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How Much Does a NASCAR Helmet Cost? · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation brought to
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  you by Jags, the leader in high performance aftermarket car
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  parts. Remember to go to jags.com for
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  everything you need to fix your hot rods up.
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  Well, the first one was so good that we got to do another
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  conversation with my dear friend Greg Stump, the owner of Off
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  Axis Paint. Greg, everybody was so intrigued
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  with the one hour conversation that we had with you that they
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  wanted to know the business of these in car cameras.
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  They see these helmets painted up.
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  How much do the helmets cost you?
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  You win the Daytona 500, then all of a sudden that sponsor
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  wants more helmets painted. So I guess the best place to
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  start is if I want a helmet, I get a hold of off Axis paint.
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  How do I get a hold of you and how do we start talking about
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  pricing? How much do these helmets cost?
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  Yeah, most of the time, you know, our Instagram, DMS or
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  Facebook, you know, or my my phone number is on the website.
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  So it's it's a 417 number. Just so everyone knows it's
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  still Missouri. Just 'cause I'm.
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  Branson, MO. Holding true to my roots, you
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  know, But yeah, just, you know, message us on there and there's
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  a couple different price points, you know, depending on, you
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  know, hey my my kids 8 and he's racing at Mill bridge down the
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  road and he wants a dirt helmet painted, you know.
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  Well, I'm not going to charge him the same as a cup helmet,
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  but I'm also not going to put the most hours into that one,
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  you know, for somebody young, you know, so obviously yours
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  are, you know, those are 3040 hour masterpieces.
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  You know that we paint for that, that you go, you know, throw
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  rocks at at the dirt track. But you know, it just really
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  depends. Every every once in a while
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  we'll do you know 65850, you know the most of our our cup
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  helmets are are well over 2000. So it just depends on, you know
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  honestly how much work like I said, you know, 30 to 40 hours
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  and I have a whole team of of four artists here and you know
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  this is how they make a living. It's not a, it's not a hobby for
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  anybody here. So I think when that comes in
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  mind, it's like oh, this guy's not doing it out of his garage.
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  They're using you know top of the line Cheryl Williams paint
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  and you know nice clear coats it in it is hand done artwork you
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  know which which takes a ton of time it's it's much easier just
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  to hit print on the computer and you know wrap one of these
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  things and but it just doesn't look as good You know you
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  wouldn't you wouldn't like it if I if I took an hour to do yours
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  and it just looked OK you know so I think that's the biggest
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  thing is just you know figuring out what they want obviously you
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  know making it personable and then the the price kind of
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  follows thereafter just knowing you know what they want to do on
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  the helmet. So let's talk about why they are
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  what they are, 650 dollars, $800 the more time all the way up to
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  2000. So it's we're going to have
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  Charlie drop a picture in right here of the helmets in their raw
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  form. We see shelves of black helmets,
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  white helmets, they're taped off.
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  So my question to you is when you deal with these helmet
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  companies, they send you just the shell first.
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  So tell me the timeline as you get the shell, then what?
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  Yeah. So most of the time they come
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  straight from the factory and like I said, we live right here
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  in Morrisville. So we get pretty, we get pretty
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  spoiled having everybody right here in town and all the parts
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  and pieces that we could, you know, ever possibly need, you
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  know, so having radios and air channels, you know, readily
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  available, if somebody calls an audible or you know, needs
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  something, you know, they call me on Monday and they need a
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  helmet for Bristol this weekend. You know, we can, we can, we can
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  handle that order. Whereas someone across the
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  country, you know, probably wouldn't be able to ship and
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  back and forth and have dry time, you know, so the that
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  picture there, all those black ones are all carbon fiber up
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  top, you know, which is going to be more expensive than like your
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  regular composite shell, which are you know, all those white
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  ones there. So, you know, there's a bunch of
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  different types of carbon weaves.
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  There's different carbon that has to be refrigerated, you
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  know, the entire time when they're building the process.
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  Oh. So we just don't.
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  We just don't throw some paint on.
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  It there, yeah. So I mean it is coming from the
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  factory, you know every helmet that we paint, there's it's not
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  a motorcycle helmet off your local dealership, you know off,
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  you know the the Rusty Wallace motorcycle shop down the street,
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  you know, so it's not ADOT helmet, It is a, you know, SFI
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  approved helmet and it's all snow rating and all that.
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  So go ahead, I can tell you you got questions.
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  Yeah, so. So I know because I've been in
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  off axis. Yeah, paint, I've been in your
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  place. So the manufacturer just sends
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  you the shell. Now you paint it.
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  Now you send it back to them most of the time.
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  Most of the time that's how it works.
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  So and again, like there's like a bell helmet comes in, right?
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  Well, there's a different bell helmet for IndyCar or open wheel
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  cars then what NASCAR would run. So it's it's a lot of different
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  moving parts, different things you got to pay attention to.
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  Everyone runs, you know, a different style airline inlet.
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  You know, like that one doesn't have an air channel on it, but
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  your other ones do, right? You bring up a good point.
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  You're dealing with the air inlet.
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  You got lots of things up here. You got to take them off.
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  You know, and and Hendrick makes their own air channel.
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  Gibbs makes their own air channel.
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  We make our own air channel. I mean, there's a million
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  different things that go into this.
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  And then, you know, you got drink tubes to go around, you
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  know, figuring out where logos need to go, 'cause Martin Truex
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  runs a different, you know, drink tube than Justin Algar,
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  you know, So everyone just got a different system, you know, then
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  we get them radioed up and everyone does, you know,
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  different. Everyone does like the ear cups
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  now or they have the earbuds, like like what you have, you
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  know, there's there's a lot of different options that go into
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  these things. And then on top of all that, the
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  different types of carbon fiber, which I was telling you all, you
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  know, all my cup guys, they run the lightest of the lightest of
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  the lightest because that engineer on that car wants
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  nothing at it. You know, they weigh our helmets
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  before we paint them and after we paint them.
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  Just to know. Just to know exactly how much
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  weight I add to that helmet. And I've, you know, I've not
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  been. I've been cussed out.
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  But you know I'm talking to him saying hey you know this is a
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  little heavy on on this helmet. You know I'm not going to tell
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  you which team is you know doing that or but they are very very
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  keyed into it and which makes my job a little hard because you
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  know, hey I want Chrome and I want metal flake and all this
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  stuff and I want the coolest helmet ever.
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  Well all that adds weight to the shell you know.
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  So I have the balance of OK, cool looking helmet but also
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  keep the race team happy and under budget on their side.
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  So I'm I'm kind of the guy stuck in the middle of trying to keep
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  sponsor, driver, engineer, everybody happy.
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  Yeah. OK.
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  Let's wrap it up like this. OK, so I don't want anything on
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  the helmet, but the sponsors who are spending $20 million or at
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  your local dirt track, somebody just gave you 5 grand.
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  Mike Harrison is sponsoring. You know, Josh Carroll gave him,
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  bought him a car for $30,000. You know, how do you balance
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  that? You're trying to make the
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  engineers happy with the helmet light, but yet you got somebody
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  over here giving you 5 grand for your dirt car this year and they
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  want and they want their name on your helmet.
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  It's a hard balance. It's definitely an Ave.
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  You know, I didn't see myself having to deal with or so.
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  And you know, depending on who it is or what team, it can be a
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  lot of emails going back and forth to people, so.
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  And and last but not least, the Daytona 500 winner this year,
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  William Byron. He's going to have sponsors that
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  want copies of the helmet. Tell me, what kind of helmets
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  are these? How much do those cost?
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  Let's say Jason Fager wins up here at at Farmer City.
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  He's the Missouri, Illinois. Ricky win there, yeah.
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  Yeah, well it's his. It's his home and and and the
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  sponsors, they don't maybe want his helmet, but they want a
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  duplicate helmet just like William Byron won the Daytona
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  505 hundred and then the sponsors want a copy of his
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  helmet. Tell me what can those prices
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  run? What kind of helmets are these?
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  I mean it's it's a dead on replica.
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  I don't, I don't have a carding helmet or you know something a
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  little cheaper like they want a carbon helmet then that's, you
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  know, they get exactly what William wears, you know, to be a
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  sponsor of that car. So you know, and it's not
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  something I like pull a drawer out and have the stencil of
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  William Byron's helmet. I mean we have to hand tape that
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  entire thing. So it's not anything cheaper or
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  anything like that. We have to do the entire whole
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  process over. It might be a little easier
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  because we don't have to mix the colors every time.
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  But you know, there's been a couple sponsors.
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  We're like, hey we want thirty of these same helmets and
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  that's, you know, that's that's week's worth of work that you're
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  doing the same color all day long and you get sick of that
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  same Pantone color doing it over and over.
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  So it just depends. Like I said, you know some of
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  the light, lightweight carbon helmets now you know they can
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  run $5500 before we even put artwork on them.
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  You know, so. Holy moly.
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  There's no telling. You know, once radios paint
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  everything. I mean, some of these helmets
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  could be close to 10 grand, you know, you.
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  Bring a good point up radio paint.
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  Right paint. Air communication?
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  Well, listen, you sure did in 10 minutes.
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  Give us a lot of information. Thanks for doing a follow up of
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  the first kind of conversation. These are things that fans want
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  to know. How much do they cost?
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  All you got to do. And you got to think of someone
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  like Kyle Busch when he was running M&M's, You got M&M's,
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  Skittles, Snickers, Interstate batteries, Toyota, I mean tons
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  of helmets, right? And that's, you know, that's
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  sponsors footing that bill for it.
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  Herman, how can anybody make a living painting helmets?
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  Well, there's one race car driver that needs about 12
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  helmets per year. Keeps us very very busy to to no
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  sleep on end here. All right race fans, we answered
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  your question. And remember we are in podcast
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  form. Listen to us on the way to work.
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  On the way home, we are in iTunes and Spotify until the
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  next Kenny conversation.