Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Vegas, Cop Cars, & Torn Up Yards | Mast Cast Ep 8

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Vegas, Cop Cars, & Torn Up Yards | Mast Cast Ep 8 · Kenny Wallace Media

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He's former NASCAR Cup Series driver Rick Mast.
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I'm his non driving son Ricky. And we're back here with you for
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this week's edition of the Mass Cast, where we talk all things
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NASCAR and whatever else happens to come to mind.
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For us, Dad, how you doing? How's how's your doing?
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Well, Ricky, doing well. Everything's healing up back in
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back in town after a week of watching friggin basketball
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every day in Charlotte. So we're back here in the fold,
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getting ready to go after it again.
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You went to see. Well, you went to the entire ACC
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tournament, didn't you? We.
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Did I sit there and watched every frigging game of that
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tournament, man? And as I pointed out, as I
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pointed out on Twitter or X the by by big take away from
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watching all those teams play in the a week of of the of the
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deal, the tournament. UVA and Duke are major
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heavyweights. I'm telling you, those two
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teams, man, they're, they're something.
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They're they're something special.
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Not taking anything away from other other teams.
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A lot of good teams they CC right now, man.
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But that was my main take away. Those two teams, they're tough.
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Yeah, obviously, if you can tell by my hat.
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And you know, we're, we're proud Virginians.
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We're definitely Cavalier fans, so the championship game didn't
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go our way, but goodness gracious, what a game that was.
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It was a heck of a game. So I'm just excited as a
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Virginia fan, there were three seed in the tournament.
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I'm excited to see what they're going to do.
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I I didn't know this till I actually saw this yesterday that
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I I don't believe Virginia has won a game in the tournament
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since since they won the national championship in 2019,
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which is crazy to think but but true.
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So maybe this tournament they. Haven't won anything.
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You know this team, this team has a chance it has a chance to
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go deep. I do believe I believe you're
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right. We're in a motel with the team
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we're staying both same motel team.
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We got to see a lot of the players and coaches and stuff
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neat people, man, a lot of neat people in the fat bunch neat
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people just like kind of minded me been being around my racing
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peaks. Everybody just nice and humble
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and talk and, you know, so whatever, we'll see.
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Cool. Very cool man.
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This is a racing channel enough. That's right.
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That's right. Well, the the ACC championship
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wrapped up on Saturday night, which means you were you were
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back in plenty of time to watch the race in Vegas on Sunday.
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Denny gets the win. Very cool win I thought very
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just some good vibes and emotions around that.
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But I'll before I give any of my thoughts on it, what were your
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thoughts on first thoughts about the race in Vegas yesterday?
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That's a good race, cool race. I mean, the Hammond dominated,
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like kind of everybody predicted one of the Toyotas was going to
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be dominating. And I think the thing that
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struck me, you know, so this is really, I guess we had Phoenix
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last week. That's when a lot of the
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insiders say without the real season begins, right?
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Not on Speedway, not on the road course.
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So we had Phoenix and then we had Vegas this week and you
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know, people, that's when that's what a lot of guys the the, the
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teams, that's when they really start thinking about where
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they're at with their cars, right?
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Because this is a type race track, these type of race tracks
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we got to race majority races on.
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So you know where we at well before the race on Sunday at
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Vegas, there was a lot of talk about, you know, the domination
3:29
of Toyota through the qualified stuff and the the lack of speed
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of the Chevrolets. Chevrolets.
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And there's a lot of talk about that.
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And you know, I think they had Chevrolet had three, they in the
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top 11, they had three positions.
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In other words, it's three of those cars. 3 Chevrolets
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finished the top 11. OK, which you know, isn't that
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good now. Chase Elliott ran real good,
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especially towards the end of the race.
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They ran real good. They made a I've heard some
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people talk about they made a lot of justice during that race
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with that Carla 9 car and he really started running good at
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the end or the last part of the race.
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So, you know, and then and then listening to Chase's comments,
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you know, it's like, all right, guys, you know, we this is one
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race, you know, we weren't anywhere close when the race
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started, but we made good adjustments and got in there.
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So then that begs the question, you know, why?
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Why the Chevrolet slow? Then that goes down, goes back
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to the new body style. OK, they got the new body and
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they were waiting for a couple or three of these races to, to
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happen to really try to figure out, you know, where they're at
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with the bodies, with the new body style.
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And the thing of it is this body for my, my information is this
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body has better numbers, better aerodynamic numbers, IE more
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downforce, right? And you know, you take a race
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car and it's going so fast, you just come in and put 200 more
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pounds of downforce on. You think you'd go out there and
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it would run faster. And typically they would in the
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past. The problem right now is it's a
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whole complete package. You can put the way these cars
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are to finicky, the way they got them set up, the way things are
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happening. It's you put more downforce
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doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be faster.
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It means you've you've changed everything about evidently with
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the way I understand it now talking to my peeps, you've
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changed the overall setup of the whole car when you put more
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downforce in it. Yeah, that doesn't necessarily
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translate the faster speeds. That translates to we've got to
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go a little different direction with what we're doing to the
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chassis in order to incorporate or to take advantage of that
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downforce. That's a, that's kind of a weird
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concept for me to understand, but I, I, I do understand what
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you're saying, but man, that's totally, totally different from
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the way it, it, it kind of had been in the past.
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These cars, again, these cars are so, oh man, it's so finite
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with everything they do and so finicky.
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And you know, I was, I was watching, excuse me, I've heard
5:52
some of this going on the rear diffuser on these cars, right.
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The rear diffusers create a ton of downforce on the on the the
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back of these cars. And I guess real quick.
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Real quick, for people who don't know like what what is the rear
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diffuser? What does?
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What is? That is a aerodynamic piece,
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Ricky, that sets under in the rear of the car underneath where
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basically where the fuel tank fuel cell is.
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And it's a it's a, it's a series of a couple panels and things.
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It's just aerodynamic piece. Best way to describe it.
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And it crates downforce on the rear of these cars.
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And I'd heard some of these these numbers of these things
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and I didn't really know if I believed it or not.
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But then McReynolds did a deal on the Fox broadcast Sunday
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about it on that car they use, you know, for the breakdowns.
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And I, and I don't remember, I don't remember the exact
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numbers, but just just saying numbers out loud.
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Let's say the car is sitting there and it's making so much
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downforce and you lower the car 1/4 of an inch in the back, OK,
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I mean 1/4 of an inch, you know, that's the thickness of a, a
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pencil. You know, you, you got 500 more
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300 or 400 or whatever it is, more pounds of downforce by
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changing 1/4 of an inch. So an eighth of an inch, you're
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going to have a couple of pounds of downforce just by rod height
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being an eighth inch. Now we know, we've always known
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on the front with the splitters and the skirts, those guys try
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to seal it off. In other words, they they seal
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off try to get that skirt or a splitter used to be or it is
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rate flat, I guess racetrack without touching right.
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And you go now you're talking about thousandths of an inch.
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But and we knew that was real critical.
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I did not know up until probably, I don't know, year and
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a half ago or so when I started learning about the diffuser in
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the rear how how touchy that thing was in finicky.
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So now you've got this car that's got the rear diffuser and
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you're going at a 8th of an inch if you're doing an eighth inch
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and 200 lbs are down for so 16th to 100 lbs.
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I mean, that's a ton. That's a ton of difference, man.
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And, and then you think about the travel these cars go in the
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turns, they travel up and down. So you're changing the downforce
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from the back of the car when the thing goes up and down.
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A lot of things that these engineers and these scrutinies
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have to deal with these race cars, you know, it's just, you
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know, each day or each week with me, I learned something new
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about it. And, and, and it's fascinating
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to me how close these things are and what has to be changed and
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done our our little bit minute changes what it does to these
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race cars. And you know, so to me, if the
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Chevrolet has got a little bit of an issue of not being fast as
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he wanted to be, but they've got more downforce.
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They don't have the total package quite figured out yet.
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Now when they when they're able to take what they had and add
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200 or 300 lbs of downforce and incorporate that with a new type
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setup, then they'll be a lot better.
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But I think right now that might be what's stolen for a little
8:46
bit of loop. I don't know.
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You know, Toyos was just very good this this past week.
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They were just, they were flat fast.
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So anyhow, that's the explanation for all that.
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I was thinking as you were talking about how the, the
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slightest little change these guys make on these cars can
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affect so many other things. I was actually just not too long
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ago, I was listening to a podcast, a business podcast, and
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they're talking about some company that builds rockets and
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how when they test a rocket, they decided at some point along
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the way that they could only like if a rocket blew up the
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next, the next go round, they weren't going to make multiple
9:23
changes. They would only make one change
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because they decided if they made multiple changes and it
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fixed it, they would really know which change fixed it.
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And therefore they wouldn't really wouldn't have really
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identified the problem. And I was thinking the in a
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sense, in a way, these guys with these cars almost have a more
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complicated problem and they only try one thing and yet it
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can affect so many other things that it's hard to figure.
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It just seems like a constant, I don't know, like a wild animal
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or beast or something they're trying to tame and you don't
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ever really tame it. You're just trying to get enough
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in the ballpark to get have the fastest car possible.
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Out there, yeah. If you can, if it's like a
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rocket, you can change one thing and it affected one thing.
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That'd be real easy with a race car.
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That's not the way race cars work.
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One change effects so many other things.
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It always has, you know, and guys, you, you would change
10:12
something on a car and it didn't make anything would run better.
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And it didn't make sense why way back in the day, because you
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didn't really think it out all the way out, the way it needs to
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be thought out or engineered all the way out to figure out.
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Because when you made that one change, man, you affected 30
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other things, right? And you have to take all that
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into account. And that's why we got all these
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frigging super genius engineers and and crew chiefs working on
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these race cars now. That's why, you know, like when
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we first came out this car, the whole thing was is equalizing
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car, right? That's all we heard from
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everybody's equalizing car. The back markers are run just as
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good as the front markers, right, because everything's
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equal, the parts are equal, everything's body equal.
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Well, we knew that going in and for a little while it did kind
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of even up the things from the have the haves to the have nots.
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But as as time's going on and these engineers and these
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computer geeks and everybody gets really down on on or, or
11:07
gets after these cars about, you know, all the little intricate
11:10
things that make a difference. You know, that's where the big
11:12
money teams with all the resources come into play, IE
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right. We see the same, we seen the
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same group out front all the time.
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Now in the back markers, slower cars or they stay slow.
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The the fast ones stay fast. It's just the way it works.
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Yeah, well, to the to that end, a familiar face, familiar team
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was in Victory Lane on Sunday in Vegas.
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Denny coming through, which for anybody that was thinking
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because of everything that then he dealt with in the offseason
11:39
that he might start the season a little bit behind or trying to
11:43
be in a little rusty or anything.
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I think we can safely put that to bed.
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He looks like he's still a top ten of all time winning driver
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to me. I loved the storyteller of me.
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It's so funny, man. I've found myself not a hater,
11:59
not a hater. It's just never been.
12:00
I've never really been like a then He's not one of my guys
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I've pulled for. Again, not a hater, just he
12:06
wasn't one of the guys I was necessarily rooting for.
12:08
And I found myself in that race on Sunday before I even knew if
12:11
any of his family was there. I found myself kind of rooting
12:15
for him because I was thinking back to the last time we were in
12:18
Vegas when he was pretty emotional.
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And you know, his dad was still with us then but was in pretty
12:24
rough health. And of course, we know what
12:25
happened in the offseason, which was tragic.
12:29
And I was thinking back on, man, that Las Vegas race there last
12:32
year, Danny earned a lot of fans out of that day.
12:36
Or there are a lot of people who were haters or people like me
12:38
that necessarily weren't rooting for him, that were kind of like,
12:40
man, 'cause you, you could tell like the emotion he had.
12:44
And that's a real thing. You know, you, that's a human
12:46
being. You kind of like makes you want
12:48
to pull for him. You wanted him to for him and
12:50
his dad to have a little something special like that was
12:53
cool. And I found myself kind of
12:55
rooting for like, man, I want that.
12:57
I want him to win here again, because wouldn't that be kind of
12:59
a a cool way to cap off or not cap off, but just a a cool
13:04
chapter in that story when the last few, at least in his
13:07
personal life have been pretty rough here the last few months.
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And it was and that was before I even knew I didn't know if his
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kids were there. And then his mom being there
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coming out and giving him a hug and I was like, man, that was
13:17
just that was just so freaking cool.
13:20
I, I loved that and Gibbs, Gibbs look tough overall.
13:28
Well, Danny, I guess he was tied with Harvick for 10th overall.
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Now he's 10th by himself and an all time wins and still got some
13:34
more in him. So I don't know, I don't know
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how much longer Danny's going to do this.
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But I mean for a guy that's in his mid 40s when maybe some guys
13:42
are starting to tail off or Peter out a little bit, he is
13:46
showing 0 signs of that to me. So I don't know.
13:49
What were your thoughts on just Danny winning and and all that?
13:53
Well, 61 wins, 61 Cup wins by any, any matrix you want to,
14:01
however you want to look at it, that is it's pretty phenomenal.
14:04
You know, he's in a class, he's in a class with a group of
14:08
drivers that very few, there's very few drivers in the class
14:12
that he's in, right? You just don't you don't compile
14:16
that kind of record in in our sport without being very, very,
14:20
very talented. And you know, happy for him,
14:22
man, Kudos for him. As far as your point is how how
14:26
much longer he's got, you know, that's totally up to him.
14:28
You know, and I, and I don't know my, my guess is as long as
14:31
he's winning or at least, you know, competitive to what was a
14:36
bird flying around here? Was it competitive?
14:39
No, I think it was by our sight. As long as he's winning or least
14:45
competitive, competitive to win. I don't know that he'll be as
14:49
willing to get out OK as you might be when things aren't
14:54
going well. And that's typically what
14:55
happens, man. The drivers get older and, and
14:58
either either, you know, something starts going on with
15:01
the teams are with and they they can't compete or, or maybe
15:05
they're reflexes or whatever. You'll never get a driver to to
15:08
say when he retires that listen, man, I just don't have it
15:12
anymore. I don't have what I used to
15:13
have. You'll I've never heard a driver
15:15
say that. They'll say, yeah, I got a
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little older, maybe a little slower than the reflexes, but I
15:19
got more experience and that overcomes the reflexes, right.
15:21
You'll hear some of that. But as far as just saying, yeah,
15:24
I can't do it anymore, I'm getting out.
15:26
You don't ever hear that. You'll hear drivers that, that
15:29
last 2-3 years of careers. They're not running good and
15:31
they and and you know, they'll get to thinking, well, it's
15:34
probably the car. It's not me because I'm the
15:36
greatest that ever lived, you know, and they won't get out.
15:40
I mean, I tell you, he's going through that right now as we
15:43
speak. Probably if these thought
15:44
processes is, is our buddy Kyle Busch.
15:46
You know, Kyle is you know, they're they're they're just not
15:50
running good right now. They're having trouble.
15:52
So you know, we'll see. We'll see what goes on there.
15:57
Yeah, that one's, that one's going to be one people are
15:59
talking about. It's going to be interesting to
16:01
follow as we go on to see how it all shakes out and where he
16:05
goes. RCR goes if they, if they get
16:07
together and keep on together, if they go separate ways.
16:10
That's definitely something that.
16:12
That. It ain't just me.
16:14
I know it ain't just you. A lot of people are kind of
16:15
paying attention to is what's going to happen there.
16:17
So hopefully for them, I mean, you know, we've talked about it
16:20
on here before. We're we root for RCR.
16:24
We there's a lot of good people there, including Richard himself
16:27
and a lot of our buddies that are there.
16:29
So I'm rooting for them and Austin to to get it back
16:33
together. I'll tell you what it's not.
16:36
I do what I tell you. I'm back on honestly.
16:38
Tell you what it's not. It's not the engine program.
16:41
I feel certain to say that my, my man that that runs that
16:45
engine problem problem. The engine program there.
16:48
Bob Fischer. Soda Bob, we called him Soda Bob
16:50
Fischer. I ran his engines the year I
16:53
drove for K Yarborough. And I'm telling you right now,
16:56
those things were stout. You know, some of the strongest
17:00
engines I ever had in my racing career come from Soda, Bob
17:03
Fischer. And so Tony Santanicola was also
17:06
in there. They were in there together.
17:07
But very, very smart man. He knows how to, he knows how to
17:11
make horsepower and he's very smart dude, very smart dude.
17:15
So I, I, I, I know that the problem in, in the engine
17:17
department with RCR, don't know where it's at, but I, I, I can
17:21
rest assured or I can be rest assured saying this, that it's,
17:25
that's not, that's not where it's at.
17:26
It's not an engine issue. Soda Bob and Tony Cola.
17:30
I hadn't heard those two names in a minute that that bring back
17:33
good memories there. Man, I can still feel that
17:37
feeling when I get in that thing.
17:39
I could still feel that thing when you get those things wide
17:42
open. Golly, I hadn't had had to had
17:45
that feeling in a while, right. And I first went with Kale and I
17:49
run those cars. I'm like goodness gracious of
17:51
life. I don't know I've ever quite
17:54
felt this before. And it was it was a cool
17:56
feeling. It really was.
17:57
I bet, I'm sure it was we were talking about Gibbs.
18:02
I did want to mention this. So for all the stuff about the
18:07
the 54 car and Ty Gibbs that's been going on in the the lawsuit
18:12
between JGR and Chris Gay part and now Spire and all of that, I
18:16
don't know if you've noticed this.
18:17
I've noticed that 54 cars, it seems like every now and every
18:20
Sunday I'm watching it's it's showing up a little bit more in
18:23
top ten, top 15 top. I feel like I'm seeing that 54
18:26
car a little bit more. Yeah, yeah, I didn't need to.
18:29
I mean, that car needs to get going.
18:30
I mean it. Excuse me.
18:33
It it all, you know, he came into cup was such high and a lot
18:37
of people had high expectations for for little Gibbs, little Ty
18:42
Gibbs, because he he ran so well at everything else.
18:44
He'd he'd he'd run in and and won, you know, and been
18:47
successful. And it's been kind of a thanks
18:50
to be kind of a shock to everybody, not just probably
18:53
with Gibbs organization, but everybody else.
18:54
You know, you know what's going on here, man, this guy, we used
18:57
to figure this guy, he'd have himself, you know, a handful of
19:00
wins, but now in his career and it hasn't happened.
19:02
And you know, a lot of times, a lot of times a lot of the races
19:06
they've run, he's just been out to lunch and they just, they
19:09
just haven't been competitive. You know, I mean, it's not like
19:13
he's up there leading and gets in wrecks or blows engines or
19:15
has trouble. He did.
19:16
They're just, they just haven't been fast.
19:18
And so far this year, you know, the last couple of races, they
19:21
got it kind of going on now. So they take that and build on
19:24
it, keep going. Maybe he'll get successful
19:26
winning some races. I don't know.
19:27
Jury's still out right now. The jury wasn't out when he came
19:30
in. OK, But it's been so long now
19:33
that the jury has went out a little bit.
19:35
But, you know, hopefully they'll get it worked out.
19:38
Oh, I got a Kitty cat visited. Which one is that?
19:42
That's Sam. That's so.
19:44
No, that's not Sam. That's so bloop.
19:46
I mean, bonker. Oh, Buffy.
19:49
That's Buffy. Buffy.
19:50
Oh, OK. Buffy the King.
19:52
What's up? He's going to take a little nap.
19:56
Yeah. All right.
19:57
He's he's good with maths guys. Yeah, he's good.
20:00
He's, he's going to, that's the first time we've had a guest on
20:02
the show. That's exciting.
20:06
I, I've talked about before how I, I don't really start looking
20:10
at point standings till later in the year.
20:12
Kind of like I talked about how I don't even look at I'm a
20:15
baseball guy first and foremost. I don't even look at the
20:17
standings till at least, you know, June or whatever.
20:20
But with the new points format, I have started every now and
20:24
then check in on it a little bit and I'll say what I've said
20:28
before. I'm kind of, I'm just enjoying
20:29
it. It's not I'm not.
20:31
I think part of it is because I'm not looking at it like Art
20:35
who won and punched their ticket into the playoffs.
20:37
Like I thought yesterday our buddy Chase Elliott had a great
20:41
run, finished second and thought, man, it's a great,
20:45
that's a great day, points day, great day for him.
20:47
So, but anyways, I was looking at the point standings and 2311
20:51
and the top 2 spots. That's pretty, pretty
20:53
interesting, I think. And you got Hendrick and Gibbs,
20:57
you got an RFK car and Buscher sneaking in the top 10 right
21:00
now. But I was just looking at that
21:03
thinking, man, I'm enjoying this so much as a as a narrative of
21:08
going on, not the such and such punch their ticket to the
21:11
playoffs. You still got the element of,
21:14
hey, there's a top 16, there's a cut line for the playoffs.
21:18
But I just found that to be, I just find we got so much more
21:22
enjoyable. I know we've talked about it
21:23
before, but I just need to keep harping on it because that was
21:25
such a big thing. So many people, including your
21:28
old pal Mark Martin, have been advocating for a change.
21:33
And just they want to say, again, kudos to everybody for
21:36
making that change. Everybody involved, the people
21:38
advocated for it, the decision makers who made the change.
21:42
I think it's just such a great thing for the sport.
21:44
So just want to throw that out there.
21:46
I think it's interesting to even though it's early, it's
21:47
interesting to check in on the point standings this time of
21:51
year and 2311 being the top 2 spots that's.
21:54
Yeah, that's nothing. You know, that's big right now.
21:57
It it is. And you know, I tell you it, it
22:00
changes other things too from a racing, from a competitor
22:03
standpoint. You, you know, you're more aware
22:05
of it now. You're more because you know,
22:07
you could be out there racing and things going on and maybe
22:11
you race somebody a little bit harder for that one position,
22:14
but then but then you're taking a chance of reckoning or
22:17
wrecking yourself and you thinking, well, Nah, I mean,
22:20
next week's a good track for me. I can win that race and I can
22:23
punch my ticket in right. So I don't have to worry about
22:25
each point of every single race now.
22:27
And that's the way it was always in our sport.
22:29
You had to worry about every frigging point, you know, every
22:33
single position, every single. That's why I mean, you go back
22:35
to the old days, you know, Junior Johnson's team, everybody
22:39
remembers this. They, they blow an out and they
22:41
blow an engine in in the race. Well, they had, they come in, in
22:45
the garage area, they changed that engine.
22:46
They would do it. What was the, what was the
22:48
record that has, was it 12 minutes or 8 minutes something?
22:51
They could, they could change the whole complete engine in a
22:53
race, right during a race and it's either 8 or 12 minutes and
22:58
put that car back out there. And that was all about points,
23:00
man. It was all about points.
23:02
And that's the way you treated the points, the old system,
23:05
which is now the new system. That's the way you treated it in
23:08
every lap, every, every position.
23:11
Don't know if that added to the frustration with Suarez and our
23:17
boy Chastain at Vegas. But, you know, they were racing
23:21
for what, 17th and 18th position?
23:23
And they kind of got sideways with one another and had a few
23:26
words. But I'm sure they're OK, you
23:28
know? But reminds me of the story,
23:30
Ricky, once at Pocono, we go up to Pocono and I qualify and
23:37
right there beside me qualifies. Dale Earnhardt, right, senior.
23:40
So we're side to side. They started, this is back when
23:43
we ran 500 laps, 500 miles, whatever it was, it's 500 mile.
23:50
It's forever. It's 500 miles.
23:51
But God lives a long way. Pocono, long race been.
23:55
Yeah, been 200 laps then. Yeah, it is a long race, long,
23:58
long race. But anyhow, we started that race
24:00
side to side. We ran, I'll never forget we ran
24:03
that first segment or the 1st to the 1st fuel stop, tire stop,
24:07
and we ran side to side, him in front or I'm in front for that
24:12
whole stop. We come in the pits, right?
24:14
Make our pits stop. We come out next to each other.
24:16
We run like that. Again, we ran all day long rate
24:22
either he in front of me or me in front of him or him inside me
24:25
or me inside of him. We we we go to the race the next
24:31
week Dale comes up to me. He said, Rick, that's a mass
24:34
something. He said what he said have you
24:36
ever raced that hard in your life?
24:38
I said, Dale, be honest with you, that's probably the hardest
24:41
I ever raced for 500 frigging miles lap after lap.
24:45
He said same thing with me Rick. He said I have never ever raced
24:49
that hard in my life. Every lap for 500 miles for 20th
24:53
and 21st position, dude, both of us running like shit or like
25:02
crap. And and that's the thing that
25:06
you tell everybody talk about how much easier it is to run up
25:08
front. It is when you're running
25:09
towards the back or the middle of the pack.
25:11
It's it's a, it's a, it's a hornet's nest, man.
25:14
And you're struggling with your race car and you're already
25:16
upset because it's not your car is not doing what you wanted to
25:18
do, OK? And you're sitting there
25:20
manhattling that thing all day long.
25:23
And here you got to fight somebody for a position all day
25:25
long, right? And when you and it's like, you
25:28
know, when, when it's when it's all said and done at the end of
25:30
the day, you're like, man, I'm physically give out and I just
25:34
raised my butt off and I'm finished 20th place, right?
25:38
But then when you got Earnhardt sitting there saying he did the
25:40
exact same thing, exact same thoughts, you're like, OK, we're
25:43
OK here then you know what I mean?
25:44
We just got to we got to get our cars better.
25:47
So, you know, it's a tough spot in these cup races to be mired
25:51
in the back or mired in the center.
25:53
You know, you don't realize how hard it is to drive, especially
25:57
today's car with the with the aerodynamic mess they got going
26:01
on when the car gets disturbed with all the air.
26:04
You mix that with being back there.
26:06
We have to deal with a hill handling cars, not doing what
26:09
you want, you trying to make it going faster, what it wants to
26:11
run and it just it's as a driver, it's just very, very
26:14
aggravating and frustrating. So anything else that happens
26:17
you just going to get. Multiply frustrated or
26:20
frustrated, yeah, but times 10, you know, and but anyhow, it's
26:24
just part of the sport, you know, it's part of the sport.
26:27
Yeah, I understand. Well, to a couple things.
26:30
I'll dress real quick. I was doing some searching here
26:33
on the internets and I found 11 minute engine change for Junior
26:38
Johnson. But then it was also an article
26:39
that said Dygard Racing back in the day performed a mid race to
26:42
11 minute engine change. So maybe it was one, maybe it
26:45
was both of them. Those two were pretty big
26:48
heavyweights back in their day. Die Guard and Junior Johnson,
26:52
late 70s, early 80s, if I'm off the top of my head, I think I
26:54
think I got that right when they were kind of against each other.
26:57
Junior was around for a while, obviously, but Die Guard is what
26:59
I was thinking of. But yeah, sounds like it was
27:01
you. You had it packed there.
27:03
He said 12 minutes, about 11 minute engine change that.
27:06
Think of that man, we can't even go.
27:07
You can't even fill up your tank in 11 minutes hardly today,
27:11
right With fuel. What's Let's change the change
27:15
the engine oil. Try that hell, change one tire,
27:17
see how long it takes you, right.
27:19
They it was, it's pretty phenomenal what they had worked
27:22
out to be able to do that. You know, it's I remember that
27:24
deal and looking at it and watching it and saying, I'm
27:26
like, man, that's probably that's pretty ingenuous.
27:28
I mean pretty ingenuous. Yeah.
27:32
Ingenuous. Ingenuitus, Ingenuitus.
27:35
Ingenuitus. Let's let's go with this.
27:39
But it sounds good. Let's go with that.
27:43
It was pretty impressive. It was pretty impressive what
27:45
they had done, let's put it that way, in order to do that.
27:49
We're taping somebody tonight. I was going to tell you, a a
27:51
giant thunderstorm rolled through here about 4:30 AM down
27:55
here in Georgia and woke my daughter up just about 5:00 AM
28:00
And so I've been up since about 5:00 AM dealing with storm and
28:03
looking for tornado warnings and a screaming kid.
28:06
So ingenuity sounds great to me. Yeah.
28:08
I think. I think it's a good word.
28:10
Ingenuity. Race fans, let us know what
28:12
ingenuitous is. Come right here.
28:14
Right here on our channel. Where is it?
28:16
Yeah, right here. Tell us.
28:18
Tell us what that word ingenuitous means.
28:21
I know what I want it to mean, but I don't know if that's what
28:24
it means. That's.
28:26
Oh, Lord, that sounds like something that your old pal
28:28
Harry Gant. That would be something.
28:31
Yeah. Ingenuitous kind of run, yeah.
28:34
Harry, you store those for Jesus's at the Mexican
28:37
restaurant? I want one of those.
28:39
One of those hot for Jesus. Like what, Harry?
28:44
Yeah. All for heat is OK.
28:46
All right, well, to to your point about Suarez and Chastain,
28:53
I saw that and just from what I'm saying to me that now they
28:57
might have their ex teammates. So there might be a little bit
29:00
of hard feelings there between two teammates.
29:02
To me from outside looking in, this looks like a Suarez Spire
29:08
kind of hard feelings that are not Spire.
29:11
I'm sorry, track house. He's with Spire now.
29:14
Probably, probably some feelings, Eric, but I think it's
29:16
a non issue now. I think it's over with.
29:18
I think it's done. I think the that's part of the
29:21
whole deal when Suarez kind of put his hands on Chastain asked.
29:24
Chastain wouldn't have any of it, right?
29:27
And then, then, then it was over, right?
29:29
He's just want to get away from the guy at that point.
29:31
Because at that point, then Suarez put his hands behind his
29:33
back, right? And Chastain just didn't want
29:37
anymore up and he just kind of walked away.
29:38
So I got an idea. That's just a non issue.
29:41
Again. You're back in the Hornet's
29:43
desk. You're racing for 17th place.
29:45
So what they're doing, right? And maybe a little bit of ill
29:48
will inhale. You're very frustrated.
29:50
These things happen. I mean, I understand it, you
29:53
know. No, no, I would read a thing
29:55
into it, be honest with you. Let it go.
29:57
I just, I want to know who the lady was that was.
30:00
Kind of, yeah. I know one that that's a bet.
30:02
Yeah. That was the best part of that
30:03
whole deal, man. The lady with the big hat,
30:06
right? I found out who she was.
30:08
You know, she runs, she she works for Spire Motorsports as
30:13
AI. Think one of the PR ladies or
30:14
something. She's got something to do with
30:16
the public relation or something.
30:18
With. With with.
30:21
No, Yeah. What's or is it track house
30:24
fire? She's a Spire.
30:26
Well, she's with one of those two teams.
30:28
I forget which one, but that was cool, man.
30:30
She just stood right there in the middle of like, y'all not
30:32
going to fight because you have to punch me to go pipe and fight
30:34
through me to get it. Oh, man, Honestly, man, I forgot
30:38
about that. Rick, I'm glad you brought that
30:40
up. That was the most, that was the
30:41
best part of that whole deal. Just watching that folks, if you
30:44
didn't see that, try to go back and find a copy of the race.
30:47
Try to find at the end of the at the post post race thing.
30:50
Try to find that. It was hilarious.
30:53
I was proud of her, man. I was proud of her.
30:55
You know, the thing of it is it looked like she'd been in that
30:58
position before because she did not.
31:01
She wasn't a bit ashamed or scared of being where she was
31:05
at. So something tells me maybe
31:07
she's been down that kind of Rd. before.
31:09
I don't know. I'm going to try to meet her
31:11
when I go to the racetrack next. You know, I've worked in sports
31:14
now for a long time now, actually grew up in NASCAR, but
31:19
then I've worked in sports for a long time since and I've known
31:23
multiple PR women who are executives and very high level,
31:29
very high-ranking communications or public relations people.
31:33
And I'm telling you, man, they are.
31:35
They're as tough as they come. They really are and they're not.
31:38
They're not afraid they are. They will stand right there toe
31:42
to toe with anybody. Like it's.
31:43
So I saw that and that that makes sense.
31:45
I had no clue what she was. I just saw Now what you're
31:48
saying that I'm like, yeah, that makes sense.
31:50
Like I know some real, some really, really strong PR women
31:54
that I've met in my career and something like that.
31:56
That makes it. You got talk about you got to be
31:58
tough and have tough skin to be in a in a public relations role
32:01
for anybody. But let alone like a competitive
32:04
environment like sports or where you're dealing with celebrities
32:07
or famous people or athletes or whatever, you got to have tough
32:10
skin. So I'm with you.
32:11
Kudos to her. That was cool.
32:12
That was cool to see. We've, we've known some, I've
32:14
known some, I've worked with some of those ladies and not
32:17
ladies you want to mess with, man.
32:18
They put you in place. They put you in place mentally
32:21
and physically. It's best just go along with
32:23
whatever they direct you to do. I learned that long ago.
32:28
I we can't move on from Vegas. You got to tell this story real
32:31
quick. I want to hear this story and I
32:32
don't know if it was your first trip to Vegas for the first
32:34
Vegas race or when it was, but tell the story of almost being
32:41
late for the race in Vegas. Yeah.
32:44
Well, this is our our series of races be either before or after
32:49
the race, the race that goes on. It was the first time in Vegas,
32:53
the first race, and we were staying at Caesar's Palace.
32:56
And if you're familiar with Vegas, you've got a road that
33:00
goes basically NS through the city.
33:03
Then you've got an Interstate highway that's outside the city
33:07
that parallels that that road. And both of those roads go north
33:11
towards the racetrack, right? In fact, the Main Street, right,
33:14
Main road going through Vegas goes right to the racetrack.
33:16
North of the racetrack. You got to go out in the desert
33:19
just a little ways and it's palace.
33:22
I can't remember whereabouts. The city, maybe the center of
33:24
the city. Anyhow, you know, we know, and
33:27
this is in the middle. Of course, this is 97 or 8,
33:30
whatever it was when we first opened Vegas.
33:32
And that's in the middle of the explosion.
33:34
You know, you can't get in and out of these race tracks right
33:36
now. There's so many people, right?
33:39
And traffic's always, it's always a, is a is a problem.
33:44
So anyhow, I get up, I think I get up at 6.
33:48
I get I get to the car like that morning at like 6:30.
33:51
I go to the car, it's on the top deck of the palace, right
33:53
parking that and I get to my car at 6:30, which is plenty of time
33:57
right That morning thing won't start right batteries.
34:01
It's a rental car won't start. Well, I'm running around there
34:04
trying to get a jump to somebody with nobody around.
34:06
It takes me forever. Finally get a car to see at at
34:09
the Caesar's deal to they actually come up there with a
34:13
little wheeled cart right with the battery thing on it and
34:16
actually hooked to me and dropped my car and I don't know
34:20
the time or how long that was. It was a long time before it,
34:24
but I got it going anyhow. I got it going.
34:26
I go down there and I and I hit the street 1st and it's backed
34:32
up, man. So I run across suits and back
34:34
roads, get up on the Interstate where they're stopped dead and
34:37
everybody's trying to do the racetrack.
34:38
So I've come back through the city, get back through the main
34:41
Dragon Main Street. I got to get to finally get out
34:44
of the city and traffic is just creeping along.
34:46
I'm looking at my watch. I'm like, all right, the drivers
34:49
meeting is in whatever if it was and I don't remember the time
34:53
frame it the driver drivers meeting those days were two, two
34:56
hours before the green flag. So the green flag, if it's a
34:59
2:00 race, your driver's beating's at 10:00.
35:01
If you're not, if you don't make the driver's beating, you start
35:04
at the rear of the field, right? So you always wanted to make
35:07
sure you're at the driver's beating.
35:09
And I remember sitting in that traffic thinking, I'm looking at
35:11
my watch. I'm like, man, I'm not going to
35:13
make, there's no way I'm not going to make it, you know?
35:15
And I started panicking a little bit.
35:17
And I remember I went to the right past a few cars, a little
35:20
bit on the shoulder with the shoulder run out.
35:21
They ran down over the bank sorta.
35:23
And I thought I'd seen a field over there and I was running
35:25
through the field and doing all kinds of crazy stuff.
35:28
Ricky going through, oh man, I went through some places
35:34
probably shouldn't have gone. But anyhow, I'm running through
35:36
there and I'm, I'm, I'm doing all this and I'm looking and I'm
35:39
like, and now we've gotten to the point where it's like, all
35:42
right, I don't have to worry about missing a driver's
35:45
meeting. I'm not going to make a friggin
35:47
race. I'm, if you like this, I'm not
35:49
even going to get in the friggin racetrack.
35:52
The end result is there's a big intersection up there and I
35:56
could see it off the left above because I was down in where I
35:59
shouldn't be. And I remember getting close to
36:01
the intersection and, and it was above wherever I was at.
36:04
And I run through some bushes. There's some bushes at a house,
36:07
OK, or shrubs, you might say. And I had to run through them in
36:12
his little picket fence. And we went through that and
36:15
jumped up on the road. OK, Went up on the road right
36:19
there at the intersection. I'm like, all right, I'm at the
36:21
intersection. Well, dude, here's all the
36:24
policemen right there directing everybody.
36:25
Well, here they came, right? I'm sitting there and it's like
36:28
a SWAT team. I'm like, oh, crap.
36:31
Now, of course I'm, I'm getting out of the car.
36:33
OK, reluctantly, but I'm basically being forced out of
36:37
the car. And these guys, I'm trying to
36:41
explain to to them who I am and what I'm trying to do.
36:44
They don't want to hear it, right?
36:45
They didn't care if I was a NASCAR driver.
36:47
They didn't care I had a hard car.
36:48
They didn't give a shit about any of that.
36:50
They he just had some idiot right doing stuff he shouldn't
36:54
be doing in the car, tearing up some stuff and getting on the
36:58
road and he's going to jail. I mean there's this.
37:02
So you know, I'm sitting there thinking, all right, I missed
37:05
the drivers beat. I'm gonna miss the race now.
37:06
My frigging butts going to be in jail, right?
37:08
I'm luckily, luckily there was one cop, there's one policeman
37:13
officer there. And he had some sympathy and he
37:16
realized, I think he was, he really realized what was going
37:19
on, what was at stake here, right.
37:21
So anyhow, he, what he ended up doing, this guy ended up talking
37:23
the other ones down, all right? And the guy was a motorcycle
37:27
policeman, was a motorcycle cop. So got it all settled down.
37:31
They put all the handcuffs away and they put all the stuff away.
37:34
And this nice police officer said come on with me.
37:38
So I pulled the car across the intersection.
37:40
He said pull over here and I pulled across the intersection.
37:43
Now, I think we had three or four lanes of Rd. there, OK.
37:49
And I'm sure it's at least four lanes.
37:51
And then we had a 5th lane was maybe almost like a shoulder.
37:54
Well, they had four lanes open going through the racetrack.
37:57
I mean, right. And with this road plus you had
37:59
to freaking Interstate over there.
38:01
That travel was going into this place and everything's all
38:04
backed up. Get behind me and follow me, He
38:07
says. I'll take you right into the
38:08
track. I'm like, cool.
38:11
He gets over in that 5th lane, which is actually a shoulder,
38:14
and we take off. And now, mind you, they got this
38:16
lane kind of cordoned off somewhere 'cause there's cones
38:19
there and buses were coming back.
38:21
There's traffic actually coming back this road and there were
38:24
some buses and stuff. I remember, dude, I looked down.
38:28
I'm running 70 miles an hour. Everybody's dead stopped and I'm
38:30
running right beside these cars set dead still.
38:32
We're running 70 miles an hour. I'm trying to keep up this guy.
38:35
And I'm like, man, I'm going to get killed before we get to the
38:37
racetrack now, right? And then, you know, I forget how
38:40
we worked it with the beating, the oncoming traffic and all,
38:42
but we get to the track and he, he has this deal going, the
38:45
sirens going in the, you know, the lights are flashing.
38:48
He pulls me right. We go right in, right to the
38:50
tunnel. We go right through the tunnel
38:52
in this lane and go in and come right up to the garage area.
38:56
He stops, I stop, he gets out and he says, OK, Rick, here you
39:00
are. I said, man.
39:02
Then I wrote my name down and I wrote my number down.
39:04
I said, listen, there's some damage back there to some homes
39:08
with their with their, there's some stuff messed up back.
39:11
There's a few homes, some fences and some Bush's baby shrubs.
39:16
I said here's my name, here's my number, Please let them people
39:20
know or whatever. You know, I will get a hold of
39:24
me and I will cover the damages and pay for it.
39:27
So anyhow, I ran out of the car and ran right in there at the
39:30
garage. Went into the driver's meeting
39:32
and they're pulling out my name and said Mast, Where's Mast?
39:34
That was the second time I held it for Mast and they're set.
39:37
Man, come right in. Didn't he miss the driver's
39:39
meeting? And I'm telling you, if I hadn't
39:41
done everything I'd done, I wouldn't, I don't think I'd, I
39:44
wouldn't have made the start of that race, right.
39:46
And, you know, it was a it was a bad deal.
39:49
It was a bad deal if it, it kind of all worked out.
39:53
You know, luckily things worked out.
39:55
Luckily I didn't crash. Luckily I didn't tear the car up
39:58
before I got back up on the road.
39:59
Luckily we had one officer that understood the situation before
40:04
I was going to go to jail, OK. And luckily we got into the
40:08
racetrack without getting in an accident.
40:10
And everything worked out, you know, just a normal day of
40:14
trying to get in. And now these racers.
40:17
And as this series goes on, Maz cast, we'll give you some more
40:19
stories like that. Most of them pertain to after
40:23
the races trying to get to the airports and the races me and
40:26
the other drivers used to have with one another would document
40:28
those things as we go along with Maz.
40:30
Cast tell you some things I liked about how you were telling
40:33
that story. One, that it was, well, I was in
40:37
some places I shouldn't have been.
40:39
You're running through people's yards.
40:40
That's what that was. And then what I really liked was
40:42
when you came back up, when you did like a like a Dukes of
40:45
Hazzard thing back up onto the road.
40:47
It shifted from I was in some places I shouldn't be.
40:51
When you're doing the Dukes of Hazzard thing.
40:53
All of a sudden it was we got back up out of there.
40:56
Like it was like, oh, it was, you know, it was, it was a
40:58
collective thing. It was a group of us.
41:00
It wasn't just me by myself running through people's yards.
41:02
And I'd like I like that little subtle change there.
41:05
That was fun for the pian, for the desperation baby
41:09
desperation. I'm with you.
41:11
I well, I, I, by the way, you you started 6th that day,
41:15
finished 11th. So you definitely you definitely
41:18
did not want to start at the back when you had a good top,
41:20
top ten starting position there. OK, I can remember, I can
41:25
remember a similar deal, not quite to that extreme of us
41:29
trying to get into the track at Michigan one time that I, you
41:33
know what, I will save it for the for Michigan week.
41:35
I will save it for to keep with this series.
41:37
You all just you got to keep watching till we get to Michigan
41:39
and I will tell that story. That'll be a fun one.
41:42
We don't want to look all the way ahead to Michigan.
41:44
We do want to look ahead this weekend though to Darlington
41:48
alumni weekend at Darlington. You're wearing your NASCAR
41:51
alumni hat there and you're going to be there and you're
41:54
going to be I've gotten a little sneak peek at your schedule for
41:57
the weekend. You are going to be heavily
41:59
involved with the, the the alumni events this weekend in
42:03
Darlington. I wish I could make it.
42:06
I can't. I've got between my work busy
42:09
season here and my little one and everything It's I can't get
42:12
away, but tasked my sister, your daughter Katie, who is going
42:16
with you to to document as much of your weekend as possible
42:20
because we want to throw it up here on the mass cast YouTube
42:23
channel. But tell us a little bit about
42:26
what you got going on at Darlington this weekend.
42:28
Yeah, we're. I'll be honest with you, I'm not
42:31
really 100% exactly sure. You know, a lot of these things.
42:35
They'll give me the schedule and then when we get there, we'll
42:38
have, I have, all right, somebody tell me what to do
42:39
next, right? We have somebody signed to me
42:41
tell me what to do. But you know, don't do a lot of,
42:43
I think Saturday morning we're doing the kickoff parade.
42:46
We used to do that on Friday nights, but they changed it
42:48
Saturday morning. So a lot of the alumni groups
42:50
will be in the annual Darlington parade that goes down through
42:53
Darlington. That's a cool little deal.
42:55
And then we're going to be doing some stuff.
42:58
One of the things I know we're going to be doing, we're going
43:00
to be hosting some I'm, I'm going to be the host for some
43:03
driver deals, right? Some alumni guys.
43:05
We're going to have like 3-3 drivers at a time.
43:08
We're going to be on a stage somewhere with the fans.
43:10
Fans, y'all need to, if you want to see all of us, man, look us
43:12
up, try to figure out where we're at.
43:14
I'm not sure exactly where we're at either, but I think it might
43:17
be on that fan experience, which is on the front stretch outside
43:20
of the grandstands. That's what we did a couple
43:22
years ago. Then how we're going to have
43:24
like 3 drivers I think at a time.
43:26
They're going to come up on stage and I'm we're going to
43:28
talk to them and then they're going to leave and probably
43:31
three more guys will come up. You know, some crew chiefs also
43:35
from the alumni group. We're going to do a few of those
43:38
and then we have some stuff to do at the big banquet facility
43:43
there at the alumni in the infield.
43:45
They they, they really do a nice job with their I would call it a
43:49
tent. Yeah, I guess it really is a
43:51
tent, but it's a pretty swanky tent, man, right?
43:54
It's a caviar type tent. And what's neat about it, a lot
43:58
of the guys will come in, you know, the lot of the current
44:00
guys will, because it's right there between the motorhome lot
44:03
and the garage and where you got to go through.
44:05
And a lot of the current people involved, crew guys, drivers,
44:08
they'll, they'll come in there, you know, we'll mingle with them
44:11
and we can go out and mingle and do those things.
44:13
And I think they got some other, they got a lot of special stuff
44:16
going on. I think Mark Martin, I think
44:18
he's driving the pace car or the, the, the, the pace lap.
44:22
Maybe. I think he's doing that.
44:25
There was a couple of the things with guys I can't forget.
44:28
I don't know. I don't know what all it what
44:29
all it is. But if you go to Darlington,
44:31
man, look it up and and check us out.
44:33
Look at all everything. You'll you get to see some old
44:35
faces if you want to, right. But it's a it's a neat
44:38
experience for all of us. It really is.
44:40
I like what the throwback weekend has evolved into now
44:43
with the creation of the NASCAR alumni network.
44:46
It's now turned into a real live celebration of alumni and former
44:52
drivers and crew chiefs and crew members and personnel.
44:55
It's and it's a weekend long celebration of all you guys.
44:58
And that's, that's what I really love what they've done with this
45:02
thing, however long ago it was, gosh, about 10 years ago now, I
45:05
guess, or close to it that they did first did the throwback
45:08
weekend with the paint schemes and all that.
45:10
Of course, that was initially such a cool deal.
45:12
So well done. And now, you know, I, I like
45:15
that it's, you know, they leave it a little more optional.
45:18
If teams want to do a throwback paint scheme, they can, which I
45:21
I like where it's at now because you got some instead of
45:24
everybody instead of some of them being forced, it's kind of
45:27
you getting 1. You just get ones that are that
45:29
are really cool. But more than that, it's now a
45:32
weekend every year where all you guys can can come back.
45:36
And maybe I mean we talked about it before here on mass cast.
45:39
That's how you and the Biff got to talk and get to know each
45:43
other a little bit. Even though your career is
45:45
literally only overlap for one race on the track.
45:48
Y'all got to connect and have that connection.
45:50
So and then of course the fans too.
45:52
I mean that that's what's great. But keeping the the alumni
45:55
connected with the people that are there currently I think is
45:58
good for the sport. It's just good for everybody.
46:00
And then? It.
46:01
Gives the fans a chance to to see you guys and get your
46:04
autograph. I'll tell you, I was thinking
46:06
about whatever year it was, must have been, I must say, 2022,
46:11
when Junior Motorsports when Sam Mayer was running the one car in
46:14
the O'Reilly series and they did a skull #1 car throwback to, to
46:20
one of your cars from the early 90s.
46:22
And Junior Motorsports was kind enough.
46:24
They had us up there and we sat on Sam's pit box for the race.
46:28
And I will tell you, I was not expecting this, but it, this has
46:32
happened. This, this is what happened.
46:35
And I swear to you, I'm not exaggerating.
46:36
I'm not making up like make this to sound like it was some magic
46:40
story or something. This is honestly how I felt.
46:43
We're sitting there on that pit box during the race and
46:47
watching, I'm watching that one car go down into Term 1 and
46:51
Darlington, which in your day for the most of the years was
46:53
was still Turn 3, but what's now we now know is Turn 1.
46:57
And I was literally sitting there having flashbacks like it
47:00
was 30 years prior and I was a little kid in the infielder on
47:04
Pit Rd. watching that one, that black and white one car go
47:08
through that turn. I don't know why I still as a
47:10
kid, Darlington, Rockingham stick out to me so much as that
47:13
particular vantage point, watching your car go into that
47:16
turn. And it was the coolest thing in
47:21
the world to be able to kind of have that feeling again.
47:23
Except that time, you know, you're sitting there as me, my
47:25
wife Laura and you on the pit box and you're sitting there
47:28
with us and we're watching it happen.
47:30
So all that to say, man, I just love that they've continued to
47:34
evolve this thing, what kind of just started as a fun throwback
47:37
weekend with paint schemes and broadcasters.
47:40
All that thing is now really turned into a thing that I think
47:42
is going to carry on for years and years and years to come.
47:45
So I'm excited for you. I hate that I can't be there.
47:48
I think it's going to be really cool.
47:50
I'm excited that you're going to be moderating panels all day and
47:54
I know you, so you're not going to be sitting there writing down
47:56
notes or anything. You're just going to put the
47:58
microphone up to your mouth and see what see what happens.
48:01
You'll come up with something ingenuous or or something.
48:04
Sure. Yeah, yeah.
48:07
I, I, I don't do well with notes, man.
48:10
I just kind of got to go with whatever's happening at the
48:13
time. But yeah, we'll, we'll have fun
48:15
with that. In fact, I think Amber said
48:18
they're trying to figure out who to get do it.
48:20
And they said, I know we'll get Rick do it.
48:22
He likes talk. I said yeah, yeah, Amber will.
48:25
We'll have fun with that. So actually got to sit in for
48:28
Kenny next couple weeks on on Herman Schrader.
48:31
So Kenny, everybody, Kenny Wallace going to, I know where
48:34
he's going this time. I don't think it's on a boat,
48:35
baby. Maybe this time it's to Europe
48:37
or something. I'm not sure where he's going.
48:39
So we're going to fill in a couple weeks on the Herman
48:41
Schrader show starting next week.
48:43
I think it is. I'm not sure Kenny's always
48:46
going somewhere, right? I don't know a bit more power to
48:50
him, but we'll have fun. We'll have fun with that.
48:52
But yeah, back to that. And it's just a real special
48:56
deal. I mean, I, you know, we've had a
48:57
couple drivers here the last, what, 3 or 4 weeks, you know,
49:02
have reached out, you know what become members want to be part
49:04
of it. You know, it's, it's taking a
49:06
while to do this and that's, you know, like I explained to Amber
49:10
to start with, this is a this is a marathon with this deal.
49:13
It's not a Sprint race, you know, just give it time and let
49:15
everybody get accustomed to it and used to doing it and all
49:18
that and it'll, it'll work out great.
49:20
And so far, you know, it, it hit.
49:22
It's really exceeded my expectations, to be honest with
49:24
you, just because they're NASCAR's behind it and they
49:27
really push it and they really do a nice job with it and they
49:29
really, they're very respectful with everybody.
49:32
They, they, it's like they get it, you know, they understand
49:35
what, you know, the guys that came through that helps you keep
49:40
saying you're part of the sport and the other people say we
49:42
helped build the sport. Well, everybody evolved from
49:45
1940s, fifties or whatever that came through our sport, helped
49:49
to build the sport, to get it where it's at now.
49:51
You know, you're no different than anybody else that did that,
49:54
but you were part of that. And, you know, to be recognized
49:57
for that, for being a part of that, it, it, it's pretty
50:01
special. And and you know, it took us a
50:02
while to to get to that. It took NASCAR a little while to
50:05
get to that. But they now that they have done
50:08
it, they are really, really, really pushing it, pushing it
50:11
pretty hard and doing a doing an extra job with it.
50:13
So, you know, again, just proud of them.
50:16
Happy to be a part of it. Yep, and it's at a great place.
50:20
I love that that's in Darlington.
50:22
That's very fitting. It's helped.
50:24
I think over the last decade, this whole thing has really
50:28
helped, I think revitalize Darlington a little bit and gets
50:31
the fan interest that should that should always be in
50:33
Darlington. I mean, we talked about majors.
50:35
I know this is the spring race, but Darlington is 1, whether
50:38
it's the, the Southern 500 or it's the spring race that to me,
50:42
if you're, if you're 1, if you're dreaming to be in, in
50:44
NASCAR, I don't care what generation you are, Darlington
50:47
ought to be a place you're dreaming about running and
50:49
winning and all that. And it's it's such a unique
50:52
challenge that place. It's it's fun to watch you guys
50:55
out there, watch the drivers out there try to well, it's track
50:59
too tough to tame. Try and to tame it.
51:00
It's always fun to watch that. So Speaking of alumni, I did
51:04
before we wrap up, I did want to give a rest in peace to the to
51:08
Mike Powell. Of course, I I'll tell you long
51:13
time, I guess truck driver and and not not Craftsman Truck
51:18
Series for those who don't know, but like actually the hauler,
51:20
transporter, whatever you call them passed away this week,
51:24
which was sad. I don't know that I ever as a
51:27
kid, I don't know that I ever met Mike.
51:28
Maybe I did and I don't remember.
51:29
But I can tell you my main memory of Mike Powell was before
51:34
the 1991 Daytona 500. Him on the front stretch in his
51:39
fire suit or in his pit uniform singing God Bless the USA.
51:44
You know that was in the midst of the first I guess Gulf War
51:47
and you know there were five cars in the 500 that he had
51:51
paint schemes to represent each branch of the military.
51:53
All you guys, all the drivers were I think standing behind him
51:56
holding up a little American flags and here's this here's the
52:01
the guys driving the one of the trucks to the track that week
52:03
and he's out there just belt and God bless the USA in front of
52:07
the Daytona 500 crowd and the national TV audience on CBS and
52:11
I just. I always stuck out to me as
52:13
like, man, that is pretty freaking cool and amazing.
52:15
So just to I don't know if you knew Mike well at all, but just
52:19
rest in peace to Mike Powell. It's funny you say that or
52:22
mention that about him singing that Ricky to honest with be
52:25
honest with you, I'd forgotten about that.
52:27
But it's all it's out here in the in the interweb somewhere.
52:31
I just saw it yesterday. I don't know if it's on YouTube
52:34
or whatever, but race fire fans is watching this.
52:37
Do yourself a favor, look it up, see if you can find it.
52:40
Mike Powell sings God Bless America, right?
52:44
God Bless America. God bless the USA.
52:46
God bless you, USA, the Lee Greenwood song.
52:48
Yeah, yeah, God bless USA. Try do yourself a favor and try
52:52
to find that. I'm going to tell you the two
52:54
things about Mike. And always stuck out with me
52:57
because he did some national anthems for us and you know,
52:59
time or two. Number one, the guy had some
53:01
chops. When y'all, when you guys listen
53:04
to what you listen to that song he just sang, if you can find
53:07
it, you'll understand what I say.
53:09
That guy has some chops, man. That frigger, that fella could
53:11
friggin sing, right? The other thing about Mike is
53:14
just a sweet sweetheart guy, right?
53:17
Everybody love Mike. See the truck drivers in those
53:21
days and I guess it's still the same, but the truck drivers,
53:23
they had their own little unofficial union, right?
53:26
Those guys, I mean, they had their own deal, man.
53:29
They were they were they were thick.
53:31
They were tight. You didn't mess with a truck.
53:33
I don't care who the train was, if it's if the teams were
53:37
drivers were fighting each other.
53:38
Truck drivers weren't like that. The truck drivers were tight and
53:41
together. And if you messed with one truck
53:43
driver, you messed with all of them.
53:44
And I guess because they traveled so much up and down the
53:46
interstates, the road so much. But but Mike is one of those
53:49
guys that everybody in that non union union loved.
53:55
And the reason being he was just thought he was just a genuinely
53:58
nice, sweet guy man, right. And and and you know, I hate it
54:03
for him. I hate it for his family.
54:04
I understand his sufferings over now, you know, he's a better
54:07
place, But kudos to Mike and his family and RIP Mike.
54:11
We loved you, buddy. Yeah, those, I'll tell you as a
54:14
kid, I loved all your pit crew guys.
54:17
Those guys were like, they were like all my heroes and my
54:20
buddies, you know. But there are certain truck
54:23
drivers that just they were they were just had a real special
54:25
play your truck driver and the school days.
54:27
Big Joe was one bandit, of course, GAIL Wilson, long time
54:32
truck driver. So yeah, that was that was a
54:36
special group. That was a really tight knit
54:38
special group. You're exactly right about that.
54:39
So all right. That's all about to get on here
54:41
one time. We keep talking about who we
54:42
want to get. We'll get one of our truck
54:43
drivers on here sometime. We should talk about good some
54:47
guests as a year goes on. I just thought of that.
54:49
We get a, we get a truck driver too, and yeah, that.
54:54
Reminds me before we sign off here, you're we told you told a
54:57
story last week about when you were in the car and gas started
55:04
spraying out of the gauge and you know you're you your crew
55:09
chief, long time crew chief Kevin Hamlin said you had a fire
55:13
extinguisher or you'll be all right basically.
55:15
So we put that we put that clip up on mass cash show on
55:19
Instagram and he Kevin replied he said you had a fire suit on
55:24
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. So I thought. 30 years later, he
55:28
ain't changed a bit. No, he ain't changed a bit.
55:30
No, it's. Yeah, it's kind of, it's kind of
55:32
a mood out there, you know, like the thing that lit up like a
55:35
fire station is going to really help me at that point.
55:37
Right. But.
55:39
But if things were different then times were different.
55:41
Your mentality level was different.
55:43
Well, experience level is different.
55:45
Totality level can't change, but the experience level changes, I
55:48
guess, as you get older. So looking back, that's probably
55:52
something that wasn't the wisest thing ever did.
55:55
But there's other things that's just as wise as that that we
55:58
pulled off so well. You don't worry about the fire
56:01
extinguisher. Kevin cleared it right up there
56:03
on Mass Cast Show on Instagram. You, you had a fire suit on.
56:06
You had a fire suit on. Yeah.
56:07
That would have saved me. That would have saved me in 11
56:09
seconds. Yeah, that's pretty good.
56:11
It says it right there in the name stopped.
56:14
Yeah, it says it right there in the name Dad.
56:16
It's a fire suit. That's why you wear all right,
56:22
Well, follow us. Speaking of the socials, follow
56:24
us mass cast show and Instagram and X and TikTok, our TikTok.
56:29
I'll tell you, I've been I've been seeing some I've been
56:32
surprised. We're finding some folks here on
56:34
TikTok. And of course you're finding us
56:35
on YouTube on Rick mass cast on the channel and then Kenny
56:39
Wallace's channel. We had a, we had our, our
56:42
discussion about Cletus last week was on Kenny's channel and
56:47
that we, we had a lot of comments, I, I and A lot of
56:50
views. I didn't, I couldn't bring
56:53
myself to look at, look at all the comments.
56:55
My wife looked at them and said they are great.
56:58
And then you looked at them and you sent.
57:00
One or two. But I don't know, they were less
57:04
than great, but that we had people talking and that's what
57:07
we're. Trying to do.
57:07
That's what we're trying to do. But no, the whole point of that
57:10
story was, man, go for it. You know if you can make.
57:15
It happen and you're serious, go for it.
57:18
Yep, I saw RCR put out his Cletus's paint scheme for the
57:22
O'Reilly car He's going to run it looks cool, looks fast.
57:24
So we'll see how he does. You know, it'll be fun thing to
57:27
follow. All right, well, he's Rick.
57:29
I'm Ricky. We appreciate y'all listening,
57:32
watching, rating, reviewing, subscribing, following all the
57:34
things. We very much appreciate it.
57:37
We'll see you right here next week on Mass Cast.