anybody.
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You've been married to Patty. You've been with Patty, your
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wife, your whole life. She's the love of my life too.
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And you know, Steven and Katie and Greg.
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So when I grew up with you, I felt that you were more focused
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than anybody I've ever been around.
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You know, I'm 60 now. You're 67.
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When I look back there were there were times we would leave
5:01
the race shop at midnight and we'd be driving home and and I'd
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start talking to you and you didn't hear me and I said Rusty
5:12
and it's just me and you. I've always felt that you have
5:15
preached focus to me and I I think you're laser focused and
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and you you've been upset with me or other drivers for not
5:24
really getting into their chassis and and I feel like one
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of the reasons you're so good is your laser focused and you're
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into your race cars. Well, you're you if that's what
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you think, you're right. Because I had to be so focused
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as on Bill not remember and might the height of my career.
5:48
I mean there was no instrumentation.
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There was no simulation. There was none of that stuff
5:53
that's out there today. Not not to say that a driver's
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any. Least or any worse off or better
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off when it comes to all that technology.
6:03
But back then, I mean, I I grew up in the short tracks where,
6:06
hey, you had to learn how to Weld, You had to build your own
6:08
engines, You had to paint your car, You had to be able to load
6:10
the thing up, haul it across the country, You had to race.
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And every time the car wasn't handling right.
6:16
You're the guy that you have to be able to give that information
6:19
to your crew guys to hey, man, this thing's not handling
6:21
quickly. Here's what I do.
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I've always was the type of driver that man to.
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Going through those extra steps was really tough for me to have
6:28
to explain everything to somebody, but I felt like I knew
6:31
what was wrong. I'd say just do that.
6:33
Change the spring, change headshot, do whatever I called
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it. You really had to be under the
6:39
hood and write down in the carburetor man.
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You had to know what was going on with that car if you're going
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to be able to control your own destiny.
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You know, if you want to be a consistent winner and run up
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front all the time, you better know what the Hell's going on
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under the hood of that car and what makes it perform.
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Because let's face it, if you got a car that's going to handle
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real well and run real well and be upfront leading races, that's
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the type of stuff that's going to make you famous.
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That's what's going to get you where you want to be.
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You got to know it. I was never the guy that had to
7:08
put my whole entire career on somebody else's hands when it
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comes to that type of stuff now. Let's talk about the business
7:16
stuff that comes with that. So once you're a racer, your
7:19
success, when you're doing all that, then you better start
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surrounding yourself with some pretty, pretty smart people if
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you think you're going to get better and better.
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But you know, I was always focused.
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I had so many people come up to me and say, man, why aren't you
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smiling? I said I thought it was smiling.
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I said no, you're not smiling. I said OK.
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I said it's because I'm just focused right now.
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My mind is on something and then it would keep.
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On me, you know, and I say, you know what?
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I got this unique ability of this.
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What's that? I got this unique ability to
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filter out bullshit. And that's what I'm getting out
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of you right now. So I would tell them crap like
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that. You know, I said don't tell me
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what I'm doing wrong or not. I just, this is the way I roll,
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man. I got to, I got to be focused
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and I got to do it the way I'm doing it to understand it.
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And I think I, you know, we all have mentors that help you
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understand and think different ways.
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Don Miller. Was one of the guys that helped
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me get started when I was back in Missouri.
8:14
My business stuff, Dick Pacer, was always there to help me
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guide me all through that type of stuff.
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You know, obviously Roger Penske taught me so much about, you
8:24
know, life on and off the racetrack.
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Where did you get those people in detail?
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Stuff like that, you know, So it really you had to have a lot of
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people. There was a quote by Felix
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Sabatus. He said something about you and
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it and it made me look because there was a little truth to it.
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And you know, mind you, there's been a lot said about you, but I
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I thought this one was funny, but I want to, I want your take
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on it, he said when you were, you know, in the Cup Series.
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He said a monkey could be Rusty Wallace's crew chief and Rusty
9:00
would still win because everybody knew how good you were
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at making your race car go fast. What what are what is your
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thoughts? I mean, did did you need a great
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crew chief or what do what do you think of Felix saying that?
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Well, that's this humbling. An awful nice to come out of
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Feelless because he's a great buddy of mine and I just love
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him to death. He's always treated me really
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well, but I think what he's probably referring to is how
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into the car was and everybody always thought out.
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He just commanded the chassis of the car, which I kind of did.
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But man, there's no way to get it done.
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Unless you have really good people, I mean.
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Oh, I can't. No, I can't do that all by
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myself. There's no I in a team.
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I tell people that all the time. I maybe I was more aggressive
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and more involved than most drivers he's ever had.
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RRCI mean, I had great guys like Robin Pemberton, I had Buddy
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Parrot, I had Todd Parrott, You know, I had Barry Dotson.
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I had all those guys that were a plus guys.
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That helped me get to where I was and there's no way in the
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world I could say it was me. And I know what Felix is saying
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there cuz it feels like I'm dominating all the conversations
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and I want this and I want that. I think that's reason he said
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all that. Yeah.
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I ask all these questions because as I race around all
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these dirt tracks throughout America.
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I have these mom and dads come up to me all the time Rusty and
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the and the say man my my kids won 14 championships he's 10
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years old. How do I make it to NASCAR?
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And it it's hard to tell people you know what they need to do
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because when when I rode with you and I rode on your coattails
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and I was with you in that truck and trailer we just did what you
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told us to do. And and man we were in Victor
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Lane all the damn time now as we move forward and and you you did
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you did get aggravated for a while because there were drivers
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coming into the sport like Jeff Gordon or Ricky Rudd they really
11:10
didn't even know their race car. What do you think about that
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when drivers don't know their car and they run good?
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Oh man, I I don't want everybody to be like me.
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This was the only way. This was the only way I knew how
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to do it. So I had to do it my own way,
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you know? And and I've had conversations
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with Gordon a couple times when we got heated, Are we ready for
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the track? And a couple times after I quit
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driving the car in 05, I was broadcasting for ESPN and I was
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with watching him struggle at Michigan and I went down there
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and he was testy. Because he was frustrated and
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this and that. And I said, you need to pay some
11:52
more attention to that car. And he spun around.
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He said, well, if you would have let the crew do it on your half,
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you'd have probably won more races.
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You focus too much. I'm like, oh, OK, not really
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going to debate that. And I just went down to tell him
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that, you know, he was kind of acting like he was giving up on
12:07
himself because he was kind of lost at that day in Michigan.
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And I wanted him to pay more attention, you know, And instead
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he flipped it on me, which is OK, but.
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I tell you that, hey, there's great race drivers out there.
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I mean, you had did that guy right there.
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And you talking about Jeff Gordon, I mean Tom Stewart,
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there's a guy that is involved in this car more than people
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think. You know who else can I throw in
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there? You know, you mentioned Ricky.
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Ricky Rudd was a hell of the driver.
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He can really manhandle and carry a car.
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I mean great Rd. racer, great short track racer.
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Maybe he didn't see him working on a car, but there's one thing
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I respected about those type of guys they could flat drive, you
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know, I got problems that with people that don't understand the
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car and aren't too good at drivers, but they're in a top
12:58
position. I said there's so much more room
13:00
for more talented people than that that the way that's
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happening. So I don't.
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I don't go no farther than that. Except that.
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You know, I, I just if you're going to be, man, if you're
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going to be a professional driver, be all in, you know,
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just be all in. That's all I'm asking, right?
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So I I think I laid the groundwork.
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The reason Rusty Wallace was so good from my viewpoint, and I
13:23
wanted to hear yours, is that you knew how to make your race
13:27
car go good. When when people talk to me
13:29
about you, I say Rusty is a gadgeteer he'll he'll figure
13:33
things out. If we had things broke around
13:35
the house Rusty was the one that was going to fix it.
13:38
So let let's move forward now but in that same conversation.
13:43
So here we are now you're 2023. I had to take a look.
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Yep we're we're in 2023 brother and and now we're plugging
13:56
computers into the motors to tune them.
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Now we have cars that you know simulate some type of an IndyCar
14:06
look the turtle shell bottom, a lot of carbon fiber and now the
14:11
driver, you know the the the car is so numb they don't feel the
14:16
car doing anything except pushing or loose.
14:19
What is your what is your thought about these drivers now?
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And as as you do MRN radio and you listen, what about these
14:28
drivers now? It's hard for them to be
14:30
somebody like you are. Well it's it's kind of let these
14:34
drivers that we really maybe didn't know real well let them
14:37
really show their talent. When you miss a car basically
14:41
identical from car to car. I mean NASCAR's got stringent
14:45
rules and and and the the templates and all the stuff they
14:48
use are right down to the thousandths of an inch.
14:51
They have to be the same they and they you can't buy these
14:54
parts of all type of different people.
14:55
I mean, if you're going to buy a part from NASCAR car, it's got
14:59
to come from that particular vendor.
15:01
If you're going to buy a a wheel part, it's got to come from one
15:04
vendor. So basically when it's all said
15:06
and done it's hard to identical. So what that has enabled people
15:09
to do, it's enabled drivers that we might not see as front
15:13
runners because they never were involved in the best cars in the
15:16
back because the cars were so much different.
15:18
And I have no problem with the cars being different because a
15:21
lot of everybody be inventive. I mean, they operated under the
15:24
rules. They did their deal maybe better
15:26
than other people. But when you take all that out
15:29
and now you go, OK, here's the car, maybe you can do it better
15:32
than other people, but you can't because here's the rules.
15:35
And this is the cars. Now the cars are all the same.
15:38
Let's see what these drivers can do.
15:40
And so you see a guy like Ross Chastain, which I always do, was
15:43
a pretty good driver, but I never thought he was a great
15:45
driver up front all the time. And now we see him up front all
15:49
the time. You know, will iron.
15:51
There's a guy that I've always looked at as a young man that
15:55
you know. Real studious fella that was
15:58
real quiet and I never heard of them and all of a sudden here he
16:02
is winning five races this year. You know, you see these drivers
16:06
that you never focused on, you knew they were out driving.
16:09
But I was looking at Kevin Harvick's and I was looking at
16:12
guys like that, you know, Kyle Bush's, the the normal guys week
16:16
in and week out. And so now I look at those guys.
16:22
But these other guys are there all the time too now.
16:24
And this car is really these superstars out of some drivers
16:29
that I never, ever put a lot of focus in.
16:31
And maybe it's really got these these guys, these these drivers
16:39
that I'm seeing now that I didn't pay attention to.
16:40
It's it's it's turned them into superstars.
16:42
It's giving those guys confidence in yourself that
16:45
they're just as good as anybody else out there.
16:47
But I would have never known that unless this car would have
16:50
come out where it was identical, so where they could all been and
16:53
show their talent. So I want to, I want to get to a
16:56
lot more MRNI, want to get to your opinion on Ryan Priest and
17:01
how you compare all your flips. But but as you're talking, I'm
17:05
listening really well. When I think of racing in the
17:10
past, I think of your car, the great Roger Penske, Richard
17:15
Childres. Jack Roush, all these great car
17:18
owners that knew that if they built the best team and the the
17:23
best cars that you know they were going to win.
17:27
Now you know, listening to what you say, and I agree with you by
17:32
the way, now you got car owners coming in.
17:36
They buy the car like a kit car and then they hire some people
17:41
to put it all together and they're competitive.
17:45
Is that good or bad for the sport?
17:48
Well I I hear exactly where you're coming from on that one.
17:54
The the good thing about the sport is that it's it's got new
17:58
new new people coming in that we've never seen before it.
18:00
We're creating new superstars, OK?
18:02
And whether I like it or not the the race fans like that, they
18:07
want to see new superstars and moving that fell off from
18:10
Australia. Who won the Chicago street race?
18:13
Where did that come from, Right. Yeah, I've heard of this guy in
18:17
my entire life, but then you research that guy and he's a
18:20
three or four time world champion in in super cars over
18:23
in that area, the big world. So, so it makes sense that he he
18:26
ran as good as he did but I never heard of him and didn't
18:28
know nothing. He just jumped in a car that
18:30
he's never seen in life, you know, and his wheel it around
18:33
and won. But then when you got, you know,
18:37
Penske and Rausch and children spending all the money, all the
18:42
money on development to, you know, build a better car and
18:47
have faster pit stops and all that to all be neutralized and
18:52
say, okay, I got all new rules now.
18:54
Now you can't do none of that stuff any longer than you spent
18:56
your life doing. That's frustrating, but.
19:00
You got to understand that you're still messing with them
19:02
springs, you're still messing with them shocks and you're
19:04
still got to have a fast pit crew.
19:06
You still can't screw up on that pit stop and as a driver you
19:09
come can't come down Pit Rd. too fast.
19:12
And you know still every single week when I'm broadcasting these
19:15
says they're still messing that up.
19:18
They're still speeding on Pit Rd.
19:19
They're still messing up the pit stop.
19:21
You know, maybe the guy should have shot him up high on the top
19:25
side on the restart. He decided to go down the middle
19:27
of Crashed, you know. So thanks Sir.
19:29
There's so many movement parts that you can still have an
19:32
influence on. Even though the car's been
19:34
dumbed down and they're real simple and they're exactly the
19:36
same for everybody. It's it's still that you can
19:41
still have a human that messes everything up.
19:43
And there's still a lot of things you can do to be a great
19:46
car owner and feel like you're you're the best team because of
19:52
how hard you're working because there's still a lot of room out
19:54
there to play with the car and ways to manipulate the race to
19:57
outcome of the race. So you you mentioned and this is
20:00
what I wanted to get to, you're you're working with MRN radio
20:05
every once in a while when you want to you're your own man now
20:08
you you got a lot going on and we'll get to that.
20:11
Tell me about working with MRN. Why do you like doing that?
20:15
And I do want to talk about that Saturday night race at Daytona.
20:20
Well, I I love MRI, love MRN. The the number one thing I liked
20:25
about MRN is when I went over there that those guys and when I
20:29
first started working over there, it's been nine years ago
20:33
now. I've been with broadcast.
20:35
The next year would be 10 years with MRN and you know those
20:39
guys, they know exactly what they're talking about.
20:42
You know you had, you had Jeff Striegel now in the booth and
20:48
you have Alex Hayden in the booth.
20:57
They're racers. Those guys worked on Pitt Rd.
20:51
they worked up. You had a guy named Joe Korra
20:53
that was there all the time. Dave Moody's there all the time.
20:56
Mike Baggie is there all the. Those are racers.
20:59
And those guys know everything about the car, know everything
21:02
about the sport. They really get it, they know
21:05
it. And so I knew when I went to
21:08
work with them, I wasn't going in it with just a couple guys.
21:13
I knew I was going with a whole team that had their crap
21:16
together. They knew what was going on and
21:18
the schedule fit my schedule. So when the ESPN contract was
21:22
over and that was all finished and NBC had all their guys, Fox
21:26
had all their guys and I said, well look, I still will be in
21:29
the sport. And I got a phone call from
21:30
NASCAR and said, hey, we'd like to have you over here at MRN.
21:32
I said okay. I went down to Daytona and
21:35
talked to him and this change a little bit.
21:38
I mean, I wanted to be with them, they wanted to be with me.
21:41
I wanted to do maybe a prerace show and originally and we had
21:44
some different ideas. But basically what happened, I
21:47
went down and said, listen, we want to put you in a booth for
21:50
the Daytona 500. So I got booth for the 500.
21:52
It went really, really well. We had a great time, had a great
21:55
race and that day they said I don't want him to do nothing
21:58
else except being in that booth. And so that's what I did and
22:02
that's what I really, really enjoy.
22:03
So then my schedule was 21 MRN races and that's what I was
22:09
doing. And then when COVID hit, we had
22:12
it streamlined everything. We had half the amount of people
22:14
going to the races, We were doing things using half the
22:18
resources to get the job done as like NASCAR running the race.
22:21
And they didn't qualify, they didn't practice, they didn't do
22:24
nothing. They did it as lean as it
22:26
possibly can, just put them on a racetrack and go.
22:29
That's kind of how they did with MN.
22:32
And so we got real lean on that. And so my schedule went from 21
22:36
races down to 14. And I said, no, wait a minute,
22:39
you know, I don't like this 14, this, this.
22:41
Let me really be involved in the sport, be it still be, you know,
22:46
passionate about it. And then so I said I'm okay with
22:50
the 14. And so when it came down to
22:52
retalk, I said let's just stay at 14.
22:54
They said okay. So this year, this year it came
22:57
and went down to 11, I think it was.
22:59
And we're still accomplishing what we want to accomplish and
23:03
I'm getting to do all the big races.
23:05
You know I'll do the championship race Phoenix, AZ, I
23:08
just got done doing the the pre, the the the final regular season
23:13
race in Daytona which is a big one.
23:15
I do Martinsville which is a big big race that leads into who's
23:18
going to make the final four going into Phoenix.
23:21
I do the Daytona 500. I I still get to all the big
23:24
races that are really big ones and and it's fun and we all get
23:29
along fantastic. We just had a great broadcast on
23:32
Saturday night here in Daytona and we all high fived each other
23:37
and smiled and laughed. And I just really feel good
23:39
about these guys. I I love working with them and
23:43
like I say it's been 10 years and we'll see what happens again
23:47
next year. You know, if if when I do it
23:49
next year, that would be 10 years.
23:51
Do I want to do more than 10? I don't know, you know.
23:55
Yeah, yeah. You.
23:56
You. You seem like you're always
23:58
moving and going. People say, what's your brother
24:01
doing? I said, I don't know, sometimes
24:02
he's in another country on a riverboat cruise or you got so
24:07
many things going on. So let's, I want to stay on this
24:09
course. So you you did the race Saturday
24:12
night at Daytona and your name was almost trending in social
24:19
media because. And as you were calling the
24:22
race, you watched Ryan Priest flip and over in down the back,
24:26
straight away. Horrible.
24:28
One of the worst. That thing was like like a dog
24:31
grabbing a cat. I mean, he flipped probably
24:33
10-11 times. Now let me just say this.
24:37
In 1982 at Daytona, in the number 72 Ramada in car, you
24:42
flipped horrible. From what I remember it was.
24:46
The Kodak car, Rick Wilson, I thought he got into you.
24:50
Richard Petty was into that. That was a twin 125.
24:53
Now we move forward, I think to 1993.
24:57
You're in the Miller genuine draft car and you flip
25:01
violently. Then you go to Talladega and
25:04
Earnhardt tagged you in the left rear, I believe, coming across
25:08
the finish line and you flip violently again.
25:11
So. In your super Speedway career, I
25:14
think you've wrecked as much as anybody going for the wind
25:18
battling. So when you saw Ryan Priest go
25:22
through that, you know, the fans started thinking, man, that
25:26
reminded me of Rusty. Give me your thoughts on just
25:29
everything I talked about. Well, yeah, everybody has bad
25:33
wrecks in your career. You know, It's going to happen
25:35
to everybody. You know, it's happened to me,
25:37
unfortunately. It happened to Earnhardt really
25:39
bad. I've seen Tony Stewart go
25:41
through it. I've seen Ricky Red go through
25:42
it. I've seen a lot of drivers go
25:44
through it and that wasn't what so that let's go to that
25:47
particular wreck, Ryan Priest. What went through my mind
25:51
immediately went, went through my mind after it was all done.
25:54
I said it was a really violent wreck.
25:57
I mean, he wasn't just there. I've seen many guys just go spin
26:01
and flip and go over and and they're doing soft landings,
26:04
call it, you know, as a car slipping, they're just touching
26:07
the front Fender, touching the rear quarter panel, stuff like
26:09
that. But every impact that car made
26:12
was violent. I mean, it would crash on the
26:14
rear quarter panels, it would crash on the nose, it would
26:17
crash on the roof and it would hit hard every single time.
26:22
So I'm like, wow, the violent, how violent it was is unreal.
26:25
Is a real test of that car to see how tough that car really
26:28
is. And I'm sure NASCAR's got that
26:30
car right and they're probably all over that their Research
26:32
Center there in Concord, NC. Other thing that went through my
26:36
mind was okay, that car got dead sideways and was dead in the
26:41
position my car was when I went airborne and flipped.
26:44
But we came up the roof lap, which was supposed to keep that
26:47
car on the ground. Well, I always call there.
26:50
There's certain things you just can't control.
26:53
And one of them is momentum, the other is force, and the other
26:56
one is term I use. When you get in a big wreck or
26:59
Daytona Teledega called, you're just getting pole vaulted.
27:03
And basically what happened to him, he left a smooth surface of
27:08
asphalt, entered the grass and as he entered the grass, it gave
27:13
more air between the bottom of the car, underneath the car.
27:17
And I, we watch that thing over and over and over and that air
27:21
got underneath that car. And the force was so great and
27:24
the motion was so great that it it, it wouldn't let the the roof
27:28
lap really do its job. It wouldn't let it keep it down
27:30
on a flat surface and just spin around the circle and that'd be
27:34
it. It almost got pulled alted over
27:36
it, it got forced over, it got pushed over, whatever you want
27:40
to call it, but wanted to hit that grass the surface that it,
27:44
that it was on slide. Mine completely changed and it
27:47
put it in the sky and went, wow, that's the first time I've seen
27:50
all these things happen where it just basically took the dog on
27:53
roof lap and said hey, the baby with that roof lap is popped
27:56
straight up and down. It was trying to do all it could
27:59
but it's still went upside down. And once you get that thing
28:02
upside down then then it's just going to take over.
28:04
Mother Nature's going to do its deal.
28:06
So your experience with, you know, the violent flips you've
28:12
had? Ryan Priest says he's okay.
28:16
I remember after Talladega, you broke your wrist, I think, and
28:20
we had the the legendary black brace.
28:23
You went to Sears Point. You still shifted the hell out
28:26
of that race car. What is Ryan?
28:30
I mean, you have experience. At Violent Flips, is he going to
28:34
be fine? I mean, he's a good racer, but
28:37
is he going to be OK? Well, he's the only one that's
28:40
going to know if he's going to be OK.
28:41
I mean, if the doctor say he's OK and he says he's OK, I trust
28:45
that he's OK. But I'll never forget.
28:49
I mean, you got these little goofy things that happened to
28:52
your body that doesn't affect anything you do.
28:54
But I'm going to give you the explanation, OK?
28:56
Back driving the number 72 car, you know that was the car that I
29:01
had, the horrible rain. And I'll never forget that wreck
29:04
because it was muddy that night before the race and I went down
29:09
to you remember doing about to see.
29:11
I was the first one to see you in the Enfield care center.
29:14
I went, I was wearing a solid red uniform and I went down
29:18
through that mud and there's so much mud that back straight I'm
29:21
not cars. Flipping through it in a
29:23
completely loaded hole inside the car up with mud destroyed
29:26
it. They pulled me out, put me on a
29:28
on a on a stretcher. I'll never forget going into the
29:32
infield care center. Yeah.
29:33
There you were. You were crying.
29:34
You were? I thought you lost your brother.
29:36
You know why? Because all that red was
29:38
sticking through the mud. And what that was is there.
29:41
I was so caked with mud that all you can see is these little red
29:45
spots. You thought I was bleeding to
29:46
death? Yeah, Remember that?
29:48
What was devastating? Devastating.
29:51
That was unbelievable. Yeah, yeah.
29:53
And you had an open face helmet on, so the the sand is coming
29:57
through as you told me later on when we.
30:00
We were able to relax about it. You said that saying they were
30:03
digging it out of your nose, out of your everywhere, you know,
30:06
because it was high speed skin. Crazy.
30:10
It was crazy. But after the wreck, I had that
30:14
big bad wreck and I noticed that every time I went and got in the
30:19
shower, I used to get the shower shower down and I shake my head
30:22
like an old dog in order to get all the water.
30:25
Out of water. Out of yours.
30:26
And yeah, and every time I shook my head to this day, every time
30:31
I shake my head, I got to hold on to something because I'll get
30:33
dizzy. And it happened when I wrecked
30:37
that car. It'll just move some things
30:40
around in your brain that cause you to get Vertigo every now and
30:43
then. Now I drive a car, I do anything
30:46
I want. I don't feel nothing.
30:47
It's just when I take and shake my head in the damn shower, I'm
30:49
like, OK, so now back to Ryan Priest.
30:52
He's the only one that knows. And I'll guarantee you every
30:55
driver got went through something, You know he'll know.
31:01
Hey, am I am I okay or am I not okay?
31:05
And I'm telling you the story so I don't have a problem telling
31:07
you the story. I hope that there's something
31:10
wrong with him. He don't have a problem telling
31:11
you that. Now I'm sure I'm sure he'll be
31:14
fine driving the car and stuff like that.
31:16
But and then there's some people aren't so fortunate, like Kurt
31:20
Busch. He tried and tried and tried and
31:23
tried to get his head back right.
31:26
But he just said I'm just not like I'm just not right.
31:28
I'm just not back right And I just can't drive these cars to
31:32
the potential they could be driven because I'm just not
31:34
right now. If you talk to him, if you stand
31:36
around here, perfect conversation, you can do
31:38
anything you want. But he knows when he gets in
31:40
that car under those forces and all that stuff.
31:43
He's not where he needs to be. So will Ryan Priest be okay?
31:47
I don't know. The other one is scared about
31:51
Ryan Blaney, that head on collision.
31:53
Yes, that scared me to death because I saw his head fly
31:56
completely forward. I saw the tethers whole time at
31:59
back and he is still only that far from the steering wheel.
32:02
That one there scared me too. That's another one where when he
32:05
wakes up, I hope he feels good under all these difference from
32:08
stances too. Yeah, I know.
32:11
You know, all these years later, I can definitely say that when I
32:15
got knocked out in 1991 at New Hampshire.
32:20
It changed. I'm still Kenny, but it it it
32:23
knocked the hell out of me. That's why I asked that
32:27
question. Experience like that, Okay.
32:30
So here we are already 35 minutes and we try to make Kenny
32:34
conversation tolerable. You know, an hour.
32:37
Let's let's move on. You know, and and this could be
32:39
a 5 hour conversation, but I want to talk about where you're
32:43
at in your life right now. You know you you have nine
32:48
dealerships, 9 auto dealerships in Knoxville, TN.
32:55
And then we also had the NASCAR Foundation.
32:58
You have Southern Country customs now the NASCAR
33:02
Foundation, you raise a lot of money for them, Southern Country
33:06
customs. You and Steven, your boy, my
33:10
nephew, who I love very much. You guys are building badass
33:14
motorcycles. But let's start with the
33:16
dealerships first. How did that start?
33:21
What's your involvement with 9 dealerships in Knoxville, TN?
33:25
What all it all started back in the 80s when I was, you know,
33:30
driving for Pontiac, driving the I believe it was driving the
33:33
Blue Max car back then and I was able to go to Bristol and be
33:37
pretty successful and and won nine races.
33:39
One of those all said and done. He was a Pontiac dealer in
33:44
Morristown, TN, and it was called Parker Pontiac.
33:47
It was owned by a man named Ray Huffaker, which is still my
33:50
partner to the day, and he asked me to come for an autograph
33:53
session. Well, I showed up for an
33:55
autograph session and we had just hundreds and hundreds of
33:58
people show up. It was a big gathering.
34:02
It could have been a lot of people that week.
34:04
I left and I went back to Bristol, I think this is
34:06
Autograph Station, I believe was on a Thursday night.
34:09
And so then I went to Bristol that weekend, which is only like
34:12
60 miles to the road. And I won again.
34:15
And he goes, holy smokes, would you come back?
34:17
So I went back and we had more people than I had the first
34:21
time. Then he said, Hey, next time,
34:23
would you bring Dale Earnhardt with you?
34:25
Oh, wow. So we went back for another
34:27
autograph session and Earnhardt had a Chevrolet dealership.
34:29
He said if you come to the Chevrolet store, I'll come to
34:32
your Pontiac store. I said OK, so he showed up.
34:34
We had a ton of people again. So then he got a hold of me,
34:37
said, have you ever thought about being in the car business?
34:40
And I said, yes, I have. I'm a car guy, but I don't know
34:44
anything about it. Even that doesn't make me smart
34:46
for car business. But I'm a car guy.
34:47
Yeah, I'd be interested in it. So he gave me all the
34:50
information and I I'll never forget.
34:52
I checked to Roger Penske and I'll let Roger run through it
34:55
and look at it now. We're Fast forward a little bit
34:57
right now. We're in 1991 now because I just
35:01
mentioned I think three years doing autograph sessions for Ray
35:04
Huffaker at the the store. So I show this to Roger and he
35:10
said, you know what, son? He said you're not going to be
35:11
able to drive these cars forever and you better get your life
35:14
together because you got to do something after this all stops.
35:18
And so that's when I really start focusing on the
35:20
dealerships. He kind of tutored me around a
35:23
little bit, getting going on that with just with some ideas.
35:29
But then when I hooked up with Ray Huttbaker, that was the
35:32
biggest move. That was one of the most
35:34
positive things in my entire life.
35:36
Ray and I started Rusty Wallace, Pontiac, GMC cattle in
35:41
Morristown, TN. Then we were able to buy a a
35:45
Honda dealership in Oak Ridge, TN.
35:48
Then we're able to buy a Toyota dealership in Morristown, TN.
35:51
And it went on and on and on. And so, you know, after racing,
35:58
Ray's probably responsible for a lot of the the big things that's
36:02
happened in my life financially because those dealerships have
36:06
really been real good. We've give a ton of money to
36:08
charity. We care a ton about our
36:10
community. We care a lot about service
36:13
after the sale. That's one thing Penske always
36:16
did tell me to look you can buy a car anywhere, but you're never
36:20
going to get service after the sale like you do at our
36:22
dealerships. I've been there, Yeah, I was
36:33
that your heart? So you know, I beat that in our
36:24
guys heads. I have to do that.
36:26
They didn't know that. All our guys up there, real
36:29
personable and we got funny guys, you know, Chad Campbell.
36:36
You got a guy named Cougar? Cougar was just another one
36:38
over. There you're country boys, but
36:40
boy, they could talk like me and you.
36:42
They're they're honest eyes. They care a ton about the
36:45
community, you know, they really are.
36:47
And so life's good at the car business stuff right now.
36:50
I've been in it for 33 years, 33 years in the car business.
36:54
People even know it's a lot of people.
36:55
I know I'm doing that, but you know, so that that that's my
36:59
main deal right now, the dealerships.
37:01
Let me just stop you there for a minute.
37:03
You know, like I said, I'm listening.
37:05
You and Earnhardt, you talked about, you know, bring Earnhardt
37:09
to your dealership back in those days.
37:12
You and Arnart were able to battle and and get into each
37:15
other and stay friends. You you two had it going on.
37:21
You two. Rusty Wallace and Dale Arnard,
37:24
Senior. You guys were the show.
37:28
How are you able to stay friends through all that?
37:34
We did a lot of things outside of racing.
37:37
I mean we we would go to a lot of boat trips together.
37:40
We end up going down to the Bahamas quite a bit.
37:44
My wife and Dave's wife, Teresa were really, really great
37:47
friends and still are, although we haven't seen her in a long,
37:50
long time. But, but I remember I, over his
37:55
farm, took some of the kids over there and he would teach my kids
37:58
how to shoot a gun. You know, he put them on a
38:01
sandbag and we do all this different stuff and it's and
38:04
this big farm he had and and we did a lot of stuff outside of
38:07
racing. And that's one of the things
38:09
that was so upsetting. When I go, we'd have a lot of
38:11
fun maybe to bomb us or maybe we'd go here and have a good
38:14
time or do the gun thing. But then you get the race track
38:20
and he'd be so focused on what he was doing and I'd be so
38:23
focused on what I'm doing. I was always expecting him to
38:27
want to hang out more at the track, but he once told me some
38:32
man. He said if I if I'm not focused,
38:33
you're going to beat me. And I'm like, if I don't focus,
38:36
you're going to beat me. And so we focused crazy.
38:39
And he had his own set of fans and I had my own set of fans and
38:42
we did our own deal. And when that was over, it might
38:47
be a couple weeks since I'd seen him and we'd do something, we'd
38:49
go have some fun somewhere. We always had a good time.
38:51
But I tell those boat stories every now and then because
38:54
that's one thing he was super passionate about and I had this
38:57
fishing boat, he had this big yacht that he had built.
38:59
He did all the kind of lot of stuff.
39:01
We all love going on to those Bahamas all the time.
39:03
And the guy started all that was Bill French Junior back in the
39:07
day. He he used to take some drivers
39:09
down to the Bahamas and talk rules and try to understand the
39:12
sport. Mar he would take motors guys
39:15
Ford guys different guys down there and and you know the the
39:19
tire manufacturers and talk to him and get ideas and and I was
39:22
fortunate about it every single one of those trips.
39:25
I think that went on over 18 straight years before it finally
39:29
ended after Mr. Fans passed away.
39:31
That's when it and so but yeah, I I knew I really, really got
39:37
off the track because of that type of stuff.
39:40
You know, you know, it was once said, and I believe it's me that
39:44
said it and there had been some other people that Dale Earnhardt
39:48
senior and Rusty Wallace are the two strongest.
39:52
Mentally prepared race car drivers in NASCAR.
39:55
You know at at that time what you know.
39:59
And as I listen to you right now, you talk about Earnhardt.
40:02
When he went to the race track, he had to focus to beat you.
40:06
I feel like you and him, it it was, it was also more talent
40:10
than driving. Yes, you had talent driving, but
40:14
I felt like you and him were equally hardheaded.
40:18
Like like you're not going to get me.
40:20
I'm going to win it. Everything.
40:21
Nobody gets me. Would you say that's right?
40:25
Well, I I always felt that when I went to the track in that era,
40:29
now, in that era, the drivers, I was racing on a weekly basis
40:32
that I had a beat. He was the main one.
40:35
OK Mark Martin was really, really good.
40:38
Ricky Rudd really, really good. Guys like that, OK.
40:42
But he he was the one that I felt like if I beat him, I
40:46
really, really accomplished something.
40:48
Yeah. And they said, what do you
40:49
think, Earner? And I said, well, he's 180
40:51
pounds. I'm 180 pounds.
40:53
He's 6 foot tall. I'm 6 foot tall.
40:56
Good stuff. He's got a 34 waist.
40:59
I got a 34 waist. Wow.
41:01
We're the same weight, we're the same height, we're the same
41:03
everything like a boxing match. He's got a different.
41:06
He's got a different. He's got a really excited fan
41:11
base, and I didn't have that. I had.
41:14
I always had an exciting fan base of mine, too.
41:17
He had more fans than I had. I never heard that.
41:19
I mean, he's really super popular, grew up in the South, I
41:21
grew up in the Midwest, but you know, I had two people standing
41:28
side by side. We're both human beings, you
41:29
know, and we're both exactly the same size and the same weight
41:32
and everything going at it. Yeah, it's going at it.
41:35
So it was cool, though. I miss him a lot.
41:38
I miss him a ton because he'd be real influential and he'd be
41:41
rolling his eyes and a good way and a bad way about things that
41:43
are going on in his sport be to have an opinion.
41:46
Yeah. I'm.
41:46
I'm going to call an audible right there and we do that on
41:49
the Kenny conversation. You're going to make me ask
41:51
another question me. And you've talked before and we
41:57
all do this and you've taught me pretty much everything.
42:00
I know I'll add Dick trickle in there and of course Dad and our
42:04
family. But I but I think between my Big
42:07
Brother Rusty dad brother Mike. You know you you said to me
42:14
maybe I quit maybe I quit NASCAR.
42:17
Maybe I retired two years too early.
42:20
Do you feel like when Earnhardt passed away that you know that
42:24
was a bummer and that maybe said the hell with it.
42:28
What was your thought there? Yeah, him passing away was
42:33
really a tough deal because I'll never forget, you know, there
42:38
was people already questioned and hey is when are you going to
42:41
hang it up, you know? You've already accomplished a
42:44
ton. Do you want to keep on going?
42:45
And let's face it, my my consistency, the amount of races
42:49
I was winning per year and how I was running was good still, but
42:53
it wasn't as good as in the past.
42:54
So it made people question, hey, how much?
42:56
When are you going to hang this up?
42:58
Well, you won 10 races in one year in 93. 10 and 93 is my
43:03
strongest year than the fair following year in 84 we won
43:06
eight races and so. Those mid 90s were incredible
43:10
and that's the era that I raced with Earnhardt all through the
43:14
nights. And that's the reason I was
43:16
always so confident around him, because I beat him a ton and he
43:22
beat me a ton, you know, and never.
43:25
I never could be as good as Speedway racer as he was.
43:29
He was an incredible Daytona and Televega racer.
43:32
I could run with him anywhere else.
43:35
Tell Degan Daytona he just was magic, you know, And so I wish I
43:38
could have been that good at those places.
43:40
That's that's one thing in my when I'm all said and I wish I
43:44
could have won the Daytona 500, but I got close many times.
43:47
You know, I think Rusty, I think anybody's like that in life with
43:50
anything. I've read a lot of stories about
43:53
it, a lot of great athletes. There's always more.
43:55
But but you do you feel like that was one of the reasons?
44:01
I mean, I I thought you did the right thing, and I told you.
44:03
That well it was definitely it was definitely one of the
44:05
reasons I retired after seeing him pass away and then you have
44:08
people talking about how much longer you want to go and and
44:11
the guy had set me down and did that to me was Bill France
44:15
junior in office. I was he asked me to come to his
44:18
office one time and it was about five days before speed weeks and
44:21
I was down there not big in the aviation.
44:23
He was big in the aviation Mr. France was.
44:25
So it was all we were talking about, airplanes and different
44:28
things like that. And he said, man, so I want to
44:31
talk about your career. I said, Oh yeah, go ahead
44:33
because I'm hearing people talking about that.
44:36
You've been asked a lot of questions about when you're
44:38
going to hang it up. Because I just want to tell you
44:39
one thing is you got your health right now, You're healthy,
44:43
looking good. He said, I I noticed you're
44:45
paying a lot of attention to business stuff.
44:47
And he said you're not running as good as you used to, but
44:49
you're still running good. And he said, I remember his
44:52
hand, he held it up. He said.
44:54
I remember when your career was like this, man, you were just
44:56
going up, up, up, up, up, up. He said, well, now you kind of
45:01
like this. You kind of up on that top of
45:04
that deal and you're just teetering back and forth, you
45:06
know? And he said, so, you know, I'm
45:09
not, I'm not telling you to quit, but I'm telling you, this
45:11
sport, can we use you in a lot more ways than you just driving
45:14
that car every single week and going through that with all the
45:17
rest of them drivers? That's OK.
45:19
I keep that in mind. That week we go to Daytona
45:25
Earnhardt gets killed. I go to the care center, me and
45:30
Patty, right after we heard about his accident, I haul over
45:36
into a car, over to the hospital, and I walk inside.
45:40
There's Mr. France. There's everybody standing
45:42
there. And they came out and they
45:44
announced that they passed away. And I just looked over at Mr.
45:49
France. He was standing right there.
45:51
I looked over at him. He know what he did?
45:53
He looked me right. And he held his hand up like
45:55
this. And he went, oh, unbelievable
45:59
story. Very daunting.
46:01
He said this was he just wanted to remind me.
46:04
I told you, you don't have to keep doing this.
46:07
He looked straight at me and went like that and.
46:10
It was, I'll never forget that long as I would and and so then
46:14
I I thought about it, you know, and then at the same time I get
46:17
an offer from the networks, I had an offer from 2 networks to
46:22
go to work for him and said we know what if I don't make this
46:25
announcement now, it's never going to happen.
46:27
Yeah. You know somebody else would get
46:29
it. You want you won in your last
46:31
year race and you went into the playoffs and you ended your
46:34
career in NASCAR winning let's Well actually.
46:39
I won in 2004. Martinsville, VA announced my
46:43
retirement after that, yeah. And ran the next year in 2005
46:49
and made it into the playoffs. But I didn't win.
46:53
But I made it into the playoffs, which is a real.
46:55
I said I always wanted to go out and about my game and I thought,
46:58
you know, I had a lot of 2nd place finishes that year that my
47:01
final year. I let a bunch of laps and I made
47:04
it to the chase for the ship. So my heart, I went out on top
47:07
like that. There's a lot of drivers they go
47:10
out with having some really crappy runs for years and
47:13
finally say it's you know, and I didn't want to be that guy.
47:18
Well brother, we we can keep going.
47:19
I just want to let you know we're we're getting close to the
47:21
end here. This is one of these deals where
47:23
I can go forever. I we had to we had to skip some
47:26
things And you you mentioned so many good things that made me
47:31
want to ask you about Earnhardt. I did.
47:32
I did. Hey listen I did my due
47:34
diligence, Okay. I got I got my notes.
47:38
Hey, man, you're organized. You're looking good.
47:40
What? I I I don't want to mess up, you
47:42
know? Hey, what are you?
47:43
Gonna do. What are you gonna do now?
47:44
When people come up, you say, hey man, what's your brother
47:46
doing nowadays? What are you gonna tell him?
47:48
I'm gonna go look at the Kenny conversation.
47:50
He We tell you everything. Well, I'll tell you what you
47:53
know. One thing we didn't talk about
47:54
is southern country customs. What do you Yeah and that's
47:56
that's. Motorcycle stuff.
47:58
But yeah, obviously car business is just incredible.
48:00
It's doing real well and I've been able to surround myself
48:02
with some cool people, but probably one of the most fun
48:05
things I think I've ever got myself in Motorcycles.
48:08
What the Hell's that all about? You ride with me, everybody
48:11
rides with this. We go to Sturgis, we go to
48:13
Daytona, we go to places all over the country riding
48:16
motorcycles. Now Steven started building
48:18
these things. him and I started this company.
48:20
We're 5050 owners on it right now, Southern country custom.
48:24
But we're building some just amazing badass bikes and I think
48:27
he's probably one of the top five builders in the USA, right,
48:31
for that type of motorcycle and it's incredible do we're having
48:34
a great time and. I've been coming down to Daytona
48:37
a lot because we ride a lot of motorcycles down here and we we
48:41
spent a lot of time at a place called the Broken Spoke where we
48:43
set up camp for our Southern country customs and do business
48:47
there during all the rallies and we're going to be there again.
48:49
There you go, Southern Country customs.
48:50
That's it. Follow us on Instagram and
48:53
YouTube and all that on the website.
48:56
But we'll be back down here October for Bike Oktoberfest.
48:59
It's going to be another big one.
49:01
We'll be set up again at that, Broken spoke.
49:04
But. Look, the people I've been able
49:06
to meet outside of NASCAR through the motorcycle stuff has
49:10
been incredible. Obviously the contractors we
49:13
talked about, the the neat things we do with the charitable
49:16
stuff. We just sold a motorcycle for
49:19
charity for $95,000 from one of our friends who lives in Saint
49:23
Louis. And that was a great deal.
49:25
That was. And I've been doing the and a
49:29
man, yeah. And then another man added five
49:32
grand. So you got $100,000 for that
49:35
bike. Hey, so Southern Country
49:38
Customs. I know what it is and everybody
49:43
says, man, those bikes are unbelievable.
49:45
But I do want to remind everybody, you start with a
49:49
stock Harley-Davidson and then how do you design these bikes?
49:53
What we do, we start brand new motorcycles, 2023 models or we
49:58
started in 21, so we start with new 20 ones and then now here's
50:02
2023, so we're doing 2023. So what we'll do, we'll talk to
50:05
the customer about the the paint schemes that they like and all
50:08
that and we'll we'll design it ourselves.
50:11
And then we got our own body kits and now they're putting
50:13
carbon fiber wheels on them. And these bikes are anywhere
50:16
from 80 to 130,000 for the real nice ones.
50:20
Real, but not nice one. They're all nice.
50:22
That for the the ones got the real big engines and all carbon
50:25
fiber wheels Now they could choose what they want.
50:27
I get it. You can start here and you can
50:30
go more and more and more be 149 cubic inch.
50:35
Now we're building these these things with 139 cubic inch
50:38
motors and that's like having a 2000 horsepower engine in your
50:42
Street car. Okay, you can get balanced then
50:44
when it comes to weight ratio and stuff like that.
50:47
Build a big engine, big wheels. Now we're doing carbon fiber
50:50
wheels. It's amazing paint.
50:53
When people say I don't get it, I said go to #1, go to southern
50:57
country customs and look at all the pictures.
50:59
Instagram's awesome. Yeah, go to Instagram or go to
51:02
our gallery on southerncountry.com.
51:06
Look at all that and you'll see them and everybody goes, Oh my
51:09
God, I cannot believe what I'm seeing.
51:12
They all say the same thing. And so we're having a black
51:14
doing that, really get to travel the country and see different
51:18
people and different people that maybe might not be at a NASCAR
51:22
race all the time, but they're still enthusiasts when it comes
51:26
to motorcycles and having fun. Yeah, And I want to add that
51:29
Steven Steven Wallace, your boy, my nephew, the love of my life.
51:35
That kid is incredibly talented and he can do it all.
51:39
I watch him powder coat, I watch him put these things together.
51:42
I just wanted to add that in there and I know you and him got
51:46
it going on. And of course, Josh, there I saw
51:49
you are looking for another person you you're growing.
51:52
It's growing, need more, need more personnel.
51:55
We need more people that are qualified that can build these
51:59
bikes. We need good tech, so we need.
52:03
People that want to have fun and and smile all the time, you
52:06
know, I want, I want them to focus, but I want them to have
52:08
fun and be a good, a good partner with this at that.
52:11
I'm not looking for partners. I'm looking for good builders
52:15
that can help us grow this business.
52:18
So let's end like this, brother. I'm going to rattle some names
52:21
off and we're 55 minutes and one hour is about limit.
52:30
I'm going to name some names and then when I'm done naming them,
52:34
you know, we could go on another hour.
52:36
But let's just say this Okay, you have had some people in your
52:39
life that I know for a fact mean everything to you.
52:43
Roger Penske, the Great, Dick Trickle, Don the Snake, Per
52:49
Dome, Walker Evans, Don Miller and and Dick Pacer.
52:56
Of course, you know, there's Patty, your wife.
52:57
But those six, they're pretty nucleus.
53:01
What's your thought when you hear those names?
53:05
Well, those are all super smart people, really incredibly smart
53:10
people. And those are all the people
53:14
that were around me. Maybe not Walker of the very
53:19
late or the early part of my career, but the late part of my
53:22
career he was. Those were people that really
53:28
taught me ton. And stayed with me and helped me
53:30
build my career and built me as that.
53:33
Now of late, my guy Rob Williams who works at our office, he's
53:37
just incredible person is really looks after our company and does
53:41
a great job and you know doing what he what he does and he does
53:45
a lot. But those ones you just
53:47
mentioned, those were the ones that were there from the
53:49
beginning when we lived in St. Louis, MO, that followed me down
53:53
to, you know, NASCAR land to chase, Chase the dream.
53:58
Yeah, and they all end up working with me.
54:02
Don Miller, Dick Pacer. All of them.
54:05
Big names, good guys. Yeah.
54:07
Well, brother, listen, I appreciate it so much, you know?
54:12
Hey, listen, I really thought about, you know, having you.
54:15
It was my first guest. But I thought, well, you know,
54:19
he'll say yes because you're incredible to me.
54:24
So we're going to end the show a little bit like this.
54:26
I wrote this disclaimer here and I said, here's my disclaimer.
54:31
Rusty Wallace is my Big Brother, and Rusty and Mike spoil me and
54:37
I have the best brothers that anybody could ever have.
54:42
You made it to where I've had a wonderful life.
54:44
Of course you made me work for it.
54:47
But I just want to thank you so much for everything you've done
54:51
for me. Definitely wouldn't be where I'm
54:53
at without you and and thank you for being on the show.
54:57
Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate that.
55:00
I hope the show turns out good and I hope the people enjoy
55:03
listening what we had to say and I was bantered back and forth
55:07
and all that stuff. We'll see.
55:08
What else? Well, now everybody knows what
55:11
Rusty Wallace has been up to. Now remember, we are in podcast
55:15
form. You can listen to us on the way
55:17
to work and then you can listen to us on the way home.
55:22
Spotify. ITunes And until then, remember
55:25
the Kenny conversation just keeps on going and we're going
55:29
to have the ladies, I Danica Patters, coming up soon, Jimmy
55:33
Johnson. Until then, we'll see you next
55:36
time.