Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Tyler Reddick "Total Dominance," Road Course Racing, & 4 Straight in '93 | Mark Martin Archive Ep 8

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Tyler Reddick "Total Dominance," Road Course Racing, & 4 Straight in '93 | Mark Martin Archive Ep 8 · Kenny Wallace Media

0:00
Hello everybody. This is episode 8 of the Mark
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Martin Archive Podcast. I'm Charlie Marlowe.
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There's Mark Martin. There is Matt Martin.
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How you guys doing today on this beautiful Monday?
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Doing great. Yeah, doing pretty good.
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How about yourself? I can't complain.
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We had a great weekend of racing at CODA, so let's let's get
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right to it and we'll start with the Cup race.
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Obviously we had some history made.
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We talked about it. Tyler Reddick, Mark becoming the
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first driver in the history of NASCAR Cup racing to win the
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first three races of the season. And he did it in dominant
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fashion. He had SVG behind him.
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You thought maybe SVG was going to catch him, but Nope.
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Tyler Reddick. He just.
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He was the show. Yeah, I mean, he had the, he had
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the car. You could see SVG, you know,
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totally, totally willing his way to put pressure on him.
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You know, his car was sliding all over the place and you know,
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Tyler just pretty much drove as fast as he needed to.
1:02
You know, whenever someone would put a little pressure on him,
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he'd just step on it a little bit more.
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It was total dominance. I appreciate seeing that and and
1:12
respect it. It's quite different than the
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first two wins of the season, both which she was in the right
1:19
place at the right time, which you have to be.
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But everything it also has to work out just right to pull
1:27
those off. He didn't need no help at Koda.
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He he he, you know, he saved his tires the first run too much,
1:37
realized that he didn't need to save them that much.
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And from there on, he just modulated his gap by the, you
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know, the car behind him. Kudos to those guys.
1:47
Man, what an incredible start to the season.
1:50
And don't forget, Bubba Wallace has been hauling too.
1:57
I mean, you know, he could have won either of the first two
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races, you know, and it it was, he was, you know, in the right
2:05
place at the right time. Just the stars didn't line up.
2:08
So, yeah, he's his strong suits, not Rd. courses.
2:13
So he came out of there and, you know, second in the points.
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So don't don't forget that he's running good, too.
2:23
And you know, far as Riley Hurst goes, he's not.
2:31
And it's not for a lack of talent.
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I know people want to talk trash about him.
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Some people do. But he's a really good race car
2:39
driver. And as far as I can tell, he's a
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good dude. If if they can't get things
2:47
rolling here this year, I'm sure he won't be in that seat.
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And I'll bet you that if he does get another cup seat, it will be
2:57
of lesser quality. And I bet you he runs least as
3:01
good. You know, well, for whatever
3:05
reason, they can't get it rolling over there.
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And if they don't, if they don't hit on it, this, you know, this
3:11
the first half of this year, then it's just that magic.
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It's not there. But I think Riley could do, you
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know, he could do a whole lot better.
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You know, it's just, it's just not working.
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And that happens. I've been in those situations
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myself where you got good people and you're with a good
3:33
organization, but for some reason you can't get everything
3:37
rolling. That's pretty incredible to beat
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SVG at a road course, especially in such a way that, you know,
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Tyler did. I mean that's wonder if he can
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keep it going for four in a row. Yeah.
3:49
And and we're going to talk about that in a second and you
3:52
guys are going to talk about that, but I want to kind of go
3:54
backwards and we'll talk about the O'Reilly race as well, where
3:58
SVG did dominate. And we're always, you know,
4:02
touching on some of the drama as well.
4:03
So you have Corey Day wrecking Connor Zilich in O'Reilly and
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Corey Day has been doing this a little bit the last couple weeks
4:11
and he actually came out on X and apologized for that.
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And Mark, I saw you quote tweeted that apology on X and
4:21
you wrote you wrote you have completed the first step by
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recognizing the issue. We will be watching Corey Day.
4:28
So I thought that was a nice matter of fact response.
4:32
Yeah, you know, Corey's got the speed, he's really fast.
4:36
You know, people have been watching him come, you know,
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coming and but this isn't two weeks.
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This I've, I've noticed this prior to the last two weeks that
4:48
there's been a quite a number of cars peeled off his front front
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end. And I don't, you know, I don't
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particularly condone that from a raced fan standpoint.
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If he's fast and he's ruffling feathers, that's a good thing.
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But you know, if he is, if he does have values like he says
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that he does, then he's, you know, going to recognize that
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the issue and rein it in some I hope he doesn't over rein it in
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because I want to see it. We're going to see some good
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stuff out of Corey day going forward, But he needs to get
5:36
acquainted with where the corners of that car is and and
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rein it in. If it was just two weeks, I
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wouldn't even I wouldn't even speak on it.
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But I saw this. I've already, I was already
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watching him close because I've seen it multiple times prior to
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that. And you know, I don't, I don't
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want to see a young incredible talent come in and make, you
6:06
know, make problems for themselves.
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You know, if you've got speed, you don't need to be in
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controversy. You just need to be ripping off
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those finishes and climbing the ladder.
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And so we'll be watching. And it was a fantastic weekend
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of racing all over the place at CODA, you had Cup, you had
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O'Reilly. Then down in good old Saint
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Pete, you had the the doubleheader, you had trucks and
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you had IndyCar as well. And Mark, I know you.
6:39
You watched all of it. I did.
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I watched all a whole day of racing on Saturday and a whole
6:45
day of racing on Sunday. I thought it was fantastic that
6:49
the the trucks and the Indycars were together.
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I think that that's, you know, we should see more of that
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contrary to what a lot of NASCAR's policy has been dating
7:05
way back was, you know, make sure and try to keep everyone
7:10
else down. And I think that, you know,
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rising, you know, rising tides lifts all boats.
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I believe that if you make if you crossover some race fans
7:23
from IndyCar to NASCAR and vice versa, I don't think they'll
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watch less of either one. I think they just get to watch
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more racing. That's what I want to see.
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I loved the fact that you had some IndyCar drivers.
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Dario Francini, a really gutsy race for him.
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Spectacular. That was so cool.
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And kudos to, you know, I don't know Hinchcliffe very well,
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James, but he sure made a lot of funny.
7:58
He he made some funny out of this stuff.
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You know, to me, he's very GQ. He's, you know, pretty prim and
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pretty clean and, and, and manicured looking and, and
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talking kind of guy. And he puts Jimmy Hinch on the
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truck. Yeah, them truckers are, you
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know, do have a little bit of reputation for being, if nothing
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else, blue collar for there's trucks all over America and most
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of them are driven by blue collar guys.
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So I thought that was really cool, really interesting hook to
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put those guys in in in those trucks.
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And it was a good race, a great circuit would want to race there
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every weekend, but I I thought it was fantastic.
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It was was a lot of fun and it primed up your interest for the
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IndyCar race as well there, so I thought it was a great weekend.
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All right, Matt, I'll toss it to you for some discussion of Rd.
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course racing. Yeah, so Koda got me thinking
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about it. You know Dad, you and Rusty were
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two of the greatest, you know, Rd. course racers in NASCAR.
9:14
You know what, what do you think that's all about?
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I mean, is it, you know, growing up in the Ozarks and driving the
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the windy country roads to on the way to ASA races because I
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mean, y'all didn't cut your teeth on road course racing.
9:28
So what? How do you explain that?
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You know, I can't explain Rusty's.
9:35
You know, I don't know really where that came from, but
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certain drivers had knacks for it.
9:42
Definitely. Ricky Rudd was also a master.
9:46
Bill Elliott was pretty darn good too.
9:49
I think his first win came at Riverside, if I'm not mistaken.
9:53
So there were certain drivers that really had a knack for, for
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me, yeah, I think it was driving the dirt roads, you know, in in
10:02
the Concorde, Arkansas area, floral and and all up through
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there, you know, because I like to drive fast and they were dirt
10:14
roads and I just drove as fast as I could go without getting in
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the ditch, which is exactly what I did Rd. racing as well.
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So if there was really no difference in that, but you
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know, then comes along Jeff Gordon and he kind of blows all
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of us away in in that respect. And I think it's just certain
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drivers have a certain extra knack.
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All drivers, all, you know, NASCAR drivers have a knack.
10:47
But it was more awkward for some for most than it was.
10:54
It just came natural for for a number of us, so.
11:00
Yeah, that just always been fascinating to to me that you
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and Rusty both, I mean to the the biggest names in in stock
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car racing in the Midwest from that era.
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And then you make it a NASCAR and you and you just so happen
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to be two of the best Rd. course racers in NASCAR.
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So, you know, and being from Arkansas and Missouri, it's
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just, I don't know, it's always been fascinating to me.
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Well, there's so much fun to talk about Rusty and, and his,
11:29
his talent and the contrast between Rusty and I.
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You know, there's so much in our book, you know, about Rusty and
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I and our background are racing together, racing against each
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other, me crew chief and him in, in a race and, and all the
11:48
different things. But Rusty's approach, even
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though he was a car guy, he, he was a a different kind of car
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guy than I was. I was in there doing the
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maintenance, packing the wheel bearings, you know, everything
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like that. Rusty was on the phone, he was
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networking, you know, and he, his goal was to get to NASCAR
12:13
just like mine was. But his approach was slightly
12:16
different. You know, he was a promoter,
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self promoter, which got him, you know, labeled sometimes as a
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guy that was maybe brash or arrogant.
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Rusty was not. He was Rusty was just promoting
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himself. He was trying to make it.
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You know, he was a little guy from Saint Louis area that, you
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know, wanted to be a big, big time NASCAR guy.
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And and yeah, it was so much fun talking about Rusty in the book.
12:47
Yeah, he was a marketer. Yeah, he.
12:50
Was yeah, that was that was for sure.
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So, you know, as far as Rd. course racing goes, you know, in
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your NASCAR career you only raced at Walking Spin and
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Sonoma. Which of those two did you
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prefer? And also, out of all the road
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course races they race on today, what would be one that you wish
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you could have raced on back in the 90s?
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Oh, I certainly wish we could have run Laguna Seca.
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I, I, I hate it that I never was able to compete on on that
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racetrack. You know, being out there with
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IROC cars and driving on it was a real treat last summer and
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that that that would have been incredible to have a NASCAR race
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there or something like that. Yeah, that Corkscrew.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. And everybody, everybody said
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just line up with that tree. I never saw that tree at the
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cork tree. I never saw any tree.
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I wasn't looking for no damn tree.
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I was looking, trying to look right through my dash to see the
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track below. So I never saw a tree, but I
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always you know, funny you ask about Rd. course racing.
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You know, I have had lots of drivers come up and ask me, hey,
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what what marker are you breaking at?
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You know like at the Glen for turn 1 and and into the bus
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stop. I said hell, I don't know, I go
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till I get scared. So I was never I never was a
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visual. You know, I never looked at
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markers and so many drivers do, but you know, that was in the
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Corkscrew. I wasn't, I wasn't looking
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straight ahead at the trees. Now I tried to see where the
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track was going to be when I came popped over that hill.
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So my favorite track of those two, you know, Sonoma and the
14:46
Glen was the Glen because it was a superspeedway of Rd. course
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racing and Sonoma was a Martinsville.
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You know, they were flat wheel spin corners and dude, I'm not,
15:03
you know, I'll be the first to tell you that is my week suit
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because the only way I know how to go fast is give it gas.
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And so I gave it plenty of gas and I never had my tires last
15:17
very long at Martinsville or Sonoma.
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We did run good at Sonoma, but you didn't have to worry about
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wheel spin at the Glen, so you could just haul.
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It was so fast, you know, and, and your abuse of the rear tires
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were not that much more than the abuse on the on the front tire.
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So yeah, I, I, that was my favorite.
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The Glen was my favorite. Now it was at Sonoma ride fit
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you and Jack Roush. You know, you tell that story
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about he asked you why you're breaking early.
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You know, tell that, tell that story.
15:59
So it was the, I think it was the first year out there, you
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know, 89. So it was our second year with,
16:06
with Jack and I and of course he'd been out there with his
16:11
cars and racing and stuff. And so he's, he's not timing the
16:15
lap times, he's timing where the passing zone is, which was going
16:20
into 11 the last turn there and I'm getting beat.
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So he comes over and he says, hey, you're getting beat down
16:30
here. My laptops were respectable
16:32
getting beat down here. Well, I didn't want to hear
16:35
that. I was doing all I could do.
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And then, you know, after the next, next time out, he comes
16:42
over and he says, hey, you're getting beat down here.
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And and it looks like it's on breaking.
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Why are you breaking early? Why don't you know, why are you
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not going deep? So because I'll wreck and Jack
16:59
Smart says, why were why were you wreck?
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Hell, I don't know. I just know I'll wreck if I go
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further. And you know, he was asking the
17:12
right questions. He didn't tell me what to do.
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He was asking the right. And it's like, well, let me
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think on that and, and let me think it through slowly and let
17:23
me go back out and see. And sure enough, it was too much
17:26
rear brake. But, you know, all I was doing
17:30
was driving the car to the, the, the Max of its ability.
17:35
And I wasn't, you know, doing the critical thinking of how to
17:39
improve braking in that turn. So, yeah, Jack loves to tell
17:45
that story. He's a, he's such a smart guy
17:48
and a cutting guy. And rather than just tell, come
17:51
in there and tell you everything, he, he asks the
17:55
right questions many times at Rd.
18:00
Rd. courses early on, then you know, then we got to a point,
18:04
you know, by the mid 90s where he didn't, you know, he didn't
18:08
need to ask questions anymore. But that was his way of teaching
18:14
me without telling me what to do.
18:18
Didn't he say when you saw him a few months ago at Barrett
18:21
Jackson that he was getting a little irritated with you, that
18:24
that test and that's why he asked that?
18:26
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Because, you know, he knew and I
18:31
didn't. And he also knew I was resistant
18:35
to be told, you know, told what to do or whatever.
18:39
And I was going absolutely as fast as you could go through
18:45
turn 11 with that piece the way it was.
18:50
And his question is what needs to be done so that you can do
18:53
more. And I would have done more if
18:56
those changes were done to the car.
18:59
But if I didn't tell Steve and Robin that what I needed, then
19:05
we wouldn't go faster. So that was a learning lesson
19:11
for sure. But, you know, we had single
19:12
master cylinder on the car so you couldn't adjust it other
19:16
than, you know, of course we took the, you know, rear brake
19:19
pads out and cut some of the pad off.
19:23
So that's how we decrease the brakes 'cause it was, you know,
19:26
a single Ford master cylinder at the time we didn't have double
19:29
dual master cylinders with a balance bar to adjust.
19:32
So of course that came, you know, the next year, you know,
19:37
we came with those and then we were able to make adjustments
19:41
and then and then we, you know, wound up putting a, a, a cable
19:48
up so I could adjust it while driving the car, you know, and
19:52
of course everybody does that and everybody has that now.
19:55
But in the early years of Rd. course racing in NASCAR, a lot
20:01
of people just took their Oval stuff and made it into a road
20:05
course car and just went and kind of let it be what it was.
20:11
And when some some people started specializing in it,
20:16
Ricky Rudd for example, and Bill, some of these guys started
20:18
running really good and then their team started making cars
20:23
that were more specific to right and left hand turns, then it
20:31
forced everyone to up their game.
20:36
And so then the road race racing era really took off the
20:41
specialized cars and drivers doing other races besides NASCAR
20:46
races to get more time and, you know, in in in Rd. course
20:52
situations. Well, it's, you know, I think
20:55
it's really fascinating how, you know, Jack was able to take, you
20:59
know, your raw talent as a road racer and then, you know, take
21:04
his expertise from his Rd. racing background and you guys
21:08
made one heck of a team. He was able to really improve
21:12
your, you know, raw talent and skill on road courses and you
21:17
guys, you know, during your career had some phenomenal stats
21:22
at Watkins win and Sonoma, particularly the Glen.
21:26
And which brings me to the next subject is you know you got your
21:31
first Rd. course win at Watkins, win in 93 and then you went on
21:36
to win three more races to make it four in a row and you joined.
21:41
At that time there was only 6 drivers.
21:43
You were the 6th 1 to win 4 consecutive races.
21:46
So then Jeff Gordon and then Jimmy Johnson later on went on
21:51
to join the club. Do you think Ty Reddick could be
21:53
the next one that joins? Boy, I'd say there's an awful
21:58
good chance of it. You know, they are.
22:00
They're hitting on all cylinders.
22:02
And I, I just, I, I want to revert back again to Bubba
22:06
Wallace is showing the same kind of speed.
22:09
So, so it's not a fluke. You know, they're, they're they,
22:14
they, they're strong right now. They're actually putting as
22:19
faster, faster race cars on the racetrack than the Gibbs bunch
22:23
is right now. So yes, I give him a good solid
22:29
chance. You know, when things are
22:31
clicking, they're clicking. When you got fast race cars and
22:36
you've got that momentum, you've got that wind at your back, you
22:40
got that tailwind and it just it, it all adds up.
22:46
It all it all adds up. And I want to say that I'm
22:49
really, really happy for Billy Scott.
22:52
Everybody's talking about Tyler Reddick, Billy Scott's crew
22:56
chief, one of the finest men you know, I've known very much in
23:02
the in the same light as Rodney Childers.
23:07
He was our lead engineer with Rodney at, you know, my time at
23:16
at with the 55 car Michael Walker bracing and I got to work
23:21
with him there and as years went on, he graduated, you know, up
23:26
and and now his crew chief. The guy's really smart.
23:31
He has a really beautiful family and I feel really warm feelings
23:38
toward him and his family, and I'm so happy to see guys just
23:44
realize their dreams as as Billy's been being able to do.
23:49
Yeah, so you know, when you went on to win, you know, 4 races in
23:54
a row, you know that to me, there's a lot of periods in your
23:58
career that are I could rank as my favorites, but I'd have to
24:02
say probably if I was forced to choose, you know, August 8th to
24:07
September 10th of 1993 is my absolute favorite time of your
24:11
career. Won four straight Cup races and
24:14
you add in the the three Bush wins, I mean that's seven wins
24:17
in a row. And I mean, that was, I mean, I
24:21
know, you know, because we've talked about it, you were just
24:25
riding a high at that time. And, you know, Tyler Reddick and
24:28
MJ and, and all those guys there, they have to be feeling
24:32
the same way, you know, tell the fans, you know, what was that
24:38
like just every time you got in a race car, you won.
24:42
And I mean, what? How did that feel?
24:46
You know it. I was so driven and had blinders
24:51
on so, so much. Yeah, it felt good.
24:55
It felt good to be leading, felt good to look at the scoreboard,
24:59
see my number on top. Felt good to be right, you know,
25:04
pull up into Victory Lane celebration.
25:07
But I wasn't soaking it in, you know it.
25:12
It actually was bouncing right off of me.
25:16
I was so focused on how we going to keep, keep, you know, this is
25:21
what we want, how we going to keep this going.
25:24
And it was, you know, incredible to look back on.
25:30
It really felt satisfying. I really felt like I was there,
25:37
you know, in 1988 and 89, I was just barely keeping my job.
25:45
And then in 90 we had a shot at the championship.
25:48
But in 91, we didn't win a race until, you know, until the last
25:52
race of the season. And, you know, once you pack
25:58
down four Cup races in a row or, and, and add in three, the three
26:04
Bush races that are in, you know, seven in a row, you feel
26:07
like I can probably probably keep my job.
26:10
And if I was to happen to lose it, I could probably get another
26:13
one, you know, and, and honestly, for the struggle that
26:18
I went through to get there for the, for the 10 years that it
26:24
took to get to those seven wins from heartbreak and being
26:30
crushed and broke in half to that, it meant more than most
26:36
people can. I can't describe it, but it was
26:39
so much more than just winning those.
26:42
It was, dude, I think I've arrived.
26:45
You know, I think I, I don't think I have to worry about
26:47
getting fired again because I did.
26:50
I did get fired in 1983 after running what I thought was
26:54
pretty good for the car that I had.
26:58
But you know, that that stuck with me my entire career because
27:04
when I got fired, no one would hire me.
27:08
And I never forgot that all the way to the last race that I
27:14
drove in 2013, I never forgot that I that there was a point
27:20
when I couldn't get a job in the NASCAR garage.
27:26
You know, another thing too, to think about the seven wins is,
27:30
you know, there was two weekend sweeps in there, you know, where
27:34
you won, you know, both NASCAR races, you won the Bush race and
27:38
the Cup race, you know, the same weekend.
27:41
So that was, you know, Michigan and then later at at Darlington.
27:46
And I mean, I was only a year old when that happened.
27:48
And, you know, I wish that I'd been a little older so I could
27:51
have really, you know, soaked that in more.
27:54
But you know, I want to touch on, you know, something you said
27:57
that like you, you felt like you didn't absorb it as much as you
28:00
would have liked at that time. But wouldn't you don't you think
28:04
that that's probably a pretty common trait with anybody that
28:08
reaches a professional level of sports because they're so driven
28:14
by results and when they get the that result, they just want to
28:18
continue that they don't really soak up the moment.
28:23
You know, it makes me wonder about about Tyler, if maybe is
28:28
he the same way you would think that that he would.
28:31
But I would say just from my personal experience with you
28:35
that, you know, probably when he's your age, you know, he does
28:39
right now as a highlight of his career.
28:42
But probably when he's your age, he'll really look back on this
28:45
time, whether he wins his his fourth race in a row or not.
28:49
As you know, one of the the biggest highlights of his.
28:52
Career. Yeah, because you have to
28:54
remember that it's not all over with when you hoist the trophy.
29:01
I mean, the works just begun for that race and the next race
29:05
both. You know, then you go to the
29:08
Media Center and then you go, you know, on radio and you go on
29:12
TV on Monday and you know, you have all these things that are
29:18
coming at you, many of which don't come at you if you don't
29:24
win, If you run second, you're you're free to start focusing on
29:30
what's next. But you know, you've got a a
29:33
buckshot kind of focus right after winning, especially now
29:38
after winning three. I mean, it's even, it's you
29:40
know, there's all the hoopla and hysteria that's going along with
29:45
that. So Tyler's got to be, you know,
29:49
saturated with doing his duties to his sponsors, to his team, to
29:55
NASCAR and all these things. Because when you win like that,
30:01
that's what's expected of you. You, you know, that's when the
30:06
payoff for the sponsors, payoff for the team, payoff for NASCAR,
30:11
for the fans, growing your fan base, all this stuff is your
30:16
job. And you have a much greater
30:18
opportunity after winning and after winning two, you have
30:22
more. And after winning three, you
30:24
have even more opportunities. So I know that's how it was when
30:30
when when I was in it. And so you can imagine, you
30:33
know, you've got those wins adding up and you've got those
30:36
weekend sweeps and as well. And there's just so much going
30:42
on in the peripheral vision on top of how we going to do this
30:47
the next race. Like if you won the the race at
30:50
Michigan in the Bush race where you've got all these
30:54
responsibilities yet that evening and you've also got
30:59
happy hour, the last practice with a cup car.
31:02
And what can you learn from, what can you take from your
31:05
experience in the Bush car into the Cup car?
31:08
And you know, and then you line them all up and you do all your
31:11
stuff on Sunday morning before the race and then you win the
31:14
race on Sunday and you have even more responsibility.
31:18
So your responsibility level really goes up when when you win
31:25
these races, it's quite a bit more than even if you run
31:28
second. Well, Speaking of the the
31:31
Michigan weekend, I posted the pictures of you crossing the
31:37
finish line in 93 from the Bush race and the Cup race taking the
31:42
checkered flag and Vito noticed that the angle of the the
31:47
spoiler was different on the Cup car, you know, compared to the
31:52
Bush car. Do you recall anything about
31:55
learning what you need to change up for the Cup car after running
31:59
the Bush race? I don't remember set up wise,
32:02
but there was a a significant horsepower difference between
32:08
the Bush and cup cars at that time.
32:12
And so we didn't, we didn't have a 70° spoiler on on the Bush
32:19
car. We didn't maximize it because
32:21
that last 10° you got a lot of drag and only a little
32:26
downforce. And so I think, I think the
32:30
spoiler was probably at 60° on the Bush car and certainly would
32:34
have been 70 in the cup car because she had the monster,
32:38
monster horsepower. So, but I don't really remember
32:46
crossovers. The, the one thing about it was
32:49
you didn't really learn exact science setup stuff from the
32:56
Bush car to the cup car, but you, you raced on the tire, you
32:59
raced on the track. You saw the trends that the tire
33:03
gave you and, and, and the trends of what the track did.
33:08
So it gave you a little deeper insight into how things might
33:15
fall and, and, and, and lay out in Sunday's race.
33:19
So there was more of that trend of how the car balance shifted,
33:24
those kind of things. The Bush car generally most of
33:30
the time didn't have the same exact springs as a cup car, but
33:34
they were relatively close. And we knew, you know, we, we
33:39
typically knew Steve and I would, would have a good rough
33:44
idea of what the, the crossover would be, you know, from the
33:49
Bush car set up to what we might want in the cup car.
33:54
But the biggest thing, you know was track trend, tire wear, tire
34:01
characteristics, those kind of things.
34:04
Well, I just thought of this. You know, if Tyler, you know,
34:08
Tyler's a short guy like me and you, you know, if Tyler wins his
34:13
fourth race in a row, you know, maybe they'll bring back a six
34:18
foot two beauty queen. You know to pose with him in
34:20
Victory Lane like they did for you when you want God.
34:24
The only thing we'd be missing was Benny Parsons talking about
34:28
it, because Benny was absolutely hilarious about talking about oh
34:33
Lord, he's going to looks like he's going to win this race.
34:36
And that queen beauty Queen's 6 foot 2, That was so incredible.
34:41
Such good times. And she was there for the Bush
34:45
race and the Cup race, yes. She was.
34:48
Yeah, that was crazy. But you know, it's funny, we
34:51
were talking about this because I just fans have been asking,
34:54
but I just reordered a a reprint of that that Seven wins shirt.
35:00
So we needed some more T-shirts, so I just placed another order
35:05
for a reprint of those. But yeah, hopefully we've got
35:09
more merchandise coming in in the hopper.
35:11
I've people don't realize it's a lot harder to get some of this
35:14
stuff done. You know, I mean it, it
35:17
shouldn't be this difficult, but to get approvals from some of
35:21
these sponsors is it takes a lot more time than you would think.
35:25
But we're going to have those shirts hopefully here pretty
35:27
soon, so. Well, that's exciting.
35:30
And Matt's talking about Mark Martin archive.com.
35:34
You can go in there and and and do your shopping and that's
35:38
that's Matt's entire program. He he handles all that.
35:44
And just so the fans know, they're always saying make a die
35:49
cast like that or, you know, whatever.
35:53
Even doing a shirt is has its complications.
35:57
But you know, I mean, we, it started off with that Matt
36:03
wanted to do Folgers, Folgers car.
36:06
And it's like, man, nobody knows how to get a hold of Folgers to
36:13
get approval because you have to get law written approval from
36:17
from Folgers to do the car. And so I just, I just dug in and
36:24
wouldn't give up. And finally, I knew JTG, you
36:29
know, racing was sponsored by Kroger and they had all these
36:34
different brands of Kroger brands on the car, you know,
36:37
different products. So I went to their PR and asked
36:43
if they could help. And so they put put me in touch
36:49
with another person and two months later they get back to me
36:56
and put me in touch with another person.
36:58
And two months later somebody gets to me.
37:01
And then, you know, that person, you know, it takes two or three
37:06
months to get through. But eventually we got it and and
37:09
we got the approval. And by the way, you know, Folger
37:12
said, oh, we don't want any royalty off that.
37:17
That just messed our taxes up, you know, so they gave us the
37:19
rights to do it. We do the car and I'm at NASCAR
37:26
Hall of Fame and Jeff Gordon comes up and says, man, how did
37:29
you guys get the Folgers thing? We've been wanting to do that.
37:31
And I said, you need to get a hold of Matt.
37:34
And so he gets in touch with Matt.
37:36
He says, man, we want to do that stuff for Tim Richmond and and
37:40
Kenny Schrader. We can't ever, you know, we
37:42
couldn't ever do it. And I said, well, get a hold of
37:44
Matt and Matt got them together. And so now there's Tim, Tim
37:50
Richmond die cast and Kenny Schrader die cast.
37:54
So that was a big win. But it's way more complicated.
37:58
I mean, that process probably took nearly two years from start
38:02
to finish. And then, you know, Matt had,
38:05
you know, he actually was the one.
38:08
No one knew how to get a hold of Stroh's light.
38:11
And Matt, you can tell a story about how you made that happen.
38:17
Oh, yeah, I mean, Lionel acted like, you know, getting, you
38:21
know, approval to do a Stroh's light die cast was you would
38:25
think I asked them to launch a spaceship, land on the moon.
38:29
You know, it was like, there's no way.
38:31
I mean, they put it on me. And so I thought, well, you
38:35
know, I've got a verified check mark on Instagram with the Mark
38:39
Martin archive, you know, and I see that they've got an account.
38:43
It's small and they never, hardly ever post.
38:46
But I thought, well, I'll just try it.
38:49
So I DM them, hey, I want to do this die cast and you just told
38:53
him a little background and everything and I said who should
38:57
I contact there? They replied right back and gave
39:01
me e-mail address that that was super easy.
39:04
You know, so you have situations like that where I mean, it's
39:08
it's not a big deal at all. But then the folders do, I mean,
39:10
they were super nice, but it's just the process of getting in
39:14
touch with the right person. And I'll tell you, you know,
39:18
getting dad's, you know, Folgers die cast made and then, you
39:22
know, getting, you know, contacted by Jeff Gordon and HMS
39:28
to make their Folgers die cast with Tim Richmond and Kenny
39:32
Schrader. Dude, I, I was proud of proud as
39:35
hell for that. I mean, that was just like that
39:37
would have never happened if it wasn't for us.
39:39
So it was really cool that we both got to, you know, make
39:43
some, some Folgers merchandise. Another thing about this
39:47
merchandise stuff, and particularly these die casts,
39:51
people not knowing how difficult it is.
39:53
I get asked all the time. People e-mail me, you message me
39:57
on Instagram and everything. And I love talking to fans and
40:01
stuff. But they're I'll get asked to
40:04
make like a particular die cast and everything.
40:07
And you know you can only make certain die casts that they have
40:13
molds for. And unfortunately, Lionel
40:16
doesn't have a lot of the, the molds that they used to have,
40:20
you know, back, you know, when it was action and stuff like in
40:22
the 90s and, and 2000s. And so you just have to make
40:28
whatever they have. Well, when we were at Lime Rock
40:34
Park, you know, a while ago, a guy, you know, came up to me.
40:40
I was talking to him and he goes, hey, man, you got to make
40:45
a, a die cast of your dad's motorhome.
40:48
I'm just thinking, bro, you have no idea, like how impossible
40:53
that is. You know, it's like, I mean,
40:56
yeah, that would be cool. But it's like there's no way
40:59
that that we can do that 'cause there's there's no mold for it.
41:03
And like the cost of getting getting that is just
41:07
astronomical. Yeah, the, the tooling, you
41:13
know, so you know, like the 1998 tooling for the Taurus, for
41:19
example, when, when they changed the back window and stuff, they
41:23
changed the, the original tool to, you know, the 2000 or
41:29
whatever it was. The the more square back window
41:32
where you can't now, you can't make a 98 because the tools
41:37
changed. And we ran into some, you know,
41:42
some issues trying to do the 97. Well, the 97 Talladega car as
41:50
well, because the tool we were promised the tool was exactly
41:56
right and it wasn't exactly right.
41:58
And most people loved it because, you know, that's the
42:01
race that none, that was a no caution race that we averaged
42:05
188.3 for 500 miles with pit stops and all.
42:12
So a lot of fans, you know, really loved it.
42:15
But the the ones that are psycho about detail details could tell,
42:21
you know that it wasn't exactly a 1997.
42:24
Matt knows more the details on that than I do.
42:27
Yeah. So, you know, like, look, you
42:30
know, I don't collect die casts and and all that kind of deal.
42:33
But so, you know, I don't know, you know a lot about, you know
42:37
what, especially when I first started this, the production of
42:41
how all this goes. And so I'm just going to trust,
42:43
you know, the the company, you know, I'm not going to double
42:47
check them, you know. And so when you approach them
42:49
and say, hey, let's do a diecast Thunderbird from 1997 and they
42:54
say they can make it. I mean, you're just going to
42:58
trust that. Yeah, that it's going to be a 97
43:02
Thunderbird. Well, when it shows up and it's
43:04
more like an early 90s Thunderbird, you know, the the,
43:08
the car. I mean, yeah, that's just that's
43:13
what it is. I mean, and that's that's all
43:15
that they have for like the Thunderbird is like the the
43:18
early 90s Thunderbird. I mean, you know, it still looks
43:22
great and, you know, most fans were were happy with it.
43:25
But like they're real hardcore collectors and I get it.
43:27
You know, they're like, well, that's not really right.
43:30
But it's like, and I I couldn't do, you know, I couldn't do
43:34
anything about it. That's just they said they could
43:37
do it and that's what showed up. But, you know, all the other
43:40
ones turned out really nice because if they're all from that
43:44
era that I had made how to make, you know, but we would do more.
43:50
You know, there would be like a lot of the winds that he had in
43:53
the Taurus that we would do. But I mean, we just can't do
43:57
them because they don't have the mold anymore, unfortunately.
44:01
So that's why we haven't haven't made any more die cast.
44:04
We still have, you know, quite a bit in stock to the other ones
44:08
that I have on the site. But yeah, anyways, and probably
44:12
just stick more to apparel and that kind of stuff.
44:16
And hopefully, you know, when we get the the book in stock, of
44:20
course, we'll have a bunch of those, you know, on on the site.
44:24
So. Yeah, yeah.
44:26
This business is getting ready to pick up, you know, as the
44:31
summer rolls in. We have a lot, we have a lot on
44:36
our agenda. So, you know, we got the book,
44:39
we got a little bit of merchandise in the works.
44:42
We got the new studio to shoot the podcast in the new shop, the
44:48
new motor coach, you know, a couple race cars, Jr. 10 and 51
44:57
will will settle into their new home there in that shop and kind
45:03
of be the backdrop for the podcast.
45:05
So there's a whole this is going to be a jamming summer for sure.
45:11
Yeah, I'm already wore out. I'm really going to be tired
45:15
after we get done doing all this stuff.
45:17
Yeah, we have. Some other we, we've got some
45:21
other exciting announcements coming just within the next
45:29
couple weeks. Next few weeks there's even more
45:33
stuff. So there's a ton of excitement,
45:36
man. I'm going to be busy, busy,
45:39
busy, busy just starting in. It all starts in just two weeks
45:43
for, for for me and it will be hammered down from there on.
45:49
All right. I had a couple quick ones on
45:51
your on your 93 mark, four straight.
45:54
How close were you to making it 5, whether the race before or
45:58
after of of making it five in a row?
46:02
It was a race after it was Richmond and we were leading by
46:10
almost a half a lap. I couldn't see second place in
46:14
the mirror about I'm going to say halfway through and I'm out
46:18
there running half throttle. I mean, like, I don't want to
46:22
run away because they're going to, you know, I always said
46:25
don't stick up my show. And so I mean, it's like, man,
46:31
this is a slam dunk. We got them beat worse tonight
46:35
than we have had in a bunch of these races.
46:38
So and then, you know, we got deeper into the night and all of
46:43
a sudden people could outrun me. And I'm not really sure.
46:47
I'm not sure why I didn't think at the time the car got tight.
46:52
But looking reflecting back on it, maybe I should have tried
46:56
freeing the car up to get the speed back.
46:59
It didn't seem like it was tight it but you know, rusty and some
47:02
of those guys just flat out outran me.
47:04
So I didn't. But it looked halfway through
47:07
the race. It looked like a no brainer.
47:08
Five in a row. Dang, so that's 1993 then 20
47:13
years later I see this on X and you commented so yesterday.
47:18
We're recording here on March 2nd, but March 1st would have
47:20
been the anniversary. So March 1st 2013, You win your
47:25
56th and final poll of your cup career Phoenix, and you were 54,
47:31
is that right? I was 54 you.
47:35
Were 22 right when you won your first one?
47:39
Yes. Yep.
47:40
So I have that too. So basically it said we have to
47:43
check this because we saw last week that AI is incorrect.
47:46
But this wasn't AI. It said it came 31 years, seven
47:50
months and 19 days after your first poll, the longest time
47:54
span in NASCAR history. That's pretty awesome.
47:57
I mean, when you look at that poll at 54 years old, that's not
48:02
at a restrictor plate track, you know, that's a real deal
48:06
racetrack that's pretty outstanding.
48:10
But Billy Scott and and Rodney Childers and MWR every and that.
48:19
I mean, they had a hell of an organization and built really
48:24
fast race cars and you know, I was still, I can still lay a lap
48:30
down. I think we won four polls or so
48:33
the year before at 53 years old. So that, you know, I give a lot
48:40
of credit. I could never do that without an
48:43
incredible race car. But my race craft was a lot
48:49
duller. I could still qualify, but but
48:53
my race craft had dulled to a point where, you know, it
48:58
wasn't, it wasn't as much fun for me because I could, I could
49:04
tell. And man, I've been in a long
49:08
time and I've been promising that I would quit, you know,
49:13
promising Arlene I would quit. She was sick of it.
49:17
And it was time, you know, it was time to to hang up, hang up
49:24
my helmet. But you know, in my last year,
49:27
I've ran third in the Daytona 500, ran third in a Daytona 500
49:32
and in 2013 and then went out to Phoenix and sat on the pole.
49:36
So not too shabby. But but still, as a whole my
49:47
race craft was was getting dull. That was the same Daytona 500
49:52
where you met $0.50, right? Yes.
49:55
Yeah, he loved you. Yeah, he did.
49:58
He was. He was so wild because, you
50:01
know, he came up in the trailer and everything because NASCAR
50:03
told him, you know, that I was a big hip hop guy and rap guy.
50:08
And so he comes up in the 55 trailer, we're talking and
50:12
stuff, and I whipped out my phone and showed him my Gucci
50:16
Mane pay playlist, which at that time Gucci was 50, would
50:23
consider Gucci underground at that time.
50:26
He was definitely not. Yeah.
50:28
It was not mainstream. And so, you know, he had a lot
50:32
of followers on on Twitter. So he's blew it out there.
50:36
And of course, some, some of his followers had to shoot back all
50:40
you oh, man, don't hear him know nothing about right, you know,
50:43
he said. You know something about like
50:45
fool, he's all into underground. You know, he's just like he was.
50:49
He was blown away. It was so much fun.
50:52
That's awesome. All right, guys, that was a
50:54
great show and we'll join everybody next week.
50:56
We'll see if Tyler Reddick can tie that man Mark Martin and win
51:01
four straight races. Great show, guys.
51:03
Thanks a lot. Thank you, Charlie.