#10 - Chris Wheeler

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to this skinny with Rico Elmore, presented by
fat Heads I wear. We are blessed to have a
media darling on the show today. I'm Adam Ritz. This

(00:24):
is the skinny with Rico Elmore. Hi, Rico, how are you?
This skinny brought to you by fat Heads with more
information at fat heads dot com with with a Z
and uh without further ado. The major media market talent
that we have in our studio today. Our guest is

(00:45):
Chris Wheeler, who is uh. You know, we'll get to
your racing career in a second, but you were just
bragging off Mike about the podcasting and broadcast shows that
you have hosted in your past. So this is not
news or new to you to be in front of
a microphone. This is this is all old old hat,
old hat right here. You know, you know for me,

(01:07):
you see, you see how it works here is that
it is new because I'm having to answer questions. Answering
questions is a lot harder than asking them than hosting
the show, because you can host and ask anybody anything
and if they don't like it, you just hit a
little button next to you. But when you're my I
can't reach the button. You cannot reach the button. It's
on this side of the table. The button is off limits.

(01:30):
So Rico, tell us about Chris, how you metam? What's
going on? You know? So through another one of our
racing ventures. I'm trying to think. I was trying to
think before we got started, while we were in the
green room, which is uh, I think that's the color
of my office. But anyhow, uh, you know, before before
we got started, I was set here thinking about you know, Chris.

(01:53):
Chris and his family have been involved in racing in
some form or fashion for soveral years. And uh, we
we were across the street I think originally from you
know where you guys were building carting suits and stuff.
I think that was that was the start of it.
And you know, they were doing some sublimated cruise shirts

(02:16):
for us and you know one of those things. Uh.
And and Chris and I decided we would put up
with each other. So we've been friends since how many
years has that been? I don't know when was when
did that Start's got to be eight years ago. Yeah,
it's it's getting close to the turned. Yeah, and so

(02:37):
and you were just you were still launching the program. Yeah,
and we're doing decals and and everything like that. So,
and that was a long time ago, Brownsburg, South Point Circle, Yeah,
south Point the life was good and rent was high. Yeah. Yeah,
I don't know about the good part, but yes, the
rent high part. Yes, you were very clear on that.
So you just turned thirty? Did you uh run two businesses?

(03:01):
You're the director of motorsports Bell Racing USA. You're an
IndyCar spotter. You are uh CEO and president of Taylor
Motor Sports Consulting. No, I'm not gonna lie. I I
never thought i'd see thirty. So I did everything I
could for thirty years to get as much experience and everything,
and now we're just in overtime. So it's all bonus

(03:22):
from here on exactly. I mean, from this pointing forward,
whatever happens happens, and I'm cool with it. You were
at the Chris Farley Plan. Yeah, is that what it was?
You know. I feel like I've let myself down. I
feel like I didn't try it hard enough because I
made it to thirty. I've got this thing to the
floor and it's still not blown up. Yeah. I mean
I've seen I've seen some of the best put it
in the fence around the cushion. But I've tried, I've tried,

(03:42):
and there's there's nights when I've left rookies ever on
the west side that I thought for sure there's no recovery.
But you rebuilt and we got back on the puddle
the next day. Isn't that amazing how resilient the body
is and recoverable. It was a lot easier back then too.
That's right, that's right. So did you get into spotting? What? What?
What started at? How did it all go? Um? It's

(04:03):
it's kind of crazy. So my dad worked for Ganassi
when they made the transition from champ Car to I R.
L Um and they said, hey, wait spotters in this series, packy,
why don't you come do it? Was my dad and
he said, sure, I'll do it. So I think it
was oh three. I was a sophomorn in high school
and he went and he was with Ganassis, who got
what Scott Dixon. They went out and won the title.

(04:26):
They ended up together winning in any five two championships
I think in nineteen or twenty races, something along those lines.
And that was from oh three to to oh eight
when Dixon got his five hundred title. Um, but about
that time I'd got gotten out of high school. UM
finished all that up in oh five and then oh six,
the late Chris Griffiths, who was the team manager for

(04:46):
Sam Schmidts and Delights program. UM, he was at my
parents um place picking up decals because that's one of
their accounts. And he goes, hey, man, you know your
dad does this. Why don't you come out and do
a test for me at the speedway. We need an
extra spotter. So I said, sure, man, I don't go
do it. And my dad jumped in me. He was like, Hi,
you'll you can't do this, etcetera. You know. So we
went out there and he goes, he took a good job,

(05:07):
that you want to come do the race. I'm like sure, Um,
he goes, actually we need somebody else. Also for Indy
car for the five D it was Aerton Dare I
think in the eighty eight motors car and I had
J Howard who had known from krding Um driving the
Indie Lights car and typical deal. It comes down. It's
like storybook perfect. There's two car breakaway at the Freedom
one hundred. It's Wade Cunningham Jay Howard, my dad spotting

(05:30):
for Woid Cunningham. So who we are in the Appas
Motor Speedway Freedom one hundred, my first race ever spotting
and I'm literally leaning on my own man. Cunning Hams
gearbox keeps popping out of gear, you could see it.
And I We're sitting there telling JA, don't go, don't go,
don't go, just run second till coming off of flour
We'll take him there, don't go. He gets a run
on the last lab coming off too, goes. I'm you know,

(05:50):
he goes for it, makes the pass, Wade, pass him back,
beat him to the line. Got it. Just lost race
in the Applas Motor Speedway. My first time ever calling
a race and who do I have to lose? It?
To my dad, who all these years later still reminds
me that he's been a victory lane there for the
four times and I have got um and to look

(06:12):
forward to there. Yeah he can when he tells me
all time, I'm one of these days I will have
four championship brings from the AM and I'm like, yeah,
but they say your name, not mine, don't look at
this side, just look at the wheeler side of it.
But I'm not gonna lie. You know, last year I've
been blessed with opportunity to work with a lot of

(06:32):
great people. UM. From there it turned into del Coin
full time. The next year Mitch Davis brought me in
UM and so it was a coin and Bruners and Kara,
and then from their coin, I think we had Justin Wilson,
who I got to work with a couple of different places,
including overall twenty four hour Daytona victory with Mike Shane,
Crazy UM, Alex Lloyd, James, Jake's kids like that that

(06:54):
we're all really good talent to kids, UM, Justin again
within the car and then UM after after we lost
Dan Weldon, who my dad was spotting for. At the time,
I was just kind of over it. I don't want
to do it anymore, and so we got UM. I

(07:14):
got out of it and actually gave my dad my
job because obviously his boss was deceased, so he needed
a gig. I gave him the coin job, which was
justin him. And then you know, I joked, I'd gone
through five or six years of del coin racing on
ovals where we really did struggle a lot, and then
they go off in a second race of Justin they
go win in Texas, you know, and it's my dad's

(07:36):
just got this luck on his side. So finally the
next year, which has been twenty so I was thirteen
now I guess yeah, And so UM, I did the
five hundred with Justin Wilson, made a great run, we
got the fifth, UM and on the other end of
the radio and turn three was Jeff Troyer, who's another
Indie locals who actually his works with me at Bell Racing. UM.

(07:59):
Jeff was actually gonna take over the program for the
year after Indy, but we both did Indie together. We
came from eight I think during a green flag run
all the way through like half lap down to five
highest finishing Honda and UM we had a game plant
on the restart and say, hey, man, if we time
this right, we we set him up. Don't raise him
into one, Lift into one if you're clear, If I
clear you enough, run off of two, get the run

(08:21):
down the back straight. Well let's start getting these guys.
We've got like four to go here, so you know,
perfect timing, green flag, our bud plus five, give it
up and let's chase him down the back straight. Away
he nails it. Says, maybe like a run from God
to turn number two and you go from the highest
to highs, like all right, we're gonna do this, We're
gonna go in the two yellows out it's over, Dario's

(08:42):
in the wall, and we never got a shot to
run to the check. And so I mean that we
went through that kind of stuff and I was done,
like I didn't really have a gig, hadn't really pursued it.
Um A good friend, Bob Mays from del Corn Racing, said, hey,
board is driving for j Pinsky. He didn't like his
spotters an Indian. He needs somebody and I'm trying to
look out for you. Would you like to go do it?

(09:02):
And I said, man, he's French, you know. I'm like,
I don't want to go work with this guy. I
mean being Rogers, being Roger's son, who's who still owns
a program in the formerly pro Uh. Yeah, it's f
I is formally overseas and so I'm like, whatever, I'll
do it. I'm just gonna, you know, so I call

(09:24):
talk to the people. I was like, this is what
I want, this is what I want to get paid.
This is my terms. They said, okay. So I go
to Texas the next week and I'm like, hey, man,
what do you want to hear? I didn't. I didn't
look a look, you know, with my poor French accent.
That actually that we run around and um it comes

(09:44):
from from and so um we're running around. Something happens
and I go into like I fail safe to my
normal spotting stuff. After the session, he's like, hey, what
was that? And I'm like, great, already got fired and
he's like, no, I like to give me more. Who
I'm still with boord A. This is now our fourth
season together. We're going vacation together. I'm getting buryed, knocked ober.

(10:06):
He's standing in my wedding. I love the guy to death,
you know. So it's it's really cool, and you know,
people say, you know, so what are you gonna do next? Like,
you know, sebs, I think it's thirty six now and
thirty seven I was like, what you can do when
he's done? I'm like, I'm done. Like to have that
relationship and to have the trust levels that you have
to have to do what we do on the Spider Stand,
to do it the way that we do it. I

(10:27):
don't want to restart. Yeah, I just it's too much work.
I mean you get imagine to twenty you know, to
twenty one, whatever it takes that any of that's different deal.
But uh, you know to twenty and you've got somebody
telling you Claire Claire high car high Carlo. I mean
they're your eyes. I mean you know and that you know,

(10:48):
whatever circuit at the speedway at the Indianapolis for speedway,
you know how many how many of you got there?
How many spots at the speedway we have to one
and turn one, one and turn three. But to get
an idea for the thou pisans of viewers that are
listening to this right now, go to a dartboard, close
your eyes and throw two darts. Go measure the distance

(11:08):
between the two. And I'm standing about a half a
mile away. At some racetracks sometimes only have binoculars. And
when I say clear, it's about the distance between the
two darts that you see on your wall. And when
I stay clear, he turns. So it's not like so
it's not like seb is only trusting me with his life.
But it's the other twenty two people that are on

(11:29):
the racetrack and the thousands of people that are sitting
in the bleachers and the whole team that relies on
that team to you know, as an income as alive,
you know, and the deal if I continue to make
mistakes on the radio and we keep hitting the fence
and we keep crashing those guys that are already barely
seeing their families because they're just being ran ragged by
this frise in any car series schedule. Now they're working

(11:50):
even double hours. Now, they're not leaving the shop on
their home for two days because they're rebuilding another race car.
Because I messed up, and I can I know you
told me not to do this, but knock on wood,
I can honestly tell you in like, it's about nine years.
I think it's been nine eight whatever years that I've
been spotting. A car that I've spotted with has been
in a has had contact with the wall and result

(12:13):
to contact with another car. I've had a few that
I have just spun out on their own, but as
far as getting involved in another car, it's only happened
maybe four times. It's pretty good. Yeah. So and at
that speed, uh, language is at a prime real estate.
So you don't talk a lot. You can't say a
five second sentence. You need to say, like a one word, it's. It's, it's, it's, it's.

(12:37):
You know, for the older audience, run down out in
the playing field and listen to the DJ once, close
your eyes and listen to the DJ. And when when
he's introducing the next talent, and that's exactly what it's like.
You know, it's you got one plus five four three
two outside bumper clear. That's it. That's how you go.
That's what you're saying from a guy coming from five
car links back with a run. So it's you know,

(12:59):
you kind of at the pace in which they're closing it.
So it's five four three to bumper outside corner, looking
looking outside outside, and sometimes you're three wide right center,
three wide in the middle. But while I'm telling me
three right in the middle, it's three wide in the
middle plus two out the back. So now he knows
that he's three wide and the next car is only
two car links behind him here. So as soon as

(13:21):
I clear him to the top of the bottom, that
car is probably gonna go there and fill that gap
before he can do anything about it. And so it
so this is all new to me. So I'm fascinated
by this, So you're so, I'm gonna guess that the pits,
they there's a window in the straightaways where they talk.
Sometimes a lot of times I run four actual, I
have four radios in my ears at all times. Um,

(13:45):
I have one that's on my right side to the car.
I've got one on my left side which is to
the crew, which is to the pit stand. I've got
another one which is to race control. Then I've got
another one which is the management, and management is with
myself and the race strategist, and so, um, the crew
channel like if I'm just busting it out out there,
and like we can't they can't get a word in

(14:07):
like Texas Texas Yet last weekend we were there. It
was pretty exciting by the way that came down to
the wire and we were very good, but because of
pit tragic and stuff, we kept getting dumped right out
in the middle of the field. And it can be
it can be busy going forward or busy going backwards,
and usually going backwards is a lot harder because you
put your dancing shoes on. We restart ninth on the
field out of twenty. Well, there's a lot of cars

(14:29):
coming from behind you. There's eleven high speed race cars
that are gonna pass you if you make it all
the way to the tail. And as soon as you
get lose your momentum in one spot, you pick a
line that feels comfortable and hold on because this is
gonna be about three laps of me not getting off
the button at all. And so when they do that,
built cars, because they're all line, hold your line, three

(14:52):
more coming, two more coming, you're gonna be clear after
the tent on the bottom plus five to the next one.
He's on the outside corner, just like at And so
the crew is telling me stuff in my ear and saying, hey, man,
tell him this. Hey, we need to watch this, we
need to look for this. We've got an issue here,
we've got a penalty, whatever it may be, they're telling me,
and I'm relaying it back out. So now when they
enter the uh enter pit lane. Uh? When that when

(15:18):
that happens. So at that point there, somebody's calling him
into the pet box, right like when the he hits
pitt Land. We have what we call the attenuator lines
and then the timing lines, as the timing lines where
the pit speed limitter has to be set by. So
during practice, we gauge I work with said. We gauge
a marking that I can see as a reference. And

(15:38):
he comes in and it's okay, chicken breaks, Chicken, pitt Speed,
first gear all the way and he gets in, he
gets dialed in, and then I'll say sixth car in
line or hey, pit lane, fourth car to you. And
when I say that, I'm off the radio. He comes
in the box and then it's Jimmyvaster. You're ninety six
champ Car champion and won the coners of the team.
You know, Okay, I got you here. Three to one.
Hold your breaks, hold your breaks, feels going in half

(15:59):
turn front winning, Hold your breaks, hold your breaks, go
go go all clear outside, All clear outside. And as
soon as he says that, he's back to me, all right,
but I got you here. Reset your tools, Reset your tools.
He hits Pitts speed limited rabbits runs around one and two,
and as he's about halfway through turn two is when
I let him know, Okay, you've got three cars coming
around you. Now you're gonna have a window after the fifteen.

(16:20):
Be clear to the bottom, clear to the bottom. Okay,
there's your gap. There's your gap. Push hard, push hard
plus twenty of the next car at speed, and he's
got to get set up and before the next car
gets to him. So they don't have a rear view mirror.
They've got outside mirror, but they can't look up. See Yeah,
and thanks to these awesome features the Jetson's looking indy
car bodies, those meters on ovals are about as useless

(16:41):
as you can imagine, which makes you that much more important. Well,
is that a one way communication? Can they talk back
to you the drive driver? Oh? Yeah, yeah, I just
it depends. You know. Sebs a pretty pretty focused guy
and said gives you at all times, and he expects

(17:02):
people to give their their percentage to back to him.
And so sometimes it's you know, come on, guys, how
do we lose this about in the pits? But then
other times like, hey, guys, great pitt stop, nice job,
you know, halfway through the runner so Vascar good on
and asking him in, uh, talk to us about the
balance of the car and he'll say, uh, you know,
I need more of this and need less of that,
et cetera. Tell decide the changes to make in the
hid Pitt lane and do it totally awesome. I mean

(17:24):
it's uh, it's totally awesome. It's an art and uh,
you know, we're you know, the thing. The thing about
it is what he's talking about with these these different
guys and these different characters and how how it all works.
You know, it's like it's like he said, you were
talking about the radio communication. But you know, when they

(17:47):
hit Pitt Lane, everybody's like, oh, so what do they do?
Look down at their speedometer? Well, that is the best
of my knowledge, there isn't one of those in there.
So you know, they know when they practice it before
the race, you'll a m do it, and you know
NASCAR and things like that, they have to be at
a certain speed. So if they're you know, first gear

(18:07):
at five thousand RPMs, they know they better be in
first gear at five thousand RPMs. And that's that's the
big thing too. That's a big difference from NASCAR to
any car you see a lot. I think there's a
lot more pitt speed penalties in the NASCAR world because
they don't have the electronics that we have. They don't
have the computers in their cars that we have. An
Indy car, so literally I've done a lot of truck
in nationwide and arcas body and it's when there's two.

(18:30):
There's a reason they have two pace cars when the
fields are so big, and that's only because they have
to be able to allow the teams to set their
Pitts speed. So what they'll do on race controls to say, okay,
group one and I'm gonna do it with the drugs
and it sounds like group one pitt speed pace cars ready,
So then you gotta tell your driver, all right, pitt speed,
let me know what you got, and he's like third gear.

(18:53):
So you have a piece of tape on the railing
up top on the spoder setting you write down, you know,
third gear whatever it is. And then when they come
down for pit for Pitts stops, especially in the green
flag when they're really hustling, it's like they're coming down
and you clear down. Okay, checker breaks, checker breaks, third
gear all the way, do not speed. So they literally
they go to third gear. They matched our PAMs and
they're on with indye cards to be different. It's all

(19:15):
done through the through the computer. We have a button
on the stream wall, but they have to be slowed
down below pitt speed and the button engaged and then
they can let off button, they can go wide open
and yeah, exactly, it's like pretty much what your what's
your average high school soccer mom minivan does at the

(19:40):
one that always drives in the left lane. Yeah, that's
about the same speed as about indy cars go down
fill lane. I know her, Yeah, yeah, I've had words
with her a few times. She's got the fish on
the back window and you're like, really, you just flipped
me off. I hate to hard on the negative, So
I'll ask this question this right, Uh, tens of thousands

(20:02):
of successful turns that you've navigated, but you did mention
there were four that resulted in some sort of wall
brush or car brush. What is the meeting, like the
face to face eye contact meeting, Like after one of
those four times, I'll take the driver or the owner
and I'll tell you, I'll tell you one of the
worst ones. Um, And you're saying that that would you

(20:24):
say that it's close to being your fault that that
brush with the wall happened, just happened, it contributed to
it may have and a couple of we got hit.
That's in your realm. So it's you're part of the
conversations only. I said, I think there's only four times
that the driver who I'm spotting for has been in
an accident that other cars were involved in. Um, you know,

(20:45):
Bruno did it. The first year at Richmond, like seven
cars crashed in front of us. We got through all
but the last one slid down the track and just
clipped them. So I count that. Um so let me
ask you this. When they when they crash, I know,
I mean they let off the stair well and you know,
uh scream sometimes like Danica Patrick dead and NASCAR, But
that's side the point anyhow So when they when when

(21:09):
they crashed, I mean, do you tell them hold the brakes,
hold the brakes you're I mean you talked to them
then at all? Or not? The Indy car guys, I
had one kidden lights the Freedom one hundred years ago
got kind of like the qualifying day and everything got
kind of rained out. So we had a thirty minute
open practice session the morning of the race on car
Day and it was like a simulated race. And um

(21:29):
there was his kid board day. Ferrari. He came from
the country where they had a a machete is in
the in their in their flag and Angola or something
along those lines. And so he was terrible. But a
lot of times his kids that are really terrible in
a race car, but they get in any lights car
and they get in Indianapolis Motor Speedway where you should

(21:50):
be easy flat and they're, you know, averaging just under
two hudd miles an hour, and now they're dangerous. And
this kid was just I mean he like a tour
peo out there. Yeah, he hit everything but the racing line,
you know, and so um he does that and he
clipped us on the front or something like that. I
think it was David Ostello was driving the car and

(22:10):
they started to let go right in the middle of
one and I'm like, right, right, right right, hold it,
hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. Break break
break break break, break, break no break, no break and
break straight hand straight hand, straight hand stight and sry
to stop stop stop stop break break break break break
and like we we tore up in infants and he
was like thank you and so um you know. But

(22:33):
you know, back to your question with IndyCar stuff. You know,
Bruno got into one of Richmond, making me really think, um, obviously,
the day we lost Dan World and I was with
James Jake's and we were actually did we were dead
last in the race because we had crashed and practice
had to borrow a car from kV because we don't

(22:54):
have a backup car ready, and it was it was
a mess. But we started dead last and we were
hanging out back there and stuff started to go down
and I told him we're going on the front of
him and got him to stop the car and we
had some plot tires, but we we would have continued
if the race would not have been canceled. UM a
couple of them slipping away from me, but the one

(23:15):
that really stinks, like the one that was like my
worst nightmare because you know, you like you become friends
with a lot of the guys who work with and
that stuff, and you know, you really care about a
lot of people. And so Wilson the year that we
were at Indianapolis, my first year with SEB was you
know Justin then with SEB but Dragon Racing and we
went to Texas. Oh no, sorry, had to be the

(23:39):
next year, even while yeah it was the next year
was our first year a KB Racing and um Justin
and and and SEB had some deal going on. They're
racing pretty hard, and Batch and Saveder got thrown in
the mix. Amow. Somebody was trying to clear down the
pit land on the backstretch. All I know is that
Justin went under the apron getting three and unhinge the

(24:01):
race car and took him both out. Now I've got Justin,
who's a good friend I time, you know, before we
before we lost him a year ago. I talked to him,
you know, all the time. Um, and I got the
guy that I worked for, and they're both in the
fence together and I'm like, oh, no, worst case scenario.
So I go down, you know, I get down the
medical center pretty quick and I'm you know, make sure
steps okay. He's like, yeah, you know, hands in there.

(24:23):
What was he doing? And I'm like, I don't know, man,
but I gotta go check on him too. This is
not gonna be here, but you okay. Justin's like, yeah, okay,
but what was he doing? The really cool part that
made it okay? Any of it? I'm sorry. Yeah, somebody
said peanuts supposed to be my job, but I did
not see what happened. And so the you know the

(24:44):
coolest part about that, though, I mean it really did suck.
At the time, Um, Jeff Trey was spotting for Justin.
He sent me a couple of hand signals down the
down the length of the roof, and I'm like, so
I sent him back. And but we were on the
road that center, and I was right around in the
motor home with up in the family. We're going maybe
from Pocono to Iowa or something like that, and Justin
was running with us, and we both stopped. We all

(25:06):
stopped at the same campgrounds for a few nights in
Row and there was that same season just not too
long after Texas, and it kind of mended the fences,
you you would say. So that was really like my worst,
my worst fear of incidents as far as you know,
I mean, obviously everybody fears about some of the obvious stuff,
but as far as hitting the wall and everybody being okay,
it's it's been two your buddies crash. Yeah, Yeah, I

(25:26):
could really upset the gravy train. Yeah. I've had some
great memories, great fun with with Weldon, as as many
did that we're around him. He uh he we We
used to meet up and uh and broad Ripple and uh,
he would always call me Rocko and I and and

(25:49):
I mean the first time we meet, I introduced myself.
He's like, all right, Rocko, and I'm like, it's Rico.
He continued calling me Rocko to unfortunately the day he passed.
But you know, I see that. Looks fast forward several years. Uh,
you know, I seem at the boat I and Body
Fled Challenge at Lake Placid. Okay, so what this was,

(26:13):
what this was you already know the story, But what
this was was, um, you had a driver, an nhr
A driver or a NASCAR driver and they were competing
against each other. But what this was, what this was
there for was to to help raise money for the

(26:35):
night Train that was the black you know, the black
Sled that the that we won the Golden actually so
so anyhow, that's what this event was about. Anyhow, So
you had a driver of NASCAR or or nhr A
driving the sled, which is completely trippy, it's it's crazy,

(26:58):
and then you have National Guard member on the back.
At the time, Danny was sponsored by the National Guard
and so they had him up to the thing. Well,
Phil Burkhart, uh, Phil Burkhardt. It was was an nhr
A driver, funny car driver. He used to drive for

(27:18):
del Wasarsham and the checker shooks Craigan car. But so
fills up there and they're like, they're like, all right,
we're gonna put Weldon with him to take him down
the hill. He's like, you know what I mean, he's adventurous.
He's like, okay, so he's got all his gear on.
I mean he's bottled up. Dudey it is freezing cold

(27:39):
up there. Well, racing radios are racing electronics. I think
it was had everybody's helmets miked up, so it was love.
It was live. You could hear him up in the
up on the hill. So we're inside this building trying
to fall out, right. Well, here him and Burkhart are
going down and something happens, and I mean, listen, these

(28:02):
guys roll these things all day. I mean, like, just
destroy these these sleds. So Burkhart gets this thing over,
and you know, the whole thing is when one of
these sleds goes, do not let go grab Ahold, like
grab Ahold of the bottom and tuck you get down
in the sled. Danny didn't think. So they're going around

(28:27):
shady too, which is the huge sweeper, I mean huge sweeper.
And he bails after he rolls it, after Burkhardt rolls it,
he bails. And when he bails out, all you can
hear on all you can all you can hear on
the radio is this, And it's him screaming, and there's

(28:51):
a camera. There's a camera, and he's sliding around Shady
two on his back because he's float out up the
are you know, the sled. So he goes up there
and I said, so how things go, which I knew
how things went. I just want to hear when he said,
he goes, Man Rocco, you wouldn't believe it, rock again,

(29:13):
I said, I said, uh, I said, yeah, he goes,
I've hit the wall going to twenty and it never
has hurt that bad. He goes. So he's talking, he's
he's talking about being in an IndyCar, you know, wreckon
and but I mean it was it was absolutely classic.
He you know, he was he was, he was you know,

(29:33):
I had the fortune to to to know him a
bit and uh, you know, but but anyhow, yeah, so it's, uh,
those those guys like many they you know we were
talking earlier with with little you know about how the
UFC guys back in the day, you know, we're family.

(29:53):
You know, it was really everybody was in the same room,
and you know you had seen that a lot with
these IndyCar guys that you know, a lot of them
are in the same room with each other, and you know, uh,
it's it's not the the Kyle Bush, Brad Keselowski, I
want to kill you a program, so, uh, which brings
me to my next my next thing, which is a

(30:16):
little bit of a funny but not funny that he wrecked,
but but funny what happened afterwards. So I'm at Bristol
last weekend, two weekends ago. I'm at Bristol and the
nationwide race Exfinity excuse me, Exfinity race is going on

(30:37):
or is it the Bush Race Exfinity anyhow, race is
going on, and Kyle is he must have had to
do an engine change or something after he qualified, so
he went all the way to the back of the field.
He is coming, I mean coming through the field like
he'll win this race right Well, the next the next

(30:57):
thing you know, he's up there tooling around with Kezlowski.
Which two years ago Kezlowski when when they get introduced
at Bristol. You walk out, you get the microphone. Hey
I'm Brad Keslowski driver, blah blah blah. Well his his
his introduction that he did for himself was, hey, I'm
Brad Keslowski driver the twenty two TIREDS plus car. And

(31:20):
Kyle Busch sucks boom, drops some mic and walks off
the stage. Now you could get some cheers for that,
and you can also get some peel. It's about a
fifty fifty of who hates even who likes he right,
So anyhow, then the next, you know, the next, the
next thing you know, um, you know, Kyle is going
down the backstretch, which is the side that the sweet

(31:43):
that I was in, which was Toyota Sweet. So Kyle's
going down through there, and Kyle's a Toyota driver. So
everybody's excited that this is huge, it is going to
be big, you know, and so forth. And he says,
he says, he says, he says, well, are like he's
we think he's gonna be able to get it. You know,
he's he's coming along. You're listening to the radio, and

(32:06):
you know he isn't saying a whole lot you know,
he's just he's cruising. So do you think the spodder
cleared him too quick? Because that's really what I think happened,
because so Kezlowski, he goes by Kezlowski and I'm telling
you literally, Kezlowski caught four inches of his bumper when

(32:28):
when Kyle went to clear him up the track and
uh wreck. Kyle destroyed the car after, you know, Austin
Dillon or one of the Dylan boys hit him. So
I mean he's he's tuned up right. Well. Then Kezlowski
runs out of gas three laps later under caution. Everybody's
cheering in the suite again. So it's okay, you know,

(32:49):
but so from a spotder standpoint, you know, it's like,
did he do it to say you better go off
the gas punk or I'm taking us both out or
what's your thoughts? I mean, I don't know what. It's
a little bit different world down there. I mean, those
guys can hit the wall, you know, and they're they're

(33:09):
driving a brick right now, so and they destroy race
cars for fun. But I don't know. I mean, I
think it could be one of those deals where Bristol
is such a tight racetrack and you're standing so high
up top. I mean it's you're using binoculars on a
track that you could fit inside the studios here. Yeah,

(33:31):
you're you're, you're, you're literally like up in the clouds.
It's crazy. I mean, it could have been one of
those things where it's like, you know, you could have
cleared him. A lot of times. You know a lot
of guys, especially in and closed wheeled cars like that.
You kind of look look at the road racers who
don't use spotters, and that happens in all time. You

(33:51):
think that you can judge it, but sometimes you just
mess up. Maybe maybe Brad dadn't flash his headlights adding
to come on over. He didn't, he didn't, he didn't
get into the double flash, double flash, come on over.
But I gotta say I stand with Brad Kiloski. He's
a bell athlete. Why wouldn't I hashtag champions were bell?

(34:17):
All right, Well this is over now that no kidding,
But anyhow, I can't tell you though. It's been a
long time. Um, I'm thirty years old. I started racing
when I was four, and I've had the privilege to
grow up in the indy car paddock Graham Ray Hall
and I were kids destroying stuff on some vacation together. Um.
And I've seen some of the best race car drivers
that many people have ever seen in their life. But

(34:39):
when it comes to raw talent, I gotta put Kyle
Bush in the top five that I've ever seen of
an American driver. Pretty amazing. You know, it's it's him.
I remember seeing him in Vegas run legend cars. Um,
and it's you know, it's him, Kyle Larson. Um. And

(34:59):
I mean, do you got Tony Stewart? Of course Tony
is definitely there. Um. Robbie Gordon, Yeah, undoubtedly Robbie Gordon didn't.
I remember a great story about Robbie Gordon. We're out
in Broad Ripple the night the night, the night before
the five hundred. Pretty big deal. Chris all his stories
start with this. And Adam was there too. I was there. Yeah,

(35:24):
do you want me started? Clothing can help? Thank goodness.
There was no Facebook, right, we would be in jail
probably it was better. Yeah, right. But next thing I know,
I see Robbie strolling through the bar with a beer.
I'm like, aren't you racing? Mark? Yeah, I'm gonna get
out here in a couple of hours. Like midnight, she's

(35:45):
gonna leave, He's gonna leave it like it's a late start. Yeah,
it's a late start. I mean, shoot, I could sleep
in a little bit, you know, just like midnight. I
was sit there. I was just blown I was course
blown away, but I was really blown away. When I
saw this, I was like wow, but uh but yeah,
I mean Robbie, Robbie's he is. He is an unbelievable talent.

(36:07):
I gotta I gotta tell you another one. We were
so when we're down at Bristol. You know a lot
of the folks that are you know, down south there
there die hard NASCAR people, and I mean I get it,
that's what they got. Well up here a lot of
die hard indie people, you know, and indiecar people. And
I said, let me show you some real footage of

(36:29):
how things go right. So I pull up a J.
Foyt getting out of the car after he gets into
it with Jeff Andretti. Jeff Andretti was his is his godson,
and a J. Foyt gets out of the car and
as m f and him up one side and down
the other. He shouldn't even be on the track. I mean,
it's like thanks, you know, Godfather. Yeah, peace be with

(36:54):
you too. Yeah, this is really bothering me now because
I only give you four names. Yeah, so we got Larson,
we got Smoke, get Kyle Busch, got Robbie Gordon. And
I'm talking like people that I've actually like watched Race,
not just yeah. I can say a J. But I

(37:16):
don't think I'm not old enough to remember a J's
good days. Um, And when somebody asked me this question
the other day and I nailed it, And now I
forgot my fifth guy. Maybe there yet to be determined.
Maybe it's a girl. No, no it's not, but but
maybe to be determined. How about that? I just think

(37:38):
that they haven't. I haven't seen him race yet. That's
the thing. Whoever that person is, it's it's pretty it's
pretty amazing to watch. And you know from the from
the old days, you're exactly right, I mean, get something
going with a J. Ford. I mean that dude, Kenny Schrader.
I put Kenny Strader, and that Kenny Strader is it's

(37:58):
just one of those guys that, first off, he's ageless.
Is he like ninety Shepherd and he is ninety and
lost he is and he's still still running for Jesus,
racing for Jesus. Morgan Shepherd has been in NASCAR since
NASCAR was running Moonshine. I think I'm not sure, but

(38:20):
it had to be a year or two after maybe
he started. Yeah, I think he missed the inaugural Daytona
Beach race. Yeah, yeah, he missed it by just a
couple of years. But but anyhow, Morgan Shepherd's got this tight,
pearly hair and uh and he comes he comes out
on the stage every time. I'm Morgan Shepherd, driver of

(38:41):
the ninety nine whatever car, and I'm racing for Jesus.
And that's what is. That's what is. That's what is.
His h uniform says on the back for Jesus. I
gotta tell you so. On the grid, if you're if
you're ever down on the grid before the races start,
Morgan Shepherd is in his ray suit roller skating on

(39:02):
the grid, No kidding, like like talented roller skating, like
like doing tricks. Yeah, Like why is this old dude
like parawettic, you know what I mean. It's like, wow,
this is amazing, you know. So, so here's your reference.
Thanks to the fine folks at Google. Morgan Shephard born
October twelfth nine. He's seventy four years old. Yeah, now

(39:26):
let's put that into relation here, Harry again. Everybody remembers
her again the school bandit. He's seventy six and he's
been retired for twenty years. I love it. How do
you like me, now, Morgan Shephard. Jesus has done wonders
for that man. But here's the best part. So you
know he has no by Jodie has no dough right.

(39:46):
But I think if I'm not gonna say, I know
that Stewart or Harvick or one of them buys his
tires for him every race, and I want to say
that Hendrick or one of them gives him the engine.
So he this shows up his stuff there and he's
im mortgage ever and he uh, you know, out there
doing his thing, and I mean he is that he is,

(40:07):
he's made a gold great guy. But he's awesome watching
him roller skate Google Morgage Shepherd rollers because I'm telling
you it's awesome. So anyhow, let's jump to Bell. How
did the bell helmet thing happen? How? How did they
crown you? The crown you of the king for now ever. UM.

(40:28):
I mean I've been working with him for a few
years on the consulting side. Um. They were ready to
just make some changes. And so Kyle Kitsman, the owner
um Bell Racing USA, called me up and we talked
about ideas and I wasn't really sure, you know, I was.
I had a really good get going with Cony USA,
which is the top Tony cart development go car team
in the country. UM are spotting going Gokar Racing. Yeah,

(40:53):
but I didn't have cool things. I didn't have direct
deposit than that four one K health insurance you know
those things. Yeah, yeah, I didn't have any of it.
And that man and before you're thirty, you're invincible, so
you don't have to have any of that stuff. I
featured overtime. You know now that I'm an our time
and might as well preserve it. So UM, but no, Kyle,

(41:14):
Kyle gave me this opportunity and it's it's been great. UM.
I feel like I'm adulting way too much right now personally. UM.
You know, I got engaged last October. Last November, UM
got this job. I bought a house, rescued a dog
like It's this a country song we're going for heir

(41:35):
lost it all yet, so okay the song where You'll
get it all back? So that well, I'm glad I
didn't wear my boots. Um. But so that's honestly what
it was. And you know, Kyle, I can't think Kyle enough, honestly.
And also I gotta say everybody else that works at Bill.
There's only actually eight full time employees at Bill Racing USA,

(41:55):
which is if you look at where we're at and
everything we do, it's unreal. Kyle is a great guy.
The pleasure of meaning him at was that Nascar? Yeah,
it would have been NASCAR because you would have actually
acted like you're working at Indye. So my bad anyhow,
But no, great guy. Um has definitely has his has

(42:16):
his eye on the ball. You know. We talked a
lot about you know, us onboarding our sunglass manufacturing into
the US and have made some referrals to these guys
that people we use for lens technology and uh, and
you know, so it's really cool and I mean I
think where he's gone with it and what he's doing,

(42:38):
I think it's it's gonna be a be a big deal.
You know. I gotta say, Kyle Kyle took a big leap,
you know, he brought in the thirty year old kid,
who now were wrong. I've been doing this my entire life,
but I've been doing it my way, not the corporate way.
You know. As you can tell, I don't like to
get close to the razor and I'm not a really
big fan of wearing close to choose. But you know,

(43:01):
so I feel like I've sold out a little bit.
But he's given me the opportunity to really kind of
have a lot of control over the projects and the
motorsports side. UM. Everybody in the office has been awesome
with with with addressing change. UM. He's He's allowed me
to bring in some staff members that I wanted that
are really great that I work well with UM. And
I really think that people are seeing the difference. The

(43:23):
social media is blown it out of the water. UM.
The customer service side is better than it's ever been UM,
and there's a lot of there's a lot of happy
people and so hopefully, you know, some of the issues
that we may have now we can get those turned around.
And I'm thinking a year from now, you know, everything's
gonna be better. So I've got a question and I
think this is valid. Do you make helmets that fit

(43:45):
me the fatheads? So I gotta tell you before before
you answer this. A buddy of mine's like, oh yeah,
he goes, Man, the body of mine used to race
dirt bike or used to you know, raise around dirt
bikes and ba. I'm like, yeah, which, BA, is really

(44:07):
not easy. Come back to this. I'll be at BOB
this year for the first time as a competitor. Oh
all right, I gotta talk to you about that then
some time into that. But anyhow, so he's talking to me,
but he goes, yeah, he can never find a helmet
the fit and I'm like, yeah, so what's up. He
goes he just ripped all the lining out of it

(44:27):
and was wearing the shell. I'm like, okay, that is
like zero protection. So it's just like an eggshell before
you bust your head wide open when you rag. So
for you, yeah, I can make it happy. Oh yeah,
So should I just get a helmet that have one?
I mean, put it in the office here showed around
a bit. I mean, you know, we've got ten of

(44:48):
the best highly sought after people on our website at
bill Racing dot com. Um and I prefer helmet paint program.
We can get a nice you know, fat heads with
a Z paint job on there for all your marketing
and display booth. You can wear it roller skate. Yeah,
he acts like he is a one of our athletes
or whatever you call that. He gets it, you know.

(45:09):
It's it's really funny that you say that. So being
a spotter, it's all about your eyes. Like I have
insurance on my eyes. J Lo has one on her booty.
I have the same type of policy on my eyes.
I've got it on my head part of the company policy.
But go ahead, so shut up, Rocko, Rocko. So if

(45:30):
my eyes shut off, there's I can't spot anymore. I've
not had the insurance policy on these bad boys. They're
not just sexy and blue. They actually work, So no
contacts contacts and I wear fat Heads obtacals the best
for everything. So this year I was complaining about I
was wearing an Off Brands pair of sunglasses. Um, because

(45:51):
of the profile of them, they could fit under my
hat and not be affected by my headset. And if
you want to, I didn't want to say it. They
were blue blockers. Really, really, you're embracing this No, there
were no part of four one case and blue blockers
that used to be so cool out the door over

(46:15):
that Ville crew. Yes, and your bell curl wallets. Don't
forget that. And my I might have a pocket tea
but but no. So I was sitting there and Rocko
over here. I look at him and I said, yo,
man perfect. I said, you got some little bit lower
profile for me, and He's like, yeah, yeah, come see

(46:37):
me tomorrow. It's like touch base. And I put on
this amazing new parapet heads and they've just been working
on I worn't for the five. I had zero issues.
I was able to use my binoculars with the sunglasses,
which I've never been able to do. They fit under
the under like a flex fit hat with no pressure
to the bill. And I was able to wear my
racing electronics, another associated mind headset with no pressure issues

(47:00):
around my ear. And so since that day, I have
added fat Heads to my official sponsor list as a
spotter in the Riseing IndyCar Series and the Red Bull
Global Rallycross Series. That is fantastic. Way to go, Rocco.
We're gonna lift that last thirty seconds of this podcast
and make a national spot out of it and put
it on because we have fat heads. If you if

(47:24):
you look at my soon to be fan page of
a Facebook page, it's gonna be a fan page soon.
I'm tired. I'm tired of people to be people being
able to message me. I just wanted to like the
stuff and move on, but send a message tonight. It's
but it's all about fat heads and then Racing Electronics
taking care of all that stuff. Um, low Rent District.
It's a it's a company that makes the custom buttons

(47:46):
that we actually uses push the talks and then um,
my package box of briefs. Have you ever heard of
my package? To look it up? So I gotta tell
you something that's This is hilarious is what he's talking about.
Because we used to have a guy that worked for us,
and he's at the outdoor show and I said, what
are you doing at the outdoor show? Now? I said,

(48:08):
you know, we're not displaying, and he's, well, I'm helping
a body of mine. I was like, do what. He
goes He's got these new boxer briefs called my package,
and I'm like, I'm like, my package? What is that?
He goes, well, he said the cool part of it
is is these underwear have a pocket for your package

(48:28):
to hang in. And I'm like, I'm like, this is
this is I mean, this is really out there, you know.
And I'm like, okay, well, how's it going. Well, that's
all we're wearing in the booth and everybody. We're getting
a lot of We're getting a lot of attention. You know,
we're getting a lot of attention. I said, well, I
assumed that there will be a lot of people looking

(48:49):
at you just wearing a pair of underwear out in
the middle of the show. So he goes, yeah, we
have a soul a lot. Yeah, but we're on our
way with it. I'm like, okay, so I heard of
I've got some great friends that are tied in with
my package company that sort him out with it. And
I mean, I'm two forty seven pounds without my shoe ring,
so I'm not a small person. And I get up

(49:11):
on the spotter stand. It's a hundred and seven degrees.
If it was like you're in Nigeria, you gotta be comfortable.
Is that the one with a machete again that you
were talking about? And my bath not as hot? I won? Uh?
I won the lottery in Nigeria. I ended up setting
him ten grand I haven't got the deal back yet,

(49:33):
and I'm pretty certain this is coming through. You want
to thanks just in my person? Well, the king had
passed away and his wife you know, yeah, that's part
of the Oh no, you can go down to sixteenth
and Tim's get your crown. I got those in my

(49:55):
back windows, so leave it alone. But yeah, so Baha,
oh while, So yeah, I'm really pumped about it. Um, Like,
we haven't actually like officially said anything, and I don't
really think we will because it's not not like that.
But um, you know, the legendary Ricky Johnson, the man
the legend um has become a pretty good buddy of
mine over the last couple of years. And um, we

(50:16):
were sitting around at one of the g RC races
this year. He was doing the Red Bull TV coverage
and he's like, hey, man, you wanta do you want
to go to Baha? And I'm like, I've loved to
like and so my dad did. When I was a kid.
He was an off road racer and I've been a baja,
but never as a competitor. And it's been several years
and he's like, yeah, you know, I want you to
come co drive with us. So we're gonna we're gonna
run a trophy truck and a spect trophy truck and

(50:38):
we're going for it. And I'm pumped. I'm jealous. Cool goode.
See how big a seats they have? Or if I
could even fit in the window? Do they have doors
that open? You go out there? You got the roof?
Even better? You're driving, No, I'm co driving. So that's
the spotter stuff coming into plane now. So so while
I've got somebody on the loud pedal next to me

(51:00):
the nineties through the through you know, through through Mike
sky Ranch or down the coastline, and with with your
with your headlights on little than headlights. You're in the car.
I'm in the truck. I'm sitting shotgun and I'm reading
the GPS unit making sure that we stay on track.
Yeah no, no, no, no, no, left, I said left.
You know kind of that deal. It falls back to

(51:21):
the old famous inside outside clear ish clear Is. I
think I think that's might of what happened at Bristol
clear Is shells out You okay, said the you were
talking about he's talking about spotting this will just give
you a good idea about Andy. So Thiago Madaris, he's

(51:44):
he's see this look, I love it. So he's driving,
he's driving. He's driving for PDM Okay, PDMP to tell
the listeners that Chris just put his hands over his
face for the last ten seconds. He's trying to get
himself back together here. But Thiago is driving for PDM Racing, okay,

(52:04):
coming out of Columbia with big, big oil money or
something was was behind me whatever it was, Yeah, yeah,
they were exporting. It was like it was like white oil.
I can't remember. It's like white powder oil. But no,
that's a different thing. But anyhow, so he's he's he's

(52:25):
sponsored by these guys, right, Well, he's practicing and they're
getting ready to qualify that day. This is on a Saturday,
and then and Sunday, so they had Saturday Saturday practice
qualify and then Sunday was bump day. Well, anyhow, he's
running and a said sponsor of his car at the

(52:50):
time was was up on the spotter stand quote unquote helping. Well,
Thiago is running down the front straight away and he
keys up the mic and says car and that's all
he says not car high low, blah blah blah, and
it spokes him. He drives an inn about three car

(53:12):
links too far and destroys the car in the wall.
So now think about that image. Now take dukes to
hazard and pause the car midflight. Let's go back to
rookie orientation. PAULI Allevic says, hey, Chris, can you help
us out? So I jump on the spotter stand to
get Thiago through his rookie orient tasting that year. Man,
we had a pretty good line going with him. The
kid was pretty consistently know and and he was working

(53:34):
up to it. And Paul, Paul is not a dumb guy,
you know. When it came to that race car, he
gave the kid a really safe car to get started with.
And that's where I left it. And this said spotter,
And this is what makes me feel bad. He makes
us all look bad. That's what we can't have nice
things and guys like this. And so I told Paul, hey, man,
I'll be up there if I see the mistakes. You know,
I'm a buddy. I'll come down and let you know
after practice. So we've talked a couple of times that
the month and I'm up there in there doing this

(53:56):
practice run. There wasn't even a car, there was no
thing around nothing except for on pit lane. There was
a car leaving the pit lane, I think to turn one.
So you just turned off his pit speed litter. He's
eighteen ft to the left of you and he's going
sixty four and you're ripping down here and you're gonna

(54:17):
boom because he saw he sees the car. It's spooks
and he hears the radio key up and he just
totally gone. So when you destroy one of them, it's
called tubbing it because it's gone the tub and everything
like a great, great one. So we're in our suite
and turn two and we're here this is like practice, right,

(54:42):
and then we hear like somebody has tagged the wall
huge because when they hit the wall and you're inside,
it just kind of sounds like. We go out there.
Kurt Bush's car is strung all over the back straight away,
about halfway down the back straight away now, so they're
interviewing Kurt after this deal. You know, they get him

(55:04):
out of the car. I thank god he was he
was okay, you know. They get him out of the
car and they said so what are you thinking, he goes,
You know, I think we're going to replace a few
suspension parts, a lot of that thing back out there.
You know it was done destroyed. Yeah, that's that's when
they go to the dumpster and they become a show car.
Show car. That's show car material. But yeah it was.

(55:28):
It's a lot of a lot of cool stuff. And
uh and I encourage anybody listening. Anytime you go to
a race track, whether it's NASCAR, Indy Car, sports car,
if you see the racing electronic truck, they're out in
the pavilion, out in the fan zone, spend the money
and rent the headset and the scanner radio. You can
listen almost every team. You can listen to the drivers,
you can listen to the spotters. And it's no matter

(55:50):
what you know, genre of sports it is. It's just
it's cool to listen because it gives you a whole
new idea of actually what's going on these another element.
They're just not driving around in circles until somebody says, now,
let's set four times and fuel at it. Maybe a
spring rubber. I mean, it is some detailed stuff. Or
if you can get on YouTube, a lot of the
NASCAR guys more do it. You can like listen to

(56:10):
you could watch hours of dl Jr. In car with
his audio and some of the stuff they're talking about.
Cole Bush is hilarious talking about screaming in the radio,
dropping f bombs about the guy in front of him,
how he's gonna put him in the fence if he
doesn't get out of his way, and then he finally
hits him, and he's like talking, he's talking on the
radio about the guy he just hit, Like he's talking

(56:30):
to the guy like, yeah, how'd you like that one?
He's he's keyed up on his staring wheel, just garbage
talking or I can't remember who it was, and I
think it was Kaslowski and I may be wrong about this.
Kyle's running him down and he's going, here, kid, kid,

(56:50):
he's got the mike keyed up saying that and he
ends up past Dame and be I mean, yeah, he's talented.
So anyhow, well, Chris awesome them real quick before we
let you go. You you said you're doing uh Wheeler
Motorsports consulting. You do like social media consulting with the drivers. Um,
we have a couple of different programs we have two

(57:11):
companies that we don't talk about, but they're really awesome.
We handle their social media. Nobody knows who it is
and it it works out really well. We've got we've
got three different employees UM that kind of handled that stuff.
We also UM contractually handled the bell Racing UM social
media account also. But we do a lot of stuff,
you know, we do like UM kind of some public
affairs type things for a few companies, like some some

(57:34):
crisis situation stuff and get them prepared. UM. And my
fiance is uh, classically trained writer. You could say she
went to the school journalism and I you and she
she literally lives with her you know, with her a
p book, so she does a lot of the formal
writing stuff. We've got a web We've got a web developer. UM,
We've got a couple different social media girls and all

(57:54):
in all, and you know we really now we're almost
too busy. Let's was like it. But UM I did
at thirty, I was doing a lot of stuff that
wasn't all that. But but you know, I feel badruble
with Adam. Yeah, obvious that you know, I figured out
of the game for sure. They say it's just money

(58:14):
and you can't take it with you. And I've never
seen a hearse with lugged drack. But I could sell
you one thing. I would rather cry in my Ferrari
than in my Ford pickup truck. You know. I would
rather cry about my visible life and my Bugatti Veyron.
You know, then it might Winnebago And so yeah, it's uh,
it's it's it's tough work man, and I mean being

(58:36):
on the series alone is is a lot of work. Uh.
Kind of a nice double side thing with Bell, great
tie in being there to help support the drivers with
that and uh, by the way, congratulations on the Bell
deal that thinks. No, it's awesome. They gotta they got
a good They got a great guy, whether you think
he is or not. They got a good guy. Kyle

(58:56):
is awesome, you know. But I'm not gonna lie. So
you're you're your secretary called me to confirm my appointment,
like I was getting a call on oscar By or something.
She said, I said, she didn't tell you that was
going on next time? What are they gonna ask me?
And then she said a bunch of nonsense questions like
what's your favorite flavor of bubblegum? And all this stuff

(59:17):
and then I text you last night said so where
does this thing air at? So I could check it out?
And You're like, I'll tell you tomorrow. So now I'm
thinking he has no lead and he has no guidance,
Like what kind of steam operation is going on over
rockos tomorrow? What? What? What bees nests am I walking into? Well?
Your your your cars on box out there now or

(59:38):
the spread? Sorry cruise, but your helmet for the U
S Nationals is no longer. It's over at your sponsor
Rico Let's rockos Um. But yeah, so where's all the
what happened to the funny is ms? Like like I
was prepared with my favorite flavor bubblegum? What is your

(59:59):
favorite flavor bubble gum? Green Brigley, just green? You got
to the big bubble the bubble gum like green apple,
the green one, green apple. It's like Dave fon Pelle
purple water. So goar water purple green. How about this?
Let me throw this out there, Chico stick oh with

(01:00:22):
the like with the crusty crumb on it. You know
what it is? You know what it is. It's a
butter finger that didn't quite make it. No chocolate it's
like that when they get choled on. Just throw that
in the Chico stickpile. What's your second favorite flavor of gum? Yellow? Yellow?
There you go? All right, Well, we already know you

(01:00:44):
don't like to get messaged, but if our listeners want
to look you up, is that fan page ready to go?
Or have a website or um, you know on the
on social media stuff? It Um, it's at the Chris Wheeler. Um.
It's kind of word I say the, but it's actually
spilled t h. I guess the is supposed to be
it with two ease. I didn't know that. I didn't
pass a lot of classes. Um. I did think that's

(01:01:04):
made up because I never heard that either. And I
graduated to seventy out of two seventy five and my
senior class, so I know stuff. You only had to
seventy five in your class? Yeah, I had eight ninety
five at the good old fashioned Bidden Davis High School. Yeah, yeah,
you know, I would have done a lot of years.
Was that private place with padded rooms? I would have
done a lot better. They had the hell lot too tied.

(01:01:26):
I told my mom a lot and she didn't listen.
But that's beside the point. But yeah, so you can
take it out the Chris Wheeler on Instagram and Twitter, um, Facebook,
Chris Wheeler. You know it's probably pictured my dog the
dog you save, I'm that person. Yeah. He literally he
was walking down the street on Gastine Alley in the rain.
UM pulled over with buddy mine Casey human to look

(01:01:49):
at him and make sure he was okay, no tag,
no chip, literally covered in poop um And that was
two days after And now his name is Dodger. He's
about a year and a half old pure bread eagle
and he is a pain of my ass. Has separation
issues done me? Oh, unbelievable. Yeah, but we have a

(01:02:09):
cool bay window like in the front of our of
our little house and speedway, and it has like a
windowsill up there, and he will lay up in that
windowsill all day long, getting the sun and just watching
everybody that wants money to get home wait for you.
So do you really believe that it's that they don't
know whether it's been ten minutes or ten hours. No,
there's no way, there's no way that's real. I don't
think so. And I've had a level concussions and two

(01:02:31):
brain bleeds and I know the difference in ten minutes
and ten hours. I don't know about that, but anyhow,
I mean I did show up here two hours early.
Brain believe that sounds pretty severe. You've had two brain bleeds. Yeah,
they're pretty awesome. Yeah, you have the best part. You
can have a lot of different medical issues and you're
probably gonna remember it and think, my god, that was terrible.

(01:02:52):
I don't remember any of them. It's great. Man, somebody
called in to work with a brain bleed. What the
hell do you even say to the day off? You
know what, why don't you get some rest? You say, Okay,
I hope that they forgot they called you, and they
still show up. Yeah. The other the other one is
my favorite, is you're you're watching the TV commercials and

(01:03:13):
you know, generally you can have like, oh, I don't know,
like a rash, or you can have you know, about
seventy five other side effects from the pill you're gonna
take to maybe get rid of the rash, and it
may not work. So I used to call down to
the front desk at the hotels, like when we were
at the Chili Bowl, and let's say, can you send

(01:03:33):
housekeeping up here and They're like, sir, what's the problem.
I said, somebody has had a severe oily discharge in
the bathroom and we need some help up here. You
know what, They're tripped up. They have zero things to say.
They don't know how to come back from the oily
discharge program. So the brain believe you know the same
deal you know, and I can't even say it. Wo

(01:03:57):
you got me. I'll tripped up right now in a
little and it just kind of freaked me out. Alright,
Adam wrapping up. He's online at the Chris Wheeler. Congratulations
on not only your racing success but with your upcoming nuptials.
Good luck with the marriage. That's awesome, and we want

(01:04:18):
to thank you for coming on the Skinny and I
hope you'll come back. I mean, as long as as
long as you know, somebody reminds me my memory is
pretty bad. You've been listening to the Skinny presented by
fat Heads eye Wear, the undisputed leader of oversized eye wear.
Check them out at fat heads dot com. That's F

(01:04:39):
A T H A d Z dot com.