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Happy Retirement To My Hero John Force | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Happy Friday morning everybody. Today's business.
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  My hero, the man that influenced me to keep racing the great John
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  Force yesterday, on Thursday announced his retirement from
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  drag racing. However, I did read a little
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  tidbit last night. John says I've definitely
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  retired from racing. However, if all my fans scream
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  loud enough, he said he might do a burnout.
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  Man, wouldn't that be something? Do that like next year, fans
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  would go crazy. They'd sell the place out.
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  Let me just say this about John Force.
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  I was in Phoenix for a NASCAR race.
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  I was in my hotel room. We had done, we'd done raced,
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  we'd run the NASCAR Cup race. We already raced.
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  And I came back to my hotel room to get ready for a red eye
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  flight. You know, one of those flights
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  at Phoenix that leaves at midnight, you get back to
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  Charlotte at 6:00 in the morning, the sun's coming up.
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  Oh, those red eye flights, they're nasty.
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  They're bad. So anyway, when I get back to my
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  hotel room after the NASCAR race in Phoenix, I turn the TV on.
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  There's John Force. He's like 70 something at this
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  time. He was 70, I think, and he had
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  won and it already got a sponsor.
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  I don't know if it was Ford or Chevrolet.
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  But anyway, it was that moment that I just sat on the edge of
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  my bed. I was dirty.
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  You know, I'd done run the race. I've sweat and I needed to get
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  in the shower, but he just I just made me sit still for a
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  minute. I'm sitting there and I'm
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  looking I'm like this, this is unbelievable because I saw John
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  Force down at Miami, Miami homestead.
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  I walked in on a deal or at the time I was driving for Ford and
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  Force was literally finishing up his Ford deal.
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  And I walked into the like the makeshift office.
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  It was a like a 38 foot trailer and John's up in there and
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  they're come on up here. Herman and I literally watched
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  the moment that John was finishing up his his Ford deal.
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  And I thought to myself, here's a guy 70 years old getting ready
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  to go racing. Now I've been real good at not
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  repeating myself, but I want to say that one more time.
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  I want you to hear this. Here's a guy 70 years old and
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  getting his sponsor because he it's time to go racing more
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  racing, 70 years old and he's he's getting ready to go racing.
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  Kind of reminds me of Kenny Schrader.
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  Schrader's 70 years old. He's there ain't no end insight
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  for him. So at that moment when I sat on
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  the edge of that bed in that hotel room, I thought, man, this
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  guy is unbelievably awesome. John Force inspired me like
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  nobody can. I get emotional about John Force
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  because he he gave me a good kick in the ass, made me want to
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  keep racing. Just that moment.
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  And then it was a time John Force and myself were in King of
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  Prussia, PA for the Miller Motorsports show.
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  And we we both had to go back to the airport where they took us.
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  They took both of us. They took Kenny Wallace, me and
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  John Force in a van. He did most of the talk and I
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  couldn't get a word in. I met my match when I met John
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  Force and I'm smiling right now. You talk about incredible.
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  I mean here, I'll tell you what, go to YouTube right now and just
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  punch in Kenny Wallace, John Force.
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  I've got an over an hour conversation with John Force
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  there right now. And if you just watch it or
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  listen to it now, Daryl Carey, Daryl Carey, which is Ty
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  Dillon's father-in-law, texted me last night.
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  He goes, Herman, I had no idea you did an interview with John
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  Force. He goes, I just watched it.
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  A friend of mine sent it to me. I said, Oh yeah, he goes, it's
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  unbelievable. I said, Oh yeah.
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  I said it's good. So, you know, I really got to
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  know John even more even though I, even though I could touch,
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  you know, like I was right there with John Force.
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  I spent time with John in that Van King coming from King of
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  Prussia in Pennsylvania. I spent time with him there.
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  I spent time with John at, at, you know, Miami Homestead.
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  I spent time with John at, you know, the drag races here in
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  Gateway. But being able to spend over an
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  hour at John Force, or he's just looking at me and we're doing a
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  Kenny conversation, it's just unbelievable.
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  And I want to thank Austin England for setting that up.
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  Austin was John Forces PR guy at the time.
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  Now Austin went on, he's doing his own deal.
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  But that was one of the greatest interviews of my life.
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  There were times, there were times I'd be interviewing John
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  and boy, he reminded me myself. I'd say, John, you know, why do
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  you like going to the movie theaters?
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  Why do you like major motion pictures?
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  I love going to the movie theaters.
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  Why do you like watching movies so much?
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  And he'd start answering me and then all of a sudden, he'd be on
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  to something different. Then later he goes, no, what
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  were we talking about? This was every single question I
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  asked him. I'd ask him a question and he'd
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  go off on some other deal. And then he'd say, what were we
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  talking about? And that's the way my brain
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  works. That's the way my brain works.
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  It would just man, we're free spirited.
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  We love life, we love racing. So congratulations to the great
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  John Force on retirement. And John said, listen, I got I
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  got hurt. I don't want to get hurt
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  anymore. I got all these grandbabies.
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  So John Force, the greatest drag racer we'll see in our era, I'm
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  sure there's a, there's a great debate because I love the snake.
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  He's one bad son of a bitch. Don the snake for Dome.
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  So you got, there's no doubt in my mind.
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  Respond right here, Big Daddy, Don garlets #1 no doubt.
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  And then you got Don the Snake for Dome and John Force.
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  I'll leave it at that. But we all know Big Daddy's
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  number one, Smoky Mountain memories.
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  Pretty girls in Tennessee. I love that song.
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  Who is that? Is that Ronnie Millsap or is
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  that Charlie Pride? Respond right here.
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  I love that song. You know, I'm a country guy by
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  heart, grew up in Rolla, MO and always listen to Wil radio and
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  the DJ, his name was Davey Lee. But yeah, I loved country music
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  and I love rock'n'roll and I love it all.
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  I love all types of music. OK, we have been digging every
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  night at shopkennywallace.com. We really have.
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  I woke up at like 8:50 today. I think I'm exhausted from
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  shipping and helping the team out.
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  So hope you all get your souvenir items, your T-shirts,
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  your hats, your awesome coffee mugs.
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  I must. We've shipped out over 300 of
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  these coffee mugs. I can ship them, I can wrap
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  them, take them, bubble wrap them in my sleep.
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  So go to shopkennywallace.com and have a great weekend,
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  everybody. It's Friday.
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  It's Friday.