A legend on the track and a legend Hermie Sadler has seen and done it all. Listen as Sadler talks with LaVar Arrington about moments that set the tone for our lives and one moment in particular with his father. Plus, surreal situations happen to many, and Hermie describes a surreal situation in Vegas with Hollie Madison, Charles Barkley, Actor Vince Vaughn, and Maverick's owner Mark Cuban. Finally, Hermie Sadler tells you how he's been giving back to his community by allowing small businesses to succeed.
UP On GAME Presents Conversations With A Legend. LaVar Arrington is sitting down with the best from the field, the stage, and beyond. These are intimate conversations and storytelling with legendary humans about their lives and successful careers. In this episode, Arrington talks with NASCAR Legend Hermie Sadler.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Presents Conversations would a leg around here and round here,
he ground round here, and we hustle for round here,
and we ground for a living. Welcome into another exciting
edition of Up on Game Presents Conversations with the Legend
(00:26):
this week, NASCAR legend Hermie Stadler. All right, now, Hermie,
I gotta tell you, I generally do NFL legends, but
now I've had the honor and the privilege of going
outside of the category of football and getting into the
(00:47):
category of race car driving and having your brother, Elliott
and yourself on the show. So you're making history for
my show. I appreciate that. UM, talk to me about
what Hermie has going on right now post racing career,
because you've got a lot going on. Yeah, thank you.
(01:10):
First of all, it's honor to be on with you,
uh LaVar and gotting to know you recently and really
appreciate what you are and how you go about your
business and UM in the crusade we're on kind of
together in a lot of ways. But yeah, I my
family business, or our family business is convenient store struck
stops in restaurants. I've been active in the family business
(01:33):
for twenty plus years. But retired from Fox TV as
an analyst for their NASCAR coverage at the end of
two thousand nineteen uh and kind of stepped into the
the role of of the family business. So um, so
we we look after that. And then outside of that,
my wife and I were sitting and our sports bar
(01:54):
in the four year Virginia it's called and it's a
beautiful place. Thank you so much. Our say in a
minute how this place was named. Um. But so outside
of that, my wife and I really my wife runs
the day to day operations of those show, the twenty
four hour restaurant at the truck stop, the ups store,
(02:14):
we've got an eye hop and Skippers and another convenience store.
So all told together we look after about three d employees,
which is a lot of a lot of responsibility. We're
responsible for those uh payroll every two weeks, but we
don't take lightly the responsibility of taking care of people
(02:35):
and their families and and that. So we're in the
convenience store, truck stop restaurant business. We're also we have
transport trucks that service our locations and we sell fuel
to other locations. We also, which is probably my favorite
part of our business, We handle our local farmers and loggers.
We deliver fuel to them in the logwoods or on
(02:57):
their farms and things like that. So we're really and
green into the community. Our family businesses over sixty years
old and now I have a lot of responsibility, which
I enjoy of trying to maintain and grow that business
when I can. But I've I did twenty five years
on the road. I know, you know what life on
(03:17):
the road was like. But having having three daughters and
my wife looking after all this, I've really enjoyed the
last couple of years being home more, being more involved,
not only in our business but also in the community.
Three lovely daughters. I've met two out of the three
so far super impressed, and that met the misses super impressed.
(03:38):
The good thing about my daughters they got my good looks,
personality and athletic ability. So what could possibly go wrong? Nothing,
It's up to them. They got all the two. Up
to the end, I've done. You have done your beautiful
Thank you. Thank you. Speaking of beautiful girls, you've done
(04:02):
your part. You like that, don't Yes? I do. Yeah,
you have built successful business. You you were successful in NASCAR.
What makes Hermi tick like? What what did you come
from that gives you the mindset to approach what you
(04:26):
do and how you do it the way that you
do it. I gotta tell you the truth. The biggest
thing that motivates motivates me every day is the ability
for me to help somebody else. I've been fortunate my
whole life. UH, my family, my dad, Um, I've always
(04:47):
had whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it, whenever I
needed it. Now. Dad taught us lessons along the way,
but I never had to go somewhere with no money
in my pocket. I never, and I don't take that
for granted. So my life mission, whether it was me
owning my race teams. When I was racing back in
(05:07):
the day, my biggest satisfaction probably should have been going
to victory lane. I probably would have raced longer, but
my biggest satisfaction was those twenty or thirty people that
worked on that team couldn't food on their table for
their families. I feel the same way about our businesses today.
I mentioned between the old company and between uh Angie's
(05:28):
uh and and and our businesses about three d employees.
I get great satisfaction in being a part of giving
them the opportunity to provide for their families in a
way that my family provided for me. So that's I mean.
I love the day to day business, I love the
interaction with my customers those kind of things, But I
(05:52):
my what really motivates me every day now is knowing
how I can positively and act so many families. Now,
interesting that you say that because pay Somatic brought us
together and we're on this as you mentioned earlier, this
cruiside together and really this this whole scenario of skill
(06:19):
games and and getting it you know past where these
small businesses can benefit from these skilled games has been
something that has brought us together. That's you helping the
common man, that you helping small businesses. Just talk to
me a little bit about where that passing came from
(06:41):
and how does that play into you know your sports background.
Well for those who may be watching or listening for
the first time that don't really I'll give you a
quick recap. But basically, in our convenience store struck stops
and restaurants since as long as I can remember, we've
operated these skill games that are by and large uh
(07:03):
produced and marketed by pay Somatic. The Commonwealth of Virginia
decided last July, or actually last April, they passed a
law that went into effect that as of this past
July one, these games were banned in all of our facilities.
So we decided we, meaning me on behalf of not
(07:23):
only my business, but small business operated all across the Commonwealth,
and Senator Bill Stanley, we decided to take on the fight.
We didn't think that was not not to mention constitutional,
We didn't think it was ethical that the government could
just come take away our business and give it to
somebody else. And even though you know I'm I'm compassionate
(07:47):
and I care about other people things of that nature,
I'm also very competitive and I don't believe that. Um.
So when they came and just tried to take this
away from me and my family and my Louise and
all that, I felt compelled to fight back. And so
you know, once you in the racing world, much like
(08:08):
on the football field, uh is every man full of self,
it's taking no prisoners, and so part of that um
because always somebody trying to take your spot, whether it's racing,
whether it's football, whether it's somebody. And we you know,
we met Jeff Jarrett I know you've got I've known
Jeff my whole life. You made him a couple of
weeks ago. Same thing. You probably played some football games
(08:31):
through injury and some other things because you had to,
because you know that next guy step up and do
a good job. He's waiting. So I felt compelled to
to stand up and fight not only on my behalf,
but on behalf of UM many many small business owners
and operators across the state. They didn't have the platform,
didn't have the resources. Oh there's my fight so far
(08:56):
to get us to this point. You know, it cost
me probably three core is of a million dollars to
get to that point. But we can't let them win
by them having this thought process that they can pick
winners and losers and dictate um everyday small business American life.
So I feel confident that as we move forward, we're
(09:19):
going to prevent at some point somebody from in the
government from trying to do the same thing again. So,
and in the world of sport and the world of sport,
what you just discussed and talked about, that competitive nature,
(09:40):
that that team team mentality. When I have conversations with legends,
I ultimately love to know about where the greatness resonates
from what the greatness means, how is it executed? So
where I'm at right now and this conversation is it's
(10:03):
all about branding. It's all about telling a story. It's
all about how it's framed and how people feel when
they hear about it. And you do an excellent job
of presenting how you feel and how that applies. If
I were to ask you in the world of sports
(10:23):
and athletes and fans are like that, listen and look
on how do you view branding and and and what
does how important is branding too? What you do and
what you've been able to build LaVar, I'll be the
first to admit again I keep correlating between racing and football. Okay,
(10:47):
on any when I raced full time in the mid
to late nineties, was I was in my I would
call hey day. I guess you could say there were
forty people on the track any given Sunday, it's probably
ten thousand that we're just as talented as I was.
(11:07):
But I didn't get that opportunity. Never got the opportunity,
whether it be because of right place, right time, or
not having the resources to kind of get your name
out there a little bit, whatever the case may be.
So I felt like I had an obligation once I
got out there too take advantage of that opportunity. When
it comes to branding, I haven't always done everything right
(11:32):
on or off the track, would be the first to admit,
but I've always tried to surround myself with the right people,
whether they be business associates, people in my social circles, uh,
and people I do business with. I don't do business
with people that I don't have good vibe. You know.
You go with your gut a lot of times a
(11:53):
lot of things. And how that's helped me today with
this situation I need against the kind of with every
suing the state that I live in, which is said
out of necessity, out of necessity because we never talked
about this. But so the first sponsor, the first major
sponsor I had in NASCAR, was the Virginia Tourism Corporation.
(12:17):
Our statewide tourism slogan is Virginia is for lovers. Okay,
So the first used to be not anymore, not anymore
for some lovers until you get get older, then you
just wish you Yeah, So Virginia is for what I
want to be a lover. That's what it is for me.
(12:40):
For some lovers, Virginia's for some lovers. Virginia is for
younger lovers, younger love? Are you making it difficult from
I wanted to make it real awkward it So when
I started, I was representing the state that I lived in,
the Virginia Tourism Corporation. We promoted beaches, the mountains, everything
(13:01):
in between the last twenty two years I had a
personal personal service contract with the Virginia Lottery. So I'm
representing basically the book ends of my career, representing the
state I live in. Then I gotta turn around, out
of necessity, ensued the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Governor, and
the Attorney General. I go back to what I was
(13:24):
saying about branding. One of the reasons why I think,
among among several, one of the reasons I think our
lawsuits this far has been successful is because other people
that have tried would Cenator Stanley and I are trying,
They've been able to pick apart the plaintiff, you know,
(13:45):
pick apart, find something wrong and chopped me down, okay,
and discredit. They hadn't been able to chop me down
because I represented the Commonwealth of Virginia for most of
my racing career. One of the entities that really against
(14:07):
us keeping our games, as the Virginia Lottery. Well guess what.
For twenty two years, not only was I our retailer
for the Virginia Lottery and all of my stores, but
I was also a spokesperson for the Virginia Lottery. So
I'm getting information and emails and things from both sides.
So when they try to throw all this trash and
(14:28):
me about what skill games are doing to the lottery,
I know it's trash because not only do I have
the businesses and the information to bag it up, but
I've got the stuff. In other words, a senator may
be on the Senate floor saying skill games are hurting
the lottery, they're taking money away from schools. But my
(14:50):
sales rep for the lottery that's dealing with my truck stop,
a convenience store, is saying the reason lottery sales were
down this month was because we just came off of
a billion dollar jackpot, you know, because a lot of
people just played the lottery. When you get ain't gonna
mess with it for five hundred million. So I was
(15:13):
getting all this stuff from, you know, so I could
discredit them in a way, but they really couldn't find
a way, and you haven't yet and they're still trying.
They haven't been able to find a way to personally
discredit uh me or my family or my business. And
(15:33):
so that's that's what's given us some you know, some
some legs with this, with this lawsuit. And I did
that through my entire I turned down some rides at
times in NASCAR. I turned down some sponsorship opportunities because
either I knew something that made me uncomfortable dealing with them,
(15:57):
or I knew how they had treated a friend of
mine maybe in the industry or whatever. Because I'm y'all
run across these people too. Sometimes people show up on
the scene in NASCAR and oh, we got all this money,
do all these great things, and three months later they're gone.
You know that. You you put them on TV and
talk about how great they are, and then the next
(16:18):
thing you know, they're gone. And I'll be honest with you,
if if everybody that owed me money in NASCAR paid me,
I'm sure again, I'm sure you've got these kind of
things like this year, ah skill games wouldn't matter as much.
But um, those are all life lessons that you learned,
and you know, so now I've got I've been able
(16:40):
to pick and choose my life, and especially later in
my career, I could pick and choose what I wanted
to do, who I wanted to do it with. Uh.
And as I've gotten older, and you mentioned my three daughters,
now I know when I make decisions or or make
public statements or take public stances about things. They're all
old enough. Now they're on so media. They see what
(17:01):
I say and what I do, and I don't think
that they'll let me know when they don't agree with you.
That that's important to me. You know, it's important for
me to set that that that role model for them
and take stands on things that I believe. Um, whether
it's appeasing to everybody or not. But I had a
tremendous platform in my racing days that carried over to
(17:26):
my business, that's carried over to my family, that is
now carried over to this I like your word crusade,
that that you and I are both on that. I
never would have dreamed that I would be sitting at
my restaurant in Emporia talking to LaVar Arrington about about
skill games and small business and I told you just
(17:46):
the other day and I mean it. So as we're
saying again, you come across as the kind of person
that I can tell by the passion you speak with
about this, that you see below the surface of what
some of these government legislators are doing to small businesses.
(18:07):
And that means, you know, they couldn't pay you enough
money to get on TV and talk about it if
it wasn't something that you really understood bought into. You know,
this is a bad precedent. You don't have probably don't
have any skill games personally anywhere and your businesses that
you're but you understand that if we let this go,
what are they gonna do next? And so you know
(18:29):
you have to fight and that's what we're doing. Okay,
I'm gonna tell you how we name Folk Show, do
you man? It's please tell me how you because we're
talking branding. So this building, this building we're in, my
brother and I built it. This first half of the
building was built for Starbucks. We built this building that
a fifteen year at least with Starbucks. Two years in
(18:52):
they call and say you know what, Starbucks didn't really
working any poor. We want to get out, so I
negotiate ate it up by out. We did all that,
no problems. So I decided I had this empty space
for a drive through. On the side, I said, wouldn't
it be great to have my own sports bar with
(19:13):
a draft for a drive through Whendow super super unique.
So it's all well and good for me because I
don't work here, but my wife cusses me five of
the said nights a week for thinking that we need
to be in the restaurant business. But anyway, when we
came time to decide we were gonna do it, I
was trying to come up with a name. So and
(19:36):
we've been here right at twelve years now, So I
go online and start looking for Hermie saddle of this,
Hermi saddle of that as it relates to the restaurant,
much like again, I'm sure with LaVar Rington. When I
went in, everything related or regarding my name, somebody had
already trade marked and just about every genre of everything
(19:57):
because they wanted me to have to call them and
pay for it. Yeah, and I just won't want to
do that. Although I did spend about thirty grand to
get Hermie Saddle dot com. Somebody had bought that and
it was a porn site. So that learned me. Saddler
adult entertainer. It was it won't pleasant. So we did
(20:17):
get that back. So anyway, and you switch that up,
you changed a little bit. Okay, you kept a little
X and there's I'd say it was at X and
single X and a half X and a half. If
you get older and you become less relevant, you gotta
spice things up a little bit to keep You gotta
(20:39):
have that half of in that. You gotta have the
half ex. Wow, So I'm learning something there you go.
I mean, you just blew my mind. So I'm trying
to think of a name. Everything Hermie Saddle was taken.
So I'm in Phoenix, Arizona, racing in Phoenix. We're racing
on Sunday, but I get done with practice on Saturday.
(21:01):
I'm leaving, getting ready to go play golf after I practice.
That date with Charles Barkley and a guy named Scott Williams.
They played college basketball at U n C and played
with all Right. So Scott's a good friend of man.
So I'm supposed to be there. I see in the Heights, California.
(21:24):
Interesting place I've heard, so I'm supposed to be there.
Let's just say I was supposed to play golf at
three o'clock time. I got to practicing and did all
my debriefs with my crew chief and stuff. I was
late leaving the race track, so I TechEd Scott and said,
I'm getting ready to lead a race track. I'm gonna
be both thirty minutes late. He just text me back
(21:47):
fo Show, that was his answer. So I said, damn,
that's pretty catchy. So I immediately called my trademark attorney.
I said, can you check to see if Folk Show
is available for restaurant services? He said just available. I said,
copyrighted trade market. He did it right then, and so
(22:10):
I called my life. I said, I just named the restaurant,
and people like, what what does it mean as it
relates to a restaurant? I said, not a damn FA.
But I liked it. It was it's kind of an
urban field. And I said, you can't go so fast
(22:31):
when you say it, though, you gotta like you gotta
break it up Folk Show. So Scott Williams um of
all the great three NBA titles and all that, but
his biggest claim to theme. I'm sure he said for
show dough and put that on there that for show works,
(22:57):
but I guarantee he uses dough act or showed out.
I'm asking that. Okay, all right, there we go, and
the other thing I'll give you out of that story
and we'll move on is don't take golf lessons from
Charles Barkley. Don't do that. Don't. You don't want don't
try to sit at the black jack table and play
black jackets. You don't want to do that either. Because
they used chip color. I've never seen those those chips
(23:21):
before in my life, and I got a few coins
in my pocket. I ain't never seen that color they were.
They were different colored chips. I coming from a small
town like Emporia, I've had many how did I get here?
Moments in my life. One of them was we were
in Vegas. We started off my brother and I and
Dale Jared, three racers went to the Bellagio two and
(23:46):
they went to this v I p room to play
black jack. Before I knew it, it was my brother
and I and Dale Jared, Mark Cuban, Roger Clemens, Vince
Von and Charles Barkley. So about two o'clock in the morning,
when I think it's time to wind down, they're winding up.
(24:07):
So we ended up at a after our's establishment. But
we're riding in Vegas and just caught this big limo,
me and my brother from Empooria, Virginia. You've seen it
after our multiples. I'm gonna say both as how as
you can get whatever the maximum allowable by law. Wow.
(24:33):
So but we're riding in this limo through Vegas and
it's me and my brother from Empori at Dale Jared.
I think Clint Boy was with us, but UM Mark Cuban,
Roger Clemens, Vince Vaughan. That's when the wedding crashes had
just come out, Mark Cuban and UM Dennis Haskins. He
was Mr Building to say about the belding. Mr Building
(24:56):
had a white handkerchief and all he did all night
was pet Charles's head down for the sweat rolling down,
you know, just kept him kept him up, kept kept
him draft. But I was one of my elliott What
the hell are we do? How did we getting up here?
Because when we start having um, when we started pulling
(25:19):
up the cards, we were short short. But the other
part of that story. So sometime in the middle of
the night, we went to Jet night Club at Bellagio,
and I'm with all these heavy hitters, billionaires, right. I
turned to round and look bout for like in the morning,
(25:40):
the little lady with the little bunny rabbit. So you
don't bring me to the bill all, my my brother
and everybody. L where is everybody? They're not going on
the next stop. They gave me the bill and it's
happened to be Holly Madison's birthday party that night. So,
Holly Madison, every time you ordered the I Love Chris Style,
(26:01):
she brought it down and off a zip line. So
it was like two thousand dollars every time she bought it.
And we didn't even break the top on none of them.
But every time the little girl came by and said,
you need another bottle? What he saying? Sure? So this
guy a young lady. So four o'clock in the morning,
Vegas time is seven o'clock in the morning, four your time.
(26:24):
Gives me a bar tab for about seventeen thousand dollars.
Oh no, So I'm pulling out my credit card like
and I'm not even worried about anything else. I'm not
even worried about the seventeen thousand dollars. I'm worried about
this bank. The fraud alert's gonna go off. They're gonna
call My wife was back at home in Virginia at
(26:47):
seven o'clock in the morning, and she's gonna have a
list of questions for me. And that's exactly what happened.
So the lady comes over there. First of all, I'd
even had no idea what my that so on my
credit card? Yeah, and even if it were you were,
I'm thinking, who do I know? It the bank that
(27:07):
I can call and get a credit limit increase. It
saved my clock in the morning. Anyway, So my wife
is right around the corner of the hope she's not listening.
She called me. Her first question, of course, was what
the w T are you doing in save mclock? W
Maybe it's only four o' flock in right, seven and
(27:27):
plus there's no clocks in Vegas. I thought it was
nine o'clock. Adn't night, you know, And we had a
terrible misunderstanding. When he came down to pay the bill,
I was only one left, you know. I couldn't walk
it on the bill. Everybody else they're gone. They're gone
(27:48):
now and full disclosure. They all made it right. But
I had to uh not only endure um. That was
a stressful moment. And look, and seventeen grand was new tip.
So I had to add the tip fourteen seventeen is
(28:17):
you gotta go high, you gotta go hide. Do you
want to go back if you want to, if you
want to booth by the DJ table next time. So
like four so you were now up to North North
for a night out. We didn't even drink the christ
This has nothing to do with us having a legends
conversation about the way. No, this is a legends conversation.
(28:40):
By the way, I was not a not a legends.
I was not a legend with my wife at that time. No,
you were. I was an idiot. You were that too,
But most times legends are idiots. You know what I
told her that you can try this with your wife
sometime when she brings back stuff that you may or
may not have done. And back in the day, all
(29:01):
you have to say is it was the thing to
do at the time. You know what. Can I add
something to that too, It was the right thing to
do right at the time. How about that I felt obligated.
I mean, you feel better. I didn't. I didn't make
the decision to go to those places. And I couldn't
(29:22):
leave my brother with all those strangers because those strangers
left jaws. People we didn't brother, like Mark Cuban, these
people could be shady. Well they left out with the
tab at broke one in the bunks men broke wanted
the bunk. I couldn't get out of there. That's a legend.
That might be the legend. I'm trying to be on
(29:45):
the show, but that might be the most legendary conversation.
That might be the most legendary story I've heard on
this show. But you need to if you ever get
a chance to go out with Mark and Charles and No,
I don't want to do that. I don't. I don't
want to sudding up with him straight but fullhand. Because
you don't, you're mess gonna come up short. I don't.
I don't want to do that. But I'll tell you
(30:07):
what fun man another pay so much money for. Look,
I didn't drink. Tell me your best? Is that your best?
I don't. That's tell me your best NASCAR memory? Well,
nothing replaces your first win and I'll tell you a
(30:28):
little story about my first win, and I'm not I'm
not talking about big time NASCAR win, but I'll tell
you about my first NASCAR Weekly Racing Series win, first
late model stock car win. So I had won the
World Caughting Championship, finally decided to move up in the
late models, running in what we call the mid Atlantic
region ram Virginia, North Carolina tracks around here I had run.
(30:51):
I wasn't running very well, and my dad is super
duper competitive, and my dad always had to mind set off.
You got everything you need. I don't want any excuses,
but I had to run through a spell of races.
Had never one yet. I'm familiar. By the way. I
think I heard that during this interview with your brother
and my daughter. Yeah. So I had raised on Faturday
(31:15):
night right over in Richmond, Virginia, south Side Speedway, ray
in terrible. My dad even came to the race track
that night and we had saddle of chevallet the car
dealership advertised on the car. He was over there trying
to pull off the car. He's if you ain't gonna
run new better this, you ain't gonna take My name
(31:36):
is my name too. But it didn't matter. No, I
gave you that name. So he's over. They're trying to
pull off the sticks. That is hilarious. So he told
me when the race is over, says that it was
not hilarious, Laval, but that's Tyn. Though your daddy was
trying to pull your name off, that's pretty good. When
we loaded the car that night, he told me he's
(31:58):
a fall as I'm concerned. You're done sez. So I
came home on Friday night, so what're we gonna do? Now?
Me and my guys got back to the shop like
at two o'clock in the morning. So kind of like
most of the bad racing days I had my whole career,
took me about twenty four hours morning period. MO morning,
(32:21):
I don't want to talk to nobody, and then I
then I'm then I come back. What's next? So my
guy we got back to the shop like two am.
After my dad telling me, uh, basically an all intensive purposes,
my sponsor pulled the plug on me. So we get
back to the shop Saturday morning, three o'clock in the morning,
(32:42):
and my guys like, what we gonna do? Who're we
gonna do? Finally, I said I'll tell you what we're
gonna do. We're gonna go through this car and set
it up again, put it on the scales, and we're
going tomorrow night to my Nassa's, Virginia to Old Dominion
Speedway to race. They see we are there, we are.
So we didn't really have any money to buy tires,
(33:03):
so we all, including my crew guys, we threw in
enough money to go to buy the tires for the
next night. I was embarrassed to tell my dad that
I was gonna racing next night because he had told
me I was done, so I didn't call my dad.
I called my mom. I didn't call her until I
(33:25):
was already there. We left like it eight o'clock in
the morning. We worked all night, got to call back,
ready left and went north to Manassa's, Virginia. So we've
been practicing. So I called my mom back, phones back
and in you to look back. I called my mom.
She said, where are you? I said, don't tell my dad,
but we're at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas. I'm on
(33:47):
race tonight. If I'm gonna quit, I don't want to
quit after last night. So we go. We practice. We qualify.
I've never been in that track before. I in the race.
We get ready to pull around to go to victory
lane to take pictures in victory lane, and guess who
showed up? My mom and dad. They came, drove all
(34:11):
the way up that got that just takes more than
one to get the stickers. We lost a lot, only
one one, but my dad, you know, of all the
hard lessons and the hard nosed person that he was,
he was like he went up a now I never
knew he was at and watched the race of the
(34:32):
stands and came down and even though it took him
a while to be okay, with the fact that we went,
I could tell he was happy. And then that ultimately
set me up, you know, to uh to move move forward,
and I hit rock bottom. I guess you could say
as far as the racing concerned, I was a humbling
(34:53):
beginning for me. I went all these caught races and
win a w K championship, getting a stock car and
can't hit myself in the ask with both hands. Yeah,
I learned a lot of lessons quick and but that
was kind of that kind of set me on, and
I went on to win a fair amount of racism
after that of it. That's the legendary stuff. I'm gonna
hit you with this one and then we're done. You're
(35:15):
tied to me already. No, they happened one more. Come on,
come on, let's touch it up one more time? Here, Yo?
You like? Do I like the way we do shows? Yeah?
I do too. I think we we couldn't be the
we could be the best we've ever seen this. I mean,
I got to tell you these are the best stories
I've heard. You guys with me on that. These gotta
(35:37):
be the best stories I didn't heard. Um? What does
Hermie Sidler want his legacy to be? What do you
want to be remembered by? When when you no longer
exist and somebody comes up to give an account of
who you were and what you represented in your life?
(35:58):
What do you what will have of you sitting somewhere
listening and proud of what it is they had to say, LaVar,
I've been so fortunate and lucky. I told you some
of my stories. Never would have dreamed that I have
been to places I've been, met the people I've met,
(36:18):
such as yourself. Um, but if there's one thing I'd
like for people to say when I'm no longer there
is that a couple of things that I was a
good friend to a lot of people. And I've always
been lucky, I said this before, always been fortunate to
have the basic necessities that I needed. I would like
(36:41):
for people to also, uh think that I put other
people's needs in a lot of cases before, Matt. That's
I really tried to try to be that way when
it all possible, and I'll continue to ye that way
and be that way. Um. But I feel like, and
(37:04):
I hope you feel the same way in certain regards.
We were put in positions in situations for a reason,
I believe. So it has to has to be it
has to be a reason why certain some of these
things that happen. It's gotta be us for this. And
I he met my middle daughter Haley earlier today. She's autistic,
(37:25):
straordinary for the so for the last twenty years, you know,
and I said, this is somebody, uh And I mean
this to be the positive I said. When she was
first diagnosed, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying
to get her to be like me. And I finally realized, LaVar,
when your light went off Hermi. You need to be
(37:47):
more like her man, you know. And so she is
happiest with simple, keep it simple, with the with the
just a basic and she wakes up happy every morning.
So if I if I feel like people will think
that I was a good friend to the ones that
I could be. And as long as I could take
care of my family, I've always tried to help other
(38:09):
people take care of that what they wants, your needs are,
and I think that's carried me a long way towards
where I am and I'll continue to do thats. We
get Harley to come say goodbye to the camera. I
don't know where she is, Haley, you want to come
say goodbye in the show? Goodbye? Come in one second,
(38:32):
we might get Hayley to come say goodbye on the show,
and that would be so amazing. She's a superstar, shooper
super star. You know. It comes to just say goodbye
on the show. This is Haley, come here, come here,
I suppos come say goodbye please and was closed and
(38:55):
it's okay, It's okay, that's okay. We tried. We tried
behalf on, behalf of Haley and the rest of the
Saddler family. Pay Somatic up on game presents. You've been
blessed with another legendary moment in a legendary conversation with
(39:17):
my man, Hermi Saddler. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast.
Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel. Make sure
you check us out. We're here every week. Hermi Sidler, everybody, NASCAR,
great businessman, man of the people. Until next time. He
(39:38):
appreciate you.
Presents Conversations would a leg around here and round here,
he ground round here, and we hustle for round here,
and we ground for a living. Welcome into another exciting
edition of Up on Game Presents Conversations with the Legend
(00:26):
this week, NASCAR legend Hermie Stadler. All right, now, Hermie,
I gotta tell you, I generally do NFL legends, but
now I've had the honor and the privilege of going
outside of the category of football and getting into the
(00:47):
category of race car driving and having your brother, Elliott
and yourself on the show. So you're making history for
my show. I appreciate that. UM, talk to me about
what Hermie has going on right now post racing career,
because you've got a lot going on. Yeah, thank you.
(01:10):
First of all, it's honor to be on with you,
uh LaVar and gotting to know you recently and really
appreciate what you are and how you go about your
business and UM in the crusade we're on kind of
together in a lot of ways. But yeah, I my
family business, or our family business is convenient store struck
stops in restaurants. I've been active in the family business
(01:33):
for twenty plus years. But retired from Fox TV as
an analyst for their NASCAR coverage at the end of
two thousand nineteen uh and kind of stepped into the
the role of of the family business. So um, so
we we look after that. And then outside of that,
my wife and I were sitting and our sports bar
(01:54):
in the four year Virginia it's called and it's a
beautiful place. Thank you so much. Our say in a
minute how this place was named. Um. But so outside
of that, my wife and I really my wife runs
the day to day operations of those show, the twenty
four hour restaurant at the truck stop, the ups store,
(02:14):
we've got an eye hop and Skippers and another convenience store.
So all told together we look after about three d employees,
which is a lot of a lot of responsibility. We're
responsible for those uh payroll every two weeks, but we
don't take lightly the responsibility of taking care of people
(02:35):
and their families and and that. So we're in the
convenience store, truck stop restaurant business. We're also we have
transport trucks that service our locations and we sell fuel
to other locations. We also, which is probably my favorite
part of our business, We handle our local farmers and loggers.
We deliver fuel to them in the logwoods or on
(02:57):
their farms and things like that. So we're really and
green into the community. Our family businesses over sixty years
old and now I have a lot of responsibility, which
I enjoy of trying to maintain and grow that business
when I can. But I've I did twenty five years
on the road. I know, you know what life on
(03:17):
the road was like. But having having three daughters and
my wife looking after all this, I've really enjoyed the
last couple of years being home more, being more involved,
not only in our business but also in the community.
Three lovely daughters. I've met two out of the three
so far super impressed, and that met the misses super impressed.
(03:38):
The good thing about my daughters they got my good looks,
personality and athletic ability. So what could possibly go wrong? Nothing,
It's up to them. They got all the two. Up
to the end, I've done. You have done your beautiful
Thank you. Thank you. Speaking of beautiful girls, you've done
(04:02):
your part. You like that, don't Yes? I do. Yeah,
you have built successful business. You you were successful in NASCAR.
What makes Hermi tick like? What what did you come
from that gives you the mindset to approach what you
(04:26):
do and how you do it the way that you
do it. I gotta tell you the truth. The biggest
thing that motivates motivates me every day is the ability
for me to help somebody else. I've been fortunate my
whole life. UH, my family, my dad, Um, I've always
(04:47):
had whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it, whenever I
needed it. Now. Dad taught us lessons along the way,
but I never had to go somewhere with no money
in my pocket. I never, and I don't take that
for granted. So my life mission, whether it was me
owning my race teams. When I was racing back in
(05:07):
the day, my biggest satisfaction probably should have been going
to victory lane. I probably would have raced longer, but
my biggest satisfaction was those twenty or thirty people that
worked on that team couldn't food on their table for
their families. I feel the same way about our businesses today.
I mentioned between the old company and between uh Angie's
(05:28):
uh and and and our businesses about three d employees.
I get great satisfaction in being a part of giving
them the opportunity to provide for their families in a
way that my family provided for me. So that's I mean.
I love the day to day business, I love the
interaction with my customers those kind of things, But I
(05:52):
my what really motivates me every day now is knowing
how I can positively and act so many families. Now,
interesting that you say that because pay Somatic brought us
together and we're on this as you mentioned earlier, this
cruiside together and really this this whole scenario of skill
(06:19):
games and and getting it you know past where these
small businesses can benefit from these skilled games has been
something that has brought us together. That's you helping the
common man, that you helping small businesses. Just talk to
me a little bit about where that passing came from
(06:41):
and how does that play into you know your sports background.
Well for those who may be watching or listening for
the first time that don't really I'll give you a
quick recap. But basically, in our convenience store struck stops
and restaurants since as long as I can remember, we've
operated these skill games that are by and large uh
(07:03):
produced and marketed by pay Somatic. The Commonwealth of Virginia
decided last July, or actually last April, they passed a
law that went into effect that as of this past
July one, these games were banned in all of our facilities.
So we decided we, meaning me on behalf of not
(07:23):
only my business, but small business operated all across the Commonwealth,
and Senator Bill Stanley, we decided to take on the fight.
We didn't think that was not not to mention constitutional,
We didn't think it was ethical that the government could
just come take away our business and give it to
somebody else. And even though you know I'm I'm compassionate
(07:47):
and I care about other people things of that nature,
I'm also very competitive and I don't believe that. Um.
So when they came and just tried to take this
away from me and my family and my Louise and
all that, I felt compelled to fight back. And so
you know, once you in the racing world, much like
(08:08):
on the football field, uh is every man full of self,
it's taking no prisoners, and so part of that um
because always somebody trying to take your spot, whether it's racing,
whether it's football, whether it's somebody. And we you know,
we met Jeff Jarrett I know you've got I've known
Jeff my whole life. You made him a couple of
weeks ago. Same thing. You probably played some football games
(08:31):
through injury and some other things because you had to,
because you know that next guy step up and do
a good job. He's waiting. So I felt compelled to
to stand up and fight not only on my behalf,
but on behalf of UM many many small business owners
and operators across the state. They didn't have the platform,
didn't have the resources. Oh there's my fight so far
(08:56):
to get us to this point. You know, it cost
me probably three core is of a million dollars to
get to that point. But we can't let them win
by them having this thought process that they can pick
winners and losers and dictate um everyday small business American life.
So I feel confident that as we move forward, we're
(09:19):
going to prevent at some point somebody from in the
government from trying to do the same thing again. So,
and in the world of sport and the world of sport,
what you just discussed and talked about, that competitive nature,
(09:40):
that that team team mentality. When I have conversations with legends,
I ultimately love to know about where the greatness resonates
from what the greatness means, how is it executed? So
where I'm at right now and this conversation is it's
(10:03):
all about branding. It's all about telling a story. It's
all about how it's framed and how people feel when
they hear about it. And you do an excellent job
of presenting how you feel and how that applies. If
I were to ask you in the world of sports
(10:23):
and athletes and fans are like that, listen and look
on how do you view branding and and and what
does how important is branding too? What you do and
what you've been able to build LaVar, I'll be the
first to admit again I keep correlating between racing and football. Okay,
(10:47):
on any when I raced full time in the mid
to late nineties, was I was in my I would
call hey day. I guess you could say there were
forty people on the track any given Sunday, it's probably
ten thousand that we're just as talented as I was.
(11:07):
But I didn't get that opportunity. Never got the opportunity,
whether it be because of right place, right time, or
not having the resources to kind of get your name
out there a little bit, whatever the case may be.
So I felt like I had an obligation once I
got out there too take advantage of that opportunity. When
it comes to branding, I haven't always done everything right
(11:32):
on or off the track, would be the first to admit,
but I've always tried to surround myself with the right people,
whether they be business associates, people in my social circles, uh,
and people I do business with. I don't do business
with people that I don't have good vibe. You know.
You go with your gut a lot of times a
(11:53):
lot of things. And how that's helped me today with
this situation I need against the kind of with every
suing the state that I live in, which is said
out of necessity, out of necessity because we never talked
about this. But so the first sponsor, the first major
sponsor I had in NASCAR, was the Virginia Tourism Corporation.
(12:17):
Our statewide tourism slogan is Virginia is for lovers. Okay,
So the first used to be not anymore, not anymore
for some lovers until you get get older, then you
just wish you Yeah, So Virginia is for what I
want to be a lover. That's what it is for me.
(12:40):
For some lovers, Virginia's for some lovers. Virginia is for
younger lovers, younger love? Are you making it difficult from
I wanted to make it real awkward it So when
I started, I was representing the state that I lived in,
the Virginia Tourism Corporation. We promoted beaches, the mountains, everything
(13:01):
in between the last twenty two years I had a
personal personal service contract with the Virginia Lottery. So I'm
representing basically the book ends of my career, representing the
state I live in. Then I gotta turn around, out
of necessity, ensued the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Governor, and
the Attorney General. I go back to what I was
(13:24):
saying about branding. One of the reasons why I think,
among among several, one of the reasons I think our
lawsuits this far has been successful is because other people
that have tried would Cenator Stanley and I are trying,
They've been able to pick apart the plaintiff, you know,
(13:45):
pick apart, find something wrong and chopped me down, okay,
and discredit. They hadn't been able to chop me down
because I represented the Commonwealth of Virginia for most of
my racing career. One of the entities that really against
(14:07):
us keeping our games, as the Virginia Lottery. Well guess what.
For twenty two years, not only was I our retailer
for the Virginia Lottery and all of my stores, but
I was also a spokesperson for the Virginia Lottery. So
I'm getting information and emails and things from both sides.
So when they try to throw all this trash and
(14:28):
me about what skill games are doing to the lottery,
I know it's trash because not only do I have
the businesses and the information to bag it up, but
I've got the stuff. In other words, a senator may
be on the Senate floor saying skill games are hurting
the lottery, they're taking money away from schools. But my
(14:50):
sales rep for the lottery that's dealing with my truck stop,
a convenience store, is saying the reason lottery sales were
down this month was because we just came off of
a billion dollar jackpot, you know, because a lot of
people just played the lottery. When you get ain't gonna
mess with it for five hundred million. So I was
(15:13):
getting all this stuff from, you know, so I could
discredit them in a way, but they really couldn't find
a way, and you haven't yet and they're still trying.
They haven't been able to find a way to personally
discredit uh me or my family or my business. And
(15:33):
so that's that's what's given us some you know, some
some legs with this, with this lawsuit. And I did
that through my entire I turned down some rides at
times in NASCAR. I turned down some sponsorship opportunities because
either I knew something that made me uncomfortable dealing with them,
(15:57):
or I knew how they had treated a friend of
mine maybe in the industry or whatever. Because I'm y'all
run across these people too. Sometimes people show up on
the scene in NASCAR and oh, we got all this money,
do all these great things, and three months later they're gone.
You know that. You you put them on TV and
talk about how great they are, and then the next
(16:18):
thing you know, they're gone. And I'll be honest with you,
if if everybody that owed me money in NASCAR paid me,
I'm sure again, I'm sure you've got these kind of
things like this year, ah skill games wouldn't matter as much.
But um, those are all life lessons that you learned,
and you know, so now I've got I've been able
(16:40):
to pick and choose my life, and especially later in
my career, I could pick and choose what I wanted
to do, who I wanted to do it with. Uh.
And as I've gotten older, and you mentioned my three daughters,
now I know when I make decisions or or make
public statements or take public stances about things. They're all
old enough. Now they're on so media. They see what
(17:01):
I say and what I do, and I don't think
that they'll let me know when they don't agree with you.
That that's important to me. You know, it's important for
me to set that that that role model for them
and take stands on things that I believe. Um, whether
it's appeasing to everybody or not. But I had a
tremendous platform in my racing days that carried over to
(17:26):
my business, that's carried over to my family, that is
now carried over to this I like your word crusade,
that that you and I are both on that. I
never would have dreamed that I would be sitting at
my restaurant in Emporia talking to LaVar Arrington about about
skill games and small business and I told you just
(17:46):
the other day and I mean it. So as we're
saying again, you come across as the kind of person
that I can tell by the passion you speak with
about this, that you see below the surface of what
some of these government legislators are doing to small businesses.
(18:07):
And that means, you know, they couldn't pay you enough
money to get on TV and talk about it if
it wasn't something that you really understood bought into. You know,
this is a bad precedent. You don't have probably don't
have any skill games personally anywhere and your businesses that
you're but you understand that if we let this go,
what are they gonna do next? And so you know
(18:29):
you have to fight and that's what we're doing. Okay,
I'm gonna tell you how we name Folk Show, do
you man? It's please tell me how you because we're
talking branding. So this building, this building we're in, my
brother and I built it. This first half of the
building was built for Starbucks. We built this building that
a fifteen year at least with Starbucks. Two years in
(18:52):
they call and say you know what, Starbucks didn't really
working any poor. We want to get out, so I
negotiate ate it up by out. We did all that,
no problems. So I decided I had this empty space
for a drive through. On the side, I said, wouldn't
it be great to have my own sports bar with
(19:13):
a draft for a drive through Whendow super super unique.
So it's all well and good for me because I
don't work here, but my wife cusses me five of
the said nights a week for thinking that we need
to be in the restaurant business. But anyway, when we
came time to decide we were gonna do it, I
was trying to come up with a name. So and
(19:36):
we've been here right at twelve years now, So I
go online and start looking for Hermie saddle of this,
Hermi saddle of that as it relates to the restaurant,
much like again, I'm sure with LaVar Rington. When I
went in, everything related or regarding my name, somebody had
already trade marked and just about every genre of everything
(19:57):
because they wanted me to have to call them and
pay for it. Yeah, and I just won't want to
do that. Although I did spend about thirty grand to
get Hermie Saddle dot com. Somebody had bought that and
it was a porn site. So that learned me. Saddler
adult entertainer. It was it won't pleasant. So we did
(20:17):
get that back. So anyway, and you switch that up,
you changed a little bit. Okay, you kept a little
X and there's I'd say it was at X and
single X and a half X and a half. If
you get older and you become less relevant, you gotta
spice things up a little bit to keep You gotta
(20:39):
have that half of in that. You gotta have the
half ex. Wow, So I'm learning something there you go.
I mean, you just blew my mind. So I'm trying
to think of a name. Everything Hermie Saddle was taken.
So I'm in Phoenix, Arizona, racing in Phoenix. We're racing
on Sunday, but I get done with practice on Saturday.
(21:01):
I'm leaving, getting ready to go play golf after I practice.
That date with Charles Barkley and a guy named Scott Williams.
They played college basketball at U n C and played
with all Right. So Scott's a good friend of man.
So I'm supposed to be there. I see in the Heights, California.
(21:24):
Interesting place I've heard, so I'm supposed to be there.
Let's just say I was supposed to play golf at
three o'clock time. I got to practicing and did all
my debriefs with my crew chief and stuff. I was
late leaving the race track, so I TechEd Scott and said,
I'm getting ready to lead a race track. I'm gonna
be both thirty minutes late. He just text me back
(21:47):
fo Show, that was his answer. So I said, damn,
that's pretty catchy. So I immediately called my trademark attorney.
I said, can you check to see if Folk Show
is available for restaurant services? He said just available. I said,
copyrighted trade market. He did it right then, and so
(22:10):
I called my life. I said, I just named the restaurant,
and people like, what what does it mean as it
relates to a restaurant? I said, not a damn FA.
But I liked it. It was it's kind of an
urban field. And I said, you can't go so fast
(22:31):
when you say it, though, you gotta like you gotta
break it up Folk Show. So Scott Williams um of
all the great three NBA titles and all that, but
his biggest claim to theme. I'm sure he said for
show dough and put that on there that for show works,
(22:57):
but I guarantee he uses dough act or showed out.
I'm asking that. Okay, all right, there we go, and
the other thing I'll give you out of that story
and we'll move on is don't take golf lessons from
Charles Barkley. Don't do that. Don't. You don't want don't
try to sit at the black jack table and play
black jackets. You don't want to do that either. Because
they used chip color. I've never seen those those chips
(23:21):
before in my life, and I got a few coins
in my pocket. I ain't never seen that color they were.
They were different colored chips. I coming from a small
town like Emporia, I've had many how did I get here?
Moments in my life. One of them was we were
in Vegas. We started off my brother and I and
Dale Jared, three racers went to the Bellagio two and
(23:46):
they went to this v I p room to play
black jack. Before I knew it, it was my brother
and I and Dale Jared, Mark Cuban, Roger Clemens, Vince
Von and Charles Barkley. So about two o'clock in the morning,
when I think it's time to wind down, they're winding up.
(24:07):
So we ended up at a after our's establishment. But
we're riding in Vegas and just caught this big limo,
me and my brother from Empooria, Virginia. You've seen it
after our multiples. I'm gonna say both as how as
you can get whatever the maximum allowable by law. Wow.
(24:33):
So but we're riding in this limo through Vegas and
it's me and my brother from Empori at Dale Jared.
I think Clint Boy was with us, but UM Mark Cuban,
Roger Clemens, Vince Vaughan. That's when the wedding crashes had
just come out, Mark Cuban and UM Dennis Haskins. He
was Mr Building to say about the belding. Mr Building
(24:56):
had a white handkerchief and all he did all night
was pet Charles's head down for the sweat rolling down,
you know, just kept him kept him up, kept kept
him draft. But I was one of my elliott What
the hell are we do? How did we getting up here?
Because when we start having um, when we started pulling
(25:19):
up the cards, we were short short. But the other
part of that story. So sometime in the middle of
the night, we went to Jet night Club at Bellagio,
and I'm with all these heavy hitters, billionaires, right. I
turned to round and look bout for like in the morning,
(25:40):
the little lady with the little bunny rabbit. So you
don't bring me to the bill all, my my brother
and everybody. L where is everybody? They're not going on
the next stop. They gave me the bill and it's
happened to be Holly Madison's birthday party that night. So,
Holly Madison, every time you ordered the I Love Chris Style,
(26:01):
she brought it down and off a zip line. So
it was like two thousand dollars every time she bought it.
And we didn't even break the top on none of them.
But every time the little girl came by and said,
you need another bottle? What he saying? Sure? So this
guy a young lady. So four o'clock in the morning,
Vegas time is seven o'clock in the morning, four your time.
(26:24):
Gives me a bar tab for about seventeen thousand dollars.
Oh no, So I'm pulling out my credit card like
and I'm not even worried about anything else. I'm not
even worried about the seventeen thousand dollars. I'm worried about
this bank. The fraud alert's gonna go off. They're gonna
call My wife was back at home in Virginia at
(26:47):
seven o'clock in the morning, and she's gonna have a
list of questions for me. And that's exactly what happened.
So the lady comes over there. First of all, I'd
even had no idea what my that so on my
credit card? Yeah, and even if it were you were,
I'm thinking, who do I know? It the bank that
(27:07):
I can call and get a credit limit increase. It
saved my clock in the morning. Anyway, So my wife
is right around the corner of the hope she's not listening.
She called me. Her first question, of course, was what
the w T are you doing in save mclock? W
Maybe it's only four o' flock in right, seven and
(27:27):
plus there's no clocks in Vegas. I thought it was
nine o'clock. Adn't night, you know, And we had a
terrible misunderstanding. When he came down to pay the bill,
I was only one left, you know. I couldn't walk
it on the bill. Everybody else they're gone. They're gone
(27:48):
now and full disclosure. They all made it right. But
I had to uh not only endure um. That was
a stressful moment. And look, and seventeen grand was new tip.
So I had to add the tip fourteen seventeen is
(28:17):
you gotta go high, you gotta go hide. Do you
want to go back if you want to, if you
want to booth by the DJ table next time. So
like four so you were now up to North North
for a night out. We didn't even drink the christ
This has nothing to do with us having a legends
conversation about the way. No, this is a legends conversation.
(28:40):
By the way, I was not a not a legends.
I was not a legend with my wife at that time. No,
you were. I was an idiot. You were that too,
But most times legends are idiots. You know what I
told her that you can try this with your wife
sometime when she brings back stuff that you may or
may not have done. And back in the day, all
(29:01):
you have to say is it was the thing to
do at the time. You know what. Can I add
something to that too, It was the right thing to
do right at the time. How about that I felt obligated.
I mean, you feel better. I didn't. I didn't make
the decision to go to those places. And I couldn't
(29:22):
leave my brother with all those strangers because those strangers
left jaws. People we didn't brother, like Mark Cuban, these
people could be shady. Well they left out with the
tab at broke one in the bunks men broke wanted
the bunk. I couldn't get out of there. That's a legend.
That might be the legend. I'm trying to be on
(29:45):
the show, but that might be the most legendary conversation.
That might be the most legendary story I've heard on
this show. But you need to if you ever get
a chance to go out with Mark and Charles and No,
I don't want to do that. I don't. I don't
want to sudding up with him straight but fullhand. Because
you don't, you're mess gonna come up short. I don't.
I don't want to do that. But I'll tell you
(30:07):
what fun man another pay so much money for. Look,
I didn't drink. Tell me your best? Is that your best?
I don't. That's tell me your best NASCAR memory? Well,
nothing replaces your first win and I'll tell you a
(30:28):
little story about my first win, and I'm not I'm
not talking about big time NASCAR win, but I'll tell
you about my first NASCAR Weekly Racing Series win, first
late model stock car win. So I had won the
World Caughting Championship, finally decided to move up in the
late models, running in what we call the mid Atlantic
region ram Virginia, North Carolina tracks around here I had run.
(30:51):
I wasn't running very well, and my dad is super
duper competitive, and my dad always had to mind set off.
You got everything you need. I don't want any excuses,
but I had to run through a spell of races.
Had never one yet. I'm familiar. By the way. I
think I heard that during this interview with your brother
and my daughter. Yeah. So I had raised on Faturday
(31:15):
night right over in Richmond, Virginia, south Side Speedway, ray
in terrible. My dad even came to the race track
that night and we had saddle of chevallet the car
dealership advertised on the car. He was over there trying
to pull off the car. He's if you ain't gonna
run new better this, you ain't gonna take My name
(31:36):
is my name too. But it didn't matter. No, I
gave you that name. So he's over. They're trying to
pull off the sticks. That is hilarious. So he told
me when the race is over, says that it was
not hilarious, Laval, but that's Tyn. Though your daddy was
trying to pull your name off, that's pretty good. When
we loaded the car that night, he told me he's
(31:58):
a fall as I'm concerned. You're done sez. So I
came home on Friday night, so what're we gonna do? Now?
Me and my guys got back to the shop like
at two o'clock in the morning. So kind of like
most of the bad racing days I had my whole career,
took me about twenty four hours morning period. MO morning,
(32:21):
I don't want to talk to nobody, and then I
then I'm then I come back. What's next? So my
guy we got back to the shop like two am.
After my dad telling me, uh, basically an all intensive purposes,
my sponsor pulled the plug on me. So we get
back to the shop Saturday morning, three o'clock in the morning,
(32:42):
and my guys like, what we gonna do? Who're we
gonna do? Finally, I said I'll tell you what we're
gonna do. We're gonna go through this car and set
it up again, put it on the scales, and we're
going tomorrow night to my Nassa's, Virginia to Old Dominion
Speedway to race. They see we are there, we are.
So we didn't really have any money to buy tires,
(33:03):
so we all, including my crew guys, we threw in
enough money to go to buy the tires for the
next night. I was embarrassed to tell my dad that
I was gonna racing next night because he had told
me I was done, so I didn't call my dad.
I called my mom. I didn't call her until I
(33:25):
was already there. We left like it eight o'clock in
the morning. We worked all night, got to call back,
ready left and went north to Manassa's, Virginia. So we've
been practicing. So I called my mom back, phones back
and in you to look back. I called my mom.
She said, where are you? I said, don't tell my dad,
but we're at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas. I'm on
(33:47):
race tonight. If I'm gonna quit, I don't want to
quit after last night. So we go. We practice. We qualify.
I've never been in that track before. I in the race.
We get ready to pull around to go to victory
lane to take pictures in victory lane, and guess who
showed up? My mom and dad. They came, drove all
(34:11):
the way up that got that just takes more than
one to get the stickers. We lost a lot, only
one one, but my dad, you know, of all the
hard lessons and the hard nosed person that he was,
he was like he went up a now I never
knew he was at and watched the race of the
(34:32):
stands and came down and even though it took him
a while to be okay, with the fact that we went,
I could tell he was happy. And then that ultimately
set me up, you know, to uh to move move forward,
and I hit rock bottom. I guess you could say
as far as the racing concerned, I was a humbling
(34:53):
beginning for me. I went all these caught races and
win a w K championship, getting a stock car and
can't hit myself in the ask with both hands. Yeah,
I learned a lot of lessons quick and but that
was kind of that kind of set me on, and
I went on to win a fair amount of racism
after that of it. That's the legendary stuff. I'm gonna
hit you with this one and then we're done. You're
(35:15):
tied to me already. No, they happened one more. Come on,
come on, let's touch it up one more time? Here, Yo?
You like? Do I like the way we do shows? Yeah?
I do too. I think we we couldn't be the
we could be the best we've ever seen this. I mean,
I got to tell you these are the best stories
I've heard. You guys with me on that. These gotta
(35:37):
be the best stories I didn't heard. Um? What does
Hermie Sidler want his legacy to be? What do you
want to be remembered by? When when you no longer
exist and somebody comes up to give an account of
who you were and what you represented in your life?
(35:58):
What do you what will have of you sitting somewhere
listening and proud of what it is they had to say, LaVar,
I've been so fortunate and lucky. I told you some
of my stories. Never would have dreamed that I have
been to places I've been, met the people I've met,
(36:18):
such as yourself. Um, but if there's one thing I'd
like for people to say when I'm no longer there
is that a couple of things that I was a
good friend to a lot of people. And I've always
been lucky, I said this before, always been fortunate to
have the basic necessities that I needed. I would like
(36:41):
for people to also, uh think that I put other
people's needs in a lot of cases before, Matt. That's
I really tried to try to be that way when
it all possible, and I'll continue to ye that way
and be that way. Um. But I feel like, and
(37:04):
I hope you feel the same way in certain regards.
We were put in positions in situations for a reason,
I believe. So it has to has to be it
has to be a reason why certain some of these
things that happen. It's gotta be us for this. And
I he met my middle daughter Haley earlier today. She's autistic,
(37:25):
straordinary for the so for the last twenty years, you know,
and I said, this is somebody, uh And I mean
this to be the positive I said. When she was
first diagnosed, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying
to get her to be like me. And I finally realized, LaVar,
when your light went off Hermi. You need to be
(37:47):
more like her man, you know. And so she is
happiest with simple, keep it simple, with the with the
just a basic and she wakes up happy every morning.
So if I if I feel like people will think
that I was a good friend to the ones that
I could be. And as long as I could take
care of my family, I've always tried to help other
(38:09):
people take care of that what they wants, your needs are,
and I think that's carried me a long way towards
where I am and I'll continue to do thats. We
get Harley to come say goodbye to the camera. I
don't know where she is, Haley, you want to come
say goodbye in the show? Goodbye? Come in one second,
(38:32):
we might get Hayley to come say goodbye on the show,
and that would be so amazing. She's a superstar, shooper
super star. You know. It comes to just say goodbye
on the show. This is Haley, come here, come here,
I suppos come say goodbye please and was closed and
(38:55):
it's okay, It's okay, that's okay. We tried. We tried
behalf on, behalf of Haley and the rest of the
Saddler family. Pay Somatic up on game presents. You've been
blessed with another legendary moment in a legendary conversation with
(39:17):
my man, Hermi Saddler. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast.
Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel. Make sure
you check us out. We're here every week. Hermi Sidler, everybody, NASCAR,
great businessman, man of the people. Until next time. He
(39:38):
appreciate you.
Host
LaVar Arrington
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