The Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America stops in Omaha this weekend

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Henery Zucker back with you here NewsRadio eleven ten. Kfab always appreciate you

(00:03):
being a part of the show,and we always like talking about some of
the cool things that are happening inand around Omaha. And one thing that
is going to be very unique isNASCAR legend, both as a driver and
as an analyst. Kyle Petty isgoing to be a riding through as part
of his annual ride across America.And Kyle Petty, we are honored to
have him on the phone line rightnow. And Kyle, thanks so much

(00:25):
for being on the show today.Thanks for having me man. I really
appreciate you. Guys. We're lookingforward to coming to Omaha. Well,
I can tell you why it's agreat time to have some good news about
this stuff, because we got thebig storms that came through this past weekend.
But this ride is not a newthing for you. In fact,
I think you're not going close tothirty years of doing an annual ride.
Here. Tell me about how theride got started. So the raid got

(00:46):
started because myself and hey Gan anda few other guys that throw brace cards
at the time wanted to ride motorcyclesfrom California to North Carolina. We told
everybody we'd do it for charity,and they said, greatest idea we've ever
heard in our life. And that'swhat we've been doing for twenty eight years.
We should be at twenty nine.COVID got in our way a year
or so so, but it's justbeen a phenomenal trip. We sought the

(01:07):
children's hospitals all across the country andtwo thousand my oldest son Adam was killed
in a racing accident New Hampshire.We opened up a camp for children with
serious illnesses and chronic life threatening illnessesin North Carolina called Victory Junction. We've
seen over one hundred and twenty fivethousand kids have come through camp or we've
touched their lives to the hospital totallyfree of charge. And that's what we

(01:29):
do. We raise money with thecal Pitty Charity Ride to send kids to
camp this. I'm a big campermyself, so first of all, it
really touches me that this is somethingthat you guys do. But I also
should mention Sunday, May fifth,You're gonna have an event at the Omaha
Marriott four pm on May fifth,So that's when Kyle Petty is coming through

(01:51):
Omaha with this ride and the rideacross America is such a novel idea.
But you guys have this charity aspectto it. Do you kind of have
an idea of how much money yougenerally are able to get per ride and
how that has helped how many people? Or so that's a good question,
don't you know what? We getas much as we can. That's the

(02:13):
best thing to tell you. Wehave raised almost just a little over twenty
one million dollars I guess in theprevious twenty eight years. And we never
set a limit on ourselves. Wejust say we're going to go raise as
much, do as much as wecan. I tell people all the time,
if you give us a pig,we'll either take it back to camp
and let the kids pet it,or we'll make barbecue out of it and
feed them. One way or another. We'll use any donation that anybody gives

(02:34):
us. It's an incredible over onehundred and twenty five thousand camp experiences for
children who are in need or Speakingto Kyle Petty as a NASCAR legend,
both as a driver and as ananalyst, how do you decide the route
every year? Because you guys,do you do such a great job of
making sure that you kind of goto different regions here and different cities and
have the opportunity not just for peopleto get to meet a legend like yourself,

(02:57):
but also to kind of raise awarenessfor this amazing seeing charity that you
guys have here with Victory Junction.So here's how we do it. Kind
Of I tell people all the time, we just throw darts at an atlas,
that's it. But really we kindof figure out our starting point where
we think we want to start.And then this year we knew we wanted
to end the camp because it's thetwentieth anniversary at camp, and then we

(03:20):
just connected the docks and we dohow to go places we've never been before.
We start looking around to see wherewe've had campers from. We've had
campers from Omaha, We've had campersfrom North Platte, We've had campers from
Iowa. So we figured that wasa good let's go through their area.
Let's bring the ride to their areato show them what the riot's all about
too. So we'll have campers that'llcome out to kids that have been the
camp that'll come out to see usat the Marriotte there, So that's always

(03:44):
a cool part of how we chooseour route to try to go back and
visit with some of these campers whohave been there before, and that makes
a ton of sense, especially consideringhow outdoorsy this region is. Kyle Betty,
your name's pretty famous, not justyours, but your family's name.
And I'm sure we're going to beseeing plenty of other celebrities that want to
be a part of this annual ride. Who are some of the names that

(04:05):
people can expect if they come outand hang out with you guys during this
ride. So my dad's with us, Richard Petty, and then we've got
Kenny Wallace, who raceist through outthe Midwest there. He and Kenny Strader,
they run dirt races everywhere. They'veprobably been to your Aream million time.
Mike Wallace, Kenny's brother, MaxPappas, who ran Formula one and

(04:25):
who's run some indy stuff. We'vegot David Reagan who's won at Daytona a
couple of times. And then we'vegot Religiwood who was on Top Gear America
and did the Hot Wheel Show lastyear on NBC. And then Rick Allen
who's from Nebraska and went to schoolat the University of Nebraska. He's the
voice of NASCAR on NBC and thenthe Great herschel Walker Housman Trophy Winter NFL

(04:49):
Star Hall of Famer. He'll beriding with us. So there's a few
celebrities. So that's why we inviteeverybody out for the Marry Out four o'clock.
Come out see us, get someautographs, talk some football, talk
some race and talk whatever you wantto. We'll be hanging out. I
love that and that, as Kylementioned, Omaha area Sunday, May the
fifth, four o'clock for that freefor the public event with all these amazing

(05:11):
motorcycles and everything. Hey, youcan't talk to a guy who likes motorcycles
without talking about the motorcycle that he'sriding right now. What's under you these
days? Kyle? So this year, this year, so I've got a
two thousand and seventeen or eighteen eighteenroad Guide. This year, I talked
to dealership and the loan and mea brand new twenty twenty four road Clide.

(05:32):
So I am riding this bike forthe first time, and I am
pumped about it because it does everythingbut ride it sales. That's how good
these harleys have gotten in the lastfew years. So I'm looking forward to
riding this new Harley across country.But I miss my Owen riding out.
I have to say that riding outthe South Dakota, I missed my Owen.
So I can't wait you to gethome to see it. But I'm
gonna enjoy this one. We're speakingwith. Kyle Petty is right across America,

(05:55):
which is going to help Victory Junctionhelping children who have illnesses get camping
experiences. They're going to be comingthrough Omaha. That's not the only place
through here obviously, to get toand from Omaha. There's all sorts of
other great places that they're going tobe stopping nearby. Mentioned North Platte,
Nebraska is another stop they'll go bedriving through, riding through Iowa, and
stopping at Bettendor for day four aswell on their way to Indianapolis. So

(06:17):
with this happening, I guess forpeople who are not quite familiar with the
experiences, the camp experience that you'retalking about with Victory Junction, how does
one who might be interested in learningmore about Victory Junction, how would they
get in touch there. If theyhave a child or they have a family
that they have in mind that wouldlove to have that kind of experience.

(06:38):
Thank you for that. Thank you. Please yes to go to Victory Junction
dot org. Victory Junction dot org. We are part of Paul Newman's Serious
Fun group of camps. There's sevenor eight camps in the United States,
Boggy Creek and Florida. Painted Turtlehis original hole in the wall gag group
of camps. You see. Hesells salad, dressing and popcorn to support

(06:59):
his camps. We do motorcycle rideevery year to support our camp. But
we're part of that group. It'sreally a hospital disguised as a camp.
We see blood disorders, certain formsof cancer, as a dabet, these
craniofacial, juvenile rheumatory arts. Right, it's so many disease groups that we
see. If you know a childit can benefit to this camp from this
camp, go to Vicky Junction dotorg. Please get in touch with us,

(07:21):
We'll send the information, we'll getthem there. It's totally free of
charge to all parents, to allkids that come. We want to see
more kids. We can never seeenough kids, so please if you're listening
and you know of a child,please get in touch with us. It's
an amazing experience to have the abilitywith children like this, to have them
enjoy a camping experience. Kyle Petty, being a longtime NASCAR driver, you've

(07:45):
been around the sport. I mean, this is what you and your family
are known for, a first familyof racing in a lot of ways.
I want to ask a NASCAR relatedquestion for I get you out of here,
because I'm such a big fan.I watched the Atlanta race earlier this
year, which was with three widefinish, which is at the most exciting
thing I've seen in sports in thelast you know, two or three years
for sure. And then I've seensome races that some people, like the

(08:07):
Talladega race, were until the lastlap when everybody's kind of jockeying. Everybody
says they're just kind of running incircles. What's the best way that you
could describe kind of where the sport'sat right now is they kind of go
through a new generation of drivers anda new generation of race car. Yeah.
So I think, you know,I think the sport's in a great
place. I think this car hasallowed us to go to the LA Coliseum.
It's allowed us to go to thestreets of Chicago. We couldn't do

(08:28):
that with the old cars. Soit's opened up some doors. At the
same time, it's partially closed somedoors. It's changed short track racing forts
it's a different form of racing now. Speed rave racing is different. You
see these guys at Daytona and Talladeganow so concerned with fuel mileage because hey,
it's that stupid saying to finish first. First you have to finish,
which means you got to get there, dude, you got to get to

(08:50):
the end of the race. Andthat's what these guys are trying to do
is get to the end of therace. The only way to change that
is let's just run a ten lapwinner, take on and go to the
house, you know. I mean, that's the only way to eliminate that
part of it. So I thinkright now we're just in a transitions phase
where we're trying to figure out whatthis car, the ripple effect on,
how this car has changed the sport, and they'll get to it. But

(09:13):
man, it's been a great year. Denny's won three races, William Byron's
won three races. We've run elevenraces. They've won over half the races.
Nobody's really raised their hand though,and said I'm going to be the
champion this year. It's still upfor grabs and I think it's eleven races
end of the season. That saysa lot about the sport. Well,
I just wanted to finish up withthat. You mentioned the championships. It's
kind of a crapshoot for the championas well. You'd love to win to

(09:33):
get into the playoffs, but thenyou have to, you know, win
in the playoffs and then win thatlast race of the season to become the
champion. Your dad is a seventime champion, Dale Earnhard a seven time
champion, Jimmy Johnson's seven time champion, and a lot of these guys just
like, well, these championships now, aren't you know the way that these
guys won them now, you reallyhave to be right at the right time.

(09:54):
What do you think about the waythat NASCAR has adjusted for the times
with the playoff system versus the waythat we used to do with a season
long points champion. Yeah, youknow what we could You don't have a
long enough radio should argue this point, and I would say that because because
of this, Because of this,it is. It is just a sport
now, like the NC Double Atournament. You make the tournament and you

(10:18):
get on a streak, you cango to the final four, you can
win the thing. You don't haveto be the greatest team in basketball to
win the NC Double A Tournament anymore. Sorry, that's just the way it
is. And the talent pool isso deep in college basketball it fascinates me.
And that's the way racing is.The talent pool is so deep in
cup racing right now. Is thatyou can get a driver that gets hot

(10:39):
the first part of the year,wins five or six races, and then
goes cold, and then you geta driver that's hot the second part of
the year. That's your championship contender. That's the guy who could be the
guy. And that's why it's justchanged. It's just like other forms of
playoffs where you play a best ofseven series, a team gets hot,
they knock you out. I don'tcare what you're your major league record is.

(11:01):
I don't care how many races aregames you won that year. You
get knocked out of the playoffs.We didn't used to have that. Our
system used to be you had toput an entire season together. Now you
have to put ten races together,and that's what everybody focuses on. They
run the first twenty six races toget to that last ten race part of
the season, and then they focuson those last ten races. And that's

(11:22):
why it's a tale of almost twoseasons when you look at it now.
And that doesn't mean that Ern Hartor Richard Petty or Jeff Gordon or any
of those guys could have won wonchampionships in this series. But I like
to think the greatest of all time, meaning those guys which still rise to
the top and win their share.There's no doubt about that. Kyle Petty's
charity Right Across America's stopping in Omahaat the Omaha Areat Sunday, May fifth,

(11:46):
four pm. It's a free event. Come check it out, all
the motorcycles, all the celebrities.Kyle, thanks so much for stopping by,
giving us a info, talking alittle NASCAR with me and can't wait
to see on May fifth. Thankyou man, thanks for having me.
I appreciate it. See there