Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Reddick Wins Again & Darlington Throws It Back | Mark Martin Archive #10

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Reddick Wins Again & Darlington Throws It Back | Mark Martin Archive #10 · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Hello everybody. It is episode 10.
• 0:02
  We made it to double digits of the Mark Martin Archive Podcast.
• 0:05
  I'm Charlie Marlow. There is Mark Martin.
• 0:07
  There is Matt Martin. They were all over the place,
• 0:11
  all over Darlington this past weekend.
• 0:13
  How you guys doing? Doing great.
• 0:15
  We're trying to recover, aren't we?
• 0:18
  Yeah, I'm doing good, but I'm more out.
• 0:20
  I'm exhausted. Yeah.
• 0:21
  Mark, how about you just just traveling the last couple weeks?
• 0:25
  Tell us. Yeah.
• 0:26
  Yeah, it wasn't just Darlington. We we went to Concord, NC
• 0:33
  Tuesday and we landed at, I don't know what it was 11/30 and
• 0:41
  we were on fire until 6:30 and then then flew back home.
• 0:47
  So Tuesday was a big day as well.
• 0:50
  And then Sunday, yeah, we got so much fun stuff to talk about.
• 0:53
  It's it'll fill the whole episode up.
• 0:56
  Yeah, I can't wait for those stories.
• 0:57
  We're going to throw to you guys for all the the alumni throwback
• 1:01
  weekend. Want to start though, with the
• 1:03
  races and Tyler Reddick, they said this wasn't supposed to
• 1:07
  happen, guys with the next Gen. car.
• 1:10
  And here he is. Now.
• 1:11
  First of all, Toyota has won five of six and we'll talk about
• 1:14
  that. But Tyler Reddick four wins in
• 1:17
  the first six races here. Yeah, and I want to give a shout
• 1:20
  out to Billy Scott as well. Billy was lead engineer on the
• 1:25
  Aaron's dream machine when I drove it.
• 1:27
  And he is such a good dude and such a beautiful family.
• 1:34
  And I just have great memories of of them and the excitement
• 1:39
  that they had to to be working together.
• 1:42
  And so I want to shout out to to him because he's the crew chief
• 1:46
  and I love seeing him have so, so much success.
• 1:49
  But let's just talk a minute about the genius of Michael
• 1:54
  Jordan and Denny Hamlin. It's got to be genius because
• 1:59
  they can't be this lucky. Not only have they are they
• 2:03
  killing it with Bubba's car? And you know, Riley was actually
• 2:10
  really fast at Darlington. But you know, Tyler was just
• 2:16
  incredible. Keselowski told me for the race
• 2:20
  nobody could touch him. He was 2-3 tenths, probably 3/10
• 2:23
  a lap faster than everyone. So that's how he was able to
• 2:27
  overcome all the issues and going to the back of the pack so
• 2:31
  many times. So you just don't do that
• 2:35
  anymore, get a 3/10 a lap advantage on the field.
• 2:39
  But what I also want to touch on was they have Corey Heim signed.
• 2:46
  And I'm going to tell you he very likely could be another
• 2:51
  superstar in NASCAR. He's overlooked some, but it was
• 2:56
  an amazing truck race finish to come from way behind newer scuff
• 3:04
  tires and everybody. And he went by Chastain so fast
• 3:08
  that Ross didn't even have a chance to even he was caught him
• 3:12
  and went by him for for Ross. I'm coming.
• 3:15
  It was crazy talking to Ross before the Cup race Sunday that
• 3:19
  you know how it was such a surprise.
• 3:22
  But anyway, that was good for Corey Heim.
• 3:25
  Huge fan of his. The more I listen to him, the
• 3:28
  more I I like him. And then Saturday's race to the
• 3:32
  the thing that I want to say is Justin Allgeier, I we don't know
• 3:38
  what his future is of driving in the sport.
• 3:42
  It could possibly be his last full time season.
• 3:46
  And to beat those Cup guys, flat out beat them is big.
• 3:52
  That that is huge. And it means a lot to him.
• 3:55
  To a young driver, it's a career builder.
• 3:58
  To a guy like Justin Allgire, you know, it's pride that will
• 4:03
  never go away. So I was so happy for him as
• 4:08
  well. So, you know, there was cool
• 4:10
  stuff all weekend, but Sunday was just, you know, it was old
• 4:15
  school racing. Yeah, and you guys are Roush.
• 4:18
  Guys, I do want to bring up, you mentioned Brad Keselowski.
• 4:20
  We're not supposed to root for guys, but here's an older
• 4:23
  driver. He's been hobbling around with a
• 4:25
  damn cane for the last couple months.
• 4:29
  I wanted Keselowski to win. You knew Reddick's car was
• 4:32
  faster, but Brad Kay LED 142 laps in another second place
• 4:36
  finish. He was spectacular in all the
• 4:40
  cars. There was a time when they were
• 4:41
  running 123 and actually when I was up in the MRN booth on the
• 4:47
  radio, I pointed out they were running 1, three and four.
• 4:51
  Kudos to RFK, they had it going on qualifying and racing, both
• 4:57
  fantastic. Under normal conditions that
• 5:00
  would have been a race win for sure for Brad.
• 5:03
  But you know, anomalies happen. I can't tell you how many times
• 5:09
  I had a fast enough car to win, but somebody just flat out
• 5:13
  outrun us and you wind up second.
• 5:15
  Yeah, they, it was good to see all three of those cars run
• 5:18
  really well. And they look good too, with,
• 5:21
  you know, the Greg Biffle throwback, you know, number
• 5:23
  font. So that was really cool to see.
• 5:26
  What did you guys think of the package?
• 5:28
  It seemed like pretty Dang good racing.
• 5:31
  There was a lot of different strategies and you could pass
• 5:34
  people. Well, I kind of go off of, you
• 5:40
  know, Jeff Buck's poll and last I saw it was like 75% said it
• 5:45
  was a good race. That's hard to beat.
• 5:48
  That's way over the majority. Be honest with you.
• 5:52
  I didn't get to see that much of the race and what I did see I
• 5:58
  loved because I love old style racing and but that's not
• 6:02
  everybody and we can't have that all the time.
• 6:05
  You know, there are some fans that have commented that that
• 6:07
  was that it was boring or whatever.
• 6:10
  Well, let's just embrace the excellence, the amazing job.
• 6:17
  I read the comments of other drivers that said they could
• 6:20
  pass probably a little bit easier than normal.
• 6:23
  Of course, there's plenty of passing because the tire drop
• 6:26
  off notice I I read where some drivers said that they were able
• 6:32
  to follow other cars a little closer.
• 6:34
  It wasn't a miracle pill by any means, but it's a nice balance
• 6:39
  to put that side by side with Atlanta, for example, I would
• 6:44
  not want all of our races to be Atlanta and I I wouldn't want
• 6:49
  all of our races to be Darlington either.
• 6:51
  So the fans say it was a good race.
• 6:54
  So it's a good race. Yeah, I laughed a little bit
• 6:58
  because, yeah, we didn't get to watch too much of the race.
• 7:01
  I mean, that's a, you know, the deal when we go to things like
• 7:04
  this is, you know, we don't often go.
• 7:07
  And when we do, you know, they have Dad and I, if I go with
• 7:12
  him, you know, it's like a whirlwind.
• 7:14
  I mean, they have us run from place to place like crazy.
• 7:17
  And so you can't really stop and kind of soak in the race and,
• 7:22
  and really, you know, watch. So yeah, it was cool, though.
• 7:26
  We went up into the MRN booth and that was a really cool
• 7:32
  vantage point to see the track from.
• 7:34
  I've never seen it up there, so that was cool.
• 7:37
  But it was funny. We were with a friend of dad's
• 7:40
  and you know, he's used to, he's from out West, so he's like used
• 7:44
  the tracks out there, like Vegas and stuff.
• 7:46
  And he commented to me he was like, there's no sweets here.
• 7:52
  I was like, dude, this is Darlington, the only track on
• 7:55
  the circuit. It was built in 1950.
• 7:57
  No, there's no sweets here and it's cool.
• 8:01
  Yeah, yeah, it was. It was an awesome weekend.
• 8:04
  We had so much fun. Yeah, I just love to.
• 8:08
  I can't wait to get started talking about what all what we
• 8:10
  did Tuesday and all what we did Sunday.
• 8:13
  It's It was just so much fun. Yeah, let me get two more quick
• 8:18
  ones in then. I'm going to toss it to you for
• 8:19
  all that because I know people can't wait to hear these
• 8:21
  stories. What are you thinking of?
• 8:23
  Of Chevy's specifically? Hendrick?
• 8:26
  You had the best Chevy's yesterday.
• 8:27
  Carson Hosavar, your guy saw you tweet.
• 8:29
  Adam 4th Another Spire guy. Daniel Suarez 7th The best
• 8:34
  Hendrick driver was William Byron, an eighth and no wins so
• 8:38
  far this year for Chevy. What do you think's going on?
• 8:43
  You know, when you read, if you read what they're, they're
• 8:48
  saying that, you know, they're making it out like this is a new
• 8:50
  car. Yeah.
• 8:52
  I haven't looked at it close enough, but I didn't think it
• 8:54
  was. I didn't know there was any
• 8:57
  difference, really. Maybe there is.
• 9:02
  I'm a technical guy. I should have, I should be able
• 9:04
  to answer that question, but I just assumed that it wasn't much
• 9:08
  change from what they had. But they're off their edge right
• 9:12
  now for sure. And they will get it for sure.
• 9:17
  They'll they'll figure it out and they'll get it.
• 9:19
  But right now they're off their edge a little bit.
• 9:21
  And that's the way competition ebbs and flows, whether it's a
• 9:25
  change in the a little bit, a little bitty change in body
• 9:28
  shape on the front or the back or something like that, or, or
• 9:32
  if it's just competition, it's always increasing.
• 9:37
  Every race team is always working to get better.
• 9:41
  And sometimes they get better faster, and sometimes they get
• 9:45
  stuck and they work hard as they can, but they don't get anywhere
• 9:50
  for a while and they fall behind.
• 9:52
  Not because they're not working, just because that's how
• 9:57
  sometimes what you work on doesn't bear fruit and then
• 10:01
  other times it does, you know, bear really sweet fruit.
• 10:06
  Yeah, Charlie, and to, you know, kind of comment on what you said
• 10:10
  earlier about Toyota's winning, you know, the majority of the
• 10:13
  races so far. You know, new fans might not
• 10:15
  realize, but that's not the first time something like this
• 10:18
  has happened. I mean, you know, the season
• 10:21
  that comes to mind to me is in 1992, You know, Ford's won every
• 10:26
  race until, you know, Earnhardt won the Coke 600, which was
• 10:30
  like, you know, around the 10th race in the season, I think, you
• 10:34
  know, so that's kind of interesting to see that, you
• 10:37
  know, if Toyota keeps going, it's kind of a similar deal to
• 10:40
  that. Yeah, and I think people know
• 10:42
  you're both full season points guys.
• 10:44
  We have the chase this year and whatever happens, look,
• 10:47
  sometimes it'll come down to the wire, sometimes you have
• 10:50
  domination. And right now we got some
• 10:53
  domination. Tyler Reddick has a 95 point
• 10:57
  lead already over Ryan Blaney through 6 races.
• 11:01
  It's amazing. I mean, what they've what
• 11:03
  they're doing is absolutely amazing.
• 11:05
  It was hard to do in the 90s and it's harder to do today.
• 11:12
  But they've hit on it and they got magic, especially the 22311
• 11:18
  cars. And I told, I think I was, I was
• 11:21
  talking to Bubba at driver's intros and I said, you know, if
• 11:25
  I was you guys, I'd be a little bit worried that, that Gibbs
• 11:29
  figures out what your edge is. You know, usually you would
• 11:33
  think the information would flow to them.
• 11:37
  But right now, I'm sure they're looking over there wanting to
• 11:40
  know what is it that you guys have hit on, cause we haven't
• 11:44
  hit on that just yet. All right, well, I was on my
• 11:46
  couch. You guys were there.
• 11:47
  You were the stars of the weekend.
• 11:49
  So I'll toss it over to you, Matt, to break it all down.
• 11:51
  I'm sure you have some incredible stories from
• 11:53
  Darlington. Yeah, well, you know, we, we
• 11:56
  flew in, you know, early and we got to the track and, you know,
• 12:00
  I hadn't been there in a long time.
• 12:03
  So it was cool to see the facility again, you know, got
• 12:08
  there and Dad took the pace car out for practice.
• 12:13
  That was funny, but that was cool.
• 12:16
  And that was, man, when was the last time you were on that
• 12:20
  track? That was a long time ago.
• 12:22
  Yeah, it's been a long time. I don't, you know, maybe it was
• 12:25
  2013 last time I was on it. So yeah, that's really cool to
• 12:32
  be there. Yeah, and what'd you say when
• 12:35
  you pulled in after you took it out for a lap?
• 12:39
  I don't remember. Yeah, you said something like,
• 12:42
  man, I can't believe I used to do that.
• 12:44
  Oh, Lord, yeah. So we're heading down the set
• 12:49
  the cruise control at 45 because that's pace Rd. pit Rd. speed
• 12:54
  and our pace car speed, you know, we're practicing and I
• 12:57
  look down there at turn 1 and it it scared it scared out of me.
• 13:03
  I mean, it just did. I mean, I just, I don't know how
• 13:07
  we did that and I and it made me give it gave me new perspective
• 13:12
  on the guys, the drivers out there today like, oh man, I
• 13:18
  mean, when we did it, it was another day at the office.
• 13:21
  It was nothing. But now I can appreciate it.
• 13:25
  And after yesterday, I appreciate all those drivers and
• 13:30
  all those teams more than I have since this car, you know, you
• 13:36
  know, since 2022, honestly, because I've gotten closer and
• 13:40
  closer and closer to the competition and I'm starting to
• 13:43
  really realize, you know, these are our superstars.
• 13:49
  These are, you know, these guys are incredible, not only on on
• 13:55
  on the racetrack, but on pit Rd. as well.
• 13:58
  Absolutely amazing athletes. And sometimes you forget, you
• 14:05
  know how, that it's only the best of the very best.
• 14:09
  Yeah, well, that, you know, you get used to doing something, you
• 14:12
  know, every week and it becomes normal to you, you know?
• 14:15
  So yeah, it's just it's pretty wild to think about, you know,
• 14:21
  you getting out there again. But yeah, it's.
• 14:24
  Knocking you, but you used to do that every week.
• 14:27
  People used to ask me all the time, what's it like to go 200
• 14:30
  miles an hour? It's like another day at the
• 14:33
  office. I mean, it wasn't wasn't
• 14:34
  anything, but, you know, to them it would have been.
• 14:37
  And so, yeah, you get acclimated.
• 14:41
  I think I've been away from it long enough.
• 14:45
  Vegas didn't look as intimidating.
• 14:47
  I felt like I could drive Jr. 51 off into Turn 3, you know, with
• 14:53
  a wide arc and right down to the bottom.
• 14:56
  When I looked at Darlington, I just didn't think I could do it.
• 14:59
  I didn't. I just looked like sharp U-turn
• 15:05
  man. But then after that, we went to
• 15:09
  the, the NASCAR alumni tent and that was really neat because
• 15:13
  that's, you know, all the, the people that you know, I really
• 15:17
  know from growing up and dad, you know, raced with and, and
• 15:21
  everything they were, you know, most of them were there.
• 15:23
  And so that was neat. Got to see, you know, Ernie
• 15:26
  Irvin and his wife Kim, and I got to talk to Larry Mack and
• 15:31
  Jeff Hammond and a bunch of guys.
• 15:33
  And Dad actually got to talk to more people than I did, you
• 15:38
  know. So anyways, I don't know if
• 15:40
  you've got any stories you want to tell from that.
• 15:44
  Yeah, you know, Sterling Marlin hadn't seen him in forever, but
• 15:48
  I hadn't seen Ernie in forever. It was so good to see Ernie and
• 15:53
  Kim and just love, love Ernie so much, but love Kim too, you
• 15:58
  know, We were so close in 9293 and right up till his accident,
• 16:06
  you know, and it was just, we camped together, parked our
• 16:10
  coaches side by side and hung out together.
• 16:14
  And it was so good to spend time with them.
• 16:16
  But just Harry Gant, you know, talking to Harry and just just
• 16:22
  on and on. I got Butch Mock got to talk
• 16:25
  about a fun story with Butch Mock.
• 16:28
  So not everybody knows this, but I I wanted to drive that 75 car
• 16:32
  so bad I could taste it in the 80s Eighty 384.
• 16:37
  I would have loved to have drove it, but they you know they do.
• 16:40
  They wouldn't hire me. And so anyway, Todd boat, I'm
• 16:46
  striving for them later on in, in the 90s and we qualify poorly
• 16:54
  in at Darlington and Todd's lined up right behind me.
• 16:59
  So we're 27th or something, you know, back there pretty good.
• 17:04
  And right before we get in the car, strap in, I go up to Todd
• 17:07
  and say Todd, follow me, we're going to go to the front.
• 17:13
  Don't be any hurry. We're, you know, just follow me
• 17:17
  'cause I knew that, you know, I knew.
• 17:21
  And so we ran about 5 or 6 laps and I wasn't, I was making
• 17:25
  progress. Steady, steady, slow, gradual
• 17:30
  progress. Of course he had to pass me and
• 17:33
  to own them, pass a bunch of other ones about 15.
• 17:36
  And this is Butch telling the story.
• 17:38
  And then I remembered it all. Then about 15 laps later, I
• 17:43
  catch Todd drive on and we run off and lead Todd, you know, see
• 17:48
  she, he couldn't listen, you know, And so it was fun hearing
• 17:54
  that story because when I hear stories that I forgot about,
• 17:59
  it's it's kind of fun to relive. But DW just got all those guys.
• 18:07
  I didn't get a chance to talk to Larry Mack.
• 18:09
  We were standing right next to each other, but we were gathered
• 18:12
  around with everybody talking and we had a huge time.
• 18:16
  And I just commend Darlington, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the
• 18:21
  alumni, you know, program, what they did for the old timers was
• 18:27
  absolutely amazing. With that tent, with the TV,
• 18:31
  with food really gave these old timers a place to go because
• 18:36
  when we go to the racetrack now, what are we supposed to do
• 18:40
  there? And we, we don't go to
• 18:41
  somebody's trailer like we used to, like our haulers or trailer.
• 18:45
  We, we don't really know what to do.
• 18:47
  So we don't feel super comfortable.
• 18:50
  And that gave us all a place to gather in luxury air
• 18:54
  conditioning and everything. And it was that part of it was
• 18:58
  absolutely fantastic. Yeah, it's really neat deal that
• 19:02
  they do that now. I mean, you know, I think it's
• 19:05
  really important to give people that have been involved in
• 19:10
  NASCAR for, you know, most of their lives at least, you know,
• 19:15
  place to go to the track and hang out and everything.
• 19:18
  It is a really neat, really neat experience to get to see
• 19:22
  everybody again because, I mean, I hadn't seen some people since
• 19:25
  I was a little kid. So yeah, it was cool.
• 19:28
  Yeah, yeah. And then, then what we do next,
• 19:33
  It was so much fun. Well, wait, so after you took
• 19:37
  the pace car out and before you know the start, you took the
• 19:43
  pace car out and then we went back to the alumni tent for like
• 19:47
  5 minutes and then we went up to the MRN booth and I'd, I'd have
• 19:53
  known about that elevator going up there.
• 19:58
  I mean, you know, it's like, that's like getting into a steel
• 20:01
  cage. I mean, it's not like a modern.
• 20:03
  Elvis, it's like it's old school.
• 20:06
  So that that was kind of a cool experience.
• 20:08
  But we got up to the MRN booth and that was really neat.
• 20:12
  I'd never seen the track from up there before and to watch those
• 20:17
  guys, you know, call the race, I mean that's you have to be
• 20:22
  really talented to do that. I mean, they're just so smooth
• 20:25
  and you know, you got to think like as a listener, you're not,
• 20:30
  you don't have the visual component.
• 20:32
  So those guys really have to paint the picture of what's
• 20:34
  going on. I mean, it, it's, that's a
• 20:36
  difficult thing to do. And obviously they, I'm sure
• 20:39
  they practice that a lot, but dad can talk about it.
• 20:42
  It's just like, man, they just just, they just roll with it.
• 20:45
  They're so good at that. And it was cool too, because
• 20:48
  when we looked over to our left and the, the neighboring booth,
• 20:52
  we could see Larry Mack in there, you know, calling the
• 20:55
  race too. And I mean that that was pretty
• 20:57
  sweet. So.
• 20:58
  Yeah, you know, Bagley and and all those guys in the booth, I
• 21:03
  had to brag on them and they just, they make it look easy and
• 21:07
  it's not. I mean, they are so smooth, you
• 21:11
  know, It is, it's incredible. I enjoy that as much as anything
• 21:15
  we did was being up there in the booth with them and listening to
• 21:19
  them and interacting with those guys.
• 21:22
  And I, I want to give a shout out to Todd Gordon because I
• 21:27
  wanted him to know that I truly appreciate his view, which is
• 21:32
  technical, much more technical because he was a crew chief.
• 21:36
  And so I like that. I need that.
• 21:39
  I need to know, you know, a little bit more from a technical
• 21:42
  side to help me stay integrated and interested.
• 21:46
  So I think he's a huge plus to addition to the NASCAR radio.
• 21:53
  Whenever or either MRN or when I hear him on the on the radio and
• 21:57
  stuff, I love, love hearing him and that's that's, that's really
• 22:01
  cool. But it was a lot of fun.
• 22:04
  We got to tell, I got to tell a funny story that that's going to
• 22:08
  be in the book. They they couldn't believe it.
• 22:10
  Todd could not believe it because, you know, he's a crew
• 22:13
  chief and he's thinking of how things are today about, you
• 22:17
  know, ripping my cool suit off under caution on the racetrack
• 22:22
  at Dover. So like, how did you do that?
• 22:24
  Well, he's thinking containment seats and stuff and you know, we
• 22:28
  didn't have any of that. So I took my seat belts off and
• 22:30
  my helmet off and I took the damn thing off and I didn't come
• 22:34
  to, I never occurred to me to come to Pit Rd. because then I'd
• 22:37
  have to line up last, you know, at the back of the pack.
• 22:40
  So yeah, so they got a big hoot out of that.
• 22:45
  But that's just a little taste of the crazy stuff that's going
• 22:49
  to be in our book, Matt. And I can't wait to to share
• 22:52
  that. So it was amazing day.
• 22:55
  The fans were so awesome, so energetic.
• 23:01
  The social media afterwards and today is so positive.
• 23:07
  NASCAR's really, you know, they're really honor, you know,
• 23:13
  headed in the right direction. Things are really much better
• 23:17
  than I think they were a year ago.
• 23:19
  Yeah, it really seems like there's a lot of positive, you
• 23:23
  know, momentum, you know, and I'd be be great to keep that
• 23:27
  going. For sure.
• 23:31
  Well, also, I don't know if you got anything else about
• 23:33
  Darlington, but man, we had a had a blast on Tuesday as well.
• 23:39
  Yeah, I mean, that was another full day.
• 23:42
  I mean it, you know. So, yeah, we got there, you
• 23:45
  know, early in the morning and we flew from Arkansas to to
• 23:48
  Concord, NC and landed at the airport there and went straight
• 23:53
  to the RFK shop. And that was another place I
• 23:56
  hadn't seen since I was, you know, or at least been inside
• 24:00
  since I was, you know, a little kid.
• 24:02
  And it was pretty cool because, you know, a lot of it was how I
• 24:05
  remembered. I mean, obviously there's been
• 24:08
  some updates and changes and stuff, but that was really neat
• 24:12
  and to, you know, meet everybody in the shop and and have the
• 24:15
  luncheon honor and Jack, that was cool.
• 24:20
  And dad, you know, can talk more about that, I'm sure.
• 24:24
  But yeah, it was it was really cool to reconnect with with them
• 24:28
  and that organization obviously with with dad's history there.
• 24:32
  So. And it chip hours is I don't
• 24:36
  know his exact title president, is it I would call it the
• 24:42
  general manager, but I think he's probably president or vice
• 24:45
  president of RFK now. So he's been there for a while,
• 24:51
  but was first time for me to really see him in person.
• 24:55
  We've had a phone call about his vision and like I'm, I'm kind of
• 25:03
  excited about it because he seems to bring new life to the,
• 25:08
  to the vision that, you know, we're, we're going to embrace
• 25:12
  our history. We're going to embrace our roots
• 25:15
  where we came from. We're going to, you know,
• 25:17
  embrace Jack Roush, you know, even though he's one part of the
• 25:23
  of of an organization instead of it being Jack Roush and Roush
• 25:27
  racing in the in the beginning. But I think it's cool that they
• 25:32
  want to they had a, you know, most of the old drivers from the
• 25:38
  original Ralph's days were there and they embrace that.
• 25:43
  And, and I think they have a great plan going forward that,
• 25:48
  you know, they already have the best social media, you know,
• 25:54
  program in NASCAR. And you know, we haven't overly
• 26:00
  participated in that because we haven't really, you know, prior
• 26:06
  to the new leadership, it wasn't really embraced for multiple
• 26:12
  reasons. But we're looking forward to
• 26:16
  working with them all going forward with the social media
• 26:19
  and with RFK. And you know, I love Chris
• 26:22
  Butcher and of course everybody knows they love Ryan Priest as
• 26:27
  well. And Brad is such a smart person.
• 26:32
  They couldn't have, couldn't have had to.
• 26:35
  For Brad to be able to get that program back competitive after
• 26:42
  being not competitive for so long was quite the feat.
• 26:46
  And Brad was, he was the man to do it because he's so smart.
• 26:51
  Yeah, it's really cool to see them doing good again.
• 26:54
  You know, they went for a while where they struggled a little
• 26:57
  bit and yeah, it was so cool to see them back up front at
• 27:01
  Darlington. But yeah, so we spent the
• 27:04
  morning there, had lunch with them, and then after that we
• 27:08
  went across the street to NASCAR productions.
• 27:11
  And yeah, we were there until the evening.
• 27:15
  And yeah, that was that was a lot to do.
• 27:19
  I mean, I can't even remember all what we did.
• 27:21
  We did so much. Yeah, yeah.
• 27:24
  I hand it to, you know, the NASCAR Media Group and social
• 27:30
  media and all that because they asked me, you know, how much
• 27:34
  time would I give them? And I'm like, man, I'm, I don't
• 27:38
  come to Charlotte ever. And I'm, you know, going to be
• 27:43
  there. So all you want, how's that?
• 27:49
  And boy, they took that to heart.
• 27:51
  We were there, they took. Advantage of that.
• 27:53
  They took advantage of it. We were there from 2:00 till
• 27:55
  6:30 and never had one minute, you know, of, of leisure time.
• 28:01
  I mean, we were wide open. So I loved it.
• 28:03
  I thought that was the way I'm wide open.
• 28:06
  That's how I would have done it. If someone would have told me if
• 28:10
  I was in charge and a driver said everything you want, I
• 28:14
  would have done it that way. So I, I appreciate it.
• 28:17
  We got a lot done. There's a lot of stuff in the
• 28:20
  can that's going to be coming at you later that I think
• 28:25
  everybody's going to enjoy. And they made the most of it.
• 28:29
  We did, you know, we met with the press and we, we shot that
• 28:33
  social media thing with Roger Carruth, which was brilliant.
• 28:38
  I mean, there's so much work goes into that that people don't
• 28:42
  think about, but I, I thought that was great.
• 28:47
  I don't even know what all else we did.
• 28:49
  I'm like you, Matt. I can't remember, but I know we
• 28:52
  were on the move the whole time and it was pretty cool.
• 28:55
  We got to see Ross Chastain when I was coming out of the media
• 29:00
  room, he was going in, he stopped and he asked Matt
• 29:03
  something about the fast truck racing.
• 29:07
  And I actually didn't realize he started racing.
• 29:10
  The year that Matt moved out of that, he started racing fast
• 29:14
  trucks. So what Matt was doing so it was
• 29:17
  kind of wild to think about that, but Ross was coming along
• 29:21
  way back then getting his feet under him and it was it was cool
• 29:25
  to talk to to him and and at the luncheon too, you know, Carl was
• 29:31
  there, Jeff Burton was there. I mean, it was so much fun to
• 29:36
  have all all those your Jamie Murray and we got to tell those
• 29:40
  stories, you know, about all of that.
• 29:43
  One of them that's important to me that's never spoken about
• 29:47
  enough is, you know, Jack Rouse never hired a successful NASCAR
• 29:51
  driver. He he made them successful.
• 29:55
  The only one, I mean, yeah, once we got to Newman or somewhere
• 30:01
  after long after I was gone, maybe he did.
• 30:05
  But you know, all those years, Jamie McMurray was the only guy
• 30:11
  he ever hired that was a successful NASCAR driver.
• 30:14
  All the rest of them were coming up from nowhere.
• 30:18
  And now they're in the Hall of NASCAR Hall of Fame.
• 30:22
  And so that's what he should be famous for, is for making
• 30:26
  people's dream come true. But I like to tell the story
• 30:30
  about Jamie because I demanded we hired Jamie.
• 30:34
  I wanted Jamie to take over the 6th car.
• 30:37
  I wanted him to replace me in the sixth car.
• 30:41
  And as it turned out, Kurt got fired and they needed somebody
• 30:45
  to drive the 97 and just made sense for me to stay another
• 30:50
  year and help him out because they didn't, you know, they they
• 30:54
  weren't prepared for that. And so he never wound up in the
• 30:59
  six car. But it was it's a pretty cool
• 31:03
  story and it's something that people should think about
• 31:06
  because Jack wasn't the kind of guy to go out and and poach crew
• 31:12
  members or, or drivers from someone else.
• 31:16
  He was all about taking them the right people and giving them the
• 31:20
  tools to be successful. Yeah, it was really good to see
• 31:24
  Jack. You know, I had, I hadn't
• 31:25
  personally seen Jack in many years.
• 31:28
  And so it was really neat to see him again, talk to him and shake
• 31:32
  his hand. And yeah, Dad, just to echo what
• 31:35
  you said, I mean, I think Jack has a, a really unique place in
• 31:41
  NASCAR history. And I mean, he really should be
• 31:44
  recognized for what he did because I mean, he he created a
• 31:49
  lot of NASCAR stars, you know, and I mean, you just think like,
• 31:57
  of course, Dad, I mean Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Kurt
• 32:00
  Busch, I mean, Matt Kinseth, Yeah.
• 32:05
  I mean, you know, I mean, without Jack Roush, like no one
• 32:10
  would really know who these guys are.
• 32:12
  And so it's it's big. I mean, there's not really any
• 32:15
  other major car owner that's done that that I can think of.
• 32:20
  Just think about it. Jeff Burton's going to be in the
• 32:22
  NASCAR Hall of Fame too. So, you know, how many Hall of
• 32:26
  Fame drivers did he put in there?
• 32:28
  And and Jimmy Fennig will be a Hall of Fame crew chief.
• 32:30
  And yeah, Jimmy had been around when he came to work there in
• 32:35
  97. But you know, he's, you think
• 32:39
  about it and you think about unsung stars and that those are
• 32:46
  Steve Neal and Robin Pemberton. And they're, they're, they're
• 32:51
  overlooked a lot. And they were young guys who it
• 32:58
  was a big step to to take over the role as crew chief and
• 33:02
  general manager of an organization that had nothing.
• 33:06
  I mean they built it from the first piece of metal and in the
• 33:12
  second year we won races and finished third in the in the
• 33:15
  championship. So 6 poles.
• 33:18
  We were really fast. So all through all through Roush
• 33:25
  Racing, he was creating superstars and for that I'm
• 33:30
  internally grateful, not just for what he did for me, but what
• 33:34
  what he did for others. Yeah, and not to, you know, skip
• 33:38
  around a little bit, but talking about, you know, being over at
• 33:42
  the NASCAR production facility was talking to to some of the
• 33:47
  people there and they were showing us, you know, footage
• 33:50
  from dad's career and everything.
• 33:51
  And I was really, I mean, I knew they had a lot of unreleased
• 33:55
  footage that they've been working on and they'll
• 33:58
  eventually get out, but they had way more than I ever would have
• 34:04
  realized some of the stuff that they showed us.
• 34:07
  I mean, even like some of the races that are already on NASCAR
• 34:11
  Classics, like say the 93 seven 500 or the 89 Rockingham win
• 34:19
  even, you know, they have footage from those races that's
• 34:24
  not in the broadcast footage that they have uploaded to the
• 34:27
  NASCAR Classics page. So, you know, some of that
• 34:31
  footage I'd never even seen before.
• 34:33
  So that was really neat. But they they have more races,
• 34:36
  you know, they just haven't, you know, upload them yet.
• 34:39
  They even have they have a lot of stuff that's just off the
• 34:42
  track. It's not even, you know, from a
• 34:45
  race. And so, yeah, they were, they're
• 34:50
  telling me, you know, how much footage that they're having to
• 34:53
  go through and that, I mean, it's, it's a massive undertaking
• 34:57
  to. I mean, I know a little bit
• 34:58
  about that from just getting, you know, negatives and stuff,
• 35:02
  you know, and for the book and getting stuff scanned for photo
• 35:06
  photos and everything. But it like, yeah, when you get
• 35:10
  that much in your archive, like it's a lot of work to get out,
• 35:16
  get everything digitized and organized and everything.
• 35:19
  And but they, they even had a few old ASA races and I think,
• 35:26
  if I recall correctly, they, I'm not sure if they'll ever release
• 35:30
  those that I think they want to. But you know, that kind of gets
• 35:34
  into possible, you know, possibly like some rights issues
• 35:37
  and everything. But they showed us footage from
• 35:40
  that one of the 1986 Winchester 400 and it was in, you know,
• 35:45
  high definition And it was, it was crazy because it was shot
• 35:48
  like a professionally, you know, I, I didn't even know that they
• 35:52
  filmed it like that back then. But it looked like you're
• 35:56
  watching a race on the NASCAR Classics channel.
• 35:59
  It was crazy to see that footage.
• 36:02
  It was and that, you know, that reminds me.
• 36:05
  So that's what took a lot of our time was we did race watch for
• 36:10
  NASCAR classics, which, you know, we watched, you know,
• 36:14
  certain clips of the race. And then I would, you know, talk
• 36:19
  about it, talk about the Car, Talk about the track, talk about
• 36:22
  the strategy or whatever. And the reason I say all that is
• 36:30
  to add to what Matt said about all this massive amount of
• 36:34
  incredible footage that they have a 24/7 NASCAR channel and
• 36:42
  it's free. I get it on Tubi.
• 36:46
  I've got a app I I have Apple TV, my TV's and I watch, you
• 36:51
  know, so that's what I watch all everything on stream, everything
• 36:54
  and on to be. But it's it's other platforms as
• 36:59
  well, but it's free. You don't have to pay for it.
• 37:02
  And these classic real, I mean, it's NASCAR racing 24/7 and
• 37:08
  there's a lot of really cool high definition, you know, old
• 37:14
  racing's races and race footage. And that's a massive thing.
• 37:19
  And like Matt said, he understands a lot of that
• 37:22
  because he's done so much stuff with the archive in in posting
• 37:29
  videos and editing things and all that stuff.
• 37:32
  And then everything that he's done with the book, he has a
• 37:35
  great appreciation. I think we all forget in the
• 37:39
  fast day and age that we live in, we forget how much work goes
• 37:45
  into this entertainment that we have.
• 37:48
  You know, we pick up the phone and we go on, you know,
• 37:51
  Instagram or X or something like that and we see something
• 37:55
  interesting and we don't think about how much work it is.
• 37:58
  I know I do my own social media and I would like to do a better
• 38:03
  job, but it's it's a full time job.
• 38:06
  If I was going to do a better job than I do.
• 38:09
  And I was just thinking today when I was thinking about that
• 38:13
  NASCAR thing that we did with Raja and I thinking about how
• 38:19
  much work it was work for Raja and I, but not much work.
• 38:23
  It was a massive amount of work for them to put that together.
• 38:26
  And it just made me think, like so many of these things that we
• 38:30
  watch on social media is, is requiring somebody's a lot of
• 38:34
  time and work, and we forget that sometimes.
• 38:39
  Yeah, I mean, they were telling me that they have so much
• 38:43
  footage in their archive that I mean, they don't even know.
• 38:48
  They don't even know all what they have.
• 38:50
  They have so much. And I know how that is with all
• 38:53
  the photos and stuff that I have and though or like, they know
• 38:58
  that they have something, but they have so much that they have
• 39:01
  a hard time finding it. And yeah, it's just, it's going
• 39:08
  to be pretty amazing over the next couple years.
• 39:10
  I think what they come out with and, you know, upload to, you
• 39:15
  know, their, their channels and everything.
• 39:17
  Because some of the stuff that they, they showed us, I mean, it
• 39:20
  was just, it was mind blowing, you know, frankly, I mean, it,
• 39:25
  it, it's just really cool to see in it.
• 39:27
  It's a good thing that they're doing this because, you know,
• 39:32
  for the longest time, I mean, all people could do is watch
• 39:37
  grainy footage of all this stuff on YouTube.
• 39:40
  And I mean, that's better than nothing.
• 39:43
  But it's hard to appreciate something when you're watching
• 39:48
  it and such, you know, low quality.
• 39:51
  I mean, when you see this stuff on high definition, you're just
• 39:54
  like, wow. I mean it it just it really.
• 39:59
  Yeah, I think that pretty much sums our week up.
• 40:03
  Yeah, I'm dude. I'm wore out, man.
• 40:08
  Both of us, yeah, My friend that went with us yesterday, about
• 40:13
  two hours in after getting to the racetrack, he said you're
• 40:15
  going to have a sore throat. And I said, yeah, I am talking
• 40:20
  so much. All right.
• 40:21
  Great stories, guys. A few housekeeping items we're
• 40:24
  going to record every other week now moving forward because we
• 40:29
  know you guys are so busy with this book coming out and you've
• 40:31
  told me a little bit behind the scenes about how much work goes
• 40:35
  into it. So I know that's your number one
• 40:37
  priority moving forward. I know all your fans can't wait
• 40:41
  to read this book. We're excited.
• 40:43
  I, I think, yeah, I mean, I, I think it's going to be a big hit
• 40:48
  with everybody, at least I hope so.
• 40:50
  I mean, it's a quarter of a million words.
• 40:53
  It's between 500 and 600 pages. And I mean, you know, I was
• 40:59
  telling people, I mean, we approached this book like a
• 41:03
  historian was writing a book on, you know, a general in the First
• 41:07
  or Second World War where, you know, other historians in the
• 41:11
  field. We're going to try and disprove,
• 41:13
  you know, all the claims that you make.
• 41:17
  You know, I mean, that's the kind of accuracy that myself and
• 41:21
  the writer Bones and dad wanted because how our minds work, if
• 41:27
  you read a book and you see one thing in there that is
• 41:30
  inaccurate, you automatically question the rest of the story.
• 41:35
  And so we just we put a lot of work into this lot of research.
• 41:40
  And like I said, anything you want to know about Mark Martin,
• 41:45
  just about life and career is going to be in this book.
• 41:49
  And I just guarantee you there will never be another book in
• 41:56
  the NASCAR world about a driver that is going to be like this.
• 42:02
  This is going to be totally unique.
• 42:05
  All right. Well said.
• 42:06
  Any final words before we wrap this one up?
• 42:08
  Oh, I think not only the book, but I have a, a new motor coach
• 42:16
  that's, you know, going to going to hit us about the 1st of May
• 42:21
  and that's huge work on me and workload because I'm psycho and
• 42:27
  I've got to get everything perfect first before I can ever
• 42:32
  use it. So immediately we'll take it
• 42:34
  straight out to Utah to Performance Diesel Incorporated
• 42:39
  and get the compound turbo put on it.
• 42:41
  And so we'll get that thing running like a sports car and
• 42:46
  then bring it back home. I also, we're going to be
• 42:50
  completing our shop about the same time.
• 42:54
  And by completing I'll say 90% when we get it, 90% complete,
• 43:00
  we'll be able to move in and then finish the the last touches
• 43:05
  as we go. But that's going to also be a
• 43:08
  huge thing. And that's when our studio will
• 43:11
  have our studio to do the podcast in.
• 43:13
  And Matt and I can do do that together in the studio or we can
• 43:17
  do it separately or whatever. But it'll be nice to have a
• 43:20
  place to whenever I've got to do a Zoom call or meeting, anything
• 43:24
  like that, I'll be able to go in there.
• 43:26
  It's a professional studio, so you know, I won't have to have a
• 43:31
  bunch of complicated stuff. It's with all the cameras are
• 43:33
  going to be there, lights are going to be there.
• 43:36
  They're supposed to make it where all I do is push a button
• 43:39
  and I can be on SO. Well, that was that was one of
• 43:44
  the things I, I wanted to kind of encourage you to do to get
• 43:47
  that studio since you've had that shop is, you know, not
• 43:50
  really just because of us doing this, but I mean, you're a guest
• 43:55
  on so many, you know, shows and podcasts that I mean, I just
• 43:59
  thought it would be great instead of, you know, just doing
• 44:02
  it off your phone, you know, you can have a spot.
• 44:05
  Just go in there. It looks real professional and
• 44:08
  you know you maybe can see the race cars in the background and
• 44:12
  this should be pretty cool looking.
• 44:15
  Yeah, this shop is going to be it's going to be something else
• 44:19
  when it's all done at 90%, it'll be cool.
• 44:22
  But that last 10% is the the the part that's going to make it
• 44:27
  like, you know, everybody's jaws going to drop.
• 44:30
  So we're we're excited about that.
• 44:32
  And also we've got Jr. 10 that we've got to get finished up and
• 44:39
  get in our hands. And then we got to get 51 up
• 44:41
  here to the new shop from from Batesville.
• 44:44
  And I've got stacker trailer that I've got, I've never pulled
• 44:49
  one before. So I've got got it being wrapped
• 44:52
  now to match the coach. And so I'll have to figure all
• 44:56
  that stuff out because if we do want to take one of those race
• 45:00
  cars to a book signing or something like that, we can put
• 45:05
  put a a passenger car up top in the race car on the bottom, put
• 45:09
  it behind the coach. And maybe we'll go to Bentley's
• 45:14
  place in Maine and have the Valvoline car and have a big
• 45:18
  time that that sure would be fun.
• 45:20
  We love going up there. Yeah, I'm definitely going up
• 45:23
  there. So we've got a lot of lot more
• 45:29
  moving parts and for everyone to remember besides all the things
• 45:34
  that Matt does on his side with that mechanical wise, all that
• 45:42
  stuff I'm talking about on me, I don't have I don't have a
• 45:46
  helper. So you know, when it comes, I'm
• 45:49
  usually out there working by myself.
• 45:50
  So it comes to figuring out how to outfit and tie down things in
• 45:55
  a new trailer, or working out all the bugs on a new motor
• 45:59
  coach, or moving my stuff into into my new shop.
• 46:04
  That's pretty much me. Yeah, well, that that quiet
• 46:07
  professional podcast studio will be big as I'm sitting here with
• 46:10
  my weed whackers and the trimmers and the yard people
• 46:14
  starting halfway through this podcast.
• 46:15
  So on that note, we'll we'll wrap things up.
• 46:18
  We'll see you in a couple weeks. Great episode, guys.
• 46:20
  I think people love those stories from Darlington and
• 46:23
  we'll see you in a couple weeks. Thanks.
• 46:25
  Thank you. Thank you guys.