#5 - Jimmy Kite

Rico gets the skinny from Jimmy Kite in this interview.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to The Skinny with Rico Elmore presented by
fat Heads. I weary and we are back for another
great episode of The Skinny with Rico Elmore. I'm Adam Ritz,

(00:23):
the co host. I'm just glad to be here, Rico,
how are you feeling today? Faded Forever with a great
little nod to our unofficial sponsor of the show, fat Heads.
This is the Skinny presented by fat Heads. See how
that works. It's skinny, it's fat, it's everything. Yeah, you
just don't know where you're going, coming or going. We
don't know where we're going with this conversation. Um, you

(00:46):
and I have been pals forever. I love this show
because you're bringing pals on that you've known forever that
I sometimes know sometimes don't our our guests today, I
actually know through both his career and just from working
in the media in with him over the past couple
of decades. It's Jimmy Kite, I R l Indy car driver. Jimmy,
how are you? I'm doing good till you just said decades.

(01:08):
That made me feel really, I've been raised. Oh my god,
I have been racing for decades decades. I mean you
still love fifteen, but you've been You've been in this
stick for quite some time. Yeah, definitely don't feel it.
I you know, forty birthday was this year back in February,
and you kidding it's it was fifteen. I wish my
insides definitely feel every bit of forty. But remember I

(01:31):
used to hit concrete walls and there was no safer barriers.
You're the veteran. The twenty year olds are looking to
you for the old old time stories. Yeah. Yeah, we
were were in leather. You're the guy that were the
leather helmet. Actually, fortunately I still get to look back
at the guys that you know, drove those uh aluminium
tough cars and stuff back in the eighties, like, man,

(01:51):
they're crazy, what were they doing back then? And now
the guys driving look at the cars that we drove
back in the late nineties early two thousands, like what
were you guys doing driving those you know cars? And
it's just so funny that I've been around long enough
to see the new cars that they're looking at us
like we were idiots, kind of the way I used
to look at mirrors and you know, how did you
ever make it through it? You know? With a top cars, right,

(02:13):
what were you thinking before safer barriers? You know, how
did it feel? And that's unbelievable, it's pretty solid. Stop. Yeah. Yeah,
I still take lots of ibuprofen from my back. It
reminds me every day of what concrete used to feel
like back and into that and a few you know,
sprint car flips, maybe getting upside down once or twice
that I didn't help them back either. Yeah. So where

(02:33):
did you start racing? How did it all get started? Uh?
It actually back in corner made It's when I was eight. Um,
we used to go visit my grandparents in Missouri, farming
to Missouri. We'd go, you know, during holidays or this
and that, and the next door neighbors to my grandparents
there was these two boys and I used to you know,
about my age, and we'd all play all the time.

(02:54):
And I noticed on Saturday nights they disappear. And finally
one of the nights asked them before they left, where
you guys going, and they said they were going to
the racetrack up the street. And I had no idea
at the time, but I went into my dad and
I go, hey, Dad, I want to go to the races.
Let's go. I went down the street and Dad used
to be a mechanic. He'd worked on indie cars. He
drag race, so he knew. But once they had me,

(03:14):
you know, he got away from racing and you know,
really had nothing to do with it, became an actual
proper father. You'll, got the right job. Then everything he
was supposed to do right. He did everything he was
supposed to do to be a really good dad. Um.
So we go out to this racetrack and it was
just a Saturday. I guess him. A mom was supposed
to go out that night, and he told her. He's like, well,
I'll take him out. So he falls asleep, we'll come home.

(03:36):
I see these things fire up and it's wing sprint
cars on dirt. And the first time I see a
you know, sprint car come off the corner and do
a little wheelie stand, I mean, my eyes lit up
and I was like, God, this is what I want
to do. Well. The cool part was after the races
were over, we'd go down in the pits and meet
the drivers and this and that. One of them was
Jerry Russell, and that's we end up used to do.
We'd always for holidays. Now I wanted to go to

(03:57):
Grandma Grandpa, So I go to sprint car races. And
Jerry Russell actually told Dad, He's like, man, why don't
you get that kid in a Quartermadget as much as
he loves sprint cars. So I uh started in the
quartermages when I was eight. And then uh, her dad
told your mom, we're never going on a date again.
Exactly a funny thing about Yeah, there's there's a couple
of stories, but one of them was, you know, I
had to promise my mom I'd never race a motorcycle

(04:20):
and I'd never race a go cart. So Dad brought
home a Quartermadget and the trunk of a car, and it,
uh it almost ended in divorce, but fortunately not quite
that far. So yeah, and then of course Mom even
then was like, oh, he'll outgrow it, and he'll outgrow it,
and thirty something years later, she's still waiting for me

(04:42):
to outgrow. You said your dad was a mechanic, but
you sort of really flew over. You said he was
a mechanic. He worked on indy cars. Your dad worked, Yeah,
for he Uh, Dad would actually be better when to
tell the story. I Uh, he used to drag race
alt like back in the you know, seventies, sixty seventies,
a lot of street racing and over in Missouri. Yeah

(05:06):
this is over in Missouri, but it was you know,
street racing. And I guess he got in trouble one
night with the local police officer that had been trying
to get him for a while. And he didn't in
trouble that night, but the next morning that police officer
came to the gas station my dad was working at,
and I guess the police pulled up and Dad's all
the car and he's like, well, you can't get me

(05:27):
in trouble for last night, And I guess he walked
right by Dad and straight into Dad's boss, the guy
that ran the gas station, and all of a sudden,
Dad's boss came out with the police officer, and the
police officers said, you have two options. This is Rockey Peterson.
He's got an indie car. We're gonna put You're gonna
go on the road with him and be his mechanic,

(05:48):
or I'm taking you to jail. So that was Dad's
start into indiecar mechanic. And because Crocky actually had a car,
you know, a shop and everything right there in Park Hills, Missouri.
And so that was how they had got broke into
going from his local drag racing to being on the
road as an Indy car mechanic. But yeah, he uh
mechanic for Kracky Peterson, Gordon John Cock uh Al Senior.

(06:13):
He did for one race, which that's a whole other story,
but that was they were just talking about Floyd a
little bit earlier about his uh, his commentary on Jeff
Andretti when he got out of the car that one race,
and that was kind of the general consensus when a
j didn't win, even as a car owner. You can

(06:34):
ask Ali Line about that when he uh put the
smack down on him and the uh. Yeah, he's one
of those guys. I mean he is. You can tell
you from Texas. He's so hard knows and you know
his way his way. But I'll tell you what, he's
also one of the kindest people. Um my rookie year
and Indy cars. When I had my my really bad
crash out in Phoenix at a tire test um that

(06:54):
actually you know, got me pretty bad. I end up
having to get lifelined out. But from what I year, uh,
the AJ was one of the first people to me.
You know, it was you know, my guys. But I
mean a j came from the other interpret road with
his two cars to come down and he was he
was right there. I mean it just it just shows
how awesome that guy is. You know that he cares
about other racers too. Funny story. I was about I

(07:18):
want to say, probably eight or nine years old maybe,
and uh so I went on a field trip to
the speedway. I grew up in Newcastle, so you know,
you go to the field trip. So when I go
on this field trip, I have to take I have
to take my mom with me because I'm I guess

(07:40):
I needed some a personal chaperone, if you will, that
would look after me, that could maybe control me. So
my mom goes with me, and I said, I gotta
go to the bathroom, which was my olt out of
the stands. I was ready to go do some explore
back through the areas. And it's funny, I'm walking down

(08:06):
through there and these two hacks are setting there doing
this live broadcast with this other red headed guy with
a beard, hillbilly talking guy. Well it's Bob and Tom
and Jimmy mad Dog made us and this is like
forever ago, right, but they're literally like setting out under

(08:29):
this umbrella if they're doing they're doing a live broadcast
from the speedway, like okay, whatever, you know, slight as
you know. Well, then we're walking by the by the
by the by the firestone, uh garage area, and this
is when the old gasoline alley was there that we're

(08:51):
walking by there and a j comes out of there
and as m F and them up one side and
down the other, I mean, ripping these two. And I
mean I'm like, I said, I'm eight or nine years old,
I think at the time. And he walks out and
I got a piece of pr and I said, will
you sign this for me? Absolutely sudden me have that
you have a good day, And I mean he was

(09:11):
totally cool, and I was like wow, you know, and
of course I knew who it was, you know, and uh,
but I mean he was just ripping their ass in there, man.
And he as soon as he walked out, I asked him,
you know, I was like, I'm gonna ask I care
and yeah, and he was. He was totally cool with it. Yeah,
he probably would have went back at him again, but yeah,
he was. He was. He was something else. And one

(09:33):
of the guys that I knew back home used to
build the fire bottles. Remember fire bottle could name brand
fire bottle. Well, he used to build fire bottles and
they had to make a special fire bottle for a
j because he couldn't fit in the car with the
fire bottle. Towards the latter part of his career with that,
things were getting bigger. So but yeah, it was just

(09:57):
great stories. But that's that's cool. I never I ever
heard that. I can only imagine. I mean, he's he
has a uh you know they people say they got
the herd the size of Texas. I mean, there's a
lot to be said about that. So that's very cool.
I learned a lot from that. Man. I my rookie
equal go back to rookie year. We were doing another
Good Year tire test at uh Disney, and my guys

(10:22):
they just decided that was the weekend that we're gonna
pull all kinds of pranks on on Jimmy and we
were having a good test, so that always helps you,
and everybody's in good spirits. We're having a good prank.
But it was enough pranks that when I had parked
my rental car at I think he was right in
front of the trailer so I could keep an eye
on it because I was going to go up and
take a nap real quick while they were making some changes.

(10:44):
I come back down and it looked like my rental car,
but it was. It went from being parked down it
turned one to down in turn three at Disney, and
there was seagulls all over it track at Disney. I
mean it's literally right there, and there a lot of birds.
They had taken my car somehow got the keys. I
still don't know how I got because I had him

(11:05):
in my pocket at the time, but they were gone
and they moved my car down there and put all
kinds of food in it and everything. So the seagulls
were everywhere. So I'm trying to like I started to
walk out. I'm like, oh my god, what's going on?
And it was one of the deals. We were kind
of like on lunch break, and uh, Floyd was setting
there and he just you know, pulled up on his
golf car and he's like, you need to ride. So
we sat down and we started joking about all the

(11:25):
stuff they've been doing to me that weekend, and he
just started telling me some of the stories that he
used to do to people, like the old remember the
old seats and the bench seats, and the trucks with
the you know, the silver the spring, you know, actual
metal springs inside of him that they actually took a
wire from uh the motor on the timing and hooked
at that spring. So when the dude got in and

(11:47):
he started the truck up, every time the ignition fired,
it was sentding a shot through the spring. He had
a lot of good ideas and I was like, right, guys,
if you don't stop, brought out the Yeah a j
sorry told me how to get back at you exactly. Yeah,

(12:07):
that's uh, that's hilarious. There's a lot of I was,
we were I don't know, I was talking, here are
ways back that you know, there could be a you know,
there could be a goat race out at the speedway,
and what would I say, get the golf carts ready,
we got an event of the speedway ready, we want

(12:28):
to go to the track, right if there's a reason
or get him ridy, we gotta get out there, you know,
and you know everybody he was like, what's going on?
There's an event out there? I gotta get out there,
you know, more or less. Don't call me. I'm gonna
be gone for a while. How old were you your
rookie year? Uh, twenty one. I actually started running Indie
cars two races after the Indie Fire that year in

(12:49):
ninety seven. So I finished that year out I was
twenty one. And then the next year, which was actually
my first year, I got to run the ind five
hundred twenty two. That's pretty amazing. I r L started
nineties sex, is that right? That was the first year,
the first year the I r L, and they had
the turbo cars and then so um was the new
cars and that's you know, even that first year. You

(13:10):
remember Davy Jones, you know, having the the incident down
in Disney, you know, because they backed into the wall
and they had just those cars back then, the gearboxes
really stout and really heavy and when you backed in,
nothing gave, so you know, got Davy. So then they
started putting those attenuators on the backup to try to
absorb it because again we were hitting solid concrete back then.
And uh, my Phoenix crash, you know that that I

(13:32):
had that year. Um, three days after my crash, they
extended that attenuator out from three inches the six inches,
So I mean, at least I'd like to feel like
I contributed something to you Indy car safety. You know,
have you ever been in New York City where they
like that got those bumper things where everybody backs end
everybody and you know, parking, that's where they must have

(13:53):
got it from Jimmy Kaya parking stop those uh speaking
of like ingenuity and changes um as a fan, the
digital stop clock on the car itself that changes during
the course of the race to show what car, what
place they're in, and then it goes to a digital

(14:16):
so you can watch. That is unbelievably awesome. And how
did people every year for the last hundred years not
somebody think of that. It's awesome? It is. Do you
think that's awesome? I mean, well, I mean not even
that obviously, I haven't been an indie car and you know,
quite a few years, but just seeing that when that
first came out, you know, I just think it's genius.

(14:37):
You know, it's great ideas. Like you said, I mean,
it's especially out there as fast as cars are going by,
and even at any track, as fast as these cars
are going and once you get especially on the ovals.
When you get cars lapping and doing everything they are
track of, even you start looking around. If you don't
have a scoreboard to look at, you don't know no
ideas where but I mean to have that. It's just
it's just genius, a great, great idea. Yeah, I saw that.

(15:01):
I don't know if this year was the first year
that I saw that, but it was very cool, very cool.
It's almost like a fat headed idea. It's a fat
headed idea. This is the skin he brought to you
by fat heads. Our guest is Jimmy Kite. And you
mean you haven't raised in a couple of years, because
I feel like you're still out there. Yeah, I mean
I'll still run sprint car races here there, but I mean,
and I'll still do the vintage race over here. Um,

(15:22):
but yeah, I mean I haven't. Last time I said
any of the car was oh seven, Oh my gosh.
That have you been to the vintage car race? By
the way, No, I haven't. You gotta go next year.
It's awesome. Let's let's broadcast live out there. Yeah, yeah,
live from the But anyhow, this some eight year old
kid in thirty years could say we the camper. Yeah,

(15:47):
that guy's a bomb anyhow talking about but yeah, they
you know that that deal. They've just got a few
things that they need to change around. And but I
mean the whole weekend is awesome. And the access to
the drivers, I mean, Jimmy's there, you have you know,

(16:08):
little ales. Usually they're um, you know, some just cool
duds that are out there doing their thing. I think
Ray Everyham was there this year. This year, Ray and
because they have a pro am or thirty three guys,
actually thirty four this year because Ray was the amateurs
supposedly alright, submit their car and we all run a
program race for It's a forty minute race, So those

(16:30):
guys run the first half of the race and then
thirty three past in drivers drive the second half of
the race. Except for Ray said they had a thirty
fourth entry and Bill Elliott was his co driver because
he wanted to. That's pretty cool. But yeah, you know,
like Rico was saying, I mean, there's I missed the
first one and when I saw the guys doing it,
I mean I had already scheduled something else with work,

(16:50):
and I told him, I was like, as long as
you guys want me I'll never miss another one because
there's you know anywhere from my kid said, you know,
Al Junior is there. I mean, you know, Davey Hamilton's,
there's you know, there's own, there's there's foights, there's you know,
there's just so many people there. This year, Jose le
Garza drove it with is and I mean my mom
and dad have pictures of me when I was six

(17:12):
years old sitting in Jose garla show car at an event.
And now here I am getting to run with this guy.
I mean, something I never thought I would get to do.
So it just it's just a great experience. And it's
actually and you know what it's It is super super
duper competitive. I mean crazy Turner watered you know, Turner
with stuts. Turner has a bunch of his old race

(17:35):
cars out there running him. I think he runs like
four classes or something. And but it was it, I
mean it is. It is a super super cool weekend.
And uh and and watching Jimmy run of course. So
you know the thing that I was talking about that
they need to change, which we had talked to somebody about,
you know, the actually Bowls. We were telling him, you know,

(17:58):
you need to put the pro driver's name on it
with the amateur driver. Believe it or not, everybody's here
to see the pro driver and know that that's you know,
Jimmy or a little out you know in those cars.
And and I'm telling you man, little Al and I've heard,
you know, I've heard this about him too before from

(18:18):
another friend of mine at Toyota. Little Alt ran the
pro am race at at Long Beach, uh, and he
was talking about he was talking about how he was
Little Al is the most amazing dryer hecause his dude's
just killing it out there, you know, and he's just
he's just wheeling, you know, he's not even but Little

(18:40):
Al driving that Corvette two years ago or three years ago,
he was flat wearing him out. And I mean they
there was nobody near him. The amateur gets in and
I think that was the end of that car, if
I remember, I'm not sure. If I don't remember, out went.
But a lot of the times the amateur gets in
after the pro and they're like, wow, he's turning an

(19:02):
X amount of time and a lap I can get
down there. Well, now just settle down a little bits,
you know, so that it's uh, it's a lot of fun.
But yes, we will do something. We will go out
there for that for sure. You uh, work on your
own cars today? Can do you change your own oil?
Oh yeah, you do all that you in your garage
you've got you know, you've got a four car garage.

(19:25):
You remember, I drove for PDM and PDM had a
mortgage or house and everything every year to get Jimmy
in the show. Now we're kidding a little different pay scale,
but now it uh yeah, I mean it was funny
because growing up, I mean Dad was going so much

(19:45):
with work that I mean he gave me a list
of stuff I had to do to the car, whether
it was you know core im. It's even we you know,
I start running mini sprints, Um that if when he
got back off the road Friday, if it wasn't done
and we weren't going racing because you know, so, I
mean I had to do all that. So even like
when I moved up here, when I graduated high school
and start running USACK, I mean I I knew how
to work on cars. I worked on sprint cars, Crown

(20:07):
cars the first time I ever. And it's not that
I didn't work on it that I wasn't allowed to
work on. It was when I got into Indie cars.
Um we we tore one up and I showed up
at the shop and I was like, all right, guys,
I mean I brought the guy's donuts and like, all right,
what can I do? Let me step in? You know
this was my screw up. You know, I'm the reason
you guys are having to do all this extra work.

(20:28):
What can I do? Let me know? And my crew
chief looks me square in the eye and he goes, well,
I want you to go get your contract and show
me where it says you're a paid mechanic. I'm just
here to help keep the do I'll go home. And
he told me, he's like, well, you know, and it's
kind of like when you go to you going to
an nhr A race and you see how those guys
have it down just to fine tune you when they're

(20:48):
in between rounds, how fast they get that motor down
and back together because everybody has a job. And it
was kind of that same deal there where he's like,
if I step in and do anything that messes with
somebody else's them of what they're used to doing, and
then something might get left loose or something might not
get done because I'm basically in the way. And so
he told me, like, you know, as much as we'd
love to have you here, go away. And that was

(21:11):
I mean, it just it was eye opening, Like, you mean, really,
I don't have to work on my own car that day.
It was just it was such a big surprise to
so it calls hot, says dad, guess what, not working
on stuff anymore? Yeah, and you can't make me. Jimmy's
got great parents, and you know what, it it's a
testament to the parents that are that are in racing

(21:36):
because of what they go through, the ups and downs.
I mean, you know, him getting lifelined out of Phoenix.
I mean, what's what what better to hear than we
just lifelined your son out of Phoenix and you know,
we're not sure what's what the situation is. So it's uh,
I raised much smaller scale here and much smaller scale

(21:56):
of me, as you can imagine. I used to raise
go car. It's when I was a kid, and I
was I I say kid, I was eighteen nineteen years old.
I was raised in a street race and my mom
my mom hated it. My dad he didn't say much
about it, but my mom hated it. And I was
raising the street race in Newcastle where I grew up,

(22:19):
and some guy had spun in the middle of the turn.
Well the hay bells, they had them stacked too high
on the side and I couldn't see through that turn.
I clipped this dude reverse teboone and going about sixty
drive the clutch right through the seat into the yeah
and uh and flip flipped the car barrel, roll the
car out into the out into the crowd. Well, my

(22:44):
mom happened to be one of the people that were
over there when that took place. And uh, when I
got and I oh and broke the spark plug off
with my elbow. But so when it was all said
and done, she uh, she said, either you can have
the go card or you won't live here. So I
don't care how you do it, but that's the deal,

(23:04):
because I'm not going to put up with this ship
no more. All right, So the girl cards out because
I don't really have the financial means to live anywhere else.
So thanks for the decision, mom, But it was a
lot of fun. I mean, and you know, I've I've
had the the law of the passion for racing forever.
And you know, I had the utmost respect for the

(23:25):
guys that that run last, because those guys that are
running last are a hundred times better than me, you know,
And that's just that's just what it boils down to.
They may not have the equipment, they may not have
the you know, the engineer or the you know what
have you involved in it. So it's, uh, it's an
interesting deal because you know, everybody's like I was like, man,

(23:47):
Kyle Bush, he's this and that, you know, because he's
up there front. Well one, he is amazingly talented, super talented,
and he has amazingly super awesome equipment. So with that
when he drives to the front like he's going to
the grocery store, it's pretty much the way that that

(24:07):
program works. But so Jimmy was driving for PDM, so
that not all those things were part of that. Yeah,
it's it's amazing how like you were just saying that
when you when you're with a smaller team, Um, you know,
they don't have the resources or stuff like that. Then
I mean there's there's laps I ran over at the speedway. Uh,

(24:29):
you know, my fastest lap I ran over there was
like a two seven average lap, and it's one of
the easiest laps I ran around there. The car was
set up good, everything was smooth, everything was nice. And
then there's times where I've ran laps at two oh
five over there that I was scared to death. I
mean I could not get in the pits fast enough.
I mean I was horrified just because the car, you know,

(24:49):
wasn't handling. You know, we didn't have the whether it
was it didn't feel right. It's just an engineer or
whether it was. I mean, it's not as if every
car out there handles exactly the saying. There's not a
magical setup that every car has. You know, every car
is different, every driver is different, every engineer is different.
So I mean there's you know, some engineers that will
just say all the cars perfect, get in and drive
it and shut up. And so, yeah, you go out

(25:12):
and you're telling them cars not right, cars not right,
and they're trying to show you on the computer that
it is. And you finally, after like third or four time,
you start in your head to be like, well, maybe
it's me. And then you go out and they saying,
you know, you're backwards, getting ready to hit the concrete
wallet two miles an hour going Nope, should have trusted myself. Definitely,
definitely the car. But you know that stuff that unless

(25:35):
you're inside the garage area, even inside the team or
inside those team meetings, people don't know that. You know,
all they know somebody sitting in the stand is like,
Jimmy crashed again. He must be a crasher. They don't
know what's going on. Yeah, they don't know that they've
got the car trimmed out, and you know it really
shouldn't been trimmed out. It's more this and that's crazy
interesting that two oh five would be scarier than going

(25:58):
to if the two twenty seven was when the car
was perfect. Yeah, that's when the car is perfect. You
run to thirty and you know the way it feels.
But then there's times when it's scary. I mean you're
even scared to get up to two oh five. I
mean there's there's been times over there where I've literally
left pit road, accelerated down the back straight away, went
into turn three. This is under practice, and you know

(26:20):
we're not supposed to enter coming off term four. You
know you're supposed to enter in three during practice days.
But even that little run going into turn three, the
car felt so sketchy to me that coming off of four,
I was already pitting, just like, I'm not going another
half lap in this thing. It's I'm gonna c kidding.
So like, I mean, I can only imagine it. Are
you saying that shaking for why would you feel shadier

(26:42):
you feel? I mean that's the fact that again my
rookie year, when I came into indie cars, I came
straight out of U Sex stuff, went straight from a
Silver Crown car, fifteen pound car, no down force whatsoever,
huge tires, but you know they just slid around. Yeah,
I dumped straight from a Crown car into an Indie car.

(27:02):
You know, there wasn't any lights back then, so it
was hey, good luck go. And I mean technically I
was still a rookie and Silver Crown that they the
year I got my indy car, right, I was still
I got rookie year and Silver Crown that year, so
I was still learn Crown cars. And then now I
got dumped in the indie car. So it's like, hey,
good luck. And I mean I was, you know, twenty one,
so I mean, I'm oh, I can handle this. You know,
I got this. I just you know, I had to

(27:23):
learn the hard way. But yeah, I mean there was
a lot of stuff that I had learned. Like one
an Indy car, you can't if an Indy car, say
it's of what you want it to be, you can't
carry it. Like as a Crown Car Sprint car, you
get eighty percent, well the driver can carry it that
extra five ten fift. You might take a tenth place
car and run top five with it. You get an

(27:45):
Indy car. If you got eighty percent, you run it
to about seventy seventy five percent to your next pit
stop and you try to make some there. I learned
that really quick, you know, in my first year too.
There's just some stuff that I had to do differently
that I didn't know because I've never been in ground
effects car and uh but like we're talking about the
handling of the cars, it's it's a lot of balanced stuff.

(28:05):
Like I mean, if you go into a corner and
in an Indy car and you turn the wheel and
basically the cars going straight, like it's like the fronts
not grabbing. That's not good, but it's safe. I mean
you're not gonna get fast, but at least you know
you're not gonna hit. But what gets scary is when
all of a sudden you go into a corner and
as soon as you turn the wheel, and even if
you just give it like a little nudge, and you
feel the front tires grab, like the front has so

(28:26):
much grip that if you do anything weird awkward at all,
the rears trying to pivot around as a real scary feeling.
At two miles an hour, you know that the rears
trying to to sketch around on you, and you don't
know if it's gonna stay behind you or not. That's
when it gets really sketchy. So when you go into
the corner, and that when I was saying, when I
left the pits at one time, and I went into

(28:46):
turn three and as soon as I I mean I
was one ninety and I turned it, and I could
already feel like the front was already pinned and the
rear was already and I was like, there's no way
I'm going into turn one over two hundred. It's just
it's not gonna make it come right back in home.
So when did they what do you remember when they
started doing the safer barriers. I mean I kind of

(29:06):
got an idea, is either O one or O two was. Yeah,
I know, I'm trying mber exactly what year it was.
Do you know who invented or was a big part
of inventing the safer barrier? Well you asked me that.
I feel like I should know the answer, like you're
setting me up, but I don't know, you know, right, Tony, Yeah,
Tony George, the guy that's horrible for racing that nobody

(29:30):
can stand. He's great. He's great. I mean he's another one,
you know when people when he doesn't make the decision everybody,
all the cookie cutters want you know, that's what makes
everybody mad. But you know what, he saved an enormous
amount of life with that program, and to the best
of my knowledge, about zero credit for it. Everybody takes

(29:53):
credit for it that shouldn't. And the one guy that
took the most great because I mean he was the one.
It took so much ingenuity over there at Speedway, like
remember that he was trying to do something different. Remember
they had those the black plastic they had on the
inside of pit road entry and it was supposed to
absorb the it was this was right before safer barriers

(30:13):
and there was an IRAQ race there and it was
it was at the end. Yeah, it's like almost like
an accordion thing and somebody hit it and it shot
him back out onto the track. And that's when he
was like, Okay, we're not doing that. We gotta find
option B. And that's when they came up with the
safer barriers. But Annie Leskowski, that's who hit that that
end of pend I'm almost almost I think you're right. Yeah,

(30:36):
you wanna with riko Elmore t shirt. Thanks for playing.
That's awesome. He was always looking out for, you know,
stuff like that for safety. You know that the speedway
was out there looking for something like that when nobody
else was. They were just kind of setting back, well,
hopefully something pops up. I mean, he was part of
the Hey, we we have to find something. What can
we do? I mean he was like, we're talking about

(30:58):
even that black plastic stuff. Mean, nobody tried that, and
you know, they tried it and it worked in theory,
but it didn't work because of throwing the car back out.
But even then he was the only tracked to try that.
And then obviously the first track to do safer barriers
and once it worked, then now you know, you can't
run a race now without having them. So it's amazing
that he was the first one that they said, hey,

(31:18):
we we gotta have this. But like Rico saying, doesn't
get the credit for it. There's a local firm that
he hired that I know that I know the people
who own it that that do high speed digital. This
is so think about this. How long ago that was
high speed digital photography okay, which saying digital back then,

(31:41):
somebody thought that was the square blocks on your TV.
You know, it wasn't really clear about what that was,
but you know, high speed digital photography. And he showed
me where he showed me that. So there's two things
that that they were working on. One was the head
and neck restraint okay, and how the cockpits, how that

(32:03):
when you got in them, like they had the halo
or what have you, that they snap in around you
that kind of kept your head back and forth this way,
but you still needed something when you hit that your
head wouldn't flipped forward and snap your neck. And uh
so they had cameras literally set up on every corner

(32:25):
where you know a high speed impact would be and
you know, lo and behold, they started getting some data
and they also had cameras pointing down into that safer
barrier to show how I mean it literally has styrofoam
blocks behind it, high density star foam blocks, so when
it hits it it I mean, those star foam blocks

(32:47):
take all of that. And I mean it wasn't like
let's throw some star foam in there. This allt of work.
I mean, there was a lot of work and a
lot of of of stuff that went into getting to
the point where, Okay, were we feel good about this?
And you know, hell if they would have had it
when earning Irvan hit the wall or or Patty. I mean,

(33:14):
there's a lot of them. But you know, it is
like what Jimmy said, you know, the uh, the deal
with the deal with uh, you know, when he was
running an Indy or running Indy cars. And then you
also look at the deal when you know, uh, you know,
mirrors and those guys before him, you know, and hell

(33:34):
mirrors and those guys probably looked at the people before that.
I was like, yeah, these guys are idiots. You know,
what would you ever do? We got we got these
illuminum tubs. Well, those illuminum tubs about took everybody's feet
off when you hit the wall. You know, it was
it was, it was a crazy, crazy deal. And Rick
Meares walks today I think because of Dr Trammell would
be my best my best thoughts on that. But yeah,

(33:57):
so it's come a long way. And you know what, Uh,
there are some people that go to the racetrack that
are I guess somewhat morbid that want to see a wreck.
Uh you know. But but you know, it's always going
to be part of it, you know, with with the
things that are going on. But it is cool that that,
you know, whether it's the bell helmets or you know

(34:19):
whatever the safety gear that's out there and uh, you know,
so it's it's a pretty pretty cool set up. So Jimmy, UM,
I want to ask what your favorite single moment is
during an ent, Maybe not the whole favorite race or
even what place you got, but just the single even

(34:40):
if it's only a twenty second period. Now'll set it
up because I always think, I don't care if I'm
a hundred years old and I I'm not even putting
my perspective or memory in the same class as yours
as a driver. There's only point zero zero five more
zero is one percent of planet that will be in
your shoes. But it's one of the three thousand people
sitting there. Tell him a hundred. The best memory I've

(35:01):
ever had was I was sitting in the middle of
turn two or the straightaway between one and two, um
top top row, you know whatever, right in the right
by the press. You know the journalists are up there,
that there's like an extra two top rows up there.
I'm in that top row, six sixteen, and I watched
Danny Umny Sullivan. He watched him three sixty and then

(35:26):
go on to beat Mario Andretti. And when that car spun,
I mean, and and the thing is the way I
don't know you you may not know. This is the audience,
the crowd. They tend to if something happens in front
of them. That eighty thousand people now are connected to
that story. So dark short shoot crowd. That eighty five
thousand people that saw that, we were all Danny Sullivan

(35:48):
for the rest of the race, and he went on
to win. I was sixteen. It was great. So so
another bit of trivia for you. Do you have any
idea what Danny Sullivan did, and it's early life as
a job. This is good, this is good, this worthless
and off what you are full of this podcast? He

(36:10):
was thank you. He was in New York City TAXI
keptain no kidding, well paid off. Yeah, he was like, whoa,
I'm on the ice and he's pulled it back together.
So when it when that happened? Uh? And I don't know.
I don't know the answer, believe it or not to
this one. But when it happened, I mean generally, when
you loop one of those cars, you flat spot the

(36:32):
tires and there was almost impossible to drive. So he
gathered it up, got it back to the pitts, I'm assuming,
And did they pet right after that? You were there?
That was back when I don't think they had closed pits,
so I think he was able to come right in
and change the tires. And there was no pit road
speed limit back then. And so yeah, I mean you
come down pit road two hund so if I was sixteen,

(36:58):
you were eleven about right? You said you forty one? Now,
so then as a driver, what's the best little encapsulated
moment on the track for you? For me? Because I
had dad, you sed always bring me here for practice
day or qualifying day or something, but I was never
because I grew up in Georgia, down the southeast, so

(37:20):
I was never here for a race day. Watched everyone
of me on TV. I mean I saw them all
on TV, but I was never here in person. And
it's that saying, you know, TV doesn't do it justice.
Um my first year ninety eight, when I was running
here in April, testing, stands are empty, totally silver, nobody's here.
May comes along now at least when you're coming down

(37:41):
the front straight away. You got some color on the left.
Well that's a little bit different. Then looks a lot
turn once I get it, Okay, they're talking Turn one
looks narrower. There's Turn one's you know, full of color. Okay,
I get it. But race morning, and it won't even
race morning. It was time for us to go out
on the grid, and we were parked. Our garage was

(38:02):
in the very back garage facing the back straight away.
So all right, it's time for me to walk out.
So I walk out of the garage and I make
the left turn, and I make the left to go
down gasoline Alley. I remember as soon as I made
the turn, and as you're looking to Gasoline Alley, you know,
you have the set of stands and all you can
see is the two layers of stands out on the
front straight away, and I just stopped because all those

(38:23):
laps I had ran in the last two months there
that was silver. That's the first time I was like, well,
it was different. And the further I walked down Gasoline Alley,
and the closer I got to Pit Road, that color
and that haze just got wider and wider and wider.
And I remember getting out on Pit Road and just
looking down towards turn one and looking down towards turn

(38:44):
four and just just being in all of what that
looked like, all those people being there, and even when
when they were doing all the pre race stuff, when
we were there by the car by the rear wing,
I don't really remember any of that. I was in
so much, all of all the people and everything. And
even when we finally started our engines and started to
drive off and we come off a turn too and

(39:05):
we get on the back straight away. Now, Alison, the
hill is full of people that I just, I mean
literally was just in all of the amount of people
and what it looked like compared to every other day.
You know it just you can't. I was very fortunate
that I got to do that four more times after that,
because then when I got to make that walk with
people is like friends or family or whatever. Hey, you
gotta see this look and watch their faces what it

(39:27):
looked like to them. And I actually got to enjoy
it the next four. With that first one, I was
just in so much awe of what it looked like
being down there on the front straight away, and it
was to be the funny part. Once we went green,
I didn't even pay attention to anything except for one
of the yellows we were cruising down. We've done our
pit stop when we come back out, and I remember

(39:47):
looking to the left and I noticed because it was
real cloudy and hazy that morning, Like we thought we
were going to delay the race, and we ended up
going real cloudy and hazy, and I was so into
the race and everything I'm doing tunnel vision, I realized
the sound of pop doubt. I looked over and saw
drunk dudes with their shirts off and you know, bikino
tops and you I mean, I'm just like, wait a minute, people,

(40:08):
there workers when we started the race there in jackets
aside look and I was like, wait what and I
find that's the first time I actually looked up and
I was like, holy crap, the sun's out. I realized
the sun was out. You know, I just I was
so into what was going on just basically that first
you just just so sucked in what was going on there.
I just had no idea what was going on outside.
That's cool. I got some chills there because I can

(40:30):
imagine walking down that Gasolene alley and seeing that at
the stand. Like I said, it was silver. Now it's people,
and it goes wider and wider and wider, you know,
for the hundreds. I had a good friend of mine
in town that's uh, that's with executive with Toyota anyhow,
he said, come on, let's go down to the grid.

(40:50):
And you know, I, you know, I've never been down there.
And that's not because I couldn't go down there. It
was always because I had people, you know, either at
the suite or was entertaining people, so I never could
kind of break away to go do my thing. But
we walked all the way down pitt Row, all the

(41:10):
way to the entrance of the pits and then we
turned around and started walking down the straight away and
I'm telling you no other feeling like it. It was
absolutely mind boggling. And uh and yeah, I mean that's
I mean, I love that place to begin with. But
you know the other the other side of that is

(41:32):
is you know, it's uh uh you know, this year,
I was so proud of of the Speedway. I was.
I was proud of the uh, the spectators, you know,
because they came out in force, and you know what,
I hope they come out in force for years to
come because any cars starting to get some amazing racing

(41:56):
going on. The the Speedway has done a great by
now not only making it a race, it's actually an event.
You know. They've got the concerts, They've got the snake
pit where they said that there's some my in concert there.
But I just only saw a guy with a laptop
playing music. So I don't know what that meant. But

(42:19):
I'm not sure how that all goes down. There's a
lot of people watching. It's like you see that he
said the return key whoa, whoa, the recordings, that's how
it works. Now. Yeah, my daughter of my youngest daughter
is tell me about. I'm like, so they play a
laptop that's their instrument. I mean, I'm missing something here, Shirley,

(42:42):
There's gonna be more to this. I said, let me
let me come here, let me put sixties on six
or seven's on seven on next time. These are instruments.
These are actually musicians that are playing this stuff. So
but anyhow, the Speedways done done a fantastic job with it.
And you know the acts that they're bringing in there.

(43:03):
I mean they had a kid Rock Kid Rock deal
there for the Brickyard, and you know, everybody's like, oh,
you know the Brickyard. Nobody was there. Well yeah, I guess.
But you know what the average attendance at at like
a like a a NASCAR event is not three hundred
and fifty thousand people. So there's a lot of space,

(43:24):
okay to try to fill up there. So when there's
eighty thousand people there are so for a race, which
is I mean eighty thousand, you would damn near have
bristols sold out, you know. So when there's eighty thousand
people there, you know, everybody's like, this is horrible, this sucks.
Nobody's here. Well, yeah, there's a lot of people there.
It just doesn't you know, it's you're you're filling up

(43:46):
a big jug here, so tracks can't even hold eighty
thousand people out there. It's on the circuit, yeah exactly.
And you know, so it's uh you know, to have
raced there, you know, like you know Jimmy has I
mean it would you would be one of those things.
Is like you said, the percentage of people that will
ever even have the opportunity, you know, and uh so

(44:08):
it's it's it's it's almost a little dare devilish. But
they called a profession now is the way I understand it.
These are athletes. Aren't you glad that you've retired so
you don't have to worry about being the next person
On Dancing with the Stars. It seems like they're always
getting some race car driver or trust me, I've I've

(44:29):
seen me attempt to dance, and I do not belong
with Dancing with Stars. That that would not happen. They
said something that that something like I'm a family few
junkie at night because because here's because here's the best.
It means nothing. They're talking about nothing, and nothing's okay

(44:49):
because I deal with something all day. So I turned
that on, and they're not talking about which side of
the fence you're on and all this. They're just talking.
They're just they're you know, they're either getting five dollars
a pointer, they're going home with a new car. Okay,
one of these things are going to take place. So
you know the this this lady said to Steve Harvey.

(45:11):
She said, man, you're a good dancer. You ought to
go on Dancing with the Stars. He said, well, let
me tell you about that. He said, they wanted me
to go on Dancing with the Stars, but they didn't
get They weren't going to give me a check, and
so I wasn't going on Dancing with the Stars. It's

(45:31):
awesome for less young baby. I'm not going on there.
That's really pro bono. Yeah, that's just for publicity for
everybody that gets on that show. Uh, I guess, I guess.
I don't know because he said he said they weren't
gonna pay, so I'm having to assume that. Yeah, so
it was it's Yeah, so family feud. You know, you

(45:54):
may cut into my family a few times here in
season twenty Dancing with the Stars, Jimmy Kite jim could happen. No, No,
I'm glad as bad as fast as was two years
ago when the guy that played Landol care is he
and fast as he got booted out, and I think
he'd make he even looks better than I do. Then

(46:15):
he got to Alio. I mean, you know he had
the moves. I think it's uh. I think they just
announced he's just gonna do it this year. But even
like that, you know Alio year. I mean, I watching
your charity, man, you want him to win, but I'm
just laughing, thinking, Man, I hope, I don't think we
all can do that. All right, here's Jimmy Tango. So

(46:39):
you started uh in a quarter madge when you were eight,
So okay, let's just add uh a few years and
just go to sixteen. Age sixteen. So your buddies just
got their driver's license. They're just hoping to drive the
family Ford Taurus. You're driving what yeh Mini sprint down
in the southeast and the tracks down there were you know,

(47:01):
they're about for late models. So they're three eight mile
half mile pretty high bank dirt ovals that you know
I'm running, you know, hundred thirty miles an hour back then, Yeah,
at sixteen years old. What kind of car it was?
It was a mini sprint. It was it looked like
as the size of a USAK midget. Um I had

(47:21):
had a motor cc motorcycle engine in it and had
wings on it, and it was but I mean same
same exact frame dimensions as as a midget, which made
it easier for me as soon as I graduated high
school to come up here and hop right into midget
because I already knew, you know, kind of dimensions when
they felt like not a short person. So in that

(47:43):
time frame of your life fourteen excuse me, fourteen, fifteen sixteen,
I mean there's revenue, your your family team and their sponsorships,
and then when you win, you get you earn money.
So your friends are working at the pizza joint, you're
making revenue, making money. Your job is you're a professional

(48:04):
race car driver. Yeah, I remember when I was when
I was fifteen and I won my first race and
to be able to like take the picture and take
it to school on Monday and show my friends me
holding five like, hey, I just got five hundred dollars
for you know, ninth work. How's how's Wendy c? Because
they all make fun of me, like, hey, can you

(48:25):
come out and play. I'm like, no, I got to
get the race car ready, you know, because they're all
out playing on my basketball goal on my street and
I'm down here getting a race car ready. And but
they you know, oh, you can make money on that,
and they didn't realize that, but actually can paid off
paid off at the speedway where in Georgia again uh,
south side of Atlantic Town called stock Bridge. It's actually

(48:49):
the same county as Atlanta Motor Speedway. We used to
we used to go down there. There was years from
nine to probably oh five. Me and Dad never missed
a race there. We'd go down every spring and fall,
every cup race. And when the Indy cars were air
fortunately got to run in a couple of those, and
the ones I didn't know watched. I mean, we just
we just didn't mis race there. Atlanta Motor Speedway that

(49:11):
is uh, that is forty fifty miles from Atlanta, exactly
right closer to making Atlanta. Yeah. Yeah, it's or the
Atlanta Drag Strip, which is uh, which is way up
in Commerce, Georgia, which is more Atlantic by Athens. But yeah,

(49:31):
it's uh. I in another life, Um, in ninety four
and I was in Atlanta for those two years almost solid,
putting in atm Machines for the Olympics. So I was,
I was, I was staying down there. I was staying
at the Salvation Army like headquarters. It was just pretty rad.

(49:58):
You went outside the gates after dark, you may not
come back, but you know, they had the right intentions there.
But yeah, it was. I love Atlanta. I mean it's
a it's a great place, great people. Uh, a lot
of other Southern bells that are down there, so not
that you know, but now it's a it's a cool

(50:22):
place in Atlanta Motor Speedway. A lot of history, favorite,
a lot of a lot of heritage there and yeah,
it's uh, it's been a while. I think the last
time that I was at the Atlanta Motor Speedway exit.
There's a McDonald's there, and I was driving back from
Bike Week and had our vending trailer on the back

(50:42):
of the truck fat heads dot com any trailer anyhow,
on the back of the truck driveing a diesel and
I like to look out the side of mirror and
I'm like, is that the exhausters? There's something on fire
back there. So I get off the exit, pull into
this McDonald's parking lot and this this trailer is brand new.

(51:03):
I mean it's you know, it's not. It's five months old.
And I've lost the wheel bearing on one of the axles.
It's ten o'clock at night. I go to the local Walmart.
Why I don't know, because I think I'm gonna get
something there that's gonna work. I buy a tube of
lucasfil red and tacky because I wanta have to loop

(51:27):
it up what I'm done. And then I buy a
I buy a pair of channel locks and a claw hammer.
And I asked the girl, I said, do you guys
have Willel bearings here? She said, oh yeah. Then right
out those sliding doors. I go out there, they're wielbarrows,
not wilbarings. So my level of piste has went to

(51:51):
an all time high now, right, But you've got a
really nice whem All right, I'll take that wheelbarrow. Then,
So I finally find a a and you'll appreciate this
and the knowing the area. I finally find this nap
But that's twenty four or seven on the south side
of Atlanta, and I mean it it they only had

(52:14):
two cop cars in the parking lot guarding the place.
So I pull up and I've got I got a
general idea of what i need. So I want to
just buy everything because I'm not coming. It's an hour
away from us where I'm at. So I I go
in there and the next thing, you know, I said,
I said, Uh, where's your wheel bearings? I need to

(52:36):
look at him? He goes, uh, what's the making model?
I said, no, we're not going through this whole thing.
I said, You're not going to have the make and
model in your in your computer. Where's the wheel bearings? Sir?
Trust me? I said, okay, it's a two thousand and
six Hallmark trailer. You got that in your system. Guy,

(52:58):
it's got twelve thousand pound actles. What's a Hallmark? Right?
Where's the where's the where's the wheel bearings at? So
I'm alright smoking, you know, mad Well? Anyhow, he gets
me to the wheel bearings two trips later, with a
claw hammer and a pair of channelocks in the in
the tire iron out of the truck. I change those

(53:20):
wheel bearings and get us back on the road. It
had welded the race to the spindle. So I'm I mean,
I got the claw him or I'm like trying to
get it out, like wiggling it, and I get it
out of there. We get on the road, we get
we get up to so when you go, I go, well,

(53:41):
I'm going back up. I get through Atlanta. I've had
zero rest. Now. I we started out at seven o'clock
in the morning. It's seven o'clock in the morning. We're rolling.
We get to we get to twenty four cut across,
get over Mount Eagles start coming on the other side,

(54:01):
and I'm like, like, man, I just feels this thing
kind of feels goofy again. Right next thing, you know,
I'm like, I'm gonna pull off this accent and I'm
gonna look, I'm gonna check this out. I'm pulling off
the accent and I see some black thing about this
big go flying off the side of the truck, off
the trailer. It broke the snout off of the hub.

(54:23):
So now and we're done. I pull into this. I
pull into this like record service place, I mean, pretty
pretty primitive, if you will. And I pull in there
and the guys setting there too long leaf tobacco, and
he goes, what do you got I said, well, we've

(54:44):
we've lost. I said, we're gonna need a new axle
putting that because the spindle is bad. I said, it's
just gonna need a whole new axle. Well, I'm not
sure where to get it. Well, then his his guy
comes up and he goes, he goes, you go down here,
and he cut back over there, and you go over there,
and you turn at the tree and back at the rock,
and you know in the guy that owns the place

(55:06):
that's sitting there chewing tobacco, and his his bibbs goes,
shut up, you're dumber now. So it's a whole new
word dumber now dumb Right now, I'm like, so is
that dumber than hell? Or dumber? Now? So any number?
Now here's what's gonna happen. I'm dropping that trailer right there.
I don't care if you steal it. I don't care

(55:27):
if you take the Harley's out of it, all the merchandise.
I'm leaving. I'm going home. I've had enough of this ship. So,
needless to say, I drove home and what an event
that night, But yeah, it was. It was. It was
about my last time at the old at the old
at the old Atlanta Motor Speedway exit there it's like,

(55:49):
I don't care if I ever see you again. And
the McDonald's parking lot of all places, Jimmy, could you
have fixed that? That wheel doesn't sound like, it doesn't
sound like, doesn't sound right. Well, Jimmy, what are you
doing forward today? Moving forward? What are you doing now?
And what's down the road? For Jimmy Kite Um Mostly now,

(56:12):
I'm a driving instructor for Dodge with ther SRT program.
Anything from track experiences, you know, take them peeple out
on tracks, you know, letting them follow us, or giving
them rides, giving throw rides at Michael Actions or Barrett
Jackson auctions and vipers and hell cats. So that, uh,
that keeps me pretty busy. And then, uh, last year, Um,
my girlfriend's father passed away. Her and her father had

(56:34):
a vinyl store out in Brownsburg, Indiana, And when he
passed away, they had to close the store down. It
was in his name and the two of them and
had it together like fifteen years. And uh so I
stepped up and you'll meet her opened one up and
uh she's I mean, she's the brain to the operation.
She's she runs everything, does everything. But uh, yeah, I've
tried to learn a lot of stuff Scott did, and

(56:55):
so I'm actually getting to spend a lot more time
now in Indiana at home. I mean, I back off
the road a little bit, which lets me spend more
time out there one with her and the and the boys.
And then to just get and learned something about a
business I never thought I would know anything about. But
there's a there's a lot I've learned in the last year.
But it's it's going good. I mean, we we've had
a lot of projects in the last year, um that

(57:16):
we've done really well on. One of them was, you know,
with all the police departments. We we started with just
Brownsburg and then she wanted to do Pittsburgh because Pittsburgh
is really close to her. They're the ones that all
showed up with the Brownsburg police to tell her what
had happened to her father. So when we talked about
doing the stickers, it was right when all the stuff
was going on in Dallas and everything else. Um, so

(57:36):
we just said, you know, let's do you know. Uh
A city councilman actually for Brownsburg mentioned it to her
and she's like, well, if we're gonna do this. We're
gonna do for Brownsburg and Pittsburgh. So we did the
little support you know, your local police department stickers just
to go on your vehicles and uh, you know, there
was no charge and we just if you show up
the shop, take as many as you want go We'll
print them till people don't want them anymore. Store at

(57:57):
the final story, yet at the mind of the sign
sign shop, like signs on the buildings and all that
was thinking, yeah, we did in Australia kind of like
wrapping cars on buildings all that stuff. Yeah, and uh,
Channel six came out and did a little special on it,
and after that it just took off. Like we ended
up doing like twenty different police departments around the state

(58:20):
of Indiana, I mean I AMPD and you know state police. Um,
a couple we ended up sending. One was out by Richmond,
Indiana that they just saw it on the news and
emailed us and asked us if we would and we
just you know, I said, we'll print you know, a
couple of hundred off send them and you know, when
they need some more, we do. But we uh, it
just worked really good. I mean it all it costed
us was you know, the equipment in time, but it

(58:43):
just you know, for for what it was supporting, it
was worth it. And you know it's just a good
cause and it just it's something you know, I'm really
proud that we were able to be a part of
this year. And was there an official title for that
initiative like um, the Blue Boys in Blue sticker campaign
or yeah, and it was, and there were we had
a couple of I when you know back the blue
uh you know sports, your local PD. But I mean

(59:03):
it just just you can't think those guys enough for
the crap they're dealing with. And I mean, you know,
we all know there's you know, not everybody's perfect, but
I mean, for for day in, day out, what all
those guys have to deal with and know every time
when they kiss their you know, wife and kids goodbye
going to work, that you know they might not come back.
And I mean, I you've be in a race car driver,
I know what that's like. You know when when you

(59:23):
get in a race card, you know, I you know,
I would always when I was a kid and I
came up here to run you second first race, I
was ever at I watched Tys Carlson say a prayer
right before he went out in the car, and I
was kind of like, that's weird time to do it.
But then the first time I went to Winchester back
before they paved it, and I walked around that, I'm like,
this is a good time to start praying before I

(59:44):
round the car. He was praying on the wall exactly,
and you know, every race after that, I made sure,
you know that I would, you know, say my prayer
and make my peace with God, and if if I
don't come back, I'm leaving with a smile. Yeah, that's fantastic.
What a great Uh, what a great story for me?
Jaid and midgets to uh, business owner and supporting the

(01:00:06):
boys in blue. I think that's fantastic. Can our listeners
find the vinyl stores there, the website or anything you
want to show with Mindy's Brownsburg signs? Obviously it was
Brownsburg signs before. And then my girlfriend Mindy, she's like, said,
the brains of the operation. Every everybody comes for her
looks and brains anyway, so I just she tells me
to go, she tells me to go back, but yeah,

(01:00:30):
brown and We're we're having a lot of fun. I
mean she she's having to teach me a lot, but
of I'm enjoying it and we're we're doing good. Well.
I gotta thank you for coming on the show. Um,
it's honor for me to be part of the Skinny
with Rico and uh, it was great to see you again.
I want to wish you the best of luck and
we will have you on the show again if you like.

(01:00:51):
Oh I love it man. Thanks. Anytime you've been listening
to The Skinny presented by fat Heads, I wear the
undisputed leader of oversized eyewear. Check them out at fatheads
dot com. That's f A T h e A d
Z dot com. M