February 6, 2020 • 36 mins
Rico Elmore, Ken Stout and Rob Klepper welcome motorsports journalist Robin Miller. Having written for The Indy Star, Autoweek, Car & Driver, ESPN, Speed, Racer and NBC Sports, Robin always has unique and entertaining stories to tell!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
From fat Head Studios and Speedway, Indiana. This is the Skinny,
and guys, I'm kin stout and welcome to the Skinny.
We have a huge show coming your way today. One
of the best journalists in our modern day racing era,
if you will, has decided to join us. Just came
(00:24):
over after having lunch. He has a lunch on Friday
with some of the biggest names in the history of
the game. But this guy named Robin Lee Miller has
come in courtesy of Rob Clapper, I might add because
he didn't return my message from whenever I said any
one December one, but he will one day. Of course.
Rico Elmore is with us, Rob Clappers with us, and
(00:44):
Robin Miller. Thanks for making time. Man. Kenny was not
a slight. I just I'm not really good on computers yet.
I'm seven years old. There was a phone. But in
his defense, he did tell me. He said, hey, when
when Friday rolls around, you gotta remind me. You gotta
remind me, says I'm getting old, you gotta remind me.
So made sure I remind him and he sent back
the emoji thumbs up. So I knew we were but
I didn't know we were coming to it like a
fifty million dollar studio. This is like, are you kidding me?
(01:07):
That pretty sweet high Rico must have hit the lottery.
This is this is spin It, this is Amazon. This
is awesome. I mean, it's as nice as studio as
I've ever seen. It's beautiful stuff. So we've had already
had some really big name guests on the skinny, and
I thought, in uh, since we didn't really do it
on the first one, we kind of assume everybody knows
(01:30):
who these guys are when we come in here, and
I think our audience for the most part does. But
since this is going out to Facebook and a lot
of people that might not know, why not come up
with a couple of your credentials along the way. As
you worked for the Indianapolis Star for thirty three years,
and I love the part when you got your first
job at the speedway, you were a stooge. I don't
(01:52):
know has that changed at all. I'm actually dumber now
that I was in Jim Herdibes is my hero, and
I would go to the sprint car and and stock
our racists and the fair grounds in the Raceway Park,
and I heard that he like beer, So I'd steal
beer and I'd give it to him in the hopes
that he would maybe someday recognize my face and maybe
(02:12):
my name some decade, and I'd give him beer. While
I was standing outside the garage and sixty eight cut
in school and Herk walked in and I said, Hi, Herk,
and he's like, hey, hey, Hey, what are you doing?
So I'm just he goes, you want to you want
to help me for a week? I mean that was
my life was just completed at the help you, Yeah,
I mean he It was one of three weeks of practice.
(02:33):
So Pete herdibes and the crew hadn't comminion, so it
was me and another college kid and Jim and that
was the three of us. And uh, my job was
to run the pit board, helped push the car, put
tape overs, goggles on his helmet, and don't touch any
tools because I was such an idiot. And I got
fired because I ruined the paint job. I taked his
(02:53):
goggles onto his helmet once with a bunch of hair
sticking out because I got nervous, and he pulled his
goggles off and ripped his hair off, so I was
free help and I got fired, and so I cut
school and he made the race. The last roadster make
the race was and that was that year. It was
Jim and he made it on Monday, the extra day
of qualifying, and I cut school and I was over
by the fence and cheering for him, and he gave
(03:14):
me the big wave over to come over the fence
and get qualifying picture, but I got drugged back by
the guards. I wouldn't leave it. Then I became friends
with him and then covered him and wrote about him
at the Star and it all came full circle. But
if you guys could have seen him in nineteen sixty
at Tarahute in a sprint car, you each take your
breath away. It was unbelievable. So that he's the one
that hooked me. And then and then you followed up
(03:37):
with cheap mechanic Bill Finley, who was He had some
great words to say about you two and your mechanical abilities.
He told me once, he said, don't take this wrong, kid,
but you're the dumbest human being I've ever seen him
On the race car, he gave me a piece of
metal to cut once and it was a band saw
and I was just getting ready to cut both my
thumbs off when he turned it off, and he goes,
what do you see what you're doing there? Oh? Yeah,
(04:00):
thanks Bill? Not but I mean the worst David's life.
You know, I studge on his crew and I was
the vent guy on pit stops. And uh, he was
so generous with his time and well, not just me,
but you. It didn't matter who you were, Kenny, if
you had a sprint car, imadget or anything, he would
help you. He the guys would just walk in and
Finley build his own Indy car in his garage behind
(04:21):
his house with his own two hands and made the
Indie five hundred in those cars, Johnny Parsons, Bentley Warren unbelievable.
And he was just you know, he told me once.
He goes, I'm not just nice to my kids. Why
do I help you? I said? Charity Case described him
as without a mechanical bone and his body. Yes, he said,
(04:43):
you should never own a race car. You you can
barely start a car. You should never own your own
race car. Is it? Then? Then when you decided that
he wanted to drive a race car, and then he
goes to Andy Grant Telly in nine first race car.
After Finley's advice, Art Pollard helped me get a Formula
fourth from Andy granted Telly. It was painted day Glow
(05:04):
orange and I ran about seven or eight races before
I tore it in half at Watkins Glenn. But I
at lunch every day with Dukovich, benttenhaus and Parsons and
all the U SAT guys, and they said, look, if
you couldn't learn how to drive a race car and
you're really serious, get rid of that squad to p
racer and go get a sprint car midget. So I
bought a midget from Gary Benttenhausen. It was the car
Murrel made his comeback after Murle lost his arm at
(05:25):
Michigan and the Indy Car Race. Although they didn't really
lose his arm. It was in the middle of the groove.
They found his arm, but they say he lost his
arm was no longer. It was just no longer on
his body. So I'm running. I become the the fourth
Benttenhausen brother. So Gary gets to order me around and
scream at me and everything. And and I had a
(05:45):
Bentton Housing midget and it was a wonderful little car.
And um I had that for like five years, and
then I bought Gary Stanton sold me his very first midget.
Stanton had great sprint cars, and he told me his
very first midget, and I drove him nuts. I'd call
him every day, Hey, how's my car? He goes, If
you call me one more time, you're not gonna have
a car, because I'll stop working on it. What do
(06:07):
you mean, how's it going? You'll get it when it's done,
you know. Sorry. So I had I had a really
good stint midget, and I drove that till I got
about a hundred thousand dollars in debt. And it was
the greatest eight years of my life because you learned
so much about yourself and about racing. And in those days.
The first time I went to Cookemo made the feature
and there were thirteen guys out of twenty starters were
(06:29):
in that year's ind five. So these guys I've been
writing about in the Star, I'm suddenly on a race
track with. And my whole goal was, she's don't kill somebody,
don't get in their way. This is how they make
their living. So you just want them to respect you.
So I got so I was, to quote Jim McGee,
you were a half ass driver. That's probably a good
I had some good moments and some bad, but uh,
(06:50):
never trade a moment of what that was just the
greatest that you sacked in those days in the seventies.
It was you just look back at the at the
guys that were runing midgets. It was amazing. So have
a good run there in that midget that you were
talking about. But your your best race to date inside
of the midget was the hut d oh. Yeah, far
out of ninety three cars. I mean you said the
(07:12):
guy said you were a half pass driver. That must
have been you must have been sitting on the right
side of your ass that day. I had been the
first aldernan it the year before. I was thirty fourth
fastest out of a hundred and two the year before. Well,
you might as well be eighty four fastest because you're
going home. There was no semi, there was no hooligan,
there was no heat racist. So when I went out
to qualify and eighty Willie Davis, bless his heart, was
(07:33):
the U SAC officials sitting on my right front tire
and he goes, how's it going, bird man? I go,
you better fire up the ambulance and the record court.
Because I ain't gonna be first alternate. He goes, calm down,
bird menacin. I'm as calm as I could be. I'm
just telling you. Nobody had made the race in about
thirty minutes because the cushion was gone. It was like
this far from the fence. And Joe Saldana and Steve
Chassis said, the only way you're gonna make these things
that run it wide open against the fence, you just
(07:54):
gotta do it. So I did, and I was So
I came down a straight away and Sleepy tripping together.
They were. They were pretty happy for me. So I
pulled in and the first thing is Gary Bentenhowson came
down and goes, spit in my hand. I go what.
He goes, drug test? Who was in Who was in that?
Who was in that car? I said that was me, schmuck,
you know that. So then before the race started, you know,
(08:16):
so you got Poncho and vote, you got all these
badasses behind me, and so Poncho comes up and he says,
what side do you want me to pass you on
at the start? And I said, I don't care what,
but I actually passed Johnny Parsons for third, like on
about the sixth lap, and it was the very first
race ESPN ever televised. And but I remember Bob Jenkins
and and Larry Nuber saying, geez, I don't know what's
(08:37):
gotten into Robin Miller. He's never run this good before.
What that's such a beautiful car and that was qualifying.
And so if I passed JP and then he gave
me the world's most horrendous slide job to get third
place back because I knew it made him crazy, and
then it finally it blew up. But uh, what you
(08:58):
guys know, because you've been around race in your whole life,
is is there's something about um. You can't explain to
people what dirt racings like. But there's I keep telling
Scott Dixon and Joseph new Garden and Will Power and
guys like us. Man, you guys gotta try amidjor to
sprint car on the dirt sometime, because Connor Daily has
done it. And now you know, we're gonna have James
Davison and we're gonna have Santino Ferruci. It's the Chili Bowls,
(09:21):
so they're all indy car guys, gonna try the dirt.
Santina was built to run a middle Yes, perfect, and
he hot laughed a sprint car the other day. And
a nice job because you guys know, I mean make
Davidson has the right frame of mind. Yeah he doesn't care, No,
he does not care. But the guy that would have
been the sprint car driver for the ages would have
(09:41):
been Montoya. And I had him all set up with
Kevin Thomas's sprint car school and ganness. He found out
and put the kabash on it because Montoya he lived
to be crossed up. But there was just something cool
about you know, I think when you get to race
and and you get to be you know how I
(10:01):
lived with Larry Rice. He was my landlord and that's
all I did. I wrote about it fifty two weeks
a year in the Star, and I got to go racing,
you know, five months a year, and you sack and
and uh, nobody had had it better than I did.
I mean, it was everything I could have ever imagined.
So Larry Rice invites me to one of your lunches.
Was at the Workman organ Man's pub obviously a number
of years ago, and I worked I had the pleasure
(10:23):
of working with Larry for a number of years before
he passed. Just absolutely wonderful guy. But I remember him
telling me on the way to this lunch, he said,
I'm gonna go over here and go to lunch with
Robin Millary said, I've known him for a long long time.
He said, you just got to remember. As soon as
he says this is off the record, it's really not
off the record because it'll be printed. And the next
day he said he's pissed everybody off somewhere along the
(10:45):
way by doing that same exact deal. But I'll never
forgetting it. And he was dead serious. He's like, I
love this guy, but man, he has pissed me off sometimes.
I got him in trouble at Pocono when they ran
the dirt cars with the indie cars, a J's last win,
and I Larry was talking about he was in the
he was going to run a dirt car against an
indy car and he knew how insane it was. So
(11:07):
I used a couple of his quotes and he got
he was all piste off at me for a while.
He got over it because I my rent check was
on time and it cleared, but I'll tell you what.
There's a guy that was so underrated as a race driver.
What he was co rookie. Here was Rick Myers in
and you sack midget champ and ran one sprint car
raceist with the dirt car champ, one of the Who's hundred.
He just the most humble, nicest guy you'd ever want
(11:30):
to meet. You wonder where the aggression came from in
the race car. Oh, he had a Vega and we
used to drive. We'd be driving down the Interstate. He'd
be going fifty three miles an hour and you'd go, hey,
rookie the year, let's go sixty anyway, pick up the pace.
What are we doing? But it was Larry Rice, Chuck Gurney, myself,
Mark Alderson lived in the driveway in a motor home,
(11:52):
and Larry McCoy, who drove Indy cars, lived upstairs. It
was and then the bike. The bikers would show up,
the am a guy's Palm, Grinn Ramero and and and
all Dana and they then they'd sleep on the floor.
I mean it was the y m c A for racing.
You have no idea who's going to be there the
first time I worked, Well, now I take that back out.
The first time I worked with him, I had worked
with him for a couple of years, Larry Rice, I'm
(12:13):
talking about in TV, and we did the Chili Bowl wait,
and I am used to working with a docile. I
worked with him a lot in short course off road
that's where he was and um, and we did a
little bit of other stuff as well that he wasn't
really familiar with. I mean, he knew short Course, but
some of the other stuff that we had been doing.
He just took the job and he did as good
(12:35):
as he could do. Had never driven one. So we're
doing the chili well way of all weight Chili will
coming up HBO pay per views. It was myself and
it was Larry. It was the four man four man
booth if you will, as you Larry Rice, Pat Sullivan
and Dave on the stage and then from Matt Yoacum
in the pits. Dave Arger Bright was supposed to be
my right hand man like I was. I was host.
(12:56):
I was a traffic director, if you will, and I
needed to go right to Argo Bright with almost everything,
and then I had I had Larry on my right,
and then Pat was down the other other end. Of
the desk. Well, as it turns out, once they said
we're on and we go live and the guys start racing. Well,
Argo Bright is a soft spoken his deliveries just a
(13:18):
little softer, a little smoother, a little slower. Great guy,
does an awesome job. But all of a sudden, Larry
Rice shows up and I mean, dude, he was on
the gas. I'm like, who is this guy? I've worked
with you for two or three years, but now we
were talking about midgets and he knew midgets and he
got excited. Man, and we were at the Chili Bowl
(13:40):
and he was just wound tight and it ended up
being myself and him all night long, bantering back. And
of course the other two guys had great stuff to
fill in, but Larry Rice just was absolutely on fire.
And I was like, holy smokes, that's why they have
this guy doing TV. I mean he was in when
he did Thursday Night Thunder. We would sit around going
who is this? This is? You know Rice and have
(14:01):
a couple of years and fall asleep in his chair
with a smile on his face at night before he
got I mean, he was docile, is a really good,
the most calm guy and never got his never raised
his voice, well except when Mark Alliston tried to turn
his basement into a speech shop. He got mad about that,
but that was all well. I just think a lot
(14:22):
of people. I mean, obviously, you're many many years of
journalism now currently covering Indy Car. For those that are
not familiar with what Robin does today, he actually does
cover Indy Car. They're still heavy on Pitt Road. You've
You've been the best bobber and weaver in the industry.
I think of anybody, no matter how many times it
looks like you're gonna be out, you end up back in.
It's been amazing. But you do a phenomenal job and
(14:43):
I think everybody loves it because what you've always done
is brought the truth and you never really cared about
who you piste off. He was not politically and you
know what the show that was made for me, I
mean RPM Tonight. I worked at ESPN for about six
years and RPM Tonight was great because they gave me
winsdy for USAK and Kart at that time and it
(15:04):
was cool. But when I got to work for Speed
and Daved Spain, I got to be on wind Tunnel
and co hosted with him like thirty times. That was
the greatest racing show because it covered the spectrum of
racing everybody, motorcycles, off road, stock cars, midget sprints, dragsters.
But there was never any only once they said, quit
(15:24):
making fun of NASCAR. Okay, we get a lot of
NASCAR fans, so get off of the NASCAR's asked. But
no one ever said you can't say this or you
can't do this. And it was and Dave de spain
is he's the best ever. You talk about a guy
that doesn't need it. You know, you guys have all
done it. He doesn't need a teleprompter and you can't
tell when he's reading off a teleprompter. He's that good.
(15:47):
Because one night I hosted it James Hinchcliffe and I hosted.
Dave was write his motorcycle and they had me hosted.
And hinch is gonna be he'll end up working for
NBC and he'll be the best analysts you've ever seen.
He was made for television. But we were doing the
show and I tried reading the teleprompter the first you know,
before the first break, and the guy behind the cameras
(16:08):
is man, just don't it's awful. Don't read it, you know.
And after the second segment, they said to you, why
don't you let Hingecliff posts the show. Let Hingecliff host
the show and you be the guest. Oh that's nice,
so he Hingecliff. He always reminds me of that. But uh,
that was such a I just kept thinking, you know,
you guys have maybe they someday there's gonna be a
(16:30):
show like that again. I think on on weekly television.
I don't know where, but there's an audience for it.
We had a great audience at win Tunnel, I mean,
and they made money. It made money. So why did
it go away? Why do you think Fox bought? When
Fox bought everything, they just they shut it down. They
usually see the studio they built for it. It was awesome.
(16:52):
This it was. This was pretty damn clothed. I mean
a little bigger than this. But think about all the
people that went through the and they had the NASCAR
shows and stuff, and if they just kept the show going.
Instead they spent millions of dollars and they started their
own sports show at night that nobody watched. That went
away about eight months later, and wind Tunnel and Speed
and speed Report would have been the two shows. They
(17:14):
could have just plugged in and done forever. So you're
talking about Hinchcliff, I got an interesting story. So Hinchcliff
works out at a place called pit Fit Jim Leo. Right,
So Jim's a good friend, and I know with my physique,
it's hard to believe that I would work out there
as well. Like, right, your hair looks perfect. Your hair
(17:35):
does look good. It's about all I got going for me.
But anyhow, so you know, the thing of it is
is you know Hnscliff and all those guys would be
in there working out, and the other pet crews and stuff.
So I got to know all these guys pretty good,
you know, Dixon and all these guys. And when Hinchcliff
got hurt at the speedway, I went to UM. I
(17:57):
went to Alan Saul, which is who we deal with
through our suite and all that stuff, and I told her,
I said, you guys need to do something for first responders.
You guys need to have a day for first responders,
and it needs to be about this, okay, because at
(18:17):
the end of the day, that guy saved his life.
They saved his life on the track. I mean, he
saved his life in that car he was gone, and
I said, they It gives me chills talking about it,
but I said, they saved his life. And this kind
of stuff happens every day out on the out in
the real world, not here at this track, but in
(18:37):
the real world. I said, So you have this event
and and you have you know, police fire, you know,
you know E M s and all these guys. I said,
what do the fire companies like to do best? Well,
they like to have a chili cook off. I mean
at the I mean, give me a break. Either they're
playing cards, working uh their schedule for their lawnmowing, sir
(19:00):
of us, or they're fixing Shelly or something. So my
fireman friends, sorry, but you know, so have a day
where they have a firehouse out there. So we've kind
of got it going and and you know, that kind
of brings me into the next thing that we were
talking about was Mr Penskey taken over and I mean,
I I I love it. Just don't tear down Turn
(19:22):
two sweets that certain people. He's it's the Bobby and
I were talking to the other day. It's the best
thing that's ever happened in our lifetime to race him
because of what I mean. I've talked to RP about
five times in the last three weeks because I'll send
him an email from a fan. Hey, I've been going
to the race for fifty years. Please I can't tell
who's leading the race. They took away my little crawl.
(19:43):
We need it, so Roger Man. He responds like two
minutes later. You know, it's at midnight every Sunday night.
That's when we I said, shouldn't you be going to
bed about now? Because I'll get my four hours. I
don't need to be in bed. He sleeps four hours
a night, that's it. But he's got so many ideas
about what he did. And I'll tell you what. He'll
find it Injine manufacturing. It'll be somebody big like Ford
or Toyota. He'll find more money for the purse and
(20:05):
it'll be where it should be, and he'll he'll do
he'll help I think he'll help the Indy car persons
as well, which are a joke. But he's just he's
so invigorated about this whole thing. It's like I was
talking to Tim Cindric. There he goes, he's an eighty
two year old man. He's like a twelve year old kid.
It's so he's so blown away that it's his that
he gets to shape it the way he wants to.
(20:27):
And you know what, I gave Tony George a lot
of grief in the I R L days. But I've
been the first guy to say in the last two months,
he's the one that went to Mark Miles and said,
we need to offer this to Roger Pinsky. We've got
people bidding on it, but we gotta make sure he
gets a chance, because he would be the guy I'd want.
And good for Tony because I think it was it
worked out to be perfect. What do you get an
(20:48):
eighty two year old millionaire that has everything I mean
and and and him get excited about it? Right, There's
probably not many things on this planet that would excite
him any you know, I mean, he's done it all
and and Robin you know best, I mean his uh,
the My understanding was he was more than upset after
(21:09):
he let Michigan go right after it was over with. Well,
I think so, but he made so much money, I mean,
he didn't he got rid of Fontana in Michigan and
all at the perfect time. If you look back at it.
But he's so when this whole thing happened, you're thinking,
you know, he's eighty two years old. He flies to Japan, Australia,
New Zealand, England all the time. He's on a plane
(21:32):
all the time, and he's got sixty eight thousand people
working for him or something like that. He's not gonna
have time to run a race track, but the speed
Speedway supersedes everything else because that's his whole life and
that's what he's built his business around. And so yeah,
I don't know he I never heard him say. I
never heard him talk about the regrets that he had.
But he made Michigan a first class track, just like Fontana.
(21:56):
Everybody had a parking place, the fans were taking care
of the sweets. I mean it was and I think,
what's gonna happen here is there's not gonna be more
dirt parking out here at the Speedway. And he said
to me today, says, you know many restrooms they got
in the speedway, RP. I got no idea because a
hundred sixty six, he says, you know how many of
the need help? I said, hundred sixty five? He said,
close so we're gonna have we're gonna have new restrooms
(22:18):
and you're gonna have plenty of room to stand in
those hundred sixty six if you don't mind being armed
arm with with your buddy there, that's remember you can
place swords if you want the trough. Yeah that was nice,
wasn't it. Hey you mind looking away here for about
three minutes? Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, he's he It's the Rico.
(22:43):
It's the only thing in my fifty years of covering
racing that I have not heard one person complained about.
I've never heard such a positive reaction to something. It's like, everybody,
this is great, God, this is gonna be great, you know,
because I think people know how much it means to him. Yeah,
I'm the same way. I want the best thing for
the track. I want the bet. You know, we bring
people out there all year. We have seven access. We
(23:07):
go downtown to a dinner. It's on a uh, you know,
a summer night. You know, we go out there and
you know, watch the sunset or or set out there
and just look at the place and just breathe it in.
And I mean that's there's a lot of people that
are missing that that need to need to get that back.
And and I gotta tell you if it seems like
(23:28):
after the hundred kind of moving forward, it seems like
it's a lot different feel out there, which is you know,
I'll give some credit to Tony and those guys and
and listen, like I said about the home and George
family and this has been their life, all their life,
you know, and at some point it's kind of like
I give you know. I mean, it's a it's a lot.
(23:50):
It's still the most spectacular I mean, we'll see we
can sit here and pick it apart. No, it's you're
there on race day. Yeah, but it's the most spectacular
thing I've ever seen. I've had the pleasure of spotting
for Andretti outo spart Auto Sport the past couple of
years and being on top Turn one up there where
the spotters are and looking down on all the opening
(24:12):
ceremonies and seeing the massive amount of people walking around
and everything that's going on. It's just inspiring. And there
there's really no words to describe it. You have to
be there. It has to be a bucket licks listen item.
You've got to get out there and see see it
and feel it. It's just absolutely incredible. And to what
(24:32):
you said before, I've after the race is over, I've
sat up there on that crow's nest and let everybody
go away and sit there, and I'll sit up there
and start. I'll sit up there and smoke a cigar
and just watch everybody, because it's how many times can
you get to do this in a lifetime. It's just
it's just incredible. One of the great seats of all times. Too. God,
(24:55):
that's a great seat. It's unbelievable. And in the fly
over this last year, the best yet took two longs.
You know it always when always great when always missed
it the first time. What always gets me is they've
been running these commercials the Great American Race, and I'm like,
give me a yeah, the Great American races in May
and in h Charlotte. It's the Indianapolis five. It always
(25:18):
has been, it always will be. Yeah, Daytona is okay,
but it doesn't even it's not a wouldn't make a
ZiT on the speedways, but right, sorry, right, yeah, I agree.
I mean, it's just it's an incredible, incredible day. What
a happening it is every time and to say that
you've won that thing, I mean I was. I was
tickle pink. We finished seven, We started off first, finished seventh.
(25:40):
I thought we'd won the thing. I mean a run.
But in this day there's just different victories. I mean,
Kyle Kaiser made the race last year and McLaren didn't,
so that was a victory. That was like winning the
race for you know some big dogs in there that
that have that have not made the call. By the way,
talking about Dave to Spain being the best ever, and
you're bringing up Bill Jipson, I want to throw a
(26:01):
quick shout out for the people that aren't aware of it.
Bob Varsha's and some serious trouble here. And I know
he has a go fund me page, so if you
can take a moment, look that up. Um, Bob Barsha
needs her home. The Best Of talked to him a
couple of days ago and he's very he's a private
person like a lot of but he I think he
(26:21):
was very reluctant to ask for any help. And Marshall
Prude from Racer really pushed it, said, Bob, the bills
my wife have are staggering. You need some help, and
I think they've raised almost seventy grand I think, is
that pancreatic answer, Trusty, but it's but he's going to
Duke and he's got some he's got some pretty good people.
The Duke's got a really good reputation in this area.
(26:44):
So seventy four thousand, that's cool. Brilliant guy. One of
the first guys when I first got in this industry.
I picked up the phone and called him, and he
answered the phone, talk to me as if he had
known me for fifteen years, took the time to help
me out, get me go, and just an outstanding individual.
He called a drag race, I think it was him
and Ted Jones called a drag race with no video.
(27:07):
I don't know how long they did it, but they
did it for like a round or two rounds. There
was technical difficulties, if you will, and they could still hear,
so they could hear the cars do the burnout and
they would know to talk and they had approximate amount
of time before they would line up, and then they'd
hear him blast on the track and they would talk again.
But they had no video for I don't know how long,
(27:28):
and continue to call the race and drag racing is
kind of visual. Well, I make all racings individual. You
gotta know when they're rolling into the lines there, you know. Well,
there has been on occasion where Stout and I are
doing a voiceover and and the screen will go dark.
We'll still hear it, We'll still hear it, but the
screen will go dark, and we just keep going as
if we could see everything, and we're waiting for for
(27:48):
the producer engineer to go, can you guys see what's
going on? And we just keep going thinking it's gonna
come back, And sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. We
just keep talking and thinking that we're pretty close to
what's going on on the racetrack before we wrapped this
deal up with with Miller. Here, you've brought something up
here when we were off camera getting some of the
best stuff. Of course, always happens when you're off camera.
(28:08):
You guys need to have a highlight show of a
camera running all the time as soon as as soon
as you walk in the room. Right. It's just just
just not like the one that Bobby Knight had when
he had his golf show. What I mean, Sam Carmichael's treasure, Sam,
I can't hit this ball out of the sand. Don't
tell me to stand closer. This was some of the
(28:30):
best television ever. He was going ballistic. But you had
brought up people flying, the racers flying, and and you
jumped right in and said a J. Foy learned how
to fly his own plane, and a couple of other
guys that couldn't read the manual? How does that work?
(28:50):
You know that was a United that said fly the
friendly Skuys. They weren't friendly in the sixties because you
had her Tibes, Parnelli, Foight, McCluskey, uncle Bobby Ruby. Now
I don't I don't know that any of I think
McClusky might have been the only one of the six
that actually passed his written test. The rest of me
(29:11):
either didn't take it or didn't pass. It was written
test for flying, Yes, sure, fline, sorry, written test for flying.
So one day I'm at the Star and Herdibes calls
me up and he says, why do you know? And
I said that not my tricky what I going to
Cleveland with me and get some parts? I said, yes,
So I go out and he had a cbe. He
had an old Seabee plane, you know, amphibious and Prince's
(29:34):
dog is sitting in the as a co pilot, and
we push it. We have to push it out of
this little hangar and Hurt fires it up and there's
a little blue smoke coming out of the engine. You're thinking, well,
it's okay. If I died, doesn't that Jim herdabes, I
won't be part of the headline, but I'll die with
my hero. It's okay. So we take off. His radio
(29:54):
doesn't work and we're flying along and about five thousand
pulls it down. About watch that science has said Newcastle. Okay,
So we flew to Cleveland on the Interstate. I mean,
you know, you hear all these horror stories that you know,
my buddy Tony Benttenhausen got killed in the plane crashing.
Alan Colwickie and all the Graham Hill and all the
(30:16):
racing people have lost their lives. And Tony Bentenhausen was
as meticulous the pilot as I've ever you know, he
he wasn't a daredevil. And yet here in the sixties
were these crazy guys that no rold cage, no fuel cell,
not much of a helmet. They were pretty brave to
start with. So flying an airplane it was like, you know,
what's the big deal. I mean, do you pull up
(30:38):
and the thing goes up and you come you know,
I mean self taught pilots. His uncle Bobby says, I'm
a self taught engineer. Honey, well that could be. But
he told he told me. He goes, He says, yeah,
he goes. H he said, I won Pike's pete that year,
And he said, I paid all my bills and I
had three thousand dollars left over. He goes, and I
(31:01):
went and bought an airplane. I said, oh wow, cool,
So you you became a pilot. He goes, Oh no,
I never went and got my license. I just started flying.
I was like, holy you just started flying. He goes,
oh yeah. He goes. In this plane, he goes. He goes,
you'd have to put oil in it and get in
the plane and take off quick because the oil start
draining out of it because it's start flowing backwards until
(31:24):
you got it up level and it wouldn't go out
of it. I'm like, well that sounds pretty dangerous. He goes.
He goes, oh no, he said, I was. He goes,
I was, He goes, I was racing out at uh
out at ascot for agg you know Aga Jane, and
he goes. I was racing out there for him. He
goes is either a seventeen hour drive from Albuquerque or
(31:45):
it was a seven hour flight with one stop. He goes.
So I was doing great. I got three hundred dollars
to show up there. It's like three hundred dollars to
risk your life. He landed once, He landed once and
albul Querque and it was like a ninety mile cross
wind or something like that. Ronnie Dass who was at
Once today and it was Howard Milliken's son and was
(32:08):
really helped Buddy lazerin. Ronnie's a smart guy and I
think he might have been with him on this trip
when he was like fourteen or fifteen. But Uncle Bobby
kind of misjudged the interstate and the electric guy wires
and and the hangar and you know, mad mad mad
world where the guy goes under the hangar. I think
answer did that bounced Monson and came back out of
(32:30):
the the fact that the answer is still alive and
any of those guys are PARTNELLI said one day, Parnelli said,
you know, he said racing was pretty dangerous back then.
He says, But so was daily life with the Answers.
I mean just trying to car. Anytime you got in
the car with him, it was wide open. You couldn't.
(32:51):
You couldn't. In the mid sixties, Hurts and Avis were
the only two inter car companies in the United States
and North America. Neither one of the Answers were allowed
to rent a car because they destroyed so many cars.
We go to Mossport once Mossparts got this blind right hander.
So Bobby Unser talks Jerry Grant and they're renting a
car for him, and Jerry Grant's name, God rest his sould.
(33:13):
Jerry Grant was a wonderful guy and they were teammates.
So they go to the race track and Uncer takes
the keys to Jerry Grant's cars and throws throws some
hundred yards away and jumps into his car and takes off.
So Jerry Grant wants to you know, he jumps in
the car and takes off after Bobby and Alance or
they go around the right hander, stop the car in
(33:34):
the middle of the track sideways and they both row
over to the side. Jerry Grant comes over the blind
right hander pile drive should have killed him probably, I mean,
you know, they didn't think about that. Broke the broke
the car in half, steam part of the radiators and
they're laying on the ground laughing and Grants like, you
what I can so not only is that bad enough,
(33:55):
then they decide one of the cars was still salvageable,
so they get another rent a car and they old Jerry, listen,
we'll we'll pay for it. Don't worry about that, but
let's take this down. We'll tell him the other one
was stolen them. Well, we can get this one back.
It's the wheels are still moving, you know. We get
the front end boat in so mos sports up on
a hill, a mountain, and so they Grant gets in
the car and the answers are pushing him down this
(34:17):
hill and they're going thirty fifty and he finally leaves
the road, goes down an embankment and thankfully there's a
bunch of trees that stopped him. They almost killed him
twice in an hour, and Grant said, I had nobody
to blame but myself. And I'm like, no, how could
you be that stupid? You can't let the answer because
(34:38):
he said he looked back in the rear view mirror
and they're laughing as they're going faster and faster, and
he's trying to keep this thing on the road. But
if you guys ever get to listen to Dinner with Racers,
those those two crazy guys that do that Dinner with Racers.
I put them to the other with answer and it
was a three hour thing and they had to edit it.
They've never edited anything, and they said, they've never laughed
that hard. I said, he's an American original and nobody
(35:02):
like him. But you know, if you look at all
those guys fellas, they still never forgot where they came from,
and they still know how to treat people. And fans
feel like that, you know. I mean, Mario looks you
in the face if you're a fan and shakes your
hand and signed your raving Rutherford and A J. Is
not always the most amenable, but here he has his
moments when he's you know, I don't want to go
out during sign, I said, a J. These people have
(35:24):
been in here for half an hour. It's eighty five
degrees in the sun. Who sign it? You know it's there.
They're your fans, so it's it's a it was a
good era. I just I used to tell Bob Harkey
he used a bitch because he never get to drive
for Penske or Foyd or mess Harkey, you made the
N five D when it mattered. There were sixty five
cars going for thirty three spots. You lived in a
(35:47):
great era. And I think Rutherford and Uncle Bobby and Foyd,
I think they all appreciate the era they were in
and the era they thrived in. Thanks for watching this
episode of The Skinny. Be sure to check out all
the latest son in optical I wear at fatheads dot com.
Special thanks to our sponsorship partners at Elliott's Custom Trailers
(36:09):
and Cards. Thanks for listening to this episode of The
Skinny from bath Head Studios. To watch the video versions
of all of our shows, please visit our YouTube channel,
fatheads TV. This has been a production of Fathead Studio.
Please remember to subscribe.
From fat Head Studios and Speedway, Indiana. This is the Skinny,
and guys, I'm kin stout and welcome to the Skinny.
We have a huge show coming your way today. One
of the best journalists in our modern day racing era,
if you will, has decided to join us. Just came
(00:24):
over after having lunch. He has a lunch on Friday
with some of the biggest names in the history of
the game. But this guy named Robin Lee Miller has
come in courtesy of Rob Clapper, I might add because
he didn't return my message from whenever I said any
one December one, but he will one day. Of course.
Rico Elmore is with us, Rob Clappers with us, and
(00:44):
Robin Miller. Thanks for making time. Man. Kenny was not
a slight. I just I'm not really good on computers yet.
I'm seven years old. There was a phone. But in
his defense, he did tell me. He said, hey, when
when Friday rolls around, you gotta remind me. You gotta
remind me, says I'm getting old, you gotta remind me.
So made sure I remind him and he sent back
the emoji thumbs up. So I knew we were but
I didn't know we were coming to it like a
fifty million dollar studio. This is like, are you kidding me?
(01:07):
That pretty sweet high Rico must have hit the lottery.
This is this is spin It, this is Amazon. This
is awesome. I mean, it's as nice as studio as
I've ever seen. It's beautiful stuff. So we've had already
had some really big name guests on the skinny, and
I thought, in uh, since we didn't really do it
on the first one, we kind of assume everybody knows
(01:30):
who these guys are when we come in here, and
I think our audience for the most part does. But
since this is going out to Facebook and a lot
of people that might not know, why not come up
with a couple of your credentials along the way. As
you worked for the Indianapolis Star for thirty three years,
and I love the part when you got your first
job at the speedway, you were a stooge. I don't
(01:52):
know has that changed at all. I'm actually dumber now
that I was in Jim Herdibes is my hero, and
I would go to the sprint car and and stock
our racists and the fair grounds in the Raceway Park,
and I heard that he like beer, So I'd steal
beer and I'd give it to him in the hopes
that he would maybe someday recognize my face and maybe
(02:12):
my name some decade, and I'd give him beer. While
I was standing outside the garage and sixty eight cut
in school and Herk walked in and I said, Hi, Herk,
and he's like, hey, hey, Hey, what are you doing?
So I'm just he goes, you want to you want
to help me for a week? I mean that was
my life was just completed at the help you, Yeah,
I mean he It was one of three weeks of practice.
(02:33):
So Pete herdibes and the crew hadn't comminion, so it
was me and another college kid and Jim and that
was the three of us. And uh, my job was
to run the pit board, helped push the car, put
tape overs, goggles on his helmet, and don't touch any
tools because I was such an idiot. And I got
fired because I ruined the paint job. I taked his
(02:53):
goggles onto his helmet once with a bunch of hair
sticking out because I got nervous, and he pulled his
goggles off and ripped his hair off, so I was
free help and I got fired, and so I cut
school and he made the race. The last roadster make
the race was and that was that year. It was
Jim and he made it on Monday, the extra day
of qualifying, and I cut school and I was over
by the fence and cheering for him, and he gave
(03:14):
me the big wave over to come over the fence
and get qualifying picture, but I got drugged back by
the guards. I wouldn't leave it. Then I became friends
with him and then covered him and wrote about him
at the Star and it all came full circle. But
if you guys could have seen him in nineteen sixty
at Tarahute in a sprint car, you each take your
breath away. It was unbelievable. So that he's the one
that hooked me. And then and then you followed up
(03:37):
with cheap mechanic Bill Finley, who was He had some
great words to say about you two and your mechanical abilities.
He told me once, he said, don't take this wrong, kid,
but you're the dumbest human being I've ever seen him
On the race car, he gave me a piece of
metal to cut once and it was a band saw
and I was just getting ready to cut both my
thumbs off when he turned it off, and he goes,
what do you see what you're doing there? Oh? Yeah,
(04:00):
thanks Bill? Not but I mean the worst David's life.
You know, I studge on his crew and I was
the vent guy on pit stops. And uh, he was
so generous with his time and well, not just me,
but you. It didn't matter who you were, Kenny, if
you had a sprint car, imadget or anything, he would
help you. He the guys would just walk in and
Finley build his own Indy car in his garage behind
(04:21):
his house with his own two hands and made the
Indie five hundred in those cars, Johnny Parsons, Bentley Warren unbelievable.
And he was just you know, he told me once.
He goes, I'm not just nice to my kids. Why
do I help you? I said? Charity Case described him
as without a mechanical bone and his body. Yes, he said,
(04:43):
you should never own a race car. You you can
barely start a car. You should never own your own
race car. Is it? Then? Then when you decided that
he wanted to drive a race car, and then he
goes to Andy Grant Telly in nine first race car.
After Finley's advice, Art Pollard helped me get a Formula
fourth from Andy granted Telly. It was painted day Glow
(05:04):
orange and I ran about seven or eight races before
I tore it in half at Watkins Glenn. But I
at lunch every day with Dukovich, benttenhaus and Parsons and
all the U SAT guys, and they said, look, if
you couldn't learn how to drive a race car and
you're really serious, get rid of that squad to p
racer and go get a sprint car midget. So I
bought a midget from Gary Benttenhausen. It was the car
Murrel made his comeback after Murle lost his arm at
(05:25):
Michigan and the Indy Car Race. Although they didn't really
lose his arm. It was in the middle of the groove.
They found his arm, but they say he lost his
arm was no longer. It was just no longer on
his body. So I'm running. I become the the fourth
Benttenhausen brother. So Gary gets to order me around and
scream at me and everything. And and I had a
(05:45):
Bentton Housing midget and it was a wonderful little car.
And um I had that for like five years, and
then I bought Gary Stanton sold me his very first midget.
Stanton had great sprint cars, and he told me his
very first midget, and I drove him nuts. I'd call
him every day, Hey, how's my car? He goes, If
you call me one more time, you're not gonna have
a car, because I'll stop working on it. What do
(06:07):
you mean, how's it going? You'll get it when it's done,
you know. Sorry. So I had I had a really
good stint midget, and I drove that till I got
about a hundred thousand dollars in debt. And it was
the greatest eight years of my life because you learned
so much about yourself and about racing. And in those days.
The first time I went to Cookemo made the feature
and there were thirteen guys out of twenty starters were
(06:29):
in that year's ind five. So these guys I've been
writing about in the Star, I'm suddenly on a race
track with. And my whole goal was, she's don't kill somebody,
don't get in their way. This is how they make
their living. So you just want them to respect you.
So I got so I was, to quote Jim McGee,
you were a half ass driver. That's probably a good
I had some good moments and some bad, but uh,
(06:50):
never trade a moment of what that was just the
greatest that you sacked in those days in the seventies.
It was you just look back at the at the
guys that were runing midgets. It was amazing. So have
a good run there in that midget that you were
talking about. But your your best race to date inside
of the midget was the hut d oh. Yeah, far
out of ninety three cars. I mean you said the
(07:12):
guy said you were a half pass driver. That must
have been you must have been sitting on the right
side of your ass that day. I had been the
first aldernan it the year before. I was thirty fourth
fastest out of a hundred and two the year before. Well,
you might as well be eighty four fastest because you're
going home. There was no semi, there was no hooligan,
there was no heat racist. So when I went out
to qualify and eighty Willie Davis, bless his heart, was
(07:33):
the U SAC officials sitting on my right front tire
and he goes, how's it going, bird man? I go,
you better fire up the ambulance and the record court.
Because I ain't gonna be first alternate. He goes, calm down,
bird menacin. I'm as calm as I could be. I'm
just telling you. Nobody had made the race in about
thirty minutes because the cushion was gone. It was like
this far from the fence. And Joe Saldana and Steve
Chassis said, the only way you're gonna make these things
that run it wide open against the fence, you just
(07:54):
gotta do it. So I did, and I was So
I came down a straight away and Sleepy tripping together.
They were. They were pretty happy for me. So I
pulled in and the first thing is Gary Bentenhowson came
down and goes, spit in my hand. I go what.
He goes, drug test? Who was in Who was in that?
Who was in that car? I said that was me, schmuck,
you know that. So then before the race started, you know,
(08:16):
so you got Poncho and vote, you got all these
badasses behind me, and so Poncho comes up and he says,
what side do you want me to pass you on
at the start? And I said, I don't care what,
but I actually passed Johnny Parsons for third, like on
about the sixth lap, and it was the very first
race ESPN ever televised. And but I remember Bob Jenkins
and and Larry Nuber saying, geez, I don't know what's
(08:37):
gotten into Robin Miller. He's never run this good before.
What that's such a beautiful car and that was qualifying.
And so if I passed JP and then he gave
me the world's most horrendous slide job to get third
place back because I knew it made him crazy, and
then it finally it blew up. But uh, what you
(08:58):
guys know, because you've been around race in your whole life,
is is there's something about um. You can't explain to
people what dirt racings like. But there's I keep telling
Scott Dixon and Joseph new Garden and Will Power and
guys like us. Man, you guys gotta try amidjor to
sprint car on the dirt sometime, because Connor Daily has
done it. And now you know, we're gonna have James
Davison and we're gonna have Santino Ferruci. It's the Chili Bowls,
(09:21):
so they're all indy car guys, gonna try the dirt.
Santina was built to run a middle Yes, perfect, and
he hot laughed a sprint car the other day. And
a nice job because you guys know, I mean make
Davidson has the right frame of mind. Yeah he doesn't care, No,
he does not care. But the guy that would have
been the sprint car driver for the ages would have
(09:41):
been Montoya. And I had him all set up with
Kevin Thomas's sprint car school and ganness. He found out
and put the kabash on it because Montoya he lived
to be crossed up. But there was just something cool
about you know, I think when you get to race
and and you get to be you know how I
(10:01):
lived with Larry Rice. He was my landlord and that's
all I did. I wrote about it fifty two weeks
a year in the Star, and I got to go racing,
you know, five months a year, and you sack and
and uh, nobody had had it better than I did.
I mean, it was everything I could have ever imagined.
So Larry Rice invites me to one of your lunches.
Was at the Workman organ Man's pub obviously a number
of years ago, and I worked I had the pleasure
(10:23):
of working with Larry for a number of years before
he passed. Just absolutely wonderful guy. But I remember him
telling me on the way to this lunch, he said,
I'm gonna go over here and go to lunch with
Robin Millary said, I've known him for a long long time.
He said, you just got to remember. As soon as
he says this is off the record, it's really not
off the record because it'll be printed. And the next
day he said he's pissed everybody off somewhere along the
(10:45):
way by doing that same exact deal. But I'll never
forgetting it. And he was dead serious. He's like, I
love this guy, but man, he has pissed me off sometimes.
I got him in trouble at Pocono when they ran
the dirt cars with the indie cars, a J's last win,
and I Larry was talking about he was in the
he was going to run a dirt car against an
indy car and he knew how insane it was. So
(11:07):
I used a couple of his quotes and he got
he was all piste off at me for a while.
He got over it because I my rent check was
on time and it cleared, but I'll tell you what.
There's a guy that was so underrated as a race driver.
What he was co rookie. Here was Rick Myers in
and you sack midget champ and ran one sprint car
raceist with the dirt car champ, one of the Who's hundred.
He just the most humble, nicest guy you'd ever want
(11:30):
to meet. You wonder where the aggression came from in
the race car. Oh, he had a Vega and we
used to drive. We'd be driving down the Interstate. He'd
be going fifty three miles an hour and you'd go, hey,
rookie the year, let's go sixty anyway, pick up the pace.
What are we doing? But it was Larry Rice, Chuck Gurney, myself,
Mark Alderson lived in the driveway in a motor home,
(11:52):
and Larry McCoy, who drove Indy cars, lived upstairs. It
was and then the bike. The bikers would show up,
the am a guy's Palm, Grinn Ramero and and and
all Dana and they then they'd sleep on the floor.
I mean it was the y m c A for racing.
You have no idea who's going to be there the
first time I worked, Well, now I take that back out.
The first time I worked with him, I had worked
with him for a couple of years, Larry Rice, I'm
(12:13):
talking about in TV, and we did the Chili Bowl wait,
and I am used to working with a docile. I
worked with him a lot in short course off road
that's where he was and um, and we did a
little bit of other stuff as well that he wasn't
really familiar with. I mean, he knew short Course, but
some of the other stuff that we had been doing.
He just took the job and he did as good
(12:35):
as he could do. Had never driven one. So we're
doing the chili well way of all weight Chili will
coming up HBO pay per views. It was myself and
it was Larry. It was the four man four man
booth if you will, as you Larry Rice, Pat Sullivan
and Dave on the stage and then from Matt Yoacum
in the pits. Dave Arger Bright was supposed to be
my right hand man like I was. I was host.
(12:56):
I was a traffic director, if you will, and I
needed to go right to Argo Bright with almost everything,
and then I had I had Larry on my right,
and then Pat was down the other other end. Of
the desk. Well, as it turns out, once they said
we're on and we go live and the guys start racing. Well,
Argo Bright is a soft spoken his deliveries just a
(13:18):
little softer, a little smoother, a little slower. Great guy,
does an awesome job. But all of a sudden, Larry
Rice shows up and I mean, dude, he was on
the gas. I'm like, who is this guy? I've worked
with you for two or three years, but now we
were talking about midgets and he knew midgets and he
got excited. Man, and we were at the Chili Bowl
(13:40):
and he was just wound tight and it ended up
being myself and him all night long, bantering back. And
of course the other two guys had great stuff to
fill in, but Larry Rice just was absolutely on fire.
And I was like, holy smokes, that's why they have
this guy doing TV. I mean he was in when
he did Thursday Night Thunder. We would sit around going
who is this? This is? You know Rice and have
(14:01):
a couple of years and fall asleep in his chair
with a smile on his face at night before he
got I mean, he was docile, is a really good,
the most calm guy and never got his never raised
his voice, well except when Mark Alliston tried to turn
his basement into a speech shop. He got mad about that,
but that was all well. I just think a lot
(14:22):
of people. I mean, obviously, you're many many years of
journalism now currently covering Indy Car. For those that are
not familiar with what Robin does today, he actually does
cover Indy Car. They're still heavy on Pitt Road. You've
You've been the best bobber and weaver in the industry.
I think of anybody, no matter how many times it
looks like you're gonna be out, you end up back in.
It's been amazing. But you do a phenomenal job and
(14:43):
I think everybody loves it because what you've always done
is brought the truth and you never really cared about
who you piste off. He was not politically and you
know what the show that was made for me, I
mean RPM Tonight. I worked at ESPN for about six
years and RPM Tonight was great because they gave me
winsdy for USAK and Kart at that time and it
(15:04):
was cool. But when I got to work for Speed
and Daved Spain, I got to be on wind Tunnel
and co hosted with him like thirty times. That was
the greatest racing show because it covered the spectrum of
racing everybody, motorcycles, off road, stock cars, midget sprints, dragsters.
But there was never any only once they said, quit
(15:24):
making fun of NASCAR. Okay, we get a lot of
NASCAR fans, so get off of the NASCAR's asked. But
no one ever said you can't say this or you
can't do this. And it was and Dave de spain
is he's the best ever. You talk about a guy
that doesn't need it. You know, you guys have all
done it. He doesn't need a teleprompter and you can't
tell when he's reading off a teleprompter. He's that good.
(15:47):
Because one night I hosted it James Hinchcliffe and I hosted.
Dave was write his motorcycle and they had me hosted.
And hinch is gonna be he'll end up working for
NBC and he'll be the best analysts you've ever seen.
He was made for television. But we were doing the
show and I tried reading the teleprompter the first you know,
before the first break, and the guy behind the cameras
(16:08):
is man, just don't it's awful. Don't read it, you know.
And after the second segment, they said to you, why
don't you let Hingecliff posts the show. Let Hingecliff host
the show and you be the guest. Oh that's nice,
so he Hingecliff. He always reminds me of that. But uh,
that was such a I just kept thinking, you know,
you guys have maybe they someday there's gonna be a
(16:30):
show like that again. I think on on weekly television.
I don't know where, but there's an audience for it.
We had a great audience at win Tunnel, I mean,
and they made money. It made money. So why did
it go away? Why do you think Fox bought? When
Fox bought everything, they just they shut it down. They
usually see the studio they built for it. It was awesome.
(16:52):
This it was. This was pretty damn clothed. I mean
a little bigger than this. But think about all the
people that went through the and they had the NASCAR
shows and stuff, and if they just kept the show going.
Instead they spent millions of dollars and they started their
own sports show at night that nobody watched. That went
away about eight months later, and wind Tunnel and Speed
and speed Report would have been the two shows. They
(17:14):
could have just plugged in and done forever. So you're
talking about Hinchcliff, I got an interesting story. So Hinchcliff
works out at a place called pit Fit Jim Leo. Right,
So Jim's a good friend, and I know with my physique,
it's hard to believe that I would work out there
as well. Like, right, your hair looks perfect. Your hair
(17:35):
does look good. It's about all I got going for me.
But anyhow, so you know, the thing of it is
is you know Hnscliff and all those guys would be
in there working out, and the other pet crews and stuff.
So I got to know all these guys pretty good,
you know, Dixon and all these guys. And when Hinchcliff
got hurt at the speedway, I went to UM. I
(17:57):
went to Alan Saul, which is who we deal with
through our suite and all that stuff, and I told her,
I said, you guys need to do something for first responders.
You guys need to have a day for first responders,
and it needs to be about this, okay, because at
(18:17):
the end of the day, that guy saved his life.
They saved his life on the track. I mean, he
saved his life in that car he was gone, and
I said, they It gives me chills talking about it,
but I said, they saved his life. And this kind
of stuff happens every day out on the out in
the real world, not here at this track, but in
(18:37):
the real world. I said, So you have this event
and and you have you know, police fire, you know,
you know E M s and all these guys. I said,
what do the fire companies like to do best? Well,
they like to have a chili cook off. I mean
at the I mean, give me a break. Either they're
playing cards, working uh their schedule for their lawnmowing, sir
(19:00):
of us, or they're fixing Shelly or something. So my
fireman friends, sorry, but you know, so have a day
where they have a firehouse out there. So we've kind
of got it going and and you know, that kind
of brings me into the next thing that we were
talking about was Mr Penskey taken over and I mean,
I I I love it. Just don't tear down Turn
(19:22):
two sweets that certain people. He's it's the Bobby and
I were talking to the other day. It's the best
thing that's ever happened in our lifetime to race him
because of what I mean. I've talked to RP about
five times in the last three weeks because I'll send
him an email from a fan. Hey, I've been going
to the race for fifty years. Please I can't tell
who's leading the race. They took away my little crawl.
(19:43):
We need it, so Roger Man. He responds like two
minutes later. You know, it's at midnight every Sunday night.
That's when we I said, shouldn't you be going to
bed about now? Because I'll get my four hours. I
don't need to be in bed. He sleeps four hours
a night, that's it. But he's got so many ideas
about what he did. And I'll tell you what. He'll
find it Injine manufacturing. It'll be somebody big like Ford
or Toyota. He'll find more money for the purse and
(20:05):
it'll be where it should be, and he'll he'll do
he'll help I think he'll help the Indy car persons
as well, which are a joke. But he's just he's
so invigorated about this whole thing. It's like I was
talking to Tim Cindric. There he goes, he's an eighty
two year old man. He's like a twelve year old kid.
It's so he's so blown away that it's his that
he gets to shape it the way he wants to.
(20:27):
And you know what, I gave Tony George a lot
of grief in the I R L days. But I've
been the first guy to say in the last two months,
he's the one that went to Mark Miles and said,
we need to offer this to Roger Pinsky. We've got
people bidding on it, but we gotta make sure he
gets a chance, because he would be the guy I'd want.
And good for Tony because I think it was it
worked out to be perfect. What do you get an
(20:48):
eighty two year old millionaire that has everything I mean
and and and him get excited about it? Right, There's
probably not many things on this planet that would excite
him any you know, I mean, he's done it all
and and Robin you know best, I mean his uh,
the My understanding was he was more than upset after
(21:09):
he let Michigan go right after it was over with. Well,
I think so, but he made so much money, I mean,
he didn't he got rid of Fontana in Michigan and
all at the perfect time. If you look back at it.
But he's so when this whole thing happened, you're thinking,
you know, he's eighty two years old. He flies to Japan, Australia,
New Zealand, England all the time. He's on a plane
(21:32):
all the time, and he's got sixty eight thousand people
working for him or something like that. He's not gonna
have time to run a race track, but the speed
Speedway supersedes everything else because that's his whole life and
that's what he's built his business around. And so yeah,
I don't know he I never heard him say. I
never heard him talk about the regrets that he had.
But he made Michigan a first class track, just like Fontana.
(21:56):
Everybody had a parking place, the fans were taking care
of the sweets. I mean it was and I think,
what's gonna happen here is there's not gonna be more
dirt parking out here at the Speedway. And he said
to me today, says, you know many restrooms they got
in the speedway, RP. I got no idea because a
hundred sixty six, he says, you know how many of
the need help? I said, hundred sixty five? He said,
close so we're gonna have we're gonna have new restrooms
(22:18):
and you're gonna have plenty of room to stand in
those hundred sixty six if you don't mind being armed
arm with with your buddy there, that's remember you can
place swords if you want the trough. Yeah that was nice,
wasn't it. Hey you mind looking away here for about
three minutes? Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, he's he It's the Rico.
(22:43):
It's the only thing in my fifty years of covering
racing that I have not heard one person complained about.
I've never heard such a positive reaction to something. It's like, everybody,
this is great, God, this is gonna be great, you know,
because I think people know how much it means to him. Yeah,
I'm the same way. I want the best thing for
the track. I want the bet. You know, we bring
people out there all year. We have seven access. We
(23:07):
go downtown to a dinner. It's on a uh, you know,
a summer night. You know, we go out there and
you know, watch the sunset or or set out there
and just look at the place and just breathe it in.
And I mean that's there's a lot of people that
are missing that that need to need to get that back.
And and I gotta tell you if it seems like
(23:28):
after the hundred kind of moving forward, it seems like
it's a lot different feel out there, which is you know,
I'll give some credit to Tony and those guys and
and listen, like I said about the home and George
family and this has been their life, all their life,
you know, and at some point it's kind of like
I give you know. I mean, it's a it's a lot.
(23:50):
It's still the most spectacular I mean, we'll see we
can sit here and pick it apart. No, it's you're
there on race day. Yeah, but it's the most spectacular
thing I've ever seen. I've had the pleasure of spotting
for Andretti outo spart Auto Sport the past couple of
years and being on top Turn one up there where
the spotters are and looking down on all the opening
(24:12):
ceremonies and seeing the massive amount of people walking around
and everything that's going on. It's just inspiring. And there
there's really no words to describe it. You have to
be there. It has to be a bucket licks listen item.
You've got to get out there and see see it
and feel it. It's just absolutely incredible. And to what
(24:32):
you said before, I've after the race is over, I've
sat up there on that crow's nest and let everybody
go away and sit there, and I'll sit up there
and start. I'll sit up there and smoke a cigar
and just watch everybody, because it's how many times can
you get to do this in a lifetime. It's just
it's just incredible. One of the great seats of all times. Too. God,
(24:55):
that's a great seat. It's unbelievable. And in the fly
over this last year, the best yet took two longs.
You know it always when always great when always missed
it the first time. What always gets me is they've
been running these commercials the Great American Race, and I'm like,
give me a yeah, the Great American races in May
and in h Charlotte. It's the Indianapolis five. It always
(25:18):
has been, it always will be. Yeah, Daytona is okay,
but it doesn't even it's not a wouldn't make a
ZiT on the speedways, but right, sorry, right, yeah, I agree.
I mean, it's just it's an incredible, incredible day. What
a happening it is every time and to say that
you've won that thing, I mean I was. I was
tickle pink. We finished seven, We started off first, finished seventh.
(25:40):
I thought we'd won the thing. I mean a run.
But in this day there's just different victories. I mean,
Kyle Kaiser made the race last year and McLaren didn't,
so that was a victory. That was like winning the
race for you know some big dogs in there that
that have that have not made the call. By the way,
talking about Dave to Spain being the best ever, and
you're bringing up Bill Jipson, I want to throw a
(26:01):
quick shout out for the people that aren't aware of it.
Bob Varsha's and some serious trouble here. And I know
he has a go fund me page, so if you
can take a moment, look that up. Um, Bob Barsha
needs her home. The Best Of talked to him a
couple of days ago and he's very he's a private
person like a lot of but he I think he
(26:21):
was very reluctant to ask for any help. And Marshall
Prude from Racer really pushed it, said, Bob, the bills
my wife have are staggering. You need some help, and
I think they've raised almost seventy grand I think, is
that pancreatic answer, Trusty, but it's but he's going to
Duke and he's got some he's got some pretty good people.
The Duke's got a really good reputation in this area.
(26:44):
So seventy four thousand, that's cool. Brilliant guy. One of
the first guys when I first got in this industry.
I picked up the phone and called him, and he
answered the phone, talk to me as if he had
known me for fifteen years, took the time to help
me out, get me go, and just an outstanding individual.
He called a drag race, I think it was him
and Ted Jones called a drag race with no video.
(27:07):
I don't know how long they did it, but they
did it for like a round or two rounds. There
was technical difficulties, if you will, and they could still hear,
so they could hear the cars do the burnout and
they would know to talk and they had approximate amount
of time before they would line up, and then they'd
hear him blast on the track and they would talk again.
But they had no video for I don't know how long,
(27:28):
and continue to call the race and drag racing is
kind of visual. Well, I make all racings individual. You
gotta know when they're rolling into the lines there, you know. Well,
there has been on occasion where Stout and I are
doing a voiceover and and the screen will go dark.
We'll still hear it, We'll still hear it, but the
screen will go dark, and we just keep going as
if we could see everything, and we're waiting for for
(27:48):
the producer engineer to go, can you guys see what's
going on? And we just keep going thinking it's gonna
come back, And sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. We
just keep talking and thinking that we're pretty close to
what's going on on the racetrack before we wrapped this
deal up with with Miller. Here, you've brought something up
here when we were off camera getting some of the
best stuff. Of course, always happens when you're off camera.
(28:08):
You guys need to have a highlight show of a
camera running all the time as soon as as soon
as you walk in the room. Right. It's just just
just not like the one that Bobby Knight had when
he had his golf show. What I mean, Sam Carmichael's treasure, Sam,
I can't hit this ball out of the sand. Don't
tell me to stand closer. This was some of the
(28:30):
best television ever. He was going ballistic. But you had
brought up people flying, the racers flying, and and you
jumped right in and said a J. Foy learned how
to fly his own plane, and a couple of other
guys that couldn't read the manual? How does that work?
(28:50):
You know that was a United that said fly the
friendly Skuys. They weren't friendly in the sixties because you
had her Tibes, Parnelli, Foight, McCluskey, uncle Bobby Ruby. Now
I don't I don't know that any of I think
McClusky might have been the only one of the six
that actually passed his written test. The rest of me
(29:11):
either didn't take it or didn't pass. It was written
test for flying, Yes, sure, fline, sorry, written test for flying.
So one day I'm at the Star and Herdibes calls
me up and he says, why do you know? And
I said that not my tricky what I going to
Cleveland with me and get some parts? I said, yes,
So I go out and he had a cbe. He
had an old Seabee plane, you know, amphibious and Prince's
(29:34):
dog is sitting in the as a co pilot, and
we push it. We have to push it out of
this little hangar and Hurt fires it up and there's
a little blue smoke coming out of the engine. You're thinking, well,
it's okay. If I died, doesn't that Jim herdabes, I
won't be part of the headline, but I'll die with
my hero. It's okay. So we take off. His radio
(29:54):
doesn't work and we're flying along and about five thousand
pulls it down. About watch that science has said Newcastle. Okay,
So we flew to Cleveland on the Interstate. I mean,
you know, you hear all these horror stories that you know,
my buddy Tony Benttenhausen got killed in the plane crashing.
Alan Colwickie and all the Graham Hill and all the
(30:16):
racing people have lost their lives. And Tony Bentenhausen was
as meticulous the pilot as I've ever you know, he
he wasn't a daredevil. And yet here in the sixties
were these crazy guys that no rold cage, no fuel cell,
not much of a helmet. They were pretty brave to
start with. So flying an airplane it was like, you know,
what's the big deal. I mean, do you pull up
(30:38):
and the thing goes up and you come you know,
I mean self taught pilots. His uncle Bobby says, I'm
a self taught engineer. Honey, well that could be. But
he told he told me. He goes, He says, yeah,
he goes. H he said, I won Pike's pete that year,
And he said, I paid all my bills and I
had three thousand dollars left over. He goes, and I
(31:01):
went and bought an airplane. I said, oh wow, cool,
So you you became a pilot. He goes, Oh no,
I never went and got my license. I just started flying.
I was like, holy you just started flying. He goes,
oh yeah. He goes. In this plane, he goes. He goes,
you'd have to put oil in it and get in
the plane and take off quick because the oil start
draining out of it because it's start flowing backwards until
(31:24):
you got it up level and it wouldn't go out
of it. I'm like, well that sounds pretty dangerous. He goes.
He goes, oh no, he said, I was. He goes,
I was, He goes, I was racing out at uh
out at ascot for agg you know Aga Jane, and
he goes. I was racing out there for him. He
goes is either a seventeen hour drive from Albuquerque or
(31:45):
it was a seven hour flight with one stop. He goes.
So I was doing great. I got three hundred dollars
to show up there. It's like three hundred dollars to
risk your life. He landed once, He landed once and
albul Querque and it was like a ninety mile cross
wind or something like that. Ronnie Dass who was at
Once today and it was Howard Milliken's son and was
(32:08):
really helped Buddy lazerin. Ronnie's a smart guy and I
think he might have been with him on this trip
when he was like fourteen or fifteen. But Uncle Bobby
kind of misjudged the interstate and the electric guy wires
and and the hangar and you know, mad mad mad
world where the guy goes under the hangar. I think
answer did that bounced Monson and came back out of
(32:30):
the the fact that the answer is still alive and
any of those guys are PARTNELLI said one day, Parnelli said,
you know, he said racing was pretty dangerous back then.
He says, But so was daily life with the Answers.
I mean just trying to car. Anytime you got in
the car with him, it was wide open. You couldn't.
(32:51):
You couldn't. In the mid sixties, Hurts and Avis were
the only two inter car companies in the United States
and North America. Neither one of the Answers were allowed
to rent a car because they destroyed so many cars.
We go to Mossport once Mossparts got this blind right hander.
So Bobby Unser talks Jerry Grant and they're renting a
car for him, and Jerry Grant's name, God rest his sould.
(33:13):
Jerry Grant was a wonderful guy and they were teammates.
So they go to the race track and Uncer takes
the keys to Jerry Grant's cars and throws throws some
hundred yards away and jumps into his car and takes off.
So Jerry Grant wants to you know, he jumps in
the car and takes off after Bobby and Alance or
they go around the right hander, stop the car in
(33:34):
the middle of the track sideways and they both row
over to the side. Jerry Grant comes over the blind
right hander pile drive should have killed him probably, I mean,
you know, they didn't think about that. Broke the broke
the car in half, steam part of the radiators and
they're laying on the ground laughing and Grants like, you
what I can so not only is that bad enough,
(33:55):
then they decide one of the cars was still salvageable,
so they get another rent a car and they old Jerry, listen,
we'll we'll pay for it. Don't worry about that, but
let's take this down. We'll tell him the other one
was stolen them. Well, we can get this one back.
It's the wheels are still moving, you know. We get
the front end boat in so mos sports up on
a hill, a mountain, and so they Grant gets in
the car and the answers are pushing him down this
(34:17):
hill and they're going thirty fifty and he finally leaves
the road, goes down an embankment and thankfully there's a
bunch of trees that stopped him. They almost killed him
twice in an hour, and Grant said, I had nobody
to blame but myself. And I'm like, no, how could
you be that stupid? You can't let the answer because
(34:38):
he said he looked back in the rear view mirror
and they're laughing as they're going faster and faster, and
he's trying to keep this thing on the road. But
if you guys ever get to listen to Dinner with Racers,
those those two crazy guys that do that Dinner with Racers.
I put them to the other with answer and it
was a three hour thing and they had to edit it.
They've never edited anything, and they said, they've never laughed
that hard. I said, he's an American original and nobody
(35:02):
like him. But you know, if you look at all
those guys fellas, they still never forgot where they came from,
and they still know how to treat people. And fans
feel like that, you know. I mean, Mario looks you
in the face if you're a fan and shakes your
hand and signed your raving Rutherford and A J. Is
not always the most amenable, but here he has his
moments when he's you know, I don't want to go
out during sign, I said, a J. These people have
(35:24):
been in here for half an hour. It's eighty five
degrees in the sun. Who sign it? You know it's there.
They're your fans, so it's it's a it was a
good era. I just I used to tell Bob Harkey
he used a bitch because he never get to drive
for Penske or Foyd or mess Harkey, you made the
N five D when it mattered. There were sixty five
cars going for thirty three spots. You lived in a
(35:47):
great era. And I think Rutherford and Uncle Bobby and Foyd,
I think they all appreciate the era they were in
and the era they thrived in. Thanks for watching this
episode of The Skinny. Be sure to check out all
the latest son in optical I wear at fatheads dot com.
Special thanks to our sponsorship partners at Elliott's Custom Trailers
(36:09):
and Cards. Thanks for listening to this episode of The
Skinny from bath Head Studios. To watch the video versions
of all of our shows, please visit our YouTube channel,
fatheads TV. This has been a production of Fathead Studio.
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