The Skinny With Rico and Ken

This week Ken visits with Off Road racing ace Kyle Leduc. From his early days when he was nicknamed The Kid, to his 2020 hiring at Chip Ganassi Racing, we talk all things dirt with the World Champ.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Skinny with Riego and Kenna is a production of
I Heart Radio. What's Up this Kyle of Duke? And
this is the Skinny from the fat Heads I Wear
Studios in Speedway, Indiana. This is the Skinny brought to
you by Toyota, Rhino, Classified General Tire and Dream Giveaway.

(00:23):
This segment of the Skinny is brought to you by Toyota. Welcome,
ladies and gentlemen to a holiday edition of the Skinny.
I have a very good friend that will join me
on the show here today. Typically from southern California, has
moved to Alabama over the course of the last couple
of years. His name's Kyle L. Duke. I've had the
pleasure of watching him start his career since he was

(00:45):
about two, I think somewhere in that general area, and
have also had the pleasure of calling a number of
his championships all along the way. If I'm not mistaken,
I think he currently holds eight of those in short
course off road racing at the i S levels. Welcome
my friend to the show. We've been trying to make
this happen for a little bit. You bounce in and
out of Indianapolis. Uh, now that you're with that Chip

(01:07):
Ganassi Racing team, but we just weren't able to work
it out during the season, and uh, all of us
are very very busy. But thanks for taking the time
here just before New Year's Yeah, I appreciate that, dude.
Just hearing those stats and the stuff that that you
talked about obviously doesn't seem real. But you know, we've
got trophies behind us, so they are real. But uh,

(01:29):
it's been an epic journey. So I appreciate you and
everything you've done over the years. And uh, yeah, I'd
be cool to step in there some days, sit in
the office and chat. But hey, this is the same.
It's all good. Yeah, man, You're always welcome for sure.
And we're just down down the way here from the speedway.
I probably I don't know, maybe ten fifteen minutes of
the most away from h from Chip's shop as well,

(01:50):
so we'll get you in here for sure. You know
all the stuff that obviously I'm so used to seeing
the trophies, the Shortcorase trophies, Um, they catch my eye.
But the one that really catches my eye as Deli
in the time machine over the top of the uh,
the fireplace what's that all about. I'm definitely Back to
the Future super fan. Um, you know, I've watched all

(02:11):
the movies behind the computer here, I've got all the
cars lined up, I've got all these nerdy little things.
But now it's just something I liked a long time ago.
The car actually owned a Delirium for a minute. Um,
cool driving around, you know, cool little hot rod. But
now it's just something I've been into watching Back to
the Future, and uh, yeah it's kind of cool, but

(02:34):
it's definitely you gotta have your little your little nicks
and crannies and what you're what you're into, what you're watching,
what you tune into. But I've just always been a
fan of it. So yeah, put in the office. So uh,
all of your fans, of course, are very familiar with
your accomplishments over the years, and while we certainly want
to touch on those and and not just gard them
in any way, shape or form, we really like to

(02:56):
get a little bit of information about the guys that
people don't typically know about. And uh, just you. Even
this morning, as we were chatting on the air here
trying to get things going, we run a little bit late,
but apologize for that. But you said, I am, Hey man,
I'm working out and I'm tired of being being the
chubby guy. Which I don't know that you're the chubby guy,
but I certainly get it. And when you're around the

(03:17):
people that you've been around this year, and I really
reference more of the Extreme E season whenever I say this,
you take a look at those athletes that you're competing
against and some of those Formula one drivers and competitors,
and take a look at the athleticism that they're capable of.
I'm sure it it. And you being the competitive guy,
it's like, hey man, I'm not gonna be in last

(03:38):
place here. I gotta jump in the game. So talk
to me about what you're doing here to get physically fit. Well,
I mean we've always been, you know, the American tough
guys right like we're we're bigger than three quarters of
the field, Me and my crew chief Trad and some
of our team guys. But um, you know there's a
lot of European guys and and uh different drivers and stuff.

(04:00):
But um, just for myself, I mean I write dirt
bites a lot. I grew up racing mountain bikes and
was always in pretty good shape, but you just get
caught up and working around the shop and you know,
being lazy, traveling, eating bad, and uh, just gotta square
myself up and kind of start over. So um built
a little gym up here in my office, and I

(04:21):
just need to start knocking it out. You know, we've
all said we're gonna do it, and I've said I
was gonna do it two or three times in the past.
But definitely time to lean out, clean up, tighten up,
and just be uh just be able to just you know,
not have to be out of breath or doing certain stuff,
or be more flexible. I think that's my biggest thing
is obviously you want to be big and strong, but

(04:42):
you also got to be flexible. So I gotta work
on some of that stuff for myself. Um, and if
it pays off during racing, that's fine, but definitely, you know,
I wanna I want to look good with the shirt
off for the wife and and uh you know, my
son's super ripped and my daughter they're both ath let
doing sports and stuff, and uh, yeah, I don't want

(05:02):
to be the chubby guy, So time to time to
get to work. I feel you're paying man in many ways. Actually,
the pandemic was a blessing for me. Believe it or not.
I lost about fifty four pounds. I have since found
it all again. I lost it, but but it was
right there. I found it and uh and put it
all back on. I started working out of this place
up here and maybe you're familiar with it called pit Fit.
Dixon goes there and none of the other any car

(05:24):
drivers go there, and um, I started working out. But
I I've been actively Um, well, what's the best way
to describe this. Uh, I've been actively proving the fact
that you cannot work your way out of a bad diet.
So I have not fixed my diet, but I've been
working out since August and you would never know what
to look at me. I'm a lot stronger, but I

(05:46):
have not lost a pounds. So yeah, I think the
diet and what you're talking about is is a huge
part of it. In the flexibility. I mean, man, um,
I just pulled a hamstring. I've never done anything like
that before, but working out up there the other day,
pulled a hamstring and man, oh man, what it was
special moment that was? But Uh, as I started working out,
I got tighter and tighter and tighter, and I refused
to stretch even though I felt it. I knew I

(06:07):
should have been. But as you get older, you know,
it just gets worse and worse. So I remember seeing
Carl climb in and out of his truck, you know,
and Carl's constantly stretching. Uh, the old nemesis for you,
and of course very athletic as well. But uh, I
agree with you, and I think if you get in
a bad situation and one of those trucks and you
need to do something quickly, the stretching can certainly pay dividends. Yeah.

(06:31):
I remember I was watching Carl walk up to his
truck and put his leg up onto the window and
then exactly what climbing. And I was looked at him like, dude,
you are You're crazy. Either you're doing it wrong or
or I'm doing it wrong. Uh. But I mean even
even when I was younger, like used to call me
Kyle with the kid and you know, we used to

(06:52):
jump in and out of race cars all day long,
and then we go home and jump on our mountain
bikes and go ride, and then jump on dirt bikes
and go ride. So it's just just part of being active,
you know. And uh, since we've moved here to my
house here in Alabama. You know, this office was not
here behind me. Uh and this is upstairs at my shop.
You know, I have a maybe a twenty score foot shop,

(07:12):
nothing huge, but this is like an upstairs loft that's
on it. Um. So, I mean just been working, just
been trying to outfit this place so that I can
actually have a home base. Um. You know, I've always
rented shops in the past or worked in my dad
and this is finally my shop. So we've got air
conditioning in it, We've uh foam insulated the roof, like
everything here in Alabama that you uh, the essentials that

(07:33):
you need to get started. And uh yeah, just just
doing everything, trying to trying to build a shop that
I can build race cars in and spend some time in. Yeah,
you know, speaking of that, you guys are down there
in Tornado Alley as well. Man. Uh and you've been
able to dodge all that crazy weather. Yeah, we're in hurricanes. Yeah,

(07:55):
hurricanes are the nemesis. So we've we're right on the coast.
I mean, the the water here in the Gulf is
maybe uh two and a half two miles down the road,
so it's it's definitely right here. We had a storm
hit um not we had a hurricane Sally came through
and uh pretty much hit us direct, maybe two or

(08:16):
three miles you know, east of us, but um a
hundred and winds me and my crew chief trader here
is the weekend before heading up to Crandon, so knocked
down all of our trees. We have big the country,
so those knocked over blocked the entire driveway. So it
was it's been an eye opening thing. But my wife

(08:39):
is always hated earthquakes. I love them, like just what's
happening during an earthquake? I've always loved Uh, it's just insane, right,
But she likes the hurricanes because you can see him coming,
you can prepare, you can get out. Um, but I
don't know they can. They come through enough where we are.
We have huge trees, so we've got the plus acres

(09:01):
tons of trees everywhere. So when it comes through and
destroys things that hit leaves them. Mark for sure. Yeah.
So I didn't realize you were that far south there
and and Alabama, I guess certainly the joke applies here
that you left southern California, moved to l A Laura, Alabama.
I was thinking, you're you're up in northern Alabama, to
be quite honest with you, but I didn't realize you

(09:22):
were so close to the coast. So what what prompted
that move? Why Alabama from southern California. Um, A couple
of things. I mean, obviously, my my wife's family lives here,
so her dad is here, um, and her grandpa's here,
so we've been here vacationing and hanging out and stuff before.
But just, uh, you know, my dad was a Pimboma
and that that town has exploded times a thousand in

(09:45):
southern California. Then we moved to t Micula, which is
like right in the middle of the nearliest rat race.
So had a really nice house rented up in the hills,
and then had another shop rented in downtown. And just
that nine and a half miles forty five minute to
an hour commute just killed me. I just I couldn't
do it. And then you gotta leave every day, and uh,

(10:07):
you know, I know a lot of people have to
leave and go to work, but if you got the
choice to do it and not have to leave, I'm
all for it, because that's why I grew up with
my dad's never had never left home. It was always
in the backyard. So, um, she hates snow. I don't
like snow. I don't like Arizona hundred and twenty five
degree weather so eliminated like three quarters of the whole continent. Um.

(10:30):
So we just started shopping around over here. And man,
we spent a whole month here looking around, learning what
cities to live in, we're not to go, what to
do in houses. And man, we found this killer property
down here, and like the second to last day we're here,
and literally checked it out for maybe an hour with
the owners and then flew home and I bought it.
I mean went through all the chaos and and stressed

(10:52):
to move. All that kind of stuff is pretty chaotic,
but oh no, we definitely an awesome piece of property.
Great city, the city of fair Hope, Alabama's uh, super nice,
super clean, just good people. Uh. And and I can't
see a road from my house. I mean, I don't
live in what they call the sticks. Um, but we're

(11:15):
just off the main highway, the two lane highway, and
we're out by ourselves. I mean, it's it's really nice
to walk out front and be able to do whatever
you want in your property, Um, whether he fires guns,
you know, dirt bikes, testing the pro for and the property,
like all these cool things that we've done. It's, uh,
it's pretty surreal, but yeah, definitely worth it. A lot

(11:36):
of chaos and struggle to get here, um, but we
made it happen to definitely pumped on it. Yeah, it's
been super cool to watch you to get over there.
Of course you're very good with social media and keeping
all your fans up to date and and I remember thinking,
holy smokes man, he not only is he gotta move,
but he's got to move that entire race operation. He's
trying to win championship in the middle of it. He

(11:57):
has sponsors he has to take care of. But uh,
as always you, you know, the thought process was extremely good.
I've always thought you've been well ahead of your time,
although you're certainly a season a seasoned adult at this point.
But but to watch you make those steps leave the
racing operation pretty much alone, take care of the family first,
get the house up and going, build the shop, and

(12:17):
then slowly morphed that thing over to where to where
you're at and then watch you develop a practice track,
watch you start taking care of read and build his
race cars and get him a place to uh to
practice as well. It's been quite a process, and I
feel like it just happened a year ago, but I
guess it has been. Was it three years now? Two
to three? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, I mean it goes by

(12:39):
so quickly, but it takes a little while to get
it all in place, doesn't it. Yeah, And it was.
It was chaotic because you know, I had my shopping
to Macha and Um, I had part of ways with Trad,
my crew chief, UM, and he went up north northern
California because he wasn't wanting to move to Alabama. So
I was trying to figure out this whole crew chief
thing because I only had three or four months for

(13:02):
the season started. UM. So I gave him a call
and it's the one thing I've never done in my
entire life. Hey, dude, you want to bring my race
truck to your shop and prep it while I moved
to Alabama for the year. And he's like, you're gonna
give me your truck like and not be on top
of it. I said, don't don't question it, just answer
the question because I'm about to say the opposite, uh,

(13:24):
and he's like, yeah, I do them all about it. Um,
So you know, I I swallowed my pride a little
bit and set the truck up to him, and man,
it's definitely been one of the best moves we've ever done.
We came right out with the championship that same year,
and um, you know, we've front clipped the truck, We've
back half the truck up at his shop. I've flown
up there and done a bunch of work and we've

(13:45):
we've made it work. I mean, we've got twenty photos
to each other. I mean, he's probably the most person
I text in message and contact on my phone daily,
just because he knows what I've grown up knowing and wanting,
uh hands on seeing the truck. If he says he's
going to change this tab and do it, it's not

(14:06):
or doubting him. It's just him reassuring me that what
I see is going on the race truck, what all
is there? And uh, it's definitely good. So I appreciate
him doing that. I know it's a little bit to
go out of your way to do that kind of stuff,
but in the end, we both build a truck. Um
that goes out wins racist So so far as worked
out great. Um, I got a new little hot rod

(14:28):
and building downstairs. Um, so I got some cool stuff
going on hopefully for the future. We're race and strong,
and he's planning out moving out here out of California too.
So um, maybe not out here, but somewhere somewhere in
the South. So we'll take a quick break here. We're
gonna elaborate a little bit more on Kyle's involvement with

(14:49):
his truck and how things got going. He's one of
the best of all time and short course off road racing,
and he's spending a little bit of time with us.
Just before New Year's will blast off, stay with us,
will be right back on the other side. The segment
of the skinny has been brought to you by General Tire.
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(15:10):
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(15:31):
Skinny is brought to you by Rhino Classified. Tired of
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(15:53):
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around the country in we got you at Rhino dot Co.
Welcome back to the Skinny. We have Kyle LaDuke here
on the show with us in excess of one hundred
career wins and short course off road racing nothing to
sneeze at by any stretch of the imagination, and has

(16:14):
competed against the absolute best of all time. Was picked
up by Chip Canassy Racing here part of the Extreme
E season, certainly one of the elites when it comes
to motorsports, spending a little bit of time with us
here just before New Year's Thanks a lot for taking
the time here, Kyle and as we were talking about
your your involvement with the truck and you turning things

(16:34):
over to Chad, and Chad being blown away that you
would even think about the idea must less actually pull
the trigger on it. But let's go back to how
things started, because when I first got into this industry,
I used to walk by your dad's pit on a
regular basis and check in with him, and he was
always up inside of the trailer. He was always rebuilding
the diff on that truck and getting it ready for

(16:55):
the for the next round, just typical maintenance stuff and
watching your dad's so oh hands on. And the story
that I heard, and I'd love for you to confirm
it and elaborate on it, either true or not true.
But the way that I heard it was you wanted
to go racing, and Dad pretty much said, well, there's
the grinder and over there, and there's a torch, and
there's a welder, and there's a lot of tubing up there.

(17:17):
Feel free to build one and get after it. I mean,
very very hands on, very tough love dad, But it
has certainly paid dividends for you. Yeah, it's uh, it's
somewhat of the right story. Obviously, you know my dad's
uh uh an iconic guys storyteller to say the least.
But it uh it all started. I mean, the first

(17:39):
race I ever wrote in my dad or in any
with anybody was man, I looked like I was like
maybe twelve um a little fire suit and I wrote
chotgun in his little four ranging prerunner UM. I think
me and my brother and my sister all wrote in
that UM. And then the first time I actually got
to put my name on the door and race a
truck was that the Baha and thousand. So it was

(18:00):
a Ford Ranger that I worked to deal out in
my dad's shop as a guy. My dad been working
with forever that if I prepped it he would let
me drive a section. So I prepped it for free,
ido making any money doing it. And uh, I was
a sophomore in high school and got to raise the
section of the bottom thousand. UM had issues with it,
but I spent the night in the desert the truck
brokes that were sleeping in the truck in the desert.

(18:22):
But it was it was a start. It was where
it all began, you know. And then I raised at
ninety nine got into two thousand, but at that same time,
I was racing downhill mountain bikes professionally and uh, you know,
making money doing that, traveling the United States doing that
and and running pro with that. So that was that
was all I wanted. And I worked in my dad
and built trucks, and um, I had I had a

(18:43):
lot of experience already. So in uh two thousand two,
we uh, I think he had a sponsor ski Jactors
Suspension that was looking to sponsor the truck in the
pro Light division. And my dad was like, well, hey,
instead of you know, sponsoring somebody else, let's see if
Kyle wants to it. And I think literally before he
finished the sentence, I was already in the shop. So

(19:05):
it was it was a go go from from the
word you know, would you like to I was already
in so UM, obviously I don't. I didn't know how
to build trucks. I didn't know how to do geometry, steering,
motor placement, wait by us all that stuff. But I
knew how to fabricate. I knew how to grind, cut,
drill and do all that kind of stuff. So UM,
I built a truck with the people in my shop. UM,

(19:28):
but it was kind of like the nobody touched the
truck until Kyle walks in the door type scenario. So yeah,
I mean if if if I didn't get down there
or work on the truck, we wouldn't have a race car.
So Um had tons of help, and obviously my dad
did a bunch and we would make multiple runs down
to his back scrap yards to find old front hubs
or some old gauges off of his old truck and

(19:49):
old ignitions and small fuel pumps and all the stuff
that didn't cost money because he'd been racing for decades.
So Um sky Jacker definitely came in and helped us,
along with those some of his others answers. But it
was cool to just literally drive out. I mean it
was so last minute. I remember borrowing a front wheel
from Rick Husman and a couple of things just to

(20:10):
get the truck out the shopping on the trailer. So
um first race, we drove it all the way from
California to New York and got to race on a
short course off road track. I've been spawning my dad
for years before that, and then this was the time
to take a green flag at the start of I
think two thousand three that man, I remember that that

(20:31):
racetrack in New York. And I don't know that it
was the first year. I think it was actually maybe
the second or thirdy you know how many years we
went to New York. But man, one of the most
epic jumps of all time watching you go up in
the air and then I think whenever you landed, like
the helmet came down over your eyes and you were lunched,
and that it was pretty ugly. But you were going
for it, man, I mean, you're absolutely going for it.

(20:53):
And and of course talking about Rick, I think you
and Rick one of the I think both of you
were forwards at the time, if I'm not mistake, And
I don't know that that had anything to do with
with lining things up with the front hub. But but uh,
the point I really want to make to the fans
at home is because it's so rare now to to
see somebody work their way into success and sponsorship, which

(21:17):
you've been able to do. I mean, clearly, your father
with a ton of experience, you can lean on him.
The people around the shop the same resources there. Your abilities,
though have certainly excelled in terms of building a truck
and your fabrication abilities, everything that you've learned along the way,
as you talked about before, all the weight bias and
your ability to to really dial in you know, shock packages,

(21:40):
all of that stuff is the point that I'm trying
to make. You've learned all of that stuff all along
the way. You've managed to put yourself in a situation
where you can win, and you didn't start off with
a bunch of money, and and you acquired those sponsorships
and have since enjoyed the success because of it. You're

(22:00):
one of a handful of people in short course off
road racing that actually make a living out of that
sport and racing, and you rely on those sponsorships and
the only way they keep coming back is if you're successful.
So I wanted to get a little bit of that
information from you and how you started so people know,
because dude, it just doesn't happen anymore. The way it

(22:21):
happens is somebody shows up with a lot of money,
pots and pots of money man and by their way
in and hopefully they can make something happen. Yeah. I mean,
I've just I've just always been around it. I Mean,
there was no way to to not be I mean
it was in our backyard. We built Johnston break our quads.
We drive him into the shop and then be like,
oh the tyrods broke. What are we gonna do. It's like, well,

(22:43):
can help me, and he would help me do it,
but then he'd make us booger weld it together. I
mean we're talking eleven twelve years old. Um. And whether
that's set the path or not, um, you know, it
definitely did. But you know there's been knocked down. I
got fights, you know, with brothers and fathers. I mean
it's it's a fabrication shop. It's family. Like, there's pros

(23:07):
and there's cons um and even that first year of racing,
like we didn't have money. I didn't have a spare engine.
So one of the tracks I went to and uh,
I blew my motor in practice and I watched the
rest of the weekend I didn't get to race. And
it wasn't it wasn't a dad, I need this, or
come on go buy that guy. He's got a motor
right there. It's like, oh, man, well there it is.

(23:31):
It just it just it was the reality of it.
And uh, I think obviously that that definitely, Um, gave
me a mindset on what I'm doing, how I'm doing it,
how to do it, and seeing my dad do it
for a living race and trophy trucks. He went to Dakar,
went up Pike's Peak, I mean short course Pro four
do you name it. The guy's driven and been successful

(23:53):
at it. So um. Seeing that from the outside in
was definitely a good tool for me to to jump on. Um.
You know. But then at the same time, I wanted
to have my own edge. I wanted to have my
own design. I want to have my own style, and um,
you know, me and him butted heads for some days
and some days it was awesome. Um. Same with my brother.

(24:14):
Some days it was a nightmare, like fighting with your
brothers and who's doing better? And I won this race
and you didn't win this one. And uh, you know
there was times when I sucked, but at times when
it was it was cool. So um, and it helped us.
I mean, me and my brother being competitive against each
other pushed us on the mountain bikes. You know, we
were always bragging to each other about who was better

(24:34):
and who did this better. And it transferred into the trucks.
When he went truck racing. Um and oh five, I
was already the two thousand four pro light champion. So
He's like, all right, great, my dad's this champion. Now
Kyle is a champion. Now I got to go into
this thing and I better come out swinging into you know,
the pressure is on. So it was just, uh, it

(24:55):
was just an atmosphere. I mean, I probably had hands
on twenty some trucks that rolled out of my dad's
shop throughout my life. And you know, I remember being
in high school and uh running the lathe when he
would put the bypass well, the bypassed dudes on the
outside of the old coil over shocks. I was there
running a hone up and down. So I'd come home
from school and I'd be working on that stuff. And um,

(25:17):
the day after I graduated and he was gone, and
we had to pull the motor out of his Pike
Speak truck and we had to fabricate this gnarly thing.
So it was like my grad night. Instead of going
out partying and make the mistakes I was, I was
in the shop working on his trucks and building stuff.
So there are stories that sounds cool, you know, but
at the time, it's just whatever you're wanting to do

(25:39):
is what you're gonna do. And um, it's the mental
choice of whether you do one thing do another. And
I've always looked at it like, I don't I don't
want to be I don't want to be midpack, I
don't want to have a race car. I want to
have the race car and I want to be at
the front. And uh, it's taken me a long time

(25:59):
to try. I had to figure out how to get there. Um,
but once you do, and once I got there, it
was it was so much more fun to just to
just be openly creative and building cool pro lights and um,
you know, steal on my pro four stuff like that
that rolled out of the shop and you can just
have pride in and then put them on the racetrack

(26:20):
and prove it. You know. To go from from honing
shocks and my dad's lave to being able to pull
out of your shop a complete race truck is it's
pretty cool, pretty cool to say you've done it. It's
been really cool to watch you develop over the course
of time, for sure. And as you you talk about
those stories and I mean you had you had to
be sixteen years old, sixteen seventeen years old, whenever you're

(26:42):
going into that Baja race and then stepping up and
building your own trucks and then finally finding that success.
So it's been great to watch you develop over the
course of your career. And and your father, of course,
I had the pleasure of working with him at Crannon
here just a few months ago. It's been a long
time since I really had a chance to spend time
with your dad, and I've always enjoyed talking with your dad.

(27:04):
He always has a unique aspect. He's a great interview. Uh,
he's a great color commentator. I mean, he sees so much.
He's been around and done so much. He's great to
have in the booth. And Uh, it was a real
pleasure to work with him again after after such a
long time away from each other there with his retirement

(27:24):
of course from the support and that sort of stuff.
So we're gonna take another quick break here. We'll be
back on the other side with some more from Mr
Kyle L. Duke. We'll talk about how his career progressed
and what the future holds in store for this talented,
talented driver. This segment of the Skinny, It's brought to
you by Dream Giveaway. Dream Giveaway has been giving away

(27:45):
high end American muscle cars to raise money for charity
since two thousand seven. Dream Giveaway is known for giving
away classic and new muscle and paying the federal taxes
so the winners don't have to For twenty dollars, you
can jump in the game and to that goes to charity,
you'll have a chance at winning some of the coolest
cars on the planet. Check it out at dream giveaway

(28:07):
dot com. Once again, we have Kyle A Duke with
us on this special holiday edition of The Skinny just
before New Year's Eve here and it's a pleasure to
have Kyle with us. He's joined us from his home
in Alabama, and we've been talking about how he got
his career started, how he scrapped from the bottom, literally
working fabricating his own truck a lot from his father

(28:29):
and competing with his brothers. Well, my quick little little
claim to fame with Kyle A Duke is he mentioned
it before. I had a chance to dub him the
kid back in the day, and that's exactly what he was,
and he was so much fun to watch. But I
do remember this special moment sitting on the starting line
at Crandon, and I don't know why Kyle was in

(28:50):
the back row with me. It was my first career
race in a prolite race, but he's in the back
row with me. I think maybe you're late for the
driver's meeting or something silly it happened. I don't know
what it was, but Kyle is this accomplished pro lighte
racer and who went on to win the championship that year.
And Kyle looks over at me, and I look over
at him, and we're about to start the race, and
Kyle says, follow me. And I looked over at Kyle

(29:12):
and I said, follow me. Of course, I never saw
Kyle again. They dropped the green flag, he was gone.
And I actually beat him, though, because you've broken that race,
so I think I beat you. And I have a
picture of myself ahead of Jeff Kincaid and Art Schmidt
and I beat you, and I'm like, hey, man, I
just quit right now. I'm done. But I remember getting

(29:34):
to the end of the race because I was still
a pit reporter for the series, and I climbed out
of the truck and I looked at somebody and I said,
you gotta tell me who finished first, second, third, I said,
I was nowhere close with them, guys, I don't know.
I don't know who won this thing. So there was
a lot of fun though, and Uh, I was able
to enjoy a handful of races that year in the
pro LIGHTE division. And I gotta say, man, the stuff
that I learned to bring to the booth and and

(29:56):
relate to the fans, uh was absolute remarkable because everything
that you guys go through, a lot of it's just
taken for granted. You don't even realize all the stuff
that you do and just inherently react to. The biggest
thing for me that I think I was able I
hope I was able to bring to the fans of
the course of time was the serious lack of vision

(30:17):
that goes on during the entire race. You know, and
you just can't see where you're going. And a number
of times I've told people, when you see a guy
do something you just think it is completely stupid, trust me,
there's a real good chance he just could not see
anything at all. So while you're sitting on your couch
watching with perfect vision, don't be too quick to judge

(30:37):
that guy. Yeah, we used the term blacked out, and
that's happened a thousand times. I mean even just the
crane and start. You go through term one and the
spotter is literally helping you stay, hold you line, hold
you line drift a little wider, a little tighter, a
little tighter, because you're just you're just murdering terroffs. I mean,
you're getting blasted unless you get the whole shot. Do

(30:58):
you get the whole shot? You know, you're fist pumping
in front, but um, if you're not anywhere near the front,
you're just in this blanket of chaos. And I don't know, Man,
there's risk involved with with going through the going through
the smoke cold, but uh, it's not it's not usually
to your benefit. So yeah, no, it definitely isnarly. It's

(31:19):
a it's an element of racing that a lot of
people don't understand. They might understand it, but like to
stack tearoffs on your helmet, you're like thinking, you know,
is that enough? Am I going to be out of tearoffs?
And is it too wet for the water to come
in the back side of them? And there's so many
elements to it that it gets nearly and the short

(31:40):
course offt road racing is is that it's nearly I mean,
we used to ride when I was I think that
start when what you're talking about, I was probably wearing
a dirt bike helmet and I had motor goggles, and
we used to run motor tearoffs. And uh now since
we've gone full face helmets with big tearoffs and laminated
and gotten all fancy with it. But yeah, it's definitely

(32:00):
not the it's it's a thing you've got to be
racing and just get blasted, and you just gotta I mean,
it's almost second nature of you. You don't even have
to think of where they are in Um. Yeah, it's
pretty cool. It's definitely an element of racing that we
are unique with some of the off road short course
and dirt stuff. Yeah, you bring that up, and and
it's a great point. It's just one of many points

(32:23):
that exact race that that I referred to there. I
went through turn one and totally forgot, because I've never
pulled one in my life. I totally forgot I even
had tear offs, so I reached up and wiped the
mud away. Of course it worked. The first time. I
was like, oh, that's good. And then I wiped again,
and the second time, you've got mud all over your
glad and other work near is good. Now I'm completely blind.

(32:43):
And then it dawned on me, oh, I've got those
tear off things, so I pulled one of those. I
was like, oh, that's brilliant, man, I love that right there.
But it's uh, it's it's amazing everything that goes on
in your brain and how far you drive not being
able to see anything. And of course you referred to
the spotters are helping you out, and you refer to
the moisture that gets in between the tear offfs that

(33:05):
people aren't aware of. It's man, there's just so much
going on that happened so quickly. And we're talking about
in pro light days. I mean, never mind you guys
in those monster pro fours and coming and turn one
at a hundred miles an hour, and I mean hair
on fire, ragged edge inside tires dangling off the ground,

(33:25):
just on the edge of absolute disaster. It's it's not
a game for the faint of heart. And I wish
there was some way for the fans to understand everything
that you guys are doing. I don't even know if
you guys know where everything you're doing well, No, I mean,
now there's uh I got my eye racing stand on
this site. Sorry, um I racing deal. So a lot

(33:45):
of people get to go around granding and race cranding,
but man, unless that thing starts shooting out mud at
you and blastoming you with rocks, there's there's no way
to compare. I mean, we talked about putting your hand
up and blocking the stuff. We were at Crandon a
couple of years ago and going up the backstretch, I
had lost my hood in the truck and I was
behind Chenny and uh going up the backstrets coming out

(34:08):
of Argon, going up the hill, it gets really light
and you tend to roost a ton right there. And
I was just going up to pull a tear off
and I got hit by rock and uh, man, I
thought it broke my knuckle. Uh. It hurts so bad.
Get to the end of the race and I go back,
and then then it really starts like the adrenaline kicks off.
I'm like, oh, yeah, I definitely busted my knuckle in
my hand something. So I pulled my glove off and

(34:30):
when I did that, uh, it sounded like coins dropping
on the ground thinging. It was my tungus and carbide
ring broken in half. My finger and my knuckle was bleeding.
But it hit my hand and shattered my ring on
the string woold like on on the dash and totally
shattered it. So now I have a carbon fiber one.

(34:50):
But yeah, it's it's not only like that. I've been
hitting the face when it knocks your shield up like
it's uh, it's a knockdown, drag out fight out there
for sure. Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, I think Rodrigo
Ampudium maybe got hit in the forearm or a rock
or something broke his arm. I remember. I know Johnny
Greeves there for a while had a combination of things.

(35:11):
He had the dirt bike comet with the visor so
you guys could tip your head head down and block
some of the roost. Initially he also had the the
I think he had a mud eater, and that the
mud eater failed, he would pull it off and he
would have He had a set of dirt by goggles
with the pull string that over his shifter that he
could quickly put on. And then he also had a

(35:32):
rag in case everything failed so that he could wipe
his eyes out. I remember looking at all the stuff
in there, and that was that bark River. For whatever reason,
at bark River again, loaded up with that heavy load. Man.
You guys can eat eat a bunch of roosts. But
it's a real deal, man. I mean it's people again.
It's just impossible to relay how difficult it can be.

(35:54):
And there's a lot of dirt track guys that that
understand and go through the same thing that we do,
but they don't racing the rain. I remember starting two
thousand six oh five and uh, starting bark River on
the line pro light about to go, and it just
starts raining and you're like, oh no, it's raining, they're
gonna cancel it. Oh no, it's really raining, super bad.

(36:15):
Oh grieflag. And the whole race was raining the entire time.
I was leading Jeff and kid and he did a
slide job on me like no other on the last lap,
and uh, but it was pouring rain the entire time.
So there's water running, moto helmets, motor goggles and a
protector so the dirt didn't go between your goggles and

(36:35):
your helmet and blast your forehead. But that that's what
off road racing is, and it's it's gone to a
point a couple of times lately where they'll cancel race
or they'll you know, postpone a race and all that stuff,
and I get it. But at the same time, you know,
I'm a little old school, and I remember putting the
fin on the top of my dad's truck with a

(36:55):
number on it so that you could tell which brown
truck was his and and the obviously didn't make a
great TV but that was that was hardcore offered racing,
and I think, I think, uh, we're missing a little
bit of that these days. But hey, it's all good.
It's it's gnarly offered racing. And sometimes the sometimes the
officials put more water, more water on the track than

(37:16):
mother nature, so sometimes it gets snarly either way. That's
a great point there about the officials. I want to
elaborate on that, and I'll let it go for now.
At any at any rate. Um, you know, I remember
before I got involved with short course off road, watching
the trucks, like I don't know why Lake Geneva sticking
out of my head, but there were some races, I
want to say, in Missouri, maybe Kansas, somewher around Kansas

(37:38):
City or somewhere in there. It seemed like every time
I watched it on TV it was a rain race.
And I remember the once I got involved, and let's say,
maybe you guys are cranning it and it's in the
track of super wet. But I remember talking to some
of the veterans, probably someone like your father, although I
don't know if your father would give give up anything
like this, but the guys would tell me, yeah, we're

(38:00):
gonna spring up, you know, for the for the weight
of the mud, because the trucks could pick up five
pounds or more of mud. So going over the jumps,
I mean naturally has changed everything in terms of spring
right now, how the truck is gonna land to keep
it from bottoming out. So they would literally anticipate carrying
all this extra weight. Yeah, those are the days that

(38:22):
I was. I was a pressure wash kid. I was
over there in a trash bag cleaning off that five pounds.
But yeah, again, I remember, I remember putting a fin
on the top of my dad's truck. I remember them
hosing the trucks off at the start line at Cranson
one time, like it was that bad um and he's
like you said, like Geneva, it was basically a swimming

(38:43):
pool with a racetrack in the middle of it. And uh,
you know I've been in some of those races, some
of those races before before my day. But um, nowadays,
obviously it's getting a little more I would say professional,
but a lot more taking care of, you know, professional tracks,
bigger than another, maintenance crews and bigger tractors and you know,
Krand in that place. That place has amazed me several times.

(39:07):
So many tracks will be absolutely underwater and fluttered and
shut down, but somehow Cliff fires up those dozers and
and uh start moving dirt and he can clear off
a racetrack. I mean, obviously he doesn't like moving his
dirt around that much, but he can part ways and
make us a racetrack even though it rained the night before.
So um, it's doable. And you know, some of these

(39:28):
tracks get destroyed from it. But racing the mud sucks.
We all love a perfectly beautiful prime track, so we
can get that. We'll prefer that any day. So um,
as we talk about so many things I want to
talk to you about, and and we're already running out
of time. But speaking of Krannon real quickly, Krannon did
not change for as long as I've known Krannon, and

(39:50):
one that made some significant changes to that track. Man,
there was a pretty marly kicker. They're coming out of
the barn term that has never been there before. You
guys were getting some crazy air. Unfortunately, a bit of
a tough weekend there for you, but they made some
big change of that racetrack for the first time in many,
many years. Yeah. I talked to Cliff when he was

(40:11):
working on it, unfortunately where they're testing and doing stuff,
and he, uh, you know, he had a couple of
ideas on what he wanted to do and where to
add jumps, and I I personally didn't agree with it
because that's definitely not a spot you want to throw
us in the air. Um. A jump is one thing, um,
but falling off the side of the four story building
at ninety miles an hour is another. UM. So it's

(40:34):
just a big awkward jump that a lot of the
trucks weren't used to and mind being one of it
with my bit of a unique res suspension, so we
couldn't really catch it and and control it enough to
uh to not destroy the truck, So that definitely eliminated
us that entire weekend from trying to be a threat.
But you know, if it's still there next year, we'll

(40:56):
adapt the truck and we've already made changes to the
rest suspension and make it be able to do that stuff.
But now these tracks definitely uh, you know, I don't
want to be the guy to to push the buttons
the wrong way, but man, these tracks and promoters that
we gotta step up. You know, these are amazing trucks.
I've got these things in the dune two hundred three
feet you know, four or five stories in the air.

(41:17):
They can do it. We've just got to uh, we've
got to supply the atmosphere for them and the fans
to be able to get a little bit more excited
about this stuff. And um, you know these trucks can
do it. We really got to showcase that pro to
pro lighte pro for all those guys involved in there's
ways to do it, ways to build tracks for sportsmen
and also the big boys, because we we really need

(41:39):
this to work. I, like you said, I do this
for a living, so it needs to work. And if
I want to raise my son to come out here,
and raise the stuff. I don't want them to be
at the same tracks in another ten years. So UM,
trying to make the steps to Uh. Try to help
as much as I can with the series, but I
might just start poaching it. Rent some dozers and start

(41:59):
moving some dirt on the weekends when nobody's around. Yeah,
the people want to see what these structs are capable of.
Lake Elsinore was was a great example there back in
the day. Oh my goodness, some of those jumps are
just incredible. And then there's that place there in Wheatland
that's pretty impressive as well. So there's some options, and
you've been there and done that, so I'm sure you'll
be able to bring a lot to the table. Hey,

(42:22):
you talked about battling with your brother here. I'm gonna
touch on this real quickly. Uh. Two thousand and twelve,
you guys were first and second points and pro four UM,
And I remember. It's funny because you talked about the
battling with your brother and as we sit here and
we look back on it, and you think, man, that's
pretty awesome. Those guys had to be stoked. But I
remember the tension between you and your brother speaking of

(42:45):
the competitiveness. Do you recall that year? I mean, what
what was that? Like? The chemistry I should say with
you guys, I do. I mean, we had it. We
had the rivalries, uh, even when we weren't read against
each other. You know, I was Pro light, he was
Pro two. Um. We helped each other. Um. And then

(43:05):
I went Pro four and he was still Pro two,
and we started button heads a little bit. I mean
we're all, like I said, we're doing this for a living,
so there's a business involved in money, and you know,
prize money. And once we all three were in Pro four,
only one of us could win, so the other two
were losers at some point. So it, uh, it got weird.
It got a little awkward. You know, we all go
back to the same shop, we all drive there in

(43:27):
the same semi like go there and not have a knockdown,
drag out fight at a race track and then get
in the same rig and drive cross country for three
days like nightmare nightmare scenarios. But uh, yeah, I do
remember that. Um to come down. I mean, obviously it's cool, right,
So now that I'm sitting here in hindsight, and I'm
sure Tod would say the same for both of us.

(43:48):
To be at the top of the points in Pro four,
arguably in its prime, um is pretty badass. Like we
we we I would say we came for nothing. We
came from a dad and a legend in the sport.
But we worked our way up with sponsors and and
and earned every bit of those sponsors and the built

(44:11):
the trucks that got there, and not that other teams didn't,
but it, Uh, it made us feel like we earned it. Right.
So we came down to a couple of points. He
had good consistency and then I was either hit or
miss right. Um, that was an early year. Yeah, so
I learned a lot of that year. We had some
good battles all the way to the end of the

(44:31):
line in Vegas, like just landing on each other's who
had trying to just scrape next to each other. And um,
he was always better than me and the mountain bike stuff.
He was more athletic, trained a lot more, but I
was a more aggressive and earlier technical writer. So once
you get to the trucks, that kind of flipped a
little bit. And uh, he definitely he didn't like it.

(44:52):
I didn't like the rivalry me and him but it heads.
I mean, we're gotten fights in the shop like everything
you would imagine. There's no there's no picture per story here.
We were we were brothers and uh yeah it was
it was life. That's great stuff. I I remember that
year and thinking all three of you guys are gonna
be in the same class. I was like, oh boy,
this ought to be pretty interesting to watch, not even

(45:14):
talking about everybody climbing inside of the same talking back
at the same shop. Great stuff for sure. As you
talk about looking back at it. Um, hey, man, let's
shift gears here real quickly and we'll get things wrapped up.
Talk to me about congratulations on I know things didn't
pan out the way you guys wanted them to with
with the Ganassi racing up from the extreme e. Hopefully
you guys are back again to take another swing at

(45:36):
it next year. But nonetheless, just to be uh included
in that group, to be their preferred driver quite an accomplishment.
Congratulations on that. But what does two look like for you? Well? Yeah,
I appreciate that, man. I mean, obviously I got a
phone call from Mike Hole um and and I'm not

(45:57):
a huge any car fans, but I looked him up
and I learned who the hell out was talking to
do and uh, you start understanding, you know, you start
looking at all those all these stories that we have, right,
all the stuff that we've been talking about here, all
of that comes to a desk at chippen Asses Racing
Shop with my name on it. Right. So just to
have that, you can hang up the phone and be like,

(46:19):
all right, sweet, like we're doing the right thing, We're
making the right progress. Um. But then to have have
them call you and hire you is the second thing, um.
And to do it in our off road world, it's
pretty cool. I mean, I know it is the coolest,
right that is that is the pinnacle of what you're
trying to do here. Um, But yeah, it was. It

(46:39):
was a super tough here man. We had some massive
speeds and massive effort um. The team's epic. Working with
these guys is awesome. And my crew chief, Trad he
is the crew chief on that program as well. So, um,
they were smart, but they knew they needed knowledge in
the off road world. So they were a lot on me.

(47:00):
I threw him out there. He was all about it too,
and it was just an epic collaboration. So we have
a good package. We have. We have the package in
the series and in the sport. But um, yeah, man,
we just had some I don't even I don't rely
on I don't like luck. I don't want to say
we have bad luck. Some of the stuff just sucked.
Some of it was self induced, um, and some of

(47:22):
it was correctable. So we're on that path to to
be able to correct it. To overlook how this works,
overlook how these other drivers drive, how I drive. Um.
But yeah, I think I think a lot of things.
You know, if if we continue with and you go
back to my roots a little bit, and uh, you know,
do what I do, be who I am, and bring

(47:45):
that to a racetrack, and that'll that'll gain our results.
Your your talents far exceed what the people have seen
so far. And I could see you in any car, man,
I think you could drive whatever they wanted to put
you inside of. So thanks a lot, man, I appreciate everything.
We wish you the best. I still luck moving forward
here in the next next few years. And uh, man,
it's gonna be a lot of fun to watch you develop.

(48:08):
Appreciate that, dude, It's it's been a long road. Like
you said, I've been doing it for a couple of
decades now, so um, definitely have some future plans. I
want to do stuff, but I still want to go
downstairs here and uh build a new pro for So
definitely still still the same dude you called Kyle the
kid back in the day. So hands on building race
cars and uh make the living doing it. So I

(48:31):
got a wife, two kids, this property. Just gotta make
it all work and uh put a stamp on it.
I'm pretty proud of it. Here you go, ladies and gentlemen,
our holiday edition in here with the former kid now
one of the standouts in all forms of motorsports that
he decides to get involved with Kyle do. Thank you
very much man. Happy new Year to you, my friend,

(48:51):
and best of luck in the future. Thanks you appreciate it.
Thanks for being with us here on the Skinny. This
episode has been brought to you by tay Yota. Rhino
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(49:12):
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