Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / This Stuff Is Hard! | Mast Cast Ep. 11

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This Stuff Is Hard! | Mast Cast Ep. 11 · Kenny Wallace Media

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The Mass cast has returned. That's right, the Cup Series
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returned from their break. So therefore the Mass cast, we
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have also returned from our break.
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We are back here with you on Kenny Wallace Media.
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He is former NASCAR Cup series and O'Reilly series driver Rick
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Mast. I am his non driving son Ricky
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and we're pleased to be back with you.
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We're taping this on April 14th. So I'm going to hope, Dad, that
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you have got your taxes done. As I understand it, they are due
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tomorrow, April 15th, probably the day that most people will be
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watching and listening to us here on Mass Cast.
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So do you have your taxes done? I'll ask you that.
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We had the file extension this year.
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Well, at least you remember the file extension.
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Yeah, we had trouble getting a couple K ones from other
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entities. So anyhow we had to file
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extensions, so it is what it is. My wife and I did our own for
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the first time ever and you just said K1 and I have no idea what
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AK 1 is. So that makes me feel even less
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confident about the fact that I did my own taxes.
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But I already got those return the returns the the direct
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deposit showed up in my account today so I ain't giving it back.
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As far as I'm concerned, we get it right.
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All right, everybody listen to Mass Cast.
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Explain to Ricky. Let us know right here.
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Tell Ricky what AK 1 is so he'll know.
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Yeah, I got no clue. Didn't didn't Earnhardt one time
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back in the day, didn't he run a a late model?
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That was AK I'm thinking of. Who am I thinking of?
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Somebody ran a late model car back in the 70s.
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It was like K-7 or or something. Ricky.
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I might just be making that up, folks.
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I probably am. My apologies.
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No, he never ran. No, no, no, no, no.
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I'm thinking of a I'm thinking of a different, different guy.
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Forget that. Anyways, well my taxes are done,
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I already got my money so I I ain't going to say anything else
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about it. Godspeed to you and yours on
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your extension. Well Dad, we exciting weekend at
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Bristol. Still one of my favorite places
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to go, one of my favorite tracks on the circuit.
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One of my favorite memories ever with you winning there in 1990
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in the then Bush series, what we now know is the O'Reilly Series.
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It was a big win. Wasn't your first win in the
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O'Reilly Series 90, but it was as important as any win you ever
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had probably. But I'll tell you as far as an
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important win as anybody's ever had.
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Ty Gibbs capturing his first win in the Cup Series on Sunday.
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Of course, you know, he's been up there for a couple years with
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his grandfather's team. I mean, all the lower levels,
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man. He, I mean, he, he would show up
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and he'd win. It seemed like he won a
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championship. And then I mean, really from the
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time he won the then Xfinity championship and then he had the
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tragedy. I mean, that very night.
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His dad Coy, who I think you knew a little bit passes away
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and he moves up to the Cup Series.
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And it's been, it's been a rough go ever since then.
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But you know, we talked about it previously here on Mass Cast
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earlier this year. Seemed like that 54 car starting
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to show up in the top ten, a little bit more in top five.
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You're like every week you're like seeing that 54 car run up
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there a little bit more. And sure enough, he breaks
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through on Sunday. So what are just your first
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thoughts from Ty Gibbs in the race in Bristol though on
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Sunday? Yeah, Ty Gibbs.
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Let's talk about Ty Gibbs here for a little while, guys.
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He he finally did what everybody's been waiting so long
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for him to do. I mean, he, the kid wanted
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everything he's fasted everything he ever raced in, you
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know, and he gets the Cup and everybody's expecting the same
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thing. And it didn't happen for the
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guy, right? It it took till now to happen.
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In fact, it finally got to where a lot of people are starting to
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write him off a little bit like, well, maybe he's not the next
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great thing come along because it's it's been so long and
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multitude of reasons for that. You know, things go on in in our
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sport in the cup series and, and as I preacher every week on mass
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gas, man, this stuff is not easy.
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This stuff is hard, right? And you know, he oh, gosh, if we
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go back a little bit, I mean, you know, the, the guy has taken
4:11
so much criticism. And you know, what made me feel
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pretty good about the deal Sunday is all the guys in the
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garage that came by and congratulated them in Victory
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Lane. Now, if, if, what some of the
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pundits out here talk about say about him, if that were true,
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you wouldn't see these congratulatory guy or these guys
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congratulating him in Victory Lane.
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You know, so many of his fellow competitors showed up there
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congratulating the guy, right, Which tells you that gives you a
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little insight into what the garage thinks of the guy, right?
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So evidently to to the, the, the Thai Gibb haters, you know, you
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know, maybe it's just not true. Maybe, maybe guess what, he is a
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good guy, right? He, you know, he, the, I don't
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know, man, he, he, he gets a lot of grief to the silver spoon
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Thing's the biggest thing. Possibly Joe Gibbs, his
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grandson, right? That's the biggest criticism he
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gets. And then maybe the way he came
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off of some interviews offended people.
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I don't know. But you know, he's a kid, right?
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He's a young kid that hadn't been thrown into all the world
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traumas and tribulations we all have to go through.
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And you know, he's in the he's in a big spotlight.
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And so he was very he was judged a lot for that.
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And then not, you know, not becoming a prolific winner like
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we all thought and knew you would be coming out of the Bush
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Xfinity Series now ORP series. You know, it, it just took a
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while. And he's been running good this
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year, there's no doubt. But, you know, I don't know, you
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got it. I, I look at him a little bit
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differently. I give him a pass on some of
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that thought. I mean, some of those things.
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I mean, the guy won the Xfinity at the time championship.
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He won it in Phoenix on a Saturday afternoon, a Saturday
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night. That night his daddy died.
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Do you hear what I'm telling you folks?
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He he won the championship. They all went to bed happy.
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They woke up the next morning. Guess what?
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Corey Gibbs didn't wake up. He was dead.
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He died. So, you know, in the media, you
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know that the Gibbs are very private family.
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You know, the media didn't really do a lot about, you know,
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how that may have affected the little Gibbs guy, right and and
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all that. So anyhow, I always give the guy
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pass from that moment forward a little bit and just because of
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that, such a tragic thing, man, we people, they really don't
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talk about it much. You don't read about it much,
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but that that's a very traumatic experience for that whole
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family. I mean, they had just lost JD,
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right? Great guy, by the way.
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And then they lose Koi. I mean, that's the that was your
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heartbeat and backbone of that race team.
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Well, Joe Gibbs is and we talked about Joe Gibbs a little bit
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even to go back. I mean, we're, we're talking
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about legacy here with Ty Gibbs and that's what we're talking
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about. I remember, you know, we all
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know what Michael Jordan, we all know what's happened with
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Michael Jordan, the impact he's made on our sport.
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That's all we've talked about all year because of Reddick
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winning so much. But I'm going to tell you
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something, man, in 91 or 92, whatever the year was when Joe
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Gibbs came into our sport, it was big.
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It was a big deal. His name recognition at the
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time, not worldwide like Michael Jordan, but nationwide in the in
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the United States of America, Joe Gibbs, that name, that
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brand, it was a it was a huge, huge deal in our in our in our
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country, right in the sports world, just because you know,
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he, he had become he, he made himself legendary as a Super
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Bowl winning coach the Washington Redskins.
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And I remember when he came in there a sport man, we had a big,
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they had a big to do at Daytona, at the Hilton or something
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welcoming to the sport. Everybody within the sport
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mostly was at this function and he was there and they had bands
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playing in the whole deal. But I remember the height, the
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the, the guys writing about it, the stuff going on about it.
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He was, you know, they, they catch a lot of flock these days
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just because, you know, they're they're A-Team, right?
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And that's social media. But he was a very big, big, big
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deal to our sport when he came in.
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I mean, it brought in legions of fans to our sport.
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I mean, I know that for a fact. He just brought a lot of people
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in. So he's carried that from 91 or
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two, whatever year it was up through now and all the
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championships, the wins, the the problems, you're right, the
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everything that's went on, the deaths of both of his, his, his
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children or his two sons rather. And you know, Ty is the one
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that's going to be carrying this thing into the future.
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Somebody may mention about, you know, when the the face of these
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race teams you got, you know, in a few years there won't be a
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Rick Hendrick, there won't be a a Rodger Pesky, you know,
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Richard Childress, those guys are gone.
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So what what keeps that going? You know, Joe Gibbs will be
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gone. So with that team, you know what
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keeps it going? Heather Ty's mom is heavily
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involved in that race team, have some other family members
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heavily involved, but it's almost like the face of that
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team might end up being Ty Gibbs.
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And if that is in fact the case, and if they if they if if
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they're talking about that and they're grooming for that right,
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then that kids got a lot on his shoulders, man.
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I mean, he's got a lot on his shoulders to look forward to.
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I don't know the inner workers of that race team and what
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they're going to do, but it's just the Joe Gibbs Racing is a
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big part, very major, big part of our sport.
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And for the namesake or for Ty Gibbs to finally get that
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victory, to me, it it, it's just, it's just a very, very big
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deal to me just because of everything I just outlined,
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right? And kind of what they've gone
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through, what they've meant to their sport with that family and
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that race teams meant to their sport.
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And for that guy to live through the criticisms that he's lived
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through and to keep his head on straight, you know, basically
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he's kept his head straight. And if you notice we haven't
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really, you know, he hadn't really give anybody any fodder
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for longest time now to, to, to fuss about to fuss about it.
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You know, the, the, the, the, the pick of it came of that,
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that Xfinity race when he knocked out his teammate to, to
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win the race and that knocked his teammate out of the, I think
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a possible championship. I believe I'm right about that.
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That was the height that was the height of the the tie gives
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criticism, right. And it's really come down that
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that the the the the peak of that is it's really come down
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the the the hate towards that guy or the not like he'd put it
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that way. It's really it's had this steady
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decline down ever since that race and you know, he's handled
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he's handled himself very well with that.
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Now, you know, again, if you go back to just just the
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competition side, you know, I think everybody's a little
11:26
surprised that that the IT took him this long.
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Everybody's surprised, I think in the sport pretty surprised it
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took him this long, but he did do it.
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He's been running this way all year.
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We've talked about here on mass cast early.
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That car is running good right week in and week out and to
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finally get the victory in there.
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Hey, listen, this dude dude man he he he had to hold those guys
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off on those wore tires, right. His tires lot more lapsed than
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than like, Blanding those guys. And you're like, man, nobody
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expected that. We all expected when he went
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back to green to fly by and they didn't happen, right?
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The guy drove his ass off. He won the race.
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He gave his mom a ride to Victory Lane in the car, right?
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And he was truly emotional and happy and thankful And for all
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that, you know, kudos to him. Hope it keeps it going.
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Yeah. You know, I'm not I, I fortunate
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I don't have any guys in the Cup series currently that I actively
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root against. Every driver I've gotten, I've
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been lucky enough to actually interact with and interview a
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lot of the current drivers over the last couple of years and I
12:28
none of the current guys in there, man, I don't I don't
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actively root against any of them.
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I got some that I pull for. You know, I'm wearing Chase's
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hat. He's one of my guys.
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There's a few multiple guys. There's a bunch of guys I pull
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for. Honestly, Ty's one of the guys.
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I've never met him, don't know him, only seen him from afar.
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His personality. I don't really know how to take
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him. He's young guy.
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I, I, again, I don't mean that a bad way, I just don't, I just
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don't know. I don't really have any
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connection to it. But I can tell you watching that
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race Sunday when he was leading and he was having to fight off
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of those guys and having to earn it, I found myself rooting for
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him just because I might not know him.
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I might not necessarily be like an active fan or something of
13:07
his, but I'm a human being and I can only imagine what that's
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like to go from what had to have been the highest high of your
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life. Go to bed as you put went to bed
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that night, happy as you can be champions going into the the
13:19
next level, the highest level where you want to be.
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And you wake up the next morning and your dad, who you just
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celebrated that moment with right there on the track,
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There's pictures of them right there on the racetrack and he's
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gone. He never wakes up and you're
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still right there two months later.
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You're moving up to the highest level.
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And now he's gone and he's oh, by the way, as you laid out, he
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was going to be the guy to take over this operation.
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You know, you're going to be focusing on him becoming a cup
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driver, not taking over the whole deal someday.
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That's not something that you would be thinking about.
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I wouldn't think so to go through all that and then not
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run all that well for multiple years.
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And don't forget either the, the lawsuit stuff between JGR and
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and gay part. There's from from gay part's
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side. There's some stuff that came out
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on that that his side filed that didn't put Ty in a very good
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light as far as you know, the, the way the gay part put it was
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basically Ty was kind of held to a different standard and not
14:15
maybe doing what he was supposed to do or not keeping up with
14:19
what the other three guys were doing.
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And again, that's that's a court battle.
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So it's he should oh, that's he said, he said in this case,
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right. But that wouldn't help it
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either. That wouldn't help in the
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narrative surrounding him. So to breakthrough and get that
14:32
win just, but again, coming back to losing your dad, that that's
14:37
to me. And then the mom and how
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emotional she was and taking the ride to Victory Lane.
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I love Jamie Little's interview with coach Gibbs.
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That was awesome. I love that.
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That was so much fun. Coach just taking the microphone
14:50
and then throwing it to Regan. I mean that, that was awesome.
14:52
I mean, just the joy on coach's face was so cool.
14:55
It was great to see. I, I, you know, it's funny, you
14:59
were talking about who's going to, you know, when, when Rick's
15:02
gone, when Rick Hendrick's gone, Rodgers gone, when Childress is
15:06
gone, who's going to be the face of each of these organizations?
15:08
Well, Hendrick looks like it's going to be Jeff Gordon, right?
15:12
Childress, even though they're, they're having a tough time
15:14
right now. Clearly there's a plan there
15:16
where the Dylan's are going to run that thing and that's,
15:20
that's ongoing. As you just, you can tell
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that's, that's the deal. Someday they're going to take
15:24
over. I saw Dale Junior might have
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even been today, a clip from his podcast where he was talking
15:30
about the same deal with Gibbs, who's going to take over.
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And he was talking about when his dad died, DEI, Dale
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Earnhardt's gone. DEI just could not be the same
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place anymore. It just couldn't.
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And they thrive for a couple years they did great, won a lot
15:47
of races, had a lot of success. But when he died it it was
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pretty much it was it's kind of a done deal.
15:54
At some point, DEI was going to die with it.
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Unfortunately, that's just kind of the way it rolled.
15:58
Dale wasn't probably wasn't ready for that at that point to
16:02
take that over at that point in his life.
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And even if he was, who knows that he and his he and Teresa
16:07
could have even worked that out. I'd that probably wouldn't have
16:10
ever worked. So you do wonder what's going to
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happen. And maybe it's Ty's mom takes
16:15
over for a for a time until Ty is ready.
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I hope that for all their sake and for the sports sake that
16:22
they're able to figure that out and then they will serve.
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I don't want more DEI stories of like they Earnhardt Incorporated
16:28
stories. I don't want that.
16:30
I want well established winning organizations to stay around and
16:33
for the next guy to take over. I mean, you tell correct me if
16:37
I'm wrong, but I assume years ago JD was the one who was
16:40
really being groomed to be the successor someday.
16:43
Is that? Correct.
16:45
Yeah, he was. Ricky, when I, and I tell you a
16:47
quick story, when I first met those guys, I went to the bond
16:51
driving school, the road course driving school in 97 or 98,
16:57
whichever, where it was in, in in Arizona.
17:00
And I did it because I found out Earnhardt did it.
17:03
Once I found out Earnhardt did it, I said, well, I better do
17:05
it. So I did it.
17:06
Anyhow, I show up there and there's two guys, Earnest Gibbs,
17:09
it's Coy Gibbs, JD Gibbs. They were there at the same
17:12
driving school. So, you know, we had a chance
17:15
here for two or three days to kind of get to know those two
17:17
guys. And as the years went by, kind
17:22
of kept up with JD more than Coy because Coy kind of he he went
17:25
out on his own there. A lot of he did, he did a lot of
17:28
his own stuff right. You know, and like when, when
17:31
his dad went back to coach the Redskins era a few years ago,
17:34
Coy went with him as assistant coach.
17:36
He did the what is it motorcycles or something else?
17:39
He was racing, doing some stuff with, you know, but he had cut,
17:43
he had and, and, and in JD was always there with the race team.
17:47
But then as time went back, we kind of ended up back with the
17:51
race team and being a big part of it.
17:53
And, you know, I spoke with coach not too, not very long ago
17:59
and we had a pretty heartfelt conversation about Coy and JD
18:03
'cause I, I always, we, we laughed about the fact that when
18:08
we show up the next weekend or whatever race track it was after
18:11
that practice deal at Bondurat at school, I go up to coach.
18:16
That's a coach. I met your boys, JD and Coy that
18:19
last week. He said, yeah, I heard you were
18:21
there. I said, well, you know, I, I
18:23
didn't have much trouble, but you know, I had to, you know,
18:25
one night I had to take him out of the, what would you call it,
18:31
duty bar. I guess you could, the top is
18:33
going. I had to carry him out of there
18:34
so they wouldn't get in trouble. And I don't know, I made-up a
18:37
couple other things, he says. Oh, Rick, I I hear you.
18:39
He was laughing as I appreciate you looking after my boys for.
18:43
Me, I said OK, coach. But but yeah, JD, such a
18:47
wonderful guy, man, in, in, in through the years, kind of kept
18:52
up the friendship with JD because he was there all the
18:54
time, right? And even when I go back after I
18:56
retired to go back to racetrack, you know, we was having had a
19:00
night, had a way of finding each other man, and we would just
19:03
start yapping and connecting and talking and and Corey didn't
19:06
have that because he wasn't around that much.
19:08
But I didn't understand that he came back in the fold and it's a
19:12
big part of that deal. So, you know, and then for those
19:15
guys to be gone, it puts a whole different whole different band
19:19
succession plan in place. I guess you'd say forth forgives
19:22
racing. But you know, they'll they'll be
19:24
fine, I think. Yeah, I.
19:28
Coach Gibbs, like I'm a lifelong Redskins now Commanders fan.
19:33
The first NFL game I remember watching, I remember watching it
19:36
at the house, was the last Super Bowl that they won, the last
19:39
one, coach one against the Bills in 92.
19:43
I guess it was the Mark Rippon, Gary Clark, Ernest Biner, Brian
19:46
Mitchell Redskins. Those Redskins.
19:50
That's first game ever let. Me interrupt real quick, Rick
19:52
say those guys weren't at a topless joint, right before
19:58
anybody goes any further this they were not at a topless
20:02
joint. I just made the joke to Coach
20:04
Gibbs about that. Let me I want to make sure we
20:06
get straight on that, but go ahead.
20:09
I'm sorry for interruption. Well, that's, that's, that's
20:14
good clarification on your part. Everybody involved I'm sure
20:17
appreciates that. Well, Coach Gibbs became a hero
20:21
of mine as a kid because he made me an NFL fan and a Redskins now
20:26
Commanders fan. So when he came into the sport,
20:28
I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
20:30
And I think we still got it's still at your house.
20:32
Actually, it's in that I believe it's in the room, very room
20:34
you're sitting in the the Redskins Super Bowl winning hat
20:40
that I believe Jimmy Maycar, who was a crew chief for Coach Gibbs
20:45
back in the day on the 18 car. Jimmy was married to Patty
20:50
Makar, Ned Jarrett's daughter, and Patty was your PR Rep at the
20:53
time in the Cup series. Anyway, they knew I was a
20:55
Redskins fan and they got coached to sign a Redskins hat
20:59
for me that I think is still still in your room there.
21:02
And I still thought that was just, that was one of the
21:05
coolest things. I think it's up there somewhere.
21:06
I think it's up top, maybe across from me, but I ain't
21:09
sure. Yeah, it's in here some more.
21:11
Yeah, feel like it's yeah. So there's a lot of stuff in
21:14
that room, but I'm lifelong fan of his.
21:17
I loved it when he came in the sport.
21:18
I thought as a kid I thought was the coolest thing.
21:20
I thought it was so cool that like, you know, Dale Jarrett was
21:23
his first driver. Remember the year, Dale, every
21:25
week he wore a different helmet for each NFL team.
21:28
The helmet was painted up like a a different NFL team's helmet.
21:32
That was like a cool deal. So it was just a cool factor,
21:34
right? It was just a really cool thing.
21:36
So Coach Gibbs, just hero of mine, or I've been a fan of his,
21:41
but I tell you, watching him in his face in the wake of losing
21:45
his, his two sons, I don't, I can't imagine there's anything
21:48
that tests your faith more than that.
21:50
I, I can't imagine anything worse than that.
21:54
And that to me is more inspirational than anything else
21:56
he's ever done. So based on that, more than
21:59
anything, I've, I root for him and I root for his family and I
22:02
root for that team based on that.
22:04
So great to see. It's just, it's great.
22:07
The all around. That was a feel good victory and
22:08
I was right there with you. I was very happy to see the
22:12
number of his fellow competitors of Ty's fellow competitors that
22:16
came there to congratulate him. That's, that's shows a lot about
22:19
the guy and how his his colleagues think of him.
22:23
I still, I remember there's on the, the, the tape of
22:27
Martinsville Nationwide 1501987. You just won your first Bush
22:33
Series victory. You had your first Bush Series
22:35
win the week before at Dover. Then you went on to win the next
22:38
week at Martinsville, but the open of the that Martinsville
22:42
race to Eli Gold and Jerry Punch and they're kind of set in the
22:45
scene of the race and they're talking about how you had won
22:48
the week before. And I'm doctor Punch talks about
22:51
how the number of people that were there that were happy for
22:54
you, that were there to they were clapping their hands,
22:57
pumping their fists for you that, you know, I think one of
22:59
them even said, if you can't win, at least makes you feel
23:03
good. One of the people that you you
23:05
like the most or that you respect the most wins.
23:07
Something along those lines. I'm paraphrasing a little bit,
23:10
and I always loved that little bit of that tape of them talking
23:13
about how well respected you were and how much, you know, the
23:17
respect that your fellow drivers gave you on your first win.
23:19
What what is that like? I mean, we're talking about your
23:21
first Bush win, but that first win to breakthrough because that
23:24
was for you at that time. I mean, I've been a long time
23:28
coming trying to breakthrough at one of NASCAR's higher levels.
23:31
So to get a win, I mean, what do you remember?
23:32
What does that feel like? That first win feeling?
23:35
It was really thinking back on it.
23:40
It was a, it was a relief. It was like a, you know, finally
23:43
we're, we're doing, we're, we're showing what we've been doing.
23:47
You're right. I mean, there's so many frigging
23:50
races, man, leading up to that first Dover win that I felt
23:54
like, you know, we should, we had in the bag, we should have
23:57
won. And why didn't it happen?
23:59
Why didn't it ever happen, right?
24:01
I mean, a number of races that went on long before that race
24:04
that I'm like, I should have won this, I should have won that.
24:07
We could have won this. We could have won that race.
24:09
What in the world's going on, right?
24:10
So you finally get that first one at Dover and like finally,
24:13
finally, you know, we're being rewarded for what we know we're
24:17
capable of doing and have been doing other than just taking the
24:20
friggin checkered flag, you know, And I think the other
24:25
thing I remember about that race or that, that that deal, that
24:28
Victor Lane, the first one of the first people in Victor Lane
24:31
to come up and congratulate was Dale Jarrett.
24:33
I'll never forget Dale Jarrett come up there, right.
24:35
We knew you can do it. It's just a matter of time when
24:37
you should have already got you some.
24:39
You know, I'll never forget him coming up graduating.
24:41
I always, always appreciated that about that guy.
24:44
But yeah, just the, you know, it's just the, I don't know, in
24:49
my boundary. It's not, it's the one almost it
24:51
wasn't like a fulfillment. They're like a proof or
24:53
something. Because in my mind I already
24:56
knew what should have already happened.
24:59
You know, in my mind, I knew that we've, I've ran good enough
25:03
and we've done the right things good enough.
25:05
We should have, should have had some victories in her hand.
25:08
And so it was just, that was more not really validation of
25:13
knowing. It's just because I already knew
25:14
in my mind, you know, I'm good enough to win.
25:16
I should have won, should have won.
25:18
But when we won the race, it wasn't really so much that it
25:20
was just a relief of finally winning, right?
25:23
Not a validation of showing what you could do or showing to
25:27
yourself or be proven to myself what I could do because I didn't
25:30
have any doubts about any of that.
25:31
You know, it's just, it was just a happy feeling for everybody,
25:36
man. A lot of a lot of people worked
25:38
hard for that, for that first victory, that first Bush
25:41
victory. A lot of folks had worked hard,
25:43
Not myself, a lot of the people that stuck with me all through
25:45
the years and you know, you know them all and time and effort
25:50
they gave up to, to make that happen.
25:53
You know, and I tell people all the time, man, we used to have
25:55
our Bush team for years and years and we back back Bush
25:58
team, man, we, we would go, you know, if it, if it was six of
26:02
us, right, we would, or seven of us or whatever we had, you know,
26:07
we would buy 2 motel rooms and we'd sleep together in the motel
26:10
and we'd sleep together in the bins and the whole deal.
26:12
And here's the funny part, those guys like if the room cost you
26:16
100 bucks and there's four of you in the room, each guy would
26:19
divvy up 25 bucks for their part of the room and pay their own
26:23
food pay. They pay their way in there, you
26:25
know, to get your pit pass to get in all of that.
26:28
They pay their own way. It wasn't any Rick playing the
26:32
team to be there or, or, or paying for the rooms and all
26:35
that. You know, it didn't work that
26:37
way. And it was funny.
26:39
I always real, it took me a while to realize those guys were
26:42
doing that, not in an effort to see Rick win.
26:46
That wasn't their deal. They wanted to see that blue #22
26:50
win, right? They wanted to see, they wanted
26:53
to see the fruits of their labor.
26:56
I mean, whatever you call it, they they wanted to see that car
26:59
in Victor Lane more. The car for the effort they put
27:01
in it then just just for Rick. Yeah, they, they, they love me
27:05
and we loved each other and all that.
27:06
But, you know, it was more about seeing that car win that it was
27:10
about Rick winning. And that made it even more
27:12
special to me. You know, we've finally won that
27:15
race and we started winning kind of regularly.
27:17
It, it, it just kind of, I don't know, just made everything, made
27:22
everybody happy, let's put it that way.
27:25
Yeah, well, that's that's why you want to be part of a team.
27:27
You want to be part of something special.
27:29
You know, you, you're investing in it.
27:31
You've got what's the, what's the term sweat equity?
27:34
I mean, that's what you've got. You've got part of yourself.
27:37
Yeah, like you. That's that's why you want to be
27:39
part of something like that. You know, you want to see,
27:43
that's just why you want to join a team.
27:44
That's why I work in sports. I, I like being, I am a tiny,
27:48
tiny, tiny, teeny little part of the organization I work for.
27:52
But man, when we collectively have a win on the field or even
27:57
stuff we do off the field as a success, like I, I take pride in
28:01
that and I feel joy in that because I know I'm just even a
28:04
small little part of this thing that's that's, that's working or
28:07
winning out there. So it's it's really, really
28:10
special as as long as mass cast goes on, I'm sure we'll have a
28:12
lot of stories about those, those guys on those teams back
28:15
in that day, because those guys are talk about heroes.
28:18
Those guys. I love those guys, those, those,
28:21
those guys. I was a little kid and those
28:23
guys were my buddies when I was growing up.
28:24
So, and that Dover win is literally one of my first
28:27
memories in life. So even I at 4 years old, knew
28:30
how big of a felt, how big of a deal that was.
28:33
You talk about your cousin. You were talking about Patty
28:36
Makar. My PR girl with Skull, Jimmy
28:39
Makar's wife and Dale Jarrett's sister, right?
28:42
So England Jarrett's sister, Ned, Marla's daughter.
28:47
When we when I went with Skull in 91 for the Cup deal, we ran
28:52
all the races. Well, the next year they want to
28:55
be running, they wanted to run some Bush races with us, right?
28:58
We didn't run any of the first year I was with the Cup.
29:01
So the next year Skull decided we they wanted me to run some
29:05
Bush races. So we kind of fired up the old
29:07
team again. They were still around in the
29:09
sport. So we fired the team up to run
29:12
some Bush races the next year. Well, in the end of 91, when
29:18
we're putting this all back together, Patty was in charge of
29:21
a lot of things. And one of the things was
29:23
uniforms for the teams. So I had to send her sizes of
29:28
all my my crew guys, right, for the new nice school uniforms.
29:34
And my guys, of course, never had anything fancy like that.
29:39
I sent them to her. She called me up, Rick, and she
29:43
was laughing. I said yeah, said I got your,
29:47
your, your sizes for your crew guys.
29:49
I said OK. She said would you please said
29:52
I'm kind of on a deadline, would you please send me the real
29:55
thing? That's what you mean.
29:57
She says I need the real sizes. I said what you got.
30:00
That's what do you mean, Patty? Well, there's no way these sizes
30:04
you I said Patty, believe me, These are the sizes of these
30:08
guys. She about she about died
30:10
laughing, right, because whatever large is and triple X
30:14
large is, that's what they all were there.
30:16
All these guys were, you know, 45 pants or whatever it is,
30:19
right, and great big. They were just they were just a
30:23
big bruising bunch of crew guys I had.
30:25
And she she but just about died laughing when she understood
30:29
that I wasn't joking. These were the really actual
30:32
sizes of my of my Bush Grand National team.
30:35
So just a sidebar about Patty Love Patty, by the way.
30:39
Your Bush Grand National pit crew in the 80s, early 90s is
30:42
kind of like your stereotypical like your offensive line you'd
30:48
have for like a Midwestern caught, like, you know, like
30:50
Iowa or Nebraska or something like that.
30:54
Like some big like that's what they, I remember one time we
30:56
were at a Skull dinner. It was while you were, you're
30:59
with Skull and you're running that part time Bush program.
31:02
I don't know where we were. I want to say it was Daytona,
31:04
but the late great Johnny Hayes, our buddy who was the VP of
31:07
Motorsports for Skull, one of the all time great personalities
31:10
in NASCAR for fans who like watching old races.
31:14
Johnny also did some commentating on on some old
31:17
NASCAR broadcast back in the day.
31:19
So if you're not familiar with him, you can, you can look him
31:21
up on some of his old NASCAR broadcast.
31:23
He was very funny on there as well.
31:25
But I remember him speaking at one of these Skull dinners and
31:29
he made-up some kind of funny story or whatever about I, I
31:32
don't know what the lead up was, but basically what he was good
31:35
in that the punchline was that nobody was going to fight you or
31:40
or your Bush team. And here's why.
31:42
Could I please have written your crew is at this dinner.
31:45
Well, Rick, mass Bush crew, please stand up.
31:49
And those guys stood up and the the rest of this big room, big
31:52
dinner, fancy dinner, everybody just goes.
31:55
Whoa. And then starts laughing, you
31:57
know, because those got mean. You know, I mess with them.
32:00
You know, they're big dudes and they were tough dudes and, and,
32:03
and they were great dudes. More than all that they were, it
32:06
was just the best bunch of dudes you'd ever want to be around.
32:08
I know that best bunch of people you'd ever want to be around and
32:12
it's pretty. I could go on and on about how
32:15
special it was. What you and those guys pulled
32:18
off in the 80s and on into 1990 and early 90s is pretty amazing.
32:24
My favorite thing, one of my favorite things I've ever heard.
32:28
Quotes I've ever heard about your racing career.
32:31
So flop David Fitzgerald, he's your long time gas man.
32:34
He's one of those dudes. Just a big old dude on that
32:36
team. He was with you forever.
32:37
And again, one of my buddies, one of my favorite people, you
32:41
and mom, you'd been retired for I guess a year or so, 2003, you
32:45
mom had a big party at the house to celebrate your 25th wedding
32:49
anniversary. And as part of that, so the room
32:52
you're sitting in in the house is your trophy root.
32:55
Well, we've gone ahead and it's in the basement.
32:57
We've gone ahead. We have all these.
32:59
I mean, we've got a zillion pictures from your racing
33:01
career. So that summer leading up to the
33:04
big anniversary party, I went ahead and put up a bunch more
33:07
pictures down the basement throughout the hallway.
33:09
So Flop and I during the party we came down, we were looking
33:12
through all the pictures and there's a picture of you guys in
33:14
Victory Lane at New Hampshire in 1990.
33:17
And we were just both looking at that picture and there's Flop in
33:21
the picture in Victory Lane. And I said, man, just talking
33:25
about what what a shoestring budget you guys are on and the
33:28
fact that y'all won multiple times, like just defies logic
33:32
that y'all were able to do that. That's like, man, you couldn't
33:35
do that now and flop goes, you couldn't do it then.
33:39
And I thought, man, that that that pretty much says it right
33:43
there. Like what, what y'all
33:45
accomplished together as a team was truly, truly special.
33:48
So I just love that. Well.
33:51
I'll tell you who needs a good run and some good luck and some
33:55
good fortune. We've talked about them before
33:57
and I swear I don't want to come into Mass Cast wanting to talk
34:00
about this, but gosh, it certainly seems like it's really
34:03
coming to a head. And that is RCR and particularly
34:07
Kyle Busch and the Struggle Man. I hate talking about it because
34:12
I love Childress, I love RCR. I got multiple friends that work
34:16
there. I root for them so hard.
34:18
So I don't want to talk about it, but it became so it really
34:23
seemed like they kind of had a new low or they just really,
34:27
really are they are really in it right now.
34:29
They're fighting it right now, especially the 8 car.
34:31
So just what, what do you think, man?
34:34
What it, what, where are we at with, with, with the Childress
34:36
and the, the situation they're in right now?
34:38
It's been it's been all the news this week just because of the
34:41
radio chatter during the race between the spotter, the driver
34:45
and the crew chief, right during the race.
34:48
And then what I tell you, what really lit it up was what's
34:53
Hamlin's, what's his called? Denny's saying.
34:56
I just recommend him. Yeah.
34:58
I mean, he kind of lit it on Kyle a little bit, like maybe
35:01
Kyle's not stepping it up, you know, maybe he's not doing a lot
35:04
of stuff SIM work. Well, that's been said by a guy
35:07
that we understand over stimulates the SIM deal, right.
35:12
I mean, from the indication of what we hear about people, then
35:14
he really, really, really, really, really works that
35:16
simulator a lot, you know, so that you know, and then somebody
35:22
questioned today, why in the world Denny Hamlin even get into
35:25
that on his podcast. What would he say that?
35:27
I think it's I think it's in Denny's case, somebody was
35:32
saying they were kind of saying all the stuff Denny's got going
35:34
on and everything is happening where he's at.
35:36
Why would he even get into that, right?
35:39
Maybe stirring something up. I really think it's out of a
35:43
deep respect is what I think. I think Hamlin has such a deep,
35:48
deep respect for Kyle Bush and I think it bothers him that Kyle
35:52
Bush can't run in the lead lap. I truly believe it bothers him
35:57
and he's just I think throwing out there everything he can
36:00
possibly think could be wrong and it it.
36:03
So when he came out this week, Lincoln will maybe Kyle's not
36:06
putting effort in and that's basically what he said.
36:09
You know, I don't think it was. I don't take that as a as a cut
36:14
towards Kyle. I think I'd take it as a, you
36:17
know, trying to find an answer, trying to find what what's going
36:21
on here, man? You know, is it all 100% RCR?
36:25
You know, how much, how much blame do we put on Kyle?
36:28
How much can we put on Kyle on this deal?
36:30
And that's, that's kind of what Denny did.
36:32
And that's kind of what that's kind of what blew the thing up
36:34
this week with, with the the Bush say it started with the
36:37
radio chatter during the race and then and come in later, come
36:41
later, come later, come later with the whatever you call it,
36:49
accumulate. Yeah, I'm sorry.
36:52
Yeah. You might have to believe that.
36:54
No, it's OK doing his thing, man.
36:59
And you know, I hell, I don't know if, if, if if anybody knew
37:05
what to do, what was wrong, how to fix it, they'd be already
37:07
fixed it again, again, again, again, again.
37:10
We go back to the same the famous saying on mass cast.
37:13
This stuff ain't easy. This stuff is not easy.
37:17
This stuff is tremendously hard. It's it's, you know, ask Pletus,
37:22
right? Cletus is one of the best at
37:24
doing all getting, getting stuff done and figured out over the
37:26
years and doing his thing and making things happen, you know,
37:30
and he comes into this deal and he realizes, you know, and
37:33
credit to him too, by the way. He realized.
37:35
Listen, it's going to take a it's going to take some time
37:37
here to get this right. Yeah, again, it's not easy.
37:41
But man, with, with Kyle, I mean, everybody, I mean, you
37:45
know what this sport needs some of the things it needs.
37:48
It needs Chase Elliot out front. Every week.
37:51
He needs Chase Elliot winning more.
37:53
He won at Martinsville, But did he win at Martinsville?
37:58
Yeah, he did. Yeah.
37:59
It it needs Kyle Busch out front.
38:02
This sport needs Kyle Busch winning, you know, and it's it's
38:06
it. And with him running the way he
38:08
is, it's such a glaring factor that he's running so bad, you
38:12
know, just because we all know how great the guy is and what
38:15
he's done. And to be running the way he's
38:17
running right now, it's like, you know, you point your fingers
38:20
though it's always been pointing at Childers, but all of a
38:22
sudden, all of a sudden here now we're starting to pointing
38:25
little few fingers at Kyle himself, right?
38:29
Hell, I don't know what it is. I don't know what the deal is.
38:31
I know Kyle Bush is a heck of a race car driver.
38:34
I know RCR has got very good engines.
38:36
Everybody fusses when they get good cards or they all get they
38:38
all get the same cards. It's the way you work on the
38:40
cars people talk about. They don't have good equipment.
38:43
That's bullshit. The all the equipment's the same
38:45
from top to bottom. They're all the parts and pieces
38:47
are bought from the same people as some.
38:49
It's a it's the, it's how you put them or how you put them
38:52
together. They're even put together the
38:54
same. But it's really the setups right
38:58
then he had a good thing on his thing.
39:00
He was talking about Kyle one first, what two or three races
39:03
the first year. But that was we're we're early
39:06
in this next Gen. car and and and and people are all over the
39:09
place with speeds. Then they were, you know, one
39:12
race ban, you'd be two or three cars running like hell and two,
39:15
three cars getting lapped and not knowing what was going on.
39:18
It was a why it was a widespread.
39:21
Now this whole thing is coming like this.
39:23
The whole group from fastest to slowest is is really not like it
39:27
was one Kyle, one of those races.
39:31
And all that tells me is you're getting down, you know, instead
39:34
of using the yard stick to measure stuff, then you use a
39:36
tape measure, you know, then you use a you know, then you use a
39:40
dial caliber, right and get down to thousands.
39:42
Now you're using laser lasers, right.
39:46
Everything's just so, so finite now with these cars, just a
39:49
little bit of something makes a big difference.
39:51
And you know, for whatever reason is the 8 car and the
39:55
three for that matter, they just, you know, they don't have
39:57
it. They just don't have it going
39:58
on. But their sport, I'm telling you
40:01
right now, this sport needs Kyle Busch up front.
40:04
It it, it, it can use Kyle Busch up front.
40:07
Whether we ever get it back again, hell, I don't know.
40:09
I, I, you could have bought me for a dollar 3-4 years ago.
40:12
If you just said this would be going on, going on right now
40:14
with Kyle, I'd have never, I'd have never believed it, right?
40:17
Never would have thought it, but it is so you know.
40:22
Hopefully they could figure it out.
40:23
I don't know. I don't know.
40:24
I really don't. I'm like everybody else.
40:26
I'm just dumbfounded. Yeah, I'm.
40:28
I'm with you. The sport is better off when
40:30
Kyle Busch is running up front. When you got polarizing figures,
40:35
and I mean that in a complimentary way, when you got
40:38
guys that people have strong feelings about one way or
40:40
another, you want those guys in contention.
40:43
You just do. It's just better for the sport.
40:46
It's the the cliche of a rising tide lifts all boats.
40:49
I mean, that's that's kind of you want those guys in the mix
40:52
up there every week. I said on our last mass cast
40:55
going into the the off week, you know, maybe an off week is good.
41:00
Be good for them to reset a little bit and recalibrate.
41:03
Well, I I may have been mistaken on that.
41:05
It turns out that that was not that did not fix anything.
41:08
So my next thing I'm going to point to, I know we got Kansas
41:10
this weekend, I'm going to say that they're circling Talladega
41:14
on the calendar as a place where maybe they can have a little
41:17
success because they showed a lot of speed at Daytona.
41:21
And as you said multiple times on mass cast, Richard Childress
41:24
puts a whole lot of emphasis and effort into the superspeedway.
41:27
So maybe they can get something something going there that would
41:30
be that would be really good. Hey, you mentioned Cletus
41:33
earlier. We will be remiss.
41:34
We took last week off. So of course on the the Cup
41:38
week, cup off week, the O'Reilly series and trucks ran at
41:42
Rockingham. I mentioned before, I love
41:44
Rockingham. I want the Cup series back at
41:45
Rockingham someday. It's one of my favorite places.
41:47
Hope they go back. But since we took the week off,
41:50
we didn't, we didn't have time to or we didn't have yet to talk
41:54
about Cletus's deal at, at Rockingham.
41:58
So I'll tell you I, I was going to watch the race whether Cletus
42:01
was there or not. Again, I love Rockingham, so I
42:04
was going to be watching regardless.
42:06
But with him being there, Michael, I had the race on my
42:09
TV, but I had this laptop that I'm I'm looking at you on right
42:13
now. I had Cletus's in car on YouTube
42:16
running the whole time. And actually I found myself with
42:19
the sound on his in car running more than I probably had on the
42:23
TV. If I'm being completely honest,
42:25
just because I was intrigued. I want to see how how it went.
42:30
I thought one thing that was pretty notable is, you know, if
42:32
you're watching a YouTube live stream, it shows you how many
42:35
people are watching with you. And I didn't, I wasn't sitting
42:39
there glued to it. I didn't watch it the entire
42:41
stream. I know at one point I looked
42:43
down and there was about 60,000 people watching Cletus's in car
42:48
with me. And I'm like, OK, that that
42:50
right there is why this is such a big deal, because just the
42:52
amount of eyeballs that he brings in his audience, it's a
42:56
big deal, right? So he was riding around bottom a
43:01
lot and you know, he went three wide very early there and the
43:05
which was a little, as he said himself should not have done
43:10
getting lapped a lot, little little sideways here and there,
43:13
but not too bad till up to about 50 laps to go.
43:15
I felt like he was, you know, holding his own.
43:18
The last 40-50 laps were again, he didn't end anybody else's
43:22
day, but it was clear it was, it was he was having a rough time
43:28
there. And I to his credit, I love what
43:29
he said. He goes, this is the hardest
43:30
thing I've ever tried to do in my life, which speaks exactly
43:33
what you've been saying this whole episode since you and I've
43:35
been sitting here talking about Thai, about RCR, but all of it,
43:38
this stuff ain't easy. It is really, really, really
43:42
hard, which I think is going to make a it's going to be great to
43:46
watch Cletus as he keeps on this path, as long as he wants to
43:49
keep doing it, as long as he's dedicated to trying to to do it
43:52
and do it right. It's going to be awesome to
43:54
watch him try to tackle it and try to get better at it.
43:58
I think now, obviously NASCAR did not.
44:01
They're not going to approve him to run Talladega in the ORP
44:04
series. He can still run ARCA as he's
44:06
done before. Having watched that live stream,
44:10
look, I wanted him to do well enough to be approved.
44:12
I just did. But I think they made the right
44:15
call on that. I just don't think he's quite,
44:18
quite there yet. And that's that's OK.
44:22
So here's the thing, you know, NASCAR wanted him to run well
44:24
enough to approve. They want to approve him.
44:26
The last thing they want to do is not approve him, right?
44:29
They want him there because they know how many more people are
44:31
only watching the show with him there.
44:34
So it's not like anybody out there say on NASCAR was like,
44:38
don't blame NASCAR on this one. They want him there more than
44:40
anybody, honestly. But I thought they made the
44:44
right move. And, you know, I know Cletus is
44:47
probably disappointed, but is this comes back to what we
44:50
talked about before. He just needs more seat time.
44:52
He needs to run more. He knows that.
44:54
That's why he's buying, buying a late model.
44:56
That's why he's getting advice from Dale Junior and everybody
44:58
else that he's talked to. I mean, he's he's he's doing
45:02
what he needs to do now and that's just get more experience.
45:05
So what was, what did you think of, you know, him not getting
45:09
approved for Talladega and Rockingham and all that good
45:11
stuff? Yeah, I, I, I go back to the
45:14
same thing I said a couple weeks ago, mass cast man.
45:17
I I just hope that I really hope that he gets it.
45:22
He can, he can work it at it long enough and hard enough to
45:26
kind of get it going his way mentally so they they don't get
45:30
discouraged. I I just don't want him to get
45:32
discouraged, right, for a couple reasons.
45:35
Number one, I love these frigging interviews.
45:37
I love when he put the camera on this dude.
45:40
Golly, it's so refreshed to listen to because he's not the
45:43
most brutally and honest person I've ever I've ever seen get out
45:47
of a race car and start talking, right?
45:48
I mean just brutally honest. I mean he's got he's got a way
45:51
about talking. It's it's so refreshing.
45:54
And then the 60,000 people that you said were watching along
45:58
with you to watch Cletus, his channel, right?
46:02
He brings up, he brings up multitude, a host of thousands
46:06
and thousands of viewers to our sport, right?
46:09
And man, we just don't get up. We don't get a person like that
46:13
too often to come in our sport to man bring that kind of
46:18
interest that he brings. So and, and the reason, you
46:22
know, that's why that's one of the reasons and and early on I
46:24
was talking about the guy, you know, not being critical, but
46:27
being realistic about how hard it is work on your craft.
46:32
Don't get discouraged, right? All the things that, and we'd
46:38
love for somebody to be as a driver out of the race car.
46:42
He does it and then some. It's just that it's just that
46:46
one little problem being able to do that drive that race car,
46:49
right? And you know, you got to be able
46:53
to do it. Yeah, I kind of believe that he
46:57
might have it. He might have what it takes to
46:59
do that. But you don't just jump in these
47:01
things and go, you don't, you did it just it doesn't happen,
47:05
right? It's for so many guys, it's
47:07
years and years of working from time you're 10 years old on up,
47:11
you know, or like in my case, starting when I was 15 and, and
47:14
just working your craft for years and years and years and
47:17
learning all that stuff. You know, he's got to be a super
47:19
fast learner. He's got to be put on the fast
47:21
track and he's got to, you know, just get it done, you know,
47:26
mentally and keep, keep positive about it and stay after it and,
47:31
and, and, and just try to get better at it, you know, and he
47:35
will, I, I have no doubt he won't.
47:37
But again, it, it goes to that little timing factor of how much
47:41
does he want to put into this and how long does he want to go
47:47
after this? And how much work does he want
47:49
to put in and hours to put in before he might end up getting
47:53
the scourge. And that's what I don't want him
47:54
to do. I don't want him to get the
47:56
scourge. But man, it's such a humbling
47:58
friggin sport, this humbling sport for anybody.
48:00
I don't care who you are, what you do.
48:02
It's very humble, right? And you just have to accept that
48:05
fact and go with it. So, you know, I'm home for the
48:08
dude. I really am.
48:10
I love, I love, I love, I love his interviews.
48:12
I love what he's done. I love what he's doing.
48:15
You know, it's just, you know, just stay after it, Clay.
48:18
Just stay after it, man. Just all I can say is stay after
48:21
it. You know, think it's kind of
48:23
like, you know, absorb, absorb, absorb.
48:26
I'll never forget one time at Daytona, Ricky, Zach Hayes,
48:30
Johnny Hayes, we talked about his son Zach was working for.
48:34
Oh, gosh, I guess there's Lauren, Lauren Rainier at that
48:36
time on a Bush, on a Bush team at that time.
48:40
And we were at Daytona, I was at the truck and and Zach came up
48:44
to me. He said, Rick, yeah, I think we
48:45
may have talked about this before.
48:47
I don't know. He said, we're down here with a
48:50
guy never been here before to run the Bush series race.
48:54
You think you come down and talk to him?
48:55
I said, yeah, it's no problem. So I went down and talked to him
48:58
and, you know, knew who he was. When I, when I got there start
49:02
talking to him, I recognized him and you know, I said, man,
49:05
here's the deal. We talked about on the
49:07
racetrack, the draft, what you know what, basically what do not
49:10
to kill yourself start with, right?
49:12
And then after that, the safety stuff.
49:14
Then after that talked about working a draft and all that
49:16
much as we could. You know, the guy's name was
49:19
Tony Stewart. OK, Everybody has to start some
49:23
worse, some worse, you know, And my advice to Tony was that thing
49:26
along with other things, things were absorbed, Tony.
49:29
Absorb. I remember saying absorb,
49:31
absorb, absorb. Every time you go on that
49:33
racetrack, man, just put your mind at work, you know, think
49:37
about anything else. Think about what's going on
49:39
around you with the race car, what you feeling, what to do,
49:41
what not to do. Absorb, absorb, absorb.
49:44
But that's about, that's my advice to Cletus.
49:46
Absorb every lap you're out there, every chance you get.
49:48
Absorb what you're doing, man. Figure it out.
49:51
We are definitely both Cletus fans on here.
49:53
Like you dad. Every time I like him that much
49:56
more, every time he's interviewed at the racetrack, he
49:58
makes me like him that much. Liked him from the very first
50:01
time when he made his arcade debut a couple years back.
50:04
And every time he, I've become that much more a fan every time.
50:08
So absolutely rooting for him. I think about make a baseball
50:12
analogy, like there's guys that'll come up and man, they
50:14
can throw fast. You know, they, they have a
50:16
pitcher that they can, they can pump it up there.
50:18
They can pump it 100 miles an hour, right.
50:20
So you know, they, they can, they can throw gas, but when you
50:24
get to the big leagues, eventually guys will catch up,
50:27
the hitters will catch up to that 100.
50:29
So it's learning how to take that incredible talent and the
50:31
skills that you do have and then refine them and becoming not
50:35
just a thrower, but a true pitcher.
50:37
And that just takes time. It takes repetition.
50:39
It takes absorbing knowledge from those, the veterans around
50:43
you and learning from people that were there that did it
50:46
before you. It's it's the exact same thing
50:48
of absorb, absorb, take the skills that you got, the talents
50:51
that you got, refine them and turn yourself into somebody that
50:55
can compete at that level. So I'm with you.
50:57
We're rooting for we're both rooting for him.
50:59
I saw Kenny, our buddy Kenny was down there with Cletus it at the
51:02
freedom 500 the other weekend. Look, they looked awesome.
51:06
So nothing but love and support. And we're rooting for rooting
51:09
for Cletus hero, mass cast. Well, Dad, before we wrap up,
51:12
anything else you got on on your mind?
51:14
Thank you. By the way, you drove down here
51:15
to Georgia last weekend for my daughter, your granddaughter's
51:18
second birthday. It was a very quick trip.
51:21
And that's not a quick. It was a quick trip as far as
51:24
the amount of time y'all got to spend here.
51:25
It is not a quick trip driving from Virginia to Georgia,
51:29
especially doing it twice in about 3 days.
51:31
So appreciate you coming down. I hope you like the burgers.
51:34
Yeah. Especially on Sunday afternoon
51:36
or Sunday. Interstate 7540 and 81.
51:40
Good Lord, it was busy Sunday. I've never seen it quite that
51:44
busy before, my goodness gracious, but.
51:47
You hit Knoxville, you hit Knoxville around the wrong,
51:49
wrong time. You're you're screwed for a
51:51
while, my friend. I'm telling you, man, that whole
51:54
place, Knoxville. Then we had got a wreck.
51:56
There's a wreck around Bristol. The race was going on when we
51:59
came through Bristol. There's a wreck on 81, so we had
52:01
to detour through Johnson City. It was amazing to me.
52:05
How big? It's amazed to me what's
52:07
happened to Tennessee. Well, hell everywhere.
52:09
Everywhere you go exploded. But you know, Knoxville and
52:13
Johnson say all that. The tri-cities of of of No, I
52:17
shouldn't say that. It's a hell.
52:18
It's everywhere. Hell yeah.
52:19
Rockridge Bass, we've added we've added a couple more
52:24
outposts. I guess you'd say so.
52:26
Have you? Yeah.
52:28
Well, I hadn't been. I hadn't been home since the
52:30
holidays. So I look forward to seeing the
52:32
outpost, the new outpost next time I come.
52:37
Hey, I'll tell you one thing I did one thing I want to touch on
52:39
real quick, maybe make it a quick little video.
52:42
The Rick Houston with the scene vault man.
52:45
He does such a good job. Everybody that that's on social
52:49
media ought to check out Rick Houston, the scene vault man.
52:53
He's took, he took all the old Winston Cup scenes, right and
52:56
digitized him, did all that. Now he's got him a podcast going
52:59
and he had a he it was an interview this week he showed
53:02
with Larry McClure, who's passed on.
53:05
He's not with us any longer. And Larry was talking about the
53:08
deal when Ernie was driving for him, Ernie Irving.
53:11
And he, I guess Larry had heard rumors that that Ernie was
53:15
leaving and going to the 28 car and he he goes up to Ernie.
53:18
Ernie, is that true? Ernie says, yeah, that's true.
53:22
And Larry says, well, now you can't leave.
53:25
Ernie says, yeah, I'm leaving. He says, no, I've got a five
53:29
year contract and you got two more years on it.
53:31
You, you, you got to stay. And he said Larry.
53:35
Larry said, well, Ernie looked at me and says, Larry, he says I
53:41
control the steering wheel, I control the accelerator and I
53:45
control the clutch. And basically Larry says, yeah,
53:50
you do. And he said, I'm going to show
53:52
you. And Larry says, yeah, he did
53:54
show me. So what what Larry meant was I
53:56
guess he was clutching it, blowing up boaters or turn it to
53:59
left and wrecking it, you know, to force him out of the out of
54:03
the contract. But, you know, like everything,
54:06
man, there's, there's, there's the other side.
54:08
There's always two sides of the story, right?
54:11
And I remember those times. I remember when that stuff was
54:13
going on a little bit. And I remember Ernie, Ernie
54:18
talking to me about this. And Ernie had a number money
54:22
wise that he wanted to be able to stay right, to keep driving
54:27
the car. And that wasn't reciprocated,
54:32
right. And that's kind of where that
54:34
that thing went to, right? I mean, they were running good
54:38
journey in that Kodak car, the four car they were running good
54:41
man. They're winning, doing their
54:42
thing, running up front all the time.
54:45
And then when a 28 car come calling, you know, they had the
54:48
that was a stout car too. Also maybe a little better at
54:52
the time, you might think, but you know, I think he was offered
54:57
a fair amount of money and yeah, I think he could have stayed at
55:01
the four car, right? But that didn't that didn't
55:05
work. So I don't know, just I don't
55:07
know. This kind of caught me funny
55:08
this week when I was when I was watching that cause excuse me,
55:12
all those guys were buddies, Larry, Larry and Ernie.
55:15
Ernie still is, right. So it's always two sides of
55:18
these stories, guys, when you see this stuff happening.
55:21
I saw that too. And I thought that was very
55:23
entertaining because I'd never heard that story before.
55:25
And the first thing I thought of was, well, I could never imagine
55:30
you ever doing that. No matter how bad things got in
55:34
the situation. I was like, God, I just, I know
55:37
you and I can't. And I'm not saying anything bad
55:39
about Ernie. I'm just like, man, I could
55:40
never see Dad doing something like that.
55:43
I mean, you're loyal to a fault, so I just couldn't never see it.
55:48
But at the same time, I thought, well, I was I Chuck.
55:51
And you're right. We we heard that the one side of
55:54
the story it would yeah, I'm sure Ernie has obviously has his
55:57
side too. But I I didn't get a chuckle.
56:01
I was like, well, if you want to get out of a contract, that's a
56:04
pretty good way of doing it. You tear up all of the team's
56:06
equipment. Well, we got to get somebody in
56:09
here. It's not going to wreck our
56:10
stuff every week. So if you don't feel like
56:12
hitting the wall that day, not hell with them, I'm going to
56:14
blow the motor. Just push the clutch in or throw
56:16
it out of gear. Either way, hold it wide open,
56:18
right? It'll blow the motor up.
56:19
So that way you can quit. You don't have to.
56:21
You don't have to hit the wall right?
56:23
You don't have to wreck to go out.
56:24
So I don't know a lot of stuff, man.
56:27
A lot of stuff went on in those days.
56:29
The other thing I thought of too, What if, all right, you got
56:32
a verbal, let's say verbal agreement, All right, 28 car,
56:35
whoever this other team wants me, they said they want me, I'm
56:38
going to go there. But what if to get out of your
56:41
current deal, what if you don't ever actually sign anything with
56:44
the new team and then you purposely start blowing up stuff
56:48
and wrecking stuff every week to get out of your current deal.
56:50
But you do so much of that that the new team's like, God
56:53
Almighty, that guy can't get Irvin's back.
56:56
We can't get out of his own way. We don't want him.
56:57
What if he screwed yourself out, too?
56:59
I'd be that's me. I'm too conservative.
57:01
I'd be too scared that I was going to cost myself.
57:04
I'd I'd I'd come out empty handed with no rides much.
57:07
Less. Excuse me?
57:09
There's definitely a fine line there there that Ernie had to
57:12
ride, right? Very fine line to be a thing,
57:16
too. Oh, Lord, That's what made our
57:18
sport so great. Stuff like that.
57:20
Oh. That's awesome.
57:22
Well, Dad, it's great to be back and I look forward to recapping
57:25
whatever happens this weekend at Kansas next week here on Mass
57:28
Cast. And yeah, let's have a good,
57:31
good week and good race weekend. We'll see you next week.